Dr Vino's wine blog

The summer residents of the Hamptons may have trouble seeing the world through rosé colored glasses.

Move over, Great Midwestern drought of 2012! The crisis buffeting the Hamptons is a dearth of rosé. The NY Post reports that “Hamptons tipplers will be hard pressed to find a favorite bottle of rosé out east for Labor Day.” One store only had six bottles of the overpriced Domaines Ott left! What if Cristal stocks are similarly imperiled?

What should they drink this weekend? Slum it with some Muscadet? Drink like a Montauk hipster with a little Assyrtiko? Whatever you advise, just keep them away from 2010 Chablis since there isn’t that much of it…

The harvest of the 2012 vintage has begun in some parts of the northern hemisphere.

Here’s a picture of some whole clusters of grapes, just harvested. Strut your grape savvy by telling us which variety are they are. Degree of difficulty: 8.

Let’s hope they don’t have a stuck fermentation, otherwise would be a whole clusterstuck.

Answer and photo credit to follow.

Eric Asimov tastes through some domestic hefe weissbiers in an article for the NYT. If you haven’t discovered this category of summer refreshment, go straight for the Bavarian choice: track down some of the Weihenstephaner hefe weissbier. Weihenstephaner actually makes a range of beers, including dark and light (Kristall) weissbiers, but the hefeweizen is where the money is, imho, bottle-conditioned and slightly cloudy in the glass with classic banana/clove notes. At the end of a hot summer day, it’s hard to think of a more refreshing beer (though a Reissdorf Koelsch comes close).

As to domestic hefeweizen selections, I agree that they vary frustratingly widely. But Apollo from Brooklyn’s Sixpoint is also a good one.

Which are your faves? And do you add lemon or not?

It’s time for bluff the reader! To those at Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, all we can say is that a pale imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. One of these wine news items is true, the others are false. Hit the comments with the right answer!

A) The partying in the Olympic village is almost as legendary as the events on the field; US goalkeeper Hope Solo spilled the beans that “There’s a lot of sex going on,” guesstimating that about three quarters of the athletes at the Beijing Olympics passed more than the baton. Even though some athletes didn’t need any extra stimulation, one athlete told ESPN that he kept his performances entirely for the pool last time around out of shyness but his attitude changed for carnal encounters in London: “But now I’m a big man. So I can try. I will try.” Although the the media were not officially allowed in to the village, where over 10,000 athletes spent the Games packed into 3,000 apartments, word leaked out about the organizers’ extraordinary hospitality: In order to boost the goodwill at the Games, organizers distributed 150,000 condoms as well as 10,000 corkscrews. A mixed case of wine was in each apartment with a ribbon and a card saying “good luck” in 25 languages. The Games received much praise from the participants and the organizers underscored Team GB’s outstanding performance with 29 gold medals; Sebastian Coe highlighted the Britons’ spirit of generosity.

B) Hugh Johnson, OBE, horticulturist and dean of Britain’s wine writing, recently joined Twitter. The format may be ideally suited to the long-time writer, author of Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Wine Book, an annual volume that contains brief wine reviews, sometimes even short enough to fit within Twitter’s 140 character limit. In a discussion of his reviews, Johnson let slip that he includes about a dozen reviews of totally fake wines in each volume. He invents a few winery names every year, appends bogus tasting notes, and waits for readers to contact him about where to find the wine. However, to date, nobody has ever done so.

C) There’s a famous scene in Real Housewives of New Jersey where a table gets overturned in anger, spilling the contents on the floor. Rather than cry over this spilled meal, the table’s flipper, Teresa Giudice, has decided to turn the TV lemons into a lemonade of her own: a product that removes red wine stains. Finding the celebrity wine market to be too crowded, a press release boasts that she now has the celerity wine stain removal market all to herself. Based on generations of accumulated housewife knowledge that pouring white wine on top of spilled red wine is the best stain remover, Giudice worked with wine entrepreneur Cameron Hughes to find some bulk white wine. They have labled the product “Lot 86,” a term Giudice says she chose to honor her restaurant days. “God knows we all spill a little f–king Merlot from time to time!” she said in an demonstration on The Ellen Degeneres Show. “Pay attention! Just pour on a bottle of this Lot 86 and the stains are gone. 86 red wine stains!”

Lobster roll plate at Sesuit Harbor Cafe in Dennis, MA.

What’s the best lobster roll on Cape Cod? It’s hard to say and many local spots have their partisans. I’ve had the good fortune to perform a broad sampling–all in the name of science!–and offer you my top picks. For those of you who have not sampled its ineluctable charms, the lobster roll is one of those high-low pairings of lobster chunks dressed with a a mayonnaise sauce, loaded in a hot dog bun adorned with lettuce; often fries (double fried!) and/or coleslaw accompany the roll (which is sometimes seared).

Since this is a wine blog and not a lobstah blog, it’s worth noting Read more…

“No one, but NO ONE puts ice in red wine!”

Such is the gist of the opening scene of a mostly tongue-in-cheek video about wine from 1990, “The Celebrity Guide to Wine,” chock full of 80s stars including Steven Seagal, Dudley Moore, Herbie Hancock, Whoopi Goldberg and more. It’s the brainchild of Bernard Erpicum, who was at Spago at the time.

Thanks to our friends at Eater for digging up this gem! A blog at the SF Chronicle picked up the item and posted screenshots to help navigate the 55-minute show with alacrity; the money scene is definitely Kelley LeBrock demonstrating to Steven Seagal how to open a wine bottle–between her legs. But then she doesn’t hold the glass by the stem! What kind of instructional video is this?!?

The latest tumblr to break out is Rich Kids of Instagram. If you’re on the fence about whether to repeal the estate tax at the highest levels, just surf on over to the site. Wine features quite prominently in the douchebaggery, such as the photo of a girl clad in a polo shirt, pouring Dom Perignon off a dock into the open mouth of a boy in the water while someone does a naked swan dive in the background.

And there’s this bill for 16 people who consumed 90,000 euros worth of wine at dinner in St. Tropez. (Dom Perignon again! If you’re spending an unconscionable amount on wine, there has to be some DRC in the mix, right?!?). This is a glaring example of how wine can boost a check at a restaurant in a way that beer or cocktails (or food though the caviar is certainly doing its best) never could. Do they tip on that? Well, in Europe, service is included in the bill. And, in this case, so is about $20,000 of VAT.

Last night, we dodged rain clouds and feasted on Wellfeet oysters, lobster rolls, and grilled striped bass. Cape Cod’s finest. And washed it all down with a bottle of Camille Savès, Carte Blanche NV. This made me ponder one of the wine world’s most urgent questions: is champagne better with oysters or fries?!? (Fries, often double-fired, frequently come with lobster rolls, for those who haven’t had the pleasure.) Have your say in the comments! While oysters may be a classic pairing, the high-low pairing of fries works so well, if you haven’t tried it, thanks to the fat and crispiness of the fries and the acidity and bubbles in the champagne. Mmmm….