1700's Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite,and Chateau Latour produce Red Bordeaux

1787   Thomas Jefferson engraves his initials on a bottle of Chateau Lafitte

           which was sold 1985 by Christie's as the most expensive wine ever sold

Early 1800's Cabernet is widely planted throughout Medoc and Graves

1830   Jean Louis Vignes of Bordeaux plants imported Cabernet cutlings in Los Angeles

1850   Cabernet in other Bordeaux varieties were planted in California's Santa Clara Valley

1860   Count Agoston Haraszthy build Buena Vista winery in Sonoma, and is believed to have

           introduced Cabernet to California's North Coast

1860-1900 the root louse phylloxera  decimates vineyards in both Europe and California

CALIFORNIA:

Early 1900 Resistant St. George rootstock is planted in California vineyards

1917-1933 Prohibition outlaws the sales of alcoholic beverages

1937   Andre Tchelistcheff arrives  i the napa Valley from France and becomes Beaulieu 

           vineyards winemaker and creates thephrase "Rurtherford Dust" to identify the unique

           characteristics of Rutherford based Cabernets.

1940's Charles Krug, Inglenook, Martini, Beringer and Beaulieu are all producing Cabernet of

           collectible quality.

1960's A new wave of winemakers change the face of Napa Valley forever:

           Heitz, Mondavi, Chappellet, Freemark Abbey, Diamond Creek, Spring Mountain,

           Cuvaison and Sterling, among others.

1970's A wine boom hits the Napa Valley with producers such as Stag's Leap Winery,

           Burgess cellers Silver Oak, Cakebread, Stonegate, and Joseph Phelps

1976   In the famed Paris blind tasting judged by French wine critics, the 1973 Stag Leap's

           Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon took first place over all premium Bordeaux.

           Of the top 10 wines, 6 were California Cabernets

           (by Joseph Phelps and Wine Spectator)

Some characteristics of Cabernet Sauvignon are: dark cherry, cedar, tobacco, and black currant, cool climate growth can contribute to a green pepper or olive flavor

North Coast

The Sierra Foothill

wine region

Central Valley

Central Coast

South Coast

Napa, (find more under Napa)

Sonoma,

Not all the fall color is in New England. When the leaves turn in Sonoma Valley’s vineyards, the vistas will take your breath away.

One of the world’s premier winegrowing regions, Los Carneros – “The Ram” in Spanish – is located 40 minutes from San Francisco, Marin County, the East and North Bays. Sacramento and the South Bay are both just a short distance further. A cool climate appellation, Carneros has long been known for its unassailable Chardonnays, elegant Pinot Noirs and its sparkling wines.

Mendocino / Lake County

The Mendocino County Wine Region includes Lake County and is located above San Francisco on the northern California Coast and served by San Francisco and Oakland International Airports.

Find delicately spiced Gewiurztraminer and lightly leafy Sauvignon to big, meaty Cabernets and Zinfandels of the central California valley is generally east of San Francisco and includes the

El Dorado and Amador County wine growing regions. Find award winning Zinfandels, delicate Rieslings, Sauvignons and dark Cabernets

Lodi / Woodbridge

Lodi is home to wineries big and small. On one end of the spectrum is winemaking giant Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi, which ships nearly 9 million cases of wine each year from its nearby distribution center. At the other end are a wide range of boutique wineries owned and operated by local vintners.

San Francisco Bay Area / Monterey/Paso Robles / Santa Cruz Mountain

this appellation hosts some of North America’s elite wineries. Rugged mountains, thin soils, high land prices and Pierce’s disease (not to mention, earthquakes!) are among the challenges which grape growers face. Yet more than fifty wineries operate here, producing wines ...  [>] Read More that include well-regarded Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The appellation is large, crossing the borders of three counties (Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and San Mateo). However, with less than 1500 acres under vine, the Santa Cruz Mountain AVA is small compared to similarly recognized appellations. Microclimates are particularly important here, as the climate can change substantially depending on which side of the range and at what elevation vineyards lay. The coolest climates are at the lower elevations on the Pacific side.

Santa Barbara / Santa Clara valley

Breathtaking vistas overlook valleys and mountains studded with ancient oaks, brilliant wild flowers and magnificent vineyards. Taking a leisurely country drive allows you to fully appreciate the winemaking experience while viewing the ever changing seasons.

