Comments on: Shifting Focus

By: Paired Up — Last Night's Dinner

Paired Up — Last Night's Dinner — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:19:38 +0000

[...] all righteous about how I rarely accept free stuff for the blog. But it’s no secret that we’ve long been fans of Oriel wines, and they’ve been difficult to find since we moved here, so when the fine [...]

By: Cee

Cee — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:20:49 +0000

Jennifer, I just wanted to thank you for the Oriel suggestion. I ordered the 2003 Courant from my local store here in DC (Modern Liquors) and it is amazing! There’s now a whole rack devoted to Oriel at the front of the store. This will definitely be my Thanksgiving contribution at Mom’s

By: Jennifer Hess

Jennifer Hess — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:33:57 +0000

Hey Karon! We are very lucky in that Best Cellars has an arrangement with FreshDirect, so we can order wines from them and have them delivered right along with our groceries. We’ve actually got an order coming tomorrow, with a couple of different Oriel reds, among other things. I love going to our favorite wine shops, getting recommendations and browsing around, but this is a really convenient way to stock up on things we like and try new things as well, without having to schlep things home on the bus or train.

By: Karon

Karon — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 03:28:30 +0000

“Grocery order”? Does this mean your local Best Cellars delivers? I’m so jealous. Here I thought having a Best Cellars a couple blocks from my apartment was divine.

By: Jennifer Hess

Jennifer Hess — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:02:34 +0000

ann – they seem to work really, really well together.

By: ann

ann — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:36:46 +0000

Scallops and chardonnay huh? That sounds quite delicious! I may just have to try that one of these days, thanks for the tip!

By: Jennifer Hess

Jennifer Hess — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:30:24 +0000

Thanks, Marie!

By: Marie Viljoen

Marie Viljoen — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:21:33 +0000

Hi Jennifer

Like you I am slightly food-obsessed, love cooking and taking pictures of it, and your pictures do what they should: make me want to lick my computer screen. These scallops and the remoulade look perfect. What a great blog…

By: Hillary

Hillary — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:36:53 +0000

Thanks for the feedback!

By: Jennifer Hess

Jennifer Hess — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:32:24 +0000

Amy and janine – Thanks!

John – Thanks for stopping by, and thank you for a truly lovely bottle of wine. I look forward to drinking it again and trying more of the wines Oriel has to offer with future dinners.

Hillary – Ha! I’m certainly no Derrick or Lenn, but I’ll give you a couple of thoughts. I think for me, learning what to pair with certain dishes was a combination of good advice from the people at the wine shops we frequent (and building a relationship with the people who work at them so they get to know your preferences), some research, and plain old trial and error. Food often changes the way a wine tastes or feels in your mouth, so learning what effect certain wines have when drunk with certain foods, and making note of it, has been helpful, too. And everybody’s palate is different, so to a certain extent I think you just have to go with what you like. If you have an opportunity to order a tasting menu at a restaurant and get wine pairings with it, or if you order different wines by the glass to go with different courses of a meal, you can learn a lot. If I have something that works particularly well, I’ll try to at least note the type of wine or grape so I can try pairing it at home.