Monday, November 16, 2020
The Vermont Division of Liquor Control executed two search warrants last Friday during a licensing investigation of CO Cellars, a Burlington fermentory and tasting room, and ZAFA Wines, a winery that shares CO Cellars' location in the Soda Plant building in the South End.
Tags: CO Cellars , ZAFA Wines , Web Only , Image
Monday, September 28, 2020
In partnership with Farrell Distributing, 20 restaurant plus 20 retailers will donate $1 to the Cancer Center for every qualifying bottle of wine from the Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits portfolio or 12-pack of von Trapp Brewing beer sold during September and October. (See here for a full list of participating locations.)
Tags: UVM Cancer Center , fundraiser , Farrell Distributing , wine , beer , von Trapp Brewing , Leunig's , Bob Conlon , Donnell Collins , Web Only , Image
Friday, May 15, 2020
Last week, we asked Emily Morton, general manager of Deli 126, if she could whip up a cocktail recipe for a front porch or backyard hangout — something to drink at home with the arrival, at last, of warm weather.
Our request happened to coincide with a phone call that Morton got from her parents in Williston.
“Did you know you can get wine in a can?” they asked her. Her parents had discovered it at a convenience store and bought a 12-ounce can to share.
“Yes,” their daughter replied. “I definitely knew.”
(I neglected to tell Morton that wine in a can was news to me, too.)
Morton wanted to share a cocktail recipe that uses ingredients people are likely to have at home. She decided to build the drink around 12 ounces of wine — dry white or rosé, canned or bottled.
Her drink, called Brighter Days Sangria, calls for jam and fruit. I used clementines, frozen raspberries and strawberries. Morton gave a shout-out to rhubarb, which is growing in her garden.
We had no liqueur at our house, so I made a quick run to the packie, where I hit the 2 p.m. rush. I bought a big bottle of Aperol, bright red and sticky. It should last a lifetime.
Brighter Days Sangria is quick and easy to make and lives up to its name. Our only adaption, in a microwave-less house, was heating the jam in a pan on the stove. I even pulled a pitcher out of my sleeve — OK, down from a high shelf — a development that stunned my daughter.
“We have a pitcher?” she exclaimed.
If you want the pros to mix your drink, you can get a cocktail to go three nights a week at Deli 126. Morton and bar owner Jake Shane serve drinks in vacuum-sealed packages: grown-up juice boxes. Open and pour over ice.
Brighter Days Sangria
Serves 2Ingredients
- 1 12-ounce can of dry white or rosé wine, or 12 ounces from a bottle
- 1 heaping tablespoon of berry jam, heated in the microwave until runny
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1/4 cup liqueur (Aperol, peach, apricot, Grand Marnier, etc.)
- Berries, citrus slices, rhubarb ribbons from your fridge or garden
- 1/4 cup citrus seltzer (more if desired)
- Whisk together the jam, lemon juice and liqueur in a pitcher.
- Add fruits and wine.
- Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.
- Add ice and seltzer, and serve!
Tags: recipes , sangria , wine , canned wine , Deli126 , fruit , jam , Deli 126 , Web Only , Image
Sunday, November 10, 2019
At an industry-only workshop on Wednesday exploring how to pair Vermont wine with food, servers, chefs and business owners were given a great piece of advice: "The first step is getting it into the glass."
That advice came from Matt Canning, the food and beverage manager at Hotel Vermont. Canning led the workshop together with Doug Paine, executive chef of Juniper Bar & Restaurant and Bleu Northeast Seafood. The workshop was a partnership between the hotel and the Vermont Fresh Network. It was held as part of the Vermont Wine Project, a grant-funded initiative managed by the Vermont Fresh Network with support from the Vermont Grape and Wine Council.
Tags: Vermont wine , Vermont Fresh Network , Hotel Vermont , Fable Farm Fermentory , Iapetus , Matt Canning , Doug Paine , restaurant industry , wine , wine pairing , hybrid grapes , Web Only , Image
Thursday, August 9, 2018
But for a company that makes wine production its main business, wine tastings have heretofore been spotty at best. That'll change this week when brothers Christopher and Jon Piana begin opening their winery for regular Friday afternoon tasting room hours.
From 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., $20 will buy visitors petite pours of eight naturally fermented apple, grape and honey wines, plus snacks including nuts, olives and local organic cheeses.
