I learned to drink wine in college, and the Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling was always my favorite.
from the NYTimes
August 17, 2006
Dry Riesling Wins Top Award in State Contest
By HOWARD G. GOLDBERG
A 2005 dry riesling from the Finger Lakes was voted New York’s best wine in an annual contest yesterday.
The winner, a white made by the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, defeated 702 other entries in the biggest field in the New York Wine and Food Classic’s 21-year history.
The bottle costs $16 at the winery, on Seneca Lake in Dundee, N.Y. Given the Governor’s Cup, it was named “best white wine” and “best of show.”
The two-day competition took place in Canandaigua in the Finger Lakes region.
The competition was sponsored by the New York Wine and Grape Foundation, a nonprofit statewide trade association based in the New York Wine and Culinary Center, which opened in Canandaigua in June.
The Wiemer vineyard, established in 1979, is viewed by many as one of North America’s leading riesling producers. Mr. Wiemer’s 2002 reserve riesling won the 2003 contest.
The German-born Mr. Wiemer made 2,000 12-bottle cases of the winning 2005 wine. Most have been allocated to various markets. About 200 awaited distribution to merchants and restaurants in New York City.
Reached at his property, Mr. Wiemer said he planned to send the winning riesling to customers in about 40 states.
“It is not a typical riesling for the Lakes,” he said. “We had a warm vintage, and the wine is broader than usual.”
Except for 2005, rieslings have won the contest every year since 2000, giving rise to the perception that the Finger Lakes region has become one of the world’s principal riesling zones.
At the contest, Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars, on Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region, was declared the winery of the year on the basis of total number of medals amassed.
In major categories, the state’s best whites from the Finger Lakes included the following: Chateau Frank’s 2000 Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine ($39.99); Chateau LaFayette Reneau’s 2005 semisweet Johannisberg riesling ($14.99); and Dr. Konstantin Frank’s Vinifera Wine Cellars’ 2005 ($24.99) gewürztraminer, which tied with Corey Creek Vineyards’ 2005 gewürztraminer ($25) from Long Island.
The best reds, also from the Finger Lakes, included ChateauLaFayette Reneau’s 2002 cabernet sauvignon ($19.99) and its 2002 pinot noir ($18.99).
Long Island contributed these winners: Jamesport Vineyards’ 2004 cabernet franc ($24.95), best overall red; Corey Creek’s 2005 reserve chardonnay ($30); Peconic Bay Winery’s 2001 merlot ($23.99); and Wölffer Estate’s 2005 late-harvest chardonnay ($37, half bottle), voted best dessert wine.
The best semidry riesling was Mazza Chautauqua Cellars’ 2005 ($12.95), made in the Lake Erie region.
All the wines were tasted blind, although the 24 judges, 17 of whom came from out of state, were told the grape varieties in each round.
The wine industry and influential wine periodicals treat the contest as the broadest, most representative index of the quality and styles of New York’s expanding wine industry.
Entries were submitted by 102 of the state’s 239 producers. As measured by total wineries, New York’s industry is the fourth-largest in the United States, after California, Washington and Oregon.
What happened to Chowhound? www.chow.com
From the NYTimes
August 16, 2006
A Food Web Site, Spiced With Attitude
By LORNE MANLY
HIPNESS is rarely a prime ingredient in the most popular Web sites devoted to food and drink. Chow.com, a new food Web site that begins its rollout next week, hopes to inject that sensibility into its smorgasbord of recipes, restaurant reviews, party hints, video tutorials and coverage of the marketing and culture of food. All this is aimed at a younger audience than the major food Web sites tend to attract.
Chow.com comes from an unlikely purveyor: CNET Networks, a Web publisher best known for technology news and reviews and computer game tips and tricks. Though the foray seems an odd fit, it dovetails with the company’s strategy of expanding to general-interest passions of the 25- to 45-year-olds it seeks, whether child-rearing (urbanbaby.com), music (mp3.com) or television (tv.com).
