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That's me, digging into the Pinot Noir class. Senior Judge Cameron Douglas, MS, and Associate Judge Emma Jenkins, MW, are in the background.

For years, I’ve resisted commenting on wine shows. I’ve read some of the online bashing, about how medals are given away like candy on Halloween; about how some show judges don’t know much about wine; and about how, since shows typically charge an entry fee, the awards they bestow are essentially worthless. I’m sure there are more complaints, but that’s not the point.

The real reason I’ve not written at any length on wine shows is that I typically don’t get to participate in show judging. But last month, I was invited to be the America’s international judge at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards. Run by New Zealand Winegrowers–the country’s national wine body–it is New Zealand’s Super Bowl of wine shows.

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When Jerry Seinfeld created his classic comedy series, he vowed that there would be “no learning, no hugging.” I thought about that when I foolishly volunteered to blog about my summer travels and what I “learned” on the road. I think of travel as a process of discovery; learning is absorbed gradually; connections and insights revealed well after the fact. The best way for that to happen (I’ve discovered) is not to overplan, and not slavishly pursue other travelers’ itineraries of excellence.

Read up, sure. Plan some, but really, just dive in. Learning about wine and exploring wine country have that in common.

In Newport, Rhode Island, I discovered that it’s not always wise to dine where the locals dine. I waited an hour on line at the restaurant every Newport local recommended for what turned out to be the blandest lobster roll and clam chowder I’ve ever had; next day I was forced by circumstances to sit down at what I thought would be a waterfront tourist trap, but The Black Pearl turned out to have fine food and a very good wine list.

In Washington D.C., I attended a winemaker dinner with the personable Jed Steele (Steele Wines, Lake County, CA) at the Blue Duck Tavern in the Park Hyatt. Fine wines by Jed and great food by Chef Brian McBride were served. But two discoveries: You enter the restaurant through the kitchen—one of the coolest kitchens I’ve ever seen—elbow to elbow with some of the chefs. And though Steele is known for his Pinots, a standout wine was his tart yet creamy and apricotty 2010 Shooting Star Aligoté. Aligoté is considered the the “other,” lesser white wine grape of Burgundy, and is a serious rarity in California. Adventurous winemaking on the part of Mr. Steele.

On my trek to Napa and Sonoma (we’ll ping-pong from one AVA to another in this account), I visited a few wineries for professional or goal-oriented reasons. They included Dutton-Goldfield (favorites: the ’09 Dutton Ranch Pinot Noir, 2010 Gewürztraminer and ’09 Stoetz Ridge Vineyard Zinfandel), Merry Edwards (’08 Flax Vineyard Pinot Noir and 2010 Sauvignon Blanc; really, everything) and Corison, a relatively small Napa producer of powerfully elegant Cabs, Cab Francs and more by Cathy Corison. This was a no-fuss visit—a barrel served as our tasting table. Unexpected delight: her 2008 Corazon, a Cabernet Sauvignon-based rosé.

But for the most part, I didn’t want to pursue goals or chase excellence for its own sake. I was traveling with my wife, Geri, and drinking-age son, Ryan, and it was more important to follow our group instincts rather than an itinerary. So, yes, we pulled into Darioush because of the architecture, but we stayed for some surprisingly sturdy Cabernets (our favorite, the 2006 Signature). We lingered forever at Silverado Vineyards because our host, Tom Kalbrener, was so charming and knowledgeable (2000 Stags Leap Cabernet). We wandered around Calistoga and Healdsburg and gaped at giant redwoods, just because.

We made some reservations and strict plans, but left plenty of time for serendipity. Which seems wise, until you learn—no, discover that you forgot something important.

We did make reservations at Hess Collection to enjoy a guided wine-and-food pairing flight followed by a tour of the art collection, a highlight of the trip. I made reservations at Mustard’s Grill, Cindy Pawlcyn’s outstanding restaurant, because instinct (and everyone who’s been to Napa) told me it would be great, and it was. I was fortunate to have arranged (thank you, Michele and Sally) a deluxe, very gracious tour of the new Francis Coppola Winery in Sonoma, where Coppola’s movie memorabilia is now on display and where his passionate love of wine (’07 Reserve Knights Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Sofia Riesling were favorites), food, Italy and hospitality is on full display. It’s all filtered through his renowned, uncanny showmanship—the a tavola dinner at Rustic, the winery’s restaurant, was maybe too showbizzy for me (attack of the acting waitrons!), but the food was grand.

Impulse led us to St. Supéry, where the ’06 Napa Valley Estate Cab (Rutherford? Dollarhide? The dog ate my notes.) turned out to be one of the best wines of the trip. My son coerced us into visiting Russian River Brewery for a beer flight; we were blown away by Supplication, a sour brown ale aged in Pinot Noir barrels.

