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Food

Sips and tips

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published May 2, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Carrie Pratt] A bottle of Sangre de Toro

Have a mug of Cinco de Mayo

If you want to play with your beer, a lime wedge in a bottle of Corona is not enough.

Mexican beer mixes with more machismo are called micheladas and may contain ice, lime, salt, pepper, tomato juice and a hat dance of salsa and hot sauces.

Miller Chill is a mild-mannered Chill Chelada, and other brews and mixes are on the way, but it's more fun to make your own.

Do go all-out. Chill a glass, salt the rim and fill the glass halfway up with ice cubes. Squeeze half a lime over ice, pour in a light beer.

There's more. Add a grind of fresh pepper, a dash each of hot sauce, Worcestershire and soy sauce and a splash of tomato juice or V-8.

Marketers venture into the wild

Gallo's inexpensive Redwood Creek brand from Frei Bros. sounds Californian. The engraving on the label looks like a forested stream in the Sierras, and some of the wines are from the Golden State. But the earthy pinot noir inside is honestly labeled as vin de pays d'oc. That'd be southern France, partner.

The airy spiel on the back label doesn't claim the $6 wine is made in California, only that it's great for a picnic or hike in the woods there.

The mad packagers won us over, however, with vintage posters and plastic corks waggishly deemed "survival tools." Our "Tool No. 7" was imprinted with a ruler for when the drinker needs to measure something about an inch or a few centimeters (corks are rather short). Good for map reading.

Big-shot martini boosts charity

Hey, big spender. Here's your chance to drop $1, 000 on a martini. The Royal Palm Martini at the Capital Grille is made with blackberry liqueur and Ciroc French grape vodka and has plenty of show-off value. The martini comes with a Lagos bracelet of diamond and green quartz and a $500 contribution to Share Our Strength's hunger fight.

The restaurant at Tampa's International Plaza and throughout the chain will offer the drink Friday to June 30.

Wine of the Week

Sangre de Toro, Torres, 2002

As the plastic bull trinket on the neck hints, the name means "blood of the bull" in Spanish. That's not to be confused with Concha y Toro wines from Chile or the iconic bull of Osborne sherry and port. Nor is it the same as Hungary's "bull's blood, " properly called egri bikaver.

The key here is Torres, which means tower and is also the prominent wine family of Catalonia in southeast Spain. Sangre de Toro is the Torres signature version of a classic Mediterranean blend of grenache and carignan.

Nothing light or rosy here although it drinks easily and smoothly. The color is rich and worn, a ruby set in old leather. Yet it's hearty and full in aroma of dark plums, prunes, licorice and smoke, thanks to Spanish accent and more darkling age than most $10 bottles. This calls for a stewpot over a campfire.

Price: approximately $10 at select liquor stores.

[Last modified May 3, 2007, 13:39:42]