Ancient Fire Wine Blog

Ancient Fire Archeology – Finding Old Wines

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:19:00 +0000

Before we get into this, I must define old wine as it pertains to my homemade wines. My first batch of wine went into the bottle in 2004. For the first 2-3 years thereafter most of my wine was consumed by year’s end and the few bottles that were given away were returned to me, likewise empty. As my annual production increased wine got to see shelf time for longer, I started giving split batches as gifts and friends would scurry a bottle or two away as a novelty. That last part is despite telling them not to on most occasions, but we will revisit that later. So when I say an old wine, it will be magical if it is 3-4 years old when I uncover it. I should be able to try some 5 and 6 year old homemade wines in the next couple of years.

Over the 2011 holidays I spent several days in Connecticut with my parents. My parents are very vocal supporters of my wines, as well as the beers, ciders, meads and other projects, so they’ve been the recipients of them on many occasions. In 2007 my brother and I went in together on a batch of Vidal-based dessert wine made to be reminiscent of Ice Wine, although not produced in any such way. We gave the wine to our mother as a birthday gift that year. It was, and still is one of the finest batches of wine I’ve ever made. Mom was elated and has enjoyed it many times since. I knew she had several bottles left, and I also knew I could be gambling not saying anything about drinking them yet. I hadn’t considered the storage conditions at play, after all the wine was a gift and how it was used was out of my hands.

Mom expressed an interest in pouring the last two bottles at an upcoming dinner party. I took a look at one of the bottles and it clearly had experienced a protein degradation. This is a flaw of some older white wines and is likely when you see white fluffy stuff floating in the wine. In the first few years I made wine I focused on learning how to do it better, but there is a lot to learn and by 2007 I had yet to use cold stabilization and long clearing regimens to ensure my wines were clear and would stay that way. This is why I often told friends to open the wine I gave them as gifts soon, and why I purposely opened and shared it at many parties we attended. These wines were not fined and prepared for any long term life!

I was immediately suspect that Mom’s Ice Wine would be drinkable. I suggested she open one right before serving it and have a backup wine ready. She opted to open one right then and there, my mother rarely drank before I started making the stuff by the way, which of course peaked my interest. Ignoring the floating particles, the wine was still clear, had retained the caramel/orange hued color and smelled fantastic, if not a bit hot. In the mouth the wine reminded me of Madeira wine. It had flavors of nuts, dried fruits, it was oxidative and a bit reductive. The dried fruits I expected and found in the nose had masked the other elements, but they were easily found with each sip. The final vote was that the wine was quite drinkable, but would certainly not be best described based on its original making.

This was a very curious outcome for me because I had never experienced it in older wines of mine I had come across. Earlier in 2011 friends of our found a bottle of a 2006 Pinot Gris I had forgotten I had made. I don’t know how they stored it, but it was oxidized, brown and totally undrinkable. Younger homemade wines that have passed their peak have typically been completely dried out, slightly tan or brown and not pleasant to drink.

The room my mother had stored the wine in sees a lot of sunlight and during the warmer months gets quite warm. Effectively my mother had raised the wines up to the top of the hothouse and let them cook a bit. My mother was making Madeira in her office without even knowing it! Well done, is all I could say. It was remarkable to drink it and consider how unlikely it would be for what I was drinking to come from where it did.

I have one bottle of this wine left that has been stored in different conditions. I’m hesitant to crack it open without an occasion to enjoy it, because if it is has survived it will undoubtedly be one of the best homemade wine tasting experiences I will ever had.

In the last several years I have made enough wine that some of it will get to 5 or more years old allowing I and others to enjoy many more peak wines and continue to come across interesting twists with how some of the wines age. It is exciting to think that with age wines of mine that have been well cared for could reach heights I’ve never imagined.

Cheers!

Jason

p.s. Happy New Year! I shared some project ideas for the New Year at the WineMaker Magazine Blog this week.

Making the Most with What You Have

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000

The year 2011 is in the books (I am writing this on NYE so not quite yet) and looking back it was a great one for the Ancient Fire Wine Blog. I’m new to the wine blogging party in my current format and 2011 was the best of the nearly two years I've been seriously dishing my thoughts on beverages, eats, places to visit to get food & drink, my home brewing projects and odds & ends about the food & beverage industry at large. I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences immensely and intend to keep on keeping on, but I doubt things will be the same in 2012 on my end and definitely not for readers.

In 2011 I confirmed much of my own suspicions about how my effort at expanding my knowledge and promoting my blog with social media could pay off. I’ve made lots of new connections, attended many events, have sampled fare from all over the world and more people actually read my blog. I cannot complain one bit. My expectations for fun continue to be exceeded. When I’m out an about I’ve come to realize that my blog is the least relevant part of my interest in the world of beverages and food, and since people aren’t running off to read it right when I meet them, it doesn’t matter. That means I can spend less time blogging and I lose nothing.

I started writing in 2008 as a means to share cellar updates from my home wine & beer making projects. I’ve made cider and mead many times as well since then and the projects keep coming. In 2011 I shifted my writing on the wine slice of those projects to Wine Maker Magazine where there is a natural audience for the tales. I’m still making lots of homemade beverages and jump behind the bar at home to mix up cocktails, punches and sample unique spirits from all over the place pretty much weekly. There are two aspects to these activities that are most important and will be the focus of my efforts in 2012.

( My wine cellar in 2009. Multiple by 3X currently. )

( Pressing grapes with friends. )

( The krausen on a batch of freshly brewed beer. Real geek stuff. That's me! )

First, the projects take lots of time. Research time, planning, trials, full batches, application in social settings and finally consideration of lessons learned and the “what nexts”. If I’m going to do some of these things I certainly want to use the time I have to make the most of them. If I don’t want to do them I’ll do something else like read, take a walk or play ball with my dog.

( Mack's Apples Pie Competition in 2011. )

( Survivors Rule! Volunteers, fundraisers, marathon walkers. We've raised almost $75K since 2003.

Cancer Sucks so we Fight Back! )

Secondly, most importantly, and this is where I am most happy to be reflecting on, I get enjoy these activities with the people in my life that I want to spend time with. Margot and I are learning how to make better beer together. We rock! I am meeting new people in my local area that enjoy the same activities and want to hang out and learn from each other. I can’t pass this up. And all the in-real-life trips that I plan and take will reconnect me with birds of a feather from elsewhere. These are “my people” as Margot calls it.

( Grilled pizza party in the backyard. So much fun! )

( Beer tasting at The Drinkery in Londonderry, NH. )

( Bus 1, 1a and local wine drinkers from the Wine Bloggers Conference in Virginia. No sleep till Portland! )

( Cocktails with friends. Loved working the bar! )

( Wine tastings with friends at home are consistently the most fun events we host. )

So, what next? I am going to write when I’m inspired and tweet when there is a conversation to be had. I’m going to be out there doing all the things that I could write about, but without of the stress of “having” write about them or share them on Twitter. I’ll read about what others are up to when I can. The live story and the live event is where I’m going to be focused. Sorry to all if that means I’ll share less of what I am up to post by post, but on the flip side planning to meet up somewhere for a conference or to crash tasting rooms has us making memories together. See, that’s way better!

( I play a salsa judge on TV. International Chili Championship. )

( Getting out for walks in Vermont is one of the things I look forward to the most. )

( Crashing the beer tent or the tasting bar with friends is always a good laugh! )

( Dinner with WineMaker Conference friends. Cheers to Cheryl & Christina. See you in June! )

( Working local harvests is great way to meet other winemakers and wine lovers. )

( Get out! The beach or the mountains, it doesn't matter. Go! )

( The Boston Brunchers at the Harvard Common Press. )

No decision is made without consequences however, and this one comes with anxiety over spending less time interacting with so many people I’ve met through my blog and Twitter. Less time with the people who have been readers and friends along for this ride. Spending less time blogging and on Twitter means I can’t support the efforts of many others who I have been a reader of as well. It makes me sad, but I've got to deal with that. I've created solid ties locally and those will naturally continue in real life and online. Relationships take time and I have to focus on the immediate ones to focus my passion and enthusiasm optimally. This is the unfortunate result. This is going to mean some disconnectedness’ for me, and keeping tabs on the buzz about events I attend is going to suffer. The rejiggering here is going to take some careful work.

A huge round of thank you’s and appreciative gestures are due to all my readers, friends, followers, likes, et. al. Sharing my adventures with you, interacting with you in comments and following you as well has been a blast. Cheers to meeting up in front of a glass of something exciting in places along our continued journey’s.

THANK YOU!

One other thought is worth closing with. Making personal choices is the right and privilege of everyone. I applaud any person who makes choices and lives with obvious happiness in the offing. Everyone’s circumstances, personal makeup and resources are different, so each of us has to do what we feel is best for us to make the most of what we’ve got. We also then just need to go do it. It’s the most positive way to live. That is my wish for good health for you in the New Year.

And with that I'm off! Gotta clean and prep for a house full of people on New Years Day.

Cheers!

Jason

Christmas Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:40:00 +0000

It’s funny how things work out. A nasty cold creeps up on you the week before Christmas and doesn’t let up entirely until after the holiday, a date yet to come... Your wife ends up feeling the effects of that cold over the holiday weekend itself. My cold killed some of my late week motivation for Christmas food & drink that I had hoped to share here at Ancient Fire. Such is life. My steady recovery and Margot chilling quietly on the couch this weekend gave me time to spend time in the kitchen on Christmas having fun.

I made the Figgy Pudding and Christmas Cake prior to leaving to visit family for the first part of the weekend, but just didn’t get to sharing them. I enjoyed the experience making these two recipes for the first time. There was plenty to be learned about where they come from and what they mean to us at Christmas time. I’ve got the leftovers soaking in rum or cognac right now. New Year Day treats! Some lore, recipes (at the bottom) and photos are below.

Figgy pudding comes from 16th century England and is largely considered a version of Christmas Pudding. The diversity of its ingredients and cooking methods speak to it being a very local, or house to house specialty. The Christmas connection is from the carol “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” and the lines "Now bring us some figgy pudding" and “we won’t go until we get some” indicating that figgy pudding might have been given to carolers at Christmastime. In the larger realm of Christmas Pudding you find even more diversity, gift giving, prizes baked into them and many traditions in vast locales where it was made. Steaming the pudding is a very popular method, although not the clear majority winner amongst methods.

I also made a Christmas Cake using figs and a similar spice complement to the figgy pudding. Both cakes are dense and very flavorful, something a bit of citrus, sugar syrup or spirits can add life to. Why not all three? Like a cocktail in your dessert! House style Christmas cakes are as old as baking and Christmas, so everyone has their own type of recipe they like. I trend toward the big flavors and baking spices this time of year, but that isn’t certainly the only route. Light colored cakes with whispy frosting and mint or vanilla flavors certainly bring visions of the winter-time Christmases of New England where I live.

We started Christmas Day with Squash Laced Cinnamon Buns from page 220 of the November 2011 Cooking Light issue. I got up early to make the dough, went back to bed, and then rose to cook them for the obligatory watching of A Christmas Story. We’ve watched this movie in Jamaica on Christmas, and it never fails to make us laugh about Christmases past. Back to the buns. These were my finest bread baking experience ever. Repeating it will be an epic struggle with luck I fear. Baking good bread takes a lot of time, and even with that success is not assured.

The Starbucks hot cocoa mixes that I snagged last month made mochas that wound up the day pretty good. We’ve enjoyed them again several times since. Merry Christmas indeed!

I also made one of my favorites, mulled wine, on Christmas Day. This turned out to be the right treat for the bands of flurries and snow showers we had all day. It was beautiful at times and I hope I caught some of it in photos. We took walks with Pete (our dog) several times to enjoy the beautiful day.

The recipe for the wine is a simple one, but mulled wine is special that way. You can make a little or a lot, but you have to make sure you drink what you make when it’s warm and first ready to drink. Letting it cook for too long isn’t a recipe for success. Too much acid, citrus pith, cooked flavors, etc. Some batches do better than others, but avoid it if you can.

Ancient Fire Mulled Wine

1 bottle of rich, red wine. Syrah, Cabernet, Merlot or similar

1 orange, sliced

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

3 allspice berries

15 sugar cubes, more to taste

Heat a crock pot on high. Add spices and orange slices to the bottom of the cooker. Allow aromatics to build. Pour over the wine and add the sugar. Mix until the sugar is dissolved and the wine is hot. Do not

allow to get to a simmer or boil. Ladle into punch cups or mugs. Multiply the recipe as needed.

While I was making ginger syrup earlier in the week I ended up with the “spent” ginger in the fridge. I immediately thought of candied fruits, and from there candied ginger and orange slices were made. I wasn’t dreaming of sugar plums, I made them!

Other than the mulled wine I drank a few additional beverages over the weekend, including a bottle of Rose Regale with family on Friday and wines from Virginia (Barren Ridge and Tarara) on Saturday over Chinese food and snacks. After Christmas I went back to the open wines from the holiday open house and enjoyed the white blends from the Finger Lakes (Lamoreaux Landing and Hunt Country Vineyards) that we opened at that event.

I received a great gift in the form of a bottle of Jefferson’s Straight Rye Whiskey. I haven’t cracked it open yet, but that time is not far off. I had bottle of their 10 year old Bourbon open earlier in the week and I can’t say I would let it stray too far if it was mine…

I can’t complain about how my holiday weekend worked out, I had lots of fun. I would have had different fun perhaps without the cold, but more fun? That might not be a slam dunk. With New Years coming Margot and I are looking forward to going out and having a bit of a party before we ring in a new year and have to get back to the rat race!

Cheers!

Jason

{ Recipes }

Ancient Fire Figgy Pudding

6 large dried figs, chopped into small pieces

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup dark rum

3 Tbsp cup cognac or brandy

1/4 cup raisins

2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1/2 (packed) cup brown sugar

1 cup fresh white bread cubes (made from about 8 inches of baguette)

1/2 stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Optional: 1/3 cup brandy, cognac or rum, to flame the pudding

Equipment Note

You will need a 8+ cup Bundt pan and a stock pot large enough to contain it and water for steaming.

Directions:

Bring the figs and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Lower the heat and simmer until the water is almost gone.

Add the rum, cognac raisins and bring the pan back to a boil.

To flambé the figs:

Remove the pan from the heat, make sure it’s in an open space, have a pot cover at hand and,

standing back, set the liquid aflame. Let the flames burn for 2 minutes, then extinguish them by closing

the pan with the pot cover. For a milder taste, burn the rum and brandy until the flames die out on their

own. Set the pan aside uncovered.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice and salt.

In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs and brown sugar together with a whisk. Stir in the bread cubes, the melted butter and the fig mixture.

Add the dry ingredients and mix to make a thick batter. A final mix with the cherries and cranberries and you are ready to steam it!

Spray the Bundt pan with cooking spray, then butter it liberally. Give the center a good coating.

Spread the batter into the pan and seal the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Lower the pan into the

stock pot and fill the pot with enough hot water to come one-half to two-thirds of the way up the sides

of the pan. Bring the water to a boil. Cover the pan and lower the heat so that the water simmer gently.

Steam for 1-2 hours. Add water if necessary.

The finished pudding will have lots of steam trapped inside the pan. Caution should be exercised opening the pan.

When a knife emerges clean from the pudding it is finished cooking.

Removing the Bundt pan from the pot can be tricky. Where the oven mitts and use tongs if you can. Dump out onto a rack and allow to cool a bit before serving.

Use the optional spirits to douse the cake for a tableside flambé before serving. Be careful, this can go wrong too easily. Be prepared with a cover, water and quick wits.

