Champagne for Breakfast. But Only If You're King.

Favorite tidbit about France before Bastille Day (July 14, 1789):

The King's breakfast before he went hunting consisted of four chops, a chicken, six eggs poached in meat juice, a cut of ham and a bottle and a half of Champagne.

Favorite tidbit about France after Bastille Day:

The Fête de la Fédération (July 14, 1790) was the most prominent of a series of events to celebrate the new state of France. People feasted for four days, drank way too much wine, and ran naked through the streets to mark their freedom.

Ah, France. What's not to love?

Here are a few ways close to home for you to get in the Bastille Day spirit.


WHAT: Bastille Day Tasting
WHERE: BRIX on Broad, 105 Broad Street, Boston
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 5 to 7 p.m.
COST: $0

WHAT: Une Nuit à Paris (with GREAT music!)
WHERE: The Beehive, 541 Tremont Street, Boston
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.
COST: $20

WHAT: All-Day French-Themed Celebration
WHERE: Petit Robert (Kenmore Square, South End, Needham) and Chez Jacky (Brighton)
WHEN: Wednesday, July 14 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
COST: See menu.


DAILY TIDBIT:

For decades, the Oregon wine industry has been peopled by Francophone winemakers and winery owners. Now, just within the past two years, the tables have turned. Evening Land Vineyards, for example, an Ameri-French operation with a French winemaker and wineries and vineyards in Oregon and California, expanded into Burgundy in 2008. Also, Oregon vintner Scott Wright made his first wines in France in 2008. Wright imports wines from Burgundy in addition to producing his own Scott Paul Wines in Carlton. (Source: The Oregonian)

Keeping It Fresh: Wine + Creativity

Is it hard to write about wine every day in the Boston area?

Hmmm.

It is almost as hard as it is to drink wine every day.

In other words, not very.

That's because -- no matter how hot it is outside or how routine our day-to-day lives seem to get -- Boston restaurateurs (and their marketing minds) have always got their thinking caps on.

They get creative. They throw curveballs. And, if they really want to get us going, it won't cost us the world.

Here are a few of the more unique ideas to cross our desk lately. Click through. Check them out. Notice what sparks your interest.

Then go and toast creativity -- theirs and your own.


WHAT: Sweep Out the Wine Cellar event
WHERE: Troquet, 140 Boylston Street, Boston

WHAT: Sicilian Wine Barbeque
WHERE: Rialto, 1 Bennett Street, Harvard Square

WHAT: Late Night Eats, until 1:30 a.m., between $5 and $7
WHERE: Eastern Standard, 528 Commonwealth Avenue, Kenmore Square

WHAT: Backyard BBQ Wines + Dinner
WHERE: Ashmont Grill, 555 Talbot Avenue, Dorchester

WHAT: Cape Cod Restaurant Week
WHAT: Sandwich Restaurant Week

WHAT: Bastille Day Dinner with live French & jazz music
WHERE: Chloe American Bistro, 23 Main Street, Hudson


DAILY TIDBIT:

The scope of the subject of wine is never ending, so many other subjects lie within its boundaries... It embraces botany, chemistry, agriculture, carpentry, economics -- any number of sciences whose names I do not even know. It leads you up paths of knowledge and by-ways of experience you would never glimpse without it.

-- Hugh Johnson

Recommendation for the Weekend: Rosé, for Good Reason

Today's email is not about an event or a contest or a new place to go.

It's just a recommendation, plain and simple.

A recommendation, that is, to drink some rosé wine.

Why?

Rosés had fallen out of favor there for a while but now they're back.

Big Time.

And they're especially nice for summertime drinking.

They're almost always served with a little chill to them.

They're dry, fruity, and they pair with a variety of foods.

They're made from any number of grapes, such as Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Sangiovese and Syrah, though some are more esoteric. From northern Italy, for example, you'll find a rosatto (synonymous with rosé) made from the Refosco grape, known for producing spicy reds and dark fruit flavors.

