Food 6
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009
A newspaper with issues
7-Eleven stores take a Big Gulp ... of wine MICHELLE LOCKE Associated Press Writer
What goes well with Slim Jims and Slurpees? 7-Eleven wine, naturally. The convenience store chain announced Tuesday it is getting into the value wine business, releasing two low-priced proprietary wines in the United States and Japan. Sold under the Yosemite Road label, the California wines, a chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, will retail for about $3.99, a price-point that has been doing well despite — or perhaps because of — the economic doldrums. “The consumer is really pinched as far as discretionary income. We’re seeing a lot of success in products that really resonate on a value basis,” said Kevin Elliott, senior vice president of merchandising and logistics of Dallas-based 7-Eleven, Inc. Private label products were strong sellers for many food retailers even before the economic crisis hit. Last year, 7-Eleven launched the 7-Select line of staples including cookies, candies, chips and beef jerky. Adding wine ties into two economy driven trends — a demand for affordability coupled with more people eating at home, said Thom Blischok, president, global innovation
and shopper marketing, at Chicago-based IRI, a market research company. “They’re changing the game at convenience store retailing. They’re really trying to take this back to neighborhood stores. They fulfill your most basic needs,” he said. Bargain wines have been booming as budgets shrank. Some brands, such as Two Buck Chuck (formally Charles Shaw but renamed in honor of the $1.99 price in California), have even attracted near cult following. Yosemite Road is 7-Eleven’s first valuepriced wines — the company earlier introduced Sonoma Crest and Thousand Oaks, which retail for about $10 — and it’s the company’s first global product launch. The wines will be released in 15,000 outlets, including 7-Eleven stores in the U.S. and Japan, as well as other subsidiaries of parent company Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., an $87.9 billion Tokyo-based corporation. The wines are being made by The Wine Group in California, which is the world’s third-largest wine producer and has a number of inexpensive brands including Corbett Canyon and Glen Ellen. The chardonnay is described as zesty with notes of apricot, peach and honey, and the cab as full-bodied with “juicy plum overtones."
Sour grapes invade plates SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER Associated Press Writer
FULTON A tart tonic of sour grape juice may be making its way into your glass — not to mention your salad dressing, pan sauces and stews. Long revered by European chefs for its earthy tartness — and known as the zing in Dijon mustard — verjus is the non-alcoholic, unfermented juice of sour grapes. It can be used instead of any acid and provide a base for cocktails as a stand-in for sour mix. “A lot of the older European guys knew about it but didn’t have a source for it in the United States,” says Jim Neal, who owns the Napa Valley grape-growing operation Fusion Foods and worked at Spago during the 1980s. Neal has produced verjus (pronounced VER-joo) as a pantry staple for the culinary pantheon in America for 15 years. Though some specialty markets carry his verjus, it can be found most often in the kitchens of The French Laundry, Per Se, Spago, Gary Danko and Daniel Boulud, among other fine
restaurants. “Wolfgang Puck told me that as a kid in Austria he had verjus, but he told me they used red verjus, so I’ve been making that,” Neal says of the Spago chef. Neal believes he was the first producer to grow grapes for the sole purpose of making the tart tonic in the U.S. — his Chariot Wines line came two years after his verjus was first produced. But soon, he’ll be joined by the Kendall-Jackson winery based in Fulton. In August, unripened chardonnay and pinot noir grapes were harvested from a Kendall-Jackson vineyard in Monterey to produce about 4,000 bottles of verjus to be sold in the spring at major retailers and supermarkets nationwide. Justin Wangler, executive chef at KendallJackson, started making his own verjus in the winery’s tasting kitchen four years ago, before consulting with the winemaster and developing a version that is a little bit sweeter than most.
White House to host episode of ‘Iron Chef America’ show THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden is about to become a culinary battlefield. The Food Network announced Wednesday that an episode of “Iron Chef America” will be taped at the White House featuring Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse. The three chefs, joined by White House chef Cristeta Comerford, will be welcomed by the first lady and allowed to use anything
found in the garden to help create their meals. The competition will then move back to the network’s Kitchen Stadium in New York, where Flay and Comerford will face-off against Batali and Lagasse to produce five dishes showcasing the ingredients. The judges will include chef Nigella Lawson, Olympic gold medalist Natalie Coughlin, and actress Jane Seymour. The episode airs Jan. 3.