Drink Bravely

South Beach: Sumptuous Solar Vortex, spooning wine, cheating hours, Apron’s 11, Nerd Nation
Posted on by Mark Oldman

South Beach: Sumptuous Solar Vortex

If you’ve had your fill of polar vortexes and tarry slush, point your GPS in the direction of Miami’s South Beach for the Food Network South Beach Food & Wine Festival, starting tomorrow.  This year’s line-up once again has more color than a Creuset catalog, its glistening gumbo featuring Rachael Ray, José Andrés, Josh Wesson, Masaharu Morimoto, Martha Stewart, Andrew Zimmern, Anthony Bourdain, among many others.

south beach

Decadence is on the menu at my two South Beach seminars.  The first, “Fried & True: A Fried Chicken Seminar,” I’m presenting with legendary festival founder and director Lee Brian Schrager and acclaimed food writer Adeena Sussman.  Its mouthwatering menu is based on recipes from Lee and Adeena’s new book, Fried and True: More than 50 Recipes for America’s Best Fried Chicken and Sides.

My other appearance is “Sparkling Sweets: An Ice Cream and Champagne Pairing Seminar” with ice cream maven and author Jeni Britton of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.  If the title doesn’t make you woozy with want, take a gander at Jeni’s tour de force menu for the South Beach fest:
Passion Fruit Sorbet/Lychee Sorbet
Apricot Sorbet/Chamomile Ice Cream
Whole Milk Yogurt/ Estate Vanilla Bean/Cloverton with Buttery Graham Gravel
Salty Caramel/Salty Goat’s Milk Chocolate/Hazelnut
Bitter Askinosie/ Chocolate and Dark Chocolate

Austin: No Longer a Crosswalk Criminal

With last year’s arrest warrant for jaywalking finally dismissed, I am now free to return to this year’s Austin FOOD & WINE Festival with unfettered mind, palate, and ankle.  Despite the warrant’s warning that “over 240 law enforcement agencies across Texas” were searching for me, the festival rocked harder than Belushi on “Jailhouse Rock”.

Kind reviews were issued by Bacchus and Beery, the Austin Eavesdropper, and Wes Marshall of the Austin Chronicle.

This year’s Austin festival promises to be equally engaging.  Learn more here.


The infamous warrant as well as commemorative t-shirts raffled off to attendees.


In Austin I’ll sign (almost) any body part.

Aspen: Gaucho Marks

Well before Carlos Danger lived down to our rock-bottom expectations of the modern politician, there was a similar sounding but better intentioned Latin-flavored figure: Gaucho Marks.  This was my persona at last year’s Aspen FOOD & WINE Classic, my eighth-straight year presenting at this snow-tipped Strativarious of culinary experience.   True to my new identity, I taught “Argentina’s Top Malbecs,” as well as “Superstar Wine Values”   The wines, listed below, were all carefully selected by my Aspen panel:

Argentina’s Top Malbecs
1. Finca Las Nubes Rosé of Malbec
2. Luiga Bosca Malbec
3. Achával-Ferrer Malbec Finca Bella Vista
4. Alta Vista Malbec Luján de Cuyo Serenade
5. Catena Zapata Malbec Argentino
6. Val de Flores

Superstar Wine Values
1. Pierre Sparr Brut Rosé Crémant d’Alsace Réserve
2. Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko Santorini
3. Alamos Torrontés Salta
4. Prunotto Barbera d’Asti Fiulot
5. Tormaresca Puglia Nèprica
6. Bodegas Volver Tarima Hill Monastrell Alicante

This June I return to the Aspen Classic with two brand-new seminars: “Wine for IPO Millionaires” and “Sonoma Pinot Noir”.  Learn more about this year’s Classic here.

In the meantime, watch genConnect interview Gaucho Marks:

Mark Oldman At The 31st Food & Wine Classic | genConnect

Watch the Video

Cheating Hours


“Apron’s 11”:  with Boulud, Colicchio, Dhalfors, Dufresne, Galloni, and Greico.
During last year’s Aspen festival, I had the chance to chat with Daniel Boulud, who clued me into a memorable french idiom.  It seems that he had just filmed a cameo for a film called “5 à 7,” a title derived from the French expression for the time of day that one would cheat on a spouse.  It is remarkable, I thought, that the French are so tolerant of infidelity that they have allotted hours for it, even if the expression is somewhat in jest.  Had French President François Hollande simply followed tradition, rather than cavorting at all hours on his scooter, he might not have found himself in such deep merde.

