Results tagged “winetasting”

On Sunday, the snobby, pedantic atmosphere that often dominates wine tastings will get rocked by the smug, over-sharing culture that always permeates Twitter! This City Winery event (which merits mention if only because of its name) is called "Spit & Twit." Who can resist? On Sunday afternoon, tweeting oenophiles will have the chance to try over 100 wines from 35 wineries around the world. But here's where it gets interesting or annoying, depending on your feelings about Twitter and those who hold forth on "tasting notes."

READING: Steve Martin proved he could write with Shopgirl, and now he's come out with a much more intriguing tale called, Born Standing Up. This is his memoir, which traces his life from an employee at Disneyland to an employee of Lorne Michaels and beyond -- tonight he'll regale you with some of these stories. 6:30pm // The Times Center [242 W 41st St] // Free PARTY: Before you warm up by a Thanksgiving meal,...

This five-course wine dinner will feature nine top wines from Alsace, Austria and Germany paired with regional dishes such as Alsatian Onion Tart with Thinly Sliced House-Smoked Brisket and Raclette Fondue and Riesling-Marinated Poulet Rouge with Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrots Crispy Sauteed Spaetzle, and Riesling Jus. Doesn't that sound like fall to you? $125, tax and tip excluded. For reservations, call 212.874.7400. 7pm, Aix, 2398 Broadway at 88th Street.

August 19: 8th Annual Blues & BBQ

We don’t know if you heard or not, but apparently the “sexiest event of the year is back and better than ever.” That seems to be an awfully big promise but considering the dangerous combination of wine, chocolate and adult toys, the Erotic Wine Tasting Soiree at Babeland NYC, has the potential to really heat up.

July 19: Summer Wine Tasting

June 7 - June 11: Broadway Panhandler "Yard Sale"

On Saturday Union Square Wines held the kickoff for the three-day, first anniversary of their new location on 4th Avenue and 13th street. Bringing in about a dozen of their favorite importers and distributors, they set up tasting stations all around the store and turned loose the herds of glass-in-hand sippers for six hours. Unlike the tastings that sometimes take place at your local wine stores with wines you do not know and are unlikely to see again the selection yesterday was chock full of heavy hitter bottles. Not that there is anything wrong with discovering some tasty $9.99 surprises for sunny grilling afternoons, but when the opportunity to taste Chateau de Beaucastel, Pahlmeyer, S.C. Guillard Gevrey-Chambertin and Torre Muga on someone else's dime appears jump on it.

April 5: Italian Festa to celebrate the paperback publication of George deStefano's An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America. A reading and signing, followed by a Sicilian wine tasting, with antipasti served. Free. Hunters Point Wines and Spirits, 47-07 Vernon Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens.

The annual Gambero Rosso Slow Food Italian Wine Tasting reminds us a little of the Oscars. People lined up outside the Puck building anxious to get in, half the men are dressed in Armani and everybody’s dying to find out who will be the big star of the evening. The space is packed with industry-types, producers and wine geeks who are on the lookout for the next great Italian wines. The top producers honored at this tasting have won the tre bicchieri (three glasses) award, which recognizes top premium Italian Wines. This year there was not one wine that swept the tasting, but there were quite a few standouts. Here are our favorites:

December 7: Alex Prud’homme at O&CO.

Time for a major sugar rush. Head over to the ninth annual Chocolate Show for chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate, with some culinary demonstrations and art thrown in for good measure. $25 tickets, for one day's admission, are available online (via Ticketmaster.com or calling 212-307-7171), and will also be on sale at the door (cash and checks only at the door). Metropolitan Pavillion & Altman Building, 125 West 18th Street. Friday, November 10: 11am to 9pm, Saturday, November 11: 10am to 8pm, Sunday, November 12: 10am to 7pm. Children under 5: Free; Children, 5 to 12: Free, but you're limited to 2 children per adult. Each additional child (5-12): $8.

October 21: Halloween Cupcake Decorating and Book Signing

This week we took a chance. For our wine tasting group, the theme was wines of Northern and Central Italy, and instead of going big, we went small—really small. We knew we would be up against big Barolos and robust Amarones. We suspected many of the wines would cost over $75 a bottle; ours was less than $25. Bite my tongue for saying this, but bigger isn’t always better, and when it comes to wine (and apparently hot dog eating contests) sometimes the little guy comes out the victor.

Trying to decide what wines to write about this week did not come as easily as we would have liked. We didn’t have a wine that blew us away, and the idea of writing about more summer wines felt overdone. It was already Friday, and the inspiration just wasn’t there. So to pick up some wine for the weekend and hopeful stumble across an idea or two, we took a walk over to Union Square Wines. Ok, so truth be told, we wanted to try out their new Enomatic wine tasting machine.