On our final day I gazed at people serenely canoeing the Russian River, and wished I’d planned the trip more carefully to allow for that, while still feeling grateful for every unplanned moment. Remind me to do it exactly the same way next time.

We can’t live on liquor alone, but we can have the best of both worlds by pairing it with food—and the most glorious pairing? Spirits and cheese, of course. It can make for some surprising and mind blowing combinations.

The goal when pairing spirits and cheese isn’t to be stringent about complementary flavors. Rather, take a chance by pairing less likely options. For example, the tart, tangy and mild character of a good American goat cheese perfectly pairs with an unaged American whiskey. The alcohol content of a whiskey slices through the rich, dry texture of the goat cheese, enhancing its citrus favors. Similarly, a powerful, smoky and peaty single malt from Islay may give the impression that it would dominate in flavor, yet when paired with a sweet-style Blue cheese, it leaves a savory finish that seems to last for hours. A paprika washed rind cheese from Spain can easily highlight some of the softer notes of a briny, salty, single malt from the Islands of Scotland.

When traveling the dessert route, match up a brittle, crystallized chunk of aged Gouda with rich Bourbon. The butterscotch, caramel and other sweet notes of the Bourbon will infuse your palate with the flavors of a delicious bread pudding.

While pairing spirits with cheese may appear a daunting task, you’ll never learn unless you practise. Invite friends over, put out a cheese plate and open some bottles of spirits. If the pairings really don’t work, try again. You can never have enough spirits or cheese.

The great chocolate and wine debate – love it or hate it – rages every time a chocolate holiday arrives (which should rightfully be every holiday and then some.)

Luckily, German chocolatier Eberhardt Schell thinks he has the answer – even with milk chocolate.  Schell conducted extensive pairings during the annual Prowein wine trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany. Schell’s chocolates are from Gundelsheim, Germany but any reasonably good chocolate will work.

After extensive tasting, I can report that Riesling with Umami Papua milk chocolate and Lemberger (Blaufränkisch) with 70 percent cocoa dark chocolate from Tonga are great successes. Vintage Port with 70 percent chocolate from São Tomé is a more moderate partnership. I am sorry to report that Cabernet Sauvignon and chocolate is still a pairing best avoided.

Chocolate lovers also gravitated to the Symington Family Estates, the Portugal’s largest Port producers. The Symingtons are test marketing Nirvana, a dry, dark style of Reserve Port specially blended by Symington winemaker Charles Symington to go with 70 percent dark chocolate. The arduous research for this new Port, expected to be launched later this year under the Dow’s brand, was undertaken by Guido Francone, Belgium’s top sommelier, and that country’s University of Leuven.

Producers around the world are listening to consumers who like to eat and drink. There were scores of food and wine pairings around the show. The Alsace wine trade organization presented a mouth-watering combination of Crémant d’Alsace and finger food with “Wine and Spices”, while “East meets West” was a stimulating tasting area involving various versions of Japanese sake and European cheeses.

Outside the trade show, more than 30 restaurants, hotels and wine retailers in Düsseldorf offered tasting sessions, special menus, cooking classes and parties as part of “Prowein goes City”.

With over 3,600 exhibitors from 50 countries spread over six vast halls and over 38,000 visitors, Prowein 2011 “brings the supply and demand sides of the wine and spirits market together at an international level in a uniquely professional atmosphere,” said Hans Werner Reinhard, Deputy Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf, the show’s organizer. This annual event in Germany is now well established as a major business date on the wine trade’s calendar.

Meanwhile if you want to test chocolate and wine pairings at home, Cocoa-rich European chocolates are available in many specialty stores. And lovers of a Hershey bar need not despair. Pair it with medium dry wines such as Vouvray from the Loire in France or a California Riesling. Controversy solved? Well, perhaps just another taste to make sure.

The second (and last) full day of Hospice du Rhône led off with a seminar on Roussillon, moderated by writer Patrick Comiskey. His messianic introduction was followed by some terrific wines that were evidently new to many of the attendees–there was a healthy buzz in the room immediately afterwards, and it spilled all the way over into the beginning of lunch some 90 minutes later.

Interestingly, two of the wineries represented on the panel had roots in the nothern Rhône: Domaine Le Roc des Anges (Marjorie Gallet) and Domaine Madeloc (Pierre Gaillard and his daughter Elise). Also showing wines and describing their unique terroirs were Jean-Roger Clavet of Domaine Thunevin-Calvet and Hervé Bizeul of Domaine Clos des Fées.

