Hello, friends…Here’s this week’s Sunday Seven in wine, food, lifestyle, design and travel!
Where Can I Find the World’s Oldest Wine?
Where is wine from? Where were the first grapes cultivated, pressed, and fermented? Of the many contenders for that distinction, these six places are consistently among the most frequently cited: Georgia, Armenia, Greece, Lebanon, Sicily and Turkey. These places still produce wine, too. WSJ recommends bottles from each with both modern appeal and deep historical resonance. I can stand behind the recommendation from Greece – 2017 Santorini Volcanic Terroir Assyrtiko is a great spring/ summer drink!
Spring Pasta Love
I love a fresh pasta dish! This link has a selection of spring pasta recipes with local, seasonal ingredients – think peas, favas, fresh herbs, and asparagus. Pictured is the Lemony Pasta With Zucchini and Fresh Herbs. I’m definitely planning on making a couple of these this week!
Can This Hotel Make Times Square Cool?
Everyone knows Times Square is a crowded, claustrophobic tourist trap. But with the opening of Ian Schrager’s second Edition hotel in NYC, that might soon change. The Times Square Edition is a 452-key property and the first of its caliber in the neighborhood. Schraeger thinks this is a paradigm shift for the area, as there has never been a luxury hotel like this in Times Square. Time will tell.
Game-Changing App for Art Lovers
In the world of art, Artsy identified a real need to better integrate the online and in-person experience. Their City Guide app, released this week, makees discovering nearby art and design exhibitions much easier. Using GPS, the feature shows users a bird’s-eye view of all of the shows on view nearby, inviting them to save them to a personalized map. And if the user already has a profile with Artsy, a tailored list of shows that feature their previously saved artists appears. Visitors can quickly pull up images of the artists’ work, their biography, exhibition history, and more, in addition to purchasing directly through the app.
Look at Those Legs
Despite what many people think, the legs of a wine have nothing to do with the quality of a wine nor can they give you a clue as to what you’re drinking. Instead, they actually stem from the alcohol in wine, so the one thing you can occasionally glean from these tears is whether your wine is on the stronger side. But just because the legs aren’t indicative of quality doesn’t mean they aren’t still interesting. Scientists have dedicated a surprising amount of time analyzing and explaining this phenomenon and this article discusses a breakthrough around “wine legs” that came out of a recent study.
Old Airport, New Design
When the city of Chicago determined to build a major expansion of O’Hare Airport by adding a new Global Terminal, it launched an international competition, soliciting expertise from around the world. The winner was just announced as Studio ORD. Set to break ground in 2023, the project will add a 2.2 million-square-foot Global Terminal and Concourse—at a cost of $2.2 billion. The designers laid out the terminal as a Y shape. This will not only maximize runway adjacency, but it also references Chicago’s identity. When seen from above, the shape resembles Chicago’s official symbol, the Y shape of the Chicago River!
Breaking it Down: Organic vs. Biodynamic vs. Natural Wine
Interest in organic, biodynamic, and natural wines is at an all-time peak. But what do those terms really mean? This article breaks down the different between them and recommends bottles fitting each category. A quick primer:
- Organic: What’s actually most crucial for anyone concerned with chemicals in their glass is that the vineyard is farmed using organic practices: no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers, and no herbicides.
- Biodynamic: This approach refers to the grape-growing method derived from the writings of the spiritual philosopher Rudolf Steiner. Biodynamics believe that farming can be attuned to the spiritual forces of the cosmos, so for example, this might mean linking harvesting to the phases of the moon.
- Natural: The hot-button wine term of the moment, “natural wine,” has no legal definition but broadly refers to wines made without adding or subtracting anything in the cellar—no additives, no chemicals, no sulfur, no oak character from barrels, no filtering, no cultured yeasts.
I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing rest of your weekend!
xx—BB
Great post 😁