An upcoming showcase will bring together three female performers of varying backgrounds for an evening of community and camaraderie. Each artist will perform for 45 minutes, but the goal of the evening goes beyond music. The event is the first of an envisioned series aiming to celebrate the quality of women’s talent in the region.
Organizers Audrey Drake and Pam McCann hope that Women of Soul will foster a wide range of connections between the musicians and their audience. Drake called the Jan. 11 concert at Pembroke City Limits a “soft launch” in a recent phone interview, adding that the envisioned the series will incorporate storytelling, insights and more along with songs.
“It will include what we’re writing, what we’re working on, possibly collaborations and passion projects,” Drake said. “We want to give a broader perspective of what each person is offering, and what we bring to our music.” Sophie Markey will kick things off, followed by Katie Dobbins. Then Drake, with McCann playing drums, will close the evening.
Drake and McCann conceived the series almost a year ago and revisited the idea many times over the past months.
“I’d say to Pam, ‘When and how is it going to happen? Do we have to have a big plan?’ Then a couple weeks ago I was like, we’re just doing it.” PCL owner Rob Azevedo was on board, having seen Drake and Dobbins perform together there in December. “He’s amazing, he does so much good work in the community, and for all musicians, so let’s jump in.”
Azevedo opened the listening room and tavern, which offers food from Sleazy Vegan, last summer. The Women of Soul event is consistent with his vision for the venue, he said by text recently. “We have such a swath of super talented female performers in our camp,” he wrote. “That is one of the things I am so proud of since we started.”
McCann is both a singing drummer and a visual artist. She’s worked professionally since age 16, including touring with Jonathan Edwards and opening for The Band, and released a solo album, Kinder Enemies. In an email she described her involvement in Women of Soul and praised her musical partner.
“This project is near and dear to me especially as it is in alliance with the multi-talented Audrey Drake,” she wrote. “The idea behind this gathering of curated female artists is to embrace women who are not only musicians but multi-disciplined artists, healers and messengers. A melting pot of soulful offerings.”
An information table at the PCL show will offer artist merchandise and information on wellness services for women, and each performer will be able to engage with audience members individually, Drake said. “There’s music, but what else can we talk about and connect with people on, to really showcase the creative force of women in all aspects of what we do in our lives?”
Drake is involved with a few other efforts, including a Sacred Song event on Jan. 18 at the Gathering Place in Keene. “It’s a combination of singing and what’s being called sound bath,” she said of the singalong gathering. “In some traditions it’s called kirtan; how I do it is a little different. There are more songs that people might be more familiar with.”\
Beyond that, Drake is working on a follow-up to her 2020 album, The Next Best Thing. Her musical influences include Patty Griffin and Lori McKenna, and similar singer-songwriters. “Because their music is so beautiful and it’s so simple and it’s so authentic,” she said. “It’s written from their hearts, and it’s received in people’s hearts.”
Admission to the first Women of Soul event is free. Drake and McCann hope to do five more in 2025, and build their spark into a fire of unity and common purpose.
“You can tell this is kind of playing out in my head at the moment,” she said. “It’s definitely in its infancy, but I’m looking forward to this year.”
Women of Soul – Audrey Drake, Katie Dobbins and Sophie Markey When: Saturday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Pembroke More: facebook.com/audreyjdrake
Cousins visit Poland in a trip meant to remember their grandmother and reconnect with each other in A Real Pain, a sweet, kind, frequently heartbreaking comedy written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.
Comedy? I mean, it’s a movie about two grief-stricken men from a Jewish American family, one who has just suffered a mental health crisis, engaging in a Holocaust-centered tour of Poland. But I also laughed out loud at some truly funny, well-observed moments so — comedy like that.
David Kaplan (Eisenberg) is married with a demanding job and a young son but he has cleared his schedule to spend a week in Poland in honor of his recently deceased grandmother, who grew up there and survived Nazi concentration camps during the war before coming to America. He is also there for Benji (Kieran Culkin), his cousin who, even before we know all the particulars, we can feel that David is deeply worried about. Benji is, as he later says, someone who lights up a room with his charm only to later poop all over everything. Almost exactly the same age as David, Benji is clearly bright and exuding a desire for connection at all moments. He is also, it’s strongly implied, directionless, erratic and spends most of his time getting high.
The trip is a structured tour with non-Jewish, British leader James (Will Sharpe) walking through the history and tragedy of Jewish Poland with retired American couple Mark (Daniel Oreskes), whose Jewish family immigrated from Poland decades before the war, and his wife Diane (Liza Sadovy); the recently divorced New Yorker Marcia (a luminous Jennifer Grey), whose mother was a survivor, and Eloge (Kurt Egyiawan), a survivor of Rwandan genocide who converted to Judaism. Benji becomes something of the active ingredient in the tour mix — spurring fun, spurring introspection, causing chaos.
