What are you cooking for July 4th?

Just curious if you have a favorite or traditional dish you like to make for the Fourth of July weekend? Maybe a twist on a burger or hotdog?  I thought I would ask the throngs and hordes* of our readers for ideas.  We love to eat and are always on the lookout for interesting ideas.  You don't have to post exact recipes, but you are welcome to.  Be sure to let us know what you are drinking with your dish too. - Salamanzar

*Throngs and hordes refers to the six or eight people who actually might read this.  But let's not get too tied up in these definitions.  I am pretty sure my mom doesn't even read this blog.

Rhymes with Heritage

One wine term we frequently hear mispronounced is the word Meritage.  This is actually an American marketing term created by combining Merit with Heritage.  Folks frequently try to give it a French sound by pronouncing it Mer-i-TAHJ, as in the Taj Mahal, but it actually rhymes with heritage and is pronounced MER-i-tidge. 

A Meritage is a blend of grapes in the Bordeaux style - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot and Malbec for the reds and Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, and Sauvignon Vert for the whites.  The organization was created in 1988 and you have to pay to use this on your wine label and become a member of the organization.

Unfortunately, the mispronunciation is propagated throughout the wine world daily, even by wine professionals and in wine shops.  Let's start getting it right in Durham and spread the word in proper English outward! -Salamanzar

Top Beer Brand Sales 2007

In a former career I was a brewer for Goose Island brewery in Chicago.  Back then we often talked about our beer output at the pub being somewhere between 2,500-3,000 barrels of beer per year. [1 barrel of beer = 31 gallons which is two standard kegs you see behind a bar or at a keg party]  For comparison, I would talk about the Budweiser company producing 97 million barrels per year on the brew tours.  Today the craft beer industry is still a tiny fraction of the total beer market.  

So I took a look at where things are today with beer sales.  Again, Market Watch magazine is a great source for these stats.  Here are the top beer brands in the US for 2007 in million barrels (31 gallons or 2 kegs).

• Bud Light (Anheuser-Busch) 41.2 million barrels
• Budweiser (A-B) 23.2
• Miller Lite (Miller Brewing Co.) 17.9
• Coors Light (Molsoon Coors Brewing Co.) 16.3
• Natural Light (A-B) 9.1
• Corona Extra (Crown Imports [Constellation/Grupo Modelo]) 8.1
• Busch (A-B) 6.5
• Busch Light (A-B) 6.0
• Heineken (Heinekin USA) 5.0
• Miller High Life (Miller Brewing Co.) 4.9

• Other beers made up for 66.6 million barrels

So total beer sold in the US for 2007 was 204.8 million barrels.  AB accounted for 86 million barrels of the top 10 beer sales.  Once again they prove, they are the king of beers.  You can see all the AB brands listed here.  Keep scrolling down to see them all! - Salamanzar

Pop's Pizza at Home

My wife surprised me and ordered Pop's pizza delivered for the first time to our house tonight. (She is insisting that I explain it was because we have a 13 month old daughter and she couldn't get it together to make dinner.  Okay, so we don't eat like kings every night.)  Anyway, when we sat down for dinner, she had a pizza in the oven on a sheet pan, so I figured we were having some sort of frozen Amy's or something.  I took a bite and immediately knew something was not the same. I asked her which flavor of frozen pie we had and she said, "ha!, It's not frozen, it's Pop's Backdoor take out." She admitted she had a tough time deciding which pizzas to order considering the specialty pizza choices on the menu.  There's a great package deal with a large specialty pizza, two salads and a bottle of wine for $40.  The decision was made to go with the Margherita plus proscuitto and the Polpette: house-made meatballs, broccoli rabe, roasted garlic and Parmesan.  Both were 10" size @ $10 per piece.  We were in the free delivery zone as an added bonus.  Delivery time was quoted at 45 minutes and they were right on time.

