WineCanine

I’ve been interested in Absinthe for quite some time. It’s a legendary drink — the green fairy, Van Gogh’s muse. It became a scapegoat in the battle against alcoholism and was banned in the United States and a few other countries.

More specifically, a certain component, Thujone, was banned. Thujone is a component found in a number of plants, including some junipers, mugwort, common sage, tansy and wormwood — most notably grand wormwood, Artemisia absinthium. It is Thujone that has been singled out, fairly or not, as the component responsible for Absinthe’s reported psychedelic effects.

While Absinthe was banned in the United States, several brands grew up that contained no thujone but had all the other characteristics of the beverage, including its green color and anise flavor. The real thing was contraband from other countries, sort of a liquid hashish verte.

A few years ago Absinthe accidentally became legal in the United States when some laws were recodified, and the ones that banned the beverage slipped through the cracks. Since then some famous brands have been appearing on these shores, and domestic producers have started making artisanal blends, sometimes from old, traditional recipes.

One new world Absinthe that deserves your attention is Sirène, which is made in Chicago by the North Shore Distillery. After consulting my local rep and verifying his opinions with the Wormwood Society, I chose Sirène to be my first green fairy.

I went with the traditional method — an ounce of Absinthe, diluted with three ounces of water drizzled over a sugar cube placed on an Absinthe spoon. (Where did that spoon come from, anyway?) The ritual is fun, and the drink is delicious, as long as you like licorice and green herbs. A couple of glasses don’t bring up anything psychedelic, but at 120 proof I’m sure it wouldn’t take many more to resurrect the 1960s, if not the 1890s.

Bottom line? If you haven’t already, give Absinthe a try. Google can provide you with plenty of information about its history and use, and your local purveyors can guide you to some good examples. And that multicolored Triceratops out in the driveway? You just never noticed it before.

Wine lover and attorney Darryn Duchon has drafted language that could be tacked on to any existing bill that is working its way through the Indiana General Assembly or substituted for the original content of a stripped bill.

In a nutshell, this proposed bill would give restaurants the option of allowing their patrons to bring their own wine and to establish corkage fees. It would also allow patrons to store their wines at restaurants.

None of this is legal at the moment, although some restaurants quietly allow their customers to bring their own wines anyway. No logical reason for forbidding restaurants to have this option exists — but when were Indiana alcoholic beverage laws ever based on logic?

The full text of the proposed bill may be found at http://docs.google.com/View?id=df77xdsz_0dkkzzdfr.

To email your state representatives, go to http://imaps.indygov.org/GovntProfile/
and type in your home address; this will provide an email link to your state and local representatives.

Stephen Vincent is a Sonoma winery that offers a basic California lineup of wines: Cab, Merlot, Zin, Pinot Noir, a Syrah blend, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. The namesake of the company is a former Gallo marketing guy, and the head winemaker was one of the founders of La Crema.

Crimson, the Syrah blend, contains 25 percent Cabernet Sauvignon – and what a nice blend it is! It starts with a nose of dark berries and just a hint of cigar box from the French oak, and follows up with more dark fruit on the palate. It’s big, mouthfilling and soft, with just enough tannin to keep it from being flabby. This wine isn’t terribly complex, but it is agreeable – a big, friendly, satisfying red that is easy to get along with, whether drunk by itself or paired with food (burgers or meat loaf come to mind). At just $8.99 per bottle, it makes a great house wine or weekday drinker.

I’d like to have one of these powered by a diesel Mercedes W123 wagon – looks like it works very well, as long as dry pavement isn’t involved.


Armstead Snow Motors from Seeking Michigan on Vimeo.

A Fort Wayne liquor store has filed suit against the State of Indiana, charging that existing wine shipping laws violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and discriminate against liquor stores in favor of wineries.

Lebamoff’s Cap n' Cork had been shipping wine to area customers who joined wine clubs using a third-party delivery company for more than 20 years until last May, when Indiana State Excise Police showed up and cited the company for violating its alcohol permit. State law prohibits delivery of alcohol by liquor stores unless they use their own employees. However, another state law allows wineries to ship directly to customers using a third-party common carrier, so Cap n' Cork owner Andy Lebamoff and his attorney, Robert Epstein, maintain that Indiana law discriminates against retailers.

