THE PHILADELPHIA JUNTO.: Generation Gap?

Sunday, 11 May 2014

Generation Gap?

Are Wine Critics Just Snarky?

Or Today's Wine Snobs?

So asks Our 'Fly on the Wall,'
Don Merlot,The PJ's dining critic

Today it is a pleasure to go into most American restaurants and read the menu, review the wine list, and talk to the waitstaff and know that the kitchen is ready for you. When I visited a well-known restaurant in New Orleans I was impressed on how the chef had educated the staff to understand the menu and the wine cellar; and prepare to inform the tables of the wines being offered by the glass that were good matches to the menu. With the waitstaff knowing their menu and wine, one feels that the meals and wines are positive.

That is how I felt when I visited Ralph’s on the Park in New Orleans. The wine I wanted was a Sauvignon Blanc and more than one was available. A good one from the Loire Valley was offered and it was perfect, and I noticed that there was also a superb Chilean, and a Spanish Albariño. Prior to going to dinner I had looked the menu up on line, and saw their wine list. To my surprised when I got there I saw additional new ones and that made me feel they were listening to customers.

Coincidentally in reading my wine magazines I saw that in the Food and Wine issue that June Rodil had been chosen one of the Sommeliers of the Year. She is of Qui in Austin, Texas. She is emphatic that the staff should be at a sommelier level of skills and extends this to the servers and the cooks who deliver dishes directly to the table. Wine is now a keystone of eating out.

Several years ago I would have relied on my knowledge of wine to match the food that was to match what was ordered, and inventively I would end in a sparring match with the wine steward or waiter on the wine choice for each diner; the wine snob was there. I felt the staff thought I was the wine snob and I felt the staff was the wine snob. I always felt that the wines suggested were premium wines and I would be charged $50 to $100 for wines I did not know. The chance to have a glass of a good wine was rare. Not like today where I would have a chance to order by the glass and sort out what varietal went with the menu. And back then those days few knew about wine and knew little other than you could not find the traditional match.

The question of wine color in yesteryear was white or red and maybe rosé. Whether to offer a Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, or White Zinfandel. Maybe a choice of dry or medium bodied wine was available. In the 60s to 2000 the wine menu was left to the wine salesman and the wine shop staff which at best was pushing the wines he had in stock and wanted to sell. With the rise of American cuisine came with the recognition of the importance of a chef or an owner manager. And famous American wines and European wines found their way into the white table cloth premium restaurants.

All of this to me has now changed in traditional wine settings of yesteryear, the American trend was to follow the chefs, their cuisine and find wine wholesalers that could provide the regional wines. Then food became elegant along with the well-trained chefs. By the arrival of the new millennial the world of wine and cuisine was available to 90 percent of consumers and matching it to wine was available.

Consumers who sat down at tables were sometime confronted by a wine sommelier/wine steward and an adversarial relationship developed. The consumer rarely wanted to pay more than $50 for an unknown wine, despite a strong recommendation by the sommelier or the server. Some restaurants chose charging twice the retail price. Waiters wanted tips of 20 percent, including wine, and wine stewards wanted wine on a separate tab, and they wanted a 20 percent tip including the fine wine. The business lunch and dinner of the 80s to 2000 paid for the premium wines which every vineyard wanted to achieve. Every chef who graduated from culinary school wanted to open up a five-star restaurant. The old system of France, and Italy of bistrot or trattoria to restaurant of one star to three star ratings, were skipped. This includes the life cycle wines too: carafes of house wine or pichets of wine in a family restaurant gave way to expensive wines bottles and wine cellars.

I read wine blurbs written by GEN X oenophiles/technocrats that corrected myths of wine. It broke my heart when the history of the Rhone said that Syrah was not brought over by Crusaders from the Middle East and it its origins were traced back to Greek and Roman vintners.

Then some young technocrat said that he solved the DNA history of mysterious “American” Zinfandel and that it came from Croatia and was the cousin to Primitivo. But proving the DNA changed the original story I was told. Agoston Haraszthy, a Hungarian had brought brought them to California; cuttings and rootstocks. A century ago at was treated as a peer to Cabernet Sauvignon.

In most of the post war USA the largest vintner became the Gallo Brothers. Jug sales became very popular at the retail level. One of the most popular wines was the Gallo Hardy Burgundy. At that time the USA was a beer drinking country. The sociological implication was that beer was a blue collar drink. Wine became associated with post high school educated/college educated middle class to upper economic levels.

