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Paul Qui & Giorgio Rivetti

Uchiko Chef Paul Qui & La Spinetta Winemaker Giorgio Rivetti

Uchiko Austin

All work and no play makes Keeper Team very dull! We are hard at work for our upcoming Somms Under Fire event in May, so when we were called to play with some of the wonderful wines from Giorgio Rivetti and Indigenous Selections, Keeper said “let the party begin”!  And what a better way to play than with pairing Italian wines with the incredibly creative dishes by Chef Paul Qui at Uchiko. What happens when you put beautiful wines with delectable dishes in the Uchiko private dining room? Answer: a perfect pairing! We would certainly play it all over again if we could, but now it’s your turn!  Look at the Wine List and Menu (with some pics) below and tell us what you think would be YOUR favorite wine and food pairings.  Consider this a Somms  Under Fire warm up round!

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After four days of voting we finally have our Winner of the 2011 Wine Ride, June Rodil of Congress Austin! With this honor June has now secured a spot to compete against two other sommeliers (to be determined) in Somms Under Fire in early May 2011 for the chance to win an amazing grand prize package including a trip to San Francisco and an internship in Burgundy, France from Selection Becky Wasserman. The dreary weather couldn’t stop June’s enthusiasm from selecting her perfect pairings.  June was even able to name an overall Best Pairing of the Day, which included the Chestnut Soup with Fried Peanuts at Foreign & Domestic paired with the 2007 Domaine Michel LaFarge Bourgogne Aligote Raisin Dores.  While all Somms showed incredible talent and educated the audience with enlightening food and wine pairing tidbits, June took the cake among voters as the most educational Somm of the Wine Ride with her secret weapon, “Jazz Hands”.  “I learned that you should listen to your senses and take a human approach when pairing food and wine…have fun and explore,” said one observer.  To see a recap of some of June’s pairing skills and to see her “Jazz Hands” in action, watch the videos posted below.

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From Pucks to Pairings

by Team Eric

Sommelier: Eric Hastings, Eddie V’s Prime Seafood Houston

Blogger: Kristi Willis, Austin Farm to Table

Photographer: Marshall Wright, Eat This Lens

Facilitweeter: Carla Crowner, Austin Urban Gardens

A group of Austin food writers and photographers are huddled around the back room of Uchiko on a rainy, chilly Sunday afternoon. You can feel a slight undercurrent of nervous energy as we wait to find out what is in store for us during today’s inaugural Keeper Collection Wine Ride.

Five Sommeliers from around the state are partnered with a team that includes a blogger, photographer and tweeter with the mission of traveling to four restaurants and food shops to pair food and wine, picking a perfect pair at each stop. The dishes and wines are a surprise, and only the Sommelier can taste, the rest of team relying on them to tell us what they are experiencing – an added challenge since we just met Eric Hastings, Sommelier of Eddie V’s Prime Seafood in Houston.

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What happens when five top Texas sommeliers team up with Austin photographers, bloggers, and tweeters for a high-speed afternoon of food and wine pairings for a Wine Ride? Well, we found out. Five teams were formed, four locations were chosen, wine and food options were selected, and off we went. Team June was led by June Rodil, Beverage Director of Congress Austin, with photographer Loren Root of Loren J. Root Photography, food blogger Lisa Lawless from lisa is cooking, and facilitweeter Megan Myers of Stetted. Each team traveled to the four chosen locations in a different order and was carefully timed for a brief ten minutes at each spot as the sommelier tasted, pondered, and shared insights before declaring a best pairing from two wines and multiple food options presented. The goal of the Wine Ride was to educate everyone in attendance about the wines and how the pairings were chosen. At the end of the race, each sommelier discussed their pairings and were videotaped. Voting for the sommelier and viewing of those video presentations is taking place at sommsunderfire.com. The winning sommelier will win a spot to compete in the first ever Somms Under Fire. The second part of this event concerns a blog post submitted by each team. The winning team’s photographer, blogger, and facilitweeter will each win an all-access media badge to Somms Under Fire. Voting for the Team Blog Post is found at keepercollection.com, and we hope your vote will be for Team June!

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Reluctantly crouched at the Uchiko line, engines pumping and thumping in time. The green light flashes, the glasses go up.  Sipping and tasting, they yearn for the cup. We’re going the distance.  We’re going for the #wineride.  Join Mark Sayre of the Trio at the Four Seasons, John Knox (@windaddict/@hopsafari), Rachelle King (@blindedbite), and myself (@misohungry) for a fabulous wine ride journey.  Photos and video by John Knox (@windaddict).