According to a story published in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Lebamoff says he received permission from the then-Alcoholic Beverage Commission in the 1980s. He said the wine comes from an out-of-state retailer to an in-state wholesaler. Then it is sent to Cap n' Cork for delivery by UPS. “It's a good business. We collect sales tax for Indiana,” he told the paper, and said that he collects $110,000 a year in taxes from the wine clubs. “We're just looking for fairness.”

But there is no record at the Alcohol and Tobacco Commission of Cap n' Cork receiving permission to ship their product via common carrier, an ATC spokesman said, and in any case the scope of a package store permit would prohibit the practice. The excise police have cited one other liquor store in the state for similar shipping violations.

To thicken the plot, the excise police cited Cap n' Cork because of a complaint filed by Jim Purucker, who is the executive director of Wine and Spirits Distributors of Indiana, a lobbying organization funded primarily by Olinger Distributing and National Wine and Spirits, companies that distribute alcoholic beverages in Indiana. The organization opposes direct shipment of wine to consumers.

According to the Journal-Gazette, Purucker received a mail solicitation to join the National Rifle Association’s wine club, so he joined to see what would happen. What happened was that UPS delivered a box of wine to him, sent by Cap n' Cork. Purucker then joined the Wall Street Journal’s wine club, and shortly received another box of wine from Cap n' Cork.

Under Indiana law, the shipments were illegal for at least two reasons. First, retailers can’t ship alcoholic beverages. Second, while wineries do have limited direct-shipping rights, the customer must first have a face-to-face transaction with the winery.

The owners of Cap n' Cork feel that they’ve been caught up in a turf war, and that the restrictions unfairly limit their ability to operate. Lebamoff said Cap n' Cork has an aggressive Internet advertising initiative and can't use its own employees to deliver to customers hundreds of miles away. And his attorney has an idea why Indiana’s wine-shipping laws are so restrictive and, he maintains, discriminatory.

“This is an archaic state,” Epstein told the Journal-Gazette. “Thirty-five states allow direct shipment of wine without hassle. But not here.”

From the December 21 and 28 issue of The New Yorker.

Actually, I can click just fine. After all, I’m a Weimaraner, not a German Shorthaired Pointer – that means I can do it all! I just haven’t been.

So, I’m behind. Where to start?

Well, how about with some stored-up Zionsville scuttlebutt? As yesterday’s Times-Sentinel reported, the restaurant and tea house Serenity has been busted for serving alcoholic beverages without a permit.

Two undercover Indiana State Excise Police officers and their spouses dined at Serenity on Oct. 2 and were served wine; on Oct. 9 owner Karin Glass was served with a search warrant and the excise police confiscated beer, wine, a laptop, reservation books, a menu chalkboard and miscellaneous paperwork. Glass was then charged with selling alcohol without a license, a misdemeanor, and maintaining a common nuisance for alcohol, a Class D felony. If convicted of the felony, she could be subject to $10,000 fine and as much as three years in jail. A jury trial has been set for Feb. 23 in Boone County Superior Court II.

An established Main Street business, the Grillmaster’s Garden, closed its doors abruptly in early October. A message from owners Jon and Kristen Carr that was posted on the store’s web site (now down) attributed the closing to a combination of past business decisions, a struggling economy and street construction in downtown Zionsville. The store was emptied of its inventory virtually overnight, and the Carrs no longer own the building, which is currently for lease.

On a more positive note, Oobatz! has opened what its owners hope will be first of several locations in a strip mall at 1576 W. Oak Street (SR 334), just west of Ford Road. In a nutshell, it’s kind of an upscale combination of an Italian restaurant and a sports bar with a very nice outdoor seating area featuring a fireplace and one table with a fire pit in its center. Menu items include calamari, pizza, lasagna, spaghetti and cheeseburgers, among other things. There is both an adult room with a bar and a family room. Prices are low to moderate; the beer and wine lists are not extensive but adequate.