You can serve it with whipped cream, marshmallow fluff, ice cream or just eat it as is!

Christmas Fig Cake

1 stick of butter, softened

2 eggs

1 cup molasses

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup dark rum

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups dried figs, finely sliced

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325 and liberally grease a Bundt (tube style) pan.

I liked the preparation of the figs for the Figgy Pudding, so I am going to repeat that here with the figs & water, then adding the rum over a light simmer for 5-10 minutes. No flambé to finish this time.

In a work bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter with a hand mixer. Add the eggs and molasses and mix well.

Add the orange zest, buttermilk, and rehydrated figs. Mix until evenly distributed.

Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until smooth.

Fold in the walnuts, if using.

Spread the batter evenly in the pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes. A toothpick or skewer into the center should emerge clean to test if it is done.

Cool on a wire rack.

The recipe I riffed off here of has the setup for a glaze or sauce. I would have opted for whipped cream, but ran out of steam before I got there.

Check out the Dorie Greenspan inspired post that guided me at http://www.mygourmetconnection.com/recipes/baking-desserts/other-desserts/figgy-pudding-cake.php

The Gift of Sparking Cocktails

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:06:00 +0000

What gift can I give to the readers who have everything? Sparkling cocktails, of course!

There’s always room for new spins on sparkling cocktails, and this time of year bubbles are a fun addition to Christmas and New Year’s gatherings. Last year we had fun mixing them up with friends at our New Year’s Day brunch. I’m bringing some Champagne with me for a Christmas visit to family in CT, who knows how we might finish the bottle!. I even remember mixing up a New Year’s classic with sugar cubes, Korbel and Angostoura bitters over 10 years ago at Kori & Monica’s place. Even if you don’t like bubbly you it's hard resist a sparkling cocktail.

I picked a bottle of Gloria Ferrar Blanc de Noirs California sparkling wine for my cocktail mixology. White wines from Gloria Ferrar are always consistent, offering solid performance and value. My thanks go out to my friend Marie for sharing this bottle from samples she received.

The pictures I ended up with are pretty bad. I used whatever lighting I could throw together and it didn't work as well as I had hoped. Blame my cold, or the fact that I'm not known for my photos.. I did get shots of some of the effervescing in the glass, which is interesting in itself. I hope the drinks live on well beyond their photos here.

The first cocktail I’m calling Special Punch, and is a riff on the punch The Fatal Bowl from the open house over the weekend. It is very reminiscent of the punch and the added bubbles only take it to better places.

Special Punch

2 oz cognac

1oz spiced simple syrup

3 dashes citrus bitters

Sparkling wine

Lemon peel

Mix the cognac and spice syrup. Add the bitters and pour into a flute. Top with the sparkling wine and garnish with a lemon peel.

“I will call him Mini Me”. This drink is a lighter version of the punch from the weekend and exactly what it would taste like if the sparkles were added to the punch bowl. The spices come out in force and tartness from the lemon and the wine help keep the sweetness in balance. I would make this again, frequently.

The second cocktail is the Sparkling Fruit Salad using Pimms #1, ginger syrup and fruit to make a flavored spirit a day ahead.

Sparkling Fruit Salad

10 grapes

5 strawberries

1 apple

Peel of 1 lemon

1 cup Pimms #1

1/3 cup ginger simple syrup

Sparkling wine

Slice the grapes, berries and apple, adding them to a sealable jar. Pour over the Pimms and the syrup. Cover tightly. Gently shake to mix. Allow to macerate overnight in the refrigerator. Use 2 ounces of the base in a flute to make 1 drink. Top off with the sparkling wine. Slices of the fruit and lemon peel can be used as garnish.

This was the winner for me on complexity. The sweetened up Pimms is full of dehydrated fruits, nuts, roots, etc and it really did taste like a day old fruit salad that has begun to mix together. And it's bubbly!

I finish my gift with the Sour Apple Sparkler. I still need to work on this drink. The flavors were not quite right.

Sour Apple Sparkler

1.5 oz Calvados

1 oz sweet cider

½ tsp Meyer lemon tincture

½ oz honey

1 cinnamon stick

Sparkling wine

Mix the Calvados, cider, lemon tincture and honey well. Pour into a flute. Top off with sparkling wine. Add the cinnamon stick for garnish.

Very tart and sour apple, and something not quite in balance. I haven’t decided quite what I am going to do next with this drink, but with the other two around I’m not uniquely motivated to get right on it!

I hope you enjoy your gift. And even better is it one you can re-gift without any regret!

Cheers!

Jason

A Very Merry Ancient Fire Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:06:00 +0000

This time of year is exciting for so many people. Family, friends old and new, parties, food, drinks, presents, decorations and music are everywhere you go.

Margot and I always look forward to our open house before Christmas. That event gives us one more chance to spend time with our extended family (that’s all who come) and spread some joy before a busy week of travelling, hosting and who knows what else for the holidays!

Another year, and another fun party. There was lots of laughter and mingling. Everyone had a good time and for that we are grateful. That’s why we do it.

The house decorations this year were some of our best. Margot was especially proud of the tree, and rightfully so. Taking some cues from our friends Ed & Jim, the tree sports ribbons and a simple color palette of blue, silver and white.

Every year we pick a beverage theme, it’s what we do if you will, and this year was punch. Last week I shared “I’m Going to PunchYou For the Holidays” and “Here We Come A-wassailing” and the experiments making several new beverages to serve at the party.

( Ready for action! )

Those who left later in the day went home with punch, a token to keep the good cheer rolling with.

The food worked out well as it usually does, and the table looked festive when it was setup. We really didn’t fuss over it this year, and we didn’t make anything special except Margot’s cookies, an orange glazed sugar cookie and a spicy chocolate cookie containing cayenne, black pepper and cinnamon. I did land a new recipe in the bean dip I prepared, taken directly from Giada andthe Food Network.

( Just before guests arrived. Ready to go! )

By the end of the party we noticed that between the wassail and general interest we put back quite a few beers. Most of the wine was opened, but not too much went. The Lamoreaux Landing Estate White Blend resonated with several guests after I gave it taste and shared my positive feedback. The Tarara BossaNoVA was the solid performer that I expected it to be. I finished the night with it, the bold flavors can be savored like port. It’s gonna be a tough week tasting my way through the rest of the bottles…

The Christmas theme continues this week with sparkling cocktails tomorrow and mulled wine on Wednesday. I finish the week with figgy pudding, something I’ve never had or made and is sure to get me in the Christmas spirit! I won’t let you go without some. And then Margot and I will go visit family taking it with us to spread that cheer even farther.

How are you gearing up from Christmas? Shopping, spending time in the kitchen or have you figured out how to get away from it all? Merry Christmas!

Cheers!

Jason

Here We Come A-wassailing!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:31:00 +0000

What are wassail and wassailing? I had to look them up because I don’t ever remember being told of a specific definitions. I recall from Christmas carols, the aptly named “Here We Come A-wassailing” is of course the most famous, that wassailing was some form of social custom designed to spread good cheer. I also inferred that the presence of wassailers at your door commanded a gift of wassail. Hmmmm. Enjoy the carol for a minute while I figure out what’s going on here.

“HereWeCome A-wassailing”

Here we come a-wassailing

Among the leaves so green;

Here we come a-wand'ring

So fair to be seen.

REFRAIN:

Love and joy come to you,

And to you your wassail too;

And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year

And God send you a Happy New Year.

…

Here We Come A-wassailing (audio clip from Wikimedia)

It turns out both of the things I thought about wassail and wassailing are true. But how did that come to be? First the name, and then the custom. The word wassail comes from the phrase Waes Hail, the greeting “good health”, that originated from Middle English as waes hael. Singing that message amounts to caroling to good health. I can dig that.

It seems the custom of singing this refrain was adopted by farmers and their surrounding communities as a toast to the apple trees and a bountiful harvest the next year. Whether it was for eating or making some form of fermented beverage, both things we love here at Ancient Fire, I really see the imagery created here. I love the apple trees I see in my town, the ones on my street are soon to developed over sadly, and look forward to harvest every year and making apple treats with the apples that they bear.

Since then, and likely it was implied originally, the act of wassailing door to door to people’s homes wishing them the same good health was adopted. This brings us back to the mythology we find in our contemporary Christmas traditions. Very few people I know have ever wassailed, but I do know a few who have, which is likely unusual. Maybe it’s something about New England and traditions from the English homes of many of our families here. I honestly don’t know how common it even is in England where it began.

So it is no surprise then that apples show up in one form or another in wassail beverage recipes. There is no recipe that I can find that has widespread support as a classic or the original, and the plethora of them I did find prompted me to make my own. Many had brown ale in them and the prospect of using my homemade maple brown ale locked it in as the first ingredient. Incidentally, many holiday themed beers will express at least the spices present in wassail. I can’t tell which was the chicken and which the egg in this situation. Old school wassail is purported to have been made with ale or mead, but whether either also contained spices or were spiced in the construction of this drink is not clear.

Into the holiday laboratory!

Ancient Fire Wassail

1 pint plus 1/4 cup Ancient Fire Maple Brown Ale

1 cup sweet apple cider

2 cinnamon sticks

2 cloves

Zest from 1 lemon

2 apples

1/2 cups brown sugar

¼ cup demerara sugar

1/2 cup dry sherry

¼ cup Madeira wine

1/4 cup sweet red wine

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground all spice

1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom

super fine sugar, to sweeten to taste

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large sauce pan, pour in the pint of ale and the cider. Add the cinnamon sticks, lemon zest and cloves and bring to a simmer over low heat.

Core and cut the apples in half. Place in a baking dish. Cover with 1/2 cup of brown sugar, remaining 1/4 cup of ale, sherry, Maderira and the red wine.

Cover baking dish and place in oven, cooking for 30 minutes.

Add the demerara sugar and spices into the sauce pan, ensuring it's well mixed.

When the apples are done baking, place entire contents of baking dish into sauce pan. Allow to cook over a low heat for another 30-40 minutes. Serve hot.

Margot and I both felt this was very reminiscent of mulled cider. It has complexity beyond that, but the other liquors don’t leave enough of their own influence to pick them out. It came out balanced a bit too much to the spice side, but that is something that can be handled with some more beer or cider right before serving.

It was drinkable almost immediately, but a short time to cool was necessary. No need to injure those who come to wish you good health!

I stored the leftover wassail in a jar in the fridge. In the photo to the right you can see the apples and lemon zest floating in the brown, spicy punch. It is likely to be even more spicy by the time I drink it again. More beer!

I’ve brought forth another festive and traditional drink today. Yesterday was a more general treatment of punch, with the possibility of producing similar tipples to wassail quite likely. I’d still say wassail is a punch of a different sort, if only because of its own specific story. The vessel it was served from has its own lore as well. Check the lyrics at the link to the carol at the top if you don’t believe me. There are people who specialize in making wassail bowls, something I don’t believe I’ve ever seen. Find one person’s adventure in Making a Wassail Bowl. I broke out the punch cups to ladle Margot and I’s first tastes into, but serving it from a saucepan on the stove wasn’t quite the image you all had here. No picture.

Margot and I wish all of you and your families good health as we hurtle towards the end of one year and beginning of another.

Cheers!

Jason

I’m Going to Punch You for the Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:44:00 +0000

You were naughty this year and I’m going to punch you right in the mouth! Not literally of course, but you might just choose to put some punch in your mouth this holiday season after reading this post.

Punch is an age-old tradition and one my experience tells me we’ve nearly lost with our contemporary desire for designer cocktails. And when I say punch I don’t mean that stuff we used to mix up in the big trash can in the basement of my fraternity house with every skanky bottle of liquor laying around, fruit punch mix and ice. Yuck! I mean real punch based on five simple ingredients that harkens back to 17^th century and Navy-men sailing the seas with cargo holds full of rum.

The five basic ingredients of punch:

Spirits
Sugar
Citrus
Spice
Water

Starting with those ingredients as a guide the directions one can go in are vast, and trust me people have gone in all of them!

There is no way I can run down the variations of each of those ingredients in historical detail, but I know somebody who can. David Wondrich, a very well known cocktail historian and imbibing expert. His book Punch: The Delights (And Dangers) of the Flowing Bowl has all the historical details, a breakdown of the ingredients, finishing with recipes for a great many variations of punch. You can also find Wondrich’s imbibing wisdom in Esquire Magazine and several other books on both music and drinking.

Punch is also social tipple by nature. Have you ever wondered why the cups that come with punch bowl sets are so small? That’s because the small servings were meant to bring people back to the punch bowl for another pour and some good conversation. What better time of the year to channel that sensibility than during the Christmas and New Year holidays?

What I am going to do is take a couple different recipes for a test drive to experience them for myself and pick one to serve at my upcoming holiday open house.

The first one I selected is The Fatal Bowl which was published in Esquire Magazine in December 2007 just into time for Christmas that year.

This take on punch uses brewed black tea which was quite common during the heyday of punch.

The Fatal Bowl

4 lemons

1 cup demerara sugar

4 tea bags

1 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice, strained

2 1/2 cups cognac

1 1/2 cups dark rum

Fresh nutmeg

The instructions for this recipe start off with direction to prepare your ice for your punch bowl, by freezing a large bowl of water, ahead of time. This step shouldn’t be skipped and assuming you can substitute ice cubes instead will produce an undesirable result, watered down punch. I plan to use several large plastic bowls to prepare blocks of ice a day ahead of time.

Using a vegetable peeler thinly peel the lemons avoiding as much of the pith as possible. Reserve the lemons. Place the peels in a large heat-proof bowl. Add the sugar and muddle the sugar and lemons together to release the lemon oils and blend them with the sugar.

Boil one quart of water and use it to steep the tea bags for five minutes. Remove the tea bags and pour the tea over the lemon peels and sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Add lemon juice, cognac and rum. Stir well to mix. Place in the refrigerator to cool for a couple of hours.

( That's what it looked like before putting it in the fridge. )

To serve your punch, assemble your block ice in your punch bowl, pour over the punch and grate the nutmeg on the top. Allow guests to dish their punch into small glasses with a punch ladle. Hang out near the punch bowl for all the holiday gossip.

To take this recipe for a test drive I cut all the ingredients down to ¼ of the full recipe. This will net somewhere around twenty ounces of finished punch, enough to sample and share before we commit to the whole hog.

The tea makes this drink for me. The complexity of each sip goes way beyond many modern day cocktails and the sweetness is firmly in check with the sour. The more I go back in time and try drinks of the days past the more I realize how much knowledge is rolled into the simplicity of many of them.

In cocktail terms I would liken this drink to a less sweet mashup of a Manhattan and a Side Car.

“Is there alcohol in this?” was Margot’s initial response. She also said that this is what she always thought scotch should taste like. The naked edge of a spirit like scotch is no match for the smooth, sweetness of this drink.

My second pilot punch comes from the Wondrich’s book Punch and is simply called Canadian Punch.

Canadian Punch

4 750ml bottles rye whiskey (19^th century Canadian whiskey was rye based)

1 pint Jamaican rum

8 lemons, sliced

1 pineapple, sliced

3 ½ quarts of water

1 ½ cups white sugar, additional to taste

Ice

Don’t forget to prepare your ice. See above.

In a large container place the sliced lemon & pineapple with the whiskey and rum. Allow to infuse for six hours. Don’t squeeze the lemons or pineapple.

Dissolve the sugar in three quarts of the water. You can heat the water slightly to ease this process, but allow it to cool if you do.

Combine the spirits & fruit with the sugar water, remaining water and refrigerate for several hours.

Serve in a punch bowl, fruit and all, with block ice.

