Travel,Wine and Cuisine by Christopher J Davies

Ladies from Rancho Zabaco Zinfandel is America's heritage grape from California, sans Europe and back, some say. During prohibition Zin growers made their riches selling their grapes to home winemakers in Brooklyn and Queens. These urban winemakers, mainly sons of Italian American immigrants, followed their old world traditions making table wines in their basements to drink with their daily supper. Zinfandel grapes traveled well from California in wooden crates. Fast forward to 2012, red wine is America's preferred vino. Zinfandel has grown in popularity and comprises more than 10% of all planted grapes in California. Still as Joel Petersen, founder of Ravenswood says, "It is the grape that wine writers love to hate". As a wine writer I know that some geeks are down on high alcohol Zins that are labeled at 16% and can possibly be 18.5% (2.5% margin of grace). You can spot (or sniff) one of these "hot" Zins a mile away. Still it is not fair to brand a...

Pairsine.Com I am so excited that the Pairsine, Taste of Elegance Chefs Food & Wine Competitions are going national. The first two are sponsored by ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers), which means the chefs will be creating pairings with Zinfandel (red wine only). The competitions feature 10 wine savvy chefs competing to make 20 custom paired epicurean delights with 20 award-winning Zins! Each event features a silent and live auction benefiting a designated national charity such as the Foundation for Sight and Sound or The Warriors For Freedom. Pairsine's first tour with ZAP kicks off in April with a NYC and Orlando stop! Tickets are $120 per person. But order before April 2, 2012 and save $25 per ticket. Use code: twc25 Order Page: http://pairsine.com/tickets.html ----------------------- Pairsine Chefs Food & Wine Pairing Competition NYC April 17, 2012 Sponsored by ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers) Featuring an exclusive tasting of Zinfandel...

Beef Short Ribs seasoned and marinating Once a month we conduct a panel tasting of wines for Vinotasting.com There are lots of partially opened wine bottles opened that we keep giving away to neighbors and friends. I decided to explore recipes and techniques for using this left over wine. If you are like most folks, you probably don't have a lot over unfinished wine bottles. So if you choose to make this dish, you will need to sacrifice a few bottles (3) of decent red to make the recipe. The following recipe is inspired by recipes that are published one of my favorite chefs Daniel Boulud. I added the overnight marinating of the meat before braising. After several attempts and tweaks I served this dish to our family on Christmas. Everyone is still raving about the meal! BEEF SHORT RIBS IN RED WINE Feeds 4-6 guests Step 1- Marinating the meat in wine 4lbs of Beef Short Ribs 5 cups of red wine 5 crushed garlic cloves 1 tbs salt 1 tsp pepper 1 tbs of Herbs de ...