Subject:

Beverages

  • Blogs

    October 30, 2012

    What Is Terroir and Why Is It Important in Wine?

    One of the greatest examples of terroir is Parmigiano Reggiano, the unmistakable and incomparably delicious cheese made in the region of Emilia-Romagna (in northern Italy). They make a similar cheese, using similar methods, just across the Po river on the north side of the great waterway (which flo ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 26, 2012

    Eater National's Talia Baiocchi Joins Wine Spectator Team

    UPDATE AND CLARIFICATION: We received word from Talia Baiocchi that this post has caused some confusion. She is not leaving her position as wine editor at Eater National. She is picking up a weekly column for the Wine Spectator in addition to her current job with Eater. New York-based, twenty-some ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 24, 2012

    A Taste of Texas Wines at Sullivan's

    Last week, Sullivan's Steakhouse played host to Messina Hof founders Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo for a wine dinner showcasing the Texas-based winery's award-winning wines. I was invited to attend, not only to reacquaint myself with the Messina Hof's wines, but also to sample the specialty menu create ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 23, 2012

    The Eating Our Words 100: Dale Robertson, a Populist Among Wine Writers

    Eating Our Words has embarked on a project to profile 100 Houston culinarians of all fields, practices, careers and backgrounds. This isn't a Best of Houston list, it's not a 100 Favorites list and it's not in any particular order. Instead, the Eating Our Words 100 is a way to introduce our readers ... More >>

  • Dining

    October 18, 2012

    Fit for a King

    A Pearland biergarten serves up tasty Austrian-German food and lots of fun.

  • Blogs

    October 18, 2012

    The Eating Our Words 100: Denman Moody, Author of The Advanced Oenophile

    Eating Our Words has embarked on a project to profile 100 Houston culinarians of all fields, practices, careers and backgrounds. This isn't a Best of Houston list, it's not a 100 Favorites list and it's not in any particular order. Instead, the Eating Our Words 100 is a way to introduce our readers ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 17, 2012

    Celebrate Oktoberfest Like the Germans Do at King's Biergarten -- With Beer

    When it comes to German beer on draft, there are two places to beat in Houston -- even if one of them is technically in Pearland. Closer to the heart of the city, Midtown's Bar Munich has an impressive array of taps that includes all six varieties of Hofbräu München (including their Oktoberfest b ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 15, 2012

    Flying Saucer Sugar Land Announces Beer Feast Event

    I will be the first to admit, I never expected to like much Sugar Land's Town Square had to offer, much less the package as a whole. Between the distance, the generally unappealing Town Center shopping format or the fact most other concepts of this nature dotting Houston's landscape tend to be a tea ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 11, 2012

    What if Winemakers Listed Ingredients on Every Bottle?

    "Ingredients," reports the back label on a bottle of Randall Grahm's Bonny Doon wines from California, "Syrah grapes, tartaric acid, and sulfur dioxide. In the winemaking process, the following were utilized: indigenous yeast, yeast nutrients, and French oak barrels. At time of bottling, this produc ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 10, 2012

    How To: Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte

    With all the hoopla about Starbucks' shortage of Pumpkin Spice Lattes, I searched the Internet for a copycat recipe so you can make this wonderful fall drink at home. That was before I found out that Houston is in the clear of having to suffer from the loss of Pumpkin Spice Lattes. But, just in ca ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 9, 2012

    New Calorie-Displaying Soda Vending Machines: 5 Reasons Why they Won't Significantly Aid America's Obesity

    There's just no getting around it: Americans have a love affair with soft drinks. Dr Pepper, Sprite, Coke, Pepsi, Fanta - you name it, we love it. It's a soft drink love fest -- until we remember all the calories that soft drinks contain, and the fact that those sugar- and calorie-filled beverages p ... More >>

  • Blogs

    October 1, 2012

    What Wine Didn't Romney Drink in Boca Raton?

