whatscooking2

SCREW TOPS

The big reason for the change is quality control. Roughly one in every 20 bottles of wine is ruined because of a tainted cork. Bacteria in the cork can pass into the wine and spoil the aroma and flavor.

“Tops prevent that, guaranteeing you the fresh wine the way the maker intended it to taste,” said Don Stritong, manager of Just Grapes, a popular wine store.

Wine lasts a few days longer with screw tops as well.

“It really comes down to technology and the fact that the screw top will screw back on tight,” said wine expert Paul Weaver.

Stritong is convinced screw tops are the way to go. But he and other experts agree that the main problem is public perception.

"The mentality is that if it's a screw top, it's got to be a cheap wine," Weaver said.

That may have been the case a decade ago, but not any more. But can people really tell the difference? We had tasters try a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. Clear glasses had wine from a cork top bottle. The blue glasses had wine from the twist cap bottle. Two of the three tasters preferred the wine from the screw cap bottle.

Wine tester Mike Mitchell said the screw top wine was sweeter.

"I wouldn't have guessed. I thought since it was better, it should have been in a cork,” said tester Janet McGuigan. “I figured a cork would be a better wine."

Experts aren’t surprised by the reaction.

“We just had a customer come in today who was hesitant because it came in a screw cap,” Stritong said. “We just opened it, they had it and thought it was great and they were sold.”

Stritong says a Napa Valley winery made a huge statement with a half-bottle cabernet twist top. At $23, it isn't cheap.

“Whitehall Lane is a great example of saying screw tops are the wine of the future,” Stritong said.

Despite the cheap connotation, screw tops are actually more expensive because the materials to bottle them cost more. It’s still unclear how twist caps will perform in the long run, so winemakers still plan to use corks for premium wines that will be stored for long periods.

Sausages are more than a staid standby, say chefs around the country who are using the sausage format as a creative vehicle to encase everything from alligator to squid as they pursue new flavor profiles.

At Café Del Rey in Marina del Rey, Calif., chef Frank Fronda makes a shellfish sausage that was inspired by his travels to Thailand and sells for $13. The best-selling appetizer is made in-house from a mixture of lobster, shrimp, scallops, crabmeat, squid, water chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, Thai basil, lemon grass and kaffir lime leaf.

At Commander's Palace in Las Vegas, chef Carlos Guia makes several sausages in-house, including an alligator and chicken variety smoked over pecan wood and seasoned with chipotle peppers, roasted garlic and toasted cumin seeds, and a Kurobuta pork sausage that is smoked over apple wood and seasoned with orange-blossom honey, roasted apples and sage. Read more

SAUSAGE

At the 21-unit Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom, traditional selections, such as hot Italian pork and polish sausages, still sell best. But inventive flavors, such as chicken and duck Yucatán — a sausage made with chicken and duck meat, cilantro, serrano chiles and beer — and tequila chicken, made with chicken meat, tequila, jalapeños and lime, are gaining in popularity, says Rich Leivenberg, executive vice president of the Los Angeles-based company.

"Our trademark is flavor profiles that are strong and identifiable," Leivenberg says. "Some of our sausages are reduced-fat, but it doesn't mean we're out to sell health food. We've just worked harder to get a better flavor than the standby, traditional fatty sausages."

Naya, an American bistro in Pasadena, Calif., features morcilla, or Spanish blood sausage, as a $7 appetizer at its bar. The sausage is roasted in a wood-burning oven and served with spicy Moroccan mustard, ciabatta croutons and mixed olives. "It's unique — not something you can buy everywhere," says Ray Luna, Naya's executive chef. "Some people get turned off by it because of the blood factor, but it's great with sangria and wine." Back to top

White Wine Varietals

Just as there are many types of apples, i.e., red delicious, granny smith, golden delicious, etc., there are many kinds of grapes used in making wine. For example, "chardonnay" is the name of a specific grape variety, as is cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc.

In most New World wine growing regions (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina) the name of the wine is the grape used in making it. So, a California wine labeled "chardonnay" is made from, well, the chardonnay grape.

