Networked Blogs
Wine Of The Week – Grant Burge The Holy Trinity 2007
Barossa, Australia
PRESS:
94 Points, James Halliday
The blend percentages are not given, but the swapping of grenache for shiraz in first place does change the dynamics with riper red plum fruit to the fore on the soft, medium-bodied palate. Excellent mouthfeel and balance.
Molecular Gastronomy
Cooking can be considered both an art and a science. We experience it as an art in its presentation as a multisensory experience.
What a chef creates in the kitchen, in their food’s aromas, flavours, textures, sounds, and appearance is a unique amalgamation of a creative mind alongside a systematic one. This idea becomes amplified in the modern cooking discipline of molecular gastronomy. This field uncovers the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking. All cooking is a chemical reaction but the way we might cook something may create a very different end result. Cooking and egg for example. Think of all the many different ways and products we can come up with by heating an egg. The difference though is the process. What are we doing to the egg before we expose it to heat, how are we heating the egg, and at what temperature are we heating it.
In the 1980′s, French chemist Hervé discovered that cooking involved a systematic method. He devoted his time to looking for the mechanisms of phenomena that occur during culinary transformations. He discovered that the perfect temperature to cook an egg is around 65°C. At this temperature the white coagulates, but not the yolk. He coined the scientific term “Molecular and Physical Gastronomy.”
Today, many chef’s are beginning to experiment with this idea. Some of these molecular gastronomy techniques include using carbon dioxide as a source for adding bubbles and making foams, liquid nitrogen for flash freezing and shattering, syringes for injecting unexpected fillings, edible paper made from soybeans and potato starch for use with edible fruit inks, spherification to create a caviar like effect, and avant-guarde presentation styles.
Many chefs of this discipline do not like the name molecular gastronomy, and so have referred to it as modern cuisine, experimental cuisine, or avant garde cuisine. Alvin Leung, the Demon Chef, owner of Bo Innovation, with whom we had the pleasure of meeting with while we were filming in China, referred to the molecular gastronomy cuisine made at his Michelin awarded restaurant, as X-treme Chinese Cuisine. http://wineportfolio.com/sectionEatTheDemonChef.html
We’d love to hear some of your feedback on this modern take on cooking. We think its absolutely an experience to try!
Happy Chinese New Year
gōng xǐ fā cái – Happy New Year to our Chinese fans around the world. To celebrate the fast growing wine scene in middle kingdom check out our main site for videos and more from Hong Kong and China
Wine Of The Week – Argiano Solengo, IGT Rosso Toscana 2007
Tuscany, Italy
92 Points, Wine Advocate
The 2007 Solengo is sleek and refined in its blackberries, blueberries, grilled herbs, spices and graphite. The wine reveals gorgeous length and fine balance in a relatively accessible, mid-weight style for this bottling. The 2007 doesn’t appear to have the structure of the 2006 and it should be enjoyed over the next decade, give or take. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2019. (#188, April 2010)
92 Points, Wine Spectator
Full and velvety, with so much cassis and sweet tobacco on the nose and palate. A little hard on the long finish. But should open with bottle age. To be released spring 2011. Best after 2012. 750 cases made. -JS (Oct 31st 2010)
A Modern Wine Market
Some quick facts on the current and future wine market:
- Global wine consumption in 2015 is predicted to reach 34.1 billion bottles.
Wine Of The Week – Southbrook Connect Red 2008
VQA Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
PRESS:
89+/90 Points, Gord Stimmell
89+/90 Points, Gord Stimmell
This new red is dapper, with black cherry, blackberry and an intriguing nose of graphite; the flavours show black plums, cedar, black cherry and a finish of refined cassis. A wonderful Ontario value red.
www.thestar.com Sept 14th 2011
Like many highly priced, highly valued commodities, the truffle market has caused a serge in underground trade. European white truffles sell for as much as $3,600 a pound. Recently, a two pound truffle sold for $300,000 in an auction.
This product is being stolen, imitated, being traded in a black market and sold out of the back of trucks. As the premium french product is becoming scarce, they are being threatened by an inferior, cheaper chinese product. In China, rather then using pigs or dogs to sniff out ripe truffles, humans rake through the ground and pick them whenever they find them, without necessarily waiting for the truffles to ripen. This causes the truffles to be void of both taste and smell, or so the story goes.
Sorters at the Urbani factory say that they have found Chineses truffles mixed in with the French products.
This mafia like attitude starts sounding a little like the drug business, doesn’t it!
Restaurants around the World
According to the Michelin Guide (2008), Tokyo, Japan is home to 160,000 restaurants, 191 of which have been given Michelin Stars. Of the 23,000 restaurants in New York City, 54 have been given Michelin stars. Finally Paris has 20,000 restaurants, 98 of which have been given Michelin stars.
So what does this mean?
In Tokyo only 0.12% of the restaurants have Michelin stars. In New York that statistic is almost doubled to 0.23% of restaurants having Michelin stars, and in Paris 0.49% of restaurants have Michelin stars.
Clearly owning a restaurant that receives a Michelin star is a great accomplishment. We have some of these chefs submitting their recipes to us!
Check them out here http://wineportfolio.com/sectionRecipes.html
To understand what that plastic ball or widget is doing floating at the top of your can of beer, we must start off with a short lesson in what makes beer fizz!
Most beers are carbonated with carbon dioxide (CO2). Some of the CO2 is dissolved in the beer and when the can is closed, the pressure inside the can is higher than outside of the can . When you open the can, there is a sudden drop of pressure causing some of the CO2 to bubble out of the beer with the agitation of the pouring. This results in a beer with a thick layer of head on top.
Stout beers like Guinness, which are canned with widgets inside, are pressurized with a mixture of CO2 and nitrogen. Nitrogen is not absorbed into the beer at the same extent as the CO2. While a can of stout beer may have the same pressure as a can of lager, due to its lower CO2 content, it is less fizzy.
Without the widget, a stout like Guinness, would not have a very thick layer of head because most of the CO2 would stay dissolved. The purpose of the widget is to release the dissolved CO2 from the beer, to create more head, giving the beer a creamier longer lasting head, that stout is known for.
The widget is a plastic, nitrogen filled sphere with a tiny hole in it. Just before being sealed, a small shot of liquid nitrogen is added to the beer. During the rest of the canning process, the liquid nitrogen evaporates and pressurizes the can. As the pressure increases in the can, the beer is forced into the widget through the small hole, compressing the nitrogen inside it.
When the can is opened, the pressure drops and the compressed gas in the widget forces the beer out of the plastic ball and into the can. This agitation causes the dissolved CO2 to form tiny bubbles that rise to the top of the beer and form the head!
ENJOY YOUR FROTHY BEER!
Wine Of The Week – Grant Burge Barossa Vines Shiraz 2009
Barossa, Australia
VARIETALS: 100% Syrah
TASTING NOTE:
Fifth-generation winemaker Grant Burge is a master of Shiraz. The 2009 is classic Burge Barossa with layers of blackberry, plum and black cherry with smoky cloves and dark chocolate. Dry and delectably mouthfilling, with impressive tannins and a ripe fruit core. Enjoy tonight with spaghetti and meatballs in a spicy BBQ sauce.
LCBO VINTAGES RELEASE MAGAZINE, Aug 20th 2011
Recent Comments