Poggia delle Faine, 2006, Red wine from Italy
2 point
This wine is a remarkable example of good marketing! It was ca. € 9 per bottle, although I don’t think you can still get it. The wine ranked on many wine testing charts within Top 5 and 1. Many magazines, wine testers and of course websites presented this wine as something very special. Based on this assumption I also bought some bottles.
Restaurant U Kucharzy w Arsenale, Warsaw, Poland
5 points
If you were in Poland during the nineties and the first years of our century, you needed good Polish friends to find restaurants and inns which served edible food. Perhaps my Polish friends would protest, but at that time there wasn’t any culture for good food and even any interest in wine. Of course some homemade basics – a pickled herring with potatoes with some fresh dill – could have been delicious, but in general you got only heavy on meat (99% pork) and flavors which were the clear opposite of piquant. As in every other country in Eastern Europe, you would have expected that after the wall came down there would be a huge “hunger” for new flavors, for foreign influences in cooking and some new tasting experience aside from vodka, beer and salty water. For whatever reasons it wasn’t like this for many years: one of my first foreign food experiences in Warsaw was bad Mexican cuisine (another problem is that I am not a big fan of Mexican food in general). It was frightening to see how my friend from Warsaw enjoyed this bad fast food and some cheap red wine from Chile.
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Arco Antico, Pizzaria, San Marco di Locorotondo, Pulia, Italy
Today my son Balthasar shares his memories of his “best pizza of the world”:
We were on holidays in Apulia, Italy when we normally ate dinner. The food of our sensational hotel “Il Palmento” was decent. But there was even a better place to have dinner. Only 5 minutes walking from our hotel, there was a restaurant – called Arco Antio – with what I think is the best pizza in the world. I remember dark small streets towards a small light, the restaurant. I remember cars from the parking place on a flint ground. The light wasn’t bright at all. But still you could see my dad with his red-sunburned head. ^^
Behind the kitchen inside of the trulli building, there were the eating tables inside of the not very bright but relaxing light. Even when it is your first time there, the waiters and the cooks treat you like you are there every day. I remember, when my sister and I always asked our parents for 50 cents for a bouncing ball. I also remember watching the pizza maker making pizzas. Continue reading “Arco Antico, Pizzaria, San Marco di Locorotondo”
Riserva Mazon, 2008, Pinot Nero, Blauburgunder, J. Hofstätter, red wine from Alto Adige, Italy
5 points
In 2005, fortunately, we had a business meeting in Venice: an enchanting place for business, but even captivating for good food and wine. As long as you don’t have to pay for it ……
For dinner we went to a rather medium place because we didn’t want to spend too much money (Venice is really overly expensive). We found a very nice location. The wine menu was full of wines from area around Venice, Piedmont, Friuli and of course Toscana. One of the “cheapest” wines – today we would say “affordable” – was a Pinot Nero of the Südtirol winemaker Josef Hofstätter. I ordered it – and much to my surprise, the waiter really appreciated this choice. Obviously, not many costumers would have had the idea to order a wine of the “German” part of Italy – and I would love to know how this marvelous wine ended up on this menu. 2005 was about the time that I started to have both more money and more interest in wine – and for me this Pinot Nero was an amazing discovery. You can buy it directly from them via Internet or phone, But the best you can do is to drive there to enjoy this beautiful piece of earth among huge alpine mountains, apple tree groves and rows and rows of grape vines: Tramin.
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Il Grifone, Rosso Piceno, Superoire, Tenuta Cocci Grifoni, red wine from Italy
6 points
Until about ten years ago, wine from the Italian region Marche was still quite unknown. Many wine drinkers have heard the name of a grape – and type of wine – called Verdicchio, but they might not know that this a typical grape of Marche – an undiscovered region of Italy on the Adriatic side, east of Tuscany and south of Abruzzi. I do really like Verdicchio, but this region is even more notable for its amazing red wine. Maybe the most impressive one so far is called Kurni (which became for whatever but strange reasons very popular in Moscow: https://avdwineandfood.wordpress.com/2015/07/10/kurni-2008/), but the one I’m introducing here isn’t bad at all.
Imren II, Turkish Gasthaus, Berlin, Badstrasse
There are five “Imren” places in Berlin. I haven’t been to all of them, but among three I tested the best is Imren II, on Badstrasse in the Berlin district of Wedding, where many Turkish people live.
Here you can get the best Döner I know. This is serious!
Fresh lean veal gets layered on a spit (It’s called Yaprak) and on the top is a layer of real lamb fat which melts down into the meat due to the heat. Continue reading “Imren II, Turkish Inn (Gasthaus), Berlin (Wedding)”
Facil, Restaurant, Berlin
7 points
As I wrote: Weinbar Rutz is my favorite restaurant in Berlin. This is because of its very special concept of a wine bar and a restaurant. If you ran a real competition between the two very exciting chefs, Micheal Kempf’s style is of course different than Marco Müller’s, but both would deserve two Michelin stars (although only Michael Kempf has two (!)).I really see parallels between the two. Like Marco Müller, Michael Kempf uses mostly regional products but is able to combine those with global and modern flavors. Perhaps Michael isn’t so experimental (any more) and less risky but therefore you are on a safer side with him. His cooking creations are remarkable and just wonderful! I’ve never had a really strange culinary experience there, which I actually have had once a while elsewhere.
Château Léoville Poyferré, Bordeaux (St. Julien), 2éme Cru Classe, 2007, red wine from France
6,5 points
Opened by accident and not knowing the wine beforehand, late last summer I had a great experience drinking this Bordeaux. Not knowing too much about wine from Bordeaux, I later understood that this is something very nice. It is a rich red, very nice and balanced, as this richness isn’t heavy. Somehow a bit herbal and of course you can smell all kind of red and dark fruits. This wine is straightforward – in German: geradeaus – without any misleading or distracting extras.
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Wine and Food 