A & E

Local Winery Wins Awards

According to a press release I received, Tino Vino Vintners, a boutique winery in Hyde Park, has received a number of awards for its wines at three recent international wine competitions.

At the 2008 Women Winemakers’ International Competition, Tino Vino founder Lindsay Valentino won a Gold Medal for her Semillon, which she describes as “medium-bodied … with a hint of honey on the finish.” Lindsay and the other winners will be featured in an upcoming issue of American Way, American Airlines’ in-flight magazine.

The winery also took home medals at the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in May for their Super Tuscan-style red called "Octavian," their Semillon, and their Meritage-style red blend. The Octavian, as well as their Chardonnay, Semillon and a white wine called "Leap Frogs Milk (Liebfraumilch)" all medaled at the Indy International Wine Competition.

In addition to producing wines available at a number of Cincinnati wine shops and restaurants, Tino Vino (3665 Erie Ave. Hyde Park; 513-871-8466) features facilities where customers can make their own wines, including custom labels. You can visit them online at www.tinovino.com.

— Michael Schiaparelli

More Beverage-Related Gift Giving Advice

This post is an addendum to my Fermentations column that appears in this week’s print edition, and includes lots of other beverage-related gift giving suggestions for the holidays.

First, I love finding new gadgets that purport to solve problems that I didn’t even know I had. For instance, Waring, which introduced its first ‘blendor’ back in 1937, claims to have created a solution to the exhaustion suffered by anyone who has ever had to stir — or, if your name is Bond — shake a Martini. With the push of a button, their new Automatic Martini Shaker ($99 at Sur la Table, Rookwood Commons) will shake or stir the perfect drink — and become “the life of the party and the perfect gift for the martini lover.”

Or so they say. In fact, party guests and martini lovers are all far more likely to prefer that you mix your martinis the old-fashioned way and spend that $100 on several decent bottles of booze. Look for Hendrick’s Gin ($35), infused with cucumber and Bulgarian roses, and Cincinnati’s Woodstone Creek Vodka (about $19), which garnered top honors in our CityBeat vodka tasting. (It was also recently awarded a silver medal from the prestigious Beverage Tasting Institute and rated “Highly Recommended”!) Add a whisper of Martini & Rossi Dry Vermouth ($4) and you’ll have the perfect cocktail without breaking a sweat.

Sobering Thoughts for the Holidays

Through my CityBeat columns, I spend most of the year trying to convey the experience of consuming an interesting beer or wine or spirit in the hope that readers will give it a try. But I’m also keenly aware that it’s difficult for many to remain sober. I’ve had many relatives, friends and roommates over the years whose lives were devastated by a compulsion to drink. Most have managed to find a path to sobriety, though I’ve seen firsthand that stumbling off that path is always a constant danger.

I can only imagine how much harder it is to stay sober during the holiday season — the period stretching from Thanksgiving through News Year's Day, when it seems that drinks are foisted upon us at every turn. There are office parties, family celebrations, charity fund-raisers and neighborhood get-togethers — even church events! — where alcohol flows with uncommon liberality.

Obviously it’s difficult — sometimes impossible — for those working to maintain their hard-won sobriety to simply sit out all these social gatherings. So then how does one deal with the pressures of the holiday season while maintaining their sobriety?

BarrelHouse and Moerlein Release Winter Ales

Two local brewers recently released their limited run winter ales: BarrelHouse Brewing Company with their latest iteration of their seasonal Belgian-Style Winter Ale, and Christian Moerlein with their brand new Christkindl Winter Warmer Ale.

Loyal readers might recall that last year’s version of the BarrelHouse Winter Ale showed very well in our round up of winter beers. At the time, I wrote that the “Cincinnati-made ‘Belgian-Style’ Winter Ale from BarrelHouse Brewery rounded out my personal top three (and also finished near the top for most other tasters). The nose was frankly sweet but very complex, reminding me of corn nuts(!), raisins, bananas and cloves. On the palate, it was full-bodied and smooth, showing lots of fruit and a slightly sweet but pleasant maltiness.”

Quail, Bourbon and Horses

We recently took a quick trip down to Lexington, Ky.

Let me start with food and drink. For dinner one night, we went to the much-lauded a la lucie (159 North Limestone; 859-252-5277), a funky, eclectic bistro on a downtown side street that featured all kinds of interesting, offbeat choices on its extensive menu. Everything we had was great, but highlights included a luscious Oyster Stew; rich and cheesy artichoke parmesan soufflé; tender, delicious buttermilk fried quail with cream gravy; and a seafood casserole loaded with scallops, shrimp and a rock lobster tail.

The wine list was varied and fairly interesting, though the bottle we ordered (a 2005 Wilhelm Bergmann Piesporter Goldtröpfchen Riesling from Germany for $30) turned out to be a very sweet Auslese, though the list failed to mention it. In any case, we had an interesting and well-prepared meal at a very reasonable price. If you’re in the neighborhood, I highly recommend stopping in.

What I’m Drinking This Thanksgiving

I know as well as anyone how hard it is to locate specific wines that are written about in magazines, newspapers or the Internet – especially if you need them on short notice. And with a day to go before the hungry hordes descend on your table for turkey and trimmings, there isn’t time to special order that small production Pinot you’re looking for.