I have to say I was really happy with the pizza flavors.  I won't comment on the crust because I was late getting home from work, so she had to keep them warm in the oven.  We have a gas oven which means lots of moisture in the heat and let's just say the crust was a bit floppy.  But that has nothing to do with Pop's.  The toppings were generous, flavorful and very well done.  Every bite had all the flavors and things like the meatballs were not sparse. We also had Caesar salad and two small gelato cups.  

It was a decent meal and worth experimenting with the menu in the future to taste which pizzas travel well and which fit my palate the best.  I look forward to more pizza from the backdoor. -Salamanzar

The "F" Word and the "C" Word

Customers are often surprised when they make their first trip to Wine Authorities and frequently use the F or C words.  While I think they mean it complementarily, we don't like to hear "is this a franchise?" or "is this a chain?"

I think it's because of the way the store is presented.  Folks are not used to an independent wine shop looking clean, being organized, having proper signage and appearing bright and colorful. I am not saying that a franchise or chain is a bad thing.  If we can spread the word about estate-grown wines by having multiple stores, then we are all for that.  Unfortunately we have seen many wine chains & franchises come and go, that we don't want to be a part of that group.  If we do go in that direction one day, we will certainly be TOTALly different.

So if you come in, know that it's just two guys from Durham with a passion for wine and a need to support farmers who grow grapes and make their own wine. -Salamanzar

We Promised You a Rosé Garden

Finally, enough of our pink wines have arrived to build the Rosé Garden.  I built my first retail rosé garden wine display around 1998 or 1999.  It was a big deal then as the notion of dry pink wine was strange in this country.  While getting people to try pink wine is a bit easier today, it is still a foreign notion to many of us, ten years later. 

I am thrilled to have the garden back, complete with garden gnome, Tiki torch, flowers and lots of pink bottles of wine.  This display is right inside the front door and will feature dry pink wines all summer long as they come and go.  Wines range in price from about $7.99 to $15.99 per bottle. We don't even know all of the wines yet to come as we are still tasting and seeking the best of the pink.  -Salamanzar

Part III: BLC Import's Growth for 2007

This is the last installment on BLC 2007 growth (Big Liquor Companies) for now.   If you haven't read parts I or II you may want to start there.

The trade magazine, Market Watch, also featured the top imported wine growth brands of 2007.  These are wine brands which showed the most growth over 2006 in 12 bottle case depletions.  Many of these names are familiar faces on ethnic restaurant wine lists, on grocery store shelves and featured in the price clubs.  Most of them are "fake" brands created to fit a niche, especially for the sweet driven American palate.  In my experience, many of these wines aren't even known in the countries from which they come.   In other words, the locals don't even drink the stuff.  They just ship it to the US.

Top Growing Imported Wine "Hot Brands" 2007 from Market Watch

Brand - (Import Company) - Cases growth

1. Cavit (Palm Bay International) 3,355,000 cases
2. Little Penguin (Foster's Wine Estates) 1,140,000
3. Mezzacarona (Prestige Wine Imports) 870,000
4. Verdi Spumante (Carriage House Imports) 775,000
5. Santa Margherita (Terlato Wines International) 635,000
6. Banrock Station (Centerra Wine Co [Constellation Brands]) 530,000
7. Real Sangria (Shaw Ross International Importers) 425,000
8. Castello di Gabbiano (Foster's Wine Estates) 360,000
9. Greg Norman Estates (Foster's Wine Estates) 355,000
10. Kim Crawford (Icon Estates [Constellation Brands]) 260,000
11. Nobilo (Vintas [Constellation Brands]) 250,000
12. Wolf Blass (Foster's Wine Estates) 230,000
13. Trapiche (Frederick Wildman & Sons) 220,000
14. Relax Riesling (Schmitt Söhne) 200,000

Again, these are brands which showed top growth, not necessarily top sales for imported wines.  The volume of cases is far and away beyond most of the estate grown wines which we feature at Wine Authorities.  When a winery is working at these numbers, quality is maintained with extra chemicals, color additives and stabilizers rather than being made from just grapes.  I like wine made from grapes.  But I guess I am grape nuts. -Salamanzar