From the husband and wife team of Adam Lee and Dianna Novy Lee, the makers of the fabulous Siduri Pinot Noirs, comes the enormous, fruity Novy  Russian River Zinfandel 2007. Right out of the bottle it’s a bit hot (and at 15.1 percent, no wonder), but after it sits in the glass or decants for a just a few minutes it smooths out and becomes a mellow, luscious, well-behaved wine. Not the least bit raisiny, it exhibits plenty of dark fruit flavors, primarily plum and blackberry. Absolutely wonderful, a good deal at $19, and in my opinion woefully underrated at 89 points. Seek this one out, Zin lovers.

How the Lees got into winemaking is one of those up-from-the-bootstraps stories that people who dream of having their own wineries can take encouragement from. They both grew up in Texas, and met while they were both working retail at Nieman-Marcus in Dallas, he as the wine buyer and she in the epicurean department. In a nutshell, they fell in love, pooled their resources (a total of $24,000) and worked a one-acre plot in Anderson Valley where their first vintage of Pinot Noir produced 107 cases.

After their wine was in the bottle, they heard that Robert Parker was staying in a hotel in Napa Valley. They dropped off a sample of their effort with the concierge, Parker gave it a 90-point rating, and their wine business was off and running. Not bad for a history major and a marketing major who had to resort to retail!

Now that the tomatoes are really ripe and basil is plentiful, bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches are again a staple at Chez Canine. A couple of pieces of toasted whole-grain bread, some sliced homegrowns, crisp bacon, fresh crunchy lettuce, a few basil leaves, plenty of mayo, a few plops of horseradish, and it’s a meal! (Add a fried egg if you want, and call it breakfast.)

Constellation Brands, whose first-quarter profits slid by 85 percent, is streamlining its U.S. distribution network in an effort to market its products more efficiently.

Four distributors have been chosen to market Constellation’s products in 18 states, a move that consolidates more than half of the company’s wine and spirits business to one distributor per market.

In Indiana, the winner was National Wine and Spirits, which will take over several lines including Robert Mondavi, Toasted Head, Kim Crawford and Inniskillin from Olinger Indiana. Both distributors will sell the affected brands simultaneously for 30 days. National already has several Constellation brands in its portfolio, including Drylands, Nobilo, Blackstone, Clos du Bois, Hogue Cellars and Ravenswood.

Olinger’s parent company, Southern Wine and Spirits, is one of the distributors selected to market Constellation’s products in other states in which it operates. Rounding out the list of chosen distributors are Republic National Distributing Co. and Johnson Brothers Liquor Co.

Constellation is the world’s largest wine producer in terms of sales volume. It also produces beers, ciders, spirits and other specialty drinks.

When hot weather comes around – like now, for instance – wine drinkers often start looking for something to drink that’s a little lighter on the palate than, say, a big, buttery Chardonnay. For that, the 2007 Vinho Verde from Casa de Vila Verde is an excellent candidate.

Made in the far northwestern corner of Portugal, Vinho Verde means “green wine,” a reference to its freshness, not its color. It is made mainly by small producers from local grapes you‘ve probably never heard of – Loureiro, Arinto, Trajadura, Avesso and Azal.

The one from Casa de Vila Verde (“House of the Green Village”) is a good example. It’s fresh, crisp and clean, with a little green apple on the nose and some nectarine and light citrus on the palate. It’s pleasant and refreshing to drink, and relatively low in alcohol at 11.5 percent. It is lightly acidic, not at all sweet, and reasonably priced at $10 per bottle. In addition to being the grape-based equivalent of a cold beer on a hot day, it would pair well with fresh fruit, light cheeses, chicken and white flaky fish.

And Hobbes wants me to let you know that the Southwest Ohio Doberman Rescue Annual Picnic is coming up on June 27 at East Fork State Park near Cincinnati. Food, drink, silent auctions and fun for dogs and humans pretty much all day; contact SWODR for more info.

Montgomery County farmers Adam and Lucy Moody have opened a new retail outlet in the Village of West Clay, and will open a Zionsville location in the first week of July.