However, you might be able to find wines made in a similar style if you bring a copy of a wine’s description to a good wine shop with a knowledgeable sales staff. Of course, there are plenty of stores that fit that bill in Cincinnati. I’m thinking smaller shops with passionate staffers like Microwines in Kenwood, The Wine Merchant in Hyde Park, Dilly Deli in Mariemont and the Wine C.A.R.T. in West Chester. But you can check out bigger stores, too, like Jungle Jim, Party Source and Cork n’ Bottle — just make sure you’re talking to one of the wine staff and not an overeager stock guy, who might not know as much as he (or she) thinks.

In case you’re still mulling over what to serve this year, I thought it might be helpful to review the wines I picked out for our holiday feast. If any of them sound particularly appealing to you, see if your local shop can hook you up with something similar.

2006 Allan Scoot Sauvignon Blanc ($12) — New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs like this one are crisp and a little tart. Stainless steel tank fermented, it’s very citrusy with zippy acidity and will be a great ‘aperitif’ wine that will pair well with the sorts of things we tend to graze on before the meal hits the table — cheeses, crudite, shrimp, etc.

Four Women, One Dream: DIY Winery Opens in Hyde Park

A little more than a year ago, Lindsay Valentino and her friends were drinking wine, bonding over stories of their dads or grandfathers or uncles “making their own” in their basements or garages. And, right then, they decided to start their own winery here in Cincinnati, and to open up the facility so the general public could make their own wine, too.

The funny thing is, they actually pursued the idea once they all sobered up. They started doing research, reading books and accessing materials available from UC Davis, home of the most renowned wine program in the United States. They visited Napa Valley in the off-season and made contacts with winemakers who have helped them along as they’ve pursued what might seem — to some — an impracticable dream.

They found a great location — a former auto body shop in Hyde Park that they’ve lovingly renovated into an attractive little space that serves multiple functions — wine bar, retail shop, party room — and, most importantly, small but functional work area where, Linda explains, “the magic happens.”

They call the place Tino Vino Vintners (3665 Erie Ave., Hyde Park, 513-871-8466). Here, Lindsay and her partners (Annie McManis, Michelle Banks, Jennifer Fairbanks and head winemaker Heather Stang) help customers create their own wine in reasonably sized “batches” of about 30 bottles using grapes imported from places like California, Washington State, South America and France.

Best Darn Dollar: York St. Cafe

Hubby and I wrapped up last weekend with a delicious dinner and a pleasant surprise at York St. Cafe — $1 bottles of wine! With two entrées, York St. offers a small selection of wines by the bottle for only a buck on Wednesday and Sunday. We had the Petite Syrah, and it was the best darn dollar I spent today. I had the halibut special, too — incredibly nice fish with tasty rice and fresh green beans and a slice of Kentucky State Fair Prizewinning Cake. Tell me you could resist that. I think not.

— Anne Mitchell

My Half-Liter Lunch at The Hofbrauhaus

I was in Newport last week and stopped by Hofbrauhaus for a half liter of their delicious 1810 Prince Ludwig, a deep coppery beer that’s a touch hoppier and maltier than their standard lager. (This is the style that would have been served to celebrate the 1810 marriage of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, an event that’s still commemorated today as Oktoberfest.) The beer was great; what followed, though, was a big disappointment.

When I looked at the menu, I saw that many of my favorite selections were missing. Gone was the schnitzel sandwich on pretzel bread! Gone was the luncheon wurst platter! In their place were non-German selections like a grilled ground chicken burger ($9.50), a tilapia “poor boy” sandwich ($9) and a smoked-salmon “bagel club” sandwich ($10.75).

Come on. This is the Hofbrauhaus! If you want to broaden the menu, fine, but you have to offer a robust selection of honest German food, too. When I voiced my displeasure with the new menu, my waitress commiserated.

“Yeah, a lot of people are pretty upset about it,” she said.

Well, if a lot of people are pissed off, doesn’t that tell you something? Change it back. Or at least add back a section of inexpensive luncheon options that you might actually find if you stopped in at the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich.

The Dumbest Wine Web Site ... Period

Today I discovered a Web site (www.justwinepoints.com) that perfectly represents everything that’s wrong with the wine market’s reliance on the “point system” to move product.

This site (which I at first wrongly took to be satirical) claims it “cuts to the chase and offers exactly what wine savvy consumers are truly looking for — a numerical score without all of the flowery descriptive baggage.” They go on to assert that, “wine descriptors and any other verbiage lashed onto rating points is wasted time and effort by both reviewer and reader.”

Why, they don’t even bother to list wines on their site that they scored under 90 points, because who would be interested in sampling such crap?

This whole line of thought would be laughably absurd … if it wasn’t so pervasive in wine marketing. In fact, last year I wrote a Fermentations column (“Happy Birthday, Mr. Parker,” issue of July 19, 2006) explaining why rating points are generally irrelevant and that the description appended to them can be a far more valuable tool in helping “savvy consumers” find wines that they’ll enjoy.