I have a lot to be grateful to Emma Gavert for.
One of the many things she developed in me was an appreciation for food. You see, before I lived in Sweden and had all those countless dinners with Emma, Maria and Amit, I considered food as basically... fuel. I was hungry, I ate. It didnt matter what I was eating as long as it tasted good and more importantly... that it filled my (now) big tummy!
But Emma... preparing dinner with Emma was always an experience. From shopping for exactly the right brand of guacomole to making sure that we had the right wine for the meal. Amit and I used to call her a "Food Fascist". Anyway... I consider it an integral part of my education that I started caring exactly what went into my mouth as food, how it is prepared, where it prepared and striving for that perfect meal.
I took a huge step further down that education when Maria Farres who was here for 2 weeks took me along to a wine tasting tour.
The day consisted of visits to 5 wineries and a huge huge lunch. We tasted whites, reds and dessert wines in fruity, spicy and oaken flavours. To be honest, after the second winery they all started to taste the same to me. So I guess I still have some way to go in my education.
But it was interesting to learn that Australia and the US acount for a huge chunk of wine production in the world. There are actually wineries in the US that make more wine in a week than the whole of New Zealand makes!
Champagne can either be artificial bubbles or traditionale methode made. And actually... "Champagne" can only be used to refer to wines that are made in the Champagne region of France. If a wine-maker in Australia called one of his wines "Champagne", he would get his ass sued off! Although there are countless variants of the magic bubbly around the world!
I will be taking more of these tours in future and I WILL take a notebook along. Apparently it impresses the ladies no end if you are able to ask for a particular Pinot Noir from a particular year to go with that fish!
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