Culkin makes need pour out of Benji just as Eisenberg makes worry and anxiety radiate from David. Benji and David’s relationship, one that was clearly brotherly in their youth, is the warm center of this movie. They love each other intensely, just as they intensely want to smack each other. Everything about it feels genuine, which makes their actions — from their big outbursts to their moments of side-eye — feel real and lived in. When Benji rants at a tour dinner, for example, it doesn’t feel stagey, it feels awkward and sad and the responses by the other tour participants give you a deeper window into each of their characters. Excellent performances all the way around in this short, bittersweet movie that is well worth a watch. A Available for purchase.
Nightbitch (R)
Being a mom to a young son breaks Amy Adams’ brain — relatable — in the light-horror comedy Nightbitch.
Previously a visual artist, Adams’ character, who is just called Mother in IMDb, now spends her days caring for her son, who I think is just called Baby (Arleigh Snowden and Emmett Snowden). He’s sort-of early preschool age — still young enough to injure himself just toddlering through life but old enough to express opinions in words about his food or his unwillingness to go to sleep. Her husband, Scoot McNairy — whose character is called “Husband” — works a job that frequently takes him away on work trips, so not only is she with her son all day but frequently all day and all night, a job she can never clock out of. She loves her son intensely but she would also like to shower more than once a week and laughs with a kind of bitter, gleeful horror at the unflattering things she sees in the mirror: wrinkles, gray hair, facial hair, a patch of fur on her back, longer pointy-er teeth, maybe a tail? As she sort of spirals with her own identity — is she even an artist any more? — she is also sort of fascinated with this other thing she might be turning into, something decidedly more primal, more canine.
Nightbitch, based on the book by Rachel Yoder that is in my to-read pile (and thus I’m judging the movie entirely as its own thing), feels like it is “in conversation,” to quote one of Adams’ snooty art friends, with Tully, the Diablo Cody-penned movie about the brain-altering effects of motherhood. In Tully, Charlize Theron’s mother character is dealing with something like postpartum depression shortly after having a baby. Here, it’s the period when Baby has become just enough of an independent person to give Adams the space to wonder what the hell is happening to herself. She is initially prickly toward a group of moms with similar-aged kids — seeing only their “Wheels on the Bus” exteriors and not the thickets of rage, confusion and wildness that is underneath for them as well. She is also awkward around her former art friends; her kid-talk is silly or sad to them, at least that’s what she’s taking from their reactions. What to do with all of that white-hot frustration? Well, some of it gets thrown at clueless Scoot, who really does an excellent job crafting a character that is both basically a nice guy and also has no idea what his wife is going through. And maybe some of it is magical realism-ing Adams into a dog, a dog whose nighttime activities may or may not be resulting in the bodies of small animals being left at her doorstep.
I think Marielle Heller, who adapted and directed this movie, leaves a lot of the dog stuff for you to do with what you want. Are you watching Adams metaphorically succumb to her more feral instincts or is she a woman actually werewolfing out? “Yes” is a perfectly fine answer to me. And on that level, the alt-reality inner-is-outer level, I think Adams does a good job of finding the darkness and the humor of this very specific slice of the “longest shortest time” to borrow the name of a parenting podcast. She captures the blend of screaming-into-the-void and this-is-the-best-thing-ever really well and gives herself over to its body horror. This is a fun movie that takes its “weird places a mom can go after two glasses of wine” emotions seriously but isn’t self-serious. B+ Streaming on Hulu.
Emilia Pérez (R)
A Mexican cartel boss fakes her death and tries to become a sort of hero of the people while also hiding a secret from her wife and children in the high-drama musical Emilia Pérez, the winner of four awards at the recent Golden Globes.
Karla Sofía Gascón plays the titular character who begins the story living as Juan Manitas del Monte, the cartel boss whose violent crime-world life won’t allow for living as her true female self. She feels her only way to transition fully and live publicly as a woman is to “kill” Manitas — and even convince her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and two sons of this death. I’ve read criticisms by trans writers about how all of this is presented and how the movie treats both her gender-affirming surgery and her relationship to her family. These criticisms seem fair (as do criticisms of the cartoonish way Mexico is presented) and it feels worthwhile to consider the issues people have with this movie, especially for its handling of a trans character (who is played by a trans actress). The movie (and its whole awards deal) can feel a little like it’s patting itself on the back without seeing some of its problems.
I also don’t find this movie to be particularly grounded in reality on any level, and not just because lawyer Zoe Saldaña occasionally breaks into song. Rita Mora Castro (Saldaña, who won one of those Globes) is a talented lawyer in Mexico who sings that her gender and her skin color make it hard for her to live her ambitions. Because Manitas could see Rita’s talent propping up her empty-suit boss, Manitas hires (after first kidnapping) Rita to manage all the legalities of her transition, from moving money around to set Jessi and the boys up for a comfortable life in Switzerland to finding a doctor willing to do what appears to be full body surgery all at once in semi-secret. After cashing the check for that service and building a new life in London, Rita is scared when she realizes the Mexican woman she seems to just run into at a dinner party four years later is Emilia. Are you here to tie up loose ends, Rita sings. Emilia clarifies that her plan is not murder but getting her sons back. She wants to pose as a long-lost cousin of Manitas who Jessi and the boys will move in with back in Mexico.
