I usually have a few students parking on my block – it’s pretty easy to spot even when none of them have UMW stickers on their car (half of them have out of state plates). This month I lost my patience they occupied several shovelled out spaces afte…

Mr. Hurley of UMW reported that Eagle Village was still on schedule to open for the Fall semester. The main campus side of the foot bridge may not be fully completed in time, though he expects that a temporary walkway will be used from the base of the…

I just got back from the Town Gown Quarterly meeting. Here is a brief summation of the highlights (at least what I found interesting).The representative from the consulting firm working with UMW on the new master plan started the meeting with a presen…

We have new truffles, beautifully packaged and designed to pair perfectly with a glass of wine!

The Cholive Company – “Our Chruffles (pronounced TRUFFLE but with our unique spelling) are also based on our 55% dark chocolate formula with whole cream ganache. With the help of Guy Poitras, our resident sommelier and wonderful friend, we paired 16 different flavored Chruffles with a host of great wines to come up with the perfect wine and chocolate pairings (let me tell you, it was a fun experience!) By slowly letting the shell and ganache melt in your mouth, you can pick up amazing nuances in wine that only chocolate can bring out. Or, if you are like me, enjoy our Chruffles as the perfect mini dessert – they are just enough to cap off a wonderful meal.” Joshua Gentine, President

The award-winning Harvest Song artisanal preserves are finally back in stock. And to celebrate…we have lowered the price on the 10.2 oz jars!

From their website:

“What sets Harvest Song apart is the way our products are grown, harvested, prepared and brought to the table. Our products taste like they were just picked from the garden. That’s because farming in Armenia is not industrialized like most modern countries of the world. Chemical fertilizers are not widely used. The fruit is sun ripened and immediately picked and prepared for preserving, so the vitamins and nutrients are not lost before the canning process. Only natural ingredients are used to compliment the flavorful fruits and vegetables.”

Be sure to have them with your favorite wines….try the Sour Cherry or Peach with a Riesling or Tempranillo. Or the Apple & Pear with a Sauternes, or if you are a beer lover, your favorite stout. The Wild Strawberry with a sparkling rose, or the Quince with a Pinot Noir or Pilsner.

[Editor’s Note: An update to this blog post is available Here.]I have owned my 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid since the autumn of 2004. It was one of the first few Escape Hybrids that were made available in the Washington DC metropolitan area and I was very e…

In writings and suggestions on pairing food with beer, it is often repeated that hoppy beers such as India Pale Ales are good pairings for spicy food. A couple of days ago I made a venison chili that had some kick to it and decided to put this claim to the test. I paired my chili with two beers: Bell’s Hop Slam, an Imperial India Pale Ale that is hugely popular and quite hoppy, plus the Don De Dieu from Canada’s Unibroue brewery that is a Belgian style golden ale and can be described as more malty than hoppy with a touch of sweetness.

Let me first say that I don’t think there is such a thing as a “right” food pairing – if it works for you and you like it then go for it. But in this case I can say that the Don De Dieu was the winner hands down. To me the hoppy citrus/pine flavors from the Hop Slam was simply too much. It competed with the chili rather than complementing it. Plus it amplified the spice in what was already a spicy dish. The Don de Dieu, on the other hand, toned down the spice and refreshed my palate while the grainy and slightly sweet flavors added to the dish. My verdict: malty beers are better with spicy food. Try it for yourself and see what you think.

Here’s a good blog post from Eric Asimov, the New York Times wine critic about ridiculous wind and food pairings. I have wine with my dinner very often but I’m not one of those people that thinks wine goes with everything. For example, I don’t much like wine with rich, sweet desserts like cake. Some people pair dessert wines with these but to me that’s too much sugar. I much prefer coffee with my cake than wine.

So what do dessert wines pair with? Mainly I like them all by themselves, as dessert. However, they can pair nicely with ‘dry’ desserts, such as fruit tarts. In Tuscany sometimes people pair Vin Santo (a type of dessert wine) with biscotti, which is not very sweet.

To help with the traffic disruptions associated with the closing of Route One this weekend, the University will be opening up the gate at Sunken Road. This will mainly help manage traffic going to and from the basketball games at the gym held on the a…

I wanted to share a thought about imported wine that’s been bothering me lately. I have had many people remark to me that during their trip to Italy/France/Spain that “all the wine we had was good!” Often they will emphasize that even the inexpensive house wine at the restaurants was good wine. The implication (and in some cases people have stated outright) is that the imported wine here in the U.S. is not as good as what the people in these other countries drink themselves.

For imported wine you get at any grocery store or chain restaurant, this is probably right. That stuff is just mass-marketed stuff intended for export. Otherwise this notion is false. In fact the truth is quite the opposite. Importers who take their craft seriously seek out the very best wine to import in the U.S. and leave the rest behind. For good restaurants and specialty wine shops, the imported wine is probably on average superior to what’s found in these countries as a whole.

Also, I suspect that a lot of this wine that is reported as great wouldn’t be as great in other contexts. I’ve written before that a big part of wine is the experience. If you are on vacation in Florence in a nice cafe, you are going to expect the wine to be good, and lo and behold it is. In a random wine tasting you do not know what to expect and your judgment is probably more accurate.

For example, if you’ve ever been to Paris and eaten at the numerous Bistros you probably had some of their house red and thought it was great. What you were drinking was likely Beaujolais wine. Well, I can tell you from experience that I love Beaujolais wine but it is a very hard sell here in the U.S. Americans tend to prefer fuller bodied reds. But I bet in that Parisian Bistro that light bodied red tasted great.