You’ll notice there is no added spice in this recipe. The spice compliment should come from the rye whiskey, a key difference between rye and some other forms of whiskey. I also altered the recipe presented here to incorporate the information in a note from the book about additional citrus and increasing the amount of rye when using standard proof alcohol. If you have cask strength rye you will want to decrease by one bottle of whiskey and substitute three cups of water in its place.

This is a pretty big recipe so I cut it down by 1/8^th for a pilot batch. That still makes about one quart of punch to test drive. This is very difficult work!

This drink can’t hide the alcohol and that makes it less universal to me. It tastes pretty good, but is unbalanced and comes on too strong. Margot took one sip and passed it back to me. I don’t feel the influence of the citrus and fruit comes across well at all. Squeezing the lemons into the punch liquid and chopping up the pineapple right before serving might be a worthy procedural change here.

I’m also going to try an add some spiced simple syrup to what I have left over and see if that takes the edge of it and brings it back to a more enjoyable place. (Post publishing note: pineapple juice and the spiced syrup to taste after a good mix. It taste tropical!)

The winner was the The Fatal Bowl, and that was even before we tasted the Canadian Punch. It really is that good. I was worried that these drinks would both channel the spirits too much, like the Canadian Punch, and that Margot’s perception of them would worry me about serving them to a wide range of drinkers. With that fear set aside I sure hope a little history and some socializing around the punch bowl resonates with my friends on Saturday. If not, there will be plenty of punch for Margot and me to drink while we clean up from the holiday whirlwind!

Cheers!

Jason

Godiva Coffee Livens Up Your Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:29:00 +0000

Godiva coffee was a new product for me this year. I’ve had the chance to try it several times both through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and at the Foodbuzz Festival. Thank you to Godiva and Foodbuzz!

My first tastes came during my Godiva Coffee Cocktail experiments with the limited edition flavors Pumpkin Spice and Caramel Pecan Bark. Living in New England I come across pumpkin flavored coffee quite a bit and my experience is that it can be a really tough flavor to channel well into coffee. Godiva has done a nice job of balancing the pumpkin and spice flavors with the underlying coffee elements, making it smooth and drinkable without being overpowering. The Caramel Pecan Bark wins this race on aroma. The kitchen smelled so good, like we were baking cookies and making chocolates, when I first brewed it and I saw the bottom of the empty bag of this flavor first!

While I write this I’m enjoying a cup of Godiva Hazelnut Crème Coffee, one of the samples I picked up at the tasting pavilion during the Foodbuzz Festival. The hazelnut flavor is very accessible and the underlying coffee is again rich and flavorful. I’ve already taken down about half the mug and am feeling pretty perky for a morning I was moving a bit slow to start with. I wonder how jacked up the folks in the Godiva Coffee test kitchens got while testing out the flavoring to get them just right!

The farewell brunch at the Foodbuzz Festival was sponsored by Godiva Coffee and they served the unflavored Breakfast Blend. Again I was struck by the richness of the coffee. Without any added flavor I was really able to experience the roasted flavors and didn’t detect and harsh or sharp elements that might otherwise be masked in its flavored siblings. It was clearly brewed well, the secret to making sure any coffee has a chance to please, and when prepared with my typical amount of cream and sugar it remained bold and flavorful. Bravo! As I and other festival-goers assembled at the table I mentioned the coffee and how happy it was making me. Everyone else who chimed in was equally complimentary to the coffee, also mentioning the rich, bold flavors and that the coffee was a noticeable and happy departure from everyday restaurant coffee.

Now that I’ve got you all jonesing for a cup of coffee I guess I should try to rescue you. Two lucky blog readers are going to win a Godiva swag pack that includes:

A full sized bag of Godiva coffee
Sampler pack of flavored coffees
Godiva apron

The apron will come in especially handy to keep your holiday cooking messes off your favorite holiday sweater! Sorry, I had to. For the record I don’t wear a holiday sweater, but I do don an apron to keep myself presentable when entertaining and cooking at the same time.

So how do you get a chance to win? Visit the Godiva Coffee website to take a look their collection. Then come back here and leave a comment with how you would incorporate Godiva Coffee into your holidays. Would the Peppermint Mocha make your special holiday traditions even more special or will you put on your mad scientist lab coat and use a different flavor in the recipe for a new holiday treat? Any way you spin it, you and everyone you share the coffee with will be smiling.

Rules

You must leave a comment on this post to be entered to win
You must be a US resident to win
The drawing ends on Friday December 16^th at 8 PM EST
The winner will picked randomly using random.org

If you just can’t wait to try Godiva Coffee click here todownload a coupon and use the Store Locator to find a retail location near you. Everybody wins!

Cheers!

Jason

Stovetop Paella with Tapena Tempranillo

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:31:00 +0000

Making Paella is a time and labor intensive endeavor. A labor of love if you will. Lacking a desire to expend either in pursuit of a dish of paella means you should find the nearest Spanish or Latin restaurant and have them take care of it for you. I wanted to try making it for myself. The recipe and cooking instructions for my paella can be found at the bottom of this post.

What I’ve done here is an approximation of paella in a classic sense for several reasons. I don’t own a paella pan, I cooked it entirely on the stove top versus finishing it in the oven and I’m not Spanish. Such trivial things never stop me, but after looking at lots of different recipes and the background on the dish, and there’s lots to be found by the way, it seems like a fair disclaimer to make.

I also wanted to try the pairing of paella with the Tapena Tempranillo a wine that is included in the Tapena Wines Party Pack I am giving away this week. Read a bit further for details on how you can enter to win wine, a recipe book, corkscrew and wine charms from Tapena Wines.

As my paella cooked I uncorked the wine and gave it a taste. The wine pours a garnet color with purple hues. It is fruit forward projecting raspberries and cherries with no overt funk or earth in the nose. I did pick up some vanilla aromas and light oak influence as well. To me the wine comes off juicy up front shifting to moderate tannins that dry out the mouth a bit and noticeable acidity through the finish. On its own the wine is smooth and drinkable without any aggressive elements requiring close inspection. Tapena positions its wines as what I typically call lifestyle wines, evidenced by the many references to Spanish culture, food pairing and the social aspects of wine drinking on their web site. With that in mind I think this wine fits that mold very well. Margot’s take on the wine was this it was a youthful, drinkable wine without some of the overpowering characteristics (tannins, earthy notes) she generally avoids drinking red wine because of.

Back to the paella. As you will note from the recipes below I had to cook before I could cook. From start to finish I spent at least two hours in the kitchen. One of the key ingredients to paella, and many other Spanish dishes as I understand it, is sofrito. Sofrito is a slow cooked mixture of garlic, onion, green pepper, tomato and paprika. The big takeaway from cooking the sofrito was the aromas. I am sure I have smelled them before, but I have no recollection of specifically where.

Would you like to win some Spanish wine from Tapena Wines? You must be 21 or older to enter. Leave a comment here with a Spanish wine & food pairing question for a chance to win. If you missed your first chance to enter click over to Win a Spanish Wine Pack from Tapena Wines and comment on how you would entertain with the party pack if you win.

Having never made paella before I can’t really say how well it came out. It was tasty though. The rice was cooked to the right texture and the meats & seafood were flavorful meaning they had had enough time to soak up the spices from the dish. And my wife and I scarfed down our helpings.

How did the wine pair with the paella? The wine didn’t overwhelm the food. While that might seem like a veiled concern, balance is key in wine & food pairing so when the wine plays nice overall it’s a good start. I don’t feel like the wine accentuated the dish in any specific way, but its attributes were in balance with the paella and a measure of earthiness did come out with the bites of chicken, sausage paired with the wine. Nice.

What I am sure of after this experience is that I need to make paella several more times trying different recipes and styles. I saw recipes with all meat, all fish, the combination similar to what I did here, big vegetable presentations and an array of spice levels. With a better sense of what is possible and improved technique I am sure I could take this dish to the right place. I also need to try different wine pairings with Spanish wine. Wine clearly has a special place in Spanish culture and learning more about how it works with different foods is an exciting opportunity.

Leave a comment with a Spanish wine pairing question for a chance to win the Spanish Wine Party Pack from Tapena Wines. The drawing ends at noon on Wednesday December 7^th, and the winner will be chosen randomly, so don’t miss your chance! Follow Tapena Wines on Twitter and Likethem on Facebook for updates on Spanish wine & , information on their Rewards Program and lots of food pairing ideas for their wines!

Cheers!

Jason

{ Recipes }

Sofrito

1 can crushed tomatoes (28-29 oz)

1 large Cubanelle pepper

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

olive oil

1 tsp paprika (not smoked)

salt and pepper to taste

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Chop the pepper into 1/4" (or smaller) pieces. Heat a large frying pan with a heavy bottom over medium heat. Pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Put the onions into the pan and sauté them until they are transparent, reducing the heat if necessary so as not to burn them. Add the green pepper and continue to cook for 5 minutes, adding olive oil if necessary. Be sure to stir often, to vegetables do not burn. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 1 minute more. Pour the crushed tomatoes and paprika into the pan and mix well. Continue to cook for about 10-15 minutes.

Paella

2 cups Basmati rice

4 tablespoons Sofrito

1/4 + 1 Tbsp cup olive oil

5 cups vegetable stock

1 teaspoon saffron

2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp salt

2 lbs boneless chicken thighs

¾ lb ground pork sausage

20 large shrimp, tail on

16 Steamer clams

1 sweet red pepper, cut to strips;

1 cup frozen green beans

Lemon wedges

Salt and pepper to taste

Take 1 Tbsp parsely, 2 cloves garlic, 1 Tbsp oil & salt mash into paste.

Use a wok to steam the mussel and keep ready for use; Clean the wok

Warm the vegetable stock over medium heat, add the saffron, stir well, keep warm

Using a large fry pan reheat the Sofrito over medium high heat, stirring constantly to prevent it from sticking to the bottom. Add parsley, garlic, oil emulsion, mix well. Add the chicken thigh and cook until slightly browned. Add the rice, stir thoroughly to make sure that the dry rice are sauteed well in the Sofrito;

In the wok heat the olive oil and sautee the pork sausage (chunks) and chicken thigh on medium-high heat until no pink is visible. Add the green beans & red pepper, stir.

Add the Sofrito, chicken and rice mixture to the wok. Continue to stir.

Meanwhile, bring the stock back to the boil, pour over the mixture and distribute over the mixture in the wok. Bring to a simmer, cover and simmer 8-10 minutes, mixing occasionally.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Arrange the prawns on top of the mix; Stick the mussels halfway into the mix. Cover and simmer another 8-10 minutes

Garnish with parsely and serve with the lemon.

Ten Imbibing Ideas for the Holiday Season

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 17:09:00 +0000

Looking for some inspiration for your holiday imbibing? Whoops, how did you end up here? I kid.

This is the season when nostalgia grabs everyone and the occasions to get together with family and friends fill the calendar. Entertaining family and friends can be a challenge any time of year, but with the expectations heaped on gatherings during the holidays it’s no wonder there are so many search hits for “holiday horror stories”! We all have them.

A few years ago Margot and I vacationed to Orlando with friends early in the month of November. The Disney Parks were already decorated for Christmas and after a bit of exposure to the music and decorations our conversations inevitably turned to the upcoming holidays and stories of celebrations past. Many laughs ensued! On one of the car rides to Universal Studios, also decked out for Christmas, we spotted a sign hanging above the door of a liquor store that read “Family gatherings go quicker with liquor!” The wisdom of the person who posted those words can’t be understated. Don’t believe me? Another example comes late in the move National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Clark’s father tells him that he got through the holidays with a lot of help from his friend Jack Daniels. Raise your hand if you can relate.

So get your family & friends together and drink up!

You are going to do it anyway and bringing fresh imbibing ideas to this year’s gatherings is a sure way to guarantee at least some of the conversation won’t be about whose back hurts worse or who gets the best parking spot in front of the house.

Ten Ideas for Holiday Imbibing

Serve punch. And I mean a classic punch from the era that birthed it. Recipes in David Wondrich’s book Punch and in his column at Esquire Magazine are the place to go. This cognac-based holiday punch recipe, The Fatal Bowl, from 2007 is a great example of what I mean. Classic punch is not a contemporary cocktail in a bowl, something many of us know all too well…
Make simple syrup for simplified cocktail construction. Straight up simple syrup is used in lots of drinks and flavored or spiced versions can help take your mixology in many exciting directions. Check out this NY Times article for cocktail ideas and a recipe for simple syrup.
Use sugar and spices to create fun flavors to rim glasses with. Crush up candy canes to rim hot chocolate and spiked coffee mugs. A brown sugar and spiced rim on a Sazerac or a Manhattan takes those drinks for a holiday spin.
For cocktail occasions use drink recipes that can be made ahead of time and served out of a pitcher. As the host you can end up spending so much time serving guests that you don’t have fun. Easy drinks mean more conversation! Food & Wine magazine has a slideshow and recipes for several different pitcher drinks, including several with holiday flavors.
Take a trip around the world. Assemble a collection of wines and beers from different places around the world. Curiosity about new products and where they come from always creates interesting conversation.
Make everything sparkle. Host a sparkling only party. Serve Champagne, sparkling wine, hard cider and beers known for considerable carbonation for an all sparkling affair. Some examples of the beers that would work in this way include Saisons, Sam Adams Infinium or the Weiss beers from Weihenstephaner.
Host a blind tasting. Entertainment experts often recommend having an activity at parties to help provide a little bit of structure. Hosting a blind tasting of wines can get everyone talking about what they are smelling and tasting, and the type and origin of the drinks. Wines, beers, meads and ciders can all be tasted blind to add even more fun
Drink local. The local small batch production of wines, beers, ciders, meads and spirits is increasing within communities in every region. Stock your holiday bar with products made nearby to celebrate the season. Better yet, make some of your own to share!
Give a toast. Pick a drink that you are particularly excited about this season and put a short pour into all the willing glasses. Assemble your guests and thank them for joining you to celebrate the shared traditions for yet another year. This is a moment everyone will remember after the rest of the holiday crush fades.
Play a holiday drinking game. This idea is for those less formal parties. Many holiday movies, especially the cartoons, are parables of good and evil. Split the assembled group up into two teams and the each team drinks when their side is mentioned by the narrator of the holiday classic you select. How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an excellent example. Are you rooting for the Whos or the Grinch?

( The holiday beer lineup from 2010. )

A few other thoughts must be stated as a public service. Don’t say I never gave you anything!

These tips will enhance everyone’s holiday imbibing.

Drink more water. Citrus infused waters taste good and hydrate well.
Don’t drink and drive. It’s bad for you, bad for me and it sticks with you. Don’t do it.
Drink freely, and for whatever reason, but watch the words that come out of your mouth. That’s where the real trouble is.
Store leftover wine in rinsed out beer bottles with reusable stoppers. Keeping the air out will ensure you can serve the leftovers within a couple of days without a loss of drinkability.
Give wine & beer as gifts. Nothing says “I completely understand” better to a host than something to drink when you’ve annoyed the shit out of them!

With the season in full gear I hope I’ve helped stir some creativity for your holiday imbibing, hosting or whatever it is you plan to do to celebrate for another year. Try something new this year and watch how it makes your holiday gatherings much more than the usual.

Cheers!

Jason

Last year's holiday entertaining series

Holiday Wine Advice
Holiday Pies
Holiday Beer Talk
Holiday Entertaining

My Thanksgiving in Three Acts

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:51:00 +0000

Filling the House with Smoke

Well, not literally. I can only imagine the crazy ideas you all just had about what went down at my Thanksgiving. I smoked a turkey. And that’s not anything new. But this time it came out damn good, my best ever. And it filled the house full of aromas of smoked meat goodness.