Which they do? Despite Jessi not really wanting to? And meanwhile Emilia becomes a sort of patron saint of families who are looking for missing loved ones? She uses Manitas’ old criminal contacts to find out — consequence-free I guess? or why would they help her? — where victims have been buried to give people closure. The big public splash she makes for the cause would seem to be at odds with her fear of being “found out” but like I said, this isn’t a movie that’s grounded in any kind of realism.
Here’s the thing, though, in spite of all the “really?” story beats and questionable choices, I can’t entirely discount this movie. It’s sort of a dizzy, colorful, tragic fantasy story — very primary colors in its opinions and not all that thoughtful about its three female characters (joined in the third act by Adriana Paz as an abused wife delighted to learn that she is in fact a widow who then becomes the girlfriend of Emilia). It’s kind of a mess and kind of fascinating and features a definitely interesting performance from Gascón, more for what she’s doing than for the words on the page, and a big-swing performance by Saldaña. B- Streaming on Netflix.
How one baker focuses on the grains for better baking
Michael Williams is getting closer to baking his perfect loaf of bread.
Williams, co-owner and bread baker for Eden’s Table Farm in Dunbarton, has spent the past couple of years polishing his bread game.
“I got exposed to great bread when I went to Germany,” he said, “to flour that was local and freshly milled, and bread that was made with a natural starter. That was what was most easily available in the bakery in our tiny little 1,100-person village. I’ve been chasing that bread ever since; every refinement has been getting me closer to that experience.”
Williams and his wife, Addie Leader-Zavos, combine their passion for growing fresh, organic produce and locally made artisanal foods. While Leader-Zavos bakes virtually everything else, Williams is in charge of the bread.
The journey toward the very best bread takes the form of tiny, incremental steps, but he sees constant progress. “The best example I can give you is actually the Swedish rye. I made that for Addie on our second date. And I was using King Arthur flour, then I was using a sifted rice flour. I was using molasses instead of beet syrup, but now I’m using a Swedish baking syrup that’s beet-based. Over time, I’ve whittled it down to the essentials and getting the absolute best ingredients I can. The pursuit of that led me to constantly question, ‘Where is this coming from? How is it being processed?’ I ask that over and over and over again.”
Because his platonic ideal of a loaf of bread has very few ingredients — flour, salt, a natural sourdough starter, something to help feed that starter (that’s where the Swedish baking syrup comes in), and water — Williams has put more thought into the flour he uses than most people put into planning their retirement.
“I wanted flour that was what I refer to as ‘live flour.’ It has never been separated, and it has never been irradiated. Industrial flour is almost always separated. It is sifted hot, or it is milled hot, separated into its component parts and the germ is irradiated to denature volatile oils. When they oxidize, they become rancid. It’s a very distinct odor and it’s very unpleasant. It totally makes sense why they would not want that in their product going out into the world but unfortunately most of the nutrition is in those oils, because the best nutrition in the grain is fat-soluble. So not only that, but that’s where all the flavor is. That’s where all those aromatic esters and aldehydes are, and they get destroyed by the same process that denatures those easily oxidized oils.”
Once Williams had defined what he was looking for in a bread flour, he started using flour that was shipped from a regional mill in South Carolina. Eventually he found a mill closer to home. “We found a couple of different options, and the one that really struck us was this place in Cambridge [Massachusetts] called Elmendorf Baking Supplies. They have a mill, and they mill for themselves and for some other people. And so we started ordering from them. They source their grain regionally from small regenerative farms. They work with private grains. They work with farms in New York and Maine and Massachusetts. The step we took here, we were getting bread flour from a variety of wheat called Glenthat is 15 and a half percent protein, which is astronomically high.”
(As a point of reference, King Arthur’s bread flour, which has an excellent reputation, has a protein content of 12.7 percent. The amount of protein in a flour determines how well a baker can develop gluten, the elastic material that gives a loaf of bread a chewy texture and traps carbon dioxide to make it puff up as it bakes.)
Williams uses a mixture of the Glen flour and rye flour to make his Swedish rye bread. “One of the tricky things about baking with rye flour is that rye notoriously destroys gluten structures,” he said. “So rye has almost no protein in it. This rye bread is only like 31 percent rye. It’s not a high rye, but the blend really does a great job of holding up with that rye in it.”
But for Williams, this flour is just one more step toward a truly great bread. Eventually, he said, he and his wife would like to mill their own flour. “It’s a process of evolution,” he summed up, “First the flour, then the mill, then a wood-fired oven, because I would much rather bake bread on a wood fire.”
Bread The farm stand at Eden’s Table Farm (240 Stark Highway North, Dunbarton, 774-1811, edenstablefarm.square.site) is closed until Feb 5. Hours when it reopens will be Wedensday-Friday 1-7pm and Saturdays from 9am-5pm.
Here’s an idea for a first date: Break some glass. Then gather it up and fuse it into a work of art. It’s a great way to loosen up and find a creative impulse. That’s the idea at Art Escape, a Laconia walk-in studio offering everything from shattered glass and glass-blowing classes to working a pottery wheel, clay sculpture, ceramics and splatter painting.
