Slow Down for Slow Wine and Slow Food #YourTurnChallenge

What do you do well?

In addition to being a reasonably good writer and poet and teacher of writing, I am passionate and knowledgeable about the environment, and about food and wine, and about the relationship between how we eat and drink and the land.

So if there’s one thing we do well around here, whether we are at home, or camping, or staying in a cabin in the mountains, it’s eat and drink. Well. Very well. We eat better than what most people get at a restaurant. So what do I do well? I know how to put a meal together so that all the courses marry. And I know which wines to choose to make the meal really work.

 

We ascribe to the The Slow Food and Slow Wine movement which has a philosophy about consumption: instead of FAST FOOD that is consuming the planet and our resources FAST, let’s SLOW down!

Participants in the Slow Food Movement subscribe to farmer poet Wendell Berry’s notion that ‘eating is an agricultural act’, and suggest that what follows that is the idea that producing food must be considered a ‘gastronomic act’.

According to the Slow Food website,

Slow Food is…a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.

The Slow Food Manifesto highlights the importance of  quality which is obtained by producing and creating food by processes that are Good, Clean and Fair:

• GOOD: quality, flavorsome and healthy food

• CLEAN: production that does not harm the environment

• FAIR: accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for producers

My friend Marialyce is part of a “Slow Food Sundays” group in LA that gets together monthly to cook together around a particular theme. We found that savoring the process as much as the product, the company and the sharing and the teaching and learning is as important as sitting down together to break bread and drink wine.

Slow Food was created in Italy in 1986 after a “demonstration on the intended site of a McDonald’s at the Spanish Steps in Rome.” Since then, the movement advocates “a comprehensive approach to food that recognizes the strong connections between plate, planet, people, politics and culture.”

So what do you get when you apply the Slow Food philosophy to wine? Small-scale winemakers working the land using traditional techniques with respect for the environment and terroir, while safeguarding the incredible biodiversity of grape varieties.

Yes, Virginia, there are more white wines in the world than chardonnay, Sauvignon blanc, and Riesling. And you should give them a swirl, sniff, and sip!

If you live in the LA area, and you’d like to discover Slow Wine, join me on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 from 6 to 8:30 PM at a Slow Wine wine tasting.

If you’re in SF, the event is Th. Jan. 29, and then the show goes to NYC Mon. Feb. 2

Presented by Slow Food International and Los Angeles Wine Tasting, the event features more than 50 Slow Wine producers from 15 Italian wine regions with the opportunity to discover and taste over 100 wines. The event is being held at The Taglyan Complex 1201 Vine Street Los Angele,s, CA 90038.

With the purchase of every $60 ticket (or less! see discount codes below), attendees receive a complimentary copy of THE SLOW WINE GUIDE 4th edition in addition to the opportunity to discover and taste over 100 wines from more than 300 of the best wineries, the majority which have the Snail or the Slow Wine symbol indicating certified organic and biodynamic:

Organizers Slow Food International and Los Angeles Wine Tasting say that the

“Slow Wine Guide critiques wine through the perspective of the Slow Food philosophy giving prominence to small-scale wine makers who are using traditional techniques, working with respect for the environment and terroir, and safeguarding the incredible biodiversity of grape varieties that are part of Italy’s heritage.  Slow Wine is the only Italian wine guide that visits all of the wine makers included in the guide, in their vineyards.” Reviews of the 8,400 wines  in the book include approaches used in the vineyard and cellar of more than 1,800 wineries.

If you would like a copy of the Slow Wine Guide ($25 value) and the opportunity to taste a broad selection of Italian wines, buy your tickets NOW and save $10 with the code LAWineTasting or $15 with the code WINEPREDATOR. CLICK HERE for DISCOUNTED TICKETS which you must purchase in advance: No Tickets at the door. Parking is available, with mandatory valet, at the Taglyan Complex for a fee of $8.00.

And if you don’t live in the LA, SF or NYC area? Slow down, and take the time to make a meal. There are a multitude of sites to teach you how. Then, once dinner is cooked, sit down with the media off, the candles lit, and enjoy a meal with a loved one or simply stare out the window or at a candle while enjoying a glass of “slow wine.”

PS Today is the fourth day of the seven day #yourturnchallenge to blog every day for a week. Read more about the #YourTurnChallenge. If you choose to join the #YourTurnCenge, you can write about anything but preferably not anything too trivial. Here are Daily Questions which you can use for prompts. Or not.