Doesn't that sound interesting?

Drinking rosé this weekend is like taming time.

It's a little retro.

But this time around, your taste history will be rewritten.


DAILY TIDBIT:

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. -- Dave Barry

Wanderlust, with Wine, After Hours at the Gardner Museum

We're always on the look out for events that bridge something we don't know a lot about (e.g. jazz, race car drivers, hedge funds) with that thing we love (DRINKS) more than almost anything else.

Which is why we're giving you a heads-up on this one a full week in advance.

Next Thursday, the Gardner Museum brings the don't-know, such as music from DJ Coralcola, sketching, and talks in the galleries.

And they also bring the do-know, namely cocktails, snacks, and a café menu of both sweet and savory items.

It's called After Hours, and it is one very cool -- literally -- way to spend an evening doing something you don't normally do.

All while doing something you do normally do, like eating and drinking.

The eating: "courtside bites" that cost one little buck each.

The drinking: museum-inspired cocktails like the Madame Gautreau, named for John Singer Sargent's painting, Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast (1882-83), currently part of the Gardner's collection. The cocktail is a blend of sparkling wine, grapefruit and pineapple juice, and a splash of grenadine.

Don't-know + Do-know = 1 Very fun night out.


WHAT: "After Hours" with music, contests, specialty cocktails and $1 courtside bites
WHERE: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, Boston
WHEN: Thursday, July 15 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.
COST: $12, $5 for students, $0 for members

DAILY TIDBIT:

Learning never exhausts the mind. -- Leonardo da Vinci

Multiply Your Wine Times Ten, at The Capital Grille

Remember when you were a kid and more was ALWAYS better?

More sprinkles on your ice cream.

More fireflies caught in the jar.

More long, free summer days one after another after another.

Then somewhere along the way we got all... responsible.

We scaled back on the sprinkles. We decided just one or two fireflies (if any) was fine. And the string of free summer days has become severely truncated.

Sheesh.

Fortunately the opportunity presents itself every now and again to exercise the more-is-better extravagance once again.

This time it's even about the wine.

The Capital Grille in Chestnut Hill is in the midst of their Master Wine Tasting Event where, for $25, they'll serve you ten (10) different wines.

That is officially too many.

Then again, so were the sprinkles on your ice cream and you could never get enough of those either.

Let more be better.

Again.

WHAT: Master Wine Tasting Event featuring ten wines from California, Italy and New Zealand
WHERE: The Capital Grille, 250 Boylston Street, Chestnut Hill
WHEN: Now through July 25
COST: $25 for ten wines


DAILY TIDBIT:

There's something to be said about a glass half full. About knowing when to say when. I think it's a floating line. A barometer of need and desire. It's entirely up to the individual. And it depends on what's being poured.

-- Dr. Meredith Grey, in Grey's Anatomy

ooking Forward to Mid-Week Wednesday. It's Wine Night in Boston.

Not sure what it is about Wednesday nights in Boston this summer.

But restaurants all over town are making it very easy for you to get over the hump.

Here are a few with wine-focused specialties going on for mid-week Wednesdays.

Pick one (or more).

Then plan your route.

And go.


WHAT: Wine-y Wednesdays
WHERE: Gargoyles on the Square, 219 Elm Street, Somerville
WHEN: All evening long.
COST: $15 for three wines off the list, $5 more for snack plate to match.

WHAT: Wine Wednesdays. Focus this week on the Loire Valley.
WHERE: Sel de la Terre Back Bay, 774 Boylston Street, Boston
WHEN: 7 p.m.
COST: $44 for four courses.

WHAT: Wine Wednesdays
WHERE: Rialto, 1 Bennett Street, Cambridge
WHEN: 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
COST: $0 for tasting from one bottle of red and one bottle of white.

WHAT: Burgers & Burgundy
WHERE: The Bristol Lounge, 200 Boylston Street, Boston
WHEN: All evening long.
COST: $30 for two half-glasses of Burgundy-ish wines and one Bristol burger

DAILY TIDBIT:

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.