Inviting your Bumble match to spin a clay bowl or paint and fire a ceramic fish not only has happened at Art Escape, but one such meetup led to an in-studio marriage proposal, owner Jean Cox recalled recently. Not only that; the couple later returned to celebrate their anniversary.
“This was his date’s favorite place to go,” she said. “He set it up with us ahead of time, so when she was in a paint class he walked in and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ We got it on video, it was very cool. Then they came back a year later to say, ‘Hey, we’re still married here.’”
Making art and memories is Art Escape’s mission. Cox and her husband, both Air Force veterans, opened a location near Laconia High School in 2007, and moved to Union Avenue 10 years later. The couple wanted a family-friendly studio for artistic creation, as existing spaces catered primarily to adults.
It’s become an intergenerational bridge, much to Cox’s delight.
“I’ve got a grandmother painting with her two grandkids right now,” she said. “It’s a way not only to spend time with the family, but one of the kids has a little ceramic axolotl she’s painting. Ten years from now they’ll look at it and remember doing it with their grandmother.”
Another popular attraction at Art Escape is the Splatter Room, where customers put on ponchos and shoe covers, then get their colors and a paint blaster with cups of paint. They stick the blaster in the cup, suck it up and spray it, not always aiming at a canvas. Jackson Pollock would likely be shocked, but it’s a great place to let off steam.
“You’re painting either a canvas or a shirt,” Cox said. “You literally throw paint at each other, or you throw paint at the canvas. It’s almost like family therapy if you come in with your kids … I mean, who doesn’t want to throw paint at their parents?”
When it debuted, Cox brought her two young sons in to test it out. “My son took a whole bottle of paint and threw it at me, and I was like, oh, this is how it’s going to go. We’re in there for I don’t know how long, and next thing you know, he’s like, ‘Gosh, mom, we never decorated our canvas.’ I’m like, ‘Well, let’s throw some paint on that.’”
It’s also a fun place for adults to unwind. Customers are allowed to bring food and beverages.
“Sometimes it’s a group of girls that just needs time off, since they work all week long. They just come in and hang out and bring wine. I had a group of them the other day. They brought a little charcuterie board, and wine, and stuff like that,” Cox said.
One thing it isn’t is a place for serious artists to work toward having a gallery someday.
“It’s not like fine art, it’s fun art, it’s a place to come with your grandkids or your girlfriends,” Cox said, while stressing that some of the higher-level classes that may seem daunting are surprisingly accessible.
“Everybody walks in thinking, I can’t do this, my project’s not going to look like hers, and when they leave, half the time, they’re better than mine,” she said. “They can customize them, and the projects come out so amazing. It’s nice that they’re going home with something that they can be proud of.”n front of a piece of artwork and whether you love it, or you don’t get it, or you hate it, you still have an opinion about it. It’s really interesting to me that people can get together and celebrate each other, discuss artwork, see where those ideas would come from. Part of my fun and part of my joy is making a space that’s really approachable and that is very welcoming…. So as much as it’s an experiment to showcase the artist, I also want to make sure that the patrons feel really supported and want to come in and check out and see what’s going on at See Saw,” Regan said.
Art Escape Where: 636 Union Ave., Laconia More: artescape.com
New Hampshire’s biggest wine event, New Hampshire Wine Week, will take place from Jan. 17 through Jan. 23, culminating in the New England Wine Spectacular, a wine expo featuring more than 1,700 different wines from around the world. According to Justin Gunter, a wine specialist with the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, New Hampshire’s influence in the wine industry has grown continually over the past 20 years.
“The first Winter Wine Spectacular took place with a few winemakers sitting around a kitchen table and some dining,” Gunter said. “And it’s grown to be one of the largest wine events in New England. We’ve got an amazing array of winemakers that are coming here to New Hampshire. What the [Liquor] Commission has done over the course of the past 20 years has not only strengthened its wine offerings for consumers but, you know, really caught the attention of the entire wine industry.”
According to Gunter, over the course of New Hampshire Wine Week, wine representatives will make appearances throughout the state, building to two central events.
“We have winemakers coming from all over the world — winemakers, wine personalities, owners, people from all aspects of winery coming to our state to visit for Wine Week. They’ll be crisscrossing the state that week for wine dinners and bottle signings and two really great signature events: the Viva la France event as well as the Winter Wine Spectacular. So this is really a story about the evolution of not only this event and the growth of the event but also the state of New Hampshire’s prominence in the world of wine and the offerings that we’re able to provide to consumers.”
One of the goals of Wine Week is to expose wine enthusiasts to as large a variety of wines as possible. There will be offerings from huge, well-established producers and from small family-owned vineyards. “For instance,” Gunter said, “Randy Ullom of Jackson Family Wines will be at our event. He’s an icon in the industry, the head winemaker for Kendall-Jackson Wines, a very big name in the industry. He’ll be working directly with his table, which will have the Jackson family wines along with a couple of side projects that the Jackson family wines are doing that he’s heading as well. So you’ve got somebody like that who is taking time out of his schedule, probably with worldwide demands. And then you’ve got folks like Maria Helm Sinskey from Robert Sinskey Vineyards, who’s been coming here for decades. And they’ve got a much smaller winery but a really high-quality product. The thing to note is that they’re head winemakers. They’re involved in the industry; they’re involved in their wineries. These people have their hands in the dirt. They’re farmers. They’re heavily involved in every aspect of wine. Everybody who comes to this event will have an opportunity to get to speak with them and talk to them about their wine specifically and really pick their brains and celebrate wine.”
