Wine: In defense of rosé

From time to time I feel the need to rise to the defense of rosé wines. They just don’t get the respect they deserve.

Dinner in minutes

Sunny Mediterranean flavors infuse quick fish dinner

Lemon juice, olive oil, fresh mint and parsley are sunny flavors from the sun-drenched hills of the Eastern Mediterranean where these products grow in abundance.

Wine

Equine-themed quaffs for Derby Day

I’ve crusaded for years to convince sports fans that wines are more appropriate for Super Bowl sipping than the wimpy light beers in the TV ads. Now I come forth to declare that wine is also more apt than sickly sweet mint juleps for the Kentucky Derby, which is run Saturday.

Wine

Not all that bubbles is champagne

Let’s start a bubbly brouhaha.

Wine

Cune rues trendiness with its elegant riojas

It’s a little confusing to talk about this historic, top-flight winery in Spain’s Rioja region. Its official name is Compania Vinicola del Norte de España, or Wine Company of Northern Spain. It went by its acronym, CVNE, at its founding in 1879. But then fans, seeking something they could pronounce, changed the V to a U and began calling it CUNE, or coo-nay.

Wine

Discipline, grapes and legacy

Jean Trimbach can laugh now —a little — about the fact that his Alsace region, on France’s northern border, has been occupied many times by Germany — most recently during World War II.

Wine

Kosher wines grow in sophistication

“Tradi-SHUN,” goes Tevye’s song in the, well, traditional Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. And you might think tradition says that, with Passover approaching, it’s time to buy sweet kosher wines.

Wine

New Zealand’s sauvignon blancs and pinot noirs in the spotlight

True story: When New Zealand’s modern sauvignon blancs burst on the scene in the 1980s, American tasters raved about their literally mouth-watering acids and pungent, vibrant gooseberry aromas.

Trends

Stars past and present try to shine in the wine world

Like the rest of us, celebrities enjoy wine. The hip-hop star Drake helped fuel the continuing rise of moscato by rapping about it. Actor Johnny Depp has a tattoo that reads “Wino forever” (although it should be noted that it read “Winona forever” back when he and Winona Ryder were an item).

Wine

Bordeaux’s Haut Brion enjoying ‘incredible’ decade

Great Bordeaux wines are not made easily. Or cheaply. Centuries ago the fine wines of that area were produced rather anonymously, without the grand chateaux names we know today.

Wine

Good, affordable finds at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival

There were lots of fabulous $100 wines at the recent South Beach Wine & Food Festival, but I know from energetic and persistent comments that newspaper readers are looking for a more fortuitous combination — pretty cheap and pretty good.

Wine

‘Best sommelier in U.S.’ now in James Beard spotlight

Ask Virginia Philip what wine she most resembles and she’s got the answer almost before the question is asked. She’s Gevrey-Chambertin — a red Burgundy made from pinot noir. Or, as Philip puts it,” elegant, powerful, but knows exactly what I want.”

Wine

Carmenere: Lost-and-found grape produces Chile’s signature wine

Disney should make a movie about carmenere. Born in France of noble family, it was lost for decades, thought dead by many, killed by the evil phylloxera. Then it was found in exile in faraway Chile, living among commoners like merlot and cabernet sauvignon. DNA testing revealed its true lineage, and it now is taking its rightful place again in the finer levels of society.

Wine

At Wild Horse Winery, varietals are the spice of life

It must be fun to be a winemaker.

Grape Expectations

As Miami prepares for the annual South Beach Wine & Food Festival, America continues its love affair with wine. The key: older aficionados are again buying more expensive bottles.

Wine

High-altitude wines gain color, flavor

Ernesto “Nesti” Bajda’s idea is this: Halfway up the Andes Mountains the ozone layer is thinner and the sun is more intense, so the grape skins grow thicker, making darker, more flavorful wines.

Stomping their way to a good time

Nearly 1,000 people smashed, squashed and smushed carambola at Schnebly Redland’s Winery & Brewery over the weekend as part of a contest at the Homestead winery.

Wine

Valentine’s: The day for wine and rosés

Cupid’s holiday has always been a day of wine and roses. I can’t help you with the flowers, but some wines are better suited to Valentine’s Day than others.

Lunch with lydia

The sweet taste of success

Marc De Kuyper, 11th generation of the Dutch family that produces a rainbow of popular hard-partying liqueurs, didn’t exactly have a free ride into the business. He had to get the right degrees and succeed at several other jobs first. Finally, with an impressive resume in hand, he had to go through a series of formal interviews, business exams and psychological and IQ testing at De Kuyper Royal Distillers, which was founded in 1695 and has always been run by the family.

Wine

Matches for Super Bowl chow, from chili to Cheetos

Wow. The street price for a ticket to Super Bowl XLV is reportedly $2,000 and up. Way up. And an RV parking space for tailgating at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where the average February high is 40 degrees, is $900.

