Subject:

Beverages

  • Blogs

    May 23, 2012

    B[ring] Y[our] O[wn] B[arbera]

    In the aftermath of recent posts here at Wine Time on corkage and tipping etiquette, Lucio's BYOB and Grill seemed like an ideal destination for a working dinner with a colleague -- a demilitarized zone, as it were. After all, it has "BYOB" in the name of the venue. Not knowing what to expect in ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 21, 2012

    Red, White and Orange: More and More Orange Wines in Houston

    "Old man piss." I hate to say it, but it's the best descriptor to use to describe the color of many of the "orange" wines that are finding their way to our market these days. As you can see from the color of the wine in the glass above, orange wines aren't really orange: They tend to have a deep ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 10, 2012

    A Tipsy Mom is a Happy Mom: Mother's Day Bellini Bar

    If you're skipping the restaurant rush and looking for a way to jazz up to your annual Mother's Day Brunch, look no further. Two words. Bellini Bar. I know my mama would appreciate the morning buzz more than she would my not-so-famous quiche Lorraine (by the way, when did quiche become the official ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 9, 2012

    The Wine Lover's Bill of Rights

    We the Wine Lovers of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Meal, establish better Wine Pairings, insure enogastronomic Tranquility, provide for the common wine service, promote the quality of fine wine, and secure the Blessings of Vinous Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordai ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 4, 2012

    Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with Houston's Top 10 Margaritas

    You don't have to wait for Cinco de Mayo to enjoy one of the city's favorite cocktails, but it doesn't hurt to have a few in celebration, either. Just remember to toast the Battle of Puebla (after all, that's what Cinco de Mayo commemorates -- not Mexican Independence Day.) 10. Sorrel Urban Bistro ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 3, 2012

    A Little Pork Fat and A Little Red Wine - Just What the Heart Needs

    Sunday night, 20 miles south of Houston, two culinary heavy hitters knocked it out of the park at the Revana Wine Dinner at Killen's Steakhouse. Chef Ronnie Killen and Chef Randy Rucker began preparing weeks in advance, tasting wines and developing recipes to pair perfectly with Revana wines. It w ... More >>

  • Blogs

    May 2, 2012

    Texas Wines Are Talk of the Town

    In the wake of Sunday's Texas wine seminar at the Austin Food & Wine Festival, organized and moderated by Houston wine writer Russ Kane, Texas wines seem to be on everyone's minds this week. Eatocracy (CNN): Food & Wine magazine executive wine editor Ray Isle, a Houston native, was a member of the ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 30, 2012

    2nd Annual Texas Beer Fest a Success

    Check out our photos from the Texas Beer Festival at Discovery Green. This past Saturday, a sun-drenched Discovery Green was converted into a playground for beer-lovers as it played host to the second annual Texas Beer Fest. As I walked into the festival grounds, I opened up the event booklet and r ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 30, 2012

    Texas Wine Makes the Big Time at Austin Food & Wine Mag Fest

    "The Wines Of Texas Are Upon You" may have seemed like a bland seminar title when compared with spicier ones like "Everything You Need To Know About Wine But Were Afraid to Ask" and "Super Star Wines." But the fact that the Austin Food & Wine Festival (which made its debut over the weekend) includ ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 25, 2012

    The Chill: When Is Wine Too Cold?

    In the wake of the Twitter response to yesterday's post on "The Pour: Glass Half Empty or Half Full?" (in other words, when should waiters refill or wait to refill your wine glass?), I thought I'd post on another issue that wine lovers often face in restaurants: Wine so chilled that its aromas and f ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 23, 2012

    Wine(s) of the Week: Austin Food & Wine Festival Preview

    Anthony Giglio is simply one of the funniest and most fun-to-be-around people I know in the wine writing business today. The New York-born son of Neapolitan immigrants, he loves wine, food, and life with a passion that spans the divide between old world and new. And whether he's guiding a tasting of ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 11, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Bear on Wine: Chapeau bas, as the French say (in other words, hats off), to Houston wine educator and Spec's veteran fine wine buyer Bear Dalton for his painfully frank post on bottle variation in one of the world's most coveted Super Tuscans -- Guado al Tasso by Antinori. In preparation for the Ho ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 5, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Vintage Texas: Top Texas wine authority Russ Kane chronicles the bankruptcy filing and botched sale of one of the state's leading wineries, CapRock, in Lubbock. According to his report, New Mexico winery Gruet has been ordered to pay $4 million for a breach of contract after bidding in a bankruptcy ... More >>