Despite the level of expertise on tap at the Wine Week events, Gunter said they are for wine enthusiasts of all levels of experience.
“These events are perfect for someone just getting to know wines all the way up to an aficionado,” he said. “These winemakers are so passionate about what they do, and the products that they make, they’re more than happy to guide you and ask you [about] the types you know and the flavor profiles you like. It really offers something for anybody at any end of the spectrum.”
The Wine Spectacular will fill a lot of floor space. “There’s actually two rooms that we’ve used for the past few years,” Gunter said. “There’s one room that is the primary expo that will have the vast majority of the tables. There are more than 200 tables of wines to choose from with up to 12 wines per table. That’s how we can get so many wines available for people to try. We also have the Bellman Cellar Select Room, which is for some more refined, more higher-end offerings. And there’s about 40 tables in that room as well. Along with that, we have food that will be prepared by local restaurants. And ultimately it all comes back to this, it’s really all garnered in passion. Every one of these people that you will meet, it’s not about explaining nuances of wine; it’s a passion for the product.”
Richard Jacob is an account manager with Vinilandia NH, a wine import company in Portsmouth focusing on niche, organic, family-owned and generational vineyards around the world. In his view, New Hampshire Wine Week is a way for wine professionals and enthusiasts to keep up with what is available in a constantly changing wine landscape.
“It’s a chance for distributors in the area that work with the Liquor Commission to get an opportunity to showcase some of their products,” Jacob said. “It’s really exciting because the wine in people’s portfolios are constantly changing, so it’s important that these events happen so people can get a fresh taste of the new vintages or the newest wines that have been added to the state. It’s a good opportunity for people to learn and see the types of wines that are around the corner.”
Jacob clarified the term “portfolio.” “The portfolio is pretty much our book,” he explained. “It’s the list of the wines that we sell. Our portfolio at Vinilandia, just as an example, has about 480 wines.” That can make keeping track of wines in New Hampshire easy to lose sight of, he said. And that makes events like NH Wine Week important to industry professionals and consumers alike, he said. Although wine sales in general have fallen recently, “companies that sell more independent winemaker products, family-run wineries, wines that have a story and that are sustainable …[those] are doing much better. I feel like there is a shift in the culture because people are realizing that these sustainably produced wines can compete with the pricing of mass-produced wines.” And events that bring story-worthy wines to the public’s attention benefit everyone.
Emma Round, owner of Unwined Wine Bar in Milford, says those wines-with-stories help her give value to her customers.
Previous Wine Week. Photo by Timothy Courtemanche
“I think frequently people see what there is in the liquor store,” Round said, “and their imagination can be limited by that.” They see the prices that restaurants have to charge for a bottle of wine, and wonder why they should pay so much more for a bottle that they could buy much less expensively on their own, she said. “But many of the wineries that are well-recognized have smaller portfolios of restaurant-only wines. These events give you the opportunity to see those, which is really important and it’s really good. I highly encourage the public to go to these things to kind of broaden their horizons. I know some of the restaurants try to do that ourselves, but I think when [wine producers] do that on their own back is awesome, too.”
Genevieve Wolfe is the Wine Director for Vine 32 Wine and Graze Bar in Bedford. She said New Hampshire Wine Week’s timing is auspicious.
“It’s fun for the restaurant side of things to have Wine Week [now],” Wolfe said, “because, obviously, with dry January, typically [wine sales] slow down a little bit. So Wine Week being in January is always great for us. It’s just a little bit of a push. We love serving new people and especially ones who want to explore. Those who are attending any of the Wine Week events that usually are the ones who are willing to kind of go outside the box from what they know. Having 32 taps [at Vine 32] allows us to really help them out of their comfort zone and to try something new. So we always look forward to Wine Week.”
19th Annual New England Winter Wine Spectacular When: Thursday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Where: Doubletree Expo Center, 700 Elm St., Manchester, 625-1000 Tickets: There are three tiers of tickets available for the event: Bellman’s Cellar Select, which includes access to a VIP room, product samples, gourmet food pairings and early access to the main expo area, for $135; Grand Ballroom Advanced Entrance, which allows ticket holders early access to the main expo area, for $95 per person; and Grand Ballroom General Admission for $75.
Visit nhwineweek.com. Proceeds from the event go to support the New Hampshire Food Bank.
Sponsored by Pine State Beverage New Hampshire, the organizers of the Wine Spectacular will arrange for a safe ride home within 20 miles for any guest, free of charge.
French wine in the spotlight
The “Viva la France” wine tasting and panel discussion on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford will focus on French wines.
Three major importers and distributors of French wines will be on hand to lead guests through the breadth and subtleties of some of their favorite wines: Marnie Old, Director of Vinlightenment of Boisset Collections, Serge Doré, Wine Importer of Serge Doré Collections, and Dominique Giovine, SVP of iconic Moët Hennessy.