( The smell was so rich and deep. )

We also roasted a turkey and served both with the usual sides including, homemade cranberry sauce, a root vegetable gratin that wouldn’t be good until it was reheated three days later, mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, carrots, stuffing, bread and of course gravy.

Thanksgiving Day was all about laughs and good food. No fuss was made of wine pairings and we finished off the Saisons from the prior day before dinner was even served.

We finished the day with board games and homemade pie.

Say Hello to My Little Mojo

On Friday my parents came to visit for the holiday. I had planned a non-traditional menu for dinner to avoid any boredom with the typical post-Turkey Day fare. One of the dishes I made, they were all small bites/portions, was a Cuban Sandwich on a lettuce leaf instead of bread.

Several key elements came together for this plate to have made the impact it did. First, bone-in pork chops marinated in an orange mojo overnight and then slow cooked. Take a look at this little mojo.

Orange Mojo Marinade

¼ cup fresh squeezed OJ

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp lime juice

Peel of 1 orange

2 large garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 Tbsp annatto soaked oil

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp ground cumin

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Mix and pour over pork in a container than can be sealed and refrigerated overnight. Agitate several times during the marinating.

The cooked pork was topped with thick cut bacon that had been baked with melted brown sugar and Dijon mustard on it. The bacon alone was immensely flavorful and had a good spicy bite. I melted Gruyere over the two meats and then placed all of that on top of the lettuce leaf, pickle and a small amount of Dijon mustard. My take on a Cuban sandwich. Everyone said it was the best of the four courses I served.

( Not the best shot, but the best one I got! )

For the first course I served fish croquettes I made following my friend Kelly at The Pink Apron’s recipe. I deep fried them, I would normally use the oven, and served them hot, and with the dijonaise. Wow! Lots of flavor and the fish was cooked just right. The ones in the freezer won’t stand a chance at a party real soon!

I paired wine with each course, finding the Westport RiversSparkling Wine to be a keen match for the croquettes. I used the remainder of it to make several cocktails two days later with no loss of carbonation or flavor. Other wines from my own collection and my trip to Virginia were tasted with several courses.

I served an intermezzo course of grilled butternut squash & pineapple topped with Meyer lemon curd crème fraiche. I followed that with dinner consisting of slow cooked Asian style BBQ lamb, creamed corn muffin and an Asian-inspired slaw. I’ll save more on those dishes for another day.

If the Muppets Can’t Make You Smile, You’re Dead

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. I made three batches of mead on Saturday morning, look for notes on that project at WineMaker Magazine’s web site real soon, and we rung in the holidays with friends Ed & Jim and their house full of guests in the afternoon.

For the party on Saturday I made a beer & cheese bread dip that surprisingly pleased more people and went more quickly than I had expected. It was pretty simple actually. Sadly I forgot to get a picture.

Beer & Cheese Dip

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese

¼ cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tsp dried sage

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup beer (I used Shipyard Pumpkinhead)

1 large round loaf of bread

1 loaf of bread, similar type to above

Place all the ingredients, except the beer & bread in the Cuisinart and mix well. Slowly add the beer and mix until smooth. Refrigerate overnight.

Cut a cone out of the center of the round loaf of bread, much like taking the top off a pumpkin. Cube the removed bread and the additional load of bread. Using a spatula place the dip in the bread bowl and serve the bowl and the bread for dipping on a large platter.

We checked out the new Muppet movie on Sunday and spent a couple hours laughing over our shared Muppet memories. Margot and I both grew up watching the Muppets and we pondered over the self-reflection and contemporary relevance questions raised by the movie. We would still watch the Muppets now, it wasn’t exclusively for kids in the beginning, but over time I think the perception of the show and the movies has seen them relegated to the big pile of kid’s shows out there. Who knows, maybe this movie can reverse that trend.We laughed a lot and think most people our age could relate.

Fini

Thanksgiving is what you make it and clearly we made something of this one! The leftovers have been parlayed into nearly a week of different meals with a bacon and pineapple pizza making an appearance tonight.

We finished the weekend with a late day walk up to the old cemetery. The big, gnarly and leafless sugar maples set against the fleeting sun were a sure sign of where we are in the year, the weather notwithstanding!

I hope you enjoyed time with family and friends this Thanksgiving, and I wish you even more good times for the remainder of the holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Cheers!

Jason

Don't forget to enter to win a Spanish Wine Party Pack at http://ancientfirewineblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/wine-spanish-wine-party-pack-from.html

Win a Spanish Wine Party Pack from Tapeña Wines & the Ancient Fire Wine Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:44:00 +0000

The Ancient Fire Wine Blog is teaming up with Tapeña Wines to give away a Spanish Wine Party Pack to one lucky reader. The Party Pack includes wine, charms, a corkscrew and other goodies. How exiciting!

Tapeña Wines is a new take on Spanish wine combining socializing, food and Spanish style to create a line of wines that are valued priced and ready to drink. Tapeña produces four styles of wine covering wine lovers of many stripes with Tempranillo, Garnacha, Verdejo and Rose. I know I’ve had the Tapeña Temrapnillo in the past, but sadly I can’t recall my impressions. My take on reading the producer notes is that the wines are dry with a focus on balance and long, clean finishes.

With food and entertaining in mind the Tapeña Wines blog contains weekly updates of recipes, pairing ideas and style tips. While Tapas is one of the inspirations for the wines, many dishes can be successfully paired with them, and specifically a range of seafood dishes. Recent Thanksgiving themed posts are a peek into the breadth of Spanish wines when pairing them with food.

So how is this giveaway going to work? Your first chance to win will be accepted with the following actions:

Follow @tapenawine and @ancientfirewine on Twitter (if you don't use Twitter don't worry)
Like Tapeña Wines and the Ancient Fire Wine Blog on Facebook (same here)
Leave a comment here with how you would entertain with a Tapeña Wines Party Pack.
The winner will be selected randomly from the valid entries.
The comment and Follow/Like period for the giveaway will be open until 12:00 PM EST December 7^th.
Must be 21 years or older to enter, and that by entering you verify you are over 21
Apologies to my readers outside the U.S. but you must also be a legal U.S. citizen to be eligible to win

Next week I will be posting a Spanish Wine pairing of my own matching Paella and the Tapeña Tempranillo. A second chance to enter the giveaway will be available via a comment on that post with your Spanish wine pairing questions.

Thank you to Tapeña Wines for the great party pack giveaway. Like Tapena Wines on Facebook and enter to wine an Ibiza trip for two!

Locate Tapeña Wines at your local wine shops using the Retail Locator at the Tapeña web site.

Don’t forget to follow @tapenawines on Twitter to get frequent updates on expressing your Spanish wine style with Tapeña Wines.

Cheers!

Jason

Saisons for the Season

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:24:00 +0000

This isn’t a Thanksgiving (or even a Christmas) food & beverage pairing post. The title is catchy. I thought of it and decided to write a post reviewing several saisons that I would drink while cooking and hanging out on Thanksgiving Day. When I wrote this I didn’t even know yet what I would break out to drink with the multiple dinners for the upcoming holiday. On Thanksgiving day we did open up some homemade wine, but beers of several varieties won the day. I was hosting a beer drinking crowd so this was not surprising. The day after I served a menu of small plates, not themed for Thanksgiving, each with its own wine pairing. That’s for another post though.

My other reason for lining up a flight of saisons is that I plan to make a sour cherry saison this winter that will be done in time to celebrate Spring and Summer with. For that project I need some inspiration from commercially available examples. My life is hard!

What is a saison? First off saison is the French word for season. This style of beer hails from Wallonia in Belgium, and a French speaking part of that country to bring it all together. Brewed as farmhouse ales, saisons were originally brewed seasonally in the fall or winter for consumption by farm workers during the next planting and harvest seasons. During that time sources of potable water were few and brewed beer was safe to drink, contained some nutrition and was hydrating. Low alcohol levels in the original brews would have staved off outright drunkenness. Just a few historical facts that take us back to the beginnings of beer. Back to saisons however. Variations were available from many different brewers making the style somewhat broad to define. Modern day versions cover a broad range creating some excitement when trying new ones.

Saisons were historically brewed as pale ales and likely with a low ABV of around 3%. Strong hop character was a foregone conclusion based on the need to cellar the beers for quite some time without the aid of refrigeration. The preservative qualities of hops and considerable acidity (sometimes through blending with lambics and prior year saisons) ensured the beer didn’t spoil. Most modern-day saisons are typically cloudy, golden in color with an off-white head. The nose will vary between different saisons, with a range of fruity, spicy, earthy/funky and yeasty often having moderate tartness and bitterness as well. Darker versions are common enough (called biere de garde in France) to be notable. Likewise some versions will have a perceptibly sweet, rich and malty finish.

Saisons are typically sold in large format bottles, 22oz bombers, often with a cork and wire harness much like sparkling wine and champagne. Most are bottle conditioned and some labels will suggest what you should or shouldn’t do with the bottle sediment to ensure a good drink. Bottle conditioning also adds variation, with the level of charge and size of the bubbles of different labels to span a range.

Names of several highly rated commercial versions of saisons include Dupont, Hennepin, Sofie and Jack D’or, all of which we will taste and review here. I also have the Ovila Saison, a new product from a partnership between Sierra Nevada and Abbey of New Clairvaux, to try alongside the others. Selections from Fantome and The Bruery are on my list to search for to taste another day.

Saison Dupont

Pours a gold/orange color. Tall white head. Considerable sour and savory notes, herbs, drying grass, etc. in the nose. Sour citrus in the mouth followed by tart stone fruits. Dry with moderate funkiness towards the finish. Very effervescent, mouth filling in fact. Very smooth finish and a well balanced disposition. I’ve only had this a few other times and couldn’t recall them well enough to compare. The smooth finish increases the likelihood I would drink this anytime I found it. web site

Pretty Things Jack D’or

Big funky nose. Short white head. I found hay, herbs, unripe fruits and spices. Margot said herbaceous and I can’t disagree with that at all. Pours gold and unfiltered. I picked up quite a bit of citrus in the nose and sour notes. Margot thought it came off as very hoppy which is consistent with my expressions of the nose. Mouth filling carbonation is a note we both made. I found the mouth to be considerably full with light malts and grains, almost like a golden ale. The hops came on big for me in the flavors with many green elements like grass, herbs, spruce and bitter greens. The finish is clean, albeit more bitter than we liked. web site

Goose Island Sofie

Pours yellow/gold and hazy. Tall white head. The complexity of the nose caught my attention right away. The fullness of the sour, fruit, yeast and malt notes in the nose was surprising. As you sip earthy notes show up very early and slip away in favor of dried fruits and citrus. The finish was like sour lemon candy. Margot felt it was more complex, very balanced and finished smooth. This was the most drinkable and the mutual favorite for both of us and one we hope to enjoy again very soon. web site

Ovila Saison

Pours orange/gold with a medium off-white head. Moderate sour notes to the nose, hints of green apple. Full bodied and fruit with a dry finish. Hops are present in the nose and mouth, but not very big. Not as complex as the others, aromas and flavors are not very deep is how Margot described it. web site

Ommegang Hennepin

Pours hazy and gold. Short white head. I picked up some salinity in the otherwise sour nose. This beer is malty and grainy in the mouth with considerable prickly carbonation. Citrus and tart unripe fruits were the predominant flavors. The finish was very clean and smooth. I ended up rushing through this tasting and I didn’t get back to my notes when I shared the rest of the bottle with friends the next day. web site

Like with a lot of foodstuffs you have to want to like something to enjoy it. If you try saison and don’t like the style I won’t argue the point. Beverages of all kinds are designed to accentuate several key tastes, sour and bitter here specifically, and that coupled with textural elements like bubbles and tannins in beers, wines and spirits, create a lot of action for your palate. Any one off presentation and it could be the end of any enjoyment. Adventure does come with a cost. I love finding new beverages that channel their attributes in that way that I must pause and consider the tweaking of my senses that is going on. I don’t like everything I drink, the experience notwithstanding.

I was in the Boston Wine Exchange on Tuesday picking up the last of the saisons for our lineup. One of the staff was picking some fall beers to put in a holiday display. She asked what I was drinking and whether it was for Thanksgiving. I mentioned that I was picking up some saison or “beer drinkers Champagne” to take for a test drive. I didn’t commit to it being my Turkey Day pairing choice because in this case most of it will be gone before dinner!

With the moderate (or higher) carbonation, healthy acidity and range of flavors saisons are a solid utility player when it comes to entertaining, supporting both socializing and enjoyable eating. Having an all-sparkling-beverage party is a lot easier to envision when you consider beers such as saison. As an aside, dry sparkling cider adds yet another option increasing that potential further still. I’ll leave you with that thought as you ponder what to serve to your family and friends this holiday season.

Cheers!

Jason

Blogging to Remember

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:24:00 +0000

In March of this year I posted a review of several samples from Crispin Cider that I had received. One in particular, The Saint, caught my attention then and inspired me to create something similarly influenced at home. Having posted the review on my blog I am able to go back and consider what I recall experiencing about the cider, and what I shared with readers. Here's what I wrote in March:

The Saint Artisanal Reserve

Pale, almost cream colored & unfiltered.
Smells like sweet cider & spices.
6.9% ABV
Tartness in the finish.
Yeasty, with spicy sweet bread flavors.

The flavor combination reminded me of the warm apple gallete w/ caramel sauce and bourbon cream glaze I had over Christmas.

This is one that I would stock at home and could have a good deal of fun with in different pairing scenarios. Dessert pairings are the first to spring to mind, but I also think a roast pork tenderloin would make for a good match as well.
{end}

The marketing sheet for The Saint at Crispin's web site reads like a dream. It speaks of floral, yeasty and herbal notes in the nose and a silky mouthfeel. I recall telling Margot than I couldn't quite identify the savory element to the cider, something earthy and likely from the maple syrup. I didn't note that, and I'm not sure why.

For my own version of this beverage I used local New Hampshire syrup from Ben's Sugar Shack and cider from a Sunnycrest Farm in town.The Belgian Trappist High Gravity beer yeast was something familiar from my homebrew projects. The fermentation proceeded slowly and the aromas the few times I checked were sweet and spicy creating lots of hope for the final product. As it reached the end of fermentation I was able to detect the richness of the syrup in the mouth with now subtle hints of sweet spices, a transition I was hoping for. The nose is bready and yeasty. The cider stayed just this side of dry imparting a slight amount of fruitiness as well. Not bad. I've got some time yet before I can taste it absent of the influences of the lees and trapped CO2, but I'm happy so far with the direction the drink is going in.

( This shot is of fermenting cider, in the outer ring, from 2009. )

Read, Cider Free or Die, for highlights from the brew club cider buy and what's brewing this year.

In my review above I also mention food pairings. One of the things I liked the most about Crispin's web site when I was visiting to get to know their products was their section on Food Pairings. Several types of information from recipes, pairing suggestions to entire cider dinner menus are available at their site. Lots of really great ideas after you've read about their products, found them at the local store and now want to get your drink on.

I've no doubt paired cider with food hundreds of times, and quite a few with real intent because it was the best match to be had. I've used it in sauces, dressings and drinks.The acidity and gentle fruitiness of ciders has them playing in with similarly structured white wines like Soave or dry Seyval Blanc.If the cider is flavored or otherwise brewed with specialty ingredients it is wise to take those into a account for any pairings.

In the pairing suggestion from my review I mention roast pork. An herbed roast pork is going to have big flavor on the outside with soft white flesh inside. The acidity of cider would help focus and refine the herbs and the earthy character from the syrup and beer yeast will impart a rustic feel to the bite. I'm hungry now. I was looking around for a picture of an herb encrusted pork loin from my own kitchen and came up with nothing. Now I'm really hungry!

