http://tavolarosso.com Food, Wine, & Travel Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:06:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en First off, I’ve always liked dolcetto. A lot.  It’s not readily available at every corner grocer, giving it a certain sense of uniqueness, and its usually priced really fairly without the big name varietal markup.  Plus, its undeniably Italian! The name dolcetto always reminds me of dessert and the ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/12/2007-renato-ratti-dolecetto-dalba-colombe/ At this point, our wine was actually wine, and although a bit acidic, it was starting to resemble something that might be drinkable. Racking is the process of moving the wine from one container to the next, with the primary result being to lift the wine off of the ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/12/wine-making-the-first-racking/ Back in September I reviewed the 2007 Veramonte Riserva Sauvignon Blanc - a tasty, great value wine. Last month I had the privilege to get my hands on a pre-release of the 2008 Riserva. I chose Thanksgiving as the occasion to open the bottle, so I could get some general thoughts ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/12/veramonte-sauvignon-blanc-riserva-2008/ Last weekend Isabell and I made a trip up to Seattle to see some of our friends. On Sunday night we had a rendezvous of the powers that be for Tavola Rosso for a dinner at Olivar, a Spanish-French fusion restaurant on Capitol Hill. This particular dinner was significant, as ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/olivar/ This wine, from Barahonda,  was recommended to us during a recent visit to Seattle’s great new Spanish/French capital hill joint, Olivar. A blend of monastrell and cabernet sauvignon this wine is from the Yecla DO in Eastern Spain, not far from Valencia. A couple of things I found interesting when researching ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/barahonda-barrica-2004/ The fermentation process moved along much quicker than we had planned on (or expected), and rushed to a stop after only 5 days.  I knew the fermentation was about finished when the cap no longer needed much punching down and started to slip back into the layer of juice. The next ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/wine-making-pressing/ Note: If at anytime you’re offended, please refer back to the title. That said... The gentlemen at Tavola Rosso have passed me the T-Day baton, perhaps not realizing I have inflexible thoughts about what to drink, and what to shun, on the Great Day of Turkey. Warning: it’s not going to ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/a-wildly-unpopular-thanksgiving-wine-article/ Last weekend, I hosted a baby shower for a close friend. What a great excuse to get friends together, celebrate the upcoming arrival of her little one and enjoy some tasty fall favorites. I went back and forth about whether to do serve brunch or lunch, and I decided to ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/fall-favorites-for-a-special-occasion/ At this point, the must has sat overnight, and the sulfur which we added yesterday (see sorting and crushing) has killed off any of the unwanted naturally occurring yeasts that may have been present.  We need to turn to all that grapey sugar into alcohol, which is called fermentation. The ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/wine-making-primary-fermentation/ Beyond picking of the grapes this has been the most labor intensive stage of winemaking.  After the grapes arrive, you want to get the process started as soon as possible, for the sake of freshness of the fruit.  A good fresh grape is the same as a fresh apple, and ... http://tavolarosso.com/2008/11/wine-making-sorting-and-crushing/