According to Justin Gunter, a Wine Specialist with the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, this event will be a special opportunity for wine enthusiasts to learn from experts.
“There’s going to be a cocktail hour,” Gunter said, “where we’ll be pouring two wines from each of these representatives and we’ll be able to mingle with and speak to the representatives and talk to them about these wines that they’ve brought. And then after that first hour at about 6:30 … they’ll be sitting at the front in a panel type of presentation and we’ll have hors d’oeuvres and some food pairings to go along with the different wines. These panelists will walk all of our guests through these expressions of these specific regions in France. And I’ve got to tell you they are pouring some powerhouse wines. In fact …I’ve received word that vintage Dom Perignon will be poured.”
Serge Doré will be one of the featured panelists. He is the owner of Serge Doré Collections, which specializes in importing boutique French wines. He is excited about this all-French event. “Well, ‘Vive la France,’ first of all, it’s a big statement,” he said, “because it is an expression that is very important. It’s a commitment. ‘Vive la France’ is like when we say over here in the U.S., ‘God bless America.’ It’s exactly the same thing, but Vive la France goes back to the revolution, and this goes to the best … of French wine.”
“The event on Thursday night is absolutely spectacular for the consumers,” Doré said, “because, when you prepare a dish, what do you do while you’re cooking it or baking it? You taste and you taste and you taste. There’s no other way to understand a product. It is the same thing with wine, but now with wine, you have to open a bottle to have a sip. So how many bottles can you open at night? There’s a limit to what we can do. But now when you go to an event like on Thursday, a public event, that’s the perfect time to come and understand or discover or confirm things that you know or things that you want to know. You go from table to table and you focus on something and you walk out of there and say, oh my God, I’ve tasted 62 different wines tonight and now I understand why I like this or why I don’t like that. Because at the end it becomes very personal. It’s a matter of taste.”
For Doré, French wines capture a celebratory approach to life, and this event is for people who have that same sort of outlook.
“As long as you have people that do enjoy wines, that’s all that matters,” he said. “People who enjoy life, that’s all that matters. People that enjoy time with family and friends at the table, that’s what we want to have. That’s what I want to see in front of me. Life is about being at the table, technically three times a day at the table. You don’t spend more time in your life anywhere else but on the table. When you sit down normally, you have guests at home, people are nice, they talk not too loud, but after a few sips of wine the sound goes up, down, the conversation is all over the place, one cuts the other one and it’s joy to joy of the moment. It is created by the wine, not by the food. You say cheers with a glass, not with a fork.”
Viva la France wine tasting and panel discussion When: Thursday, Jan.22, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Where: Manchester Country Club, 180 S. River Road, Bedford, 624-4096, manchestercountryclub.com Tickets: $65 at eventbrite.com
New Hampshire Wine Week events
Here are some of the events slated for NH Wine Week. See nhwineweek.com/events for updates.
Saturday, Jan. 18
Wine Dinner with Brian Pruett, Dry Creek Vineyards Winemaker from 6 to 9 p.m. at Wentworth By the Sea (588 Wentworth Road, New Castle, 422-7322, opalcollection.com/wentworth)
Wednesday, Jan. 22
Wine Tasting with Brian Pruett, Winemaker of Dry Creek Vineyards, noon to 2 p.m., NH Liquor and Wine Outlet, Portsmouth Store #38 (500 Woodbury Ave, Portsmouth Traffic Circle, Portsmouth, 436-4806, liquorandwineoutlets.com)
Wine Dinner with Brian Pruett, Dry Creek Vineyards Winemaker, 5 to 8 p.m., Martingale Wharf Restaurant (99 Bow St., Portsmouth, 431-0901, martingalewharf.com)
“Viva la France” Wine Tasting and Panel Discussion, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Manchester Country Club (180 S. River Road, Bedford, 624-4096, manchestercountryclub.com). See page 13.
Truchard Vineyards wine dinner at Prime at 6 p.m. Sky Meadow Country Club (6 Mountain Laurels Drive, Nashua, 888-9000, skymeadow.com)
Wine Tasting with Nicole Hitchcock, Winemaker of J Vineyards, 6 to 7 p.m., NH Liquor & Wine Outlet, Store #50 (Willow Spring Plaza, 294 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-0271, liquorandwineoutlets.com)
Wine Tasting with Battle Creek Winemaker Sarah Cabot, Winderlea Vineyard owners Bill Sweat and Donna Morris, and Peter Paul Wines Winemaker Mike Tracy, 6 to 7 p.m., NH Liquor & Wine Outlet,Store #69 (25 Coliseum Ave., Nashua, 882-4670, liquorandwineoutlets.com).
Wine Dinner with Joseph Spellman, Justin Vineyards and Winery Master Sommelier, 6 to 9 p.m., Coyote Grill (98 Valley Road, Waterville Valley, 236-4919, wildcoyotegrill.com)
Thursday, Jan. 22
19th Annual New England Winter Wine Spectacular. 6 to 8:30 p.m., Doubletree Expo Center (700 Elm St., Manchester, 625-1000), nhwineweek.com
Other wine happenings
Here are some other wine related events in January.