  • Blogs

    April 3, 2012

    A Wonderful Time at Brenner's on the Bayou's Wine Revolution

    This past weekend, beautiful Houstonians donning flats and bright resort-casual attire, per the event's invitation, skipped out on their Saturday country club visits and spa days in favor of Brenner's on the Bayou's third annual Wine Revolution. Set in tents under the bright sun, amidst Brenner's hi ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 26, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Your Grandfather's Chianti But I Like It

    Italian wine is our thing. And when I say that, I don't mean that we don't like and drink French, Spanish, and Californian wine. But when it comes to the wine that my wife and I serve and drink in our home, that we drink most often when we go out, and what we stash away in our wine cellar, Italian w ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 23, 2012

    Wine Time: What To Do When Fine Wine Service Is Really Bad?

    Historically, a sommelier was a cellar master who managed a wine collection. He -- and I say he because in the pre-sexual-revolution era, the sommelier was always male -- tracked and tallied the sums of wine (originally stored in cask and later in bottle). Today, the word is used loosely to denot ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 21, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    WineSleuth Uncorked: Although we'd love to see some more wine bloggers join our ranks here in Houston, we've been geeked to see the steady posting by our city's local chroniclers of all things vinous. This week, stay-at-home mom Amy Gross shares her "ratatouille" moment -- otherwise known as an epi ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 19, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir (Willamette)

    Of all the wine-growing regions in the U.S., none seems to make more sense to me than the Willamette Valley, Oregon (although the Finger Lakes in New York state comes in at a close second). When rich white dudes were inspired to plant French varieties in Napa like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Ch ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 16, 2012

    Odd Pair: Extreme House-Cured Charcuterie

    Ever since the late 1990s and the advent of Molto Mario and his in-house salumeria at Babbo in Manhattan, extreme house-cured charcuterie has been embraced by chefs across the nation with seemingly unrivaled zeal. (Ever wonder why so many of them make "duck prosciutto"? It's because hanging ducks ta ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 14, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    After reading our blogging colleague Katharine Shilcutt's post about Robb Walsh's tasting and pairing of Texas Gulf oysters and wines last week at Oceanaire on Westheimer, we were geeked to see a post from a wine blogger's perspective by one of our favorite Houston wine educators, Sandra Crittenden. ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 12, 2012

    Track Your Bud Lets You Find Out Where Your Brew Was Born

    There are many things about food and drink that I will readily admit confound me. How did salty, slimy fish eggs become a delicacy an ounce of which cost more than my monthly rent? What is the obsession with food so spicy, it literally hurts to eat it? If Anthony Bourdain weren't famous, would he be ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 12, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Who Needs Another Merlot When You Have Cerasuolo di Vittoria?

    Did the world really need another Merlot and Chardonnay in 1995? Evidently, the Planeta family thought so, and when the younger generation of this Sicilian clan launched the eponymous winery in the mid-1990s, they delivered bold, oaky, concentrated, and highly alcoholic Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah ... More >>

  • Blogs

    March 5, 2012

    Wine of the Week: An Albariño That Really Delivered

    Some people tend to drink more red wine than white during winter. At our house, we tend to drink more white than red -- year round. And it's not because we have an issue with red wine. In fact, some of our best friends are red wines. On Saturday nights at home, when I might treat myself to a black ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 29, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    TX Wine Lover: As the still youthful Texas wine industry continues to grow and find its footing (shifting away from the California Chardonnay-Cabernet-Sauvignon-Merlot paradigm), a handful of European grape varieties (beyond the classics of Bordeaux and Burgundy) have emerged as winners. Their succe ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 27, 2012

    From Defender of Wily Politicians, Serial Killers and Drug Dealers to Texas Winemaker

    "I don't read anymore," said Dickson when I asked him to share his thoughts about the recent uproar in the world of Natural wine. "I did enough reading when I was an attorney." On Friday, I drove out to Houston native Lewis Dickson's Hill Country estate and winery, La Cruz de Comal, on the southern ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 27, 2012

