Join Mark as he gives you a Google Glass view of the NYC book release party of Lee Brian Schrager’s new cookbook, Fried & True: More than 50 Recipes for America’s Best Fried Chicken and Sides. You’ll discover the ideal liquid accompaniment for fried chicken, as well as what it looks like to boogie down through a Google Glass.  Order your copy of the book here.

Attending the 100th Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Mark celebrates the smashing success of Stanford Football with a wine that befits the program’s nickname “Nerd Nation”. Mark explains that the wine equivalent of Nerd Nation is from the Jura, a remote region in eastern France that makes wine with unusual grapes and traditions. The grape Poulsard will comprise red wine that is often quite light, crisp, and floral, with a pleasing earthiness that tastes different than any other wine.

Featured Jura wine:
Jacques Puffeney Poulsard Arbois 2011

Other standouts from the Jura:
André & Mireille Tissot Extra Brut Crémant du Jura NV (sparkling wine)
Domaine Badoz Savagnin Côtes du Jura (white)
André & Mireille Tissot Côtes du Jura Chardonnay, Les Argiles du Lias (white)
Domaine Courbet Château-Chalon (white – vin jaune)
Domaine de la Tournelle Trousseau Arbois des Corvées (red)
Frédéric Lornet Ploussard Arbois (red)

Media snippets:
Led Zeppelin, “Immigrant Song”
Thomas Dolby, “She Blinded Me with Science”
Football footage, Stanford University Athletics and Mark Oldman

“Poosh It!”

Only in newly hip New Jersey can Mark reveal an insider winery that the cool kids in wine have embraced. Located on the fringes of Napa Valley, the Scholium Project and its iconoclastic owner Abe Schoener make wine that is often delicious, sometimes disconcerting, but rarely a snore.

Media snippets:
-Gang Of Four, “At Home He’s A Tourist”
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High’s” Mike Damone

Featured wine:

The Scholium Project “The Sylphs” Guman Vineyard (Chardonnay) 2008 (California, Chardonnay, 3-liter bottle)

Follow Mark:
-Twitter: @MarkOldman
-Facebook: www.facebook.com/wetakem

“Poosh It!”

Acclaimed author Ben Downing joins Mark to talk about his new book, The Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross (Farrar Straus & Giroux), chronicling the life of a formidable 19th-century doyenne and expatriate (as well as cookbook author and winemaker). We learn about Ross’ remarkable time in the Anglo-Florentine colony, hosting at her estates a never-ending stream of artists, scholars, diplomats, and even Mark Twain, whom, Downing discovered, had once shaved his head to better absorb the Italian language. In celebration of Ross and the book, they open a double magnum of Le Pergole Torte, the Sangiovese-based red that is also considered a Tuscan legend.

Featured wine:
Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 2006

Featured book:
The Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross by Ben Downing (FSG, 2013), available wherever books are sold

Essential Italian expression to learn:
Non si può avere la botte piena, e la moglie ubriaca.

Poosh it!

The Coveted Coravin: It is a problem as old as cork itself: how to enjoy just one glass of wine without having to waste the entire bottle.  Greg Lambrecht, an MIT-trained medical device designer, has devised a promising solution.