Wine on Main (9 N. Main St. in Concord; wineonmainnh.com) has several wine events on its January schedule. A Wine of the Isles class will be offered Tuesday, Jan. 14, and Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 6:30 to 8 p.m. and focus on wines of the islands off the coast of Italy, Croatia, France and more ($35 per person). A free wine tasting will be held during Winterfest on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. There will also be a Cupcake and Wine Pairing on with sessions Wednesday, Jan. 29, and Thursday, Jan. 30, 6:30 to 8 p.m. ($35 per person).
Global Flights & Bites Series at The Grazing Room at Colby Hill Inn in Henniker, colbyhillinn.com, running Fridays, Jan. 17 through Feb. 7, 4 to 8 p.m. For $59 per person, enjoy a flight of three wines presented with four appetizers. Each week will feature a region: Jan. 17 is Portugal, Jan. 24 is the Mediterranean, Jan. 31 is West Coast and Feb. 7 is Japan.
Cakebread Cellars Wine Dinner a five-course wine dinner with speaker Niki Williams at Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way in Bedford; bedfordvillageinn.com) on Wednesday, Jan. 22, starting at 6 p.m. Price is $125 per person (plus tax and gratuity). Find the menu and the listings of wines to be paired online.
Savor the Season: Big Reds and Bold Flavors, a tasting of seven reds, at WineNot Boutique (25 Main St. in Nashua; winenotboutique.com) on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission costs $45.
The 21st Annual Winter Wine Festival at Wentworth by the Sea (588 Wentworth Road in New Castle; opalcollection.com/wentworth, 422-7322) runs Friday, Jan. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 9. Happenings include a Big Tasting with MS Walker and Pine State on Friday, Jan. 17, 6 to 8:30 p.m. ($69.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Dry Creek Vineyards on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. ($99.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Jackson Family Wines on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. ($159.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Banfi Wines on Friday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. ($149.95 per person); Vintner’s Dinner with Orin Swift Cellars & Winery on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. ($149.94 per person); and a Bubbles and Jazz Brunch on Sunday, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ($69.95).
Wines to look for at NH Wine Week events this year
Here are some wines that the experts will be keeping their eyes on during this year’s New Hampshire Wine Week.
Justin Gunter, New Hampshire Liquor Commission “We definitely have some smaller vineyards represented. We have Donna Morris and Bill Sweat; they’re the owners of Winderlea Vineyards in Oregon, and they make some beautiful, beautiful pinot noirs. It’s a smaller operation. They’re not one of the giant conglomerates.” Another producer Gunter is excited about is “Christof Höpler and the Höpler Winery. It’s not a massive operation, but it is worldwide and we do import a fair amount and they concentrate on more of the Zweigelt and rieslings and a lot of the German varietals.”
Richard Jacob, Vinilandia NH “Recently we’ve had some wines that are from the northern part of Italy that we just brought on to our portfolio that are from this wonderful family with a fantastic [passion for] their culture and their history and their winemaking philosophy. Those kinds of connections are the things that help make a bottle of wine more special and not just, you know, a glass of alcohol. It just makes it good for conversation.”
Emma Round, Unwined Wine Bar “I favor a lot of South African wines. The flagship grape of South Africa is a pinotage. So many people have never tried a pinotage because they don’t know what it is. It’s a fantastic grape. It’s delicious and it pairs well with so much food. So I try and lead people down paths like that. It’s the same for a plavac mali from Croatia, which is very similar to a pinot noir but with just a little bit more, a little bit more flavor. It’s far and above been one of my most popular cider glass wines. And most people have never heard of it before, but you give them a taste and they’re like, ‘Oh! It’s fun; it’s exciting.’ And wine should be like that. Life should be fun and exciting. It should be about trying new things.”
Genevieve Wolfe, Vine 32 “We have all classic examples that people would normally come in and ask for. But then I also like wines from Croatia or Slovenia, something a little bit different. We’re changing over our menu again in January, so I’m always excited to bring in new stuff that’s a little bit different, a little bit off the beaten path, so I can bring in those who might be set in their ways and kind of show them something different.”
Emma Stetson, owner of Wine on Main “There is a wine importer called Massonais. They’re brand new to the state, and I’m looking forward to trying the new wines from them. They have a bunch of wines, but they specialize in eclectic, unique Italian wines. For example, they have a producer called Graci. They make Sicilian wines that are grown in volcanic soil, which is unique and fun. You can almost taste like that graphite, smoky character from the soil.”
Governor-elect Kelly Ayotte will get to drop the “-elect” on Thursday, Jan. 9, when she takes the oath of office at the Statehouse. On Jan. 6 she announced more of her staff members, building on her announcements in November that Christopher Connelly will serve as Chief of Staff and John Corbett will serve as Senior Advisor to the Governor. Additional hires include these:
Myles Matteson, who previously served as senior assistant attorney general and chief of the Criminal Justice Bureau at the New Hampshire Department of Justice, will be Legal Counsel.
Paul Dean, previously chief of police at the University of New Hampshire police department, will be Director of Citizen Services.
James Gerry, budget director for Gov. Sununu, will be Director of Policy and Finance.
