We all know the story of the Pilgrims; a group of about 100 folks who decided to depart from England to search out and colonize a new world about 2,750 miles away from home. Their ship, the Mayflower, landed at Plymouth Rock instead of the original destination of Northern Virginia due to inclement weather, poor navigation and a need for supplies. The real scoop? Supposedly, according to many historians and accounts of the momentous occasion, the real necessity that was lacking was… beer.

“We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beer” – one diary recalls. Now, numerous stories from various sources are available, both supporting and debunking the long lived myth, including articles from well-known beer writers Cecil Adams, Stephen Beaumont, and Bob Skilnik to name a few. Now, whether or not the claim is true, it’s fun to imagine that without the shortage of “victuals” the Mayflower perhaps would not have landed in Plymouth Rock and the sequence of events that transpired thereafter would not be history as we now know it. Leading to the question… without beer, would we be celebrating Thanksgiving?

What better way to pay tribute to the poor planning (or perhaps over-indulgence) of the Pilgrims this Thanksgiving than by celebrating the holiday with a few choice beer selections.

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Twenty-two years after the publication of the first edition, the sixth edition of Andrew Caillard’s The Rewards of Patience has just been released. For those who might not know, this book is a complete chronicle of the various Penfolds wines, generated out of a vast retrospective tasting by a panel of experts. Caillard is a Master of Wine who’s also co-founder of Langton’s auction house, Australia’s leading auctioneer of fine wines. As an aside, his company’s Web site has some great information on the top Australian wines.

To celebrate the new edition, Penfolds has been sending a group of the tasters around the world, including Chief Winemaker Peter Gago, Senior Red Winemaker Steve Lienert, Caillard, Singapore-based wine critic Ch’ng Poh Tiong, English wine writer Anthony Rose and American (wine editor of Condé Nast Traveller) Joseph Ward. Last week they were in New York, along with more than a dozen selections from the Penfolds library.

However tempting it might be to regale you with detailed notes on some of the top wines–Grange from 1990 and 1991 and the legendary 1962 Bin 60A–what really struck me about the tasting was how nicely some of the lesser wines had matured.

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Once upon a time, a working knowledge of moo shoo pork, California roll, and pad thai got you through most Asian restaurant experiences.

Today, if that’s all you’ve got on your mind’s menu…..your little white take-out carton is intellectually empty.

There are now more Asian restaurants than ever in the U.S.–indeed, more kinds of Asian restaurants than ever!–and, as the movement rolls, more of us are patronizing them more frequently.

But the anchor dishes we once depended on are increasingly surrounded by waves of other things. And, for most of us, sticking with General Tso, no matter how you feel about loyalty, seems positively antediluvian.

So the crunch is on: to get maximum enjoyment, we need to know more about Asian cuisine. How to acquire it? Precisely at this delicious moment, along comes a fine way to do so: a new book by super-foodie Steven A. Shaw, the eGullet founder, called Asian Dining Rules (William Morrow, 2008).

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I’ve said it again and again…..one of my favorite regional dishes in Europe is a platter of choucroute garnie (garnished sauerkraut), as served in Alsace, France. The difference from choucroute garnie as served in American bistros and brasseries is enormous. Oh, sure, we do fairly well on our shores in keeping up with the kinds of cured meats and sausages that ride on top of the sauerkraut. But where we fall down, time and time again…..is in the sauerkraut itself! Alsatian sauerkraut is remarkably light, almost fluffy–much of which derives from its incredibly thin cut. Forgive my cross-cultural stretch, but choucroute in Alsace seems like angel hair compared to the thick, spaghetti-like sauerkraut we see here. It truly makes all the difference.

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Whenever I tell people what I do for a living, the most common response I get is, “how on earth did you ever get that job… and do you need any help?”  While I could go on to tell people about the wine education classes I took in college, the experiences I had working in the hospitality or retail industries, or the continuing education classes I’m enrolled in now, I know deep down inside that there is only one true answer to that question: my father.