For the required gustatory intelligence, the company earlier this year bought the remains of a short-lived magazine called Chow, bringing along its founder, Jane Goldman. And since every self-respecting Web site needs a virtual community attached to it, CNET Networks also acquired Chowhound, an online message board for the food-obsessed, where culinary explorers seek and debate everything from the best stewed octopus in Astoria to the ultimate doughnut in Maspeth. (The New York Times Company has a content syndication agreement with different CNET Networks properties, the technology-focused cnet.com and news.com.)
Cracking the consciousness of Web surfers will not be easy for chow.com. The prodding of the Food Network cable channel powers the Web site of the same name, and provides the profits for original shows for the Web. On Monday, for example, a Web show called “Dave Does’’ made its debut, in which the chef and author Dave Lieberman scopes out the latest food trends.
In addition, epicurious.com, owned by the company that publishes two of the most influential food magazines, Gourmet and Bon Appétit, profits from that connection, while AOL Food reaps the benefits of one of the most popular Internet portals. And although fans of the iconoclastic Chowhound could be the core audience of chow.com, some members may rebel against the notion of its “going corporate,” much as early fans of an indie rock group turn against the band after a major record label snaps it up.
Ms. Goldman, a former editor of The Industry Standard, the chronicler of the Internet boom and then bust, started Chow in 2004 for an audience she believed was underserved: a younger, hipper clientele passionate about food but perhaps not too skilled at preparing it. The plans for chow.com call for retaining the magazine’s sensibility and making the contributions of its users a substantial part of the mix.
The new site begins the Web equivalent of an out-of-town tryout next Wednesday. People who go to chow.com in the next week will be able to register to sample the site’s goods before it opens widely next month; the Chowhound message boards are already available.
Though chow.com will have a test kitchen and has licensed recipes like those from Roy Finamore’s book “Tasty,” executives know they’ll never be able to match the libraries of Epicurious, the Food Network’s Web site, or the popular site allrecipes.com. But it hopes to provide clever ways to search for those recipes, like what to eat before a night of drinking and dancing into the wee hours.
In addition to the usual food site basics, there will be video tutorials for offbeat projects like making your own root beer or curing your own meat. A party package will include music playlists, tips on how to get people to leave and the chance for users to send along analysis of their own parties, including videos.
In “Show Us Your Kitchen,” Chow-blessed contractors will invade volunteers’ homes to remodel. The “My Chow” feature, beyond allowing for the sharing of recipes and restaurant recommendations, will let users find like-minded dinner companions for the times their friends are too cheap to splurge for the likes of a Thomas Keller dinner. And a “Nagging Question” section aims to offer a pop-culture sensibility. After reading that a competitive eater downed 44 lobsters, Ms. Goldman wondered, If you eat 11.3 pounds of food — which is what those lobsters yielded — do you gain 11.3 pounds? The answer: for a few minutes, yes.
CNET Networks will try to meld the personalities of Chow and Chowhound by sending Jim Leff, the founder of Chowhound, on an eat-across-America mission called Chow Tour. This week, Mr. Leff, who will gladly travel 30 miles out of his way for a slightly better muffin, heads south into barbecue country, with some planned stops at Kentucky bourbon and spoonbread festivals.
Since it began in 1997, Chowhound has attracted a fervent audience of food lovers, but its minuscule budget made scanning the site as enjoyable as reading the phone book. CNET Networks installed better software and design in June, but popularity breeds complaints.
Robert Sietsema, the restaurant critic for The Village Voice and a contributor to Gourmet, said he still finds the Chowhound boards helpful, but he said the quality of the discourse over the past few years has declined as more dabblers and dilettantes came onboard. “There’s less interest in the signature find,” he said. Instead of people scouring off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods, there are obvious questions, like “Where can I take my parents after a Broadway show?’’
Mr. Leff disputes that the proportion has changed, and vows that the swankier surroundings will not subvert the site’s mission: finding unsung “deliciousness” not beholden to the marketing machine. CNET, he said, has promised him that it will not sell restaurant ads on the Chowhound message boards. But the rest of the site is open to marketing tie-ins. Sub-Zero is a sponsor.