Tags: Fable Farm Fermentory , Vermont wine , vineyards , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 17, 2017
Along with an enormous range of bottles, the warehouse-size space — formerly home to Burlington Furniture Company — will also house a curated stock of charcuterie, imported specialty goods, cheeses and breads, plus a full-menu wine bar open seven days a week.
Dedalus owner Jason Zuliani recently gave me a sneak peek inside. Spoiler alert: My tour ended with a tasting of the current menu, which turned into a two-hour feast sluiced with wine samples and enough cheese to make even pro Catherine Donnelly blush. But let’s begin with the tour.
Tags: Dedalus , wine , cheese , charcuterie , wine bar , market , specialty foods , local , Image , Image , Web Only
Saturday, November 26, 2016
“Running a bar is much different than running a restaurant in Burlington,” wrote Kevin Cleary in an email. “I think some people expected [another] L’Amante [from Vin], and that could not happen, because we didn’t have the kitchen and we never planned on putting one in.”
Common customer feedback relayed the opinion that people wanted more food with their sips, he wrote.
Tags: wine , Burlington , Vin Bar & Shop , wine tasting , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
“Nouveau wine is bottled the same year the grapes are harvested,” Granstrom continues. “Using an unusual fermentation technique called carbonic maceration, whole grape clusters are sealed in a tank, which is filled with carbon dioxide — no crushing, no yeast.”
The result is a low-acid, zesty wine with ripe-fruit flavor. The nouveau wine tradition is made famous by the Beaujolais region of France, which annually releases a crush of young Gamay reds, "Beaujolais Nouveau," in the third week of November. This year, Lincoln Peak brings the centuries-old custom to the Green Mountains.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
But for now, in the sleepy morning hour, Barber leads me to his porch overlooking the mountains for a glass of water and a piece of grape cake in the kitchen.
Alice Feiring, the lauded wine writer, emerges from Barber's guest room with a notepad and camera. To call Feiring a “lauded wine writer” is an understatement, and I’m momentarily tongue-tied (which I attribute to careful chewing of the grape cake). An open advocate of natural wine, Feiring is a significant voice in the wine world as a writer for publications such as Time magazine, the New York Times, New York Magazine, Forbes Traveler, the LA Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has three of her own books and just finished a fourth, which she calls “a most unusual wine guide” that she’s “very glad to be rid of — it was grueling to write.”
There’s a James Beard Foundation Award in her history as well, but the laurel I like best comes from the San Francisco Bay Guardian, which has dubbed Feiring “the high priestess of natural wines.”
Tags: La Garagista , Fable Farm , Shacksbury Cider , Osteria Pane e Salute , Alice Feiring , wine , biodynamic , vineyard , lunch , farm , farming , agriculture , Image , Web Only
Friday, April 11, 2014
This is a momentous day for another reason, though: It's my last one at Seven Days. I joined the paper in January 2011, and over the past three-plus years have chalked up enough culinary and liquid adventures to fill a book (or at least generate hundreds of articles and blog posts). I've also gotten to know some incredible people (coworkers, chefs, farmers, brewers, distillers and others), eaten innumerable kale Caesar salads from Bluebird Coffee Stop at the Innovation Center, and gained a well-earned 12 pounds. (When I see my family or distant friends now, they say, "You look ... healthy."
My last week in and around Burlington hasn't been all desk lunches, though. In fact, it's been filled with some peak moments, and a reminder of how much I'll miss. To wit:
Citizen Cider
Earlier this week, Citizen Cider launched its new Pine Street tasting room with a series of soft openings; on Monday night, that meant I got to convene with a room full of food- and ag-world peeps while sipping a glass of crisp, wonderful Cidre Bourgeois. I'm bummed to leave Burlington just as this place opened. Le sigh.
Lucky Next Door
I sit in a portion of the 7D office known as "the nook," and the four of us who occupy it (or have occupied it) call ourselves "ladies of the nook." We convened for lunch early this week at Lucky Next Door, the sister eatery to Penny Cluse Café. I blissed out over a bowl of tender beef-and-pork meatballs and piles of broccoli rabe in garlic-heavy brown gravy. It was truly a perfect lunch — made even more so when the kitchen sent out a ramekin of silky caramel custard. Once you've tasted it, you may wake up in the middle of the night craving more (as I did).
Tags: oysters , Citizen Cider , 7 Nights , Image , Web Only