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Posted on June 9th, 2007 by Bodell.
Categories: Food & Wine, Arts & Literature.
Where fads breathe only so much oxygen before souring like a week-old Pinot Noir, sequacious investment in art violates the oft-received advice rendered to me from friends and professionals alike: buy what you like, not what’s hyped or what you think will appreciate.
So for me, a gourmand living in Manhattan where indulging in wine has become quotidian (as has the consequential décor of corks, bottles, wine crates and cork screws), I longed to titivate my bare walls with something that might endorse a homeliness and ambiance of friends, family, food and, of course, what Robert Louis Stevenson once referred to as, “bottled poetry.”
Enter Thomas Arvid (www.thomasarvid.com). Self-taught and inspired through the artistic elements common among wine, canvas and life itself, Arvid has become the wine motif artist. With precision, lucid detail and depth of a photo taken at f/128, Arvid’s “modern” still life (oil) compositions evoke emotions not of an artist painting in his studio, but rather from your home, canvassing you in the redolence of garlic, olive oil and basil as you decant your favorite bottle of wine while your friends sneak (with a hunk of fresh baguette) a taste of the evening’s homemade pasta sauce.
Arvid is quoted as saying, “My art is about so much more than wine. The paintings, like wine, are about celebration, sharing a moment and an experience with another person. My pieces are successful when I evoke an emotion, memory, or thought that the viewer wouldn’t have experienced otherwise. Wine and art are vehicles to communicate the pleasure of human experience.”
I have followed Arvid and his work since early 2000 but lived too transient a lifestyle to collect much art of value. However, once I found a suitable setting for the piece, making the modest financial commitment (although Arvid’s originals often exceed $100k, the giclee prints and artist proofs are relatively affordable) was surprisingly easy. Why? Because I wouldn’t sell it if it tripled in value tomorrow. The piece to me is neither fad nor investment. It belongs here… in the part of my home where I cook, eat and socialize… and damn if it doesn’t entice me to invite over some friends and open a bottle of wine.
Posted on March 30th, 2007 by Bodell.
Categories: Travel & Leisure, Food & Wine.
So apparently the movie Sideways devastated American sales of Merlot and elevated Pinot Noir to its rightful status as a world-class red wine varietal. To many, in the United States at least, the pre-eminent white varietal remains Chardonnay thanks in large part to Kendall Jackson’s retention of some residual sugar within the wine, giving the US novice wine-taster a hint of sweetness not found in Chardonnays fermented dry.
Yet, many Americans are turned off by the mere suggestion of Riesling as an alternative white wine primarily due to its unfortunate association with the German Liebfraumilch—a sweet, inexpensive and generally low-quality white wine made in part from Riesling grapes and which is marketed in the traditional long, slender brown or green-colored glass Riesling bottle.
Riesling can be the perfect choice with a little experimentation, however, and at reasonable prices. It’s also a great varietal to pair with food as the general lack of wood used when fermenting and ageing the wine allows nuances of the grape to surface.
A few notes for the next time you’re in the local wine shop and want to try something new:
1. Most Rieslings come from France (the Alsace region), Germany and Austria although the United States is making a run at the market with plantings in New York, California, Washington and Oregon.
2. Riesling can be fermented dry or left with residual sugar, making the wine sweeter. Although wine drinkers with more sophisticated palates may want to jump to the bone-dry, highly acidic Rieslings (often denoted on the German bottles as “Trocken” and equally delicious with or without food), sweeter Rieslings may be preferable when served with certain spicy cuisine such as Thai or Indian, or something that can use that high acidity like a Gruyere cheese fondue!
3. As the grapes ripen on the vines, sugars within the grape increase allowing for two possibilities: 1) greater potential alcohol; and 2) greater potential sweetness and complexity. For higher quality German wines, a classification system exists whereby a name designation denotes the period of harvest, or conversely, the length of time the Riesling grapes are left on the vine. This naming convention is a good indicator of the amount of sugar allowed to form within the grape. The first picking (grapes with usually very high acidity and lower sugar content) is denoted (and labeled on the bottle) as Kabinet, and tend to be dry as all of the sugar is left to ferment to alcohol. The next picking, generally made into a sweeter wine as sufficient sugar exists to ferment to a reasonable alcohol level plus retain residual sugar for a semi-sweet, or “halbtrocken”, end product is denoted as Spatlase. As the grape continues to hang and the sugars continue to form, the wine generally becomes sweeter and sweeter until you approach that rich, honey-like dessert wine of which a half of glass is plenty for the evening. In order of sweet to sweetest, this is Auslese, Berenauslese, Eiswein and Trockenberrenauslese.
4. Rieslings (especially those from Germany) tend to have lower alcohol which makes for a superb choice to have with lunch or hors d’oeuvres. These light, yet very complex, wines don’t overpower delicate appetizers and the high acidity acts to cleanse the palate.
As the warm weather approaches, why not foray into a new wine varietal and enjoy a chilled glass of Riesling either alone or with some spicy cuisine? The crisp, low alcohol and highly acidity wine – sweet or dry – is versatile and just might be the next Pinot Noir.