    This weekend, after-dinner conversation with family focused on presidential politics, the upcoming campaign, and politically hued media bias. Talk of Romney's "47 percent" comment got me thinking: Which red wine was in the decanter on the table seen in the now infamous candid video of Romney that ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 24, 2012

    A California Chardonnay without Sin

    I just love that the good folks over at the Chamisal winery in the Central Coast of California call their entry-level Chardonnay "stainless." To anyone familiar with the science and art of winemaking, the term "stainless" denotes a commonly employed technique and associated style of vinification. B ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 18, 2012

    The Battle Hymn of the Beer-public: There's No Room for Snobs in Craft Beer

    When Mongoose versus Cobra first opened, one of my favorite things to do was sit outside on a busy Friday night and watch as the following scene played itself out over and over like some version of Groundhog Day with a different pack of confused Midtowners each time: Group of snappily dressed men ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 13, 2012

    My Trip to Napa Valley: Part II

    I'm pretty sure I fell in love with Napa. It's like an alcoholic's wine lover's Disneyland; a land with a picturesque landscape and fantastic crisp breeze, with some of the world's best wine at your fingertips, just ripe for the taking. And the food scene: TDF. I was lucky enough to enjoy two incr ... More >>

  • Blogs

    September 12, 2012

    Behind the Scenes at The Iron Sommelier Competition

    "In ten minutes, they're gonna be in the room," said sommelier Antonio Gianola with a tone of urgency. To his right, fellow sommelier Jonathan Honefenger encouraged his fellow somms along with cries of: "Hustle! Hustle!" The two men moved swiftly from one seat to the next, pouring a deliberate ounc ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 31, 2012

    Celebrity Wine: Tasting Notes for (Drew) Barrymore Pinot Grigio

    According to the Decordi winery's website, "the 2011 Barrymore Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie IGT is a dry and fruity wine made with grapes from the Veneto, Friuli and South Tyrol regions." The Decordi winemaking facility is located in Cremona (in the region of Lombardy), a two-hour drive -- minimum -- ... More >>

  • Dining

    August 30, 2012

    The Best Beer Labels

    The most iconic and creative on Texas shelves.

  • Blogs

    August 29, 2012

    Sixpoint Brewery Makes Its Mark on Texas

    "It was very planned out," said Sixpoint founder Shane Welch of his brewery's recent move into the Texas market. The Brooklyn, New York-based brewery hit Texas this week with an initial offering of five different beers, a number Welch promised would grow in the near future. We had a chance to check ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 28, 2012

    Skin Contact Is How Wines Get (or Don't Get) Their Color

    Last week's post on our Pinot Grigio Nation reminded me of the first time I visited a winery, when I was 20 years old. I was a senior in college at U.C.L.A. (majoring in Italian), and I made a road trip to northern California with some European friends to visit the wine country. During a tour of the ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 22, 2012

    Pinot Grigio Nation

    "Soon as we walk through the door," sang Mariah Carey in her 2008 hit, "Migrate," "Fellas be grabbin' at us like yo / Tryin' to get us going off the Patron / We sippin' Grigio... slow." These lines came to mind last night when the day's umpteenth press release caught my eye from an over-saturated i ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 21, 2012

    Congratulations Galveston, You Are Only 96 Percent Honest

    A few weeks back I told you about Honest Tea's "honesty experiment" where they planned to set up a few unmanned kiosks across the country offering their bottles of iced tea for with a jar asking for $1, with payment based on the honor system. Many of you were rightfully confused, asking where the "h ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 20, 2012

    Texas Wine Blogger Alfonso Cevola Wins Top Honor

    Yesterday, the organizers of the Wine Blog Awards announced the 2012 winners, including Dallas-based wine blogger Alfonso Cevola (above), who won for the "best single subject wine blog" category. Now in their sixth year, the Wine Blog Awards are widely considered the highest accolades in the world ... More >>

  • Dining

    August 16, 2012

    More Than Just Nolan Ryan

    5 food-related reasons to drive to Alvin.