    Jose Cuervo Light Margarita

    As you might have inferred from recent posts, I have been spending a lot more time in Alexandria, Virginia while my husband finishes a temporary job. With no teaching responsibilities this semester, my schedule has been much more flexible; it's been an exercise in self-discipline to write during th ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 24, 2012

    Odd Pair: Pizza and Champagne (Socialism)

    Photo by Jeremy Parzen​Champagne socialist, noun depreciative (originally and chiefly British): a person who espouses socialist ideals but enjoys a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle; confer limousine liberal noun. -- Oxford English Dictionary In this day and age of the 99 percenters, there's no ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 22, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Wine Thoughts: There's so much groovy stuff happening this week in the Texas enoblogosphere. But we just have to open today's post with a nod to one of our favorite and most balanced wine bloggers here in our state, Sandra Crittenden, author of Wine Thoughts, who writes about one of our pet peeves: ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 22, 2012

    National Margarita Day Is Today, Ash Wednesday, for Some Reason

    The people at the National Council for Naming National Days need to get together with the Roman Catholic church, because this seriously isn't going to work out. National Margarita Day on the first day of Lent? Surely you jest, National Margarita Council of Margaritas, National Chapter. But it's not ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 20, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Chardonnay

    Photo by Tracie P.Although Chardonnay has become synonymous with "white wine" in North America, its true homeland is the Côte de Beaune in Burgundy, France, where it is grown and raised in some of its most celebrated expressions.​Chardonnay has been on our minds. Last week, our colleague Chr ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 17, 2012

    Odd Pair: Mile-High Wine

    Photos by Jeremy Parzen.​"What are my white wine choices?" I asked the other day after boarding one of the roughly 24 Southwest Airlines flights that I will take this year, as I commute monthly to work with one of my clients in California. "Chardonnay," answered the steward. "Is there more t ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 16, 2012

    Ingredient of the Week: Chardonnay

    Valentine's Day came and went. You cooked some fancy meal with your significant other, uncorked a bottle of wine, and then after dinner, fed each other bon bons by the fire. Okay, realistically, there was no fire because Houston just hasn't stayed cold this winter. But all the other parts really ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 15, 2012

    Wine Time: Sparkling Wines for Cocktails

    Back at the end of 2011, when we were writing a lot about Champagne and other sparkling wines for the holidays, reader John wrote us asking for advice on what sparkling wines to use for sparkling wine cocktails. "Since spirits and lemon juice and bitters mess with the subtleties of Champagne," he ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 7, 2012

    Wine of the Week: A Red That Lasts for Days

    After what's your favorite wine?, the question that I get asked the most at wine tastings and seminars is how do you make wine last after you've opened the bottle? My initial answer is drink good wine: Wine with high acidity will last longer once opened; acidity is one of the key elements that give ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 3, 2012

    Odd Pair: Sushi and Wine (a Preview of Uchi's Wine List)

    There's a lot riding on the launch of the new Uchi in Houston. Tyson Cole's Austin outposts -- Uchi and Uchiko -- stand apart as "destination" restaurants in Texas, venues that have attained national recognition in part because of Cole's success as a competitive chef on television and in part becau ... More >>

  • Blogs

    February 1, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in (Women's) Wine Blogs

    Photo by Margaret Shugart, curator of a new blog, The Wine Roads of Texas.​The Wine Roads of Texas: "If you've never seen the communities that run across that vast stretch of road," writes Margaret Shugart, author of a new blog called The Wine Roads of Texas, "you are missing one of the most u ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 30, 2012

    Wine of the Week: Natural Wine in Texas

    As we noted in last week's post on a new era of Nastiness and a call for civility in the Natural wine debate, it's not easy to define exactly what Natural wine is. As Eric Asimov wrote in his weekly New York Times column, there is no official definition or doctrine for Natural wine or Natural winem ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 25, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Bear on Wine: We've been having a blast following Texas wine legend Bear Dalton's new blog, Bear on Wine. This week he weighs in with some of his insights into cork damage with a post entitled (caps his) MURDER, HE TASTED or 'Death in the Desert'. We don't want to spoil the grand finale of this fi ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 23, 2012

