What does this have to do with wine? Well, nothing but I thought it was really nice.

Wishing you
In your busy life,


Time for Relaxation


Good Sleep

Good Health with Exercise

Someone to Dance With

.. a Bit of Adventure

Good Looks


But Most of All …

I Wish You Lots of Bear Hugs

And The Comforts of Real Love

Many Blessings…


May you always have love to share, health to spare, and friends that care.

But watch out for those darn penguins!

Do you ever feel like doing this to someone?

It’s no secret we are avid home cooks. In fact after all this time it is still our favorite thing to do and even better when we take home a wine that really sings with our dish.

Last week I made a creamy seafood pasta with American scallops and Alaskan wild-caught Salmon fish roe from Vital Choice (a seafood website I highly recommend), you can see the result to the left. I am the pasta queen. Having cooked for 5 to 7 people for years now, I have made lots of pasta, some fancy some some not. This one was made with fettuccine cooked just under al dente and then mixed into cream, grated sheep’s milk cheese (I used Hirtenkase from our shop), lemon juice, white wine, lemon zest, pink flake salt (also from our shop) and scallops. Top with salmon caviar and you have perfection. The trick with this kind of pasta is timing. Don’t let the pasta sit dry while you work on the sauce, and serve immediately once the consistency is correct (creamy, not too thin or thick).

The pairing with the Pierre Frick Sylvaner is what knocked our socks off. This Alsatian wine is another gem from distributor and importer Williams Corner wines. Pierre Frick is a pioneer of biodynamic farming in Alsace, starting the practice in 1981. All wines are certified biodynamic and fermented naturally with wild yeasts and spontaneous fermentation. Minimal sulfites are used – 15 parts per million where the maximum allowed in Alsace is 200 parts per million. Unlike some other Alsatian producers the Pierre Frick wines aim for low alcohol and terroir-driven wines, so while each wine shows its varietal character they all have an underlying signature that speaks of their terroir. This dry white showed lovely ripe apple, mineral and soft citrus flavors that made our dish really come to life.

We will be sampling this wine at our William street store December 11 from 4-8p and the Pierre Frick Muscat at our Plank Road store (same time).

It’s true. This year we threw up our hands and decided we weren’t going to try and figure out what people wanted but what we wanted to sell. Our Thanksgiving Picks are a bit reckless but we have a solid defense, they are all fabulous food wines that will play nice with your Thanksgiving meal. In fact we went so far as to not include a Pinot Noir. Scandalous! What we have are wines we love, want to drink and feel really good about selling because they come from real winemakers who still produce from their land and hands. No big box store (or fancy grocery store) can say the same.

In fact Northern Virginia Magazine came calling to see what we were doing and ended up writing about it, check it out here.

Every Thanksgiving table deserves a good Riesling. They appeal to novice and expert wine drinkers, pair well with just about any dish and are reasonably priced. We found a stellar one for Thanksgiving. Food & Wine Magazine says “Washington-state winemaker Charles Smith earned his reputation with some formidable (and fairly expensive) Syrahs, but lately, he’s been focusing on a line of quirkily named, inexpensive wines. This floral, slightly off-dry Riesling is one of the best..”

Eric Asimov from the NY Times calls the 2008 Kung Fu Girl riesling “fresh, juicy and exuberant” and “perfumed, with lively flavors of citrus, flowers and minerals.” Perhaps more importantly, he urges you to try riesling, a very versatile grape.

89 points Wine Enthusiast: “This 2008 is the third vintage for this extraordinarily popular Riesling, again showing bright, vivid, punch citrus fruit and juicy acids. Residual sugar is about 1.5% and once again it is sourced from the Evergreen vineyard. With production climbing to 20,000 cases, this should be easy to find at least until fall.” (08/09)
Single bottle $13.99/ solid case $11.89 per bottle (15% case discount on solid cases)

Zingo Munger from Cape Classics (importer of fine South African wines) and kybecca are teaming up for another Wine & Tapas Party. We hand-picked the most interesting finds from their impressive portfolio and created mouth-watering dishes to highlight the unique character of the wines.

This is a fun way to try a variety of wine and food pairings. Not to serious, lots of great people to chat with fun and engaging hosts.

Our menu is as follows:
Pairing One
Mulderbosch Sauv Blanc
Ripe Melon with Serrano Ham, Marcona Almonds, and Basil Oil

Pairing Two
Rustenberg Chardonnay
Grilled lemony shrimp on a bed of Italian Salsa Verde (Italian Salsa Verde is a parsley and basil puree that is out of this world, we dare you not to lick the plate!)

Pairing Three
Konakop Pinotage
Baked Fresh Oyster with Creamy Bacon and Leeks

Pairing Four
Rustenberg John Merriman X
Ravioli Frito in a House-Made Bison Marinara

Pairing Five
Jam Jar Sweet Shiraz
Mango & Curry Truffles

When: November 4, 7p
Where: kybecca wine bar
Cost: $50 plus tax (inclusive of gratuity)
Call 373-3338 to reserve your spot

Kunik, I have missed you so. We finally have this cheese back in stock, and the price has come down considerably (maybe the recession drove the price down, who knows) making it a semi-pricey, but completely worth it indulgence. Nettle Meadow is a creamery in upstate New York producing excellent farmstead cheeses. Farmstead cheeses are defined as having the complete cycle produced right on the farm; raising the animal, harvesting the milk and cream, and producing the cheese. Even Better Nettle Meadow pasture raises their animals making for healthful and flavorful cheeses.