-- Czech Proverb

Celebrate the Fourth by Toasting Massachusetts (and Its Wine)

You've probably heard that every United State produces its own wine.

We're not just talking the usual suspects, like California or New York or Virginia.

We're also talking New Mexico, Florida, Michigan and Vermont. Even Hawaii's gotten in on the act.

So this week-end, pour a glass of something patriotically significant to you.

Or -- if you're stuck because your local shop doesn't happen to carry, say, wine from your home state of Missouri -- pour something significantly local.

Look for bottles from these Massachusetts-based wineries. (These are just a few. There are plenty of others -- see the Daily Tidbit for more info.)

And declare your independence from the norm.


WINERY: Travessia
MILES FROM BOSTON: 59

WINERY: Westport Rivers
MILES FROM BOSTON: 57

WINERY: Truro
MILES FROM BOSTON: 109

WINERY: Running Brook
MILES FROM BOSTON: 57

WINERY: Nashoba Valley
MILES FROM BOSTON: 42


DAILY TIDBIT:

For a full list of wineries -- including those that also produce beers, spirits, and fruit-based wines from apples, plums, and others -- check out the Massachusetts Wine & Cheese Trails brochure, offered by the MA Dept of Agricultural Resources.

Wine Beer Spirits on Sale, Now Through the Week-End

America has a pretty intense yes-no history with alcohol.

YES, we produce some damn fine beers, wines, and spirits.

But NO, sales on these products -- especially when it comes time to celebrate the country's birthday, for pete's sake -- should not be limited to any one category.

YES, shops all over Boston want you to buy wine for the holiday weekend.

But NO, you should not have to pay too much for it.

That, at least, is the philosophy of some shops around town today and for the next few days.

TODAY, for example, at Blanchard's in Jamaica Plain, wine, beer and spirits are on sale plus they'll be BBQing some good ole American hot dogs and hamburgers just for kicks.

And from now through Saturday, every wine -- every single wine -- on the shelves at Panzano Provviste e Vino in Southborough is on sale.

Time to stock up, even if your stock will go back down after this weekend.

God bless America.


WHAT: Wine, Beer & Spirits on Sale, Plus BBQ
WHERE: Blanchard's Wine & Spirits, 741 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain
WHEN: TODAY from 4 to 7 p.m.
COST: $0. Hot dogs and hamburgers available too.

WHAT: Storewide Summer Wine Sale
WHERE: Panzano Provviste e Vino, 154 Turnpike Road, Southborough
WHEN: Now through Saturday, July 3
DETAILS: Every wine in the store is on sale. Save 15% on 3+ bottles, 20% on 6+ bottles.


DAILY TIDBIT:

"A man will be eloquent if you give him good wine." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Stories and Wines from Women of the Vine, Free Event FRIDAY

What we love most about wine are the STORIES.

Every bottle, every glass, every sip tells its own.

Which makes Friday evening's event especially appealing.

It starts with the stories -- of women winemakers, or "women of the vine."

It continues with tastes of the wine -- limited production and terroir-focused.

And it finishes with memorable impressions -- of the stories, the wines, and the award-winning women behind them.

Oh, and it's free too.

SEE YOU THERE.


WHAT: Tasting and Book Signing with Deborah Brenner, author of Women of the Vine
WHERE: Tatnuck Bookseller, 18 Lyman Street, Westborough
WHEN: Friday, June 25 from 6 to 8 p.m.
COST: $0


DAILY TIDBIT:

Women of the Vine is the first book written about women in wine that talks about the women themselves and not merely about their wine and the wine industry. It enters into their homes and their cellars.

This is not a book just for women, but for all people who desire to pursue their dreams, take chances, and create the life they want to live. It is not about ratings, scores, competition, techniques, or tasting notes. It is about the true pleasure of wine and what it means to so many of us.

