BrentKulman

With a tip of the hat to forum host Brad Ballinger for the idea, the next WOW will be the Sanford 2001 Pinot Noir Santa Rita Hills. For those of you who have seen "Sideways," Sanford was the winery that was described as making the best Pinot Noir in California. The Santa Rita Hills Pinot (made from fruit from their three estate vineyards) is the most economically priced and widely available of the three Pinots offered by Sanford. If any of you are ambitious and have access to the other Pinots (Sanford & Benedict or La Rinconada), feel free to post your comments on this thread. It will be interesting to see whether the wines can handle the hype created by one of the most ingenious examples of product placement advertising I have ever witnessed.

Coop - Thanks for the suggestion. We were at a local Italian restaurant the other night and I noticed the Morgante Nero on the wine list (as well as the Planeta La Segreta Rosso, by the way) for $30 so I gave it a try. What a nice bottle of wine! And compared to all the super Tuscans on the list for twice the price, at least, what a tremendous value. Thanks for expanding my range of experience.

Just don't try to defrost them in a microwave. You'll wind up with poached egg whites if you are not careful.

Looks like I'm out in front this time after almost missing the deadline with the Planeta la Segreta. Here goes --- Pours a pale straw yellow body. Somewhat viscous, leaving some decent legs dangling down the side of the glass. Apricots, lemons, honeysuckle and other floral scents on the nose. Initially, the taste is full of light citrus fruit, primarily lemon, and mineral flavors but that is rapidly overwhelmed by crisp acidity, with increasing sour lemon notes into the finish. Just leaves you puckering. I suspect there might be some food that goes well with this, but I have always thought of dry rieslings as more of an aperatif wine. I'd love to have something to eat with this that might cut down the acidity. Over time, I would also expect that the acidity will become less overwhelming. In any event, riesling is not my favorite varietal and I rarely buy them, so it was fun having a look at a grape style I rarely consume.

True confessions on eGullet! Wow, this might be one of the most popular threads ever. Me, I like Extra Crispy at KFC, the cheese biscuits at RL and a cheese Whopper, hold the pickles and onions. And regionally, the biscuits at Bojangles.

La Segreta Roso displays a lovely purple body and a nose full of sweet overripe cherries as well as wet hay and leather. The mouthfeel is is relatively light and the taste confirms the cherry flavors (albeit with a little bit of spice) and features nicely balanced acidity and tannins. The fruitiness makes the wine very approachable and a nice partner for lighter foods such as chicken and pork. My first exposure to the Nero d'Avola grape sod I'm not sure I can pinpoint its characteristics but you can definitely detect the softer merlot flavors in the blend. All in all, a nice selection which provides an introduction, for me at least, to a grape variety and region I had previously not explored.

My wife is very particular about her AM coffee. Each morning, she grinds her Starbuck's French Roast beans (from Costco) in her Krups Fast Touch Grinder and pours the contents (I'm guessing about 6 teaspoons, but I could be off) into her Bodum french press. Her morning cup is probably about 12 oz. I have to say that the coffee this produces is extremely muddy and bitter, with a fair amount of sediment at the bottom of the cup. But that's the way she likes it. I have bought her all kinds of beans but nothing satisfies her like Starbuck's French Roast. I have been reading through the home roasting threads and am interested in buying her a home roasting system for her birthday. But I find myself somewhat confused and concerned that the end result will not be to her liking. So, given what I have told you about her preferences, should I even consider introducing her to home roasting? If so, what equipment should I get her? From the research I have done, I don't think that French Roast is a type of bean but perhaps it is a style of roasting. Help me understand all this better as I don't generally drink coffee in the morning and this would be entirely her domain.

How many teaspoons does you use per cup? The reason I ask is that I had breakfast at a restaurant yesterday that recently introduced individual Bodum french presses for customers who wanted premium coffee. You could choose from Kona, Blue Mountain and Yirgacheffe. Initially, I was ecstatic, although the cheapest of the three (Kona) was $2.95 for a two cup press. That excitement quickly faded to disappointment when I tasted the coffee. Despite letting it sit for four minutes, the coffee was incredibly weak and watery. It's hard to tell the volume of coffee once it is wet, but my guess is that there were no more than two teaspoons of coffee in the press. At home, we use about four teaspoons per cup and generally brew French Roast. It's very full bodied but a bit bitter. That's how my wife likes it so that's what we go with, however.

Finally, a WOW that is available in the current vintage release in Charlotte. My wine store is ordering me a bottle and I hope to have it next week.

I am a home brewer but I don't know anything about the Mr. Beer brewing kit so I cannot comment on that. Let me say, however, that the professionals at Budweiser consistently brew a beer that is mediocre, at best, and is not designed to attract drinkers who really enjoy beer and have taken the time to become knowledgeable about the topic. In my experience, home brewers can make an excellent product that is far superior to anything produced by Budweiser. The good news is that homebrewing is not rocket science. If you can make chicken soup, you can brew beer. You just need the right equipment. Based on your description of Mr. Beer, I worry that such a product might produce a lousy beer and turn you off homebrewing for good.

