Food & Wine April 2021

2018 PONZI VINEYARDS RIESLING ($22) Not long ago, I hosted a discussion with several Oregon winemakers about, yes, Oregon Riesling—and I was blown away by the wines we tasted. This Ponzi bottling overflows with tingly, lime-zesty flavor, and if you can’t find it, Ridgecrest Estate, Trisaetum, and J. Christopher all make equally thrilling versions. 2018 MARINE LAYER ARIES SONOMA COAST CHARDONNAY ($35) A new project from winemaker and entrepreneur Baron Ziegler, Marine Layer focuses on wines from California’s coastal vineyards. This Chardonnay suggests that’s a smart idea: Its rich stone fruit and citrus flavors get an electrifying lift from the wine’s brisk acidity. 2017 NIEPOORT REDOMA TINTO ($50) The brilliant Dirk Niepoort makes wine everywhere from South Africa to Spain. But his home is Portugal’s Douro Valley, where he’s been at the forefront of that…

Wine Opens Up EVERY NOW AND THEN, a character named Mr. Fancy Wine Guy makes a guest appearance on our work video conference calls—dressed in a coat and tie, swirling a wine glass, and speaking in one of those ridiculous fake British accents. Mr. Fancy Wine Guy’s real name is Ray Isle, F&W’s executive wine editor. Sure, Ray curates a 3,500-bottle tasting room. He’s worked every job in wine, from cellar rat to salesman, and his wine knowledge is downright encyclopedic. But one of his most popular seminars at Food & Wine events involves potato-chip pairings. He once blended pizza and wine on camera. In a Vitamix. Fancy Wine Guy, Ray is not. He’s the kind of person you want to share a good bottle of wine with: curious, fun, well-read, and…

NEARLY TWO DECADES AGO, TJ Douglas, owner of Boston bottle shop The Urban Grape, realized that many paths in wine education were largely out of reach for young professionals. The established institutions tended to tailor their training to specific roles within the industry: The Court of Master Sommeliers, for example, is for would-be restaurant professionals; the Wine & Spirit Education Trust is more geared toward would-be teachers. Plus, enrolling in programs like these can cost thousands of dollars; add hundreds more for wines to taste, and it turns wine education into a massive undertaking. After years of watching young professionals, especially people of color, become discouraged by the barriers to gaining the credentials necessary for a career in the industry, TJ and his wife and business partner, Hadley, founded the The…

THE VIETNAMESE were distilling traditional rice spirits as early as the 14th century. Through hundreds of years of war and colonialism—during which the French monopolized production—social drinking remained integral to Vietnamese culture. Today, Vietnam’s two largest cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, have flourished into bona fide global cocktail destinations, giving rise to a new generation of homegrown distillers who are producing craft rice liquor as well as locally accented whiskey and gin. Enter Sông Cái, a first-of-its-kind, Hanoi-based distillery producing gin that spotlights the natural bounty of mountainous northern Vietnam. Its flagship bottling, the award-winning Sông Cái Vietnam Dry Gin, is a gateway to the region’s unmatched biodiversity, incorporating more than 14 different botanicals like green turmeric, jungle pepper, black cardamom, heirloom pomelo, and white licorice root. To source…

AFTER TASTING more than 45 canned cocktails, F&W Executive Wine Editor Ray Isle and I learned the following: First, it’s important to check out the alcohol content before taking a big swig, as some have merely 8% ABV, while others clock in at a cool 42%. Second, hip branding does not a good product make. And third, if you’re really serious about discovering gems in an oft-maligned corner of the liquor store, leave your judgment at the door and give the cans a chance. With many of us drinking on our couches or in our backyards instead of at the bar over the past few months, it’s gratifying to find that the canned cocktail—or at least, several of them—has risen to the occasion. Whether you simply want to enjoy a classic…

THERE ARE A FEW PIECES of restaurant equipment that I covet for home use: a stupidly hot dishwasher with a one-minute cycle, a huge kitchen sink with a spray gun, a walk-in fridge, and industrial-grade ventilation. As a food magazine editor with a side hustle as a restaurant owner, I think about these things more than normal. On a deeply functional level, they make sense (who doesn’t want to clean their dishes with all the power of a fire hose?!) but are also sadly impractical in a home. This is why I’m so chuffed that the glass rinser has made its way from a commercial setting to the home kitchen. I have one at our café, where I’ve used it for years to rinse milk jugs and latte glasses quickly and…