You know the rest of that line, right? Well, it's with some small amount of sadness that I am saying that about this blog: It must come to an end. I've had a terrific time writing it, but we've decided that in the end it's a bit strange, for a magazine that's all about bringing together food and wine, to have separate blogs on those topics.

So, from here on out, any wine blogging that I (and Megan Krigbaum, Kristin Donnelly, and various other stalwart folks) do will instead appear in F&W's primary blog, Mouthing Off. No less wine coverage, just a different venue. See you there.

Ray Isle

Andy Warhol was a big fan of Dom Pérignon. So much so that he and his friends made a plan to drink it to ring in the new millennium in 2000. In his diary entry from March 8, 1981, he writes: “...the ‘2,000’ people — it’s a club of twenty guys who got together and they're going to buy 2,000 bottles of Dom Pérignon which they will put in a sealed room until the year 2000 and then open it up and drink it and so the running joke is who will be around and who won’t...” The stashed bottles have never been found, nor have the other 19 members of the group been identified. It almost makes you want to go on a scavenger hunt!

Now, in a tribute to the pop-art legend, Dom Pérignon has teamed up with Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London for a limited-edition collection of three Andy Warhol–inspired bottles, vintage 2002. The labels, in red, yellow or blue, recall Warhol’s bold use of color and graphics.

The bottles are available today at a suggested retail price of $150, in NYC at Crush Wine & Spirits and Sherry-Lehmann.

"I haven't had flat water in a month and a half," my boyfriend Michael bragged to a friend the other day. He wasn't kidding. Thanks to his inspired Christmas gift last December-a bright red chrome SodaStream—we've been luxuriously drinking fizzy water ever since. It's almost become an obsession-still water just doesn't have the same sort of excitement to it any more. Not to mention the savings—both economic and ecological—from not buying plastic bottles of seltzer water. Another added bonus: It's easier than ever now to make Campari-and-sodas and mojitos. Put our faces on the SodaStream billboard! We're its biggest fans.

But a new short documentary called Seltzer Works is making me feel a little guilty over my love for the SodaStream. The film, which airs on August 24 during PBS's POV (Point of View) series, pays tribute to one of the last remaining seltzer makers in the country, Kenny Gomberg. He makes seltzer the old-fashioned way-siphoned into glass bottles-and delivers weekly to his Brooklyn customers. I'm a sucker for those classic bottles, with their shiny metal tops. They make me crave egg creams and cherry-lime rickeys. I'm not sure I'm ready to retire my at-home soda machine, but who knows, I may be dialing up Kenny after I watch this film.

Who else has an at-home soda maker? Have you come up with any incredible new sodas or cocktails that put it to good use?

It seems like there's some new wine gadget coming down the pipe practically every day now, but does anyone really need a wine chiller that can cool a bottle of white wine down in 30 minutes when most of us have a standard-issue freezer on hand that can do it in 15? I'm not convinced.

Bill Daley, from the Chicago Tribune, posted this cheeky little story this morning that strips necessary wine gadgetry down so far that you don't even need a wine glass or a corkscrew.

In other news, what are your thoughts on the Wine Diaper?

Go away for a few days (the F&W Classic in Aspen was this past weekend) and the whole world gets to changing around you: now they've got wine vending machines in Pennsylvania. Who knew? Local TV station WGAL has the story. Stick your driver's license in a slot, breathe into a tube, insert credit card, and hey presto—Dom Perignon in your shopping bag. It's a weird world.

Anyone who feels they are or might be allergic to wine, or allergic to sulfites in wine, or is simply curious about whether allergies are exacerbated (or not) by wine, or, for that matter, is simply bored at the moment, ought to read this wonderfully cogent post by Dr. Vino over at his blog. It's clear, direct, and cuts through a huge amount of the blather surrounding this subject. It's also well worth looking at the two National Institutes of Health papers (on histamines & wine and on sulfite reactions & wine) he mentions as well, especially if you don't mind a dose of science with your work down-time reading, as well as this one (also on histamines & wine, with a contrary position) which he doesn't. 

