Archive for the 'announcements' Category

Slinging juice: my side hustle at Parlor Pizza


My good friend, chef Tim Labant, and I have ridden probably 15,000 miles together on our bikes the past few years. We’ve had some epic adventures. Tim is the chef/owner of Schoolhouse at Cannondale, a new American spot in Wilton that celebrated its eleventh anniversary this past spring. About three years ago, Tim decided he wanted to bring his fine dining skills to a more casual environment. He loves pizza (who doesn’t?), so he started developing his own dough recipe. He went to Pizza Expo in Las Vegas two years in a row, refining his recipe and researching ovens. As the restaurant was developing, he asked me to put together the wine list and I was only too happy to help.

Everything came together about five weeks ago when Parlor opened its doors. Tim’s dough uses two types of Italian (Caputo) flour and has a multiday fermentation and proofing. The pies get baked in a Pavesi oven that’s fire-truck red. The dough has a chewy mouthfeel that makes you not even want to talk, just indulge in another bite until the pie is gone. The sautéed mushroom with taleggio is one of my favorites; the white clam sees fresh littlenecks steamed open, shucked and then placed on a creamy reduction sauce. The salads and sides are not to miss either.

To complement this simple but tasty menu, we put together a wine list that has something for everyone–but it may not be the exact something people thought they wanted when they came in. For example, a guest came in recently and asked for “a glass of chardonnay.” When I pointed out that we don’t have one by the glass (but we do have the excellent Sandhi chardonnay by the bottle), I suggested an erbaluce from Luigi Ferrando, the celebrated (for his reds, mostly) producer from Carema in the north of Piedmont. I poured her a taste; she liked it and ordered a glass. Then another. So that was my mini triumph of the night, turning a generic “chardonnay” drinker into a two-glass erbaluce enthusiast.

The list has a smattering of fun wines over $100 and a bunch of crystal decanters. But sensitive to the value needs of a pizza place, the list also has ten wines by the the bottle under $30 and ten wines by the glass starting at $8. We have three wines on keg too (lower carbon footprint!) that we serve by the quartino. We have wines from Italy, France, New York, California, Spain and Austria on the list right now. We have orange wine and pet nat. We will rotate wines in and out and have some special pours too. The wine world is a big and exciting place right now and we are happy to show off some tasty portions of it.

Stop by and check it all out! Connecticut is beautiful, especially this time of year.
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I’m so cool!

im_so_coolColman Andrews, the much-lauded writer who co-founded Saveur and made the world hungry for Catalan cuisine, has compiled a list of “The 60 (Plus) Coolest People in Food and Drink” over on the website he now edits, the Daily Meal. On it, he naturally includes such legends as Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Grant Achatz, Rick Bayless, Jim Clendenon, and also … me!

Um, did I miss something? I can’t believe I made anyone’s cool list, especially his with 59 (plus) amazing people. But it is an honor and shows that he is a man of discerning taste (but we already knew that from the way he spells his first name). Of course, nobody else on the list will mention it or post about it because they are all so cool, natch. But not me! I need to go wake the kids to let them know their dad is officially cool!

Check out the full list.

Google Reader is dead, long live feeds

google_readerA bit of housekeeping: Sadly and strangely, Google is ending the service known as Google Reader today. The thinking is that in this social media era, people get their news from Twitter and Facebook more than feeds.

Yet 17,425 people subscribe to this site’s feed. Here’s an article from Slate that suggests how to find another feed reader such as Feedly (with a one-click import from Google Reader), Pulse or the mobile-only Flipboard. If you’d like to import your feeds from Google Reader, today is the last day to do so before they shut the service down. What are your favorite feed readers?

Also, you can keep up with the site content through the DrVino twitter handle and Dr. Vino Facebook page. Or get posts sent via email.

Any which way you choose, we appreciate your interest in the site. Now back to regular programing.

Introducing the wine jobs board at Dr. Vino

winejobsAre you interested in becoming a sales rep for a wine distributor with the area industry’s “highest salaries”? Or becoming a senior buyer at a chain of 78 wine stores grossing $1 billion? How about a senior PR position at a wine importer? Would you like to be a sommelier at a leading restaurant in New York City?

All these positions–and more!– currently available and posted over at the new wine industry jobs board that I am launching today. Consumers, turn your passion for wine into a profession, either full-time or part time. Trade readers who want to trade up or trade across, check out what is available.

And employers, shine a light on your search by listing your open positions. For a limited time, take $99 off a classic listing (yes, that makes it FREE) or a premium listing by entering “pinot” at checkout. Premium listings remain at the top of the page, get listed in the daily email, and on the sidebar of the blog. Leverage our audience by providing the best possible visibility to your search for finding the strongest candidate.

So what are you waiting for, click over and take a look at jobs.drvino.com!

A new daily email service!

Do you love the smell of freshly baked blog posts hitting your inbox every morning? Then sign up for my new “daily dose.”

I’ve been sending them with the new service for about ten days so if you are a subscriber and you have been feeling a nagging emptiness in your inbox, then something has gone wrong–feel free to let me know or add tyler @ drvino.com to your white list. I’ve already done some troubleshooting with a couple of loyal readers and we seem to A-OK on all mail programs.

Sign up today and get a gold star! If you’re not into email, you can plug the blog feed into some browsers, mail programs or Google Reader. Keep in touch! And as they say in America’s finest restaurants: “enjoy!”

Harvest photos, Muscadet, frauds, wine course — sipped & spit

SIPPED: quality
The Muscadet region, known for quantity over quality, now boasts three sites officially recognized as superior, as crus, including Clisson. So glad the authorities are catching up! [larvf.fr]

SNAPPED: fun pics of the 2011 harvest in the Loire (one of which is above). [Wine Terroirs]

HAMMERED: $500k of Lafite
A vertical of 25 solid cases of Lafite from 1981-2005 sold for $539,280 to an “anonymous Chinese phone bidder” at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong. Great way to dump those ’91s! [WSJ]

SIPPED: going postal: The budgetary crisis at the US Postal Service puts wine shipping on the table. [NYT]

SPIT: frauds
Mike Steinberger summarizes the recent reactions–and adds his own–to Parker’s recent report on tasting fraudulent wines. [winediarist]

SIPPED: edumacation
My next NYU wine course runs Oct 12 – Nov 16. Registration and details.

Like Dr. Vino on Facebook!

Yes, just what the internet needed–another page for Dr. Vino on the internet! You can now follow us over on Facebook. However, for reasons known only to Mark Zuckerberg, the best way to keep up with the page is to “like” it by clicking the LIKE button on the page. This puts page updates in your news feed–assuming you are one of the 500 million people on Facebook, that is. Whether you have joined or not, you can click on the the “wall” to seem the latest links and commentary. Join the fray!

www.facebook.com/drvino
Tweet: you can also keep up on Twitter.com/drvino

Wine Blog Awards, 2010 edition

It’s that time of year again: the wine blog awards! A panel of (unnamed) judges has selected some finalists in eight categories. The awards are always a good way to discover some new blogs or check in with older ones.

DrVino.com has been named a finalist in the “Best Wine Blog” category. The other finalists are the New York Cork Report, Palate Press, the San Francisco Chronicle’s The Cellarist and 1winedude.

Check out all the nominees and cast your ballot. Voting ends Sunday, May 30.


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