-- From the Introduction to Women of the Vine

It's Summer and the Wine is Flowing: What To Do This Week-End

Summer is here and the wine is flowing.

Today's email is a run-down of what's-up-where around town this week-end.

But it's far from an exhaustive list.

Which means you are bound to find more wine to-do's in your own neck of the woods.

(Find something, or know of something, you want to share? Please drop us a line.)

Go on. Find a few. Or make your own.

Just get out, breathe the air, and let it flow.


WHAT: Latin Music Fest with bands, dancers, outdoor grill and cocktails
WHERE: The Fireplace, 1634 Beacon Street, Brookline
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday, June 12 and 13 from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., rain or shine
COST: $20 entrance fee in advance. Free food.

WHAT: Italian wine tasting with Importer Extraordinaire Jeannie Rogers
WHERE: Formaggio Kitchen, 244 Huron Avenue, Cambridge
WHEN: TODAY, June 11 at 5:30 p.m.
COST: $0

WHAT: Wine, Chocolate and Film
WHERE: The Wine Bottega, 341 Hanover Street, Boston
WHEN: Saturday, June 12 from 2 to 4 p.m.
COST: $10, includes a ticket to the documentary film Fresh, a wine tasting, and a chocolate tasting with Taza chocolate factory of Somerville.

DAILY TIDBIT:

From now until Father's Day, Blanchards Wine & Spirits is offering 25% off all non-sale wines in their locked display case. (Offer is valid in the West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain and Revere stores until June 12.) Go on. Splurge on something Dad will love. With any luck, he'll open it right then and share it with you!

Food and Wine Tasting Series at The Belfry Inne and Bistro

Food and wine pairings are a many-splendored thing.

They're also a complete bugger.

Take as many flavors as you can pull out of a wine, then multiply that by as many flavors as you can pull out of a dish, and you've got close to the number of possible combinations of food-wine pairings.

Sheesh.

Good thing someone's thought this through.

Many someones, actually, have put pen to paper when it comes to getting a handle on what to drink with what you eat.

What they all agree on?

Take it one bite, and one sip, at a time.

Just like the folks at The Belfry Inne and Bistro in Sandwich are doing with their food and wine tasting series, every Wednesday evening from 6 to 7 p.m.

This week's focus is on Australian reds and the foods that love them.

You sip. You bite. You decide what works, what doesn't.

And then you go back for more.


WHAT: Food and Wine Tasting Series
WHERE: The Belfry Inne and Bistro, 8 Jarves Street, Sandwich
WHEN: Wednesdays from 6 to 7 p.m.
COST: $18

DAILY TIDBIT:

Virgin America airline has partnered with Wine Library TV's Gary Vaynerchuk on a new in-flight wine and food menu. Their first offerings? The 2002 Arrowood Sonoma County Merlot with a fruit and cheese plate and the 2008 Turnbull Sauvignon Blanc with a tropical fruit appetizer or the poached pear with hazlenut crisp cake.

The Hottest Party Cocktail Right Now

This past weekend got you thinking about summer party season?

Us too.

Which is why you should know what the hottest party cocktail is right now.

Wait for it.

It's punch.

Yep. Punch.

Here's why: these days it's more about the conversation going on outside the glass than it is about what inside the glass.

With punch, there's no theater. It's there when you get there. All you do is put some in your glass, and then move on to more important things.

Like who you'll talk to next.


DAILY TIDBIT:

CHAMPAGNE PUNCH, courtesy of AllRecipes.com
Yields 35 four-ounce servings.

In a large punch bowl, combine the following:

One can frozen cranberry juice concentrate, one can frozen pink lemonade concentrate, one can frozen limeade concentrate, one bottle chilled white wine, one liter chilled carbonated water, and two bottles chilled sparkling wine. Garnish with one sliced lemon and 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves.

Dessert Pairings, with Beer, at Finale

Lots of drinks go with dessert.

