Craig Camp

The European Union is preparing a list of 35 food and wine names that it wants to restrict to producers in the EU, as part of a long-running battle over "geographical indications".

Lucky dog. Nothing like mature riesling.

I have always admired the restraint of Clos du Val in maintaining their balanced style while never making bland wines like Mondavi. By back palate you must mean the finish which always shows well in balanced wines.

I think what you are referring to is not a moka but indeed is a stove top espresso maker. I have seen them but never used one - or actually met or seen anyone use one. You do see them in stores occasionally.

No you do not tamp town the coffee in a moka. The filter should be full of coffee but not packed otherwise the water cannot pass through correctly. I don't pat it down at all. The moka measures all for you. Just fill with water up to the safety valve and fill the filter full - put not packed - with coffee. Yes some espresso grinds are too fine for moka and block the passage of the water. The Illy and Lavazza espresso grinds you buy in the store in Italy work fine in a moka. If you have an espresso setting on your grinder it should work fine in your moka.

Who in the world wrote that? I think a few folks in Washington state may disagree.

Louis/Dressner ..ummm I have to ask Joe about this one.

It is a VV and a Gevrey. Certainly boring is a strong complaint. By the way who imports this domaine?

reprinted from the Con Gusto newsletter with the permission of the author - me. For the full color look visit my website www.vinocibo.com “I’d like a white chocolate skinny Mocha with an extra shot” you ask. Here in the USA that will get you huge chocolate flavored coffee for about four bucks. It Italy it will get you blank stares and a suggestion to go the kitchen utensil area of the local department store where you can buy the whole machine for about four Euro. When you order caffé in Italy you mean espresso. No one except tourists drink cappuccino (coffee with milk) after 11 a.m., it is considered a breakfast drink. If you order caffé at a restaurant and they don’t have an espresso machine they will inform you that they only have mocha – don’t expect whipped cream and chocolate. Be prepared for a major cultural confusion. Everything you think you know about Italian’s and coffee is wrong. The reality is: • Mocha is not coffee with chocolate but a method of coffee making. • Many Italians make mocha coffee at home - not espresso. • Only the most expensive home machines are superior to the best mocha! • That weird looking thing they sell as a ‘stove top espresso maker’ is in fact a mocha maker. So it is true, you can make spectacular coffee that is far superior to most home espresso machines with a mocha maker. It fact in most Italian homes there is quite a competitive attitude when it comes to making mocha – each is sure that their technique is the best. What is this mocha? It is the machine you see sold all over the USA as a ‘stove top espresso maker’ which it is not. True espresso is only made in machines with enough pressure to shoot steam through very finely ground, darkly roasted coffee. For real espresso only steam is in contact with the coffee. So mocha is a method of making coffee on the top of your stove that pushes very hot water rapidly through darkly roasted Italian style coffee in a semi-sealed environment. Mocha is the name of the maker used in this process. The coffee a mocha makes is very strong like espresso but doesn’t have the ‘crema’ or brown foam you see on the top of true espresso. I spent a lot of time and frustration trying to get coffee that looked like real espresso when I bought my first mocha maker here thinking it was indeed a ‘stovetop espresso maker’. To make great espresso you need a machine that costs a lot of money and takes a lot of maintenance. As every Italian home has a coffee bar not so far away, it is easy to leave this type of coffee to the barrista (a bartender that serves more coffee than beer) who with their espresso machine costing about the same as a new car can make far better espresso than you can make at home. The mocha is a three piece unit varying from very fancy designer models to the basic aluminum model you see in most Italian homes. It consists of three pieces: • The base that holds the cold water before brewing. • The filter which holds the ground coffee and has the tube that brings the hot water from the base to the top. This piece is placed into the base. • The top which screws onto the top, securing the base and the top together so that when heat is applied to the base and the water boils, that the pressure forces the water rapidly up through the coffee and then arrives in the top of the machine ready for enjoyment. Sounds and looks easy – right? Yes and no. The fact is for some magical reason a mocha will not produce really excellent coffee until you have used it for several weeks and then will regress into lousy coffee if you don’t use it regularly. – this is not just folklore and I have tasted the results myself. To make great mocha you have to do the following things: • Use it. This is the first and most important rule. To make great mocha you have to use it essentially everyday. • The key is to pack the coffee correctly – this takes practice and trial and error as makers vary. The pack needs to be firm and full but not too much because the water won’t pass through. • Don’t wash it with soap and don’t put it in the dishwasher – just rinse it out. Don’t leave the coffee grounds in it overnight. • Use great coffee – true espresso grind is too fine for mocha , however most ‘espresso grinds’ are coarser here than they would be in Italy and so you can use the American version of espresso grind with your mocha maker. The Italian pre-ground espresso coffee sold in the United States by the giant Italian coffee producer Lavazza works well in a mocha maker and is relatively easy to find. The standard American ground coffee will only produce brown water in a mocha. • Serve the coffee in small espresso cups as if made correctly, mocha is strong • Stainless steel works more reliably than aluminum and is worth the extra investment Maintenance and safety • Only fill with water to the level of the safety valve • The rubber seal will have to be replaced from time to time – check with your manufacturer and the retailer you purchase your mocha maker from to be sure that you can buy replacements • Follow your manufactures instructions • Clean the coffee grounds out of the gasket seal on a regular basis. The mocha coffee maker can make an excellent and complex Italian style coffee for a very small investment. As always, to make great coffee requires excellent coffee, clean, fresh water and attention to technique. It’s nice to know that you don’t have to give up your new car to have a great coffee at home.

