A Day In Paris

So, my flight was leaving at 9am from Paris to New York…I am ready, heading out the door of the hotel when my cell phone rings. It’s my wife, calling to tell me that Delta just called the house to inform her/me that the flight has been delayed until 6PM that evening. So here I am, dressed and ready to go with a full day in front of me (I had arrived the evening before so did not get an opportunity to sightsee). So immediately I hop on my laptop and go to the website for the Louvre Museum to see what the hours are. I have time for breakfast and then decide to go and see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo (among other treasures).

After breakfast, I head down to the concierge and ask for walking directions to the Louvre. I make the mistake of mispronouncing the word “Louvre” (I pronounced it “loov”). The concierge stares at me blankly and tells me he does not understand what I am looking for. We clear that up, and I head on my way. For what it’s worth, the people outside of Paris are truly wonderful, friendly and gracious.

Anyway, I walk over, and the place is truly massive. It would take days, if not weeks to truly take advantage of everything that the museum has to offer, but I am on a mission and head straight for the Mona Lisa. Well, here she is. It’s funny, I have always heard that it is much smaller than one might think, but I did not find that to be true. It was surrounded by people and security and you were kept at an arms length by ropes, but everyone got a chance to see what they came to see.

Then off to the Venus de Milo, which seemed like about a 3 mile walk! I wanted to see the Eiffel tower as well, so I was short on time….more soon. – Lance Cerutti – www.suburbanwines.com

Michael In Austria, Part IV

I’m seen here with Wilma Tinnacher of South Styria’s Lackner-Tinnacher. She and her husband Fritz create dozens of different varietal wines in their state-of-the-art winery, which is seated neatly into a duct-like section of their hilltop property. They have done remarkable things with grapes like Muskateller, Grauburgunder, Roter Traminer and Morillon, and their wines were amongst the most urbane of the entire trip. A superb equilibrium of fruit, terroir and varietal character is what they exhibit, and if I were to choose my desert island Austrian wine, it would be one of their bottlings.

A view of Lackner-Tinnacher’s spaceship-like winery…..a marvel of modern European architecture. Everything from sensor lighting to massive gliding doorways make this polished , sterile facility self-contained. Even their product packaging is cutting-edge…..they have successfully adopted the Alcoa Vino Seal glass insert as a closure for all their wines, and I have to say that I’m totally sold on it. It is more expensive than cork and screwcaps, and will potentially require a recycling campaign, but it’s the purest, most functional and most elegant alternative, and is the prime candidate for the future of wine bottle closure. - Michael Koehler - www.suburbanwines.com

WINE WITH DINNER – A practical use for leftover red wine

Just as I serve wine with all of my evening meals, so do I also regularly cook with it. For example, instead of adding a few tablespoons of water to the frozen veggies I am microwaving, I substitute some leftover white wine from the refrigerator. Even when I thin out salad dressing, I do it with wine – white with cream dressings and red with ketchup-based dressings. Red or white wine, whether leftover or from a bag-in-the-box, is such a versatile cooking ingredient, that I would no more cook without it than I would without salt or pepper.

For instance, one great use of leftover red wine is to add flavor to meat dishes and help get rid of fat. Next time you are frying up some ground beef or sausage for an Italian meal, start off with olive oil, onions and garlic, add mushrooms if you like, and then dump in the meat. Fry until the meat is almost done and the onions translucent. Then add a cup or two of red wine. Bring just barely to a boil (to evaporate the alcohol and infuse the meat with wine color and flavor) and then strain everything into a large Pyrex measuring pitcher. Dump the strainer full of meat and veggies back into the pot and proceed with whatever you are making while letting the fat rise to the top of the Pyrex container.

Then use a gravy separator to get rid of the fat, which you can pour into small containers and freeze in the wintertime for the birds. If you follow this procedure when making spaghetti sauce, a stew, or a soup, you can add back all of the liquid you separated to give some added flavor to what you are preparing and you will end up serving a very tasty, but relatively low fat meal! - Jay Roelof - www.suburbanwines.com

Michael in Austria, Part III

Picture Perfect: A few hours after visiting Graz, I found myself motoring through the countryside of South Styria, a groomed and visually-striking wine region with countless vines tucked into steep hillsides. Green rolling hills, topped with manicured homes, are divided into crus planted exclusively to white varieties in Austria’s southern-most viticultural zone. The shapes of the hills are irregular with erosion, indicating that the region was once under ocean…..it is said that there is still salt and shell lime in the soils. The geological-uniqueness and intense visual breadth of South Styria are, to me, second only to that of Spain’s Priorat.