And that just about sums it up. Eating with proper table manners may not get you anywhere in and of itself, but eating with poor table manners will almost certainly attract negative attention. I was watching Iron Chefs last night and one of the judges ate in a most peculiar style. He held the fork in his left hand but his fingers were splayed almost down to the tines, as if he were playing the high notes on a cello. After he was finished cutting, he waved his knife in the air like a baton and then turned the fork over, tines up, to put the food into his mouth. I frequently saw something similar to this in Bavaria earlier this year...perhaps this is acceptable in Germany...but I suspect I was not the only American to raise an eyebrow at this maestro of the mealtime. Having been raised in families where table manners were a focus, my wife and I try, with mixed success, to instill that knowledge in our children. We too have open season to spear elbows on the table and, except for the expected adolescent rebellions, by and large their manners are acceptable. They do insist, however, in placing their napkins on top of their dirty plates at the end of the meal which, I suppose, is their final jesture of contempt. But we know that they will remember what is appropriate behavior later in life as a result of the exposure to manners that they received at home.

I lived in Australia for four years a while back and the one piece of advice I would give everybody who visited was not to confine themselves to the cities. It seems a shame to travel halfway around the globe to visit what are really very familiar urban environments. Nothing against Australia's cities (Melbourne is a gracious lady, Sydney is a spectacle) but it is in the countryside that you will really see something different. Visit Ayers Rock, the Warnambool Peninsula, the Blue Mountains, Broome, the Great Barrier Reef. Go see the fairy penguins, spend a couple of days on a station in the Outback. The food won't be as memorable but those are the things about Australia that you cannot replicate elsewhere. If you are just looking for dining recommendations in the cities, I cannot help you there as I have been away for almost 20 years.

Eddie's is the best place I have found but, as you point out, it is sadly lacking in some key elements. Also, it doesn't open until 8:00 AM. What's up with that?

Your comments on the Pancake House remind me of my biggest complaint about the Charlotte food scene. There is just no decent place to get a nice breakfast that goes beyond bacon, eggs pancakes and the like. With the panoply of upscale restaurants that have opened over the last five years, you would think that somebody would have noticed by now there is a tremendous hole in the market. If I want to meet somebody for a business breakfast, the choices are basically the two Pancake houses and Anderson's. Both of those feature menus that could have been written in the 1950s and forget about getting a decent cup of coffee at either place. Why can't we get a great bakery with wonderful coffee and muffins/scones which also makes some interesting hot breakfast dishes and also offers homemade granola etc. Something like Guglehupf in Durham is what I have in mind.

We went to Arpa last night and had a very nice meal of tapas. The highlights were the croquetas, the portobello mushroom salad and the pot de creme. They have some nice Spanish wines by the glass which make for a nice complement to the Spanish dishes. We had a great waiter and at the end of the meal he asked us whether we had tried Zinc yet. I thought he was going to cross-promote a restaurant under common ownership but he made a comment that they are still working out the kinks at Zinc. Interesting.

The livermush threads on roadfood.com are legendary. Several posters there have conducted taste testings of the many brands that are available in various parts of the state. I can take the stuff or leave it and feel the same way about its Pennsylvania cousin, scrapple.

The weird thing about Bad Elf is that it is a very nice English IPA masquerading as a holiday seasonal. Mad Elf, with its maltiness and Belgian fruit influences (cherry/honey tones), is much more fitting for a celebration beer during the holiday season.

What an unusual figure of speech! I kind of like it as it eliminates the more negative connotations of "smelled." I'd never heard it before but it makes so much sense. Just curious whether this anthimeria (I had to do a little research to find out the term for the substitution of one part of speech for another) is commonplace or should all credit be given to waves2ya?

Sounds like a good list. I just had the Weyerbacher the other night and, unfortunately, I'd have to say that the label was the highlight. Perhaps it will age better, but I found it rather closed and dominated by a smoky, woody flavor rather than the hoped-for holiday spices. Tasted the Anchor last night and that was a winner. For another idea, you might want to try Santa's Private Reserve from Rogue. I haven't tried it yet but it's on my list. Another good holiday seasonal is Bad Elf.

Out of curiosity, what is the cooking temperature in a wood-fired oven?

Has anybody been able to find this? I have been to a few places but they all stock the 2002 Sierra. I'm told the 2001 is sold out. I'll keep looking but am wondering whether the rest of you are having this problem.

It's a layer cake, John.

You are absolutely right, Susan. Up until recently, I was mostly a wine a food enthusiast, but have recently discovered beer and become a homebrewer. I joined the local homebrew club and, not only is it a wonderful cross-section of the community that cuts across class, race, religion and any other boundaries you can think of, but it is a supportive group that is passionate about great beer, educating those who are interested in the topic and spreading the gospel. Beer has a marketing problem, however, as too many Americans have no idea about the range and quality of available beers. Most Americans who drink beer drink it without regard to taste and style but think of it in terms of either light beer or regular beer. To them, its just something to sip on when they want something refreshing to consume in conjunction with another activity. In short, beer needs to be taken seriously but I fear that if it achieves that goal, the beer community will be permanently altered, and probably for the worst.

This is a great idea and I'm looking forward to participating.

Len - As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I visit the Long Island Wineries once each summer. I've probably been to three-quarters of the wineries at one time or another but I've gotten into a bit of a rut with Bedell, Pelligrini, Palmer and Lenz as the ones I hit first. I would be very interested in a recommended itinerary from you. Which ones are at the top of your list? Which would you avoid? (I understand if you don't want to answer the latter question.)