Food and wine writer in Rome

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French road trip: back to the basis

By on May 20, 2013   /   Travel, Wine   /   Leave a comment

My childhood vacations were almost all spent in France. Buttery croissants, orangina, moules frites, escargots – I absolutely loved everything. The wine hobby of my parents was much less appreciated by us kids. After ubertedious visits to wineries we knew that once again we had to give up legroom on our way back. Dozens of boxes of wine were brought back home.

Once I seriously started drinking wine, I began to finally understand. Anyone who really loves good food, also likes wine. A good wine makes a dish taste even better and vice versa. Now there’s nothing I find more enjoyable than visiting such an ‘ubertedious’ winery and question the winemaker on loads of technical details. Yes, call me a wine nerd.

Which doesn’t mean I want to make wine unnecessarily complicated. During wine tastings, I notice that many people have an unfounded ‘fear’ of wine because wine professionals are throwing confusing terms at them. No-one should be afraid of wine. Wine is both for everyday drinking and festive moments, best enjoyed in good company. The fun part is: the more you read and learn about wine, the more interesting it gets. Sharing your experiences via social media is an important part of that.

I can’t wait to leave for France, the country where the seeds for my lifelong passion were sown. Together with five other European bloggers, I’m going on a road trip to discover the diversity of French wine styles. I’m sure it’s not going to be boring for one bit.

Hit the road!

More about the trip: www.roadtripinfrance.com.I’ll write daily reports (in Dutch) on the website of WINELIFE Magazine.

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From the heart – On authenticity in Georgia

By on May 16, 2013   /   Travel, Wine, Wine Tourism   /   Leave a comment
GeorgiaLuarsab

Luarsab & friend. Picture: Gabriel Dvoskin

As I am (finally!) wrapping up a longer travel piece on our trip to Georgia last November, I’d love to share a glimpse of the meta-story. What do I mean? Well, as I am obsessed with that slippery notion of ‘authenticity’, I was wondering what this meant during our short trip with some 20 hyper-connected bloggers and wine professionals.

IMG_4723Arriving at the Tbilisi airport, we were giddy like school kids on an excursion, busy joking, taking pictures of each other and getting onto the wifi. Little did we know that the wines, the food, the people and the music all touched us in ways we have a tough time describing.

When Luarsab Togonidze, owner of Azarpesha restaurant, and his friends broke into Georgian polyphonic song for the first time, it made grown men cry. Luarsab showed how Georgians toast on wine, family and love, as he and his wife Nino treated us to an abundant supra (feast) paired with great qvevri wines (traditional Georgian wines fermented in clay vessels). Everything about that lunch felt right. And real.

The same day we all cringed at the sight of folk dancers who were frenetically moving to loud synthesized music at restaurant Phaeton. It portrayed a rustic side of Georgia, with cheerful folkloristic wall paintings and defunct agricultural machinery as nostalgic decoration. There was the same cheese bread, the same walnut spread, the same eggplant rolls. Done pretty badly. We didn’t get it. It felt wrong. This was fake.

But was it, really?

There were several groups of Azerbaijani’s having a ball at the same time. They didn’t seem least bothered by the music and the food. In the terms of Pine and Gilmore*, who explain authenticity as 1) being true to itself and 2) saying what it says it is, Phaeton would be a ‘fake-real’ to us (not what it says it is and IS true to itself), while for the other diners it would be a ‘real-fake’ (is what it says it is, but NOT true to itself). They were genuinely entertained in that setting, while we, because of the great supra earlier that day and many previous travel experiences, couldn’t enjoy it.

Azarpesha was different. Perhaps not completely ‘real-real’, but ‘referentially authentic’: referring to the history, memories and traditions of Georgia. Because they were so convincingly carried forward by Luarsab and co., the experience never felt derivative or trivial. It had HEART. And that’s really the hardest thing to put into words.

Check out this video, shot by Magnus Reuterdahl at Azarpesha.

Restaurant Azarpesha is on Facebook.

Pine and Gilmore, Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want (2007)

Pictures taken by Gabriel Dvoskin. He also made a great trailer for a longer video on wine in Georgia.

 

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Going back to the Douro

By on May 1, 2013   /   Travel, Wine   /   Leave a comment

Imagine waking up to this view. The morning sun just stroking the vines, tufts of fog hanging over the river. And silence, absolute silence.

Last year, I visited winery Quinta Nova do Nossa Senhora do Carmo in the Douro region of Portugal. I can only express myself in superlatives when talking about the winding river landscape and its steep vineyards. We reached the quinta after a good hour of hairpin turns (hence the silence), and were instantly welcomed with a tasting of their wines. For Luisa Amorim, who transformed this 1764 winery into a contemporary brand, creating an entire range of wines was important. Several whites made of moscatel and a blend of viosinho, gouveio and rabigato, blends of touriga nacional, touriga franca, tinta roriz, tinta amarela for reds and, of course, port wine. The red wines weren’t overly oaked. “These elegant wines should be an expression of the region,” Luisa Amorim said. The same is true for the dishes served, deliberately not star-leveled, but pure, straightforward food from the region.

The food, the wines and after-dinner port sipping at the fireplace, the hotel rural, the breakfast with homemade jams and pastries. It all had so much class without being uberluxurious. Yet merely being there made me feel like a princesa. There’s something really grand about this area, that sort of reflects upon everyone.

I knew I would be back in the spectacular region and yes, tomorrow, I’ll embark on another port-oriented trip, staying on another quinta, the Quevedo Port Winery. Will report back!

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La Grassa

By on April 24, 2013   /   Snacks, Travel   /   Leave a comment

delsoleI just came back from Bologna, where I was reporting on an article on city cycling. I spent two days touring the town on a bright yellow vehicle, graciously lent to me by the Monte Sole Bike Group, met with enthousiastic bike freaks and ate great food. The friendliness of shopkeepers, from bakers to butchers, was so refreshing. Bologna decidedly deserves its nickname ‘La Grassa’ (the fat) for it has the most diet-unfriendly cuisine possible. Which also is the Italian translation to my last name, so yes, my kind of city. Read more →

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