Fickle Palate Archives: December 2007
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27 December 2007
Serving and Storing Fine Wines (Part 2)
Once still wine is opened, the question is decant or not decant. It’s almost a non-issue these days as modern winemaking techniques eliminate almost all the sediment that could possibly work its way into your bottle.
If you are fortunate enough to have a very rich, fine, red wine that is more than about ten years [...]
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24 December 2007
Serving and Storing Fine Wines (Part 1)
Wine lovers everywhere are probably familiar with the “tricks” that surround the serving and storing of fine wines but the prospect of doing so may likely mystify the rest of us.
There are no real tricks or secrets. A lot of the details depend on the circumstances and your personal preferences.
To begin with, it’s nice to [...]
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20 December 2007
Your Coffee and Your Health
Chances are, if you’re a regular coffee drinker, someone somewhere has chastised you for drinking it. And although you may have waved off their concerns for your health or their derision at your “drug addition,” you may still harbor some subterranean doubt about coffee’s effect on your health or some barely-there guilt at your indulgence [...]
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20 December 2007
Ice Wine – Nectar of the North
Depending upon how close to the equator you are when you’re enjoying a glass of wine, the term “ice wine” can mean different things.
If you are close to the equator, your idea of ice wine may be a large tumbler full of ice cubes topped with chilled Merlot. This concoction may be a matter of [...]
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17 December 2007
Vive La Difference: Coffee Consumption in Europe and America
I delighted in my morning espresso runs. Patrons glided in, bubbling over with graceful French niceties I couldn’t understand, stood at the counter while they downed their drinks and promptly went on their ways. I sat at a table, journal open and pen in hand, people-watching and drinking my own espresso slowly. It was strong.
In [...]
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13 December 2007
Champagne – Taste the Stars
“Ah! I have tasted the stars.”
These sublimely poetic words are attributed to a French monk of the late 17th century who is often cited as being the inventor of Champagne itself. Alas, the good friar himself was blind and could not see the stars.
Dom Pérignon, however, did not actually invent Champagne. He did spend an [...]
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10 December 2007
Blind Tasting – A Sensory Exploration of Wine
We take it for granted that flavor is an important consideration when enjoying a glass of wine. Yet, relying on input from just this one sensory pathway leaves the ultimate appreciation of wine a little flat.
To truly discover the nuances of a fine wine, all the senses must work together as one.
There is no better [...]
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3 December 2007
Peaberry Coffee: A Cup Above
Imagine that you’ve savored many, many kinds of coffee. You’ve traversed the spectrum of roasts from the lightest, brightest grain-tasting ones through the blackest French roasts, bittersweet and oozing with oil. You’ve straddled continents, enjoying beans harvested on Jamaican mountaintops or from beneath banana trees in Colombia. You’ve been brewing it your favorite way – [...]