Like Port. Or Sauternes. Or sweet Sherry.

And then there's beer.

Beer?

Don't knock it till you try it.

Try it, in fact, on Monday evening at Finale in Coolidge Corner.

Try it -- beer with dessert, that is -- five different times in a very special, very unique tasting.

Pastry chef Nicole Coady puts up her five signature desserts.

You sip a different top-notch beer with each one.

Hard to believe that beer is an excellent match with dessert?

The proof is in the pudding.


WHAT: Beer & Dessert Tasting
WHERE: Finale Desserterie & Bakery (Coolidge Corner), 1306 Beacon Street, Brookline
WHEN: Monday, May 24 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
COST: $19.99 per person


DAILY TIDBIT:

"After eating chocolate you feel godlike, as though you can conquer enemies, lead armies, entice lovers."

-- Emily Luchetti

Wine + Music, Free Concert + Free Tasting

Sure, sometimes a sip of wine makes your mouth sing.

But a whole evening dedicated to the relationship between wine and music?

Call it an experiment. A very sensory one.

Tomorrow night at the Community Music Center of Boston, you'll hear instrumental music from Brazil (think 7-string guitar, flute, and mandolin) and you'll taste wines -- chosen specifically to pair with the music -- from Portugal.

Not sure what that means?

Neither are we, frankly.

But both our ears and our palates really want to know.

The event is free.

So, too, will your senses be once it's over.


WHAT: Wine and Music Concert (Wines chosen by CSW Jo-Ann Ross)
WHERE: Community Music Center of Boston, 34 Warren Avenue, South End
WHEN: Thursday, May 20 from 7 to 8 p.m.
COST: $0


DAILY TIDBIT:

"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence." -- Robert Fripp

80 Cocktails at Clio

Welcome to mid-week Wednesday.

It's a good time to check in: what's been exceptional so far this week, and what opportunities you still have for weekday exceptionality.

Need some inspiration?

Stop by Clio for dinner.

There are two reasons for this:

1. Their mid-week market menu, prix fixe. Three courses, Weeknights only. Fresh and seasonal. $49.

2. Their new drinks menu, including eighty -- 80 -- cocktails.

Drink outside the box.

Exceptionality awaits.


WHAT: Mid-Week Inspiration from Prix Fixe and Drinks Menu
WHEN: Mondays through Thursdays from 5:30 to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Clio, 370 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston
MORE INFO: Click here.


DAILY TIDBIT:

"Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you." -- Annie Dillard

Yankee Homecoming Wine Tasting, 100+ Wines and Ipswich Ale

For 53 years now -- more or less -- folks up in Newburyport have been organizing Yankee Homecoming. The program has evolved into a summer-long festival with everything from a Motown dance party to fireworks to an open house at the Plum Island Clam Plant.

And then there is the wine tasting, which happens this Saturday night from 6 to 10 p.m.

Just as Yankee Homecoming itself has been getting better and better each year, so too has the wine tasting.

This year's improvement?

A tasting of Ipswich Ale by the Mercury Brewing Company, which so happens has been named one the world's ten best beers by Wine Spectator magazine.

That's in addition to the 100 wines (put up by Leary's Fine Wines & Spirits).

And cheeses and hors d'oeuvres from local chefs and restaurants.

Time for a homecoming, Newburyport-style.


WHAT: Wine Tasting Extravaganza for the Yankee Homecoming Festival
WHEN: Saturday, May 22 from 6 to 10 p.m.
WHERE: Nicholson Hall, Newburyport
COST: $40. Tickets can be purchased online or at Leary's Fine Wines & Spirits.


DAILY TIDBIT:

Ipswich Ale was the first offering by the Ipswich Brewing Company when it was founded in 1991 by Paul Sylva and Jim Beauvais. Today the brewers, who expanded and are now known as Mercury Brewing Company, produce 47 different beers and 19 soft drinks.

Treasure Map to Wine, at Half Price, for the Spring Wine Fest. Limited Offer!