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Seminar two's wines

Hospice du Rhône is dedicated to advancing the cause of wines made from the Rhône varieties, and this annual event, now in its 19th year, brings together hundreds of Rhône wine lovers at the Mid-State Fairgrounds in Paso Robles, California. The event kicked off Friday night, with the Rhône n Bowl tournament, but kicked into high gear today, with two seminars, a rosé-themed lunch, four hours of afternoon tasting and an evening soirée filled with big bottles.

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Hua is the creator of Lickmyspoon.com

Visit Stephanie Hua’s blog LickMySpoon.com

The beloved grilled cheese. There’s really nothing like it. Simple and comforting, it’s amazing how satisfying this holy trifecta of bread, cheese and butter can be. The grilled cheese of my childhood was far from gourmet—Wonder bread and Kraft singles—but truth be told, it soothed my young soul. When mom placed a grilled cheese sammie in front of me, gooey American cheese oozing from two slices of crispy, buttery white bread, cut into triangles, all was right in the world.

Today, the allure of this nostalgic sandwich is sweeping the country and people are falling in love with the grilled cheese all over again. Whole restaurants are devoting their menus entirely to the glorious grilled cheese, food trucks are popping up in every major city, there’s even a highly competitive and well-attended Grilled Cheese Invitational, now in its 8th year. This isn’t the grilled cheese of your youth though. No, she’s all grown up now, with artisanal bread, high-quality cheese and gourmet toppings.

The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco sports a perpetual line of customers spilling out the door who cheerfully await their cheese binge. A popular choice is the Mousetrap, a hefty three-cheese stack of Tillamook sharp cheddar, creamy havarti and monterey jack on artisanal sourdough bread from a local bakery.  Order it with “The Works” and you’ll get applewood-smoked bacon, roasted tomato and house-made bread n’butter pickles too. Co-owner and Commander-in-Cheese, Heidi Gibson, was inspired to open up a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant after her many victories at the Grilled Cheese Invitational.

In Los Angeles, fellow GCI champion alum Eric Greenspan, also has sights on opening up a grilled cheese restaurant. Greenspan, chef-owner of the Foundry on Melrose, plans to open Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese right next door. You can bet that his signature haute grilled cheese will be on the menu. The Champ features creamy taleggio, slow-braised short ribs, oven-dried tomatoes and an apricot-caper pureé on raisin bread.

Food trucks represent a burgeoning food scene and many a melty grilled cheese has found a home amongst these roving food-mobiles. The Grilled Cheese Truck (Los Angeles) has a devout following with its over-the-top creative combos. Their famous Cheesy Mac and Rib is a full Southern meal in a sandwich, with sharp cheddar macaroni and cheese, BBQ pork, and caramelized onions stuffed between buttery grilled white bread.

The Grilled Cheese Grill (Portland) has two vehicles, a double-decker bus and a school bus, serving up heart-stopping concoctions like The Original Cheesus, a behemoth 1/3 pound burger sandwiched between two grilled cheese sandwiches (American cheese and pickles in one, Colby jack and grilled onions in the other).

The Milk Truck (New York), feeds hungry weekend shoppers at the Brooklyn Flea. They do classic well with their Ham and Cheese, applewood-smoked ham, Vermont aged cheddar and spicy Coleman’s mustard on rosemary Pullman bread.

The Big Cheese (D.C.) pays homage to fine cheeses, using cult favorites like Cypress Grove’s Midnight Moon goat gouda and Cowgirl Creamery’s triple-cream Mt. Tam.

Inspired to make your own gourmet grilled cheese masterpiece? It doesn’t take much, just some attention to making the few ingredients involved really shine. A trip to the farmer’s market inspired my Honeycrisp Harvest Melt.  I sampled some delicious New York extra-sharp cheddar from my cheese guy and then feasted my eyes on a basket of shiny honeycrisp apples. True to their name, they are incredibly sweet, juicy and crispy. As I carried my bounty home, hints of sage and gingerbread swirled through my thoughts. I decided to experiment with an oatmeal-molasses bread recipe, combining it with elements of my favorite dark gingerbread recipe. The result was a wonderful discovery—a hearty, homey loaf of whole-wheat/oat bread sweetened with molasses and honey, and spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.

I brushed two slices of my Ginger-Molasses Bread with generous amounts of sage butter and grilled it up in my frying pan.  The scent of fried sage bits and warm spices filled the kitchen. Oozing melted cheese and delicately crispy, sweet-tart apple slices finished off the sandwich. Try pairing this meal with an Alsatian Gewürztraminer. The wine’s lush, floral, fruity perfume will bring out the honey notes of the apple while its spicy notes complement the gingerbread.  Now that’s a grilled cheese lunch, grown and sexy.

