Weekend Reading Assignment

For your weekend reading, we have three articles that encompass literally the entire world of wine.

First, check out Decanter.com’s assessment of the 2009 red Burgundies. They’re head over heels in love with them, saying that, though “there's some variability...most 2009 reds are rich, expressive, aromatic and vibrant...They're lovely now yet have great aging potential too.” Click here for the full report.

Then we have a fascinating piece in the Financial Times by Jancis Robinson, in which she profiles a young sommelier whose travels around the world neatly reflect the increasingly international nature of wine consumption. Great reading; click here.

Finally, a piece in the Wall Street Journal about dessert wines, which still remains one of the most misunderstood categories around. It’s a handy little primer on when to order them, what to pair them with, and a nice overall guide to the options.

All of these articles, of course, will pair best with a nice glass of wine. As always.

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Peanut Butter and Jelly

With the latest food scare upon us—peanut butter of all things!—I’d like to recommend a replacement of sorts for that much-loved, and now all-but-verboten, lunchtime staple.

Actually, I can’t claim responsibility for this one; that honor goes to Scott Turnbull, the brilliant Sommelier at the amazing Fountain Restaurant in Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Hotel. Toward the end of the exquisite anniversary dinner that my wife and I enjoyed there, Scott followed the waiters over to our table bearing a mischievous smile and a mysterious bottle...

Farra D’Orazio, the Director of Public Relations at the hotel, was well aware of my wife’s peanut butter obsession, and had arranged for a special dessert that would play right into her every sweet-tooth tendency: Baked chocolate and peanut butter napoleon with raspberry coulis. And Scott, in a wildly successful effort to further clarify the peanut-butter-and-jelly nature of the dish, had brought along a bottle of Banfi’s Rosa Regale Brachetto d’Acqui, the sweet, perfumed, sparkling Piedmontese red that far too many people still don’t know enough about.

Brachetto d’Acqui is one of those hidden gems that offers ten times more pleasure than its price or lack of familiarity would seem to indicate. And the Rosa Regale bottling, with its rose petal and raspberry perfume, is that rare wine that’s both stimulating to the intellect and thoroughly, blissfully gulpable.

My wife liked the earrings I bought her, but she loved her peanut butter and jelly dessert. Sometimes, jewelry just can’t compete with a perfect pairing.

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