Wine classes offered monthly at the Huntington Library

The Huntington Library in San Marino holds a wine class one Wednesday evening a month. From 5 to 7:30 p.m., Brad Owen -- chef, sommelier and instructor at the Art institute of California Orange County -- lectures on various topics relating to wine at the cultural and educational center near Pasadena.

Earlier this month, Owen led a course on Champagne and sparkling wines to gear folks up for the holidays. Already lined up for 2012 are many other classes on specific regions and varietals for wine enthusiasts.

On Jan. 25, the course's lecture and tasting will explore the wines of Spain, while Pinot Noir from around the globe will be the focus of the course offered Feb. 29.

Classes are $80 for members and $90 for nonmembers. To register, call (626) 405-2128.

1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, (626) 405-2100, huntington.org.

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Be prepared: Champagne flutes for the hordes

Picture this. It could happen. A couple dozen friends descend on your abode one evening, bubbly in hand and primed for revelry. But hark! No one thought to bring Champagne flutes along with the sparkler.

Tell me you’re not going to resort to drinking that gorgeous vintage Champagne out of jelly glasses or bulletproof wine glasses.

This is when Govino rides to the rescue. You suddenly remember you have a couple dozen of their go-anywhere Champagne flutes stashed on a shelf in the closet. Possibly leftover from your sister’s b-day party at the beach, but who remembers? 

The shape is right, slender and elegant. Thin-walled as crystal, but made from a food-safe, BPA-free polymer. And here's the good thing -- reusable. No stem, but at this point who cares? 

Just pop the cork.

 

The four-pack tote is available at the following Los Angeles wine shops at $12.95: Silverlake Wine, Wally’s and the Wine House.

The flutes are also available at govinowine.com, where you can buy a box of 12 for $38.50, a box of 36 for $114.95, or a box of 72 for $228.95. Party on.

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Photos: govino Champagne flutes. Credit: govino.

4 Food Events You Should Know About: Vegan Beer Fest; 'Stars of California'; grilling for Meals on Wheels; Henriot Champagne mixer

Vegan Beer Fest: Tony Yanow of Tony's Darts Away and blogger Quarry Girl launch the 2nd annual Vegan Beer Festival on June 25 at the Roxy on Sunset Boulevard. The festival will feature several California craft breweries along with food from vegan restaurants and food trucks. In addition, there will be live performances from local bands. Tickets are $15 to $50 and can be purchased online at TicketWeb. Proceeds of the event will be donated to ARME (Animal Rescue Media Education).

Grilling on the Beach: On July 28, 10 L.A. chefs will be grilling at the Jonathan Beach Club in Santa Monica as a benefit for the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels. Each chef will make a signature dish directly on the beach. Guest chefs include Mark Peel from Campanile, Sherry Yard from Spago and Piero Selvaggio of Valentino.  A silent auction will be held, featuring a large selection on luxury travel. Tickets are $150 each. To purchase tickets, visit http://eveningonthebeach.com.

"Stars of California": Seven resort chefs from Orange County along with 20 California boutique wineries will come together on June 23 to raise money for four Southern Californian charities including Make-A-Wish, Oceana, Special Olympics and Lupus LA. Chefs such as Richard Sandoval from Raya and Splashes' Jeff Armstrong will be making a variety of small plates for guests to try. There will be a silent auction offering a range of hotel packages. Tickets are $120 per person or $200 per couple. For more information, go to www.starsofcalifornia.com.

Champagne mixer: Sonoma Wine Garden at Santa Monica Place is having a Henriot champagne tasting on June 29. Henriot will be pouring its Brut Souverain NV, Blanc de Blancs NV, Brut Rose NV and Brut Millesime 1998. Tickets are $39 per person. To reserve a space, call (424) 214-4560. 395 Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica, www.sonomawinegarden.com.

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Photo: Tony Yanow at Tony's Darts Away. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times

Do you need another reason to love the bubbly?

This just in from the L.A. Times Image desk:

Champagne isn't just for drinking. Beauty companies have captured its essence in a range of products. So,  whether you were a house guest over the holidays and need a way to say thank you or you'd simply love to indulge in Champagne beauty products on your own, you'll be happy to learn that many of these bubbly infused offerings aren't just for the festive fun of it all; they also have clinical merit.

Cosmetic chemist Joseph Cincotta says Champagne is beneficial because of antioxidants in the grape seed extract it contains. These antioxidants are 20 to 50 times more powerful than vitamins C and E,  respectively, he says.