Blurring the lines between advertising and journalism is not a problem to everyone. The second most popular food Web site in July, behind FoodNetwork.com, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, was kraftfoods.com, which has recipes, videos (how to prepare balsamic-marinated flank steak, for example), and articles from the Kraft-sponsored magazine Food & Family.
“Who delivers that information doesn’t seem to matter, as long as the ads don’t interrupt the experience,” said Beth Higbee, senior vice president of Scripps Networks Interactive, which runs Food Network.com. Chow.com may have indie cred. But, Ms. Higbee asked, “Is that enough to emerge from the fray?”
August 16, 2006
A Food Web Site, Spiced With Attitude
By LORNE MANLY
HIPNESS is rarely a prime ingredient in the most popular Web sites devoted to food and drink. Chow.com, a new food Web site that begins its rollout next week, hopes to inject that sensibility into its smorgasbord of recipes, restaurant reviews, party hints, video tutorials and coverage of the marketing and culture of food. All this is aimed at a younger audience than the major food Web sites tend to attract.
Chow.com comes from an unlikely purveyor: CNET Networks, a Web publisher best known for technology news and reviews and computer game tips and tricks. Though the foray seems an odd fit, it dovetails with the company’s strategy of expanding to general-interest passions of the 25- to 45-year-olds it seeks, whether child-rearing (urbanbaby.com), music (mp3.com) or television (tv.com).
For the required gustatory intelligence, the company earlier this year bought the remains of a short-lived magazine called Chow, bringing along its founder, Jane Goldman. And since every self-respecting Web site needs a virtual community attached to it, CNET Networks also acquired Chowhound, an online message board for the food-obsessed, where culinary explorers seek and debate everything from the best stewed octopus in Astoria to the ultimate doughnut in Maspeth. (The New York Times Company has a content syndication agreement with different CNET Networks properties, the technology-focused cnet.com and news.com.)
Cracking the consciousness of Web surfers will not be easy for chow.com. The prodding of the Food Network cable channel powers the Web site of the same name, and provides the profits for original shows for the Web. On Monday, for example, a Web show called “Dave Does’’ made its debut, in which the chef and author Dave Lieberman scopes out the latest food trends.
In addition, epicurious.com, owned by the company that publishes two of the most influential food magazines, Gourmet and Bon Appétit, profits from that connection, while AOL Food reaps the benefits of one of the most popular Internet portals. And although fans of the iconoclastic Chowhound could be the core audience of chow.com, some members may rebel against the notion of its “going corporate,” much as early fans of an indie rock group turn against the band after a major record label snaps it up.
Ms. Goldman, a former editor of The Industry Standard, the chronicler of the Internet boom and then bust, started Chow in 2004 for an audience she believed was underserved: a younger, hipper clientele passionate about food but perhaps not too skilled at preparing it. The plans for chow.com call for retaining the magazine’s sensibility and making the contributions of its users a substantial part of the mix.
The new site begins the Web equivalent of an out-of-town tryout next Wednesday. People who go to chow.com in the next week will be able to register to sample the site’s goods before it opens widely next month; the Chowhound message boards are already available.
Though chow.com will have a test kitchen and has licensed recipes like those from Roy Finamore’s book “Tasty,” executives know they’ll never be able to match the libraries of Epicurious, the Food Network’s Web site, or the popular site allrecipes.com. But it hopes to provide clever ways to search for those recipes, like what to eat before a night of drinking and dancing into the wee hours.
In addition to the usual food site basics, there will be video tutorials for offbeat projects like making your own root beer or curing your own meat. A party package will include music playlists, tips on how to get people to leave and the chance for users to send along analysis of their own parties, including videos.
In “Show Us Your Kitchen,” Chow-blessed contractors will invade volunteers’ homes to remodel. The “My Chow” feature, beyond allowing for the sharing of recipes and restaurant recommendations, will let users find like-minded dinner companions for the times their friends are too cheap to splurge for the likes of a Thomas Keller dinner. And a “Nagging Question” section aims to offer a pop-culture sensibility. After reading that a competitive eater downed 44 lobsters, Ms. Goldman wondered, If you eat 11.3 pounds of food — which is what those lobsters yielded — do you gain 11.3 pounds? The answer: for a few minutes, yes.
