The olive recipe

Do you love olives?

I love olives.

There used to be a great restaurant on the West side of mid-town Manhattan- La Locanda- and when you sat down Pep,e 'the proprietor', would bring you a marinated small plate of black olives and lentils. I could eat just that dish for the rest of my life.

What I now know, but never saw, was the intense marinade that those simple olives and lentils under went in order to bring them to that higher place. So, now I'm going to pass on what I consider to be one of the great antipasto dishes of all time...

Buy some olives that you like...maybe some big green Sicilians, some Kalamatas, some Nicoise, etc...

Rinse them thoroughly with water to get as much of the salt and vinegar out.

Put them in a large bowl.

Take 5-8 large garlic cloves. Crush them and peel the skin off. Put them in the same bowl.

Crack some large pepper chunks into the bowl. Sea salt into the bowl as well.

If you want, maybe add some lemon peel to the bowl.

Throw in some earthy aromatic herbs like thyme, sage, rosemary into the bowl. If you only have dried- so be it.

Add like a little tiny dollop of cumin to the bowl. This is important! Don't forget the cumin- a little more is safer than a little less.

Get some decent olive oil and almost cover all the ingredients.

Mix well.

Let stand for a day.

You now have one of the best dipping olive oils on the planet. And the olives are delicious as well...

In an ideal world, go to a good wine shop and buy a nice $14.99 bottle of Friulian Tocai of get Bisol Prosecco. If they're trying to sell you on something they recommend that's a couple of dollars more...go for it. You only live once.

Sante!

Alfredo

Cheap and easy I say...(and the kid will scarf it down)...

Cook some pasta (rigatoni if you got it).

In a separate large casserole dish, melt some butter (a good amount) and cream and milk together. Salt and pepper. Don't boil but make sure the butter is melted and the mixture is integrated. Add pasta. Stir to coat. Cook together for like 5 minutes. Add a cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese, a teeny dash of nutmeg, and a little more milk (if needed). Finely chop up some parsley and add it.

Serve. I all but guarantee that your spouse and your child will scarf this down.

Recommended wines:

Italian Barbera d'Alba or Barbera d'Asti. Aglianico from outside of Naples, or Lagrein from the Alto Adige. Whatever it is...make sure you're drinking something Italian with this and that it's red and big.

A Rule

It's never been a better time to be a wine consumer. Right now you will start to see deals like you've never seen before. You'll walk in to shops and see some wines advertised at 50% off. You'll enter restaurants on off nights and maybe see the same too (for the winelist)!? But, this doesn't mean buy away and expect the wine to taste the way you want it. Case in point...

I am a lover of Cornas. Cornas is a brash little village in the Southern section of the Northern Rhone that produces only Syrah grown on hillsides of granite. When young, the wines are rugged, tough, and intensely minerally. And yet the wines age for a few years and you receive grace but with interesting nooks so to speak. So here I am in a wine shop and there is a Cornas formally $56bt, now being marked down to $20bt. WOW! Yes, head turning. I turned the label around to check the quality of the importer: Weygandt-Metzler, an excellent importer. 1999- an excellent year in the Northern Rhone. OK, what the heck and bought two. I didn't know the wine, but I knew that Weygandt's wines usually had a dark earthy mid-core, the vintage was fantastic, and it was from a village I loved.

Well, turns out the wine was what I would call a Parker wine- big fruit and lots of oak- almost Californian when young. It was interesting, and I find myself muscling threw the first bottle. It's just too much. Too much caramel and coffee from the oak. Too much gloppiness from the over extraction. Too much. And there troubles the style of the high flying 90+pt styled wines- great to taste, bad to drink. Now, the wine's not horrible and I'm thrifty so I'm going back to this bottle trying to find some light, but I wouldn't have pulled it had I known it was a "Parker" style.

And therein lies my point. If you are knew to the wine game- cellaring wines or buying older wines. Against what may seem to be safe judgment throw your vintage charts away, don't look at your ratings when you buy wine, and definitely, definitely know the great classical producers in the regions you are buying. If the wine I bought was a Clape, Allemande, Michel, or Paris I would have been in good hands (and I would have bought a case at that price..'cause that price doesn't exist with those wines). I would have tasted the fruit taken to another place with age- and not the plastic surgery that was done during birth to help win a tasting and sell more wine.

I'm hopeful for my last bottle of this Cornas. I'm going to simply forget about it and hopefully it will evolve past it's medical woes and spring a new life (with wine you never know?). But, I will always buy with my new rule in mind: If cellaring or buying older wine- buy the traditionalists.

Lobsta!

A little hint...go to the best fish shop you know off and ask them if they have any cooked lobster shells. I've found that if you do, you will often find that the shop hasn't even thought about a market for them and thus will sell them to you for under $5 a pound!

Then, go and get a kick butt recipe for lobster bisque and make it with the shells. See- luxury can still exist in challenging times- you just have to think outside of the box.

I was given some lobsters (thank you Noelle!) and enjoyed a weekend of lobster. Saturday night was classic steamed lobster with beer and butter. Tonight was lobster bisque. Wifey was very happy.

And even wifey added that the bottle of Fontaine-Gagnard Chassagne-Montrachet 2006 was unbelievable with the bisque! "F-G" is a grower I respresent. They are excellent and make fantastic wines. If you can't find them (or for some ood reason don't like the wines), make sure you source good, "grower" Chassagne or top grower white Burgundy.