Into the Eclectic: Ever hear of a grape variety called Rotgipfler? How about a Zierfandler? Neither had I until being introduced to them by Florian Alphart, assistant to his father, the owner and winemaker at K.Alphart in Thermenregion. This family is perhaps single-handedly responsible for maintaining the status of these and other noble, indigenous varieties. The terroir and other conditions in Thermen are known to be similar to that of Burgundy, and the character shows in the wines, young and mature. Needless to say, Alphart also cultivates Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with astonishing results. I tasted through a hefty flight of ‘06s, which included all of these varieties in addition to Gruner Veltliner and Neuberger, and preferred the classiness and complexity in the local Rotgipflers and Zierfandlers to the monolithic style of the others. In this photo, Florian (22) takes me through a vineyard (July 22, ’07) that has also suffered the consequences of erratic and atypical weather patterns. He explained that 30% of the ’07 crop had already been lost due to hail damage. –Michael Koehler- www.suburbanwines.com

WINE WITH DINNER – “Wine & Cheese” … is it always a good combination?

Mention wine and cheese to most people and they will no doubt agree with you that this is a marriage made in heaven and that one of the best ways to really enjoy a truly great wine is to serve it with cheese. But, at the risk of sounding a bit like a wine curmudgeon (which I am not), I would make the following observation.

While it is true that serving cheese with flawed wines makes a lot of sense, it is only because the cheese tends to mask the faults in the wine (just like chilling it does). Hence the success of so many neighborhood (jug) wine and cheese parties and dinners served with small glasses of cold Chianti in inexpensive Italian restaurants!

But serving cheese with really good wine, especially top-of-the-line reds, does not make much sense to me (with the possible exception of the classic, time honored combination of vintage port with Stilton cheese). Why? Because cheese not only masks a wine’s flaws, it also hides many of the qualities that make great red wines worth their price. That's why cheese is often served with great Bordeaux that is really too young to enjoy - not because it highlights its qualities, but because it masks its unpleasant tannins. There is sound logic behind the old French vintner’s axiom, “Buy on apples, sell on cheese”

In general, I have found that beer goes better with cheese but, if you want serve a really good wine with your cheese course, then I would suggest a fruity white, rather than most reds. But, even here, the field is fairly narrow with gewürztraminer leading the pack and brut Champagne close behind – Jay Roelof – www.suburbanwines.com

Michael In Austria, Part II

The Heat is On: A cluster of Zweigelt grapes in Burgenland are literally sun-burned, a new and unfortunate condition in the region, according to young winemaker Anton M Iby of the world-class and exclusively red wine-producing IBY. Anton indicated that the climate is clearly beginning to change in this area, and it’s no longer unusual for spring temperatures to exceed 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) for extended time. This heat, combined with new rainfall trends which mimic Southern Spain, were not what his family had in mind when they planted the sensitive and somewhat vulnerable variety decades ago. His father, Anton Sr, has been cultivating in the region for 25 years, and appears to be convinced that global warming is real and closing in fast on this part of Europe.

Down Time: The view down a leisurely street in a commercial section of Graz, the second-largest city in Austria. This clean and colorful place has a feel that reminds me of a larger-scaled Hudson River town, complete with shops, cafés, bicyclists, students and esoteric goings-on. Yeah, I could live here.

Michael in Austria, Part I

As part of an educational program launched by the staff at Domaine Select Wine Estates, importer and distributor of scores of fine European wines, I spend 5 days in Austria last summer exploring wine and food. My host was DSWE’s German/Austrian wine director, the genuine, tireless and well-immersed Daniel Hubbard, who reintroduced me, along with 4 of his regional reps, to the vinous wonders that emerge from this part of the world. This posting will be the first of many documenting my experience.

The producers that Daniel single-handedly discovered are true artisans, many of whom are responsible for stirring worldwide interest in the Central European wine paradigm at the dawn of a new century. Most of them produce wine in tiny amounts, focusing on cru and indigenous grapes, while remaining loyal to the winemaking practices developed by their ancestors. A modern trend of returning to the organic farming techniques of centuries past is widespread in the region, and many winemakers are passionate about keeping it that way.

All in all, this was a thorough trip with very little down time. I had the opportunity to sample better than 200 wines made from 20 different grape varieties, 85% of them white, and many of them mature to the tune of 15-35 years! What I experienced astounded me, and my outlook on the wines of this part of Europe has radically transformed. The wines of Wachau, Wagram and Styria, for instance, have proven to be some of the most place-specific in the northern hemisphere, varying broadly in degrees of minerality, textural density and sugar content at the digression of both the winemaker and his/her terroir.

Many thanks go out to Daniel and Co. for their hard work toward making this brilliant experience happen for me. Look for more postings about my specific experiences in the coming days and weeks. -Michael Koehler - www.suburbanwines.com