  • Blogs

    August 15, 2012

    Report from TexSom: "Best Sommelier in Texas" 2012 Is Ryan Tedder (Dallas)

    On Monday, the organizers of TexSom, the annual Texas sommelier conference, announced the winner of the "Best Sommelier in Texas" competition, Ryan Tedder of the yet-to-open FT33 Restaurant in Dallas. David Keck of Uchi took second place in the annual event, now in its eighth year. The competition ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 13, 2012

    Fear of Wine: Oenophobia = Xenophobia

    In this week's New York Times dining section, wine writer Eric Asimov -- the Solomon of wine writing, as I like to call him -- asks: "Should a Wine List Educate or Merely Flatter You? [and] How Adventurous Should a Wine List Be?" His op-ed came in response to a flurry of blog posts that followed a ... More >>

  • Dining

    August 9, 2012

    Keep Cool and Caffeinated

    Houston's ten best iced coffee crinks

  • Blogs

    August 9, 2012

    Wine Lost and Found in Translation with Sean Beck

    "The sommelier is there to 'translate' the wine" for the patron, says sommelier Sean Beck. Beck runs one of the city's most respected wine programs at Backstreet Café. "You're there to make the guests feel confident about their choice" of wine, he explains. In a city like petrochemical-based Houst ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 9, 2012

    Houston's 10 Best Specialty Cocktails for the Summer

    With the cocktail movement booming in Houston, it seems as though you can hardly go to a bar or restaurant these days without encountering a list of cocktails. And on that list of cocktails, expect to find a list of the house specialty drinks -- concoctions created by (or for) that bar or restaurant ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 6, 2012

    Life Before Pinot Grigio: A Favorite Pinot Gris from Oregon

    Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio from northern Italy changed everything. I'll never forget the first time I saw a bottle of the wine in a Southern Californian gourmet super market in the 1980s. The bottle was not the classic green but transparent (a stroke of marketing brilliance) and showed off the w ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 1, 2012

    Gumbo and Half Bottle of Riesling for a Lonely Diner at Brennan's

    Yesterday evening, when I found myself in the peculiar predicament of having to dine alone, I decided to treat myself to a bowl of gumbo at the bar at Brennan's, a landmark where I still hadn't eaten after nearly four years in Texas. Beyond the social awkwardness, dining alone for a wine lover can ... More >>

  • Blogs

    August 1, 2012

    Mikkeller Offers a New Salvo in the Beer Wars: 300 IBU Tastes Like Burning

    The beer wars are nothing new. Long before craft beer came along, the large macro breweries engaged in back-and-forth barbs, jockeying for position in the market. Usually carried out via marketing and commercial sniping, the battles all but amounted to multimillion-dollar re-enactments of schoolyard ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 31, 2012

    Have A Drink On Us: AC/DC Sells Wine Now, and We Had a Tasting

    Shout-out to the oenophiles out there, there is a new kid on the wine block these days, with the introduction of two varieties of vino geared towards fans of classic-rock band AC/DC. Now, I know what you are saying: Since their music goes so well with the hard stuff, shouldn't AC/DC be making their ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 31, 2012

    Keep Cool and Caffeinated: Houston's Top 10 Iced Coffee Drinks

    August is nearly here, and the summer ain't getting any cooler. But at least your coffee can. I'm not the type of person who can make it through a morning without getting caffeinated, but it requires a special kind of fortitude to grimly chug a few cups of hot coffee when beads of sweat are already ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 30, 2012

    Yellow Rose, Houston's First Legal Bourbon Distillery, Set to Launch Soon

    Master distiller Troy Smith points to a few sacks of corn on the floor of the small warehouse that houses Yellow Rose Distillery in a quiet, residential area just north of Tomball. "We use organic corn from North Texas," he says. "And we grind it all by hand." That corn is the most important ingred ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 30, 2012

    Low-Alcohol Vermentino from California Makes Me Happy

    The winemakers behind Uvaggio Vermentino from Lodi have a theory. "If we grow the right grape in the right place," they write on their website, "we can manage to get by with our respective degrees in psychology and geography. (If one of us gets lost then other can figure out why.) However, when you ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 24, 2012

    Eat Local, Support Local: The GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up Is Here

    Houston Restaurant Weeks is coming this August. But before you budget all your dining dollars to that worthy cause, remember that an equally worthy one is going on this week: The GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up. Each year, the GO TEXAN Restaurant Round-Up features restaurants across the state cooking ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 20, 2012

