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Bedros Kabranian is a young Swedish pastry chef who had the audacity to create a crescent … square! So, for or against?
A selection of pictures from Nicola Tanzini’s project “Tokyo Tsukiji” that will be exhibited in Milan, Italy with other 29 photographs in display.
Pork is a succulent and versatile meat. Depending on the cut, pork can suit all variety of dishes from Mexican to stir fry or simply grilled with a tasty sauce.
These heavenly baked pear recipes will satisfy your sweet tooth. You’ll find elegant soufflés, tarts, cupcakes, and more!While the nation’s eyes were focused on Senate hearings on a nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday, a few blocks away, the eight current justices were deciding to hear a case that could potentially change how consumers buy wine. The Supreme Court announced that it will hear the case of Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Byrd during its next session. The justices will decide whether the 21st Amendment allows states to have a residency requirement for alcohol retailers and wholesalers, preventing out-of-state retailers and wholesalers from obtaining a license if the owner or company has not been a resident for a certain amount of time.
But while the residency requirement is the crux of this case, some believe the court could also decide whether state bans on shipping by out-of-state retailers are unconstitutional. That has wineries, retailers and wholesalers around the country paying close attention.
It has been 13 years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Granholm v. Heald, which ruled that, because of the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, states could not allow in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers while prohibiting out-of-state wineries from doing the same. The landmark decision made it easier for wine lovers to access their desired bottlings and for wineries to expand their business.
But restrictions against out-of-state retailers went untouched. Bitter fights in courts and legislatures have ensued, with retailers arguing they should have the same protections as wineries under the Commerce Clause. Retailer direct-shipping advocates have been hoping that a case similar to Granholm, but with a retailer plaintiff, would make it up to the highest court.
In 2016, alcohol retail giant Total Wine & More applied for a license in Tennessee. The Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association (TWSRA), a trade organization representing local retailers, pointed out that state law requires retailers to be residents for two years before being granted such a license.
The constitutionality of the law came into question: Does a state have the right to restrict the allocation of its licenses exclusively to its residents? Clayton Byrd, the executive director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, was unsure of the answer and asked the courts. A federal district judge ruled that Tennessee’s law was indeed unconstitutional. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. The ruling has a wider potential impact too—21 other states have similar laws.
And here’s the key: The Sixth Circuit cited Granholm as one of the bases for its ruling, stating that because there was an attempt to discriminate in favor of in-state businesses, the law violated the Commerce Clause. The Sixth Circuit’s decision stated: “Does scrutiny under the dormant Commerce Clause apply only when an alcoholic-beverages law regulates producers or products? And does the 21st Amendment automatically immunize a state law regarding retailers and wholesalers of alcoholic beverages?” The judgment was no. The TWSRA disagreed and petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case. (TWSRA representatives could not be reached for comment.)
“[The Supreme Court] almost [has] to answer the question, to what extent does Granholm and the protections it provides for wineries also apply to retailers, in addition to answering the residency question,” said Tom Wark, executive director of the National Association of Wine Retailers, a group that has advocated for direct-shipping rights for retailers. “It’s not guaranteed, but I’d be hard-pressed to figure out how they wouldn’t do that.”
But it is possible that the court will rule narrowly, focusing solely on the residency requirement issue.
The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), which opposes retailer direct-shipping, released the following statement from president and CEO Michelle Korsmo: “WSWA has always been a staunch supporter of state regulatory authority, we will examine the issues at question in this case and assess the potential for it to impact that authority.”
It may seem odd that the TWSRA, a retailers association, is the plaintiff in a case that would legalize shipping for retailers if they lose. “Local retailers simply don’t want the competition,” said Wark. “The vast majority of wine retailers in this country don’t ship wine. It’s a relatively small core of retailers who serve this sort of national market, and they deal in rare and fine wines.”
For consumers, anyone who has ever searched for a specific bottle of wine on a retailer’s website and been unable to order it because of where they live, the case will be one to watch. At press time, a date for arguments had not been set.
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Do you want to learn how to make the ultimate chocolate cake? Then follow this video recipe from ChefSteps.
Three awards were handed out at this year’s ceremony in Mexico City. Discover which chefs are pioneering the future of gastronomy.
Let’s start a journey to alternative restaurants inspired by the best chefs who decided to spot promising talents and invest in them. First stop: Europe.
An international line-up of top chefs will be cooking in the countown to Christmas at three Michelin starred Meadowood in California. Be sure to book a table.On Sunday, beloved Napa wine-industry pioneers like Jacob Schram and Charles Krug briefly rose from their graves and walked among the living, brought back to life not by sorcery, witchcraft or other interventionist methods, but by the spirit of historical celebration through reenactment, and a touch of dramatic flair.
