Craig Camp

Jim Dixon is eGullet's own resident olive oil expert and he has a great explanation that you can read by clicking here.

The no-boil pasta just won't give you the same flavor as fresh. Most Italians do use the no-boil type at home and I have had many very good pasta al forno prepared this way. Fresh lasagna pasta is just a classic egg/flour based pasta. While the pasta is important: excellent bechamele, parmigano and ragu are equally important. The bechamele is what gives the rich creamy texture to pasta al forno.

Boris - how do you handle a wine you want to decant for several hours before serving?

But this is just like everywhere. Most Italians never go beyond fizzy barbera or lambrusco. They never will drink a Barolo and if they did they probably would not like it. I am sure than 90+% of people that start with mass market WZ never go beyond it, but also thousands do. There is also nothing wrong with those that never make the plunge into better wine. The most important thing wines like WZ do is make wine a everyday concept - no big deal.

This is something I never understand. Independent restaurants and retailers should be out there aggressively buying unique high quality wines from producers with personality. They need to make a statement that they offer something different and better than the chains not offer the same products.

Perhaps you should choose a different word than "selling". ...and Martin Scott is a better than average distributor.

Actually DeLoach White Zinfandel - slightly sweet and a bit spritzy (at least it used to be) was always one of my favorite choices with Thai food. Their Guwurz - also slightly sweet and bit spritzy - was also a great match. Slightly sweet, fresh acidity and loads of fruit tastes great with Oriental cuisine. ...Of course all the Thai restaurants in our old neighborhood in Chicago sold chardonnay and merlot and undrinkable white zin.

The 99 Produttori del Barbaresco wines are not really ready to drink - not even the regular bottling (especially in magnum!). I just tasted the entire 99 line-up at the winery a few weeks ago. They are beautiful classic wines - and great values.

...uummm. Clerico Barolo imported by Julienne Importing. Looks like a little grey market action going on in the Midwest. I am sure Mr. De Grazia will not be amused.

This of course is a common problem. If you think that wine is not a part of American culture just visit one of these countries. I would always prefer that such restaurants stay BYOB. However these people have a legitimate excuse and their wine lists are often created by wine salespeople who know what wines they have to sell better than what wines might best match respective ethnic cuisines. However I would not judge the ownership of these restaurants in the same light as restaurants that serve food that has an historical association with wine.

since wine isn't so much a part of our culture here in the US, i don't make those assumptions when i know the restaurant is producing quality food, regardless of how standard the wine list may be. The chains use mass brands because the wine producers buy them off with all sorts of payola. The scale of the payoffs would astound (maybe not). By the way this goes for retail too. Huge brands buy their business with cash. However the small, independent sees little of this cash - so what is their excuse? I find it hard to believe that someone who is really dedicated to their kitchen will give crap wines to their customers. This is perhaps a question for Katie who deals with this day-to-day. Can a restaurant that has truly great food - one that goes out of their way to find great raw materials - then sell commercial crap wine alongside of that food?

This is true for both food and wine. For years the Gambero Rosso only awarded top wine awards (Tre Bicchieri) to the most new-wave oaky wines from each region. Now that this is going out of fashion both with consumers and producers they are having to recognize the great wines of traditional producers. This is the same for food where they only heaped praise on international style restaurants (Enoteca Pinchiorri for example) where now all the attention is on region food with artisan raw materials. The Gambero Rosso is now caught in a net of their own extremes.

possibly. and there are plenty of examples of decent to good restaurants that have cookie-cutter wine lists. those are the ones i'm worried about, as they should know better. Unfortunately all to true. I have to admit when I see these lists I always wonder what short-cuts they must also be taking in the kitchen.

Forgiarin? In Chicago? That can only mean it was imported by Beverly Malen at Imports Inc. Get me the producers name and I will get you some information. It had to be the Emilio Bulfon who specializes in wines from such vines. The Bulfon Cividin (white) is spectacular.

unfortunately these products find their way into local independents as well. lots of them. There is nothing inherently wrong or strange about this - the French, Italians and Spaniards mostly drink mass brands too...with the major difference being their mass brands are not as well-made as ours. i suppose that's a matter of opinion. i find that there's something terribly wrong with cookie-cutter wine lists consisting of the "usual suspects". As long as there are cookie-cutter restaurants there will be cookie cutter-wine lists.

It's better than many famous restaurants use.

I agree with you Craig. I know I've suggested White Zin to people getting started with wine. It eases them in quite nicely. Thank you Mr. Trinchero I started with Lancers and Mateus Rose. The wine was great for dates and the bottles made good candle and incense holders. You have to start somewhere. Americans just don't drink wine. The statistics are brutal if you make wine and want to sell it. Mass brands have an appropriate and needed role in the market. No, I don't drink them.

unfortunately these products find their way into local independents as well. lots of them. There is nothing inherently wrong or strange about this - the French, Italians and Spaniards mostly drink mass brands too...with the major difference being their mass brands are not as well-made as ours. ...oh yeah, they cost less than American mass brands.

Let's see...there are over 500 TGI Fridays restaurants in the USA. Then there are the hundreds and hundreds of Bennigans and other chains. That's quite a head start if you get a placement there. I believe you will find Beringer and Sutter Home featured at all of these these "restaurants". Statistics are not always what they seem to be. Subtract the major chains and hotel groups and Beringer won't look so hot - not that makes any difference to them. All in all I am happy to see Americans drinking wine - any wine - at this point. Slowly, but surely it will become part of our culture. White Zin continues to be the elementary school for American wine consumers. Most never graduate, but untold thousands have.

We are particularly glad to have Pia join us. Pia and her husband/chef Igles Corelli have a restaurant called Locanda della Tamerice (Locanda means they also have rooms to rent) located in Ostellato (near Ferrara) in Emilia Romagna. (ph. 0533 680795). We hope Pia can join us often and that we can visit her often at their restaurant. Pia could you tell us more about your menu?

a type of pasta

It's worth noting that Eastern Europe has an ocean of unbelievably cheap acceptable commercial grade wine that could also sell for under $2. If Lost Vineyards is a success you can bet to see more of this type of brand.

He has to be kidding. The basic cheap European grocery store wines are swill. Much worse than American mass produced wines - they do cost less though.

Here is the story on Lost Vineyards. ...when there is a story about a cheap mass wine brand you can always depend on the Modesto Bee to have the story!

"The sun drenched calcareous and clay-heavy soils of Rabajà produces Barbaresco wines with a unique combination of power and elegance that makes them approachable in their youth, but rewards those who cellar their bottles with wines of great complexity and refinement..." Click here for Raccolta: Giuseppe Cortese Rabajà