Are you planning a celebration tomorrow? You will surely need wine, but what to drink to mark the historic inauguration of Barack Obama? Whatever you decide on, please film a little video of your party and share it with us.
In my mind, there are two options for a wine to mark the Inauguration. The first is bubbles, and it has to be Champagne from Francoise Bedel. This farmer is not someone we represent, but she does a fantastic job.

The other recommendation is an aged Barolo from Agricola Marrone. Barolo is often called the wine of kings and Gian Piero insists the best pairing for this 2001 Riserva is friends. Not to mention he has only made 3 reserve wines in nearly 40 years, so it seems appropriate for a historic ocassion.

Tomorrow at 4pm EST we will be tasting Renato Fenocchio’s Olive Oil in conjunction with ILoveOliveOil. Tune in at 4pm to taste an oil from Umbria with Rachel Black of Amelia Oil. Then arund 4:30pm EST, we’ll switch to Farmstead’s Ustream channel and taste Renato’s oil. If you have a bottle, please join us and share your thoughts.

Webcam chat at Ustream

To submit your own video, please visit memelabs.

From the press release:

Farmstead Wines Hosts Inaugural Reception

The Farmstead Wines Inaugural Reception on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, in Washington DC, marks the historic 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Farmstead Wines has partnered with Nadia Nascimento and memelabs to allow attendees to film short videos, sharing their story of the Inauguration.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 15, 2009 — Victoria Espinel, Anthony Nicalo and John Stubbs will host the Farmstead Wines Inaugural Reception on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, in Washington DC, to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

The Inaugural Reception, located in the offices of Romulus Global Issues Management along the inauguration parade route, is by invitation only and will feature the rare, naturally farmed, handcrafted wines of Farmstead Wines paired with local, seasonal canapes.

We are excited to celebrate two new arrivals to Washington and look forward to significant contributions from President Barack Obama on the path to sustainability. Farmstead Wines will try to do its part to support his efforts and bring sustainability to the wine world.
Based in Washington, DC, John Stubbs and Victoria Espinel have recently joined the team at Farmstead Wines to support the company’s introduction to the U.S. market. Since its founding in 2007, Farmstead Wines have been sold exclusively in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. The company will begin selling wine to consumers in the U.S. via the Farmstead Wines website (http://www.farmsteadwines.com) and select restaurant outlets in Chicago, New Orleans, New York and Washington, DC this month.

To mark the historic 2009 inauguration of Barack Obama, Farmstead Wines has partnered with Nadia Nascimento and memelabs to allow attendees to film short videos, sharing their story of the Inauguration.

Founder of Farmstead Wines, Anthony Nicalo, says, “We are excited to celebrate two new arrivals to Washington and look forward to significant contributions from President Barack Obama on the path to sustainability. Farmstead Wines will try to do its part to support his efforts and bring sustainability to the wine world.”

The olive oil business engages in many of the same purposefully deceitful practices as the wine industry. It regularly conjures up idyllic, romantic images to gloss over the reality of its production and agricultural practices. At the large scale, both are mainly involved in bottling and marketing. And, much like the wine business, where people doctor wines to get better ratings, the value of olive oil as a commodity encourages fraud.
Tom Mueller writes in an expose in The New Yorker in 2007, “Adulteration is especially common in Italy, the world’s leading importer, consumer, and exporter of olive oil. (For the past ten years, Spain has produced more oil than Italy, but much of it is shipped to Italy for packaging and is sold, legally, as Italian oil.)”

In an interview with NPR, Tom suggests the only way to know whether you are getting the real thing or not is to know the people who produced the olive oil.

Can you tell the difference between real olive oil and the adulterated version? Look at the photo above closely and tell me which one is real extra-virgin.

I try to mostly write about food, sustainability and farming, but in this case I can’t pass up sharing some feedback from a fellow vinaroon. Two of our biggest supporters, Monique and Boris were meeting with Mary of Namaste Publishing about a project.

My friend, Doug Cook of AbleGrape fame, is squatting on a domain that hopefully he’ll turn into Wine Gloat one day. Mary’s comments on her Farmstead Wine experience will be one for the archives. She said to Monique, “And BTW, we have now tried two of the Farmstead wines – one red, one white and have seriously died and gone to heaven. Even the buzz is better. Of all the advice you have shared with us, the wine referral might have been the most valuable piece of information!”

If you have feedback- good or bad- we would love to hear it! Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

The goal of a good food and wine pairing is that both taste better together than alone. While a combination that simply works is acceptable, a sum that is greater than its parts is the ideal pairing. The same principles that apply to cooking a great dish or making a great wine apply. That means balance and complexity without muddling flavours. To achieve that there are a few simple guidelines:
1. Show restraint. This applies both to the cooking and the wine. Often the most important ingredient is the one you decide to leave out of a dish. Don’t pair monster, over-the-top wines with food- leave them for dick swinging competitions.

2. Use bridges. Adjust a dish to account for a specific flavor in a wine. For example, you can change the flavors you use in a sauce for duck depending on whether you are serving Pinot Noir (cherries) or Nebbiolo (orange).

3. Practice. A lot.

The sample menu below is from a dinner I cooked recently that went over very well. Although the menu was an extravagant 5 courses, plus an amuse, each dish was made without butter, cream and is basically low-fat. This style of cooking clean, healthy gourmet food is what we do at Inevitable Table too. Have a food and wine pairing tip? Please share it with a comment below.

sunchoke soup with chanterelle, brioche and truffle

Martin Arndorfer ChNb 2005

roasted pumpkin salad with radicchio, pomegranate, and aged sherry
Marc Tempe Rodelsberg 2004

pappardelle with braised rabbit ragout, tomato, chili and pecorino
Domaine de Courbissac Pandora 2004

pan-roasted sable with beet roesti, arugula and tarragon
Agricola Marrone Langhe Rosso Sancarlo 2001

honeyed panna cotta with pistachio, orange and fennel
Renato Fenocchio Moscato Passito Ito’pass 2006