Of note: the recipe came from Ed Brown's The Modern Seafood Cookbook.

Building the cellar

I am a fan of reading the old timer's chronicles about life in the wine business. Kermit. Rosenthal. Both have written great books about the way it was back then. The availability and pricing way back then of some of the wines that we now covet is astounding. But, more importantly is reading about that sense of discovery- it's like wine treasure hunting.

I went down into my cellar last night to grab a bottle of Bourgogne Rouge for dinner, and my mind turned to investment. Where does one invest now if you want to buy these treasures before they are discovered (ie, priced out of reach)?

Here's where I'm headed...

Loire Cabernet Franc...The best single vineyard Chinons and Bourgeuils are like $50bt retail- the best of them. Even with the currency situation, these wines are still screaming deals relative to their Right Bank Bordeaux cousins. I'm sticking to the classics: Joguet, Baudry, Breton, and Clos Roche Blanche.

Loire whites...I should write that I am actively buying white Burgundy (and red), but I'm picking and chosing my battles there. It is a place I simply can't afford overall. But, like the reds above, I can afford white Loires. The best Chenins (minus Joly's wines) are still incredibly underpriced and equally as impressive as great white Burgs. I like Closel, Pepiere, Cotat, Chidaine, and Huet.

Cornas...I think it's always been the super sleeper in the Rhone. Everyone knows of Auguste Clape and his work, and those wines are amazing. Many say Thierry Allemand is truly the guy down in Cornas. I like both, but can't afford both. Currently I'm a huge fan of Paris. I do represent him, but I love the purity in the tannins, and the guy can bring out rock in a wine like no one's business.

Chablis...There might be no better value on the planet except for Chablis. Vieilles Vignes bottlings and Premier Crus are some of best deals out there. I bought wine from 2006 for my son, and I plan on buying more as I go. You just drink in the value- and the wines only get better with time.

Single Vineyard Barbera...With all the hype about 2004, I feel like I'm on the sidelines in Piedmont this year. No cashola for the vinos. Maybe some Produttori de Barbarescos? But, single vineyard Barberas...There's value there I tell you. And if you're patient and let them age...they drink as good, if not better, than most Barolo.

Chianti...I love Chianti. I think to love it you have to be patient enough to let it age and take on that golden hue. With some time the wine starts to show rounder, softer notes and the nose explodes with all types of other things. Huge fan of Felsina, Cacchiano, and Monsanto.

Germany....2007, the year of Germany. Not to say the past couple of years should be skipped. The best producers make great wine in every year. And I plan on buying Von Volxem, Busch, Knebel, Donnehoff, Christoffel, Prum, and a number of others in this country.

Bandol...Kermit won me with Tempier. I love the wines. I hate the prices, but I bite for a couple of bottles here and there. Pradeaux peeks my interest. And I'm still looking for my next great Tempier-like producer. Maybe here is where the new treasure hunt begins?

Sloppiness

Sometimes simplicity is best.

Cheap takeout pizza.

Paper plates.

Grease all over the table and eating handfulls of cheese that have fallen off the front corners of slices.

Paper towels everywhere.

And a bottle of 3 day old F Rinaldi Dolcetto Roussot 2007.

Was freakin delicious.

Fortune Teller?

Lehman Bros crashes and burns.

Merrill gets swooped up for a paultry $50Bil.

And Amazon.com enters the wine retail biz.

There's a lot happening in the world right now. I don't necessarily think the sky is falling. I think things are shaking out; things are settling- righting themselves, if you will. And here's what I foresee in the wine business...

Very much like the hardware store business, the future of the wine shop will be divided into 2 categories- the super store, and the small custom boutique. Retail shops will either evolve into one or the other, or will get bought out, or will eventually get culled out of the market.

The super shops- the Costcos, Total Wines, Amazon.coms of the world will treat wine like a product, a commodity, in which it will purely be about price and what they will advertise as an infinite amount of availability. This will serve a purpose. For those looking for the major national brands- the Gallos, the Kendall-Jacksons, the Rodney-Strongs. This will now be your best option at the lowest price. And for imports, this business will include Ruffino, Yellow Tail, Jadot, DuBeouf, Lafite, and by the way...all the classified growths of Bordeaux..plus all the major Champagne houses. All gone to the lowest bidder online at these super stores.

Let me be upfront. As much as these brands, these wines, are important in the business of buying and selling wines..I'm not interested in them. Been there, done that. Not fun.

The rest of the wine made in the world- the little projects that are (hopefully) slaved over by artisans and wine companies that truly care about their product will find homes in these large shops as well. Some anyway. And those that do- will (for the most part) get lost in these shops and sit on shelves. (By the way, this will represent a hugely strategic buying opportunity for consumers that know their stuff and can find really good wines at great closeout prices because the super stores don't have the marketing to push these wines through). But, getting back to task, the rest of all of these little wine projects will be sold by equally truly passionate people in small family run shops. Just like it's always been done. And here- I foresee the need for these shops to specialize in an area of wine in order to stand out and define themselves as destination wine shops. For example, a shop that sells all, but specializes in the small production wines of Northern California, or Barolo, or Burgundy, or Tuscany. You get my point.

All in all, the two will co-exist with one simply not ever able to do the other's job and its own. The definer will be service and marketing. And that will be the future of the business of wine.

Maybe, I'll be proven wrong. But, this is what I forsee...