Winebits 760: Wine production, wineburgers, Diana Kennedy

This week’s wine news: Bordeaux boss won’t pull vines, plus wineburgers and Diana Kennedy dies

• No vine pulling: The French have been arguing about pulling grapevines to cut production in the face of decreased demand for what seems like decades. The theory is that if producers have less grapes to make wine with, supply and demand will even out and producers will make more money. But the new head of a powerful Bordeaux trade group says no more vine pulling – otherwise, how will the the region be able to make affordable wines? The issue is quite complex, but the story from Wine-Searcher does a fine job of detailing the nuances, as well as the incredibly goofy economics of the post-modern wine business.

• What’s a wineburger? That’s the question that Robert Pela asks in the Phoenix New Times. “Hamburgers cooked in red wine turn up from time to time on restaurant menus here and abroad, but a lot less often than one would expect. … Phoenix, on the other hand, has two wineburger joints. … But how they got here in the first place, and where they got the recipe for their namesake sandwich, is cloaked in mystery.” Which makes sense — beef in red wine is the legendary Boeuf Bourguignon, but in ground beef? Pela tells the story, tastes the food, and answers some, if not all, of the questions.

• Diana Kennedy, 1923-2022: Diana Kennedy wasn’t known for wine, but someone who was as important to food as she was deserves a mention here. Plus, Kennedy was one of the great interviews of my career – I had to phone a post office in rural Mexico at a certain time to talk to her. Kennedy, who died over the weekend, showed the world there was more to Mexican cuisine than fast food tacos – she ”unfurled an ornate culinary tapestry, exploring the distinctly regional nature of Mexican cooking, defined, like the cuisines of Italy and China, by local geography, climate and ingredients.” (I have been pickling jalapenos using her technique for years). Kennedy, in our talk for a story for a U.S. restaurant magazine, was blunt, pleasant, and to the point. And she was more than candid about the abysmal state of Mexican cooking in the U.S. and the restaurants that served it – no one was spared.