Tea at Trianon: Wine and Hamburgers

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Wine and Hamburgers

There's a wine for everything. From Food and Wine:

What wines goes best with a burger? The internet trolls will gleefully pile on with “wine sucks; drink a beer” comments, but hey, who wants advice from a troll? Let’s suppose you simply love burgers and love wine: That’s about a bazillion of us right there. Let’s suppose you also want your wine and your burger to taste mind-blowingly great together, instead of just really, really good. See? Now even the trolls are thinking, “yum.”

However, not all burgers are created equal. The crucial thing to consider when it comes to pairing them with wine, even more than flavor, is fat. The mouth-coating lusciousness of a Pat LaFrieda ground chuck–brisket–short rib burger—with its 17 grams of fat—asks for a very different wine than a vegan Boca Burger and its abstemious 1/2 gram. Both may go great with a red, but a burger like LaFrieda’s—rich and beefy—wants some oomph: big flavors, powerful tannins, structure (French Malbecs, Italian Aglianicos, Bordeaux-style blends). The Boca prefers lighter, more delicate wines: Pinot, Barbera, and so on. So with that in mind, here’s a by-the-richness guide to some perfect burger pairings. (Read more.)