Manoavino Taste!

A Beauty from Sicily - Anthilia Vino Bianco by Donnafugata

The Wine: Negronis, oh you got me, that’s not a wine, it was “un bel vino bianco, Anthilia da Sicily” $$

The Food: Delverde farfalle with baby bella mushrooms, pancetta, arugula and parsley with buratta, EVO and pecorino romano

The Place: La Casa Conway Polack, “al nostro tavolo della cucina”

Like most great things of Italy, Donnafugata Anthilia, has an intriguing history. Two stories in fact, a tale that goes back to invasion of Italy by Napoleon in the 1800’s and our own story of discovering this favorite wine.

Not Your Mother's Pesach -New Passover Wines - New Passover Recipes - "Modern Twists on Traditional Flavors" and Wines to Pair

The Wine: Here’s a list of exciting kosher wines for Passover 2014 from local wine shops $-$$

The Food: Wow! Great Recipes from "4 Bloggers Dish: Passover: Modern Twists on Traditional Flavors"

The Place:  Your house and I’m coming over.

Here is a great new Kindle Book, by the very creative and award winning Jewish food bloggers Whitney Fisch of Jewhungry, Liz Rueven of Kosher Like Me, Sarah Lasry of The Patchke Princess, and Amy Kritzer of What Jew Wanna Eat that will make your Passover special and we’ve got some wine suggestions too.

Yes You Can, Pick The Right Wine

So many of my friends plead ignorance when it comes to wine. Yet they know what they like when they taste it.  Nevertheless, navigating, exploring, conquering the perplexing mazes we call wine stores, is usually not easy. But here is a way to succeed.

The Wine: What you like $-$$$$

The Food: Well that depends

The Place: Your local wine shop

Buy the Right Wine Every Time: The No-Fuss, No-Vintage Wine Guide by Tom Stevenson, one of today’s most prolific and respected wine authors, is an indispensable guide for novices and experienced wino's alike. Here is why we like this book.

A Great Wine Makes Left Overs Even Better - Paul Mas Estate Marsanne, La Forge Vineyard, Languedoc

It’s a Monday evening, lots of left overs from a weekend of feasting, how to make them exciting? With a perfect wine of course.

The Wine: Paul Mas Estate Marsanne, from the Sud de France $

The Food: Some delicious left overs warmed and spiced

The Place: Our warm kitchen on another chilly night, will the warm weather ever come back? Yes!

We fell in love with Paul Mas wines last spring when we met 4th generation wine maker Jean-Claude Mas, since then we buy them often. 

A Blind Champagne Tasting with Friends

I was offered the opportunity to taste some very good French Champagne, yes that is a redundancy, Champagne can only be French, but I’ll explain that later. I decided it would be fun to do a blind tasting, so we did.

The Wine:  Four sparkling wines range in price from $12 to $85.

The Food: Mediterranean Mezze

The Place: A small party at our friends’ apartment at The Mills in Little Falls

I was really curious how the wines would be judged.

An Education in Natural Wines by the Illustrious Andrew Fisher at Astor Center New York City

While most will agree to really get to know a wine you’ve got to drink it, consume it, let it fill you. But, sometimes the perfect pairing experiences are small sips with tiny bites of food. Such was the case in a wonderful lesson in what are called “Natural Wines.”   I learned a lot.

The Wine: Three very delightful, distinctly different wines made in the “Natural” way.

The Food: Tiny bites to contrast and compliment.

The Place: Astor Center, NY City’s pre-eminent forum for experiencing wine, liquors, beer and food, and the beautiful people who make them.

The event Natural Wines 101 was a part of Astor Wines 10th Annual Natural Wine Week. Natural is a word that has been stretched and abused to the point where it has very little true meaning. It was great to get to know what it really means in the context of wine.