Bordeaux Awaits

I’m off to Bordeaux.  The trip promises to be more a relaxing sojourn than a whirlwind tour of the vineyards of this much celebrated wine region.  However, I will be participating in a few tours and tastings.  Our itinerary has us spending a couple of days each in Pauillac and St. Emillion.  Photos and reports to come.

The book I’m taking with me to read is Thomas Jefferson on Wine by John Hailman.  I’m through the first fifty pages of it already.  It is a very detailed biography of our Founding Father’s development as one of America’s earliest and greatest oenophiles.  I’m particularly interested in reading about Jefferson’s travels in Bordeaux. 

 

Not Bordeaux, But Burgundy (July, 2005)

 

Mmmm. Thanksgiving. (Part 2 of 2)

It’s that time of year again.  Today actually marks its official 2009 release date.  Open your window and you can hear echoing across the foggy streets of your city your local town crier shouting, “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivée! Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivée!”

So what is Beaujolais Nouveau? And why is it worth the town crier risking his larynx to shout at the top of his lungs that it’s “arrivée?”  Rob Herbst and Sharon Tyler Herbst’s Wine Lover’s Companion describes it as such:

 Beaujolais Nouveau is a special category of 7 to 9-week old [red Gamay Burgundy wine] that’s released annually on the third Thursday of November. This ‘new’ wine, sometimes called Beaujolais Primeur, is meant to be drunk very young. It is made from the better grapes of the basic Beaujolais appellation and is usually quite good.

There was a time when we as Americans really didn’t care much about Beaujolais Nouveau, but that’s changing. Local wine merchants have gotten increasingly successful at marketing le “Nouveau” to the public as a customary wine to serve with turkey at Thanksgiving.  The two most successful importers are Georges DuBoeuf and Louis Jadot. 

My own feelings about this wine are definitely mixed.  I would not refuse a glass of it if offered.  My parents really like it, mostly because it lacks the acidity and dryness which can make most reds a challenge to drink.  Certainly, it’s not a complicated red wine.  The tannins are non-existent, because of the way it’s fermented, leaving behind something which mostly tastes like spiked grape juice.  The French producers believe that the wine is very well suited for American tastes.  However, it’s not quite the “fruit bomb” which many American wine drinkers associate with red wine.  It’s more like a fruit “fire cracker.” 

One interesting factoid about Beaujolais Nouveau is that it’s usually served slightly chilled.  I’m not sure if this actually benefits the overall experience of drinking the wine, since all it does is dumb down any semblance of complexity in it.  Still, it’s not undrinkable.  There is not much of an aroma to speak of with the wine.  There is a faint, faint trace of wild berry and licorice there, but that’s using a very unobstructed pair of nostrils to find.  The flavors evoke a little bit of German chocolate cake, plumbs and tea leaves.  I’m not really trying to go out of my way to poo-poo Beaujolais Nouveau.  It’s just that there are so much better choices for wines to drink at Thanksgiving (see my Part 1 entry).  

But try telling that to my parents.  I have suggested to them that Beaujolais Nouveau is probably better suited as an aperitif to drink with a serving of hors-d’oeuvres, like cheese or sliced ham.  Drinking it with Thanksgiving turkey is not objectionable, but my experience is that it adds little to the dinner other than giving you the impression you’re drinking red wine. Actually, a better way to spend drinking your Beaujolais is to keep it for the day after Thanksgiving to have it with your turkey sandwiches. 

"Le Beaujolais Nouveau Est Arrivée!"

 

Mmmm. Thanksgiving. (Part 1 of 2)

Hey, you there!  Yeah, you in the liquor aisle of the grocery store!  Step away from that plonk!  It’s Thanksgiving, and you’re going to serve Aunt Marge and Cousin Lawrence that stuff?!  Come on!  You don’t need to go there, friend.  I promise you. 

Okay, I know what you’re saying.  Thanksgiving 2009 demands a bit of frugality.  The economy hasn’t completely bounced back.  And why throw good money at bad.  If Aunt Marge and your mother-in-law just want the sweet pink stuff, why bother spending a premium on a grand bottle of wine?  Not that I’m calling your Aunt Marge bad! But you know what I mean.  She and your guests – whether they know it or not – deserve better. The good news is that you needn’t spend a king’s ransom on beverages for your Thanksgiving meal.  Moreover, you may even get the relatives anxious to come back the following year to indulge in your great food and drink pairings.  Allow me to provide some counsel.

Last year, I spent less than $60 on beverages for eight of us.  This included three bottles of great wine.  I began the evening by offering a lovely Brut Rose sparkler from Alsace, Lucien Albrecht ($16).  My blog has sung the praises of Lucien Albrecht before.  This Cremant d’Alsace is a perfect appetizer-friendly drink, promising an explosion of flavors like strawberries, pomegranate, almonds and green apple.  It also possesses a delicate dryness which teases the palate for the main course of the evening. 

An opening course of pumpkin soup was served.  My wife made the soup with a creamy, bisque-like texture.  The recipe also calls for carrots, cloves and a hint of ginger to give it a “sweet and sour” flavor. For those who like white wine, I bought a bottle of Monchhof Estate Riesling ($18) to match with the soup. This Riesling offers something for everyone: a sweet honey-like presence to satisfy the mothers-in-law and an austere, arid lingering dryness which cuts through any sauce or gravy. 

