My upcoming event at Canela on the 31st is sold out (which is great news). Our follow-up will be Feb 28th, featuring a different lineup of great Spanish wines and food.

I will also be talking about editorial experiences on the drinks trail (from Vegas to Olso) at Think Drink, a writers collective curated by Kara Newman the New York-based author and drinks writer. Other writers will include the irrepressible Camper English and Virginia Miller.

You will also be able to find Liza the Wine Chick at K&L in Soma on March 28th tasting wines under $20  and on April 11th featuring wines that pair with ethnic food. Please come down and have a glass with me.
Cin cin,
Liza the Wine Chick

I would like to invite you to share in the fun and check out my new blog covering the Mid Market Area. The neighborhood is exploding with new restaurants, including a Sri Lankan one, which I will review next week.  A dish of 1601’s picked vegetables are pictured here:Picture courtesy of 1601 Bar & Kitchen.

The area is exploding with new construction as companies like Square, Twitter and Kings Lane move into the area. It is slated to be home to new restaurants from the AQ and Daniel Patterson group as well.

I will reveal some great pairings for Sri Lankan dishes in my next post.

Cin Cin,

Liza the Wine Chick

Bubbles are wonderful all year long so there’s no need to just enjoy them on Valentine’s Day. However, if you do want to go the traditional route, I have some suggestions. The best values, for both sparkling wines and Champagnes, often come from the lesser-known areas and producers. One of my favorites has long been Gruet, a family-owned winery—with roots in Champagne—in New Mexico. It may come as a surprise but they make some great wines here.

If you want to go with real Champagne, Nicolas Feuillate is one of my favorites. It is one of the youngest and newest houses in Champagne. Also many other French regions—such as Alsace and the Loire—make some amazing sparkling wines. Albrecht’s crisp Cremant d’Alsace is a favorite of mine.

Dolcetto and Barbera have long been favorites of mine. Lambrusco is fun for its fizz and has divine acidity that helps it to pair with lots of foods. Liniis one of my favorites.

Some sexy Anderson Valley Pinot Noirs should also do the trick.Foursight and Lautrec from Toulouse are two of my favorite producers.

Cin Cin,

Liza the Wine Chick

I have been waylaid at home this rainy week with a bad knee with a couple of stitches. I have had a lot of time, needless to say, to think about what I love about my adoptive home town: Rome. Let’s start first with Fernet Branca, which I had just finished drinking in the picture above, which is widely available just like in San Francisco! Second: classic dive bars with long leases, such as San Calisto (pictured), a affordable hangout in Trastevere for much of Rome for decades.

The management is now providing guests with actual glass glasses after a period of suspension when only plastic was used because of clients’ propensity to brawl in the piazza outside.

Three: Puntarelle (pictured above) is a seasonal chicory served for only a handful of months in Rome. The crunchy, fresh greens are dressed in an anchovy sauce.

Cin Cin,
Liza the Wine Chick

There has been such a dearth of good movies and television shows about wine for the past decade. Few of us would have noticed if there hadn’t been so much great food TV: Anthony Bourdain wondering if he can manage a week long trip to Saudi Arabia because there will be no booze served or if he really can relate the American-born Saudi woman—covered head to toe—who will be his culinary guide?

The last wine-themed TV program I saw featured close-up shots of an overweight sommelier jumping up and down when she won a “wine challenge.” The footage is not only not interesting, it is downright uncomfortable to watch.

SOMM, which chronicles the obsessive compulsive nature of a group of San Francisco-based wine professionals, doesn’t really get to the core of who they are and why passing this exam is so important to them. I presumed—full disclosure—as I knew many of them that I might be more interested in their emotional involvement in studying for and hopefully passing this test, however I wasn’t.

The viewer’s involvement wasn’t a key focus for anyone involved in producing this film. The film succeeds most when it compares the machismo of taking the Master Sommelier exam to a man’s desire to excel at sports. Unfortunately it only primarily makes the protagonists seem short sighted and competitive and makes the rest of us wonder why no women were interviewed and profiled in this film although many more of them are taking the exam every year. It wasn’t a perspective that was given to the viewers of SOMM so perhaps we will never know.

Cin Cin,

Liza the Wine Chick

I discovered a new and fantastic grape in Portugal on a recent trip. It’s a white grape called Síria and is also used in blends. It is found frequently in the Estrela region, which is famous for its delicious and stinky cheese—Serra da Estrela—and sometimes in the Douro region.

It has often taken a back seat to better-known Portuguese white grape varietals such as Verdelho and Arinto. Generally the country is also better known for its reds than its whites, thanks to the Port trade.

Siria’s subtle flavors of stone fruits, balanced with great acidity, make it an ideal food wine. It pairs sublimely with octopus salads, lighter cod dishes—so beloved by the Portuguese—and other seafood-based dishes. One of my favorites was the Quinta do Cardo.

A few great places to find Portuguese wines in San Francisco include Gitane, a pan-Mediterranean restaurant on Claude Lane and fantastic retailers like K&L.

Cin Cin,

Liza the Wine Chick