 

Only a true wine geek would make the four-hour drive from Mumbai to Nashik to go wine-tasting in the 100-plus-degree heat. But some prodding from F&W’s always-curious wine editor Ray Isle, coupled with a meeting in Mumbai with Rajeev Suresh Samant, the wine visionary behind India’s Sula Wines, convinced me it was my journalistic duty to leave Mumbai's chaos and investigate what was going on in India's wine country. In the last five years, a wine scene has slowly emerged in India’s major cities. Wine bars are popping up in design stores; retail wine displays are being added to specialty-food shops; India’s social set are joining wine clubs; and drinking red wine has become fashionable among the Bollywood set.

Nashik-based Sula Vineyards is now pioneering wine tourism in India to fuel the growing wine interest. It opened the country’s first tasting room in 2005 and has since added an Italian restaurant, as well as a six-month-old Indian restaurant. Two years ago, Rajeev opened Beyond, a modern, three-bedroom guesthouse set amid the vineyards, with an infinity pool and a private chef on call. I spent the day touring the barrel rooms, watching elegant women in saris prune the vines and tasting the dozen-plus styles of wine that Sula produces under the guidance of Sonoma winemaker Kerry Damskey. Throughout my trip, I noticed that Sula’s excellent sparkling wine and Chenin Blanc were featured on every restaurant’s wine list.

I also got a sneak peek at Sula’s 20-room eco-resort and spa, which will open later this year. With more than 500 people visiting the winery on a weekend day and new wineries like York and Chateau d’Ori opening nearby, I couldn’t help but feel Nashik will soon be, well, not quite Napa, but perhaps Mumbai’s equivalent to Long Island wine country.

Well, that headline doesn't actually mean much, but it was hard to resist. The point is, I've discovered my new favorite wine snack: the beef jerky that chef John Schenk (F&W Best New Chef '95) has added to the bar menu at the Strip House steakhouses in Houston and New York—and will in theory soon be adding to all the other Strip Houses around the country.

This tiny photo doesn't quite do it justice. What Schenk does is take prime strip loin, cut it into strips, pound it lightly till it's thin, then marinate it in minced garlic, ground coriander, curry powder, dark brown sugar, black pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, thyme, chopped cilantro, lime juice, and red wine vinegar—whew—for at least 24 hours. He pulls it out of the marinade, dries it in a 200 degree oven for somewhere up to 40 minutes or so, cools it, refrigerates it, then fries it to order in goose fat. (Because, you know, why the heck not fry it in goose fat?) And it's served with fried onions. It's slightly sweet, tender and chewy at once, excellently beefy, much more reminiscent of Hong Kong-style beef jerky than of the leathery, black, mesquite-smoked stuff I remember from being a kid in Texas. And I can tell you, it goes fantastically well with a big red wine.

If it sounds intriguing, you have two options: go to Strip House and order it, or, if you just have a general hankering for jerky, wait till our June issue when we're running a whole jerky article. Your call.

There's been plenty of buzz about this in the past day or so, but it's still such an oddball concept that it bears—well, I'm not sure what it bears. But anyway, some company called Innovation Spirits has released a Hello Kitty line of wines, complete with that ultra-kawaii kitty cat on the label (on the sparkling wine, it's dressed in what looks like pink-leopard-print footie pajamas with a hood, a bit like Kenny's outfit on South Park—but we all know what happens to him). I haven't tasted them yet. I suppose it's my duty as a wine journalist, but I have to admit I'm kind of terrified.

Having just finished a column on South African wine (to appear in our June issue), I was disheartened that this bit of breaking news didn't get to me before I filed the story. Baboons, it seems, are becoming a scourge in some of South Africa's wine regions, descending on vineyards and gobbling ripe Pinot and whatnot by the ton (literally). I especially love the strategies South African vintners are using to deter them: blowing horns called 'vuvuzelas,' typically used by soccer fans, and trying to scare them off with rubber snakes. I suggest the vineyard owners read this long-ago essay of mine about being attacked by a wild turkey for inspiration on how to best nature at its own game.