Happy Holidays

Wishing you and yours happy holidays and best wishes for a peaceful and healthy New Year. And a big thanks to all who contributed to the Menu for Hope III. Together, wine and food bloggers and their readers donated $58,256.70 towards this worthy project. Raffle winners will be announced on 15 January 2007.

(more information on this Michael Regnier photograph can be found on Alder Yarrow's Vinography. )

The Best Gift of All: the Menu for Hope III

The Menu for Hope is a charity event sponsored by wine and food bloggers that selects a worthy cause every year to receive 100% of the proceeds from a virtual raffle on the internet. As of this posting, generous bloggers and readers have already donated over $40,000.00 to the cause, and there is still one day left to make a contribution. All over the web food and wine bloggers have donated fabulous prizes that are waiting for YOU. What do you need to do? Simply buy a raffle ticket for $10, pick the prize drawing you'd like to enter, and wait until January 15, 2oo7 when the winners will be announced. Can't decide between all these fabulous prizes on offer? Buy several raffle tickets, and try your chances on all your favorites. And if you really, really want one prize? Then buy lots of tickets, and devote them all to getting your heart's desire.

All the proceeds from a Menu for Hope III will go this year to the UN World Food Programme. What better fund to benefit from contributions from food and wine bloggers and readers.

Here's some more detailed information copied from Alder Yarrow's Vinography (Alder is in charge of the wine blog prizes):

HOW IT WORKS:
The campaign is essentially a big raffle for prizes. You look through the prizes, figure out which one(s) you want to try to win, and then you buy "virtual raffle tickets" -- one for each $10 of donation you make to our cause on the special web site set up for that purpose.

When you make your donation, you simply specify the prize number(s) (each prize should have one) and the "number of tickets" your donation is buying. Donate thirty bucks, get three tickets, and use them for one prize, or for three. Just be specific in your request.

Here's the site to enter / donate.

Looking for the list of prizes? Check out Alder's full list or prizes, and his list of updates donated by wine bloggers. Want to have dinner with Eric Asimov, wine critic for the New York Times? How about having Alder Yarrow serve as your sommelier for the night at a dinner party you host--and he'll even supply the wine? How about one of Jerry Hall's fabulous wine bottle photos, blown up into poster size to hang over your wine rack? All these great prizes and more could be yours for just $10 a ticket.

It's the season for giving, and for remembering those less fortunate than ourselves. Click over and contribute to this worthy, worthy cause.

Not Your Parents' Chenin Blanc: the 2004 La Craie Vouvray

New York Times wine critic Eric Asimov over at his excellent blog The Pour recently posted a story on the underappreciated and un-fashionable varietal chenin blanc. Just so Eric doesn't feel too lonely in chenin blanc heaven, I wanted to post this recommendation for a chenin blanc from Vouvray in France: the excellent QPR 2004 La Craie Vouvray (Chronicle Wine Cellar, $7.95).

This is not your parents' chenin blanc. I have some pretty vivid memories of large jugs of wine labelled "chenin blanc" entering my childhood home--you know the ones with the little loopy handle at the top and the metal screw cap. (My parents would want you to know that they don't drink this anymore!) Every 40 something wine blogger out there, and most every 40 something wine enthusiast can probably recall a similar vignette from their own past. Some of us even got our start drinking the stuff.

But chenin blanc is a versatile grape that seems particularly good at drawing up the influences from the soil up into its root system, spreading them out into the fruit. Because chenin blanc is typically not manipulated very much in the processing of the grapes, all those appellation nuances come through in the finished project. Take this 2004 La Craie.

Named after the chalky soils on which the grapes are grown (craie is chalk in French), this pale lemon wine had enticing crisp citrus aromas. Sipping the wine brought out more citrus and green apple flavors, with a hint of a sweet impression as the last drops slid down. Despite the sweet aftertaste, this was a crisp, dry wine. But now swirl it in the glass and smell. That's right: crushed chalk, just like in your first grade classroom. Take another sip: now there is an aftertaste of crushed chalk in your mouth, too. As with all white wines, these more subtle flavors will disappear if you serve the wine too cold.

The versatile chenin blanc grape produced, in this case, an equally versatile wine that would go with turkey, seafood, Chinese or Thai take-out, and salads. Expand your horizons and keep some of these grapes from falling into Eric's clutches. Better yet, buy some of this inexpensive, high quality wine and use the rest of your $20 bill to buy a chance to have dinner with Eric through the raffle for Menu for Hope III, a great event to support the UN World Food Programme. If you win, you'll have one more thing to talk about!