The article goes on to highlight a number of scrubs, toners, soaps and the like. But I'll just use it as a license to drink up on New Year's Eve. In the name of health.

-- Rene Lynch

On Twitter @renelynch

Photo: Some skin products contain Champagne. Credit: 2Jane.com

 

A trio of Champagne picks for New Year's Eve

For years, Champagne houses have done a brilliant job convincing us that Champagne is synonymous with celebration. Either I'm entirely brainwashed or it's really true: Bubbles are festive. The sound of that cork popping or, if the bottle is opened properly, quietly sighing, is the signal for the festivities to begin. The toasts, the prickle of the bubbles, the flutes -- it's all part of the allure. And whether you spend a small fortune on a bottle or find a great buy in bubbly from somewhere other than Champagne, France, you need to lay in some bottles. Now.

I don't think any of us would pass up a bottle of Krug or Dom Pérignon or any of the top Champagnes from the big houses, but maybe this year it will be harder to justify the price. Look to smaller, independent houses for delicious Champagne at prices that are more affordable. Here are a few that are great buys in terms of quality and price:

-- S. Irene Virbila

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Sampler Platter: promo Whopper has 7 patties, sparkling wine vs. champagne, urban chickening

Urban chickens and urban food critics lead this end-of-the-week roundup of food news.

--Burger King's Windows 7 Whopper has 7 patties, 2,120 calories. Japanator
--The Atlantic explores six Australian foods worth trying and the role of food critics in the Internet age.
--Carpinteria hot dog vendor relishes his sales-tax victory. Los Angeles Times
--Sparkling wine is just as good as champagne (when it's well made). Consumerist
--The perils of urban chickening. New York Times
--David Lazarus asks: Is Smart Choices misleading? Los Angeles Times

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Bill Connell, 55, stands in front of his Surf Dog stand in Carpinteria. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Datebook: A Napa escape, L.A. WineFest, Champagne feasts and more

 

TODAY

An anniversary of savings Beacon, an Asian cafe, celebrates its five-year anniversary through June 17 by offering a special menu of $5 small plates along with $5 glasses of wine and cocktails. Time to get that miso-marinated black cod you've been craving. Beacon, 3280 Helms Ave., Culver City. (310) 838-7500. www.beacon-la.com.

Tequila time Join Malo beverage director Christine D'Abrosca for a low-cost evening of tequila tasting and complimentary taco noshing. Agave highlights will include Casa Noble, Partida and Comisario. A DJ will keep things lively. Malo, 4326 Sunset Blvd., L.A. 7 to 10 p.m. $15. (323) 664-1011. www.malorestaurant.com.

THURSDAY

Weekend getaway Whisk that special someone up north for the annual Auction Napa Valley, which boasts four days of parties and open houses at many wineries along California 29. The grand tasting event features more than 100 wineries, intimate dinner parties and, of course, a live auction at which bidders get a chance to snag one of 43 rare and one-of-a-kind lots. Event locations and ticket prices vary. For more information and to purchase tickets go to www.napavintners.com/anv.

FRIDAY

Battle of the vine If you're a fan of competition, you might enjoy the Napa versus Sonoma wine dinner hosted at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar. Enjoy a four-course dinner, featuring two courses paired with wines from both Napa and Sonoma, then engage in a lively debate with your compatriots about which wine provides the best accompaniment. Dishes include filet mignon and wonton-crusted ahi  and Bodega Bay crab cocktail. Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 800 W. Olympic Blvd. 6:30 p.m. $55. (213) 745-9911. www.flemingssteakhouse.com.

Small Bites: Petrossian has officially reopened; Silverlake Wine at Barnsdall Art Park; Melisse hosts Krug dinner

Caviar is back: The newly renovated and expanded Petrossian in West Hollywood has been quietly open since last month, but this week was its official grand re-opening, with founding family members Armen Petrossian (always dapper with bowtie and waxed moustache) and his son Alexandre stopping by to personally anoint the Robertson Boulevard location. Chef Benjamin Bailly, most recently of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, has just finalized the menu, strewn with caviar (borscht, risotto with "Kamchaticus" crab royal, steak tartare with a layer of caviar...). 321 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 271-6300.

