Grape juice not so wine-like afterall

Jack from Fork & Bottle writes in about the grape juice that tastes like wine that I linked yesterday.

Sorry, but I'm not liking your most recent post because these grape juices don't at all taste like wine. Not even Navarro wine. I've had both a bunch of times (six times at least of each over the years). In fact, it's just the opposite – I'm always disappointed on how they taste so much like grape juice and so nothing like wine. Grape juice from grapes commonly used for making wine still taste like grape juice, not wine.

I quizzed my wife about these juices (as she likes them more than I do). She describes them as the best grape juices most people will have every tasted. But not at all wine-like. She doubts that anyone could pick out the Pinot Noir juice as being made from the Pinot Noir grape. The Gewürztraminer, being a very aromatic grape, does have hints that it might be made from the Gewürztraminer grape – but again, this drink is not at all wine-like, and totally grape-juice-like.

If these juices could somewhat pass for wine they'd be very popular and many wineries would be making them with their lesser juice. Instead, they're a hard sell and hardly anyone makes them. Navarro's two are the most popular in good restaurants.

Oh well, it was a nice dream while it lasted.

Scary Italian pulpo to eat

Pulpo photo by jimn
I've eaten my share of tentacled things, and normally I'm OK with the larger-than-bite-size calamari, or the round slice of calamari in Spain that's the size of an onion ring. I'm even OK with octopus, when it's around the size of calamari. But these pulpo, photographed by my friend Jim from his trip to Sicily, might be too much for me. His description: "These were scary and tasty." Scary is right.

Tom Colicchio is leaving Gramercy…

Tom Colicchio is leaving Gramercy Tavern to focus on Craft and all the Craft derivatives (Craftbar, Craftsteak, ’Wichcraft, etc.) While I'm sure Colicchio hasn't been in the kitchen at GT in a very long time, I can't help but worry that something might change there anyway. Gramercy Tavern is one of my favorite restaurants, and eating in the Tavern room, whether with friends or just my husband, always makes for a wonderful evening. I really hope that continues to be true.