... reminding us that it's not all about dinner, and food and wine pairings. Your day, after all, starts with breakfast -- add a mimosa, if it's the weekend -- and these muffins will start you off very very…

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A friend who collects stamps and other interesting documents recently gave me an envelope or "cover." Inside is a wine order written in English on a German language form. Destination: the Jacob Brenner Wine Company of Doniphan, Kansas, May 1904.



The customer, John Gruenewald of Wayne R.F.D. Q. (?) Nebraska, ordered ten gallons of Red Seal at $5.35, "extra packing" for 25 cents, and requested "wine corks not to (sic) big" for another dollar. Grand total, $6.60. Incidentally Mr.… Continue

Really. Of course you must ignore the wooden porch steps, and in your imagination transport the six stones inside the borders of France. Place them in order in a small region in the east central part of the country, just down and to the right of Paris. Then you may proceed.



At the top left, the white stone represents Chablis, home to fine crisp chardonnays, held in stainless steel and not oak. The red and green stones down and to the… Continue

Gruner veltliner is a white grape that is Austria's pride, and that is, for casual wine drinkers, perhaps the most unusual new variety to come along in the last five years or so. It's a sort of "oh,-yes-I've-heard-of-that-lately" wine, just as there are "oh,-yes" books, news events, film documentaries, and for that matter, people.



This is not to say that the grape is a new variety in the universe. Frank Schoonmaker calls it "Veltliner" in his 1960s era Encyclopedia of Wine,… Continue

Amazing is a much overused word, but here I will indulge. This amazingly good recipe, which at first seems too outlandish to bother with, strikes me as excellent confirmation of the suspicion, inspired by Mrs. Humphrey below, that great food often must come from the experiments of hungry anonymous people throwing into the pot whatever they had on hand. A charming French name also helps lift any recipe… Continue