Sparkling ciders in particular offer a familiar experience, with the best versions being dry, tart and a bit yeasty much like small lot Champagne. Artisinal ciders made from heirloom apples and fermented dry can be mistaken for unique French sparklers. Sparkling beverages have a food pairing advantage in just that one difference, they are sparkling. The crispness and effervescence is palate cleansing.Whether it is with fried foods as snacks, roast turkey & gravy, Helene's pork stuffing, baked root vegetables, mashed potatoes or just some cheese can crackers, who is going to turn down some bubbly?

Taking this stroll back through the review and the homebrew project it inspired was fun.I'm definitely looking
forward to breaking out cider over the long weekend to while away time with family and friends with. I expect lots of cheering, yelling or otherwise laughing at the TV over some cider on Turkey Day. I've also got a new bottle of Scotch to try with my dad, but that's a review for another time.

Cheers!

Jason

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

F*%K Nouveau!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 13:47:00 +0000

F*%K Nouveau! Whoops, somebody pissed in the pool, everybody out! Nope, I’m not gonna let that happen.

Nouveau Day 2011 (Twitter: #NouveauDay), the celebration of the current year’s Beaujolais Nouveau harvest & wine, saw the critics, the supporters and the revelers mixing it up pretty good. I heard and read points all over and on both sides of the love it or hate it question when it comes to Beaujolais Nouveau. I appreciate everyone’s position on the wine and the marketing party around it. I enjoyed the hang out because, and not in spite of all of it. And no, nobody has to tone it down. You have a right to your opinion and I say sing it proud.

I try at least one Beaujolais Nouveau each year just in case I find one that for a short while might be drinking well enough to enjoy a bottle or two. That hasn’t happened but twice (2005 and 2009) in the ten years I have been tasting it, but there is so much variability in the world’s wines why punish this wine excessively for the same potential?

So far I have only tasted the Duboeuf art covered bottle and didn’t find it notable. The label is again a feast of orange and yellow, a trend of the last couple of years. During the live tweeting last night I didn’t get many responses to anyone drinking other labels so I couldn’t gauge whether there were others that would be worth a few bucks this year. The producer Bouchard Aine & Fils came up several times and I might seek that one out. If anyone reading had it please leave some thoughts in a comment.

The Duboeuf is intensely purple as expected. I was showing my friends at the Salon I go to (haircut during happy hour) what the wine looked like up against a piece of white paper. The lesson about that being a dead giveaway for a very young wine that might be super fruity wasn’t lost on a couple people.

The juicy fruit and candy like aromas were pleasant and consistent with the style. The wine was low in fine tannins providing little structure for the wine. Again, consistent with the majority of the years I am familiar with. The tannins of the 2009 and 2003 Nouveau’s were somewhat bigger and led to a more complete experience for me.

The wine is moderately full in the mouth and finishes a bit sour. Not quite balanced from nose to tail. There isn’t anything flawed about the wine, it’s just that it can’t have the finesse of most other wines with the short time frame for production. It is a great example of being what something is going to be.

I broke out a bottle of the Duboeuf 2009 Julienas during the TweetChat and compared the two. I participated in Burgers & Beaujolais with friends earlier in the year where we shared a flight of Cru Beaujolais. A selection from Julienas was tasting pretty good during that event and I was happy to have an extra of a different bottle from that region laying around.

Yes there is nothing fair in this, comparing a Cru from a good year to the Nouveau, but experience is king and tasting them side by side and contrasting the differences in wine from same grape is instructive.

So the Duboeuf 2009 Julienas is ruby colored wine with purple tendencies and medium concentration. The nose is lively with fruit, some funky earth and a bit of oak. It is a dry, a more earthy than fruity wine in the mouth, with a long dry finish. I picked up strawberries in the finish. The tannins are reserved and structurally sound. The wine has a well balanced acidity and is pleasant to drink on its own. The distinctions of this wine or my favorite Beaujolais’s from Saint-Amour are clear. I prefer my Beaujolais to have the time to come into its own and a little finesse with age.

Beaujolais and Thanksgiving get asked about all the time. The timing of the release is certainly no coincidence. Here is a link to my first blog post about the relationship between the two, entitled Food & WinePairing #1 from Thanksgiving 2008. I don’t find Beaujolais to be a universal hit as a food pairing wine, but in good years like 2005 and 2009 I can see how it doesn’t take away from the food on your Thanksgiving table and thus isn’t memorable for having messed up your holiday!

Continuing the Thanksgiving tangent for a second. In that same post I also make an interesting assertion that there is a new domestic wine revolution going on with hybrid and cold-weather hardy grapes and how those wines make for better holiday pairing in my opinion. With three years of wine travel and tasting experience since writing those words I would say I was on to something. Many areas of the country are springing to prominence for their local, and not “California style”, wines made from lesser known grapes. I have paired wines made from those grapes grown here in New England with holiday meals several times with considerable success.

Do you Nouveau? The date has come and gone and over the next few weeks more wines will arrive for quick consumption. The new year’s Nouveau is worth checking out for the experience and also to get people riled up about wine. Sometimes that’s the only reason I keep doing this…

Cheers!

Jason

Drinking Local – A Regional Selection from Hunt Country Vineyards

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:27:00 +0000

Not long after I came back from my first trip to the Finger Lakes I got to Tweeting away with Andy at Hunt Country Vineyards. I had not visited Hunt Country, we weren't acquainted yet, during that trip and with so many wineries to choose from I could only be so worried that I would miss someone. The bigger worry would be that I didn't get back there soon. Fear not, we return in February and June next year!

Andy sent me sample wines to try, thank you, which added more fodder to the fire that is the tastings and pairings I want to experiment with using my stash of Finger Lakes wines I picked up along my journey.

I tasted the Huny Country 2009 Cabernet Franc for an installment of #winechat that featured that varietal, its history and tastings from different participants of different types from around the world. This week I opened and tasted the 2009 Valvin Muscat.

The nose on this wine is full of flower petals, fruit tree blossoms and young fruit. You have to like the perfumed nose of a Muscat to try enough to seek out renditions that really wow you. I like this type of aromatic profile which is why I like aromatic vinifera’s like Viognier and Gewurztraminer. That is also why I like Riesling, Traminette, Torrentes, La Crescent, all types of Muscat and the little known grape Symphony. The hallmark of a good version of any of those wines is a bountiful nose full floral and fruit notes.

The one thing I liked the most about this wine is the lusciousness on the palate. The touch of sweetness along with the viscosity of the wine creates a very nice body.

The finish is all lemons and with that body and sweetness it tastes like a lemon sour candy. Nicely played! I tweeted my thoughts on the wine and a response from Evan Dawson got the most descriptive wine review tweet award for the week. Evan tweeted:

“Like potpourri, that nose. Crazy floral, with lemon fruity pebbles. Unique - our guests love it.”

Those words sum up this wine much better than mine!

This is one of the most well put together Muscat’s I’ve had. Some of the versions I’ve tried in the past have missed on balance, whereas this wine is well balanced, from hotness, sharp mineral acidities, too much sugar or a nose that was completely disconnected from the body. Finicky grape, I guess.

The Hunt Country Vineyard 2009 Valvin Muscat finishes smooth with citrus, but not in the overt cleanup role drier white wines express lemon and citrus. The finish is long and the body sticks with you the whole way. Very reminiscent of a lemon infused and sweet herbal tea.

My pairing for the evening, which I have no pictures of, was curried chicken kebabs. The pairing was well conceived and the wine and chicken went together, but no sparks flew. They didn’t oppose each other in any obvious way so I wouldn’t dissuade people from trying something similar. Not much more to say. They wine was good enough on its own that it didn’t really matter becuase I was rushing through dinner to get back in the kitchen to tend to a couple batches of cider. The juice-maker has to eat too!

Cheers!

Jason

One Day in Sonoma

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:21:00 +0000

I can’t complain about the busy life I choose to lead. It is my choice, and when weekends fly by and I can barely remember the fun I had, it is my own fault. But, sometimes I use a time crunch to my advantage.

If there is one sacrifice to be made on a trip to Sonoma, my first trip no less, having only one day would scarcely make most people’s lists. Most destinations are like that, one day isn’t enough to do them justice, and a lifetime might never be if you leave your heart there. How did I rock one day in Sonoma?

I set out early, picking up the one day rental car at 7AM. I was staring back at the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin before 8.

Back to that trip I took with my family in 1987. The Golden Gate Bridge was one of the city sites I was especially taken with. So many people are. Definitely a point of distinction for SF, part of the charm if you will.

I leisurely made my way toward my first stop at ClineCellars. I peeled off at the first Starbucks I could find and used the WIFI to jam out my Foodbuzz Festival Day 1 post.

I arrived at Cline shortly after 10AM. I planned a trip to Cline after Maribeth Doran, their Goddess of Wine & Social Media, participated in #winechat for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Bottles of Cline’s Cashmere currently carry a pink ribbon and are linked to a donation made to Living Beyond Breast Cancer for each bottle sold. Nobody has to tell me or my family how important raising money to fight cancer is, we’ve been at it almost ten years now. It’s hard work! As a cancer survivor, fund raiser and volunteer I am dubious on some methods of raising funds, and retail promotion is one of the easily questionable methods; but I do thank organizations that support the fight and try to make their involvement worth the most with an extended relationship with a good charity. My thanks are due to the whole team at Cline for their continued involvement which has raised more than $200,000 in the fight against cancer. I heard personal stories in the tasting room, survivor to survivor even, and that means so much more on top of money raised and realities somewhere else.

Thank you Maribeth for arranging the good care I experienced during my visit. Lots of smiles and energy in the tasting room.

One of the experiences I have had several times this year is the tasting of a blend and the varietal bottlings of the constituent wines. At Cline the Heritage Zinfandel is made of wines from the Bridgehead, Big Break and Live Oak vineyards, each expressing attributes that when blended presented much differently than expected. I am particularly taken with this type of experience because of how much creative expression can be attributed to the series of tastings and trials that winemakers go through each time they haul in grapes and try to balance how to use everything they ferment.

Cashmere is a blend of Mourvedre, Grenache and Syrah. The 2010 is still young with abundant fruit and spice. There was also a minerality component that was metallic in nature. It wasn’t a detractor from the wine per se, but it was noticeable. The wine drinks well and should see improvement over time. That’s only if the bottle I have in my cellar lasts long enough…

Something you must do if you only have one day somewhere, is move on. My trip would take me next to Rodney Strong Vineyards and my second stop of the day.

I met Robert Larsen from the Public Relations team of RodneyStrong Vineyards at the Wine Bloggers Conference in Virginia in July. The first meeting was at a tasting table and then I met him again in the evening as conference attendees met up, shared wines and networked. I had enjoyed the wines at the table earlier in the day and I was told then that there was a surprise in store for after hours. The surprise was that the Rodney Strong team had shipped along a blend deconstruction tasting (like the one at Cline) for their Symmetry blend. Based on what I said above, you figure I was pretty excited, right? Correct. Blending with friends at the counter was so much fun. The high quality of the constituent wines was abundantly clear. A range of richness, fruits and already finessed structures seemed so much for a pedestrian hangout amongst the industry set, but what the hell, we can experiment like anyone else! And, a little wine goes a long way, and we might have had a little more than a little wine….

During that trip I brought some of my homemade strawberry wine along and shared it the same night. The comment Robert made, and several others echoed that evening, is that the wine was straightforward, made well, and tasted exactly as it was described; strawberries. A thank you to all who wish to acknowledge my craft with so much as a word. It is/was an honor. During our Wine Bloggers Conference goodbyes I told Robert that I would stop by real soon and when the trip to San Francisco came to be, Rodney Strong was the first location I checked on!

I met up with Robert again during my Sonoma visit. We shared some laughs about the WBC trip and my thoughts on the wines I selected for my tasting. I had picked the 2009 Pinot Reserve, 2008 Symmetry, 2008 Alexander’s Crown Cab and the 2007 Brothers Ridge Cab. Symmetry is where my biggest interest was and this being a newer vintage from my last tasting, there were differences. The 2008 is a little hotter than I recall, but it still expressed the earthy nose and vegetal character I was expecting. One bottle for home, check! If the 2007 was any indication this wine with additional age should taste even better. Both of the Cabernet's were big wines and already drinking pleasantly. The Alexander’s Crown is unfiltered and is a touch sweet, which complements the red fruits and oak spiciness well.

Great to see you again Robert! Thank you!

I like Cabernet. I have really loved it so many times. But these days, I am finding that I dig it only when part of a mutli-grape blend. I can’t really explain why.

The rest of the day was random. I say this because my destination for lunch was picked at random as I was in pursuit of it, and my final destination of the day had been picked randomly from a list of recommendations provided through a trusted friend. Of course I had to call ahead for an appointment, but it was random nonetheless.

I found lunch at Bovolo in Healdsburg located inside of Copperfields Bookstore. As soon as I saw the description for the Zucca flatbread pizza I knew what I was having. Roasted squash, Black Pig bacon, sage leaves and ricotta salata. I’ve already recreated something like this at home just because the flavors were that well paired in this dish. Sweet squash with salty bacon and sage. Adding the crust to the action, it almost tasted like a light stuffing. The bacon pieces on the Bovolo version were huge and full of flavor.

I had to rush through lunch, although the adjacent power outlet and a phone charge was welcome, because I really didn’t have but a couple of hours and I would need to be back on the road for SF. Afterall, I was dealing with an area known for lots of highway traffic, construction and all the minutia of the modern era that goes with it.

Michel-Schlumberger was recommended to me by Jolene Bonina (Thanks Jolene and Red White Boston for linking us!) after her recent trip to help with harvest in Sonoma. I didn’t know it from any other destination on the list. That’s what being a newbie does for ya!

Michel-Schlumberger Wines is an absolutely beautiful place. The late day walk through the vineyards was a true pleasure. I snapped quite a few photos and several were the best of the trip. I didn’t take any pics of the building or the interior plaza where I enjoyed a glass of Pinot Blanc whilst waiting for the tour group to assemble. That’s a shame because it was great place to take it easy for a while. The dogs were very friendly, they know a dog person when they meet on, so I was having fun of a different sort.

The tasting menu included Pinot Blanc, Pinot, Merlot, a 1991 Cabernet, Rhone/Cab Blend and the more recent 2008 Cabernet.

The 1991 Cabernet was drinking well for the age. The tannins were a bit more aggressive than what I would have expected, but were small and clearly softening, albeit slowly. A thick salmon colored rim speaks to the age this wine already has in. The aroma is best described as dried chilies. Quite tart in the mouth. The story with it being on the tasting menu was that a newer vintage of a different wine sold out through the wine club and the 91 Cab was selected from the cellar to replace it.

The 2007 Le Sage Merlot was a wood influenced nose, is medium bodied with abundant tannins and tart red fruits. The Pinot is also notable for the length of its dry soil finish with hints of spice. I love experiencing new wines!

I had to cut my time tasting short and head back to the city and to return my rental car. I did hit traffic, of course, and was cutting it close arriving when I did; but all was well. I and my memories were home safe.

Sonoma looked exactly like I expected it to. The area north of Santa Barbara likewise looked like the agricultural and commercial area that I recall the California grape growing areas to have looked like 25 years earlier. I saw them then, I just didn’t care. I was 15 and didn’t drink, yet. That doesn’t mean there was no charm to be had. These agricultural areas also saw lots of almonds, olives and citrus orchards. All good stuff for exciting living.

