Category > Wine Punk
Judging for this the 2009 Illinois State Fair Wine Competition occurred in our humble Urbana this week. Twelve judges tasted around 300 commercial wines produced from all over Illinois. I've had the pleasure of judging this completion for the last several years. As a whole, these wines possessed the highest overall quality of any set yet. The full results are available soon at illinoiswine.com. The following wines ended up with top honors decided by modified consensus of all the …
| Once upon a time, wines bore the name of where they came from, and perhaps a vintage. Producers, single vineyards and types mattered less than the all-important place. This labeling system cemented the reputation of wines we all know: Chianti, Bordeaux, Champagne. Each of these regions built around their style, with the best wines expressing the place. It's not that a sparkling chardonnay/pinot noir blend isn't good; rather, ordering a bottle of Champagne is way sexier. When you buy …
With respect for the time-honored tradition of end of year naughty/nice lists and all those pesky resolutions, I present my own list of several wines I enjoyed drinking in twenty-o-eight. These are in no particular order and range in flavor. Take these as a shopping list for next year. Nort Noir NV Kickapoo Creek Winery, Edwards, Ill. Illinois may develop a reputation for producing top-flight dessert wines. This port-style wine really makes that a reality. It beautifully combines power …
Warning! Querciabella Chianti 2004 only got 91 points from Parker. That’s only an A-minus. Only an A-minus! Never mind that reviewer Antonio Galloni said, “…[it] offers outstanding overall balance…setting a new benchmark for elegance in Chianti Classico.” Does this mean that Chianti is doomed to be just a successful, albeit barely honor roll, wine forever? If 9 out of 10 defines the benchmark for this classic Tuscan appellation, should they just rip out their vines and plant almonds? What …
Most wineries in Illinois moonlight as something else. Winery/pie shop. B & B and tasting room. Wine shop/coffee house. Whatever the arrangement, these conjoined operations offer some insight into the mind of the winemaker. My experience is that good wine usually accompanies a good secondary (or tertiary) product. So the absolute value of one’s Chambourcin = the absolute value of one’s fudge, etc. This brings us to Kickapoo Creek Winery. Their model is Winery/nursery/wedding hall. Sometime back, a friend …
For those of you who missed the trip to Matthiessen State park (one that may remain open even if Blago has his way) for Vintage Illinois this weekend, here’s the wrap-up. Funny, even pithy, t-shirts told wine wisdom. Lots of Harley guys who aren’t really Harley guys but fall into the tax bracket that allows for buying a ‘renegade’ lifestyle. Sunday was a totally chill atmosphere ripe for drinking good wine under a tree with a picnic all day …
For those of you who don’t mind crowds and want get your Illinois wine on, Vintage Illinois pours next weekend, September 20-21, at Matthiessen State Park. And while entry is only ten bucks, you must buy $1 tickets for each pour. This gets pricey fast. However, pours usually are more than enough to get a good taste and then share with a friend. (Hopefully my companions won’t mind sharing more than just my witty company.) And kids, remember a …
I realized that my childhood came full circle watching my critter run around the U-Pick grapevines at Mackinaw Valley Vineyard in Mackinaw, Ill., yesterday. My mother took me on seemingly endless trips each summer to pick fruit for that year’s jellies and jams. Memories of hours spend romping through Willamette Valley strawberry and blackberry fields still color attitudes about what food and wine ought to be. So standing in a long row of beautiful fruit watching my daughter cram …
Last summer, I made my family take a two hour detour to Genoa, Ill., so I could snag the perfect wine for our concert date. Chambourcin, like so many grapes, offers a spectrum of styles, depending on how the vintner crafts the vintage. Our double bill of k.d. lang and Lyle Lovett needed a classy, yet country summer red (we were only eating saucisson after all) that we could drink chilled at the hot outdoor venue. I made my …
Years ago, a Father’s Day gift led Matt Schulte to join his brothers and father as a home winemaker. Once he realized that local fruit made the best wines, he took the family green thumb and planted some vines: first Norton, Chambourcin, Chardonel and then others. Matt produced the first vintages in his basement. Guests brought blankets and chairs and sat on their hill overlooking the Mississippi lowlands. Everyone drank delicious wines from nearby. Thus Spirit Knob Winery began. …
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I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
Bread Company can do some fantastic vegan dinner dishes! Several of their pastas are vegan or could be made vegan and their pizzas can be ordered (and taste great) without the cheese. I also recommend their roasted potatoes and their roasted garlic head appetizer.
Glad you asked Stuart. In the 1950s (well before they were approved for human use) poultry producers began using subtherapeutic doses of quinolone antibiotics, specifically fluroquinolone, to reduce the incidence of respiratory disease in overcrowded production conditions. In humans, quinolones are a last line of defense antibiotic…
Hah! Good one, Joel. But my question was a serious one. I only buy eggs from a couple of local organic farmers, so I never thought about antibiotic-free eggs. I’m assuming that Anna meant the hen was not fed antibiotics, but am not wholly sure. I’m…
That sounds like a setup to a joke at a CSA’s annual banquet. Q: “How can you tell an antibiotic-free egg?“ A: “It just can’t seem to get rid of that cough.“ /shows self out
I love eating Vietnamese food, and having growing up my entire life eating it, I was excited to go. I really wanted to like this place because of all of the hype I had heard——unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. I got the pho (vietnamese soup) and thought…
Kaiyo was decent for a sushi buffet, but it definitely isn’t as good as KO fusion. I thought it was better than any sushi I’ve ever had at a chinese buffet, but was not as good as my least favorite sushi item at KO fusion. However, I…
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Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited. Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket. The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well. …
(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…
I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…
Nate, No offers to crash but I was wondering if you’d ever considered publishing the plans to your trailer. You might make a dollar or two especially after you go solar! Let me know if you do it. Sincerely, Don
Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but they’ll also be playing the Old Rock House in St. Louis on May 22
Interesting about who owns land in the path of the Olympian Drive extension. My comment was in response to ‘Tony C’s remarks about the I-74 expansion. Just who owns land in the 150 [BloomingtonRd]-I-74 corridor?? Because the corridor is zoned for future use as Commercial/Industrial, I am…
(happy face)
Wow, great article. I wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you have a nice trip.
Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.
As an adoptee, I can empathize—although I’m not an international adoptee, and I apologize if I’m assuming too much on the nature of your adoption. You can feel what you feel, but don’t be too hard on yourself. When I started a search for my birth family,…
I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay. Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.
You’re right! Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.
Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…
Sounds like it!
I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?
Nice, killer work pretty man…the channeled, one sided collaborated rhyming poem. An oft forgot genre. The ruckus was felt even here in my living room, which is normally a safe haven from ruckus.
wait, I was commenting on the wrong thing - sorry - he’s actually a gigantic sellout but who really knows what all this is about.
If the democrats didn’t have Kucinich, and the republicans didn’t have Ron Paul, where would both these parties really stand? These men actually mean what they say.
Joel, thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions and have them posted here. I really appreciate it! Yes, I was thrilled to see that Rep. Kucinich flipped today, so he will has committed to voting yes for health reform. I appreciated his comments which seem…
It appears to me that your reviewer did all that could be expected: she paid her money, saw the play and conveyed her impressions. The review (on the whole, laudatory) may have been rushed, in a generous attempt to publicize the production while it was still available…
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(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong. I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…