In Old World countries, such as France and Italy, wines are often named after the region in which they're produced. Thus, a wine labeled "Bordeaux" from France indicates that the grapes used in making the wine were grown in the Bordeaux region. Pretty simple.

The somewhat confusing part, however, is that most Old World wines are made with the same grapes used in making New World wines. In other words, even though a wine from France is labeled "Bordeaux," the grapes used in making it are, generally speaking, varietals such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, etc. Follow?

Since there are more than 5,000 known grape varietals in the world, here is a list of the more common ones that you'll encounter on a wine label. Read more

WHITE WINE

Chardonnay

[shar-dun-nay]

Chardonnay is the most popular wine in the United States, preferred more than even white zinfandel. It's the grape used to make white Burgundy in France and grown in just about every wine region around the globe. Flavorwise, most chardonnays remind us of tropical islands and buttered toast - tropical fruit flavors, butter and oak.

Gewurztraminer

[geh-verts-trah-mee-ner]

Another misunderstood varietal for the same reasons as riesling: it can be made dry to very sweet. The flavor profiles for gewurztraminer are similar to to riesling, adding a nice floral, nuttiness to the equation. So for the riesling flavor association, simply add that she's wearing perfume.

Marsanne

[mar-sahn]

This blue-collar grape of Southern Rhone and much of Southern France is widely planted in Australia as well. Marsanne's a sturdy, hardy grape that produces a full-bodied wine combining the racy qualities of roussanne with the heft of chardonnay. Think Ricky Martin meets Hulk Hogan. Its relatively simple but elegant fruity flavors make it a natural candidate for a blending base, though a varietal marsanne wine can also be produced to rival the best whites of the world.

Pinot Blanc

[pee-no blahnk]

Unfortunately, most pinot blancs made in the U.S. taste like chardonnay because winemakers make them taste that way because chardonnay is hot in the U.S. Kinda defeats the whole "variety" of choice, doesn't it? Well, when made to taste like it's supposed to (not like chardonnay), we often say it's like the movie “Charlie's Angels” - sweet (fruit), tasty and a nice group of melons.

Riesling

[rees-ling]

This is a very misunderstood grape variety because when you mention riesling to most people they immediately think sweet wine. Not true. Riesling, like any varietal wine, can be made dry or very sweet or anything in-between. Most wines are what we'd call off-dry - containing a little (1 to 3 percent) residual sugar, which makes them perfect for spicy foods (sugar helps combat spiciness). The typical description of a riesling might be a Georgia peach on a hot date with Timothy Leary - peachy sweet and good acid.

Roussanne

[roo-sahn]

In the Southern Rhone, roussanne is often the premium component of white blends. Its name comes from the grape's russet-colored skin. Much like the flower children of the 60s, roussanne usually contains high acids and is very aromatic. These qualities make it a racy, lively wine that also ages quite well (unlike the children of the 60s), setting it apart from other Rhone whites. In California, the grape has been present in tiny quantities for perhaps a century, and coastal plantings stretch from Santa Barbara to the Sierra Foothills to Sonoma.

Sauvignon Blanc

[sah-vin-yon blahnk]

This white grape is primarily used to make dry wine (no residual sugar). It's often blended with semillon (as in France to make white Bordeaux) and the latest trend seems to be to age it in oak barrels. Our typical description of most sauvignon blancs is taking a hay ride through a citrus orchard on a sunny day - citrus fruits, grass/hay and bright flavors.

Semillon

[sem-ee-yon]

There aren't a lot of varietal semillons on the market. It's a grape that's usually reserved for blending with sauvignon blanc or, in Australia, with chardonnay. I think we once described a semillon as Jerry Lewis in a fig leaf - figgy and a bit nutty.

Viognier

[vee-ohn-yay]

A winemaker once described viognier as tasting like a cross between chardonnay and gewurztraminer - you should get a nice tropical feeling, some nuts and floral spiciness from the wine. So, when it's made well, we often turn to Ginger on Gilligan's Island for inspiration -- tropical, floral and surrounded by nuts. Back to top