">Bruni two-stars Little Owl, says “It has an irresistible earnestness and exuberance that explain its instant, well-deserved popularity.” Also, he really likes the pork chop. Chef Joey Campanero, formerly executive chef at The Harrison and Pace, gets kudos for “disciplined cooking,” as does manager and co-owner Gabriel Stulman, for “real hospitality.”

We came to win. We were prepared for the challenges they laid before us. Blind wines…bring it. Guess the spices…we came to play. Decorate the cookie…we’ll take down the pastry chefs. This was our mantra. Dirty or fair, we had one goal and that was to win the 2nd Annual Duckathlon sponsored by D’Artagnan.

April 13: Alpine Cheese & Wine Tasting

Terroir is one of those concepts where if you put 50 wine geeks in a room and let them talk among themselves, you can create a heated discussion around dirt. Add to that equation a blind wine tasting and hold it at Daniel and it’s possible that a cheese puff and caviar food fight may erupt. The potential to see little bites of culinary genus thrown maliciously at Masters of Wine and industry greats was too good for us to pass up, so Gothamist gladly accepted an invitation to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Robert Mondavi Winery at a panel discussion titled “A sense of place: The future of terroir”

Bring your knives to Broadway Panhandler to get sharpened and benefit City Harvest at the same time. We did this last year and can't tell you what a difference a sharp knife can make, especially when it's combined with doing something good for the world. Between 11:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m., bring in up to three knives and get 'em professionally sharpened for a mere $10. You can sharpen your knife skills as well from 2-4 PM, when Norman Weinstein will demonstrate how to properly use a classic Chef's knife and the Santoku to chop, slice, dice, mince and julienne. 477 Broome Street at Wooster.

The Barolos went like hotcakes. The Brunellos went like Barolos and the huge parmesan cheese wheel…well let’s just say, it was a very good thing that it was armed by 3 burly Italian men. This was the scene at the Gambero Rosso Slow Food Italian wine tasting this past week. The packed room buzzed with the energy of an outdoor Italian market at peak shopping time. It was not uncommon to hear Italian sprinkled into most conversations and forget about personal space, because on this day, we were all family.

February 22: From Disaster to Dessert – the Fate of New Orleans Food

For the lush, the fall harvest is the best time of year. Wine events are as plentiful as hot dog vendors in Times Square. Whether your serious about wine or just like your drink, Gothamist has found some great wine events to keep us busy this week…

BBQ NYC, which is on Saturday, is already sold out, but you can still get your ribs on at the Sixth Annual Blues, Barbecue and Fireworks on Sunday. This year's participants include Daisy May’s BBQ U.S.A., plus relative newcomers Dinosaur Bar B Que, RIB, Smoked Barbecue, and Spanky’s BBQ. Gothamist on last year's event.

August 5: Taco Chulo Opens

…well not in the literal sense but ask any attendees at the Australian Wine Tasting party Gothamist attended on Wednesday and they will affirm, we should have taken first prize. Wine parties are on the rise. When you add a little friendly competition, lots of wine and nibbles and a dash of creativity it’s amazing how quickly an evening can be spiced up…even a Wednesday. The party Gothamist attended last week was one of the most creative wine events we have been to in while. Everybody had an amazing time (perhaps a direct correlation to the 12 bottles of wine) - so we figured we would “borrow” their idea and share it with you.

May 25: "Belly" Dancing -- North African Food and Wine Pairing

The weather is heating up in the city and that really means one thing…time to pop some corks. This week the city is hopping with spicy, tangy, mouth watering goodness…

Drink Up will be a regular bar review column appearing Friday afternoons, in hopes that it'll give you a new (or old) spot to check out over the weekend. Enjoy, and drink up!

The good folks at D'Artagnan, who have forgiven us for stalking them at the Grand Tasting, are celebrating their 20th Anniversary later this month. The makers of scrumptious foie gras, truffle butter, duck prosciutto, and other hard-to-resist high-end foods, are hosting a number of public events to celebrate the occasion, including a cooking demonstration on February 24th by some of the world's best female chefs (Les Nouvelles Meres Cuisinieres), the Duckathlon on February 26th, a combination scavenger hunt/food and wine tasting (in which Gothamist Food is going to participate -- you'll hear all about it later), and The Decadent Lunch on February 27th, benefitting the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation. For more on the public events, visit their website at D'Artagnan.com.