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Ashes Over Buenos Aires
June 7, 2011. I wake up and peer through the heavy, draped, velvet curtains of our hotel room overlooking the roof tops of Palermo Viejo. Darn, it’s one of those icky winter days when the clouds descend and shroud the city in a bone-chilling fog. Thick,...
Argentina’s “White” Grape: Torrontés
I spent much of last week traveling in vast, northwestern Argentina in the region of Salta. Amid beguiling landscapes, I saw the vegetation-dense hills outside Salta (city), the high altiplano plains of Cachi and experienced the constant backdrop of the...
Scenes from a Recent Trip to Buenos Aires & Carmelo, Uruguay
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Making a Comeback: Uva País
Never heard of the grape called país in Chile? You’re not alone. This grape goes back to the times of colonization in Chile by the Spanish. It’s not considered a fine wine that any self-respecting wine writer would evaluate (until now, hmm). It is a rustic wine used...
Top Ten Reasons We Love Chile
1. Wild Geography: Let’s face it, Chile has wild geography. It lays like a noodle along South America’s southern Pacific coast spanning over 39 latitudes. If you were to fly from Arica to Punta Arenas, that’s akin to going from Boston to LA in the US. However,...
Knack South American Cooking: Cheese Bread Bites
These gluten-free cheese bread puffs are delicious and fast to make! Hailing from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, these cheese breads, known as pão de queijo, are extremely popular throughout Brazil and are gaining popularity abroad. Brazilians use polvilho, a...
Wines to Watch
A lot of you have been asking about the wines used during our events and tastings on my US road show in May. This post is going to profile a couple of those select producers that are boutique in size but high in quality and uniqueness. You can find these in the US now...
Chilean Papayas & Sea Bass, Featuring a delicious Chardonnay
Today’s video uses indigenous Chilean ingredients now being exported to the US. Chilean papayas are known as “carica candamarcensis,” or Mountain papayas, and have no resemblance to their tropical cousins. Similar in shape to a starfruit with a thin,...
The State of The Union
May was a whirlwind month with three weeks on the ground in the US from Pennsylvania, to the nation's capital, up to New York City and out to the windy city, Chicago. The trip was long and intense and I confess that the first few days I went through a bit of reverse...
Where Are You From?
I feel somebody studying my face; it feels like a test. I feel them examining me, not so subtlely, every angle and pore on my body. I sense him waiting for me to say a couple words to jump out and say what he cannot apparently control…; I feel it coming. It...
RUSTIC FLAN: Cinnamon and lemon peel aromatize this favorite country-style dessert.
Leche asada, meaning “roasted milk” in Spanish, is a rustic form of flan popular all over the region due to its simplicity (milk, eggs, and sugar) and ease of preparation. Cooks aromatize the milk and infuse different flavors, ranging from vanilla in Peru to cinnamon...
Grilled Lamb Burgers with Avocado Mayo
Summer is just around the corner in much of the US (cold, rainy weather just a detail) and grilling seems to be synonymous with warm weather. This coming weekend, Memorial Day, officially inaugurates the picnic and barbeque season. Ahh, the smells of...
Three Funky & Innovative New Wines to Put on Your List
As I'd talked about in an earlier post, Santa Carolina as a winery has undergone a profound change from viticulture, to winemaking, to marketing and corporate image. It's fresh, new, and innovative, thriving on young blood and a lot of ganas, as we say in...
San Pedro de Atacama, North of Chile
Berries in Carmenere Wine Sauce
Spring time has officially arrived in the US. My goodness, here on my tour stateside, the strawberries are coming into season and flooding supermarkets, roadside stands and farmers markets. While the natural inclination in these latitudes is to make up a...
The Time Is Now: Piedra Negra 2002
I think all of us wine lovers, collectors, enophiles, and foodies tend to accumulate bottles of wine. Whole cellars of them. There, the wine “babies” lie for many moons, even years or decades, waiting for that perfect moment to be opened and savored. Wine is so...
Burn Baby Burn: Francis Mallmann
Francis Mallmann. If you don’t know his name, take note. He’s South America’s most famous “celebrity chef” with restaurants in Mendoza, Buenos Aires, and outside José Ignacio in Uruguay. He’s well known yet low profile. A seemingly chilled out, laid back guy...
Knack South American Cooking: Crab Pie
Let´s start this week with a savory, creamy, Chilean-style crab pie baked to perfection. Blue crabs are abundant year-round on the rocky shores of Chile’s rugged Pacific coast, fed by the chilly Humboldt Current. Purplish blue and about 4 to 6 inches long, their white...
and the meaningful
