heresy — screw tops

CHABLIS, France — Fine French wine with a screw top?

At La Cote Saint Jacques restaurant, a Michelin three-star temple of gastronomy in the Burgundy region, chief sommelier Arnaud Laplanche isn't ashamed to give it a try.

France's goal: to hold off New World winemakers that have wooed wine lovers and gained market share with jazzy marketing campaigns, helpful information on what's inside the bottle, and quality assurances that some French wines lacked.

Screw tops, boxed wines, colorful easy-to-understand labels and sophisticated marketing — innovations pioneered by countries like Australia and South Africa — are making inroads in tradition-bound France, even if many still sneer.

La Cote Saint Jacques serves Chablis Grand Cru Reserve de l'Obedience at $326 with a screw-top cap. It is the most expensive wine made in the Laroche vineyards in nearby Chablis and isn't available with a cork.

Laplanche said he was initially reluctant to give up the showman part of his job — uncorking a bottle — but was won over by the taste and prospect of no more wines that are spoiled by premature oxidization — "corked," in wine parlance. "It takes away the charm of opening the bottle, smelling the cork," he said. "But it's very frustrating when a wine is corked. Screw tops are a more sure way of preserving the wine."

The screw-top shake-up was inspired as much by practical considerations as by consumer preference. Increased demand on cork suppliers has forced manufacturers to harvest immature cork, which some suspect causes the oxidization. While some argue that wines requiring more oxygen as they age require an old-fashioned cork, many winemakers are turning to more reliable seals for all but their heaviest reds.

A freeze-dried chip you and

your hips can love

A zero-fat potato chip that has no funky additives, is crispy and — here's the real test — addictive?

It seems a stretch, but Batavia, N.Y.-based Brothers International Food Corporation has managed to pull it off thanks to the magic of freeze-drying. The company's new Brothers-All-Natural Potato Crisps look and feel just like a conventional potato chip, but have no fat and only about 40 calories per serving (compared with about 75 calories and 5 grams of fat in typical chips).

The chips are made by peeling, slicing and cooking the potatoes, then freeze-drying them. The latter half of the process removes the moisture from the potato, leaving it crispy, light and satisfying.

Be warned — the taste isn't identical to a conventional chip. But it is great. Flavors include sea salt, black pepper and sea salt, onion and garlic, and Szechuan pepper and chives.

Packages of 16 single-serving bags of Brothers-All-Natural Potato Crisps are available for $14.99 at www.brothersallnatural.com.

New gear: Ice-Cream Cone

Cupcake Pan

It's all the fun of ice cream without the drips.

The masters of whimsical cakes at Wilton Industries Inc. have created a nonstick cupcake pan that produces ice cream cone-shaped cakes — complete with swirled soft-serve top.

The pan bakes each cupcake in two parts, a bottom (or cone) and a top (the ice cream), and produces enough halves to assemble four cupcakes at a time.

When using the pan, which is available exclusively from kitchen goods retailer Sur la Table, coat it with nonstick baking spray (or flour and oil). The intricate details otherwise make release of the baked cakes a challenge.

Also, the cupcakes may mound during baking. If so, you will need to use a knife to slice off any domes to create flat surfaces so the halves can be assembled.

The Wilton Ice-Cream Cone Cupcake Pan is available for $27.95 from www.surlatable.com