Cheese lovers, if you haven’t tried the Kunik, you have yet to experience cheese nirvana. Here is how the dairy, Nettle Meadow describes this cheese:

Kunik is a unique and voluptuous triple cream cheese only made in Thurman, New York in the Warrensburg area at our small family farm. It is a white mold-ripened wheel made from goat’s milk and jersey cow cream. The blend makes Kunik far richer and more flavorful than a brie-type cheese yet more subtle and sumptuous than similarly ripened goat cheeses.

Here is what critics are saying:
“Kunik is dreamy mild-ripened cheese made from a mix of goat’s milk and fresh Jersey cream. It ranges from earthy, grassy and slightly firm to supple and unctuous and pungent, depending on its level of maturity. Kunik is delicious at any age and deserves a much coveted place in your belly.” Anne Saxelby’s Selections, Saxelby Cheesemonger, Essex Market, NYC, 2006.

“Kunik, a soft, bloomy Jersey cow and goat’s milk cheese from Warrensburg New York was killing me softly with its smooth, creamy, flavorful but not at all stinky song. Jersey cows are known for their high milk-fat output and it comes through brilliantly in the Kunik.” Grocery Guy, Chuck Klosterman’s blog. June 12, 2006.

“…this tart tangy triple creme made of pasteurized goat milk, but enriched with fatty jersey cow cream. The blend makes for a sumptuous, thick buttery taste that retains the kick of fresh chevre.” Murray’s Cheese, NYC, 2006.

“It doesn’t make you tired like other cheeses… This, you want to have more. It is very inviting. You could eat this with a spoon, it is very addictive.” Joseba Encabo, Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY.

Friday I decided to hang out at the wine bar after work and socialize a bit with some friends and patrons. The place was buzzing and I got the luxury of getting off work a little early, hooray! Even better I was invited to make a wine selection for the group. As I was perusing our racks trying to figure out what everyone would like, a light bulb went on and I thought, how about picking something I like? While I enjoy making pairings for customers and matching wines to their preferences it is a rare treat for me to be invited to pick a wine purely based on my desire to drink it. My preferences tend toward food-friendly (good acidity), low alcohol, subtle, elegant wines that don’t coat your mouth with huge fruit, and preferably naturally made.

I happen to be a huge fan of Gamay. Not the Beaujolais Nouveau sort (we carry the best of the lot, but even the best Bojo Nouveau is not great), but the kind made by Loire, Burgundy and Beaujolais producer who coax this grape into aromatic, beautiful wines. Looking through our racks I settled on the the 2008 Clos du Tue-Boeuf Cheverny Rouge. Absolute heaven, I nearly cried I love this wine so much. It instantly made me think about driving through the Loire with Kyle so many years ago. We ate, we drank, we had a ball and the wines were reminiscent of the earth, flowers and berries. They taste like they came from a place, and this little Cheverny Rouge is just such a wine. It is a mixture of Pinot Noir and Gamay made by the super talented Puzelat brothers (they are rock stars in the natural wine world and you can read about them here) who are pushing the boundaries of how wine is made, bringing back forgotten varietals and making one kick-ass wine after another.

This Cheverny is light to medium bodied (but unfiltered so it has a wonderful cloudy appearance) and very lively with flavors of raspberry, cherries, and wild fruits. It also has herbal aromas that carry over on the palate as well as earthy notes. Excellent on its own, this wine will pair much better with food than most reds. Chill this wine a little bit before serving.

Please excuse our dust at the downtown store while we take in all
kinds of new cheeses. We are in the process of expanding our cheese
selection with a bug emphasis on American farmstead cheeses available
nowhere else in the area.

The other day I was having a casual conversation with a friend who used to own a pizza restaurant about places that still use real cheese on their pizzas. Since he was in the business I thought he would be a good source; he couldn’t think of one fast-casual pizza restaurant that used 100% real cheese around here (that is by no means the final word, there may places we hadn’t thought of). The giveaway is apparently the oil that develops on the top of the cheese when melted. Makes sense, in order to reduce the cost of cheese food producers substitute soy oil and partially hydrogenated fats for the more expensive milk fats in real cheese. Now that I am in the restaurant business I am amazed at the crap you can buy to cut corners. One food rep was surprised that we used extra virgin olive oil in our food, quote “nobody does that”. Most places use a mixture of low grade olive oil mixed with soy oil, cheap and tastes vaguely of olive oil. In my view disgusting and not real food. Even food that is made in beautifully presented “prepared food” sections at the grocery store is loaded with ingredients that act as fillers, and low quality oils you would never use at home.

The whole thing begs the question, what happened to food?
We can blame big corporations for their clever switcheroos and constant hunt for cheaper alternatives (don’t even get me started on chocolate) but we also have to take stock of what we as consumers are allowing to happen and encouraging with our constant search for rock-bottom prices. If price is the determining factor for purchasing then businesses have an incentive to cut corners or lose customers. Places that use real ingredients and make the food have the highest food and labor costs and therefore have to charge more. The benefit to the consumer is a better product, support of real food and its producers, and good wages for skilled workers. The challenge for all of us is to recognize it when we get it and support it.