CNET Networks will try to meld the personalities of Chow and Chowhound by sending Jim Leff, the founder of Chowhound, on an eat-across-America mission called Chow Tour. This week, Mr. Leff, who will gladly travel 30 miles out of his way for a slightly better muffin, heads south into barbecue country, with some planned stops at Kentucky bourbon and spoonbread festivals.
Since it began in 1997, Chowhound has attracted a fervent audience of food lovers, but its minuscule budget made scanning the site as enjoyable as reading the phone book. CNET Networks installed better software and design in June, but popularity breeds complaints.
Robert Sietsema, the restaurant critic for The Village Voice and a contributor to Gourmet, said he still finds the Chowhound boards helpful, but he said the quality of the discourse over the past few years has declined as more dabblers and dilettantes came onboard. “There’s less interest in the signature find,” he said. Instead of people scouring off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods, there are obvious questions, like “Where can I take my parents after a Broadway show?’’
Mr. Leff disputes that the proportion has changed, and vows that the swankier surroundings will not subvert the site’s mission: finding unsung “deliciousness” not beholden to the marketing machine. CNET, he said, has promised him that it will not sell restaurant ads on the Chowhound message boards. But the rest of the site is open to marketing tie-ins. Sub-Zero is a sponsor.
Blurring the lines between advertising and journalism is not a problem to everyone. The second most popular food Web site in July, behind FoodNetwork.com, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, was kraftfoods.com, which has recipes, videos (how to prepare balsamic-marinated flank steak, for example), and articles from the Kraft-sponsored magazine Food & Family.
“Who delivers that information doesn’t seem to matter, as long as the ads don’t interrupt the experience,” said Beth Higbee, senior vice president of Scripps Networks Interactive, which runs Food Network.com. Chow.com may have indie cred. But, Ms. Higbee asked, “Is that enough to emerge from the fray?”
Chautauqua Culinary Institute
Wow. A fantastic weekend in Chautauqua New York (near the PA border and 1 hour South of Buffalo), and I feel like the Chautauqua Institute got most things right, but I couldn't believe that food was not more of a priority.
With summer educational programs in dance, theatre, opera, music, and visual arts, everywhere you turn there is a stimulating art form, and when combined with a beautiful place, the time between meals can really be outstanding.
Unfortunately, the enlightened minds that have cultivated this extraordinary place for families and intellectuals and believers seems to be neglecting my favorite art, and everyone else also seems to complain about the food.
What is it? I guess it could be some sort of Puritan tradition, but the artistic stimulation is certainly decadent, the place is beautiful, and no one is there working. Why single out food?
It seems to me like it would be a natural extension of the existing art programs to include another: the Chautauqua Culinary Institute. Imagine that, along with the dozens of artists invited to enrich their skills, Chautauqua sponsored aspiring chefs to be a part of the community. Like the musicians practicing on the quads, maybe we could have chefs sharing small meals throughout the campus. Like the main plays the acting group puts together, couldn’t the chefs come together for some fantastic feasts? Upstate New York is rich for culinary transcendence during the peak summer season, and it is a shame that it is not more strongly embraced by this enlightened community.
With summer educational programs in dance, theatre, opera, music, and visual arts, everywhere you turn there is a stimulating art form, and when combined with a beautiful place, the time between meals can really be outstanding.
Unfortunately, the enlightened minds that have cultivated this extraordinary place for families and intellectuals and believers seems to be neglecting my favorite art, and everyone else also seems to complain about the food.
What is it? I guess it could be some sort of Puritan tradition, but the artistic stimulation is certainly decadent, the place is beautiful, and no one is there working. Why single out food?