Brave Drinking with Auction Winners

A few months ago I hosted a group of six auction winners who had bid generously for a wine tasting at my place through a Charitybuzz auction benefiting Food & Wine’s Grow for Good campaign and the Wholesome Wave Foundation.  Determined to pull out all of the stops, I enlisted bottles from my personal collection that would maximize our chances of drinking bravely.  The line-up spanned the world (New York, California, France, Italy and Hungary), wine types (bubbly, white, red, and dessert), bottle sizes (half-bottle to two 3-liters), blue chips (Patz & Hall) to cult wine (Scholium Project and Le Pergole Torte), recent releases to the delightfully mature (a 2005 Beaujolais cru Morgan in magnum), and finally a bottle I had acquired from Bernie Madoff’s actual stash (through the 2011 Morrell & Co. auction that benefited the victims of this odious scoundrel).  Along with the wine, we nibbled various fine cheeses, salumi, and bread from nearby Eataly.

Nerd Nation

In October I was invited to teach wine to Stanford University’s senior class, a terrifically bright and generous group.  The senior class presidents presented me with a coveted “Nerd Nation” t-shirt, which I shall treasure.On the subject of Nerd Nation, I did a video this January from the 100th Rose Bowl to discuss the wine equivalent of that name:

Wine for a Nerd Nation – Episode 79 – Drink Bravely w/ Mark Oldman (Stanford & Jura at Rose Bowl)

Watch the Video

Coravin

Word is getting out about Coravin, the device that allows one to taste wine without pulling the cork.  According to last week’s Wall Street Journal, the Peninsula New York Hotel is going as far as making its entire list available to taste through Coravin.  Here I demonstrate Coravin on the day of its launch:

How to Taste A Wine Without Pulling the Cork (Coravin) – Episode 75 – Drink Bravely with Mark Oldman

Watch the Video

Last Drops


Glass Christmas tree.


Romance on Valentine’s Day: have you spooned your wine?

8 Gluttony-Enabling Thanksgiving Wines
Posted on by Mark Oldman

If, like me, you are determined to engage in unadulterated, Al Rokerian (pre-stomach-band) gluttony this Thursday, you need wine that is bright and lively enough to the clear the way for each and every gravy-bathed spoonful of excess.  Here are eight recent discoveries, one for each major wine category, all overachievers in delivering high pleasure for the price.  Track them down at your local wine merchant and/or via Wine Searcher.

gluttony

BUBBLES:
Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley (California, $23)
vibrant with notes of baked apple and spice, and a fine bead

LIGHTER WHITE:
Arnaldo Caprai Grechetto Colli Martani Grecante 2012 (Italy, $19)
glowingly fresh, with a vein of grapefruit zest

MEDIUM-BODIED WHITE
Fox Run Finger Lakes “Lake Dana Vineyard” 2012 (New York, $38)
bursting with flowers and juicy green apple

RICHER WHITE
Truchard Roussanne 2012 (California, $25)
peachy, creamy, but clean and lip-smackingly crisp
order direct here

LIGHTER RED:
Bourgueil Cuvée Alouettes 2011 (France, $16)
light, bright, redolent with lilacs and buzzy with acidity

MEDIUM-BODIED RED:
La Cabotte Côtes du Rhône-Villages Massif d’Uchaux Garance 2011 (France, $20)
juicy, velvety, plummy, medium-to-full bodied

RICHER RED
Norton Malbec Reserva 2011 (Argentina, $20)
cassis, blackcurrants, and smoke on a lively frame

DESSERT
Vietti Moscato d’Asti Cascinetta 2011 (Italy, $14)
lightly sweet, with pears, orange blossoms, and a cleansing fizziness

Red Obsession review: Why All Winemakers Need an “8” on Their Labels
Posted on by Mark Oldman

Red Obsession review: Why All Winemakers Need an “8” on Their Labels

red obsession

The moment in the captivating new movie Red Obsession when Chinese wine enthusiasts sprint to a tasting like oligarchs storming the entrance of Art Basel Miami or Gaga fans hurdling into a concert hall, you know you are witnessing a particular degree of infatuation.  Opening last week in in New York, this Russell-Crowe-narrated documentary transports the viewer inside the patrician world of Bordeaux wine and among the money-is-no-object Chinese collectors who have now supplanted their American counterparts as the leading importers of investment-grade Bordeaux.