Margot asked me if she would have enjoyed the places I visited on my trip. She most certainly would, and some more than others. The sub-urban and rural areas that can be found in Sonoma are much more our style and the place I could see us staying the longest. Mixing both wine travel, gourmet food and some outdoor adventure trips nearby, I think we could make a great go of the area more than once. Something to fit into the future travel plans.

I can also see how people can lose their heart in a place like Sonoma. It felt a bit like the times we have at our house in Vermont, where I leave a piece of my heart when I visit. The hours in VT are similarly casual and good food and drink isn't that far away. There definitely isn't as much wine in Vermont, but dragging along some of the cellar can make up for that!

And don't forget to check out Ancient Fire Wines on Facebook.

Cheers!

Jason

Nov. 15th Cellar Update – 2011 Awards, Etcetera

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:07:00 +0000

( This my new Cellar Update photo. Shot by my college friend Josh Mazgelis. )

This has been another big year for the Ancient Fire home fermentations. Entering four competitions netted us 13 places including 3 gold medals and a first place among them! Two recent results were for the Northeast Regional Homebrew Competition and the Amenti del Vino Amateur Wine Competition. Congrats to Margot for her Third Place in Stout and our first ever win for beer! We made and won for wine, beer, cider AND mead all in the same year. That’s crushing it!

Northeast Regional Homebrew Competition 2011

First Place – 2011 Orange Vanilla Mead

Second Place – 2009 Cider #4

Third Place – Margot’s FX Stout (2011)

Amenti Del Vino Amateur 2011

Gold – 2011 Dry Creek Chardonnay

Silver – 2011 Peach After Dinner Wine

Bronze – 2011 Yakima Pinot Gris, 2010 Chilean Cab/Syrah

I posted a new page for the Ancient Fire Competition Awards. You can see an inventory of our awards by category and type plus links to the full results of all the competition’s we’ve entered. Four years and 41 medals!

Margot and I brewed again over the weekend. Margot took a shot at an Oatmeal Stout and I went with an Amber Ale with Rye. Margot and I both think the initial gravity on the stout was a bit low but will play it by the book and decide if we need to interfere later. The ryle ale smelled of moderately toasted rye bread, a good sign for the style. I’ve got an IPA Braggot to make coming up and I think putting down a sour cherry Saison might be a nice touch when the warm weather returns next year.

I cleaned through three batches of wine bottles this weekend. And I ordered some as well. We just can’t get, don’t already have and don’t have enough time to deal with all of the ones we need. And with what we are making will need a lot of clean bottles. Time to buy some. Bottling of the remaining 2010 reds and some early 2011 wines will proceed swiftly this coming week. The 2011 Strawberry in particular needs get bottled so it can show up around the holidays as it always does!

Ancient Fire Writing from Around the Web

My article entitled SensoryPerspectives for the Dry Finish column of WineMaker Magazine is live online. In the article I review the obvious, but not as obvious as you’d think, application of sensory evaluation of wine for winemakers. I find the appreciation of this skill especially helpful for amateurs who are very much learning wine and winemaking at the same time. I’m still learning this way.

As a WineMaker Magazine blogger I have also recently shared the recipe for my Orange/Vanilla Mead, my thoughts on How Artisanal Producers & Products Can Help Us Create a Story for Our Own Creations and a report from the Finger Lakes ahead of the upcoming 2012 annual conference in Itahca. I am very much enjoying writing for an amateur winemaking/brewing making audience who can geek out on some of the things I find interesting in my projects and travels.

There are a couple of tech updates as well.

A mobile version of this blog is live. Browsing to it from your smart phone is all that is required. It was a simple change and posts now show up in a short form in a list from my Droid. I can read the posts, see the pictures and otherwise interact with the content. If your experience with the new mode is underwhelming, please let me know.

Ancient Fire Wines is on Facebook. We’ve had the page for a while and give it some care and feeding, but the traffic is quite honestly not compelling. If by my publicizing it folks want to prove this to be untrue I say bring it on.

I’ll be posting all of the California trip reports tonight so if you haven’t checked them out already you’ll be able to find them on Facebook soon! I’ve also got some Godiva swag to give away and giving Ancient Fire Wines a Like on Facebook will be one of the entry criteria. Stay tuned for that drawing to kick off next week and run into early December and thoughts of sweet treats.

Cheers!

Jason

Toronado – San Francisco, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:33:00 +0000

Toronado is a beer bar. They have over 100 labels in stock between casked, kegged and bottles. You go there for the beer. Located on Haight Street.

Toronado is a dive in the most sincere sense. Is isn’t pretty, is just clean enough and is organized in the most utility of ways. One long bar with tables opposite and a small side room containing booths and small tables. It is what it is and because they have the kind of beer selection they do you are able to go there and have fun. I did! Margot will know what I mean when I say there “was shit all over the walls”. Shenanigans!

There was loud music playing, sports on the TV and patrons can bring the food from the shop around the way at will. It even kind of had keg party vibe, and again, in a good way.

I took a post at the end of the bar and doubled up, one pint of Pliny the Elder and one of the Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Ending with a hop explosion sounded like the best way to go out. My next adventures in the area were taking me to wine country so I needed to live it up!

The two beers are big on the hops with the Pliny taking the winner for nose. The fruity and sweet nose had a large hop presence that wasn’t as aggressive as I would have expected. The Torpedo had this biggest hop flavors but in the end the Pliny had the best balance. For a bit I just chilled out over my beers and checked out the scene.

The seats next to me filled up and I briefly met a couple of neighborhood partiers. Used to live near here, favorite place, live somewhere else now, etc. You can get pretty well in the bag around here without much effort it seems. No wonder some people love it so much.

I killed my beers and stole off into the night. Or more simply, to catch the bus. The ride back to Union Square was uneventful and the walk back to the hotel would have been if someone hadn’t tried to lift my wallet. I got to my wallet and his wrist before the damage was done. He was promptly told he didn’t want to do what he was doing and should scram. Several people in the crowd at the crosswalk echoed my feelings and he bolted. No harm came to anyone or my wallet!

I hope you enjoyed my trip around a few of the beer spots in San Francisco. There are many, I picked just a few and likely didn’t get anywhere near a list of “best of’s” if a poll was taken. But I ate and drank well, had good fun and met some pretty cool people. Not bad for a few days “work”!

Cheers!

Jason

Magnolia Brewery & Restaurant – San Francsico

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:24:00 +0000

As I was doing my research to find a list of brewpubs and beer bars to check out in San Fran the name Magnolia came up several times. A bit of free word association got me wondering if it was anywhere near Haight-Ashbury and the famed San Fran neighborhood that spawned the Grateful Dead. If you don’t know the connection, read on, there is nothing I can do here. To my surprise it is located on Haight street a couple blocks away from the Ashbury junction and the cute little village you will find there today. Before I popped in I had to walk up to the see the Grateful Dead house. It may seem cheesy, but as I have said in recent posts, connecting the dots in our lives for our readers create far better stories than ”look at this recipe, it’s amazing!”, or “this bottle of wine is fantastic”, and them not backing it up with any tasting notes. But I digress.

Magnolia has enough reviews for it that suggest it is one of the top tier stops for beer lovers when in town. I also found that the beer bar Toronado, heralded for its 100+ choices, was only a few blocks away from Magnolia making the trip out that way from Union Square where I was staying well worth it. I’ll share my Toronado experience in my next post.

After walking up Haight to Ashbury and back, through a few wafts of marijuana and the glut of head shops, I couldn’t help but think back to the good old days. For some there was a time when a joint and the Dead on the stereo was like milk and cookies for other people. Don’t judge.

Magnolia has a busy street corner location making the window and sidewalk seating front row center for whatever action comes along. On the bus ride out I saw a naked guy wandering around and a fight. I figured based on that shit could go down at anytime. It was busy when I arrived but I scooted under the high bar and grabbed the one empty stool along the window. I found myself next to a lovely couple from Berkeley, who were clearly knowledgeable about beer. I picked up several recommendations for my next visit from them! The one piece of information I did seize on to is their impression of the West Coast adoration for IPAs over Belgian style beers which get more love in the East. This was a new consideration for me, I’m equal opportunity, and one I will delve into a bit more later in this post.

As is tradition I went for the sampler which included six brews of my choosing in a nifty triangular carrier, all served in tall cylindrical glasses for a touch of distinction.

Kolsch

4.7% ABV

Light gold color and clear. Lightly toasted grains in the nose. Mildly bitter early in finish, finishes dry.

Rosebud

7.0% ABV

Orange/gold color. Sweet, floral aroma. Brewed with rose buds. Finishes sweet with fruit from beginning to end. This was the first beer I recommended to the new folks to the table.

Proving Ground IPA

7.0% ABV, 100 IBU

Gold/orange color, minimal head. Abundant floral aromatics. Very bitter and light in body. More hop flavor than malt flavor as expected. This is a big hoppy beer, but drinks light with fruits and flowers as the predominant aromas/flavors.

Barking Pumpkin

Medium brown color with amber notes. Tan head, sits up good. Moderately spiced nose, squash flesh also obvious. Medium bodied and savory flavors in the mouth. Sweet malts, lightly roasted. Toasted bread is predominant. A bit of alcohol in the finish. Solid rendition of a pumpkin, spiced beer.

Blue Bell Bitter

4.5% ABV

Toasted malts in the nose and mouth. Straightforward bitter. Hops are subtle, not much influence on flavor.

Dark & Mild

Medium brown colored ale. Moderately toasted malts with a clean and lightly bittered finish. I am starting to get this style more and more.

The Rosebud was my favorite and mentions are due for the IPA and the Dark & Mild.

The crowd turned over a bit as I moved through my sampler and two new arrivals grabbed seats being vacated right across the bar from me. They were also from out of town, Portland, Oregon specifically, and were in town to see a show. Looking back at my notes who the artist was is the one thing I didn’t get, and they mentioned it several times. It was either the beer or the nostalgia at work here.

I did get their names and not long after making their acquaintance I pegged them for the fun loving types. When Arin (right in pic below) ordered the Crackerjack Bacon for her and Rachael I took the opportunity to ask for them to pose with it for a picture. Cheers! And yes, it is literally Crackerjacks reheated with bacon. And it is surprisingly rich! The salty bacon with the caramel popcorn is as freaking sinful as you might imagine. I’m gonna be making this for my next party, Sandra Lee be damned! Sandra Lee didn’t really come up with this as far as I know, that is just a little inside joke for Shannon who had shared good laughs with over the weekend. I hope she’s reading.

After I got home I did a bit of cursory research and the West Coast is hoppy beer heaven idea is commonly held and demonstrated. Not new of course, I just hadn’t ever given the stylistic differences between the coasts into consideration. I found lots of styles of beer in the local haunts, but there was a considerable representation from IPAs and hopped up beers. I drink them all so this only makes it more interesting to try the local styles when on the road.

I ordered the Cubano with Fries for dinner. Can’t beat a Cuban sandwich and beer! On my bus ride back to the hotel I was chatting up a couple of partiers and one of them mentioned that the food at Magnolia was particularly good for a brewpub and that the Cubano was his favorite thing. I guess I picked a winner. The pork on the sandwich was tender as it should be and the ham was salty and full of flavor. Served on fresh bread with crunchy pickles it was just the thing to balance out the beers. I hadn’t eaten since 10:30 (and it was 6:30 or so now) on the count of the gluttony from the Foodbuzz Festival farewell brunch. I ordered the Chocolate George Stout to go with my meal having killed off the beer sampler right before my sandwich arrived. The beers were doing their thing to be sure, including my forgetting to take a picture of the sandwich. The fries were pretty straightforward, pleasantly salted and hot. I’d come back to Magnolia for the food, and then stay for a beer or three.

The George’s Chocolate Stout pours as black as night with a light brown head. The aromatics were of roasted malts and just a little bit of chocolate and coffee. The chocolate flavor was quite subtle and yet another example for us to consider when we attempt to make a beer in this style again. The finish is clean and it transitions to slightly sweet to dry by the end.

The crowd thinned out a bit and a gentlemen in from Arkansas joined us. I didn’t catch his name (you sort of see what kind of night this was turning into), and Danny from the band Scars on 45 saddled up a short time later. As Danny got to know the group around him he realized I was taking notes and asked “what are you a fucking journalist or something” with his killer British accent. Yes, in fact I am a fucking journalist, and damn glad to meet someone who can make the work fuck sound so fucking good! He and the band were in town for a show. If only I had more time. I’m betting I could have maximized that meeting.

We had some great laughs, all of the out-of-towners appeared to be making a better go of it than the locals, and after finishing my beer I took my leave and headed out into the night. I forwent the bus in favor of a 15 minute walk to work some of my buzz off. Up next, Toronado!

Cheers!

Jason

Rouge Pub – San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:55:00 +0000

I know Rogue is from Oregon and not San Francisco or even California, but I am rarely able to get their beers on tap so I had to make a stop. You can find the Rogue Pub on Union Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.

My nose was pretty stuffed up when I arrived as the cool weather in SF was wreaking havoc on my sinuses, so my tasting notes are somewhat incomplete. I do what I can, and somebody HAS to taste all the beers in the world so I persist!

I took to the sampler again, actually two this time! Any four Rogue ales from the tap for $8. A good deal by me.

Flight 1

Chamomellow

Golden ale brewed with Chamomile.

Golden color and hazy. Short white head. Chamomile influence is subtle, but having made a wine with it recently I was able to pick it out. Nice and smooth, with a moderately bitter finish. Minimal hop in both the nose and mouth. This didn’t kill it for me, but there was nothing wrong with it.

Dead Guy

Maibock

Gold/orange color, slight haze. Light, sweet malts, gentle dried fruit essence in the mouth. Moderate bitterness with malty, bready finish. This is a full bodied beer with pleasant flavors and serious drinkability.

Buckman Village Brewery Black Saison
Black Saison

Molasses in the nose and mouth. Also a bit of coffee and brown spices. Medium brown color and clear. Very light in body.

Brutal “Bitter” IPA

Imperial Bitter

Huge nose full of hops. Citrus, resin and floral aromas are wrapped together. Medium bodied and moderately bitter with long hop laden finish. I didn’t feel that the word “brutal” in the name fit my impression of the beer, but then again I like hoppy beers!

Flight 2

John-John Whiskey Barrel Aged Dead Guy

Barrel Aged Maibock

Considerable differences from the traditional version. Lots of fruit, a bit sour and more orange in the color. Even more enjoyable in my opinion than the classic.

Hazelnut Brown Nectar

Brown Ale

Lots of hazelnut in the mouth. Starts out a bit sweet, but finishes dry. Low carbonation. The nut flavors swim along the finish which is quite nice.

Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout

Stout

Dark, dark brown and opaque. Smooth and slightly sweet. Nicely balanced with a long clean finish.

Double Chocolate Stout
Stout

Tons of chocolate in the nose. Dark, dark brown and opaque. Sweet malts with balanced bitterness. Long chocolate and coffee finish. Very smooth and clean.

Going Rogue

The barrel aged Dead Guy was my favorite of the lighter beers and the Double Chocolate Stout was inspiring to me for what it helped me understand about what we can do with this style at home. We know we need to work on our chocolate stout and this is pretty good example to work from.

The Rogue Brewery is on my list of places to visit when I am in OR for #WBC12 next August. It is a bit of a ride but that’s what the extra days are for!

Cheers!

Jason

Foodbuzz Festival Farewell Brunch & San Francisco Sights

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:08:00 +0000

All good things always come to an end and thus the Third Annual Foodbuzz Festival came to a close with one final spread at Perry’s onthe Embarcadaro. Godiva was the sponsor and they were pouring their own coffee and had gifts bags (or two!) for everyone.

