Paula Maia's Wine blog

Eat- June was an all I can eat and drink month! Starting with my recent addiction to the James Beard Foundation dinners, where chefs from all over the Nation present their craft with an exquisite 6-course menu paired with (almost always) great wine.  A cocktail hour with hour d’oeurves and libations such as a Mead from Georgia kick off the feast.

(Drink)- Equally dangerous, all the wine festivals held this June got me on a spin. First the launching party of the Sud de France Festival and the new wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon I put on the wine list. Then Vinho Verde Week, one of my favorite light white wines for the heat followed by Paul Grieco’s massive campaign; his Summer of Riesling. 94 days to taste the Riesling grape and its wines widely available all over Manhattan. And if that wasn’t enough, 31 days of Riesling runs through July.

Pray- I just sat for my first exam of the WSET Diploma level. Most of the time I wondered what I was thinking. I couldn’t run so I prayed.

Love- welcome back Schatzi!

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Unlikely the popular belief, 5 de Mayo is not Mexican’s Independence Day, but a celebration of its heritage and pride.  During Mexican’s Civil War, on May 5th, 1862, Mexicans resisted and won a significant battle against the French army- known to be the best at the time- in Puebla, before they got to Mexican City.

Puebla is pretty much the only place in Mexico that celebrates 5 de Mayo, but here in the US it has become almost a national holiday as well as a marketing gag. In 2005, the US President issued a proclamation calling upon  Americans to observe the date as a celebration of Mexican’s culture and experiences of Americans with Mexican’s ancestry as they do on St.Patricks’s Day and on Chinese New Year’s. 

5 de Mayo is a big party day, where people have an excuse to chow down buckets of chips and salsa with gallons of Margaritas while dancing to the Mariachi. Since I love all of that, and usually don’t need the excuse of 5 de Mayo, I fully embrace the date.

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I spent 4 days in Paris eating, drinking and walking most of the time. No doubt that I live to eat and drink. It’s my job, it’s my passion and when it comes to food and wine it’s hard to beat France. Never mind Paris… My ambitious plan included about 30 wine bars, food markets and restaurants to check out, so off I went.

My first stop was Melac, a wine bar known for it’s wide selection of Southern French wines and for having vines planted around the facade. Each September there’s a party to celebrate the harvest. Unfortunately it was closed so I went to another wine bar on my list: Le Baron Bouge (not Rouge), next to d’Aligre Market. I tried a few wines, hang out for a while, met some people and was kindly invited to join them at Les Caves du Prague, a newer, modern shop/wine bar around the corner with a different approach and equally fun.

The next day I had Brunch at Rose Bakery, an awesome, all organic place that did magics with my hangover. Everything is made in house and you can taste the quality and love they put in it. From there I hit the Louvre- paid homage to the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Sphinx and ran to Pierre Hermes; the number one Patisserie likely in the universe. I paired a White Truffle Macaroon with a Touraine Gamay which I savored at the Jardin du Luxemburg.

I headed to Au Sauvignon, an old-school wine bar in Saint-Germain that I thought specialized in Beaujolais Crus, but came to find out this wasn’t the case. Instead I tried a white Menetou Salon, an appellation near Sancerre but much smaller. After a stroll around the area we crossed the Seine for more libations at Juveniles, a wine bar near Palais Royal with interesting food and an international wine list. We tried to have a nite cap at Willi’s Wine Bar, but the legendary Parisian attitude threw us off.

The last day I shopped at Gallerie Lafayette, where I had tap wine from their wine fountain- mon dieu, ces’t fantastic! Then I met my friend Markus at Caves Legrand inside the Gallerie Vivienne, a perfectly preserved passage built in the 19th Century. This fancy shop/wine bar is worth every penny. Here we had the best Menetou Salon rouge (Pinot Noir) to date with very limited production thus hard to find.

