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02/22/12
You cannot be around wine very long without someone commenting on the labels. Luckily for me, I am around wine a lot. Unluckily for me, I hear the label discussion all the time.
It goes like this: Who can read this damn thing and make any sense of it at all? Long words, abbreviations, references to places no one ever heard of, and not a mention at all as to what grapes are in the bottle.
Who would you choose as the country with some of the worst wine labels in the world when it comes to communicating information about what is in the bottle? It’s not Germany, Italy, France or Spain, which are probably labels that drive you crazy, maybe to the point of avoidance. And it’s not Australia, Argentina or Chile, nor is it one of those countries from Eastern...
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02/15/12
(Which is sort of redundant
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02/09/12
Don’t put yourself in a negative relationship posture entering the height of the Carnival season. If you are like me, you can find plenty of ways to disappoint and annoy the one you love. I know, it’s not supposed to work that way, but there you are. It does.
During the course of a year, there are plenty of opportunities to screw up (technical term). Birthdays, anniversaries, special events, holidays, and moments lost when some suitable remembrance is a proper recognition or response, all have the capability of being wonderful times, bringing you and your love closer together. Or they can go the other way. Don’t ask me why.
Coming up next week is Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, Feb. 14, and you can tell yourself all day long that it is a contrived holiday...
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02/02/12
Today’s Happy Hour column is coming at you with suggestions for visiting several new places, thanks in no small part to my inability to concentrate on one thing for any lengthy period of time. I don’t think it’s just me, but Carnival season needs to get into full swing as quickly as possible. After an exciting time around the end of 2011/beginning of 2012, I’m bored.
Thankfully, and not a moment too soon, the Krewe du Vieux rolls - actually it’s more like a series of lurches - this Saturday night. I’m way beyond ready.
Anyway, while my pal Robert Peyton over on his Hautes Plates blog somewhere next to this one has featured many, many new restaurants recently opened in our little burg, I have not done the same for the bar scene, an...
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01/25/12
Some people, and maybe you are one of them, have avoided wine for all of their drinking life because it just seems like it’s way too complicated.
Beer is easy to deal with. And it tastes good. You just open the can, or pull the tap, or unscrew the bottle and get with it. It does not ask for much in return, and there are no rules for pairing beer with food. Steak? Yep, it goes with that. Hot dog? Oh yeah, works nicely. Taco chips and cheese? I’m there.
Mixed drinks are also along the same lines. You find something you like, and you determine when you want to have it, more than what you have to have it with. The occasion becomes the driving point rather than wondering if that quality of vodka goes with the trout.
But wines, good gosh, not only do they come in a...
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01/19/12
A man walks into a beautiful bar in his city.
It’s a new bar and someone has spent a lot of money on its décor. A lot of money. The wine lineup is not all that much. Moving on to the cocktail offering, not much assistance is provided by the people behind the bar. In fact, at one point one of the bartenders (note I never said mixologist) offered to allow the man to browse through a how-to-make cocktails book.
Back to the wine list, the man asked for a glass of Belle Glos Meiomi pinot noir, as noted on the wine menu. The bartender asks three times to repeat the order, and then comes over, holding a bottle of the wine, with the question, “Is this it?”
A man walks into a bar in a historic setting.
He is meeting friends who have already...
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01/12/12
Grapes are truly products of their environment. They reflect the character of the soil in which they are set, and they are absolute recorders of weather history throughout their journey from flower to fruit.
Everything that a grape experiences in its maturing cycle is in its being. And along with a grape's sensitivity is also a penchant for just trying to get along. An easygoing nature has allowed the fruit to find a way to flourish on just about every continent.
Grapes in North America have been an always-here circumstance. The earliest European explorers of our land, the Norse, named this large plot of ground Vinland around 1000 BC. Just coming ashore, they had to chop their way through dense grapevines to see what wonderful things lay beyond the shore. They found more...
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01/05/12
And you thought the time had passed for wish lists. Yes, ol’ Santa is back at the North Pole or on Bayou Terrebonne, or wherever the dude hangs, and we’ve either received what we wanted or are left to scramble on our own to find ways to access that iPad, or Wii, or whatever it is. One of my friends was interested in a new Maserati. I don’t think she got it.
But the wish-list season goes on because now we are faced with the New Year’s resolution conundrum – which is, to make them or not. To be sincere about them or not. To even fool with the concept or not.
In my usual strong fashion, I’m taking a hard stance squarely in the middle of this annual activity. What do you expect from a New Orleanian who lives by the code, “Moderation in...
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12/29/11
You made it! Congratulations.
Here you are on the brink of kissing good-bye to 2011 and about to enter 2012. But only yesterday, didn’t we just party like it was 1999? Wasn’t the turn of the century about 20 minutes ago? Evidently not so, in either case.
We’ve all earned the right to a kick-ass party because the clock is moving right along and we are about to turn the calendar. Beginning right now, it’s going to be a long bout with a whole trainload of parties rolling at us in short order. New Year’s, Sugar Bowl, beginning of Carnival, Saints first playoff game, BCS and then, hopefully, more Saints playoff games. Did I mention the seasonal balls with parade season right around the corner?
Do you realize that in most communities they roll up...
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12/22/11
It’s crazy out there. Possibly you have not quite been in the Holiday spirit to this point, but you are there now. And even if you have been in the spirit, this is the time when it does not get old. It gets nice. Or naughty. Or both – lucky you.
Special holidays, like Christmas, or the “holiday season” (choose your preference), require special responses from the liquor cabinet. Oh sure, you could just go the champagne route, and there’s no down-side there. You’ve put much emphasis on getting the home in order and decorated, then you’ve actually spent a few bucks on presents for friends. Maybe you’ve even splurged a little on yourself. Good for you.
So let’s add a little holiday cheer to the drinks’ selection. Your...
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Tim learned to appreciate wine from his wife-to-be, Brenda Maitland, and it has been a fascinating 35-year journey for the couple. Tim graduated from Jesuit College Prep in Dallas, then earned a journalism degree from the University of North Texas. He came to Louisiana because of his love of New Orleans, then fell in love with Brenda and simultaneously fell in love with all things wine.