It seems to me like it would be a natural extension of the existing art programs to include another: the Chautauqua Culinary Institute. Imagine that, along with the dozens of artists invited to enrich their skills, Chautauqua sponsored aspiring chefs to be a part of the community. Like the musicians practicing on the quads, maybe we could have chefs sharing small meals throughout the campus. Like the main plays the acting group puts together, couldn’t the chefs come together for some fantastic feasts? Upstate New York is rich for culinary transcendence during the peak summer season, and it is a shame that it is not more strongly embraced by this enlightened community.
Cyclades – Sea Harvest and Market Lessons
Monica, Shota, and I spent the last week of July touring the Cyclades on a 51 foot Alfa (ocean cruising sailboat) with a fantastic Obelixan skipper - Babys, and 3 new Greek friends - Apostolous, Ilias, and Kostis. Flying in to Athens, we met the boat at Paros, after a three hour high speed ferry ride from Piraeus (the port of Athens), to begin a casual tour of some stunning Cycladean islands.
We came to eat and we were excited about fish, octopus, and sea urchins. I even brought my dive gear and fishing rods to see if I could help in the harvest. We had moderate success while diving and fishing, but we had a challenging time finding fresh seafood at restaurants.
The first fish I saw in Greece were at a great salumerie in Milos (our first island stop) which was about a block away from the center of the port (and a fantastic bakery – see photo). There was a broad selection of what appeared to be local (no brand) well packaged beautiful fish, squid, and octopus. This strong frozen selection and Babys’ selection of ouzo mezze from the same store (canned seafood and smoked cheese) should have been an indication as to how the fish markets work in remote Cycladean islands and how our week of fish eating would be.
There was fishing on the islands and I saw two traditional methods: drop lines and gill nets. The drop lines were fished with monofilament and small baited hooks attached in series on a long stretch and monitored by pairs of fishermen in small (<15 foot) boats that I would not like to be in outside of protected waters. The gill nets were bright yellow and handled on specialized boats about the size of lobster trawlers.
I never saw a prize catch. Instead I saw lots of small (~8-10 inch) fish of mixed variety sold from the boats in quantities of about a dozen and carried un-refrigerated (no ice) in plastic shopping bags to what inevitably was the house of a local. I would consider these fish by-catch or trash fish: small, mixed species, nominally fish: probably not the intended catch, but ended up dead in the boat. In Miami, we complain if we find them on the end of our line; in Japan, I am sure they are a delicacy (the rarer and smaller the better); and in Greece, they probably make a great soup.
I also tried my luck at fishing and diving. I caught a few 10 inch grouper in the port at Milos and a lizard fish during a post partying dawn at Folegandros, but I could not catch anything worth keeping. On the other hand, a mate on the Shiraz, a luxury sailboat with Spanish owners which we met in Milos, had some success trolling large bright Rapalas on his way to the island, with 4 20+ pound tunas in the fridge.
Diving was different. I never saw an octopus, but the upper depths were littered with sea urchins, so I knocked free and collected as many as I could during the half hour free diving segments in the frigid clear Mediterranean Sea. Our first try at Folegandros yielded dozens of beautiful black urchins, a pen shell, and a scallop that looked like a rock. I had seen a small cuttlefish, but they are really difficult to catch with your bare hands! Back at the boat, we had scallop with lemon juice (divine), and I was pleasantly surprised to find a pair of breeding (the female had eggs) clear shrimp living in our pen shell (also eaten). They were great live and immediate.
The urchins were no fun. Even though they were beautiful, not all of them had the orange uni stuff we were looking for, and if they did, they looked anemic. It wasn’t until Sikinos were I grabbed some large white-spined specimens that we had a better uni hit rate and greater uni yield. From our results, I would guess that uni success is as much a function of species as it is of gender? We never looked at any menus (we were with Greeks), but we were never offered sea urchins.
Monica and I requested fish every day at every island, but did not fully realize that we would have a difficult time finding it until we reached the most remote island we visited, Sikinos, and realized that we had eaten nothing but lamb and goat all week long.