In March 2010 there was article in the Chicago Tribune on “the hunt for that old fashioned ‘Burgundy.’“ To me the introduction in the article had the snarky comment of the new Millennial age: when a couple had a conversation – What happened to Wines with the label Burgundy and the answer today is it says Pinot Noir? Because the original Burgundy gets forgotten. I guess I have to accept that the rules are broken.

I walk into any supermarket, like Whole Foods or Fresh Market, and it is amazing to find the fresh, dry, and frozen food and spice ingredients from all over the world is available. If I am looking for Chilli spice there is Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Thai, Mexican, Peruvian, Caribbean (habaneros and Scot bonnets), and North African Harrisas.

There was a day when many friends did not like cilantro, but then they found Cantonese food with “Chinese parsley” and that was the same as cilantro, Indian chutneys, mixed yogurt mint and fresh Coriander which was cilantro Latin American Ceviche’s a marinade of lime juice, cilantro and green fresh chilies or Aji’s, Mexican guacamole, and Green tomatillo sauce, and Mayan chimols.

Walking through the aisles of a super market is just fascinating. Today most top 10% of USA income families can prepare the food recipes found in the major food magazines. The cable food shows now have reality Chef Competition that boggles my mind. I am glad I do not go through that gauntlet.

Chef schools started teaching that wine was another ingredient of a complete menu. Ethnic foods were found in Australia, California, New York City, Chile and Argentina wines were matched to local wine offerings.

In the May issue of Food and Wine Olivier Magny a young Parisian owner of Au Chateau Wine Bar and School said that the future of wine is in American hands, and the French are interested in drinking beer and feeling depressed.

There is a wine pairing article in the Food and Wine magazine of April 2014 which is very informative; I applaud the magazine because since 2008 the social structure and food and wine habits have changed rapidly. Their break down is,

Champagne/Prosseco/Cava/ Cremant/ American Sparklers/Lambrusco

Pinot Grigio/Sauvignon Blanc/Muscadet/Albariño/Vinho Verde/Guner Veltliner/

Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc/Viognier/Roussanne/Marsanne/

Pinot Noir/Barbera/Gamay/Saniovese/Mencia/

Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah/Cabernet Franc/Merlot/Malbec

The world has developed a whole new approach to wine and food led by the new successful chefs. Whereas the old school had wine suppliers and European Chef’s schools and traditional methods of pairing and presenting a meal. It now is in the chef in kitchens around the world who are renowned for creating a perfectly matched cuisine. The competition is very fierce. On Cable food shows, it is now de rigueur

Armed with this up-to-date approach to conquer wine, I am very happy to win the challenges of matching food to my favorite foods.

(Don Merlot's doppelganger, Ron Alonzo, is a Chevalier of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin; A Professionnel de la Table of the Chaine des Rôtisseurs; and a CFSP level I of the NAFEM (Certified Food Service Professional).

BROADSTREETREVIEW.COM INDEX

Articles by Richard Carreño
Diego Rivera's ghost in Detroit October 15 2013 The city of Detroit may be broke, but the Detroit Institute of Arts owns $2 billion worth of art works. Its most valued pieces, by the Communist Diego Rivera, portray heroic workers triumphing over stoic managers. In the best capitalist tradition, Rivera’s frescoes are now being held hostage by a pair of union-busting Republican politicians.

Dissecting West’s ‘Death of General Wolfe’ August 06 2013 Benjamin West’s Death of General Wolfe was once a hallowed symbol of British imperialism. Now it’s been hijacked by Canadians, whose supply of national icons is otherwise limited. National Gallery of Canada. 380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. www.gallery.ca/en.

Pittsburgh’s culture quest July 24 2012 The Mellons and the steel mills are gone, but Pittsburgh today boasts first-class museums, music, theaters and universities. The trouble is, they’re all in the wrong part of town.

Discovered: La Salle’s unsung art museum November 14 2011 An obscure museum in a North Philadelphia basement houses world-class treasures by masters like Tintoretto, Edouard Vuillard, Rembrandt Peale, Georges Rouault and Joseph Epstein. Most remarkable of all, admission is free. La Salle University Art Museum. Olney Hall, 1900 W. Olney Ave., lower level. (215) 951-1000 or www.lasalle.edu/museum.

Matisse and Barnes: A tale of two museums October 04 2011 Henri Matisse was one of the three great revolutionary artists (with Picaso and Duchamp) of the early 20th Century; Albert Barnes was a brilliant collector of revolutionary art. They made a great team until Barnes’s insufferable personality drove Matisse away, with consequences that still reverberate today.

