Christmas and New Year’s main courses are more varied than Thanksgiving and that means a broader range of wine possibilities. Roast beef offers the greatest opportunity for drinking those glorious reds we abstained from on Thanksgiving. For many holiday roast beef means a standing rib roast, a regal piece of meat. With a rib...
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I don’t get to New York for tastings and luncheons as often as I used to. So I have to pick my spots carefully. The Weygandt Portfolio Tastings are just the right size and usually have some interesting wines including the following: Sollner is a small Austrian producer of biodynamic wines made from grapes grown on the hillsides...
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Last spring I traveled to the Finger Lakes region of New York researching a cover story on beef I wrote for the September 30 issue of Wine Spectator. (Yes, they do raise cattle there!). On way to the farm of Jeff Rosenkrans (they call them cattle farms, not ranches in New York) I stopped by this winery, where Jeff’s wife works. To...
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Beer with dessert is a little trickier than wine and dessert. There is no category of dessert beer, and beers rarely have the sweetness of dessert wines. Unless the wine or beer is as sweet as or sweeter than the dessert, you’ll get a jarring affect similar to the one from dry Champagne and wedding cake. I initially thought that...
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Though plenty rich and malty, the Belhaven had refreshing acidity, unusual for Scottish ales, which are typically less hoppy than English ales. Nonetheless, the acidity gave the beer good balance. There was plenty of body and attractive spice notes, which stood up to the meaty lamb and to the sauce, which contained garlic, onion,...
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More copper colored than pale, pale ale is a British invention with a yeasty fruitiness and a dry hoppy finish, though not as hoppy as India pale ale. The fruitiness in the Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale leans toward citrus. It is lean and clean with lovely floral notes and a crisp, slightly bitter finish. The floral and citrus notes...
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