SanDiego/Temecula

Los Angeles, Orange & Riverside

Visitors to the region can explore the landmarks of Hollywood, the magic of Disneyland, the
adventure of the San Diego Zoo and the fruit of the region’s vineyards. From the small town of
Julian to the metropolis of Los Angeles, the South Coast wine region is home to a diverse
population of people and wine alike.

Remember gentlemen, it's not just France we are fighting for, it's Champagne! – 1918

Winston S Churchill,

World War I brought devastation to the region. The early months of the war saw a rapid German advance into northern France and during the fall of 1914, they were camped south of the river Marne. By 1915 they were driven back just north of the city of Reims. The enormous caves – Roman chalk quarries – beneath Reims that were used for the storage and production of champagne, now became shelters from the 1000 days of bombardment the city endured from 1914 to 1918. After the war, the city had to be completely rebuilt

In the 1920's four well known houses were established – Bollinger, Irroy, Mumm, and Joseph Perrier. By 1853 total sales of sparkling champagne reached 20 million bottles up from just 300,000 bottles at the turn of the century.

Today the more famous Maisons de Champagne are

Krug

Bollinger

Heidsick Monopole

Charles Heidsick

Piper Heidsick

Moet & Chandon

GH Mumm

Laurent Perrier

Perriert Jouet

Pommery

Pol Roger

Louis Roederer

Ruinart

Taittinger

Veuve Clicquot

The Champagne wine region is a historic province in the northeast of France. The area is best known for the production of the sparkling white wine that bears the region's name. The region is about 100 miles (160 km) east of Paris. The viticultural boundaries of Champagne are legally defined and split into five wine producing districts within the administrative province-the Aube, Côte des Blancs, Côte de Sézanne Montagne de Reims, and Vallée de la Marne. The towns of Reims and Épernay are the commercial centers of the area.

Located at the northern edges of the wine growing world, the history of the Champagne wine region has had a significant role in the development of this unique terroir. The area's close proximity to Paris promoted the regions economic success in its wine trade but also put the villages and vineyards in the path of marching armies on their way to the French capital. Despite the frequency of these military conflict, the regions developed a reputation for quality wine production in the early Middle Ages and was able to continue that reputation as the region's producers began making sparkling wine with the advent of the great Champagne houses in the 17th & 18th century.

The principal grapes grown in the region include Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Pinot Noir is the most widely planted grape in the Aube region and grows very well in Montagne de Reims. Pinot Meunier is the dominant grape in the Vallée de la Marne region. The Côte des Blancs is dedicated almost exclusively to Chardonnay.

trumpet shaped wild mushroom with a nutty flavor

France: adding sugar to the fermenting must, which is converted into alcohol by the yeast.

raises quality of wine

The Chardonnay grape itself is very neutral, with many of the flavors commonly associated with the grape being derived from such influences as terroir and oak,

It is vinified in many different styles, from the elegant, "flinty" wines of Chablis to rich, buttery Meursaults andNew World Wines with tropical fruit flavors. (Wikipedia)

It is most associated with Switzerland, where it is by far that country’s most planted variety. In Switzerland, it has several other regional names, including Fendant, in the Valais canton, also dominant in the canto of Vaud. Here it is usually vinified into technically clean, dry and mildly fruity white wines.

A real summer wine.

In France, this variety is more often identified as a table grape.

Chasselas maintains a very modest acreage in North America.

This great spread is served in typical Heurigen wine taverns throughout Austria's wine growing regions and is served best on pumpernickel or rye bread. Impress your guests with this traditional Austrian spread at your next party. The origin, however is in Hungary.

You will find Liptauer under Rudi's recipes.

Mondseer, also known as Schachtelkase, is made in Austria, Salzburg. It is a pressed, semi-hard, washed-rind cheese which is close to Munster or Limburger despite its relative hardness. Mondseer has a slightly spicy aroma and sweet-sour taste. The maturation lasts from two to three months and the fat content is 45%

similar to German Harzer

Cheese of

France:

With over 500 French cheeses available in a delicious range of flavours - from the very mild to the quite powerful - there's an almost endless variety to choose from.
French cheese is a traditional food that's ideally suited to a busy lifestyle. Perfect for creating super-quick healthy snacks or delicious treats, French cheeses are high in nutrients and big on flavour. Use them in a pasta sauce, sandwich, tossed in a salad or as a topping on a vegetable bake. Or, enjoy them on their own as a meal in their own right.

