It's slightly sweet but vibrant and zesty, and goes well with peas, asparagus, prosciutto and melon. It's our wine of the week: 2007 Willi Schaefer Riesling Mosel Qualitätswein.
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More wine picks: Great bottles for $15 and under
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This week's wine of the week, a 2007 Helfrich Gewurztraminer Vin d’Alsace, is a steal at $10-$13: "...aromatic, scented with spices and flowers, it has the faintest touch of sweetness married with a lively acidity, so it’s never cloying." RECENT & RELATED Wine decanting: Give wines some air More wine picks: Great bottles for $15 and under Join us on Twitter @LATimesFood
Downtown? Until very recently, if you asked someone to meet you for dinner there, it was roughly the equivalent of asking them to join you on the moon. I've met people who have never been within shouting distance of the area, even though they've lived in L.A. practically all their lives. Time to get over it, because downtown L.A. has blossomed into a bona fide destination with a growing roster of intriguing dining possibilities.
So much, in fact, is happening downtown, restaurant-wise, that it's difficult for a hardworking critic to keep up. For the first time in decades, the city's center offers a full array of places to eat at all price levels, with more opening all the time.....
--S. Irene Virbila
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Is downtown ready by Bottega Louie?
Wine of the week: 2007 Enzo Boglietti Barbera d'Alba
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Photo credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
Our pick for wine of the week, the 2006 Torbreck “The Steading,” is ready for anything: "...it loves a char on beef, and it would be terrific with a thick prime rib grilled over mesquite. Open a bottle for a roasted leg of lamb too, or some ribs given a dry-rub rather than a sweet sauce." Check out this photo gallery of more wine picks.
We turned today's Food section over to one of our favorite foods: pizza. We've got everything you ever wanted to know, or needed to know, about pizza.
Seriously.
You probably think you cannot make good pizza at home because you lack a pizza oven. Well, think again. Times test kitchen manager Noelle Carter shows you how to line your oven with fireproof bricks*** so you can achieve that trademark crispy crust. (You can also watch her do it in the video.) All good pizzas start with homemade dough, so we've got a recipe for that as well as recipes for pizza Margherita (and a no-cook sauce) and potato pizza. We've also got a look at variations on that theme.
But let's say you're not the cook-at-home type, or you want your pizza, and you want it RIGHT NOW. Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila takes you on a tour of the best gourmet pizza spots in town and here's a list you'll definitely want to bookmark, as well as a locator map. (And by the way, did you ever wonder how we got from regular old-fashioned pizza to gourmet pizza? Check out this cool pizza chronology flash graphic.)
What's that? You say that you can't get good pizza west of Manhattan? Then check this out. And then check out this list of places were you can buy it by the slice.
Finally, here's a photo gallery look at testing out pizzas in The Times' test kitchen, from start to finish, and here's a recommended wine to wash down that slice of 'za.
(***Note that we said fireproof bricks. If you use the regular ol' bricks you've got piled up in the yard, they could explode. And that's not a good pizza topping.)
-- Rene Lynch
To find a fresh, crisp, minerally Gavi for less than $20 is something of a miracle, especially one as good as this one from Castellari Bergaglio. Read more about this week's pick for wine of the week -- and here's a photo gallery look at a few other bottles worth pouring.
Indian Wells Blackout Stout is dark, practically opaque, but with no molasses note and a low level of bitterness.
It's our pick for beer of the month -- and it would be great with a rich dish like this mac 'n' cheese. Details, and more beer and wine picks here.
Does this story in today's Business section surprise you?
A study by retired Humboldt State professor Robert Hodgson found that judges at the California State Fair wine competition scored poorly at giving the same wine an identical rating when they tasted it multiple times in a blind tasting.
"Consumers should have a healthy skepticism about the medals awarded to wines from the various competitions," he said.
What criterion do you use to buy wines? Are you swayed by medals, ribbons? (Me? I drink whatever S. Irene Virbila is drinking.)
-- Rene Lynch
Photo: Victor Jose Cobo / For The Times
"The 2006 is bright and juicy, redolent of black cherries, sweet spices and earth."
That's Times restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila on her pick for wine of the week, the 2006 Selvapiana Chianti Rufina, which she says is a deal at about $20 a bottle. Read more, and find additional wine recommendations, here.
-- Rene Lynch
Photo: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times
How can you not like a wine that exhorts drinkers to "laugh more -- flirt often" on the back of the bottle?
It's 2006 Lane Tanner Pinot Noir, Times Restaurant Critic S. Irene Virbila's pick for wine of the week.
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