Archive for April, 2012

Thank you to everyone who entered our Montana Master Grillers Contest! We received some great responses from all across the country from readers like you. Our grand prize was for one lucky reader to win a three-night stay for two at Montana’s The Resort at Paws Up this Memorial Day weekend and attend, quite possibly, the best wine and barbeque event of the year – Montana Master Grillers. Co-sponsored by Wine Enthusiast and Double Ranch, this event will feature lunches and dinners prepared by some of the world’s top chefs in this premier culinary-filled weekend.

Without further ado, we’re happy to announce Clive Berkman as our lucky winner! Clive is a Chef with his own blog, Cooking With Clive For his wine and BBQ pairing, he told us “My favorite style of wine to pair with BBQ is a dry sparkling rosé. Although Grenache, Zinfandel and Syrah work well I find the sweetness and body of some BBQs tend to take away from a great match. With the sparkling it stands up to the body and the crispness and bubbles perfect the palate for another bite.”  Congratulations to Clive, and we hope you have an amazing weekend in Montana this May!

As a Thank You to everyone who entered, here are some of our favorite answers as we asked you all, “What is your favorite wine & BBQ pairing?” Please be warned: you may find yourself salivating from some of the mouthwatering pairings below!
“My recipe for grilled pork tenderloin stuffed with Point Reyes blue cheese drizzled with a blackberry-syrah sauce served next to the campfire outside of my RV.”
-    Nancy

“Ground Lamb soaked with my favorite red wine (Stonestreet Monument Ridge) lightly seasoned, plus sautéed onions, topped with blue cheese on a toasted ciabatta roll served with the same wine.”
-    Jaime
“Grilled lemon citrus chicken and a crisp sauvignon blanc - a perfect combination in the summertime!”
-    Crista

“Lamb chops seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary and olive oil, then served with key lime jelly for dipping, along with sides of home fried purple potatoes and mashed spaghetti squash. The wine pairing would be a 2005 Morey-Saint Denis.“
-    James

“The BBQ:  thick cut (2″) antelope backstraps (grass and grain fed critters, not sagebrush eaters) marinated in Veri Veri Teriyaki , grilled hot and fast to a warm, red, juicy interior. Seasoned with fresh ground pepper and salt to taste.”
-    John

“2010 Venge Scout’s Honor Proprietary Red with Grilled Top Sirloin of Lamb with a raspberry cherry chutney.”
-    Dinah

“Copper River Salmon drizzled in real Maple Syrup, on Cedar Plank, with a 2009 Cinder Winery Tempranillo.”
-    Julie

By far the most popular pairing we received, was pork and Zinfandel. We’re sensing a trend!

Feel free to share your favorite pairings below, if you haven’t already. Cheers!

Published December 10, 2012

Less than a month after a Wall Street Journal article reported that wine critic and former Wine Enthusiast Magazine columnist Robert M. Parker Jr. had decided against various offers for The Wine Advocate, his subscription-supported newsletter, it appears he has sold a “substantial interest” of the company after all.

Parker remains in place as one of the publication’s reviewers and, according to several reports, will be the company’s chairman. The new investor-owners are said to be from Singapore, where the newly announced editor in chief, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW, is based.

In the midst of all the WA changes, perhaps the reports having the biggest repercussions were that the newsletter would cease print publication—being made available to subscribers as a PDF—that it would accept advertising for nonwine products and that it would produce wine tasting events.

Those changes would mean that WA was no longer a newsletter, no longer supported only by subscribers and not beholden to any commercial wine interests. It would become a digital magazine, plain and simple. Sure, it wouldn’t accept wine advertising, but if it had commercial relationships with the wineries, importers or retailers that support its tasting events, it could no longer legitimately claim independence from the wine trade.

For decades, it was this veneer of independence that made WA different, which made it special and worth supporting for many readers, even through some hefty subscription-rate increases. It was this same independence that led readers to accept that the wines reviewed in its pages need not always be tasted blind.

If WA were on its way to becoming just another wine magazine—albeit the one with the world’s best-known wine critic behind it—it would be interesting to see how this affected its content. Relieved from the burden of ink and printing costs, would there be illustrated articles, or would the content continue to be heavily reliant on wine reviews? Would the wines be tasted blind, as they are by all of the world’s other major wine magazines?

But wait. It seems all of this speculation is much ado about nothing.

In a series of tweets this morning, Parker wrote that the print edition of WA will continue and that it “will never take on ads,” while at the same time leaving room for some luxury advertising on the Web site and online forums.

As someone whose nascent interest in wine was encouraged by Parker’s writing back in the late 1980s—it made a mouthwatering antidote to the staidness of the British writers of the time—I’m glad to hear that WA will be continuing without the major shake up that most media outlets have reported.

Yes, there are some changes, but they appear to be small and incremental—and largely positive. Providing a PDF option for subscribers is a useful option; having Perrotti-Brown as an editor should improve the quality of the content; and making the newsletter’s contributors regular employees will go a long way to avoiding any appearances of impropriety going forward.

If and when the publication does evolve further from its homegrown, Nader-esque roots, I hope that the new one will be a worthy successor.