The annual “Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Discovery Walk,” put on by the St. Helena Historical Society, celebrates—and reanimates—the historical figures that lived, died and are buried in the small city in California wine country. For each of the past 16 years, the event has highlighted a different aspect of the community’s past, including Civil War vets in 2016 and Chinese immigrants in 2017. This year’s theme: “Gesundheit! German Stories in St. Helena.” And where there were the Germans in Napa history, there flowed das wein, from the famed winery founders to the laborers who planted many original vines and rootstocks.
Portrayed by drama students of St. Helena High School, figures like Mr. Krug, Mr. Schram (and wife, Anna, founders of Schramsberg) and the Lemme family (who built La Perla winery, now part of the Spring Mountain Vineyard estate) were among the notables in attendance. Though themselves not old enough to drink, the young thespians depicted the achievements, trials and tribulations of the 19th-century German immigrants right there among the tombstones, steps away from where they are laid to rest in the St. Helena Cemetery. About 100 townspeople and tourists came out for the cemetery walk-though, a turnout that the St. Helena Historical Society called “a tremendous success.”
But if you missed the chance to commune with Napa’s dead last weekend at the St. Helena Cemetery, fear not: There are plenty more spectral vintners doomed to roam the terroir for all time (it’s been said some Napa winemakers even sold their souls), and not a few so-called “ghost wineries” they’re thought to haunt. The old Rennie Brothers Winery, completed in 1900, is one—the once-thriving wine factory sat derelict through Prohibition before its rebirth as Flora Spring Estate. On Oct. 28, the winery is bringing in local paranormal investigators/Napa history fiends Ellen MacFarlane and Devin Sisk, who most recently appeared together on the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures, to lead a haunted tour and wine lunch in the old stone cellars and caves. “As one of the few remaining Napa Valley ‘ghost wineries,’ we are constantly reminded that there are phantoms and spirits who walked here before us,” noted general manager Nat Komes to Unfiltered.
As in past years, Flora Springs is also releasing a set of Halloween-themed wines next month with limited-edition label art from painters and illustrators: All Hallow’s Eve Cabernet Franc, Ghost Winery Malbec, Black Moon Cabernet Sauvignon and Drink in Peace Merlot (glow-in-the-dark label; comes in coffin-shaped gift box) are a few representative treats.
The Willamette Valley’s Argyle Winery has spiritual ties to the Portland, Ore., hipster-artist scene going back to Rollin Soles‘ founding moustache in 1987, but in the past few years, the Dundee sparkling specialists have made their ties to the art community more formal (though no less fashionable) than in the early days.
When the winery was opening a new tasting room in 2015, it occurred to management that the light-filled space and high ceilings could use some wall art to spruce it up. Soon, a scholarship program with the Portland Northwest College of Arts was underway, and last week, the third annual class of recipient students unveiled Willamette wine–inspired works that will decorate both the Argyle tasting room and bottles of Argyle’s limited-edition Art of Sparkling vintage 2015 brut wines.
The scholarship program begins each year in January, with PNCA and Argyle reps selecting three student recipients. The trio this year—students Jeff Cravath, Rebecca Giordano and Levi Hylton—made the trip to Argyle in April to find inspo in the vineyards and cellars, and get a brief crush course in how traditional-method wine gets made. “After visiting the vineyard and winery I was taken aback by how simple and elemental the process was,” said Cravath to Unfiltered via email. “Since then, I’ve thought a lot about how little I know of what I consume daily. Where and what it comes from, its maker, and how far it travels to get to me.”
In May, the students unveiled their designs on canvas, then the Argyle team fired up the label printer, the vintage bubbly rounded out its third year of aging, and the Art of Sparkling bottles were launched. The pop of bubbly wine completed the cycle of art-world patronage, from commission to exhibition, and the young creatives got a brush with the business side that was less commercial-crass than warm and, uh, fizzy. “In addition to generous scholarships, students have a true client experience—researching and exploring how their creativity can be deployed to represent the essence of the Art of Sparkling and Argyle,” Don Tuski, PNCA president explained to Unfiltered.
Seizing the torch of wine swashbuckling from last week’s genteel Scottish cave smugglers and carrying it into the 21st century is an Australian man whose contraband enterprise was grounded earlier this month by the Australian Border Force. The man was apprehended at Sydney International Airport after two bottles of wine in his baggage tested positive for an unusual and most illegal enological additive: cocaine. $808,000 worth of cocaine.
“While there are ever-changing and creative attempts to beat our border processes, criminals continue to be undone by our mix of intelligence, officer skill and state-of-the-art technology,” ABF regional commander Danielle Yannopoulos said in an Australian police press release. Points for creativity then, but a D for execution on the perp’s part: The ABF estimated they collected more than 7 pounds of cocaine from the 2-bottle bust, but most wine bottles, full (of wine), weigh noticeably less at 2 to 3 pounds. The smuggler was remanded into custody and charged with importing a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug; let him be a reminder to all you kids out there reading who the real wine ghouls and gremlins are.
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