Don't you wish you had a cheat sheet to the wine world?

Some sort of map - like you're on a treasure hunt - where X marks the spot of the perfect wine for you.

Sign me up! You think. Where do I get it?

At Cyclorama, the Boston Center for the Arts on Saturday night. It's what they'll hand you when you walk in the door there on Saturday night for the Spring Wine Fest.

And -- if you are one of the first 50 people to click through and purchase your ticket to the Wine Fest -- you'll get it at HALF PRICE. $29, specifically, for the regular price of $59.

Which brings us back to that treasure map.

They call it a passport and - get this - the Boston Event Guide will have arranged the whole space in front of you geographically so that it jives with the passport slash treasure map in your hand.

All that's left is for you to find your own X.

That's the hard part.

"Hard," though, is a relative term because you've got to taste the wines in order to know which is perfect for you.

Poor you.


WHAT: Spring Wine Fest, sponsored by the Boston Event Guide
WHERE: Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston
WHEN: Saturday, May 22 from 1 to 5 p.m.
COST: $29 for the first 50 purchasers (normally $59)

DAILY TIDBIT:

Hurry! This offer is good for the daytime event using code RWB before Wednesday, May 19 at Midnight. Hurry, space is limited and this will sell out fast!!

Find Wine at the SoWa Art Walk This Weekend

Yep, the annual SoWa (South of Washington Street) Art Walk is this weekend, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Which means you will get your springtime fix of artists and galleries both traditional and very much un-.

Yep, SoWa Sundays launch this weekend too, except just this once they should call it SoWa Sat-Sun because it'll be happening both days in their new permanent site on Thayer Street.

Which means you will get your springtime fix of local veg et al at the SoWa Food & Produce Market, a mainstay of Sundays in the South End.

And yep, you'll be able to drink. That is, you'll be able to sip your springtime fix of season-perfect non-fussy wines at BRIX -- the chix there will be opening their doors to quench your thirst in a special tasting on Saturday afternoon.

Which means all your fixes will have been, well, fixed. Especially once you see the list of participating South End restaurants.

That, clearly, makes your weekend plans done done and done.

At least for the daylight hours.


WHAT: Afternoon Tasting of springtime wines to coincide with the SoWa Art Walk
WHERE: BRIX Wine Shop, 1284 Washington Street, Boston
WHEN: Saturday, May 14 from 2 to 5 p.m.
COST: $0

DAILY TIDBIT:

"I don't follow recipes. I interact with them." -- John Thorne in Mouth Wide Open

Wine Dinners (and Lady Gaga) Up for Auction at WGBH. Clock's Ticking!

It's true that the wine lots at the WGBH auction don't go up for a few days yet.

(We'll keep you posted on the details. Stay tuned.)

But right now on WGBH.org you can find auction lots that will interest you anyway.

Whether "what interests you" is a 2011 Volvo C30.

Or an Amtrak trip to Washington, with a two-night stay and a Pops concert.

Or loge tickets to Lady Gaga at the TD Garden.

And then there are the wine-related options, such as:

• 2010 Nantucket Wine Festival stay
• Wine dinner for six at the Hungry I
• Five-course wine dinner for six at La Morra
• Five-course wine dinner for six at Upstairs on the Square
• Etc Etc Etc
  

Check out the full list of options in the Chef's Tasting/Wine Dinners category.

And be sure to check out everything else too (restaurants, travel, art, fitness...).

There's A LOT. But the clock is ticking on time left to bid.

Best get on it.


WHAT: WGBH Auction Online
WHEN: NOW through Saturday, May 22
CATEGORIES OF INTEREST: You name it! See Wine Dinners and Restaurants for starters.

DAILY TIDBIT:

Though it isn't technically about wine, you may want to know about an event happening this Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst. Jayne Cohen, author of Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover's Treasury of Classics and Improvisations, will talk about Jewish food in the New World since the early 20th century.