Posted in Beverages, Easter, Wine, tagged Chianti, Fattoria La Striscia, Ferdinando Zanusso, I Clivi, Mario Zanusso, Wine on March 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Wondering what to serve with your Easter feast? Gemma, wine buyer at our Cambridge location, is recommending a light, crisp white for appetizers and a fuller-bodied, flavorful red to pair with a traditional lamb dish. Both are from sustainable producers that we know and trust – below are descriptions of the two selected wines. (more…)
Posted in Beer, Beverages, Cheese, Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge, Ireland, Pairings, St. Patrick's Day, tagged Ardrahan, Cashel Blue, Cheese, Coolea, Crozier Blue, Dick Willems, Dicky Willems, food, Helene Willems, Jane Grubb, Louis Grubb, Mary Burns, Sinead Willems, St. Patrick's Day on March 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ardrahan
St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and what better way to celebrate than with an Irish cheese plate? Our team at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge have put together a selection of some of our favorites and Eric, our Cambridge beer buyer, has given us a list of fantastic beers to pair with them. Best wishes for a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day. Éirinn go Brách! (more…)
Posted in Beer, Beverages, Producer Profile, United States, tagged Belgian beer, German Magnum hops, Golden Strong ale, Inferno Ale, Lost Abbey, Port Brewing Company, Saaz hops, Tomme Arthur on March 1, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Founded in 2006, Port Brewing is a young company. However, in the few years since opening business, they have established an impressive reputation.
Founder, Tomme Arthur, is from San Diego and is particularly known for his Belgian-style beers. Arthur got hooked on beer in college – and not just in the usual kind of way. His roommate and his roommate’s father had traveled in Europe (including Belgium) and, in turn, they introduced him to a whole world of different beer styles and traditions. Subsequently, he became so enamored with the beverage and the world of brewing that in 1996, at the age of 23, he took a job at a start-up San Diego brewery. That brewery quickly folded due to poor management but, by his own account, Arthur was exposed to some pretty tasty beer-making in the process. It was only several years later that he opened up a brewery of his own and, eventually, he took over a brewing facility from Stone Brewing Company in San Marcos, CA. This is the company’s current base of operations and where Arthur began making both American ales and the Belgian-inspired Lost Abbey beers. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Italy, Travelogues, Wine, tagged biodynamic, Chardonnay, Domaine du Traginer, Domaine Vigne du Maynes, Gamay, Jean-François Deu, Jo Landron, Julien Guillot, Lo Spaventapasseri, Millésime Bio, Muscadet, organic, terroir, Wine, winemakers on February 2, 2012 | 1 Comment »
During a short stint from January 23rd to 25th, I had the opportunity to once again attend Millésime Bio, an annual organic wine exposition in Montpellier, France. It not only proved to be an exciting and challenging experience with my struggling French but offered me a closer view into the diverse world of wine. A wide range of regions, traditions, styles and levels of quality were represented at the show. My goal this year was to further develop an appreciation for these differences and find language to capture them for my colleagues and our customers. For example, organic, biodynamic, and even no-sulfur added wines can be made quite conventionally through machine harvesting and high yields, with poor terroir, additives and invasive cellar techniques. For me, it is an ongoing effort to understand and be able to explain the differences between industrial, conventional, artisanal, natural, and heirloom even within the categories of organic, biodynamic and no-sulfur added wine. It takes tasting, re-tasting, traveling, and speaking directly with producers to be able to speak to these qualitative differences and really comprehend who is doing the work to make great wines. With this mission in mind, I reconnected with many of my favorite growers – and discovered new ones too. Here are some of the highlights! (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's, Wine, tagged Aubry Fils, biodynamic, bubbly, Champagne, Domaine des Vignes du Maynes, Ferdinando Zanusso, Henri Billiot, I Clivi, Mario Zanusso, organic, Philippe Aubry, Pierre Aubry, Ribolla, spumante, Wine on December 19, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