Fat content, indicated on the cheese label, is calculated in relation to the cheese's dry matter (cheese contains water that contibutes to its weight), not in relation to the weight of the cheese. A 100g slice of French brie contains only 30% fat as a percentage of the whole cheese compared with 40% for the same weight of cheddar. In other words, soft cheeses contain more water so are less fattening. Furthermore, a range of light but equally delicious cheeses is widely available, bringing you all the taste, with fewer calories.
French cheeses may be the ultimate quick food and the key ingredient to transform your quick recipe into a feast, but they take time and care to make. Although modern technology is used throughout France to produce cheese, French cheese makers have retained their skills and craft.

Beaufort

Boursin

Brie de Meaux

Camembert

Cantal

Comté

Munster

Pont l'Eveque

The cheese is shaped in cloth-lined moulds then encircled with a strip of spruce bark and washed with brine for at least three weeks. The spruce imparts a resinous flavour to the pale interior of the cheese which becomes almost liquid as it matures. The undulating golden crust, tinged with pink, shows faint cloth markings. Before eating the cheese the top rind is removed from the cheese and the paste is spooned out.

The Swiss version is made using pasteurised cows' milk and the French using unpasteurised cows' milk. At the Teddington Cheese we prefer the French version.

Aromatic-piquant cheese (minimum dry matter: 62%) from untreated cow milk. The rind-matured round is 8 to 10 cm high, weighs 15 to 50 kg and has a diameter of 40 to 90 cm. The rind is dark yellow to brownish.

In the Allgäu region the production of mountain cheese has a long tradition. Initially, the cheese was produced on the summer Alpine pastures. With the expansion of house dairies around 1820 cheese making moved from the mountain pastures into the valleys, increasing in line with milk production in these areas.

Handkäse (Handkaese) is a German regional sour milk cheese (often Harzer) and is a culinary speciality of Frankfurt. It gets its name from the former way of producing it: forming it with your own hands.

It is a small, translucent, yellow cheese. It is sometimes square but more often round in shape.

Often served as an appetiser or as a snack with Apfelwein, it is traditionally topped with chopped onions, locally known as "Handkäse mit Musik" - so called because of the sound of the resulting flatulence.

Harzer cheese is a German sour milk cheese made from low fat curd cheese, which contains only about one percent fat and originates in the Harz mountain region south of Braunschweig.

Limburger cheese is a Belgian cow's milk cheese named for Limburg province in Belgium where it was first sold. Limburger is a semisoft surface ripened cow's milk cheese notable for its strong, pungent aroma, which develops as the cheese ripens, and becomes very strong within a few weeks. The distinctive flavor is not as strong as its odor.

Although originally a Belgium cheese, it has become essentially a German cheese since the 19th century.

spwcialty from Bavaria

and Frankfurt

Tilsit cheese or Tilsiter cheese is a light yellow semi-soft cheese, created in the mid-19th century by Swiss settlers, the Westphal family, from the Emmental valley. The original buildings from the cheese plant still exist in Sovetsk, Russia, formerly Tilsit on the Neman River in East Prussia.

The same ingredients to make the cheese were not available as in their home country and the cheese became colonized by different molds, yeasts, and bacteria in the humid climate. The result was a cheese which was more intense and full flavored. The settlers named the cheese after Tilsit, the Prussian town they had settled in.

One of the finest - some would argue that it is the best - of the world's blue cheeses, Gorgonzola is made from cow's milk in an area to the north of Milan. The delicate greenish-blue vein by pricking the cheese at various points with long needles which admit the air and mold spores. The ripening process requires about 50 days. The cheese should be eaten as fresh as possible. It has long been popular as the ingredient of various dishes, some rustic, as in its use as a topping for grilled polenta, and some sophisticated, as when it is blended with cream to make a sauce for pastas and gnocchi. However, it is still best when consumed
alone at the end of a meal and accompanied by a red or more intriguingly, a white, late-harvest, dessert wine.

Where would pizza be without Mozzarella?
confined to Naples, no douby, and not too popular there. The best cheese is made entirely from the milk of buffaloes (from India; water buffalos). Given the scarcity of the animals, however, the type found in most U.S. stores will be produced from the milk of cows or, in the best of cases, a mixture. The cheese is used in many dishes besides pizza, and it is delicious alone provided it is truly fresh, with perhap a bit of olive, oil and coarse, freshly ground black pepper.

