Ciao, Scampi! Wow, I really love cheap word play, and that’s pretty darn cheap. Last night I whipped up a really good (and really simple) shrimp scampi. We’ve not done a wine recipe in a while, so how about we check this one out. Scampi is an Italian word for the tail portion of almost any crustacean, from crayfish to lobster. We most often associate scampi with shrimp, however, and April 29 is celebrated as National Shrimp Scampi Day.
Congratulations to our very own Jeff Binney, of Jeff’s Corner fame, being selected as a judge for the prestigious San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. A rare honor! Read his post below to learn more!
We interviewed the owner, Brian Heath, to get the inside scoop on the first two Heath Vineyards harvests in Paso Robles and the new Owner’s Club!
Today is Muscat day; hey, hey, hey! With a history stretching back millennia, the Muscat family of grapes is most likely the progenitor of all wine grapes. It has hundreds of clones, and the Roman scholar Pliny the Elder called it “uva apiana” (grape of the bees) due to its honey-like aromas. These hundreds of varieties range in color from white to almost black, and produce wines ranging in style from white to red, dry to very sweet, and are often fortified. The best variety for producing great wine is “Muscat Blanc a Petit Grains” (White Muscat with little berries). We know this grape as Muscat Canelli.