Food & Wine April 2024

MIONETTO ALCOHOL-REMOVED SPARKLING WINE ($15) Mionetto, a classic Prosecco producer, joined the nonalcoholic game late last year with this briskly citrusy sparkling cuvée; while it doesn’t have quite the presence of their actual Prosecco, it’s an appealing sparkling substitute for anyone who wants to feel festive, but without the alcohol. 2022 SALCHETO BISKERO CHIANTI ($16) I poured this organically farmed Chianti for an event for my recent book, The World in a Wineglass, at Community Wine & Spirits in NYC and was struck again by what a steal of a red it is: juicy, lively, vibrantly flavorful. Plus, Salcheto’s charismatic owner, Michele Manelli, is at the forefront of sustainable practices in Italy. 2019 INK GRADE ANDOSOL ($75) I had this graceful, layered Zinfandel blend at Ink Grade’s new tasting room…

Liquid Life I’VE HIT THE SWEET SPOT of middle age where my elementary school–age kids and Gen Z colleagues think I’m uncool. But they’re the ones toting around those clunky, 40-ounce Stanley water cups with sippy straws, not me. It’s 2024: Nobody’s going thirsty. You know what’s actually cool? My grandfather’s Stanley coffee thermos that he carried on fishing trips. Maybe I’m becoming crotchety, a Gen X version of Andy Rooney grumbling at the end of 60 Minutes. If I start complaining about the quality of the elastic in my tube socks, put me out to pasture. Meantime, please bear with me for a few more paragraphs. I share a birth year with Food & Wine (1978), and that gives me some contextual advantages in this food game, especially when…

THE COCKTAIL SHAKER is the animating force of the bar. It creates the action, noise, motion, and energy that ultimately become the concoctions that drinkers have the pleasure to imbibe. The modern approach to shaking was developed in the 19th century in America, when it was found that, if two vessels had mouths of different sizes, the smaller rim could fit inside the larger to create a seal, and a drink could be mixed much more vigorously to create new textures and appearances. The first patent for a cocktail shaker, a design by inventer William Harnett, was approved in 1872, thus officially inscribing an object of eternal bartending fascination into the public world. HOW TO SHAKE The purpose of shaking a cocktail is fourfold: to chill, dilute, mix, and aerate…

1. COUPLET COFFEE ESPRESSO FOR EVERYONE BLEND “I brew this blend via pour-over with a 1:15 ratio, and I get delicious notes of dried cherries, plums, and cacao. It’s warm, bright, and smooth.” —Sahra Nguyen, Nguyen Coffee Supply, Brooklyn ($18 for 12 ounces, coupletcoffee.com) 2. COSMIC DUST COFFEE ROASTERS SPECIAL BLEND – POLARIS “With Ethiopian and Guatemalan beans, this blend is super balanced and has the classic nutty, chocolaty notes that I always look out for.” —Gefen Skolnick, Couplet Coffee, Los Angeles ($18 for 8 ounces, cosmicdustcoffee.com) 3. COFFEE PROJECT NEW YORK CROWD PLEASER HOUSE BLEND ESPRESSO “This blend is well rounded with notes of black cherry and chocolate and makes a great everyday drinker.” —Jenny Huynh, Cosmic Dust Coffee Roasters, San Jose, California ($19 for 10 ounces, coffeeprojectny.com) 4.…

YOU KNOW THAT MOMENT when a song, film, or some external force meets your atoms and electrifies them, and suddenly you’re unable to imagine your life before it? That was my first sip of Ardbeg Corryvreckan, chosen for me by the whiskey librarian at a lochside resort in the West Highlands of Scotland after I described my especially smoky, peaty tastes. I found a new devotion. The brand’s master distiller, Bill Lumsden, told me rather proudly that the whiskey brand “attracts weirdos,” and having attended the 14th annual Ardbeg Day festivities in June 2023, I took that for the compliment it was. In the past 200-plus years, Ardbeg has harnessed the native flora, water, and climatic idiosyncrasies of Islay, a sparsely populated island off the west coast of Scotland,…

YOU CAN DESCRIBE THE FLAVOR of Stuzzi Hot Sauce just as you would a fine wine: It’s a piquant Italian brightener with nuance and a strong sense of place. The hot sauce was born in 2021, when Carla Rza Betts and Richard Betts, a husband-and-wife duo with decades of experience in the beverage industry (Carla as a wine director and now winemaker and Richard as a wine director and now partner and CEO of the spirits company Casa Komos Brands Group), took a road trip across the Alps. The couple had dinner at Klösterle, a restaurant in Lech, Austria, and talked with the chefs, Ethel Hoon and Jakob Zeller. “We started talking about the food world,” says Carla. “Out of nowhere, Richard said, ‘Want to make a hot sauce?’ Without…