SLW + FLW = Barnsdall Friday wine tastings: Silverlake Wine is launching a new tasting series at Barnsdall Art Park at Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Hollyhock House. The premiere Barnsdall Friday Wine Tasting from the Silver Lake wine shop that loves to party is tonight, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., West Lawn. Silverlake Wine will present four selections of small-production wines from around the globe. Tickets are $15 up to six hours before the event, and $25 at the door (or less than six hours prior), available online at www.barnsdall.org. Fittingly, Coolhaus, the  ice cream truck with an architectural bent, will be there, serving ice cream sandwiches with a special flavor, Honeyhock ice cream. Hollyhock House, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles.

Krug dinner: On June 8, Melisse offers a four-course dinner featuring Krug Champagne: Krug Grand Cuvee as well as vintages 1982, 1985 and 1998, with owner Oliver Krug in attendance to talk about each wine. Hors d'oeuvres such as duck confit croquette and smoked salmon blini with creme fraiche and caviar to be followed by Santa Barbara prawn ravioli, John Dory braised in Champagne and spring veal loin. $150 per person. 1104 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 395-0881.

MTV after party: John DeLucie, of New York's Waverly Inn, alights on L.A. to cook for the post-MTV Movie Awards crowd on Sunday, and surely to promote his new book, "The Hunger."

-- Betty Hallock

Photo courtesy of Petrossian

Getting to the bottom of a glass of Champagne

Let’s say you’re one of those rare wine lovers who can resist the many charms of Champagne long enough to wonder about it; like, what is Champagne, the place, like? What goes into making it? Who goes to the trouble of making it? What are they after? Why does it taste the way it does? And most important, how do they get all those bubbles into the bottle? 

The answer to many of these questions can be found on a fine new website called Champagneguide.net, authored by winewriter Peter Liem. (I must disclose that Liem and I both serve as correspondents for Wine & Spirits Magazine.) Three years ago, Liem decided to move to Champagne, becoming one of the only wine writers writing in English to do so currently. He settled in the village of Dizy, in a small flat nestled among vines and growers. Since then, by his own account, he has been "making a nuisance" of himself in the cellars and salons of the region, interviewing winemakers, tasting wines, taking meticulous notes and drawing very contemplative conclusions about the wines, the villages and the overarching style a given house aims for. The result is one of the more fastidious, comprehensive and useful tools in English you may ever have at your disposal for getting at the mysteries of what is otherwise a very mysterious region.

While still under construction, and under constant revision (of a possible 5,000, there are only about 100 handpicked Champagne houses profiled here, so Liem’s "updates" may never be finished), there is already an impressive amount of information on the site, usefully arranged. In most cases, the history of the domaine is explored, as well as an objective assessment of its desired style, what is found in a typical blend, which villages and vineyards it may come from, and how many vintages of the base wine – the still wine used to create the sparkling wine – you’ll find included in the non-vintage blend.

Extensive, detailed tasting notes of all current wines accompany the profiles – more than 600 in all – and they are routinely thrilling. “Its powerful depth is buttressed by firm acidity,” he writes about Tarlant’s Cuvee Louis Extra Brut, “and an intensely chalky minerality that persists throughout the finish, feeling vivid and almost forceful in its tenacity.” Liem’s notes break down the region’s wines with an effortless precision that just may make your next sip of bubbly something to ponder.

-- Patrick Comiskey

ChampagneGuide.net is available by subscription for $89 a year, about the cost of a fine bottle of vintage Champagne. A sample page can be found here:

http://www.champagneguide.net/home/sample_content

Photo credit: Erik Unger / Chicago Tribune

 

A look at POP Champagne & Dessert Bar, Pasadena

At POP Champagne & Dessert Bar, a bubbly mood presides

[Click here for a photo gallery.]

Cracked on the side of a ship or hoisted in a flute glass on New Year's Eve, champagne is the de facto libation for celebrating special occasions. But the paradox of its elite status means that it's often relegated only to special occasions. Pop Champagne & Dessert Bar hopes to change that.

"People have this two-dimensional idea that champagne is just for parties, but it's also a perfect food wine," says Matt Earhart, co-owner of Pop. "It's very versatile and works well with so many things."

Earhart, 30, and Kristin Traylor, 25, opened the mid-scale Pasadena wine bar shortly before Christmas 2008. The two met while working in a Cost Plus World Market in San Jose, where Earhart was in charge of the wine department. They became romantic partners and eventually business partners as well. Was it because of the bubbly?

"We started drinking more champagne and became kind of obsessed with it, but we realized there were no wine bars that primarily served champagne," Traylor says.