‘Picasso and the Paris Avant-Garde’ at the Art Museum February 23 2010 Curator Michael Taylor has unveiled, for the first time in recent memory, the astonishing range, depth, and quality of the Art Museum’s Picasso holdings. But his show falls a few bricks short of an Anne d'Harnoncourt blockbuster. “Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris.” Through May 2, 2010 at Philadelphia Museum of Art, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th St. (215) 763-8100 or http://www.philamuseum.org/.

Antiquity, looters and the Penn Museum November 10 2009 Who are the best stewards of ancient artifacts— enlightened Western curators whose museums stole the loot long ago, or dictators of Third World lands where the treasures were originally found? James Cuno of the Chicago Art Institute (who believes the former) confronts the Penn Museum (which favors the latter). "Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery." Through Spring 2010 at University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South St. (215) 898-4000 or www.penn.museum/sites/iraq.

‘American Stories' at the Met in New York October 18 2009 “American Stories,” currently at the Met in New York, reveals an indebtedness to Philadelphia's artistic patrimony. Almost the whole show could have been assembled from Philadelphia holdings or works by Philadelphia artists. So why is the Art Museum so modest about its contributions? “American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915.” Through January 24, 2009 at Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and 82nd St., New York. 212-535-7710 or http://www.metmuseum.org/. Art

Museum’s admission hike June 29 2009 The Art Museum recently raised its admission fees, a fund-raising model that is strictly 20th-Century. Then it hired as its new director Timothy Rub, a successful advocate of the 21st-Century model: free admission. Does the Art Museum’s left hand know what its right hand is doing?

Venice: Nice place to visit, but…. March 31 2009 There’s no place like Venice to jump-start your romantic gene. But before you move there, remember: The plumbing stinks. And try schlepping groceries, or hauling a suitcase, or finding a doctor or a decent restaurant or a neighbor who’s under 50.

Newspapers and the Internet March 03 2009 In the Internet age, what will happen to fact-based journalism as daily newspapers fold? Contrary to what you hear from print journalists, the quality of coverage could improve. Which would you prefer: The Inquirer, or a Philadelphia edition of the New York Times?

Vidocq: Philadelphia's Sherlock Holmes December 20 2008 Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Chan and Sam Spade are all legendary but fictitious private eyes. But Edgar Allan Poe and Victor Hugo were inspired by a real Philadelphia gumshoe of literary dimensions, as I discovered behind the door of the Vidocq Society in Center City. The Black Tower. By Louis Bayard. William Morrow, 352 pages; $24.95. http://www.louisbayard.com/

Sarah Palin and the ‘C’ word September 13 2008 Thanks to Sarah Palin, the 800-pound gorilla is out of the cage. The 'C' word— class— is the one word in the American lexicon that's even better hidden in polite public discourse than race. And it has little to do with money.

Alfred J. Munnings at Brandywine Museum July 29 2008 A remarkable new show at the Brandywine River museum is a tribute to the great sporting artist Alfred J. Munnings and also to the private collectors of Chester County who’ve accumulated his works without fanfare.“Alfred J. Munnings From Regional Collections.” Through Sept. 1, 2008 at Brandywine River Museum, off U.S. 1, Chadds Ford, Pa. (610) 388-2700 or http://www.brandywinemuseum.org./

The horror of globalization February 16 2008 What is a German discount food chain doing in Philadelphia, pampering its customers and employees alike and otherwise violating cherished local customs? Don’t these foreigners know what we Americans did to the Hessians the last time we got really angry?

George Stubbs paintings at Penn April 17 2007 The English painter George Stubbs is largely forgotten outside racing stables, geezer men’s clubs and faux clubby steakhouses. But he transformed the way artists depicted horses and sporting scenes. Equus Unbound: Fairman Rogers and the Age of the Horse. Through June 15, 2007, at Kamen Gallery, U. of Pennsylvania’s Van-Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., first floor. Free and open to the public; photo ID required. (800) 390-1829.

Christie’s and ‘The Gross Clinic’ January 03 2007 As a leading art auction house, Christie’s well understands the role of a dummy bidder in jacking up the price of a work. In Jefferson University's recent sale of The Gross Clinic, Christie’s consultants apparently found an unwitting dummy in the Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton. Has Philadelphia’s art community learned anything from this $68 million lesson?

What price admission to the Barnes? August 12 2006 Hefty admisssion increases are the new order of the day at New York's Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum. Derek Gillman, new chief of the Barnes Foundation, may be tempted to follow suit. Here's one hard-nosed reason why he shouldn't.

Celebrating ....

Sunday, 11 May 2014

Generation Gap?