South End wine buyer, Julie Cappellano, and Cambridge wine buyer, Gemma Iannoni, offer their top picks for bubbly to celebrate the holidays and ring in the New Year! Their selections subscribe to our philosophy of selecting authentic, terroir-driven wines from producers using organic, sustainable, or biodynamic viticultural practices. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Thanksgiving, Wine, tagged Beaujo, Beaujolais Nouveau, Dolcetto, Domaine des Côtes de la Molière, I Clivi, Ribolla, Roagna, Thanksgiving, Wine on November 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Wondering what to serve with your Thanksgiving meal? Leave it to Formaggio Kitchen’s wine buyers to handle those details for you! South End Wine Buyer, Julie Cappellano, and Cambridge Wine Buyer, Gemma Iannoni, have chosen three delicious wines that will save you the time and effort:
There aren’t many producers out there that go to the lengths that Bruno and Isabelle of Domaine des Côtes de la Molière do – they make biodynamic Beaujolais Nouveau without added sulfites! (more…)
Posted in Beer, Beverages, Cheese, Pairings, tagged Beer, Bink, Brouwerij Kerkom, Cheese, Dorset, food, Kerkom Bink Bruin, Magdalena Captein, Stilton on November 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The first Saturday I had off after BBQ season finished, I finally got around to trying Brouwerij Kerkom’s beer Bink Bruin. It is phenomenal. I had it with dinner, a grilled salad sort of thing: grilled steak tips (medium rare) on my own garden arugula with grilled tomato and apple slices, Stilton chunks and a blue cheese mustard vinaigrette. And the beer was a perfect match. (more…)
Posted in Beverages, Italy, Wine, tagged Brazan, Galea, I Clivi, Mario Zanusso, Ribolla Gialla, Ribolla Spumante, spumante, Tocai Friulano, Wine on November 15, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
The man behind the wine: Mario Zanusso
Just in time for Thanksgiving, we will have two I Clivi wines made from Friuli’s star varietal, Ribolla Gialla. One bottle is a still white wine and the other is a spumante sparkling wine – both zippy and refreshing. This is the first arrival of these wines in the Massachusetts market and both will be available exclusively at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge and Formaggio Kitchen South End.
If you’re looking for a dry, refreshing, organic and affordable white to drink every day, pick up a couple of bottles of the 2010 Ribolla Gialla! The still Ribolla has a fresh, citrusy mouth feel with plenty of minerality and is low in alcohol, which is important in order to highlight the fine aromas that shine in this wine. (more…)
Posted in Beer, Beverages, Germany, Pairings, Producer Profile, tagged Bamberg, Bamberger, Bavaria, Germany, Ingmar Michel, Johann Michel Jr., lager, Lager Hefetrüb, Mahr's Bräu, Mahr's Bräu Ungespundet Lager Hefetrüb, Ungespundet on October 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Mahr’s Bräu is a German brewery in the suburbs of Bamberg, a UNESCO World Heritage City. Bamberg is almost directly east of Frankfurt and is one of the region’s historical beer-brewing centers. Today, the Franconian Brewery Museum which is located there offers visitors a view into that long history. Situated in a former monastic brewery, with a history dating back to 1122, it seems fitting this museum was established in a town with a population of just over 70,000 people and nine breweries. (more…)
Posted in Beer, Beverages, Food History, Germany, Producer Profile, tagged Beer, Minim Order, Molasse basin, Munich, Oktoberfest, Paulaner, Paulaner Brauerei, St. Francis of Paola on September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Paulaner Brauerei (Brewery) first opened its doors in 1634, the same year that the citizens of Boston purchased (for 30 pounds!) the land that became Boston Common, the country’s first public park. Like many breweries in Europe, this one was founded by monks – in this case, the Minim friars of the Cloister Neudeck ob der Au. The brewery was named after St. Francis of Paola, the founder of the Minim Order. (more…)
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