Italian cooking would not be the same without ricotta, which is not really a cheese but a milk product, since it is made from whey from which the curds have been removed. The whey can be from cow's or sheep's milk, although the latter is best. Its name, literally "recooked," is due to the fact that the whey is heated a second time. Ricotta is used in an infinite variety of savory and sweet preparations in every one of the country's different culinary traditions. Its versatility has made it indispensable in the Italian kitchen. Ricotta is also made in salted and smoked
versions, which can

Historically, each valley of the Alps produced its own specialty cheese that was used to fulfill tax obligations.

Appenzeller cheese comes to us from the mountain canton of Appenzell between Lake Constance and Liechtenstein. Appenzeller was documented by tax records that go back over 700 years! It is a high quality cheese that is favored the world over.
This relatively rare treat is a full-fat, semi-hard cow's milk cheese, selected and matured to the highest of standards. Only supplied to consumers at the height of its maturity, Extra Aged Appenzeller is a superior natural product, over whose quality no compromise is made. After exacting analysis, cheese-making experts carefully select the choice picks of the Appenzeller cheeses

Raclette was mentioned in medieval writings as a particularly nutritious meal consumed by peasants in mountainous Switzerland. It was then known in the German-speaking part of Switzerland as Bratchäs, or "roasted cheese." Traditionally, the Swiss cow herders used to take the cheese with them when they were moving cows to or from the pastures up in the mountains. In the evenings around the campfire, they would place the cheese next to the fire and, when it had reached the perfect softness, scrape it on top of some bread.

A modern way of serving raclette involves an electric table-top grill with small 'pans', known as coupelles, to heat slices of raclette cheese in. Generally the grill is surmounted by a hot plate or griddle. The cheese is brought to the table sliced, accompanied by platters of boiled or steamed potatoes, other vegetables, charcuterie

Its name, which means "Monk's Head", is derived from its invention and initially production by the monks of the abbey of Bellelay, located in the district of Moutier, in the mountaineous zone of the Bernese Jura.

The cheese is eaten in an unusual way: it must be carefully scraped with a knife in order to develop its scented flavours.

Tête de Moine is currently produced by fewer than 10 cheese dairies.

The monks started to manufacture this cheese more than eight centuries ago. Writings from 1292 attest that the cheese of the abbots of Bellelay had acquired such a reputation that it was used to pay the royalties of the stockbreeders to the farms' owners, to regulate litigations, being offered as presents to the prince-bishops of Basel or even as currency. The cheese was named Tête de Moine two centuries ago by soldiers of French Revolution, who, having expelled the monks, discovered cheese coins stored at the bottom of the large cellars. They adopted the manner of scraping cheese to consume it with the tonsure of a monk.

Swiss and French cheese

from the Jura

Queso Iberico is a cheese that comes from Central Spain. It is a hard cheese made from the mixture of cow's, sheep's ot goat's milk and that is why the flavour has elements of all three. Sometimes Queso Iberico is mistaken for Manchego. The affinage usually takes from one to six months. According to its texture, it ranks among hard cheeses. It is a table cheese but could be perfectly used for grating and grilling.

It is at its best together with the Serrano Ham

Goat milk cheese

Spain is also known for its excellent goat milk cheese

Chenin blanc is arguably the most versatile of all wine grape varieties. Crisp, dry table wines, light sparkling wines, long-lived, unctuous, nectar-like dessert wines, and even brandy are all produced in various areas of the wine world, all of chenin blanc.

It might even be said that chenin blanc is France's most successful export variety, if only considering the vine rather than the wine. Although the native region for chenin is the Loire Valley (where the grape is often called Pineau de la Loire), there is less planted in all of France than in most wine-producing countries of the New World. It is planted as Pinot Blanco in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, where there are over 10,000 acres of chenin blanc. Nearly a third of vines in South Africa are chenin blanc, where it is also called Steen. In California, it is the third most widely planted white wine grape. Australia has close to 1,500 acres and New Zealand 500.

plain (dark chocolate) or milk chocolate, which is sweeter

duck, goose or pork preserved by cooking and storing in its own fat,

may also refer to other types of preserved food

freshwater crustacean, resembling a small lobster, specialty of Louisiana, where they

are calle crawfish or crawdads

light cream contains 20% cooking fat, whipped cream ranges from 30-40%,

Half-and-Half refers to a blend of app. 12%

French for crust,

food baked in pastry

Bordeaux, upper classification for the chateaux of medoc, divided into 5 tiers:

from Premier  Cru classe to Cinquieme Cru Classe