Craig Camp

The buffet restaurants of Trieste that Jim mentions are famous - also good are: Buffet Birreria Rudy Buffet da Santa Rosa Also try the unique Antipastoteca di Mare for all sorts of little treats from the sea. Just outside of Trieste is the excellent trattoria Valeria

Around Lake Como I stay at home - I only live 45 minutes away. Just outside the center (you can walk if you like long walks it is just over a mile) is Crotto del Sergente which has good local food. Near Bellagio (San Giovanni) is another good place called Mella. For us Como is usually just a gita after lunch and more of a walk destination than eating destination. The Turkish sandwiches (similar to gyros) from the carry-out Turkish place just past the train station on the lake front are very tasty with a cold beer though.

Moka is moka and espresso is espresso - two different things. I love my mokas in the morning.

When you fill the filter container of the moka is should be piled over the top - when you screw on the top it "auto" tamps the coffee for you. I would say the peak of my mountain of ground coffee is about a quarter inch above the top. When it is done the coffee comes out in a firm packed disk. The soap breaks down the oils that cover the inside of the moka and improve the flavors as you use it.

?? 2 tblps. coffee - don't measure the coffee- you fill the filter full Try the Lavazza espresso that is readily available in grocery stores. It is the perfect grind for moka and is not bitter.

I'll give Mario his $25( or whatever) as he has to pay Manhattan rents - but I agree with you. Even they tried to sell beef cheeks they would charge a premium for it and then they would say - see it doesn't sell.

Maybe people would order it if it did not cost $25 - why in the world does anything made with beef cheeks cost a lot of money?

Fontanafredda has been reborn because a huge infusion of capital from an Italian banking group who purchased the estate. I have not tasted this wine and it was produced before everything was modernized. Considering that bottle has been bouncing around the market for many years in questionable storage conditions I would be hesitant to drop $45 on it.

Orta is lovely - just an hour from our house so we go several times a year. Here is a link to the photos we took a few weeks ago. One thing about Orta is that is is very small and very quiet. You can see it all in a very short period and then if you want quiet it is great. The city of Como has a great (but expensive) shopping area and more action than Orta and the views are fantantic. Also Bellagio is so close. However, Como is famous and you pay for that fame.

Deirdre - how is Lecco? I have not been and it would seem to be in a lovely area.

Certainly oaky California Chardonnay -- love it or hate it -- has been one of the points of contention in wine debates throughout the last decade. As American winemakers clutched what they perceived to be a public's insatiable thirst for the taste of oak, the "buttery," oaky style of the wine led to such backlash movements as the ABC group (Anything But Chardonnay). Reviewing California wines in general, Stephen Tanzer, editor of "Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar," a year ago stridently complained that "too many heavily oaked or clumsily extracted wines offer major palate impact but little nuance or finesse" and asked the question, "Since when was oak an essential wine flavor?" But as the continuing popularity of wines with obvious oak flavoring such as Beringer Reserve Chardonnay or Yellow Tail Shiraz from Australia suggest, to many, oak may be an essential wine flavor.

So he did what you can do when you're a big-shot Hollywood producer. He bought the rights, tore up the script and had it rewritten. That is, he and fellow Hollywood producer Danny Dimbort joined Tel Aviv businessman Itzhak Shani to buy the winery, rename it Binyamina Wines, and pump $13 million into it.

Describing both the quality and style as being ‘between 1997 and 1998’, Campatelli said that prices (an issue since the steep rises of the mid-1990s) were likely to remain stable, with little or no increase on those for 1998, which were lower than those for 1997.

The Palermo branch of the L’Ispettorato Centrale Repressione Frodi (ICRF) recently raided offices in the suburbs of the city and seized documents and bills of transport Editorial Comment: The wine from Palermo was probably better than the legal stuff. Disclaimer: Santa Margherita mentioned only for humor value as an exaggeration and there is no indication anywhere by anyone including me that Santa Margherita had anything to do with this scandal in any way, shape or form and I am sure they would never, never, never ever do or consider such a thing.

The Jekel Vineyards winery, one of the best-known wine operations in Monterey County, has been shut down by its owner, Brown-Forman Corp., the Kentucky-based spirits giant.

More than a decade after a member of a Swiss banking family bought the Spring Mountain Vineyard -- known popularly as the setting for the "Falcon Crest" TV series -- the renovated and expanded property has reopened its doors to the public.

A hole where coffins were hoisted during services has been transformed into a viewing area into the winery, on the Nambour Connection Road.

Remember when Grgich was an elite winery? Who drinks Grgich these days? While many wineries have let their public facilities morph into a combination tasting room/souvenir shop - some with high-class wares, including fine art; some of boardwalk quality - Miljenko (Mike) Grgich's cozy little establishment stays the course. You come here to taste Grgich's famous Chardonnay, and some of the lesser known, but by no means less attractive wines, and maybe to buy a few bottles.

Almost 40 percent of the millennials over 21 are considered "core wine drinkers" -- those who frequently incorporate wine into meals and as part of a lifestyle.

...aaahh - a wine from the time before global warming hit Alba. Classic nebbiolo.

Well these are the who's who of the modern school. All of their wines are excellent if you prefer that style - maybe even if you don't prefer that style. The prices are now outrageous on these wines as they have long been "discovered" and thus promoted by wine journalists for years. While I happily drink these wines I will admit I do not seriously collect them for long-term aging and feel that they are at their best between 8 or 9 years old and 15. Even modern Baroli are not for drinking young. One of the best at combining the best of both the old and new styles is Conterno Fantino who makes wines that show some of the "forward" (forward for Barolo anyway) and the stuffing and character of more classic wines. Also quite good in the "in between" style is Einaudi and the new Tenimenti Fontanafredda selections - which are not to be confused with their regular bottlings.

From the sound of those two Barolos perhaps you should give Barolo another try as I don't think they would have given you an understanding of what Barolo was then and most certainly what is now. They certainly weren't good enough to get you to taste Barolo many more times. Yes, while "it is not so difficult to grow decently good wine" what is very hard to do is to make great wine - wine that is distinctive and that speaks clearly of the grape and vineyards where it was born. Barolo and Barbaresco are two of those wines. In only one little corner of the world does nebbiolo make great wine - wines far beyond and far more interesting than wines that are: "not so difficult to grow decently good wine". It is indeed difficult to grow and make fine nebbiolo wines.

... oh, by the way, I like the traditional wines best.

I did a column on that last year: Barolo Wars

Petrus falls into the "if you have to ask you can't afford it category". Petrus is not sold at a reasonable price anywhere.