Wine

Grapes: The more the merrier in white blends

Ask any good cook: When you make a complex dish such as curry chicken, you’re blending a dozen or more flavors — cardamom, turmeric, cumin, chilies, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, mustard, garlic, fennel, black pepper and others. Oh, and chicken.

Wine

Zinfandel: comfort wine for cold weather

Snow and cold weather blanket the Midwest and Northeast, and Miami is having its version of a cold snap, with daily highs barely in the mid-70s. It’s time for comfort foods – beef stews, macaroni and cheese, tuna casserole, chili.

Wine

Too many grapes don’t spoil these wines: 6 red blends, one just $10

It used to be that when winemakers blended two or more grapes into a wine, it was so the strengths of one could make up for the weaknesses of the others. France’s Bordeaux red had cabernet sauvignon for flavor and structure, malbec for its inky color, merlot for sweet and fleshy fruit.

Wine

Sicily: Old wines are new again

It’s not easy being Alessio Planeta, traveling the world to sell the wines of his native Sicily.

Wine

The best wines of 2011

It’s been a fabulous year for wine. Fans of the grape, whether Tea Party types or Occupy Wall Streeters, revolted and demanded cheaper wines. Sellers cut $90 wines to $50.

Beer

Seasonal beers are festive for the holidays

Beer for the holidays? Why not? It’s certainly in the right spirit. Kindly old Ben Franklin once said: “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Shop local

Wines and beers with South Florida ties make great gifts

Wines and beers with South Florida ties make gifts in good taste

wine

Bubbly is at home for the holidays

As New Year’s Eve approaches, the question arises: Where do the bubbles in bubbly come from?

Wine

Private wine label reflects distinct vision of its creator

Alex Elman cried every night.

Wine

Wine a welcome holiday gift

Wine’s a great holiday gift. Most people appreciate it, for their future guests if not for themselves. At worse, it’ll be an elegant re-gift next season. You can bet your giftee will not be taking it back to the return counter.

Wine

Wine books are great for holiday gifting

Your friend/lover/colleague/boss is seriously into wine. He/she has so many bottles there’s no point in giving another. So what do you give this holiday season? A book about wine. There are lots of good ones out there. Here are a few I’ve come across:

Washington State: The nation's other wine country

When hard-charging former Texas Instruments exec Kathy Charlton offered Bordeaux winemaker Benoit Murat a job in her new winery on the Pacific Ocean side of Seattle in 1999, he wondered if she was serious.

Hip sips: A guide to South Florida wine tastings

Listen carefully. That slurping sound you hear is from all the wine tastings -- a score or more -- happening at shops, restaurants and hotels around South Florida each week.

Castles of Tuscany now welcome (tourist) invaders

In the rolling hills of Tuscany, where the sun casts a yellow-green glow over the landscape, causing the grape vines and olive trees to vibrate with color, every good-sized hilltop sports an ancient rock castle. In the Middle Ages they were fortresses, grim redoubts from which warriors under siege poured cauldrons of boiling oil down onto enemy soldiers trying to top the walls with scaling ladders.

Cuisine mirrors savory Thai culture

"You can eat spicy, sir?" Every time I order in a restaurant in this noisy, steamy, teeming, traffic-clogged, friendly and fascinating city, they ask me that. With the sweetest of smiles. But I'm worried. What are they preparing me for? Warning me against? Is there some hidden national conspiracy to fry the foreigner's palate, then protest that they tried to warn me?

Stunning wines, rich and opulent, emerge from Priorato

High in the Serra de Montsant mountains 100 miles southwest of Barcelona, an intrepid group of winemakers has banded together to take an ancient, fallen wine area and restore it to past glories. It's called Priorato.

For richer or for poorer, New Orleans won't lighten up

New Orleans, "The City That Care Forgot," clings proudly to the cuisine that time forgot, its huge portions, rich sauces and decadent desserts, be they in the Creole tradition of the seafood gumbo at Arnaud's, the Cajun "paneed" (breaded) rabbit at Brigtsen's or the traditional French Poulet Rochambeau at Galatoire's.

Vegas cuisine: New restaurants advance the city's reputation

A waiter at Picasso, the elegant restaurant in the Bellagio Hotel whose walls boast eight real (if minor) paintings by that fabled artist, reports that one diner recently ordered six $19 servings of foie gras with pear butter and pomegranate -- all for himself. As long as this gambling city attracts high-living high rollers like him, its boom in fine restaurants seems likely to continue.

New York's wine country

It's a cool, sunny morning, and the wineries of the Finger Lakes Wine Trail, in the rolling, vine-covered hills that slope down to deep blue Keuka, Seneca and Cayuga lakes in central New York, are pouring samples of their wares for visiting tourists. The wines are surprisingly varied -- both familiar and little-known, tracing the whole history of the American vine: chardonnay and riesling and merlot; baco noir and seyval blanc; catawba, elvira and Delaware.