My mission of meeting new people had been accomplished and I cemented that at brunch by meeting a few others. We even talked about the fact that making a small number of connections that would convert in a few new faithful blog readers or Twitter friends was a worthy return.

Miriam Wlicox from Sometimes I Veg, and another NH representative of the Foodbuzz Community, found me and we got to chatting about the sessions the day before. She had run a half marathon with a friend that morning and missed the sessions so I was filling her in on what she missed.

We also talked about the fumble with the vegetarian/vegan food options for the formal meals over the prior two days. During that conversation Miriam floated the idea, which I elaborated upon in my second Foodbuzz Festival Day 2 post today, that it might have made more sense for Foodbuzz to have tried to have the meal for everyone be vegan, the lowest common denominator if you will. If you read my post you will note that I thought that would be a great idea despite being an unabashed omnivore.

I also met Aubrey King (I Talk to Food) & Ilana Freddye Pulda (Whisked. Eat Your Heart Out) at the breakfast table. They were both strategizing on which restaurants to try before leaving town Millennium and Tartine were both in play. Part way into chatting Morgan and Tiffany of Strudel & Streusel took the empty seats the the table. Lots of sharing. Travel spots, cooking school (Aubrey & Ilana met there), the cheese fest underway, the coffee, which was brewed strong the way I like it, and laughs from the weekend. It's what I came for.

Breakfast was a cheese-a-palooza, and that was fine by me! Some handmade sausage patties, crispy thick cut bacon, French toast, a berries & granola bite, a deviled egg and coffee I was done and I didn’t eat again for 8 hours!

Miriam and I departed Perry’s and headed towards public transit. She was heading back to meet her friends where she was staying and I wasn't sure yet what my next move was gonna be. I can’t wait to invite Miriam to come check out what we do for wine tastings. Since we cook many dishes that vegetarians and more so flexitarians can eat, I think she would have fun both bringing something and sampling what everyone else was doing. I realized afterwards that Miriam and I never got a picture together. The little things I guess! She lives a couple towns over so seeing her somewhere out this way is pretty likely.

I decided on the Ferry Building next. I was pretty sure I was going to have to go before I left and I figured that if I was full I wouldn’t buy any food that I didn’t have time to eat or couldn’t take home. There are so many reasons to come back to this city in that build both those you can enjoy on site and those to go. A wine bar, coffee bar, shops with every type of produce, meat, cheese, bread and dessert, you could really go nuts in there for a couple of meals!

Take a stroll with these photos.

A South Park reference for Margot!

I had some of all of those sips and eats over the weekend, and more. And I loved it!

The Ferry Building is a must do when I come back, especially with a hotel suite where some snack prep is possible. I next headed back to the hotel, dropped my swag off at UPS and out towards The Rogue Brewpub and Fisherman’s Wharf.

Yeah, I walked. Needed to...

The Rogue review will come out tomorrow, but for now I am going to retrace some steps from nearly 25 years ago.

Back in 1987 when I travelled to the West Coast with my family we stayed in San Fran for a few days. I remember coming out to Pier 39 and the wharf to see the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the sea lions and the shops. I found them all right where I left them. It was a lot of fun. I called my parents on the bus ride as I was leaving to remind them of the trip. Here were my 2011 sights.

San Francisco is a beautiful city with everything that is said about cities all blended into one. While it has its own charms it is like so many other cities, including Boston where I work. Margot asked me if she would like San Francisco and of course I think she would. A couple of days to do the tourist thing for us would be the right fit for a long trip with wine country and the National Parks also included. Something to dream of!

Cheers!

Jason

Foodbuzz Festival Day 2 – Food, Food, Food and Drink!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:38:00 +0000

Day Two of the Foodbuzz Festival brought a food frenzy that challenged me and my stomach nearly to ruin. I ate a lot. I drank a lot. But I also walked around a lot and did what I could do to deal with it. It goes with the territory I guess.

After the content sessions were at an end busses moved us on to the Metreon for the Tasting Pavilion and a sizable assemblage of vendors looking to share their products with the Foodbuzz Community.

I arrived early and started to wander up the block and ran into Jen from Tiny Urban Kitchen. Jen and I are local to each other back in New England, but had yet to meet. I stopped and introduced myself. With nowhere else to go we set off for a walk around the block to share stories and kill time. Within a few minutes I could see why Jen is so successful. She is knowledgeable, has a quick wit and is very personable. I’m so glad I stopped to say hi. Thanks Jen!

While I was standing in line waiting to get into the Tasting Pavilion I joked that I was all set because I was going to head for the drinks first and since everyone else was going to swarm the food tables I wouldn’t have to wait in line. That was not a joke and it turned out to be as true as my gut told me it would be when I said it.

My first stop was to the Dry Creek Wines table. I was heading up to the Sonoma on Monday, and would be visiting Michel Schlumberger located in Dry Creek, but anytime I can try new wines I am up for the challenge. With nobody else at the table I slowly worked through the wines available.

I tasted several Sauvignon Blancs and Zinfandels from 3 or 4 different producers. Both the un-oaked and lightly oak Sauv Blancs were bright and refreshing, with one in particular channeling a good deal of green pepper. The Zins presented a range from juicy and fruit forward to more austere and Old World in style. I realized that I threw the marketing materials from the event in with my swag that got sent home via UPS so I don’t have the names of the producers on hand.

I mixed up the food and drinks from there on. Here is a photo journal of the highlights.

Alaska Seafod Surimi Seafood Lettuce Cups

Halibut and Caramelized Onion Croquettes with Fig Dijonaise. This was one of the most flavorful items I had all afternoon. Can't go wrong with breaded seafood. I didn't realize until I read it in her recap post that Kelly from The Pink Apron crafted this recipe and had been handing them out at the table. Click for her recipe.

OXO and kitchen gadgets galore! When I first walked up just as they were asking a trivia

question to give away a prize. I hadn't heard the question but had to pick true or false.

I picked true and won an egg beater. I never found out what the question was!

Mike Kohne of Mercy Wines. I tasted his Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs.

The wines come from Monterey County which is clearly emerging as another

quality West Coast wine growing region.Thanks Mike!

Ashley (The Beer Wench) of Bison Organic Beer was a real hoot! And the Chocolate Stout was well made with solid & rich, but not overpowering chocolate flavor. Another example to tuck away for home brewing projects!

The folks at Drink of the Week had punch and gin & tonics on hand. Both were made with the Bloom Gin. The punch was a riff on the Drink of the Week drink the Bee's Knees that contains lemon, honey and gin. It was a very refreshing drink with the right balance of booze, sour and sweet. Nicely played!

Fentimans's Sodas. I have used their Ginger Beer for Dark 'n Stormy's many times, but had

never seen their other products around. Their non-alcoholic Shandy soda really did taste like

lemonade and beer, just without the kick. I'll be looking for their other products now!

And of course 21st Amendment Brewing. I enjoyed their brews three times over the weekend, and had something different each time. The Allies Win The War is a collaboration brew with Ninkasi Brewing in Oregon. Fashioned from Strong Ale recipes from each brewery, fresh dates and Northwestern hops, this beer is serious business. It is malty & full bodied beer with considerable sweetness and a long, rich finish.

Vanessa Moses doing her thing for Alexia Foods.

Tyler Florence meeting, greeting and signing books and photos. I didn't wait in line to meet him.

I left that to the professionals...

There were many others tablethat I didn't get pictures at. Several additional notable products were from:

Rosemary & Sea Salt Walnuts from California Walnuts. Gonna be making these with the fresh dried rosemary!
Girl & the Fig - Sonoma country restaurant with concentrated and full fruit fig based products. Several of the spreads complimented a roast pork bite they had on the table.
Vignette Wine Country Soda - I had never thought about naturally fermenting wine grape juice into soda until I had this product. Something new for me to try next year. And low in sugar so they aren't as bad for you as other options.
Australian Lamb - Lamb isn't something I have that often so I was curious to taste some. The meat was soft and flavorful with just enough of that gameyness that meats beyond beef are known for. I asked how likely it was that I would be able to get Australian lamb at home and it turns out quite a few large grocery chains carry it. Something to look for.

After the tasting pavilion event I headed back to my hotel to relax off some of the food and drink.

During cocktail hour I caught up with Rufus McLain and Pete Spande from Federated Media. Pete and I talked wine for a little while. Jonas from Drink of the Week joined us and of course the convo about alcohol continued. We talked a about punch, the punch bowl flowed earlier in the day, and how it is a hot topic right now. Socializing over a bowl of punch is not new, but it might just save us from boring parties in the 21^st century.

Tyler Florence anchored the gala dinner with a cooking demonstration. He certainly got an appetite whipped up and with nothing to eat on the table I was feeling the beer and wine more than I had wished. I hadn’t eaten during cocktail hour in favor of some good conversation over drinks. Bad choice, this time.

I actually felt bad for Tyler. A good portion of the audience was yapping away while he was demonstrating and entertaining us. But just like the modern movie-going experience it seems like a lot of people don’t act with courtesy and respect in public anymore. Their behavior and it’s reflection on them stands on its own.

The demonstration was exciting to me primarily because I was watching a celebrity chef in person. I am not as much of a foodie as a lot of the other Foodbuzzers so this type of activity doesn’t really jazz me up the same way. The innuendo-laden tweets during the demonstration were hilarious and I had to jump in and bring dough balls back in from the morning. Despite tweets about Tyler’s meat nobody bit on my balls. I mean the tweets about my balls. No, wait, I mean, whatever!

By the time dinner was half over I was bugging out over all the usages of fantastic and amazing to describe some of the items from the tasting pavilion and dinner itself. Fantastic? Really? What are we trying to say here?

Dinner was catered by the hotel. It wasn’t gourmet and if you had it at a wedding you’d probably bitch, but it would be the same food. Furthermore I felt bad for Alexia because their fries were mangled by the kitchen. If anyone from Alexia is reading this and wants to send me some samples I promise this much, I will cook them correctly, serve them to friends that I have requested objective feedback from and will share what comes of it. Your products deserve at least that much and I am truly sorry that I couldn’t say more while I was at the festival. Shit happens!

So here’s the deal. There are several words that MUST be immediately retired from the food blogger vocabulary. They mean nothing and they are too easy for us to use in order to be part of something when we really have nothing to say. Those words are:

Fantastic
Amazing
Incredible
Awesome

What I propose instead is that food & beverage bloggers try to delve into their senses a little bit and express what they are smelling and tasting rather than generically branding something as “good”. Some people will cry foul that this is the domain of trained writers. Let me clue you in, it’s called thinking. Try it some time. Writers take thinking to the next step in something called creative expression. You can try that on anytime you want as well. I promise it won’t hurt.

Do I think I am any good at this? Not really, but I know the difference and expect more from myself. I can’t sit idly by while the community I am happy to be part of floats along so much unoriginal and unexpressive communication in play. We ALL need to up our game! I’ll take my medicine along with everyone else. That’s why I think it’s fair for me to say what I’m saying.

I tweeted the following about dinner:

“The food was ok. There is nothing outright bad to say, but that doesn't say much. Catered food is tough, but it can still be good.”

I really didn't have a problem with what I was served. I didn't have any expectations so it could have gone higher but the fact that it didn't is fine. I could have said it was amazing to be nice, but why? What I did say conveyed the reality in front of me and being nice just to be nice is so over. In the end I was distracted with conversation and meeting new people so I didn't really care much about the food.

The one topic I got involved in at dinner and continued conversations about through brunch the next day was the vegetarian/vegan meal for the Saturday dinner. Just so we are clear, I am an omnivore, I’ll eat anything. I have tried some foods, not liked them and will not likely eat them again but that is a preference, not a lifestyle nor medically necessary.

Based on what I saw the catering staff and kitchen were not well prepared to serve as many “alternative” meals as was needed. That’s too bad because Foodbuzz asked about people’s preferences and in the asking there is an expectation. So what should be done?

One idea, thanks Miriam, is to serve a vegan meal to everyone. But why? There are several reasons. First off, it would be cost effective. Buying in bulk for any catered meal keeps the cost manageable and the more the better. Serving the same meal to all maximizes that idea. On top of that consider the creative challenge doing this would represent, and the uniqueness of the meal that could have been presented. It would have gotten everyone talking, even the omnivores like me. Finally it would have been logistically simpler. Cut out the confusion for service. Something for next year and I hope someone from Foodbuzz sees this and considers the idea.

Dessert came and again it was omnivore-centric. I was feeling a bit militant for my underfed peers at this point. Again, there was nothing wrong with dessert, it just didn't inspire me.

My alternative was a bottle of Kurt’s Apple Pie from Moonlight Meadery. It was the dessert in place of dessert that I needed. And my tablemates (Devaki, Greg, Kelly, Shannon and Vanessa) seemed to be agreement. In my opinion it is one of the finest adult beverages being produced in the state of New Hampshire right now and I poured it with that assertion. Vanessa Moses (The Cooking Chicks Chicago) responded to my NH references with, “I've never met anyone who throws down so much for New Hampshire”. Well, we rock. If you’ve never thrown down with anyone from New Hampshire you really haven’t lived. “Live Free or Die” is our motto and quite honestly nobody does it like us! Seriously.

A big thank you is due to Foodbuzz, the sponsors and all of my fellow participants for creating such a fun weekend. I’ve offered my critical feedback and I've also shared my stories of what I enjoyed and the fun I had meeting new people. Good and not so good all wrapped up together. See, I used a meaningless word again, good, but I think you get my point.

And I have to put the following photo in just so Greg can leave me a comment asking me why the hell I did it! Sometimes things just have to be done…

We were having fun and when the work is done that is what it is all about!

Cheers!

Jason

Foodbuzz Festival Day 2 – Treatise on Goals & Where Do We Go From Here?

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 13:50:00 +0000

Day Two of the Foodbuzz Festival brought content sessions, the tasting pavilion and the gala dinner that included a cooking demonstration with celebrity chef Tyler Florence. The morning content sessions will be the focus of this post.

The morning content sessions were held in the event space and conference rooms at Federated

Media headquarters situated not far from Giants stadium. An easy hop down the Muni from Union Square.

Breakfast was provided, it is a foodie conference after all, and the highlight for me were the Black Pepper and Cheddar Scones. The combination of those two ingredients in a savory scone created a slightly crunchy exterior followed by a slightly spicy dense bread interior. I took one with me to enjoy on Monday morning when I would finally be on my own for food! Oh, and I got to finally meet Chef Dennis (A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis).

Get Serious!

The first session was Taking Your Blog To The Next level with a panel of bloggers from the Foodbuzz

Featured Publisher Community that included, Sarah Matheny (Peas and Thank You), Jessica Merchant (How Sweet It Is), Joy Wilson (Joy The Baker), Tracy Benjamin (Shutterbean) and Kath Younger (Kath Eats Real Food). The overall themes for the session, and that of all the sessions I attended, were determine and focus on your goals, be authentic and project what you are passionate about and not just what you think will be popular or is trending to generate hits. These are all worthy and practical themes to guide your actions with.

I think it is important for blogging communities to be honest with themselves, be objective about the rhetoric versus the reality and walk the walk. So when it was asserted, and no amount of tongue and cheek masks the truth here, that everyone was here because they wanted to “generate traffic, get famous and make lots of money” I was sure it was going to be a long day. These weren’t the goals of everyone I asked about them to, and that speaks directly to where I will go next.

Setting Realistic Goals

If I have to bring the objectivity to the party, I will. At the risk of being marginalized by the community because of my critical honesty I am going to explain why I think those goals are antithetical to the themes spoken out of the other side of the mouth, and why they are unrealistic for everyone to expect. And don’t worry, I won’t make my case without offering my suggestions for how we can use the themes as a guide and set achievable goals. To reinforce that point I offer this. A large part of success in any venture is being in the right place and knowing the right people at the right time, or simply put, luck. You can’t manufacture luck. All you can do is be out there with a solid understanding of your goals and a good personality.