Sorry our garden is too inviting in the morning to consider going to the bar although it is only a few minutes walk away. Moka it is - in the morning anyway. After that it is off to the bar.

Cold spring water filled to just below the pressure valve. I use Lavazza which is ground for moka, and do not overfill. Medium heat. Remove while it's still perculating. Stir. Serve. Oh yes, put a new rubber on periodically. The Zen of Moka. This and using it often and never washing with soap.

One thing for sure you have to use it almost everyday to make good coffee.

I don't know this wine. Super-modern style may be intended as a Supertuscan? Aren't Supertuscans super-modern style wines? There are many ultra-modern style wines that are not super-tuscan but are Chianti or Brunello or Vino Nobile. There are some super-tuscans that are not ultra-modern like Montevertine and Monsanto. There is no such thing a rule for something called super-tuscan. It is anything the producer wants it to be. Good/bad, modern/traditional, 100% sangiovese and 0% sangiovese. It is a fantasy name.

The classic end around is to pack it up for you and then have you drop it in the mailbox yourself. That way they are not sending it but you are sending it to yourself.

You see them occasonally in the stores, but I have never used one or seen it in anyone's home.

As much have the wines of Spain have improved, they just can't compete with the diversity and quantity of great Italian wine. Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Priorat, Albarino and others have great wines of world class quality, but the rest of Spain is just waking up. Many Spanish regions are just too hot and dry. Only the future will tell.

While our well traveled espresso machine is once again on a ship back to Italy, our coffee at home comes from our well seasoned moka. While everyone likes to talk about espresso very little attention is given this simple machine which is used by most Italians at home. The truth is given care and with a little practice moka makes a wonderful coffee - all for about Euro 18.00. What I have discovered is that for my morning coffee - I usually don't take a capuccino unless I am in a bar and never in hot weather - I tend to prefer the round rich taste of the moka coffee. It seems more of a beverage than the quick short short of espresso and it is much better to dunk your cookies in. It is a shame the moka is marketed outside of Italy as a 'stovetop espresso maker' because it is not. Moka is its own style of coffee.

As of this summer, residents of Hawaii are finding it easier to order wines they can't find in the state and have their purchases delivered to their homes.

As of Oct. 1, North Carolina will join the growing list of states where consumers can call or e-mail an out-of-state winery and have wines delivered directly to their homes.

Sharp criticism for an old vine Gevrey. I have not tasted these wines - have you have similar experiences before with the domaine(?) or is this unusual? You keep going back to the La Rocca - I don't blame you. Love that wine.

50 at a crack are a little hard to digest and we all miss many wines that we want to read about. It also buries all the ongoing conversations. Shortly we will have a better way to deal with wine tasting notes and you can post hundreds at a time if you want. So be patient - we want your notes badly and they sound like a tremendous resource that should be shared.

Way to go Jim. I have several neighbors who also make this concoction. One does it with wine. He adds every leftover he has until the bottle is almost full than adds a good dose of alcohol. For those who are skeptical this is good stuff.

That 81 is first class. I have 3 bottles left. It will basically age forever, but who would want to wait that long.

troppo cool Andre - ringrazie!

Is it true that the bottles were stored up-right, covered with mould, the corks been replaced after a number of years? No not that I saw. Every winery I visited the aging bottles were on their side - but they were covered with a thick covering of mould. For some awful reason they love to do long tastings down in the cellars in special tasting rooms. It a dramatic and colorful atmosphere, but the cold damp moldy air makes for difficult tasting conditions.