    This Woman Made Me Drink Merlot

    "The thing I like about the Houston wine scene," says the Houston Wine Merchant's Marcy Jimenez (above), "is the Gulf Coast attitude. We're a little more relaxed than the folks to the north of here." Marcy was born in the Bronx and raised on Long Island, New York. But she cut her teeth in the New Or ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 18, 2012

    Mingle with the Stars and Taste a Buttload of Wine at TexSom

    Now in its eighth year, TexSom -- the annual Texas Sommelier Conference (August 11-13 in Dallas) -- has become a national phenomenon, selling out quickly and attracting some of the biggest names on the U.S. wine scene today. This year, Master of Wine Christy Canterbury will be joining the list of ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 17, 2012

    An Espresso Lesson at Ciao Bello with Master Barista Giorgio Milos

    Espresso is more than just a beverage -- it's the base ingredient used to create an array of specialty drinks: cocktails, frappes, cappuccinos and other classic coffee beverages. Master barista Giorgio Milos arrived at Ciao Bello Friday, after being stuck in an airport for six hours due to the mas ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 17, 2012

    A Shameless Plug for Finger Lakes Wines

    I'm no Jeremy Parzen, but I do know a little bit about wine. Growing up in the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York, I took the proximity and availability of local wine (and a decent wine education) for granted. When I was 21, "wine trailing" was a cheap way to get drunk. Tastings only cost a b ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 13, 2012

    Sommelier Vanessa Treviño Boyd Doesn't Kiss and Tell

    Philippe sommelier and wine director Vanessa Treviño Boyd is not one to name drop. But even if she were, you really couldn't fault her for it. In conversation with her, once the ice is broken, she can rattle off a who's who of Burgundy and French-wine elites whom she counts among her most intimate ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 11, 2012

    Creative Pizza and Crafty Pints at That Pizza Place On Ella

    I'll admit that I wouldn't have been quite as drawn to That Pizza Place On Ella -- the subject of this week's cafe review -- were it not for the marquee above, which crows that the pizza joint has the largest beer selection in Oak Forest Larger than Petrol Station? I thought. Surely not. Either way ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 9, 2012

    Top 5 Red Wines to Serve Chilled in Summer

    Some are more apt to reach for white than red wine during summer months, and it's perfectly understandable: White wines are generally served chilled, red wines generally not. But when summertime arrives at our house, I find myself craving earthy red wines to pair with the smoked ribs we are offered ... More >>

  • Dining

    July 5, 2012

    1981 and Now

    The Top 12 Texas Junk Foods.

  • Blogs

    July 5, 2012

    What's Your Signature Cocktail?

    Noted food writer and Esquire food critic John Mariani was in Houston recently, only a few months after proclaiming that ours was one of his favorite restaurant cities: "On occasion, when asked what are America's best restaurant cities," he wrote on his personal website, "I have sometimes surprised ... More >>

  • Blogs

    July 2, 2012

    Top 5 All-American Red Wines for July 4th Grilling

    It seems only natural to go All American for our Fourth of July recommendations. After all, wine -- and our nation's bizarre relationship with alcohol -- have been part of our history since the time of the Founding Fathers. "In nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 29, 2012

    National Ice Cream Soda Day: 5 Unique Ice Cream Sodas

    Soda fountains are not as popular today as they were in the 1950s or '60s, but who doesn't love a good, old ice cream float? Creamy and sweet ice cream dunked into a fizzy and bubbly soda satisfy any sugary craving. Tomorrow, June 30, is National Ice Cream Soda Day, so here are five unique ice cre ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 27, 2012

    Underbelly's Underpriced Wine List Gives Us More Reasons to Love It

    Because there is so very much to discuss when it comes to Underbelly, the subject of this week's cafe review, I found myself having to trim back significantly in certain areas of the review in order to get a broader point across (which, TL;DR, is that Underbelly is where it's all happening and you s ... More >>

  • Blogs

    June 26, 2012

    Top 5 Sodas That Aren't Coke or Pepsi

    "No Coke...Pepsi!" Belushi's classic SNL skit is actually an homage to The Billy Goat Tavern, a dingy burger place in Chicago where you will be yelled at for your order, where they really do only serve Pepsi, and there are no fries, only chips. I've checked the place out and eaten a burger there - ... More >>

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