Manoavino Taste!

Champagne for Four Courses? I Was Surprised, but Now Enlightened! Yes, You Can.

I confess, it never occurred to me to pair Champagne with an entire meal. But today I was enlightened and enjoyed a new indulgence that I’ll certainly will replay.

At an unlikely address, 130 West 3rd, above the gritty street scene of this block, there is a precious space where where the oldest established Champagne house, Ruinart, with Cellar Master Frédéric Panaïotis and one of Miami’s, heck one of the world’s, most exciting chefs, Michelle Bernstein, came together to prove a point.

Champagne is all you ever need.

The Wine: Four Ruinart Champagnes $$$-$$$

The Food: Exciting Miami by Chef Michelle Bernstein

The Place: A Private Event Loft at 130 West 3rd St NYC

Vino e Cioccolato, Now that is a Beautiful Pairing

Today, to get noticed you’ve got to have a unique message, a special approach. So when the Nicosia family, who have been producing fine wine Sicilian wine since 1898, set their sites on the NY market they decided to do something exciting and different.

It worked, when I got an invite to a wine and chocolate tasting it immediately piqued my interest. This is not something you see everyday.  To make sure the sweets would be worthy of their fine wines Nicosia teamed up with the extraordinary chocolate sommelier Roxanne Browning, of Exotic Chocolate Tastings. It was quite an event.

The Wine: Four Nicosia Sicilian Reds $$-$$$

The Food: Four Artisanal Chocolates 

The Place: Culinary Loft, Broadway near Spring, NYC

Two Great Meals - Two Great Pairings Italian/Italian and Southern France/Middle Eastern

Day two in DC was a fun filled day with more great food and wine. For lunch we a happily savored a magnificent Barolo paired with a great Italian lunch we made with inspiration from recipes by virtuosi della cucina Italiana, British vanguard, Elizabeth David, and true New Yorker, the progressive Anne Burrell. What a meal.

But that was it on Italian, for dinner we turned to the magnificent new cookbook Jerusalem, by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. For this meal we looked to the south of France for fitting wines.

Wine pairing is  easy with Steve, he has a siginifcant collection to draw from. Here is what we had.

The Wine: Conterno Barolo Cascina Francia $$$$

The Food: Pappardelle Bolognese and Brussel Sprouts Balsamico 

The Place: Our Friends Gail and Steven's Home, Somerset, District of Columbia

Two Days in DC a weekend of food and wine ecstasy starting with 2Amy's Napolitan Pizza Cleveland Park

This past weekend we visited our very good friends Gail and Steven who live in the charming community of Somerset just outside of DC. They are as passionate about wonderful food and wine as we are. We arrived Friday evening after a tiring drive from Montclair fraught with rain storms and protesters. Despite the government being closed traffic was heavy.

After taking some time to relax and settle we went out to one of Gail and Steven’s favorite pizza places called 2Amy’s Napolitan Pizza. Let me tell you, to call this fabulous restaurant a pizza place is like calling the White House a townhouse. 

The Wine:  Gragnano Grotto del Sole Sorrento $-$$

The Food: Authentic Napolitano Artisinal Pizza

The Place: 2Amy’s Napolitan Pizza Washington, D.C

Tonight's Wine Pairing - Homemade Indian Chicken and Vegetables with a GSM

Grenach-Shiraz-Mourvedre, GSM, from Minervois, Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France was a perfect compliment to a simple Indian influenced dinner tonight.

Indian food is considered to be a challenge for wine pairing but is really quite easy. With a few simple rules.

The Wine: Le Grand Noir Black Sheep Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre (GSM) $$

The Food: Homemade Indian Style

The Place: Our Kitchen 

Tonight's Wine Pairing - Classic French Food with a Classic French Wine

For a dinner at the Montclair French restaurant Fricassee we chose this white from the Sud Quest region in southern France.  When choosing a wine for a meal my first thought is the origin of the cuisine, generally you are going to find the best pairings in wines of the same place as the food. In some cases like Asian cuisine this is not possible, or a wine from say Puglia is just not available.  Next thought is what dishes we will be having, this can be tough because the standard rules of red with meat and white with fish don’t really apply in every case.

I chose this bracing white because it has crisp balanced flavors of citrus and melon, like a Sauvignon Blanc, that compliment a wide range of foods.

The Wine: Domaine Duffour Côtes de Gascogne Blanc $

The Food: French Broiled Salmon and a Meaty Cassoulet, with a Frisee Salad

The Place: A welcoming local French Bistro, Fricassee, Montclair, NJ

Tonight's Wine Pairing 10-7-13 a Vibrant Italian Inspired Dinner and Wine for a Vivid October Evening

The question "what comes first the wine or the food?" was answered synchronistically tonight. Fresh fall vegetables and meat and a favorite Italian wine were acquired with a just a vague plan, but they came together so beautifully. 

Primitivo, a grape that is perhaps closely related to Zinfandel, finds a flourishing life in the the rich environs of Puglia. And the richest and most wonderful wines of this grape come the fertile lands around the ancient and florid city and commune of Manduria.

The Wine: Felline Primitivo di Manduria from Puglia, IT $$

The Food: Diana made stuffed pork tenderloin with roasted parsnips and carrots with parsley over arugula

The Place: Home sweet home, remembering our trip to Lecce, Puglia.

Tonight's 10-6-13 Wine Pairing Asian Inspired Dinner with a "New World" French Pinot Noir

We love pairing wine and food, food and wine, however we are inspired. Here at Mano a Vino we are shifting our focus to just that. Beer and Cocktails and Bars will be heading over to TheBadassPour.Com which we hope you will visit. Out focus here will be the great flirtations, courtships, engagements, and loving mariages of great wine and delicious food.

Last night was Asian inspired, all fresh ingredients from the Montclair Farmers Market.  So the wine? The immediate and easy answer for a red wine when the meal is Asian? Pinot Noir of course. 

The Wine: Black Sheep Le Grand Noir Pinot Noir $

The Food: Asian Inspired Dinner, Seared Tuna from the Farmer's Market

The Place: Home