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Posted by Team Blogger, Adam Brower – Hungry In Houston.  Contributing Team Members include Sommelier Scott Barber, Photographer Jo Ann Santangelo, & Facilitweeter Marshall Jones – @WineFoodTX 

Wine makes food taste better.  Food makes wine taste better.  How do you find that perfect pair?  The 2011 Wine Ride – An exciting race of wine pairing challenges from the brilliant minds at Keeper Collection that offered the perfect opportunity to see just how this is done. This weekend, I participated in the first Wine Ride, a series of wine pairing challenges at different Austin locations,  and my team witnessed firsthand the thought and creativity that goes into every food and wine pairing.  Think of the Wine Ride as an “Amazing Race” for foodies.  Five teams, each consisting of a Sommelier (or Somm), photographer, tweeter (or facilitweeter), and blogger competed in the race. 

adam brower taking notes for the Wine Ride team 3 blogOur team consisted of our Somm, Scott Barber of Centennial Fine Wine & Spirits in Dallas; photographer, Jo Ann Santangelo, Jo Ann Santangelo Photography; facilitweeter, Marshall Jones, the ED of the Wine & Food Foundation of Texas (and our race driver for the day!); and me, Adam Brower, HungryinHouston.com blogger.  The race began with the reveal of our team’s 4 destinations: 

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Posted by Team Blogger, Jeremy Parzen – Do Bianchi.  Contributing Team Members include Sommelier Jason Huerta, Photographer Aimee Wenske, & Facilitweeter Kay Marley-Dilworth – @ATXFoodnews

Vote for the sommelier at here and vote for the Team Blog Post Voting here. The winning Somm will win a spot to compete in Somms Under Fire.

Photos by Aimee Wenske.

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As we prepare to wrap up 2010, the Keeper Team is taking a look back at the many great trips we’ve taken over the past twelve months – all with the goal of giving you, our faithful readers, firsthand accounts of the culinary scene around the globe.  Where in the World has Keeper been?  We’ve wined & dined in Piedmont, Barcelona, New York, Charleston, Burgundy, Austin… It’s been quite a year!  In fact, we’ve enjoyed so many outstanding meals that we didn’t have the opportunity to share them all with you at the time.  So, we’re closing out the year with a few “bonus posts” – stories of experiences so delicious that we’re still savoring them months later!  And, since this week marks the one-year anniversary of our memorable trip to Piedmont, our first flashback post recalls our bittersweet last day in this awesome corner of Italy.

Our last day made us sad; we didn’t want to leave Piedmont.  Where did we go for our last morning coffee and pastry? Barolo of course.  While so close to the fresh pasta shop that had been closed for several days in Barolo, we zipped by to find it finally open.  It was interesting to see that the pastamaker’s shop did not have as many different types of his own pastas as there were in the small pasticceria in the nearby town of La Morra!

It was time to go back to the Scavinos in Castiglione Falletto for a tour and tasting with winemaker Elisa Scavino and Director of Marketing, Weston Howard.  We tasted 2005 Carobric, Cannubi, Bric del Fiasc, and Bricco Ambrogio, along with a 2003 Rocche dell’Annunziata.  Then we tasted a vertical of Bric del Fiasc  2006, 2007, and 2008 with 2005 for comparison.  Elisa then offered a blind tasting of 2008 Bricco Ambrogio that had been aged with three different fermentation methods in casks  – one as fermented in old time casks, one in new casks for 7 days and then another in new casks for 23 days! What an interesting comparison.

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Ma Cuisine

Location: Passage Ste-Hélène, Beaune

Phone: 03-80-22-30-22

Cuisine: French

Price: Main courses 15€-28€ ($22-$41); fixed-price menu 20€ ($29)

Hours: Monday – Tuesday & Thursday – Friday noon-1:30pm & 7:30-9

Reservation: Recommended

Credit Cards Accepted: MC, V

As we make our plans to visit Burgundy, one of our first things that we want to know is whether Ma Cuisine will be open for us to dine.  The restaurant has varied days of operation, usually opening on average 4 days per week.  It is a MUST on our list, and we always look forward to the food and wine that Fabienne and Pierre will offer us, not to mention their smiling faces and warm welcome.

Ma Cuisine Sign

Ma Cuisine Sign

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By Eléonore, Keeper’s French Intern

Localisation: Passage Ste-Hélène, Beaune

Téléphone: 03-80-22-30-22

Cuisine: Française

Prix: Plats principaux 15€-28€ ($22-$41); menu 20 € (29 $)

Heures d’ouvertute: Lundi – Mardi & Jeudi – Vendredi midi-13h30 & 7h30

Réservation: Recommandé

Cartes de credit acceptées: MC, V

Comme nous faisons nos plans pour visiter la Bourgogne, l’une de nos premières choses que nous voulons savoir, c’est si Ma Cuisine sera ouvert pour nous pour diner.  Le restaurant a changer ses jours d’ouverture, d’habitude ouvert 4 jours par semaine. C’ est un incontournable sur notre liste, et nous avons toujours hâte de voir ce que Fabienne et Pierre vont nous offrir, sans parler de leurs visages souriants et l’accueil chaleureux.

Ma Cuisine

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