The presenters did an admirable job of providing tips on how people might take their blog to the next level, but where we were largely lacking in specific examples the tips came off as less tangible than they could have been. The tip about the necessity of having beautiful photos on your blog smacks of superficiality and form over function in the grandest of ways. You only have to have them if YOU want them and they shouldn’t come at the expense of YOUR voice projecting YOUR experiences in YOUR content. If someone clicks away because the picture isn’t satisfactory to them they aren’t interested in your story anyway. And you blog for because you love it, right?

In blogging making money is largely associated with ad revenue from traffic. If you flip over to book publishing or endorsements that is a different stream and I’ll ignore that here because the former is often a requirement for the latter. Generating lots of traffic is hard work. The tip here was alluded to but not outright stated in raw and detailed form. Plan on working more than a fulltime job on your blog to generate lots of hits and therefore lots of revenue. Having that time and spending it this way is a choice.

In order to reach the biggest audience to generate all of that traffic you will need to tread into the territory of topics that are popular or likely to trend no matter your passion for them. This the psychological aspect behind SEO, tuning your blog position to have the highest identity for search trend hits. That works against your blog being a passionate expression of you. Consider how often you see the same bloggers involved in all the virtual events that draw in people across all sorts of stated focus areas. You have to decide if you want to be part of a small community of like minded people or dispassionately pump out content to chase down traffic with.

You can’t reciprocate the volume of traffic you get past a certain point, it’s just not mathematically possible. To be both a publisher and a consumer is actually two jobs and you only have time for so much of each. Once you reach that point the majority of your traffic is unengaged and the connection to your community is at its apogee. And popular publishers need lots of consumers to stay popular. There is only going to be so much of that to go around as a community grows. This means the possibility you will be a community superstar is greatly diminished. The statistics on communities tell the story, and come in the form of a 1/9/90 rule. For every 100 community members 1 is an active publisher, 9 are active engagers in the community and the other 90 are consumers who engage infrequently. For the sole publisher to be popular that person needs the others members to focus on his content, and not their own content and traffic. They NEED your focus to make their focus more important. You see the issue, right?

I Get It, But What Do I Do?

So what should one do, especially if they still aspire at a chance at popularity and getting paid? The easiest way will be to look for a job in the industry you have passions about. If you have a job that pays the bills and you don’t want to change, you may need to change your goals. Time is the ultimate leveler here, and if you have all the time in the world to invest and to be patient you might end up winning in the end. Unless you plan on “working” all the time you just won’t be able to do it. Once you think about the reality here and fall back on, “but I write my blog because I love it”, you have a lot of options to continue to have fun, build a small and loyal community and be out there for luck to take over.

I will say that as I was doing a bit of review on the content for the post I bounced over to the sites of the presenters and found that Joy Wilson has a recent post entitled Real-Talk Blog Tips that addresses some of the tips offered with a bit of detail. Many of the points are consistent with what I am saying here and the more voices addressing the issues the better.

Write about what excites you. I came back from the Wine Bloggers Conference in July with realization that my passion for wine, beer and spirits had gotten muddied in all of the food projects I had been doing. I had taken on those projects because of my supposed desire to resonate with the Foodbuzz community. I was doing things I was less passionate about. I reset my focus. That refocusing has made me consider my connection to Foodbuzz, but my goal after this weekend is to try and find foodie partners to help co-present food and beverage content that springs from our mutual passions. I made some connections, and I need to make more, that are promising towards this goal.

The points in the above paragraph were reinforced in the Blog Design Bootcamp session when I offered my inner considerations about figuring out how to resonate with the community more. I need to refine my mission statement to include a goal to partner with others to help share my passions and enhance both my own and partner’s blogs. Got it.

Putting Yourself Out There & Making Connections

Whether it is to partner with or because what they do resonates with you, make connections with other bloggers that make sense for you. If they are also looking for birds-of-a-feather to engage you make find they aren’t just traffic, but an influencer for you, and vice versa. How popular they are shouldn’t matter and focusing on that in an attempt to use the association to increase your position in the community is going to reflect badly on you.

Another thing from that session that was on my mind was my focus on beverages and how that makes me unique in the community. I love what I do and know it is where my focus should be. My niche was held out as a positive thing and the advice that I stay true to it was heard loud and clear. Thank you to the Kristin Guy (The Cuisinerd) and the Sabrina Modelle (The Tomato Tart) for their great ideas and advice!

I also attended that session because one of the action items I took away from the Wine Bloggers Conference earlier in the year was a blog facelift. I need to do it and I picked up some tips to kick around as I gear up to tackle this task. I have set this goal for me. I want my own blog to look nicer, and the bonus that it will present better to others is just that, a bonus. The one specific tip I picked up was that when considering a new color palate for your blog you can pick a photograph you particularly like and extract the colors from it. Pretty neat!

One of the underlying an implicit themes in blogging is to make it about you. I think each new blog post should be part of an unfolding story, containing both revelations of the new day and connections to days past, even if those connections aren't directly stated. As an example, over the weekend I visited several brew pubs and beer bars in San Francisco. This is something I love to do. I feel like I can take the pulse of a place through the locally crafted beers. At 21^st Amendment I was hoping to find their IPA named Brew Free or Die. Why? Because my home state of New Hampshire’s motto is Live Free or Die and Brew Free or Die is the name of the homebrew club I belong to. They didn’t have it on tap, but it showed up at the Friday night event which gave me a smile. The beer was good but the personal connection, 21A had to contact the club to ask permission to use the name, was what I was after. I also went to Gordon Biersch specifically because I wanted to try their Marzen, a beer that is a recommended style example for the Marzen/Oktoberfest category of the BJCP style guide. I had judged this category for a recent competition and I wanted to try an example that I can’t get at home. In those two posts, both already live, I continued to follow my passions and connected the activities in them to my life. For readers I hope this helps them better get to know me and the things I am interested in. We should all aspire to tell stories (OUR stories) in our blogs. This is a welcome alternative to the factual and procedural details of cooking, which can be so dreadfully boring without a good story.

The final session was on Effect Social NETworking, primarily a conversation about using Twitter to engage other and promote you and your blog. Facebook and Google Circles were also mentioned. Thank you to Irvin Lin (Eat the Love) and Stella Parks (BraveTart) for their energetic presentation of the subject. Some of the stories Irvin told about his tweet-style (missing words and unintended plays on word let’s say) came across with palpable authenticity.

I didn’t end up getting a lot out of the session being an active Twitterer and frequent considerer of how the tool can be used to market a content brand, but I did pick up one interesting opposition of two ideas. It was stated that the half life of a Tweeted link is about two hours. I suspect this is largely because most people chase followers and clog up their timeline with so much stuff they miss lots of value-laden tweets. Without a shift to using lists (or some other meta-model) to corral followers of varying important topics down into smaller timelines this is not likely to change. From this it could be fairly inferred that you need to tweet the same new content several times, and with a bit of shrewdness maybe at different times of day and on different days, to get the most thrust into your follower base. There has been some industry analysis that supports this idea. What followed however was a comment that resending the same link multiple times risked irrelevance whereby you would be perceived to be creating a lot of noise. These two ideas are somewhat incongruent to each other and might need additional thought to have good sense made of them.

There was also talk about Klout and how it was a good measure of your influence. I have Klout account and have had score averaging in the 50’s for almost a year. It has been as high as 63 and with recent algorithm change I saw it briefly sink into the low 40’s before springing back up. I don’t check it that often and I don’t carry out specific actions in hopes of increasing it. I do what I do and am who I am, and I use the score to help me see the community I am part of in a broad way. Focusing too much on measuring something I do for fun takes away some of the fun. The Klout Perks program is a nice bonus though!

I broke out of the session early to interview Rufus McLain one of the Foodbuzz Community Team members for a future post. Learning more about what they do in support of people like me ended up being hugely valuable for someone flirting with the choice to renew the contract or not.

Conclusions

If bloggers want to get paid like a job, they need to plan on working a job for their blog. Want to be notable for your blog beyond a small group? Refer to the prior sentence. Otherwise, keep doing what you are doing because you enjoy it and the connections you make along the way should create plenty of opportunity for fun. Don’t worry about how much of this, or how do I make more of that, or why is that person more popular than me, you’ll only end up back at the first sentence of this paragraph.

Cheers!

Jason

Foodbuzz Festival Day 1 – Meeting & Greeting

noreply@blogger.com (Jason Phelps) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:08:00 +0000

I came to San Francisco and the Foodbuzz Festival to meet new people, some I would know from Twitter and their blogs, and many others to whom I would be newly introduced and take time to share stories and geek out about food with.

Anything else that came of my time with the Foodbuzz community would be that proverbial bonus and the side trips I had planned before and after the festival are sure to lock in the trip as worthwhile.

The Foodbuzz Festival kicked off with a welcome reception and dinner at the Terra Gallery not far from the Hyatt which was the base for the conference. I chatted up a few folks on the bus as we rode to our destination and it was clear everyone was excited to check out what the FB crew had planned for us. Laura from Sprint 2 The Table and Sarah from Smart Kitchen were particularly interested in my beverage and winemaking slant. I was hopeful that my blog’s focus might resonate with the foodies I would meet.

Having the priorities that I do the first placed I headed to was the bar. I already knew that Bonny Doon and 21 Amendment Brewery would both be pouring their products, giving me lots of worthy options!

I started off with the Querry from Bonny Doon, an apple, quince and pear cider (maybe not specifically the right word, but it conveys the understanding) which I recommended to several other festival goers checking out the bar selection after arriving. It turns out cider is more of a solid common denominator for the foodie set than I had ever imagined. And that makes me immensely happy. I love cider, think it is underappreciated and can see it going places with more attention.

I wandered over to two friendly looking ladies, Kelly and Shannon, who had also just met. We started talking about the festivities ahead and the cider that we were all drinking. The cider pours cloudy with considerable carbonation and moderate white head, much like a golden ale. It is very nuanced with tart cider apples and some subtle spice influence, something I would characterize as like ginger. This product presents itself very much like a sparkling wine or champagne, making its appeal to women that much more clear to me.

( Me, Shannon and Kelly enjoying a late night drink. )

Shannon’s blog is named Killer Bunnies which I found hugely memorable and a great conversation starter. To find out that her blog is that of a vegan baker nearly made me piss myself. I came to find Shannon snarky, funny, irreverent and quite fashionable if her shoes on Saturday night are any indication. Shannon, I need a picture of your shoes to show my wife, she might think I was being creepy otherwise!

One of the meetups I was very much looking forward to was Meg Maker from Bonny Doon Vineyard. Meg also writes the blog Maker’s Table. The big joke was that we both live in New Hampshire and had to travel to California to finally meet. With a hug exchanged I introduced Meg to Kelly and Shannon and asked Meg to talk a little bit about the cider. We talked a bit and Meg moved on to work the room.

Kelly writes the Pink Apron and was equally interested in the time in SF to meet new people, check out the festival food and have some fun. Kelly’s admission that she worked in food marketing and that one account she supports is McDonalds inspired some interesting conversation about foodies and the foodie agenda. That conversation morphed into one about local food and how foodies and food bloggers can be so driven about the importance of local food but be so ignorant of the economic and accessibility issues that go along with it. My biggest concern is the one size fits all mentality where foodies push local food as an imperative that everyone must take up without recognizing how few people really care about the idea and aren’t in search of a solution to the perceived problem. As I always state with these comments, I’m not saying that this is right or just, but it what it is and more people pushing the agenda need to acknowledge it, understand that their passion may not be shared, and act accordingly.

I went back to the bar and grabbed a 21 Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA. This is another 21A beer that is pleasantly drinkable with plenty of hops and a little sweetness to balance everything out. And the name! Anyone from NH or members of our homebrew club Brew Free or Die can get with that!

We transitioned from the reception to dinner and you’ll note I haven’t mentioned the food yet. That’s because I didn’t pay much attention to what of the passed appetizers I had consumed. The people were more exciting. Before moving on I grabbed a glass of the 21A watermelon ale thinking it might make for interesting pairings over dinner.

We moved upstairs found a table and hit the buffet lines to seek out some eats. The variety was broad with a wide range of ingredients and techniques. There were dishes made with scallops, pork belly, a beef stew, macaroni & cheese with bacon, lentil salad, beet ravioli and others. Many of the recipes were provided by Foodbuzz Featured Publishers, a great opportunity to share with the community to be sure.

The biggest challenge for the food was that because it was being made for so many people it didn’t have the charm that the recipes they were made from hint at. A few examples might help people contextualize what I am suggesting. The pork belly was lukewarm and chewy rather than soft. The lentil salad was absent of some spice and salt making it seem flat. The bacon on the macaroni and cheese tasted like Baco’s and I have doubts that it what was intended. I didn’t find anything that was outright bad, but I can’t gush about what I did have. When I get home I will take a stroll back through the menu and seek out any recipes that I might want to replicate at home.

Jen from Tiny Urban Kitchen, and the winner of Project Food Blog 2010, shared a bit about her journey in food blogging and what she is up to since Project Food Blog. Her primary topic was her motivations to donate her PFB winnings to charity. You can read more about her post PFB adventures in her recent blog post.

The Foodbuzz Blog Awards seemed to be very casually received and with the amount of talking during the announcements I can only think many people didn’t care. We were nominated in the Best Single Topic category and while we didn’t win I was the person in the room clapping the loudest for all the nominees and the ultimate winner. Being a good sport is an absolute requirement for authenticity. Shame on many participants for not being more engaging in the award announcements. There is a lot of talk about community and in this case I didn’t see it. Foodbuzz, you might want to scrap this activity in the future, I don’t think enough people care.

While I was mingling around I grabbed a glass of the BonnyDoon Contra, a red field blend of 6 different grapes. I found a nice mix of black fruits and earth in both the nose and mouth. I didn’t give it as much attention as I would have like, but then again I do know where to get some if I want to give a more thorough review!

We moved on to dessert which came off more positive from what I saw. Multi-colored macarons, truffles, mini cheesecakes and cookie sandwiches all got some thoughtful consideration. The most overwhelming feedback was on the pate du fruites, which from what I understand was massively sour. I didn’t try it and I’m not sure what result was expected, but the feedback I saw didn’t seem to make me think this was it. The most interesting dessert item for me was a chocolate hummus filled pastry cup. The savory aromas and flavors gave the hummus away easily. The presentation was oddly reminiscent of refried beans, which certainly is an interesting twist. With a little less sugar the filling could be used in a savory dish where chocolate was a good fit. This versatility gave me a few things to consider.

Over dessert I shared a bottle of my own 2010 Strawberry wine with my tablemates including Monica, Debby, Joshua, Allie, Shannon, Kelly, Dorothy, and Cynthia. Sharing the fruits of one my passions with new people is always exciting for me. I love feedback and collecting impressions from new tasters offers me information that is crucial for better understanding my own wines. I was honored at the positive feedback and the mentions I got in the wrap-up of several of the tasters the following day. Check out Shannon’s kind words in Foodbuzz Was Fun Last Night and Cynthia’s Facebook pictures from the table.

The event wound down and I boarded the bus headed back for the hotel. Earlier I had thought some form of after-party would have been fun, but as I got closer to the hotel I realized water and TV was going to be enough to see me off to sleep. Having been up for almost 20 hours and knowing I needed to rest up for day two, this plan didn’t bother me at all.

Cheers!

Jason