Honeycrisp Harvest Melt

Grilled cheese made with New York extra-sharp cheddar, honeycrisp apple, and sage butter on ginger-molasses bread.  Enjoy this with a velvety rich bowl of butternut squash soup and you’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven.

Makes: 1 sandwich

Ingredients:

2-3 slices New York extra-sharp cheddar

3-4 thin slices of honeycrisp apple

2 tablespoons butter, melted (plus butter for the griddle)

1 teaspoon finely minced sage

2 slices of Ginger-Molasses Bread

Preparation:

1.      Mix together the melted butter and minced sage.  Brush on both sides of the bread.

2.      Melt a pat of butter on your griddle or frying pan over medium heat.  Place the bread in the pan and toast one side until golden brown.

3.      Flip the bread and place cheddar on top.  Cover the pan and turn down the flame to low.  Cook until the cheese melts.

4.      Remove from the pan, top with apple slices, sandwich it all together and enjoy!

Adapted from Bon Appetit (November 1994).  This gorgeous whole-wheat/oat loaf is sweetened molasses and honey, and spiced with ginger and a touch of cinnamon and allspice.  Hearty, homey, and best of all, you can hand-make it without even a mixer.

Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

½ cup packed old-fashioned oats

¾ cup boiling water

1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)

2¼ teaspoons dry yeast

½ cup unsulfured molasses

¼ cup honey

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ teaspoon allspice

1¼ teaspoons salt

2½ cups whole wheat flour

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon melted butter mixed with 1 teaspoon honey (glaze)

1 tablespoon old-fashioned oats

Preparation:

1.      Place 1/2 cup oats in large bowl.  Pour 3/4 cup boiling water over it. Let stand 30 minutes.

2.      Pour 1 cup warm water into a glass measuring cup. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to blend. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes.

3.      Mix molasses, honey, 2 tablespoons melted butter, grated ginger (a microplane works best), cinnamon, allspice, and salt into oat mixture in bowl.  Mix in yeast mixture.

4.      Add enough flour, 1 cup at a time, to form medium-soft dough, mixing with a large spoon/your hands until well blended, about 3 minutes.

5.      Turn out dough onto floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if dough is too sticky, about 5 minutes. Form dough into ball.

6.      Butter large bowl; add dough, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

7.      Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F.  Butter 9×5-inch loaf pan. Punch down dough; turn out into floured surface and knead 3 minutes. Form into 8-inch-long loaf. Transfer to prepared pan. Cover with plastic, then towel; let rise in warm draft-free area until dough has risen about 1/2 inch above rim of pan, about 45 minutes.

8.      Bake bread 10 minutes; reduce temperature to 350°F. Bake 25 minutes longer. Brush top of bread with glaze; sprinkle 1 tablespoon oats over. Bake until bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 10 minutes longer.

9.      Transfer to rack; cool in pan 10 minutes. Turn out brad onto rack; cool completely.

Note: Bread can be made 2 weeks ahead. Wrap tightly in foil and freeze.  Reheat wrapped bread in 350°F oven about 15 minutes.

Recently, I received a voice mail from an irate importer, in which he said he was “fairly disappointed” with the reviews his wines had received from me. It seems the same wines have been well reviewed in their home market, and my ratings were “out of whack with what [Critic X] has given them.” Furthermore, he demanded that we not publish the reviews. Oh, and I should call him back immediately.

So I did some homework–I looked up what I had rated the wines, and checked out what another major U.S. wine publication had written–and called him back.

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Researching my recent story on Australia’s Alternative Varieties for the May 2011 issue got me thinking about some of the other unexpected vinous treasures I’ve recently encountered. These range from discovering d’Arenberg‘s unique Sagrantino-Cinsault blend from McLaren Vale to, well, read on.

For starters, how about more examples of unique varieties–this time from Bodegas Valdemar, in Spain’s Rioja region. The family company owns approximately 300 hectares of vineyards, which has allowed it to cultivate small parcels of such oddities as Tempranillo Blanco and Maturana Tinta.

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A hint of sun, temps reaching close to 60°F and a girl on the subway trading in her UGGs for sandals can only mean one thing; menu changes.  Yes, spring is slowly peeking its head from behind the snow-filled clouds of winter. With this new emergence into spring comes the desire to start making menu changes, not only to the revolving seasonal food menus we have grown accustomed to, but also to our ever- expanding cocktail lists.

The seasons changing can be motivation for us bartenders, as it gives us an opportunity to tweak our menus to reflect seasonality in our ingredients, but also seasonality in our selection of spirits.

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