The movie packs deep flavor into its 78 minutes, encompassing lush aerial sweeps of Bordeaux vineyards, candid commentary by wine pros such as the UK’s Oz Clarke and China’s Jeannie Cho Lee, and a front-row seat to the Chinese frenzy for prestige wine as both a tool for investment and a symbol of their newly-won wealth.

The movie also reveals a certain Bordelais ambivalence towards their voracious patrons in the East, some of whom are snapping up vinous treasures for pure speculative purposes, with no intention of ever wetting their lips.  China’s most coveted Bordeaux premier cru, Château Lafite Rothschild, however, evinces no hesitation; aware that “8” is a lucky number in Chinese culture, the estate shrewdly embossed the symbol for 8 on each bottle of ‘08 Lafite.  The price of that wine shot up almost 20% days after the labeling was announced.

The film also shows us the darker sides of this consumptive ardor, particularly the market bubble that has already begun to deflate and the growing scourge of counterfeiting.  And we learn that the Chinese aren’t content to merely buy; they are fiercely interested in cultivating their own vines and beat the French at the own game, converting vast stretches of their homeland with the aim of eventually becoming planet’s largest producer of fine wine. Indeed, visiting Shanghai a few months ago, I tasted a fruit of these new efforts and documented it in this video.

Red Obsession is the rare grape flick with broad appeal, a fast-paced swirl of the economic and social implications that attend China’s explosive demand for fine wine.  Ultimately it is about passion: the devotion that Bordeaux vintners have for their storied terroir and their determination to exploit the demand for it wherever they can, as well as the compulsion felt by China’s new rich to embrace symbols of Western success.

In one of the film’s funniest moments, we see how fervor for wine can take over for more carnal inclinations.  Explains Peter Tseng, sex-toy billionaire and irrepressible wine collector: “When I was younger, I preferred sex.  Now I prefer wine.”

“Red Obsession is currently in limited release in select American cities; check your local listings.  You can also download it now via iTunes and Amazon.

Auction Winners are Brave Drinking at Chez Moi (3Ls, cult wine, Hungarian juice, Madoff’s stash)
Posted on by Mark Oldman

Last week I hosted a group of six auction winners who had bid generously for a wine tasting at my place through CharityBuzz auction benefiting Food & Wine’s Grow for Good campaign and Wholesome Wave.  Determined to pull out all of the stops, I enlisted special bottles from my personal collection that would maximize our chances of drinking bravely.

auction wine

The line-up spanned the world (New York, California, France, Italy and Hungary), wine types (bubbly, white, red, and dessert), bottle sizes (half-bottle to two 3-liters), blue chips (Patz & Hall) to cult wine (Scholium Project and Le Pergole Torte), recent releases to the delightfully mature (a 2005 Beaujolais cru Morgan in magnum), and finally a bottle I had acquired from Bernie Madoff’s actual stash (through the 2011 Morrell & Co. auction that benefited the victims of this nefarious felon).  Along with the wine, we nibbled various fine cheeses, salumi, and bread from nearby nirvana Eataly.  Below are the wines:

1) Sparkling Pointe North Fork of Long Island Brut 2002 (New York)

2) Mulderbosch Sauvignon Blanc 2005 (South Africa, from Bernie Madoff’s stash, seized by U.S. Marshalls from Madoff’s “downstairs bedroom on right”)

3) The Scholium Project “The Sylphs” Guman Vineyard 2006 (California, Chardonnay, 3-liter bottle)

4) Patz & Hall Chardonnay Carneros Hyde Vineyard 2010 (California)

5) Cuvee du Cep d’Or Rose 2012 (France, 3-liter bottle)

6) Domaine Savoye Morgon Côte du Py Vieilles Vignes 2005 (France, magnum)

7) Montevertine “Le Pergole Torte” 2006 (Italy, 3-liter bottle)

8) The Royal Tokaji Wine Co. “Red Label – Aszú 5 Puttonyos” 2008 (Hungary)

   madoff