    Must Like Texas Wine: The Wine Slinger Chronicles, a New Guide to Texas Wines

    Photo by Jeremy ParzenLeading Texas wine authority Russ Kane (left) and his wife Delia love meatballs. That's Russ with Coppa executive chef Brandi Key. Russ has called Brandi's meatballs "the best in town."​It seems inevitable that the authors of the two guides to the wines of Texas have name ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 20, 2012

    The Rest of the Best: Houston's Top 5 Martinis

    Photo by Jonathan Cohen​For the next 20 weeks, we'll be rounding up the runners-up to our 2011 Best of Houston® winners. In many categories, picking each year's winner is no easy task. We'll be spotlighting 20 of those categories, in which the winner had hefty competition from other Houston b ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 20, 2012

    Odd Pair: What Wine Do You Serve with Your Baked Potato?

    Baked potatoes at our house are much more than a meal. They are a religion. We don't just do sour cream. We do sour cream-infused with freshly ground horseradish, a kiss of white wine, and kosher salt. We don't do "bacon bits." We do crumbled, crispy, center-cut bacon that's been fried the day bef ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 12, 2012

    Heavy Fuel: How to Drink Like a Rock Star

    If you want to be a real rock star, you can go ahead and forget about those Red Bull and vodkas you're so fond of. Legit rockers are fueled by bigger, harder and flat-out weirder doses of alcohol than the mere mortals hitting on the bartender at your local watering hole. Sure, a few of our musical ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 12, 2012

    How To: Drink Like a Rock Star

    Sure, most rock stars are probably happy with any bottle that happens to be within reach. Some rock stars, however, prefer to refine and perfect their booze intake, settling on a signature cocktail that suits their outsized personalities and consequence-free lifestyles. Rocks Off salutes these exc ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 11, 2012

    Dublin Dr Pepper Officially No Longer Exists, But Cane Sugar-Sweetened Dr Pepper Still Does

    Photo by Mike Overall​The bitter, extended legal battle between the 120-year-old Dr Pepper plant in Dublin, Texas and its parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS), has finally been resolved. At issue were the liberties that the Dublin plant had taken both with its distribution and merchandising ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 9, 2012

    Your Guide to Gothic Drinking

    As Houston Press's resident goth, back-cracker, and hydroponist, we remain the expert on all things dark and spooky. Also, as a writer we can assure you that we know a thing or three about drinking. They say that the answer isn't in the bottom of a bottle, but we have a sneaking suspicion that that ... More >>

  • Blogs

    January 4, 2012

    Tasting Notes: This Week in Wine Blogs

    Bear on Wine: It just goes to show that you can teach an old horse new tricks: Texas wine industry legend and fine wine buyer for Spec's since 1996, Charles "Bear" Dalton, has launched a new wine blog. Houston has enjoyed a vibrant food blogging scene for some time now while enoblogging has lagged ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 30, 2011

    Wine Time: Know Your Champagne from your Chamat

    Antonomasia is the figure of rhetoric whereby a proper name becomes a common name. In the U.S., we say Xerox for photocopy. Kleenex for tissue paper. FedEx for courier (as in I FedExed a package). And here in Texas, we say Coke for nearly any kind of sparkling soft drink. But when we call a Prosec ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 29, 2011

    On the Rocks: Cocktails Named After Musicians for New Year's Eve

    Have a G.G. Allin and bring in the New Year indecently!​Everything is more exciting, sometimes even redeeming, when it has a cool name: Sexual acts, alcoholic beverages, movies, albums, etc. OK, maybe just sexual acts and drinks. Since there are thousands of sites that have the former covere ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 29, 2011

    10 Things You Didn't Know About Champagne

    ​If you're anything like me, you don't know how to make graceful small talk at parties without resorting to an awkward recitation of facts within your narrow range of interest: Ethiopian food, maps, the history of the Gulf Oil building... New Year's Eve parties aren't any better or worse than ... More >>

  • Blogs

    December 23, 2011

    5 Tips for Serving Champagne and Sparkling Wine

    Photos by Jeremy Parzen.For the second night of Hanukkah, we made potato pancakes (latkes) and paired with sparkling Vouvray.​Even if you missed our Top 5 Champagnes Under $60 for the Holidays, you'll find that your favorite wine shop will have a tide of options when it comes to sparkling wine ... More >>

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