For dinner we had braised baby goat, an specialty of Corsica with of course, Corsican wine, which I had never had before and enjoyed it very, very much. Then a few more glasses at Aux Tonneaux des Halles, another wine bar that was on my list and didn’t fail to impress. To end the trip in style we had cocktails at the China Club. Tres Chic!

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Wines of Uruguay turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. In fact,  I don’t remember tasting so many quality wines at once. Visiting 8 wineries, meeting an additional 4 producers and tasting more than 100 wines in 2 days could have been daunting, instead it was pure pleasure. Not only all wineries were extremely accommodating and welcoming, but their wines showed superb quality, as good if not better than some well known old world champs. I could go on and on about its beautiful aromas, structure and balanced acidity that makes me drool as I write this.

Tannat is the most planted grape and, I dare to say, the grape that put the wines of Uruguay on the map. However, other grapes shine just as much. Sauvignon Blanc has been fermented on its lees, Sauvignon Gris has gotten me crazy, Chardonnay reminded me of Burgundy, Merlot as good as St.Emilion Grand Cru, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc for a Bordeaux style blend, and of course, Tannat- which has its origins in Madiran, France- reigns. I’ve had the whole spectrum; glorious, round, sometimes rough, sometimes luscious, often sublime.

I came back to NY so inspired and so full of energy that I wish I could plant Tannat in my backyard, even if it yielded a bad grape juice, but instead I am determined to promote their wines in any way I can. So, for starters you can come to Oak Wine Bar for a taste of about 6 different grape varieties and their respectively wineries. You can also go to your nearest wine store and try to find wines from Uruguay- you won’t be disappointed. And, if you see a wine from Uruguay on a restaurant’s wine list, just order it. Trust me.

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Last 4th of July we had the opportunity to go to Vancouver. At that point I knew very little about the city, except that it was in Canada and that it hosted the Olympic games. I also knew that British Columbia wines can be outstanding and that was my motto. Once there it became instant clear that the city has an amazing culinary scene with excellent restaurants and culinary schools.

Granville Island Public Market is a mecca of exotic fruits and vegetables, off the coast shellfish, exquisite cheeses and cured meats, local wine, artisanal breads, you name it. Everything you want, and things you never heard of, can be found there, and at the best quality possible. So basically you shop at the market, head to Stanley Park or to Third Beach, set up your picnic, open a bottle of wine and chill. Vancouver offers more ways to chill than one can imagine- and that was an awesome surprise.

There are five main DVAs (Designated Viticultural Areas) in British Columbia — the Okanagan Valley, Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands, the Fraser Valley and the Similkameen Valley.  With over 60 different grape varieties, the top 5 white varieties are Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc. The top 5 red varieties are Merlot, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Cabernet Franc. Production is 49% white and 51% red. Being the summer, most wines we had were white and mainly from the Okanagan Valley, which all expressed great fruit profile in balance with a natural, vibrant acidity.

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Thank you for joining me in my wine journey. I have now documented every wine trip I have taken so far in this personal wine journal. It has been a tremendous experience and an invaluable growing opportunity to visit so many countries and meet with so many talented wine producers that I can’t help but feel incredibly blessed.

After running my own Wine Bar in New York for the last 2 and a half years, I have finally taken the plunge and decided to become a chef. From February 2010 to June 2010 I will be studying Culinary Arts at the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners in Flores da Cunha, a rural tiny town in the southern most state of Brazil.

For those not familiar with it, the south of Brazil has a staggering number of Italians and Germans settlers and it is the largest and most important wine producing area of Brazil. If you want to check how I am doing, read my postings under Culinary School, a category dedicated entirely to my studies at the ICIF. All other wine related entries will be posted under Wine Journal. I look forward to going back to school and to reporting all about it here. Stay in touch.

Stepping off the train from Vienna felt just like coming home. I love Munich for many reasons beyond my understanding. Maybe those deep roots do have an influence after all. My great grand-father was German and my great grand-mother was Austrian or Hungarian- or both. I, on the other hand, never had any interest in Germany until I met my husband, who’s German.

