Behind the Blog: Ithacork

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We're wrapping up the year on a festive note as we go "Behind the Blog" to meet Tom Mansell of Ithacork. Though he's relatively new to the local wine scene, his blog offers a fresh, fun, and scientific perspective that makes wine easy to understand and worth getting excited about.

In this interview, Tom takes Dave on a tasting tour of some of his favorite Finger Lakes wines, covering the best grapes of our region. With the enthusiastic mind of a chemist, he helps Dave learn something new about how wine works, how we taste, and generally makes wine less intimidating and easier to comprehend. This episode is 96 minutes long, but it's worth listening to every minute, a perfect download to listen to on your holiday travels. However you choose to listen, and no matter how much you already know about wine, you can still learn something from Tom.

This is also our last podcast of 2009. We'll be back next year with new episodes of our regular Eating Ithaca podcast. In the meantime, you can find updates by following us on Twitter and on Facebook. We'd also love to hear from you, so write a comment here on the blog, leave a message on our voicemail line 607-216-8624 (607-21-MUNCH), or send an email with your thoughts to: feedback [at] eatingithaca [dot] com.

If you really enjoy what we create here at Eating Ithaca, why not make a donation? Your support goes directly to helping us keep this blog and podcast running, and keep making it even better as we go. Just click on the Donate button on the main page and you'll be helping us keep Eating Ithaca!

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MORE ON TOM MANSELL:

• www.Ithacork.com
• Follow Tom Mansell on Twitter
• Tom's writing at The NY Cork Report
• Tom's writing at PalatePress.com

THE WINES WE TASTED:

• 2007 Shalestone Cabernet Franc (Seneca)
• 2007 Thirsty Owl Reserve Pinot Noir (Keuka)
• 2007 Heron Hill Old Vines Riesling (Keuka)
• 2007 Hermann J. Wiemer Dry Riesling Reserve (Seneca)
• * Tom's Wine of the Year:
  2008 Sheldrake Point Gewürztraminer (Cayuga)
• 2008 Fulkerson Winery Vidal Blanc Iced Wine (Seneca)

TOM ALSO RECOMMENDS:

• Heart & Hands Pinot Noir (Cayuga)
• 2007 Keuka Spring Vineyard Lemberger (Keuka)
• Tom's Lemberger Review on Ithacork

TOM'S PICKS FOR FINGER LAKES SPARKLING WINES:

• Heart & Hands Brut Rosé
• Damiani Wine Cellars Sparkling Wine
• Hermann J. Wiemer Cuvée Brut
• Château Frank Célèbre and Blanc de Noirs
• Bellwether Cider King Baldwin
• Eve's Cidery

ALSO DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Gary Vaynerchuk on Wine Library TV
• Riedel Glassware
• Jamie Goode's Wine Blog

Behind the Blog: Ithaca's Food Web

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We're taking a break from our regular podcast series to introduce you to some of the other local food bloggers who have been making names for themselves in the Ithaca food community. We've been lucky enough to get to know a few of these people over the past year and we're excited to share their stories with you.

This time we're talking with Alison Fromme, creator of the blog Ithaca's Food Web, which is a uniquely hyperlocal resource for news stories on food-related issues in Ithaca and Tompkins County. Alison writes about everything from local cooking trends and farming updates to broader topics of food safety and the ongoing debates over natural gas drilling and its potential effects on agriculture in our area. She also has the best calendar of food-related events in Ithaca we've seen.

If you missed it, you can also listen our first "Behind the Blog" podcast for our chat with Amy from the Eggs on Sunday cooking blog. We'll have another episode in this special "Behind the Blog" series in a couple weeks, as well as more ongoing updates on the local food scene here on our website. For continuing updates on everything we're doing, be sure to follow us on Twitter and on Facebook. We'd also love to hear from you directly: write a comment on the blog, leave a message on our voicemail line 607-216-8624 (607-21-MUNCH), or send an email with your thoughts to: feedback [at] eatingithaca [dot] com.

Have you taken our Eating Ithaca Audience Survey yet? We're taking time to make improvements to our site and we'd love to know what you think about what we're doing. It should only take 5 minutes for you to participate, and everyone who completes the survey is eligible to be entered in our drawing to win one of two $25 gift cards for Ithaca Coffee Company. The more people we hear from, the better we'll know what you enjoy about Eating Ithaca, so please CLICK HERE TO TAKE OUR SURVEY and thanks for your help!

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Links for this episode:

• Ithaca's Food Web
• Follow Ithaca's Food Web on Twitter
• Calendar of Events on Ithaca's Food Web
• Food topics on Ithaca's Food Web
• Natural Gas Drilling and Farms on Ithaca's Food Web
• Other writing by Alison Fromme
  
• Take the Eating Ithaca Audience Poll

Behind the Blog: Eggs on Sunday

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While we're taking a break from our regular podcast, we thought we'd introduce you to some of the other food bloggers who have recently added their unique points of view to the local food community. We'll be talking with three of these bloggers in these special episodes, each featuring a chat with someone we've come to know within the past year.

For this episode, we're talking with Amy Maltzan of the Eggs On Sunday cooking blog. Each of her posts features a great recipe and her personal tips on why you should make it and how, along with some gorgeous photos of the results. She's passionate about cooking with local, seasonal ingredients, and not afraid to share her cooking and baking struggles as well as her triumphs. It was an enlightening conversation that we hope will inspire you to check out her blog and get cooking!

We'll have another episode in this special "Behind the Blog" series in a couple weeks, as well as some other special material here on our website. For continuing updates on everything we're doing, be sure to follow us on Twitter and on Facebook. We'd also love to hear from you directly: write a comment on the blog, leave a message on our voicemail line 607-216-8624 (607-21-MUNCH), or send an email with your thoughts to: feedback [at] eatingithaca [dot] com.

If you really enjoy what we create here at Eating Ithaca, why not make a donation? Your support goes directly to helping us keep this blog and podcast running, and keep making it even better as we go. Just click on the Donate button on the main page and you'll be helping us keep Eating Ithaca!

Click Play to Listen to This Episode


Links for this episode:

• Eggs On Sunday
• Follow Eggs On Sunday on Twitter
• Amy's Apple "Cup Pies" recipe
• World Peace Cookies
• Pumpkin Scones

Amy's Cookbook Recommendations:

• The Art of Simple Food
  by Alice Waters
• Baking: From My Home to Yours
  by Dorie Greenspan
• The Victory Garden Cookbook
  by Marian Morash
• Ratio
  by Michael Ruhlman

Amy's Cooking Blog Recommendations:

• 101 Cookbooks
• Smitten Kitchen
  
• Orangette
• Use Real Butter
• The Kitchen Sink