Wine and Dine with The Zagat Survey
With dozens of dining choices finding that special restaurant can be difficult. Typically, we rely on the advice of friends and relatives to get their impressions. However, with a resource like The Zagat Survey, you can get input from thousands of dinners. The Zagat Survey is the most trusted source for restaurant reviews.
Today’s guest is Gretchen Kurtz a Senior Food Writers and local Editor of the Zagat Survey. We spend time with Gretchen to discover what makes a great restaurant and more importantly, a great wine restaurant.
Find out more about The Zagat Survey: http://www.zagat.com/
Sponsor: Varietals Wine Merchants: Click Here to Learn More
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I am a recent new listener and have fallen in love with your Podcasts. I am a personal chef in the Virginia Beach, VA area. When I am working I listen to your podcasts to learn more about wines. I love my white wines and some Roses. Because of stomach surgery I can’t tolerate red wines so hearing that there are other wines out there besides Reds that I can try is music to my ears. I am a beginner at wine drinking so my palate is under developed but I am having a great time whipping myself into shape. My husband and I are so excited about drinking wine that we bought ourselves a 20 bottle wine refrigerator. It’s small and not very expensive but we will aspire to greater things! Thanks for making my work day educational and fun!
Vicky, Vicky, Vicky you are in way big trouble. Drinking whites, being a foodie, and you bought a wine fridge. Stayed tuned for a series of Podcasts on wines from Germany. I think its time to start thinking about an additional fridge.
Re. Sake — here in NYC we have a few sake bars, some with very large wine lists. You may be interested to know that only inferior sakes are served hot (it kills the flavor — great in winter of course!) … the better stuff is always chilled.
There are hundreds of them, in a huge range of styles, weights, flavors, sweetnesses, and prices. I am in no sense a sake expert, and generally myself prefer wine. But at one of the better fish restaurants here my wife and I were served a chilled sake (Takatenjin I believe is the name) which was extremely fragrant with complex floral and fruit notes, which would not have been undistinguished next to even a really FINE white …
I have also heard that fine sake in Japan is not aged, and must be kept chilled; so similar to a delicate white. My guess is that all our bad sake experiences come from:
(1) bad, cheap sake (the kind they usually serve hot)
(2) old sake
(3) heat damaged sake
The situation is changing slowly; now in better wine shops I can see finer sakes kept in the refrigerator next to the whites … And also where they should keep the fino and manzanilla sherries, but that’s a different story …
Loving the show.
I know zippo, nada, zilch about sake except some I loved, others I hated. Anybody know a sake expert we can interview?
Jay
You guys have a great show going on here. Good to see you can know a lot about wine and not be haughty about it. Keep up the good work, and how about a slightly more international flavour? There are plenty of countries worldwide with upcoming wineries making exciting products with lots of promise, or established areas that are often neglected (Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand…)
Top stuff guys
rob
Okay, apologies.
I’ve only been listening for a couple of months, on inspection of your past issues I see you do a pretty good job of getting around the globe.
So, i guess, no complaints or suggestions. I’ll let you guys keep doing what you’re doing
cheers
No apologies needed. Speaking if Germany, we have some real cool shows coming up in the near future.
I saw 1997 Screaming Eagle on a reserve list, at a new fancy seafood restaurant in Newport Beach, that is owned by a real high end steak house, for $7,000.
Wow, What a a mark up. Especially when you consider the retail on the bottle was $150 on release.
Brian