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Scotch is hot this year in New York City. I don’t know why, exactly…..but tongues are wagging about it (and slurring a few words) everywhere I go. You may recall my blog a few months back concerning the absurdly high-priced Scotch created by Macallan’s–a blend of 1945 and 1949 stocks, bottled in a specially designed Lalique bottle, available for only $1500 a pour at Del Frisco’s steakhouse in midtown Manhattan. The most absurd part of all was that I loved these precious drops…..though you won’t catch me pulling that kind of money out of my pocket anytime soon. Now comes another surprise. The very fine Greenwich Village steakhouse, Strip House, is offering an experiment in quaffing Scotch…..with steak!

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Recently, a friend passed on a thought-provoking article to me from the New York  Times. In the piece, Frank Bruni took stock of the current state of gender roles in the dining out culture. In a time when women seem to be filling up just as many (if not more) seats at colleges than men and climbing high on corporate ladders in many spheres, it’s surprising that old-fashioned restaurant etiquette continues on. But is that a bad thing?

Personally, I never argue when served my meal first or when a chair is pulled out for me.  I’m fine being offered the banquette so that I can see a view of the room, a ritual of fine dining. If the temperature is warm to accommodate me, I won’t demand that the thermostat be turned down. The fact is, it’s nice to enjoy these perks. And it’s chivalry. Right?

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One of the big events around our Mount Kisco offices takes place every Friday at 5 pm. No, it’s not quitting time–our work day doesn’t officially end until 5:30, and many folks stay at least til 6–it’s our weekly dispersal of extraneous wine samples. Employees are invited to wander over to our tasting room and help thelmselves to a bottle of wine for the weekend. Because we normally receive two bottles of each wine we review and often we only open one, we accumulate hundreds of bottles over the course of the year that we need to find homes for. Some end up at charity events or our annual halloween party, but others go home with staffers every Friday.

I find it fascinating to observe people picking out a bottle that’s just right for them. Many seem to know what they like and instantly gravitate toward those wines week after week. One guy always goes for Italian reds, while another employee invariably grabs a tall skinny bottle, because she’s learned those wines are often sweet. Some “shop” by looking for a pretty label, others look for specific grape varieties on the label. Pinot Noir must still be hot, judging by the reaction that it continues to draw from our office crowd. I should note that the staffers work in various departments of our multi-product company (we also produce an accessories catalog, run a large warehouse etc) so the level of wine knowledge varies widely, just like it does in the real world.

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Australia, anyone? Sydney Opera House? Great Barrier Reef? The big red rock in the desert? Nicole Kidman’s flat?Please. Leave those to the tourists. Last week I found a whole other reason to go to Oz….namely, the wonders of the sea-surrounded Eyre Peninsula (pronounced like “air”), a locus of major gastronomic activity that is, currently at least, off the usual tourist radar screens.In fact, the whole state in which the Eyre Peninsula sits–the beautiful state of South Australia, which takes up a geographical position in Australia roughly equivalent to the position of Texas in the U.S.–is ripe for exploration.Now, I know that you’re not about to drop everything and fly halfway around the world tomorrow. And I know that the products I’m about to describe do not have current American distribution. But this is not purely a “vicarious thrill” exercise: I would love you to note all of this carefully, to be among the first Eyre Peninsula visitors from America, when you’re ready…..and to be on the lookout for some of the outstanding comestibles and potables that may be coming this way soon.

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You can determine a lot about a profession based on the kind of people who choose to do it. I’ve worked in various fields: luxury retail, adventure travel, magazine publishing, even holistic health. I’ve encountered myriad eclectic people along the way, from the horror novel-writing wine editor to the massage therapist who based her day on the number of red lights she encountered on her drive into work (more than two meant the day was inauspicious). But in my experience, no field attracts more interesting, some would even say inspired, characters than the wine business.

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