Long familiar to denizens of local farmers markets, the Moodys have been selling sustainably produced, humanely raised chicken, beef and pork grown at their Lone Pine Farms since 1997. In 2000 they bought a processing facility in Ladoga, and now control every step of their farm business from pasture to consumer.

Their first retail store is in Avon at 235 N. State Road 267. The recently-opened West Clay shop is located in the Harvest Fresh Market and Deli. Moody’s Butcher Shop in Zionsville will open at 11145 N. Michigan Road, in a small strip center just south of Altum’s garden center, and will stock beef, pork, chicken, lamb, seafood, handmade sausages, specialty burgers, fresh eggs and deli meat and cheeses.

Shuttered since March, Whitestown’s L.A. Café is slated to reopen under new management on July 6.

The new owners are Deano “Vino” Wilson, who has been a wine shop proprietor and restaurateur, and Reid Craig, formerly sous chef at Peterson’s and Eddie Merlot’s. Wilson will act as general manager, and Craig as executive chef. Front of house management will be taken care of by August Caldwell, who was general manager at The Spot, and the bar will be managed by Elvis Mires, formerly of Buca di Beppo. Food at the reopened Café will be sourced from local Indiana producers.

L.A. Café was originally opened by Larry Averitt, who owns L.A. Cycles and several properties in Whitestown, and Dan Cornelius, who got his restaurant experience at St. Elmo’s. The father and son team of Jay and Ben Leland later took over the reins until earlier this year, when they moved their operation to Carmel and reopened as Leland’s.

While reading a salad recipe in a recent Saveur recently, my curiosity was piqued by an instruction to cook the bacon garnish by boiling it, then frying as usual.

The intent of the recipe was to make bacon crumbles for use in a salad, but I decided to try the method to prepare my breakfast bacon and have been using it ever since. Here’s what you do:


Ingredients:
three strips bacon
3/4 cup water

Preparation:
In a 10" skillet, bring bacon to a boil over high heat. Add bacon in one layer and reduce heat to a slow boil. After water boils away, fry bacon until desired doneness is reached, turning as necessary.

Once the water has evaporated one needs to be vigilant, because since the bacon has been cooking in the boiling water it browns very rapidly. You’ll be able to tell when the water is gone by the change in the sound as the bacon begins to fry.

This does take longer than the usual method, but the resulting bacon is more uniformly cooked, easier to crisp without burning, and a bit lighter on the palate.

Bad news for Main Street: The Brick Street Inn in Zionsville has closed.

The original 1865 building was purchased by Bill and Rosemary Fanning in 2002. It was completely rebuilt over a period of two years, and opened for business in 2004 with eight guest rooms, a meeting room, a retail space and a small restaurant. The Fanning’s daughter, Colleen, came on board in 2007 as the inn’s executive director after a stint as the manager of the Omni Severin in Indianapolis, and the first floor was extensively remodeled just about a year ago, when the retail and dining spaces were replaced by the elegant Lobby Lounge.

Although the downturn in the economy did hurt the Inn’s business, it was for personal family reasons that it was closed, according to a message sent from the Inn. Despite the tough decision the family made, their sense of humor is still intact – the official closing announcement came in the form of a top ten list.

The announcement also leaves the door open to any opportunities that would enable the inn to reopen – something the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce would very much like to have happen. If you have an idea that would help (a restaurant, maybe?), fire off an email to opportunity@brickstreetinn.com.

Susana Balbo’s Crios Torrontes ’08 opens with a fragrant floral nose that carries the unmistakable aroma of peaches, nectarines and maybe a little lemon custard. The stone fruits carry over into the palate, which is creamy yet clean. The pleasantly long finish is fruity and dry; your tongue searches for the residual sugar your nose expects to find, but it just isn’t there.

This delicious, modestly-priced wine ($13-$15) is perfect for relaxing on the deck, and it would also be a good match for roasted chicken, light to medium cheeses (including goat cheese), seafood and spicy Thai dishes.

Susana Balbo and her husband, Pedro Marchevsky, met at the Catena winery, where they both worked. They opened their own winery in 2001, where they make wines under the Crios, Susana Balbo, BenMarco and Nosotros labels.