Caroline Hakes, deputy campaign manager for Ayotte’s campaign, will be director of Communications.
Morgan Hughes, previously an associate attorney at Orr & Reno, will be Director of Appointments and Liaison to the Executive Council.
Consuelo Carver, a retired FBI agent and retired lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, will be the director of scheduling.
John Callaghan, field director on Ayotte’s campaign, will be policy and legislative assistant.
Alex Holderith, most recently a special assistant to Gov. Sununu, will be assistant director of policy and finance.
Donna Schoenfeld, a staff assistant in Sununu’s office, will be a staff assistant.
Virginia Drye, previously director of circulation for the Claremont Eagle Times, will be citizen services assistant.
Tyler Flanigan will be community engagement coordinator.
See gencourt.state.nh.us/house on Jan. 9 at 11:30 a.m. for a livestream of the proceedings.
U.S. Attorney resigns
Jane E. Young, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, announced her forthcoming resignation on Friday, Jan. 17, in a press release on Jan. 2. Young was nominated for the position in January 2022 by President Biden and has been in the position since May 2022. “Over the past two and a half years, law enforcement in the Granite State prioritized investigating those who illegally possessed firearms, made threats to government officials and schools, exploited our most vulnerable citizens, as well as defrauded pandemic-relief and other federal programs. I am particularly proud of the education we provided community members and the private sector on emerging frauds and scams, the expansion of the United States Attorney’s Office to include two additional prosecutors focused on civil rights and violent crimes, and the restitution orders obtained to make fraud victims whole,” Young said in the statement.
Conservation training
The University of New Hampshire Extension, New Hampshire Fish & Game and New Hampshire Division of Forest and Lands is accepting applications now through March 1 for its NH Coverts Project, according to a press release. “Started in 1995, the NH Coverts Project has trained over 500 volunteers in promoting wildlife conservation and forest stewardship throughout the state,” the release said. “In exchange for the training, participants commit to volunteer for at least 40 hours during the coming year and motivate others to become stewards of the state’s wildlife and forest resources. … Some lead field walks or organize volunteer workdays, while others serve on town boards or manage their own property for wildlife habitat.” There is a $50 registration fee and the training workshop is May 14 through May 17, the release said. See extension.unh.edu/blog/2025/01/application-period-opens-2025-nh-coverts-project-training.
Blood drive
The American Red Cross is looking for blood donors and offering a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl LIX. Donors who give through Sunday, Jan. 26, will be entered in a giveaway for a trip that includes tickets to the game, pre-game activities, round-trip airfare, three-night hotel accommodations and a gift card for expenses, according to a press release. See redcrossblood.org/SuperBowl for details. Upcoming local blood donation spots include:
NH Audubon McLane Center in Concord on Thursday, Jan. 9, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sky Meadow Country Club in Nashua on Thursday, Jan. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Goodale’s Bike Shop in Nashua on Friday, Jan. 10, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Boys and Girls Club of Greater Concord on Saturday, Jan. 11, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m
St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua on Monday, Jan. 13, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Bektash Shriners in Concord on Monday, Jan. 13, from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.
St. John Neumann Church in Merrimack on Tuesday, Jan. 14, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Great North Aleworks in Manchester on Tuesday, Jan. 14, from noon to 4:30 p.m.
White Birch Banquet Hall in Hudson on Tuesday, Jan. 14, from noon to 4:30 p.m.
LaBelle Winery in Amherst on Wednesday, Jan. 15, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Ice Castles in North Woodstock is slated to open Friday, Jan. 10, at 3 p.m. with attractions including the Mystic Light Walk, the Polar Pub ice bar, the tubing hill and more, according to a press release. See icecastles.com.
Registration is open for the 23rd annual Rock’N Race, which will take place Wednesday, May 7, at 6 p.m. at the Statehouse in downtown Concord to raise funds for HOPE Resource Center at Concord Hospital Payson Center for Cancer Care, according to a press release. Earlybird registration, through March 1, costs $35 for adults and $15 for youth and the first 2,700 registrants will receive a T-shirt, according to a press release. See rocknrace.org.
Ed Brouder, Manchester Historic Association trustee and past president, will present an illustrated talk about The Ledge, a swimming attraction in a granite quarry near Derryfield Park that was created when granite was pulled from the quarry in the 1870s and 1880s for the city’s mill foundations and street curbing, according to manchesterhistoric.org. The talk will take place Saturday, Jan. 18, at 11 a.m. at the Millyard Museum in Manchester and is included with admission to the museum. RSVP by calling 622-7531 or emailing [email protected].
The NH Wolves Hurling Club will hold a Winter Gala Celebration on Saturday, Jan. 18, to “honor the achieves of the past season and to kick off the new year” according to the nhwolveshurling.com (where you can find details of the Wolves Indoor Hurling and Gaelic Football series, which starts Tuesday, Jan. 28, in Goffstown). The gala will take place at American Legion Post 98 (43 Baboosic Lake Road in Merrimack). Tickets start at $30 per person (plus fees). The evening will feature food by The Peddler’s Daughter, an award ceremony, live music and more.