I don’t know if it’s the beer, the wine, or the Schnitzel that gets me, or if it’s something about their obsessive methodology, efficiency and perfectionism that draws me to it. Perhaps it’s all those wursts, all that green and all those fancy cars, but there’s definitely something about Munich that feels so homey. I love to walk around the historical city center, to stroll through the Englischer Garten and to simply wait and count the seconds until the bus arrives at the exact scheduled time.

From the Hauptbahnhof we walked to Hofbraukeller at Wiener Platz, where we had a Schnitzel of course, in their Biergarten near the Gasteig- Munich’s Philarmonic. It was the perfect way to end the trip and prepare myself psychologically to go to my real home in New York. Actually, the trip really ended at the airport, where I enjoyed a Currywurst with a Weissbier at the Airbräu- the next closest thing to heaven.

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Heuriger is pretty much an Austrian wine tavern where wineries serve their latest vintage or their freshest wines along with traditional Austrian food. Heueriger means ‘this year’, which refers to this year’s harvest. The word comes from the Latin ‘hodie’, meaning ‘this day’, however it wasn’t until 1784 that emperor Joseph II allowed Viennese vintners to sell their home-made products that Heurigers were born.

As charming as it can be, many Heurigers are in the middle or surrounded by vineyards, and most have communal wooden tables in the garden where one must try a Sturm. Another Austrian tradition, Sturm is made of both red and white freshly pressed grape juice known as must. Highly anticipated and sold for only a few weeks, Sturm is slightly carbonated, thick and cloudy like a juice, but infinitely better.

Only a couple of tram stops away, Grinzing is the best known place to visit a Heuriger, although plenty of others can be found within and around Vienna.  A part of every day life, Heurigers attracts locals and tourists craving a part of Vienna life style. Grinzing is a sublime place to watch the sunset overlooking both the vineyards and Vienna. I cannot think of anything more romantic than drinking my wine under the stars on a hot summer night.

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The next day my friend Silvana and I took a train from Munich’s Hauptbahnhof to Vienna, capital of Austria and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Founded around 500BC, Vienna was once the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that ended after the first World War in 1918. The city though, seems to have been preserved in its grandiosity.

Culture life in Vienna is at all times sizzling. Home to a number of opera houses, theaters, museums, churches and famous for its architecture and design, Vienna is a true metropolis with a medium town feeling. With an abundance of outdoor spaces, it seems like the Viennese really know how to enjoy life. Everywhere you look there’s a Kaffeehaus, a Biergarten or a Gästehaus, where one can enjoy an Apfelstrudel, a glass of Grüner, a Schnitzel or simply stare in wonder.

We were in Vienna for only 5 days, which is enough time to get to know the city, visit most prominent sites and- if you are lucky- even catch an opera for $6 Euros a pop. However, if you fall in love with Vienna, like I did, then you probably will never get enough of it. I cannot wait to go back, but in the meantime I rejoice in local alternatives as close as a block away from home.

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Breakfast in Italy, lunch in Austria, dinner in Germany, oh the good life I have! Besides the natural anatomy of those countries, and the fact that if you drive from Germany to Italy you must cross Austria, it still sounds utterly decadent to be in three countries in one day.

Also in the Alps and surrounded by three very high mountains, Innsbruck is an international winter sports destination. In 1964 and in 1976, Innsbruck hosted the Winter Olympics and the First Winter Youth Olympics of 2012 is being held in Innsbruck as well.

Believe it or not, the day we were there they were having a festival that happens only every 20 years. We beat the odds of this all-weekend drink and dance fest that had most residents celebrating in traditional costumes. After checking out the altstadt we stopped at Stiftskeller for a Wiener Schnitzel and a Gruner Veltliner. By 10 o’clock we were back in Munich having- you guessed- another Schnitzel, this time with an Augustiner-Braeu.

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