The one chance we had at eating fish on the islands seemed to have been through a promise from Babys: if we planned a trip early enough to Sikinos, he could reserve fish from the day’s catch for our dinner. Unfortunately, the hangover delays precluded this possibility. I assumed there was a limited number of fish caught and consumed on the island, and that we just needed to claim our share, but when I thought a bit more about the market dynamics, it seemed like there may be another answer for why we couldn’t find the fish we so eagerly sought on the islands we visited, and I wanted to answer a simple question: Where could I get fish? If they weren’t reserved and we could not find them in the restaurants, where did the fish go?
Apparently, there are two types of fish (famously complained about by Greek locals), the premium fresh fish, usually prized species, kept fresh and prepared as a delicacy for prices quoted at 50 Euros +, and the affordable mass market frozen and canned seafood that is ubiquitous and delicious. What we did not realize was that a week cruising among remote Cycladean islands would bring us the latter. The remote islands we visited had the majority of their supplies brought in from the outside, and were almost solely visited by Greek tourists, who are probably less willing to pay the inflated prices guaranteed for fresh fish during the peak tourist season at other sites.
Our experience in the islands was an apparent lesson in market economics:
• If you want fresh seafood, catch it yourself.
• If there is a more lucrative market for seafood, that is probably were the best quality goes.
Luckily the trip still had some food highlights, but it was amazing that we had to return to Paros, which seemed like a suburb of Athens (high school cliques at bars), to find where the market deposited the fish we sought.
On our last night in Paros together we found our first great seafood meal at the Ouzeri Apostolis restaurant. It began with the local octopus delicacy which is brushed with olive oil and dried in the sun for a few days (according to Babys) and grilled just before it is served. We had seen a tourist depiction at a pleasant café on the Milos boardwalk, but this was our first successful eating. The meal climaxed with a wonderfully cooked, grilled, juicy, red snapper (fangri in Greek, almost identical to tai in Japan, nothing like Atlantic red snapper) served with a lemon olive oil dressing, and my favorite memory is of pulling the head in half (longwise) and sucking on one of the juiciest grilled fish I have ever had.
The best was apparently saved for last. The rest of the group had left us, Ilias and Kostis for work, Apostolous and Shota to Mykonos to try some last attempt slutting, so Monica and I found ourselves with a beautiful day to wander Paros’ neighborhoods. After some mandatory (for me) shopping and a full meal at a great local gourmet café selected by Apostolous (Distrato- coolest temperature on Paros), we found ourselves on a small beach with a number of tables outdoors and selected the most pleasant looking one (Glaukos). We were stuffed, but planned on reading our thick books with mezze and ouzo all afternoon long. I was reading the Fagles Odyssey again (which I love), but was startled from the epic when godly chipirones (baby squid) deposited themselves on the table of the only other guests on this seashore. We quickly ordered our own, and were served them fried in a pile: fresh, uncleaned, and with a thick crumbing. Monica and I attacked (too quickly for cameras), and it wasn’t until I explained that the broad range in flavors of the plate in front of us was due to the fresh intestinal contents each squid contained, that I was able to grab the lion’s share.
Interestingly, I had a similar experience in Hokkaido (the northernmost island of Japan), where okasan and I had a horribly difficult time finding premium uni (sea urchin) and ikura (salmon roe) even though Hokkaido is the famous source. Hokkaido is also remote, harsh, and visited mostly by local (Japanese) tourists. The inability to get premium products at the source is a strange artifact of an efficient market, but gives me confidence that money can buy quality foods (even if they are a day older). Could Argentina’s beef be another model of this, where all the cuts considered “best” in export markets are not available in local cuisines? Ever seen a large Key West Pink Shrimp in Key West? What exactly was that trash fish soup the local was making?
Refreshingly, the Cyclades were fantastic, and we have many stunning memories of rakomelo nights and wine dark seas. I think there are probably places that combine the strengths of the market with the benefits of being close by (experience, freshness, price, etc.), and it seems as though Paros fits that role for the Cyclades - maybe Sapporo does this for Hokkaido (or is it Tokyo for everything?). Kyoto definitely does it for baby bamboo (sources the best of the region), and (thinking ahead to the next vacation) it gives reason to stopping in Florence during truffle season and not just hanging out in the forests.
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