Why so cold?
By Katie Pizzuto

Tasting white wine is a two-part ritual for me because I decided a long time ago that most times we drink our white wines way too cold. In fact, no one has ever been able to give me a valid reason for chilling white wine at all, other than to make it more refreshing. But, you know what? If I’m drinking a glass of Alsace reisling in December, in New Jersey, during a blizzard, I don’t want it to be refreshing…I want it to taste good. Truth is, when you serve white wine at room temperature, it reveals much more of its personality to you…you don’t have to dig as hard to unearth its aromas and nuances because they’ll pretty much slap you upside the head. So now when I taste a white wine, I first serve it at room temperature (between 65° and 70°) and take some notes. Then I chill it a bit, taste it a second time and take some more notes. And as it turns out, most of the note taking occurs BEFORE the wine is chilled…there just ain’t too much more to discover once the wine has cooled down. It’s kinda like the wine is naked at first, boldly and unabashedly revealing itself to you, and then, once chilled, it has put on its flannel PJs…you gotta do a whole lot more searching at that point, to get to the good stuff. (more…)

SF Symphony presents my classic New World concert- plus a special reception with (free) eco-friendly cocktails courtesy of VeeV Acai Spirit®!

When: Thursday, July 22
Concert: 8-10pm
& VeeV Cocktail Hour: 7-8pm
Where: Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

50% off tickets to my classic New World with the San Francisco Symphony
…and a Free VeeV cocktail Hour*
Order online or by phone and use Code: DMNewWorld50

*Pre-concert cocktail reception is limited. To RSVP, purchase your tickets by phone or online, and then RSVP to the email address events@sfsymphony.org with the name of the person who ordered your tickets. We will put you on the guest list and send you a confirmation email with details. (more…)

by Katie Pizzuto

I remember once having a conversation with a friend who was ranting about a co-worker who had sent him to get an item that she described as being chartreuse. So I pick up the phone and hear, “What the FUCK is chartreuse, Katie?” It was a tough one to answer because it could’ve been one of two things. “It’s either a slightly yellowish green or a slightly greenish yellow,” I answered. It was apparently enough to end the dilemma but not enough to end the questions. “How in hell did you actually know that? I was only calling because misery loves company—I wasn’t expecting a coherent answer.” The most likely answer would’ve been that I’m a graphic artist, and we artists are supposed to know our colors if nothing else (and often times, believe me, it’s really nothing else). Chartreuse happens to be the most visible color to the human eye.

But the truth of the matter was that I knew the answer because I am, as my family lovingly calls me, a boozehound though I personally prefer the term “spirits sage.” So I was honest: “Well the French have a liqueur called Chartreuse but there are two versions, yellow and green. It’s actually pretty interesting…apparently King Henri IV had sent the Carthusian monks an alchemical recipe for an “elixir of long life” that used something like 130 different aromatic herbs. The monks modified it and starting making it as “Green Chartreuse” but when they were expelled from France they stopped making it. Then, when they were finally allowed to return years later, they started making “Yellow Chartreuse” which is sweeter and milder. The color supposedly comes from the addition of…(click, dial tone)…uh, saffron.” (more…)

More from SF CITYDISH

1) Farmers Market Cocktail Night

Wednesday, July 7th. 5:30pm – 7:30pm.
CUESA Kitchen
San Francisco Ferry Building
More Info

There’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on this Wednesday at the Ferry Plaza. SF’s best mixologists will be pouring mouthwatering drinks at the Farmers’ Market Summer Cocktail Night. This fun event, presented by The Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), will bring you an eclectic array of spirits mixed with flavors of summer produce.

Participating bartenders include: Kate Bolton (Wexler’s), Greg Lindgren (Rye), and Ethan (15 Romolo), and many others. There will be plenty of tasty hors d’oeuvres by restaurants like Tacolicious, Comstock Saloon, and Bix. For $33, guests can enjoy 2 full-sized signature whiskey cocktails + 8 sample-sized drinks. Make sure to take a cab home.

2) New $21.95 Martini Lunch at Urban Tavern

Daily: 11:30am – 2:30pm (month of July)
Urban Tavern
330 O’Farrell St. @ Taylor
Make Reservations Here

Get ready for a “liquid lunch.”

Urban Tavern is now offering a $21.95 two-course prix fixe lunch special throughout the month of July. The daily special includes a choice of soup or salad, an entrée of beef, chicken or fish, and a Stolichnaya or Hendriks martini.

An added feature of the special is that the credit card receipt issued for the lunch will have no itemized mention of the martini. Instead, it will simply reference a prix fixe meal, which will help avoid certain questions from the boss. This lunch special also includes 5 hours of free parking. (more…)

How a centuries-old fleet of bugs lost their jobs, and what it means for your Negroni.
by Ken Walczak ( from Issue 8 )

A wonderful piece from Nicholas Liebrecht…

by Katie Pizzuto

Lambic in general, is a world of beer unto itself. Completely unlike any lager or ale you’ll ever taste, Belgium’s lambics serve as a reminder that not all beers are brewed equally, and at some point or another, if you find yourself becoming a sort of craft brew geek, you inevitably wind up exploring lambics as a sort of rite of passage. While most of the world’s breweries are clinically sanitized and sterilized, the natural spontaneous fermentation of a lambic is what gives the beer so much complexity, and what creates the bizarre mix of aromas and flavors that would mean a spoiled batch of beer in any other place in the world.

But knowing that casual beer drinkers—not merely Budweiser-swilling folks, but even those with a more experienced palate—might be turned off by intensely sour beers, Belgian brewers began adding fruit to lambics and doing a second fermentation. The sugars and sweet flavors of the fruit help temper the sour personality of the lambic. In the best of these, the lambic character is still apparent and the fruit flavors merely round it out. Krieks use sour cherries, framboises use raspberries, pêches use peaches, etc. In the end, I expect to drink a beer that will have a distinctive fruit profile, but I also want to know that the underlying beer is a true lambic. Unfortunately, large-scale breweries like Lindemans (the biggest lambic import in the US) have, for years, been cutting corners and giving a gullible US consumer a product that can barely be considered a lambic, much less a true fruit lambic.I’m not even sure where to begin with Lindemans’ list of sins against the nature of a true fruit lambic. For starters, at no point are any actual…err, fucking fruit…a part of making this fruit lambic. (more…)