The turkey was served in the usual customary style of Thanksgiving.  The traditional stuffing recipe came down a couple of generations from my wife’s family (currants are substituted for raisins).  There was plenty of cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, cream corn, mushrooms and other fixins’ to make this a sumptuous and thoroughly satisfying holiday meal.  Because any Thanksgiving table will contain a diversity of flavors, I gave the guests two choices with the turkey.  Those who wished to continue with the Riesling were offered to do so.  Others favored red wine, so Peachy Canyon “Incredible Red” Zinfandel ($12) was served.   Peachy Canyon’s “Westside” Zinfandel, for a few dollars more is also an incredible value.  The wine makes an immediate impression of friendly aromas of pipe smoke, chocolate and baked cherries.  The wine then yields a jammy, earthy, smoky full bodied taste which doesn’t get lost amid the myriad of flavors. 

The non-alcohol drinkers appreciated the bold choice of soft drink I offered, Thomas Kemper Vanilla Cream Soda ($6).  I love cream soda! I venture to say that if I ever were to stop drinking wine altogether, cream soda would make a great replacement for Port or Sherry.  This cream soda has some additional subtle flavors of caramel and ginger to make it a good counterpoint to both sweet and savory dishes offered for dinner. 

For dessert, there came home-made apple and pecan pies.  To lift the haze of L-tryptophan, the guests appreciated coffee with their dessert.  An eight-ounce can of ground espresso or dark roast Lavazza Coffee runs about $8.  My wife swears by Lavazza, with its natural hazelnut aroma and sharp taste. 

If you play your cards right, Thanksgiving can be a kingly feast at prices which won’t turn you into a pauper.  “And what about Beaujolais Nouveau?” you ask.  Stay tuned, my next post will discuss this odd French import and the impact it has had on Thanksgiving.  Until then, I remain your friendly armchair beverage steward!

 

Around the World In a Few Days

After some web silence brought on by a case of the sniffles, I’m back to catalogue some recent yummy food and drink experiences.  Looking through what I ate and drank over the past week, all I can say is “It’s a small world after all!”  I found myself reaching on all four corners of the globe to enhance the culinary experience.  Let’s go back in time about a week before the sinus headaches and scratchy throat stopped me in my blogging tracks.

 MONDAY – SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Last Monday night, inspired from a recipe I saw on the PBS show “Gourmet’s Diary of A Foodie,”  I made some Oaxacan-style short ribs which I paired with an Australian Shiraz.  The short ribs came out delicious. But it was the drink pairing which made this meal killer! You can find the recipe here.  I couldn’t find the requisite chiles at the local Whole Foods, so I substituted three fresh, standard-sized  red mirasol chiles instead.  There are not many ingredients to this dish, but it’s important not to skimp on the green tomatillos.  The sauce – once blended makes for a lush, herbaceous and faintly spicy addition to the meat.  If you cooked the meat right, it falls off the bone by virtue of gravity. 

A Meal In Which South of The Border Will Meet Southern Hemisphere

 I pulled out a bottle of 2006 Two Hands “Gnarly Dudes” Barossa Valley Shiraz.  “Shiraz” is the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of Syrah ($25).  This is a muscular, very fruit-forward red wine, with amazingly precise tannins to cut through the fattiness of the meat as if it was a ginsu knife cutting through warm butter.  On the nose, you will close your eyes and think you were walking  through a farmer’s market: Immerse yourself in smells of fresh herbs, cedar, peppers and cinnamon. The delicious, silky texture of the wine almost demands gulping – there are wonderfully alive elements of dark stone fruits here, like plums and baked cherries.  The big fruit in the wine kept its own with the spicy short ribs, bite after bite. 

That's My Hand Holding Up a 2006 Two Hands Gnarly Dudes Shiraz

TUESDAY – LEFT OVERS!

There It Is, On the Patented "Bread & Water" Provencal Style Plate On Which You Will See Most Of My Meals! What Do You Want? It's Not A High Budget Blog.

 WEDNESDAY –  PERSIAN EMPIRE

We hosted my wife’s parents for a mid-week dinner of Persian food.  Admittedly, we did not make the Gormeh (or “Qormeh”)Sabzi at home.  This is an Iranian stew dish which demands slow, methodical preparation and cooking.  We got ours at the take-out counter of a local Persian restaurant.   Often described as a dish of national identity (I suppose it’s to Iran what kimchi is to Korea or hot dogs is to America), this is a stew made with beef or lamb.   Wikipedia has a nice description of the mercurial green sauce in which the meat is served – think cilantro, dill, green onions and – crucially – dried lime.  This dish is incomplete without a shah’s helping of the basmati rice.   

Knowing that my mother-in-law favors sweet white wine, I bought a 2007 Pewsey Vale Eden Valley Riesling ($11) for dinner from a nearby Costco.   The wine had a slightly floral, honied nose.  On the palate, it was bone-dry, evoking not Rieslings but unoaked Chardonnays.  It had a quietly sweet after taste and not much heat or acidity. My in-laws liked the wine.  But I thought it didn’t work with the Gormeh Sabzi as I had hoped.  Certainly, there was a nice sweetness in the glass, but the wine demanded something more tart, more citrusy to hold its own with this complex Persian dish. I’m still convinced that despite the fact that the dish contains red meat, a white wine should be served.  Ultimately, the meal could have been better enhanced with a California Sauvignon Blanc or a Sancerre (French Sauvignon Blanc).

 THURSDAY – LEFT OVERS!

FRIDAY –  AN AMERICAN IN PARIS….

My wife was out of town at a geography conference, so I called up an old friend who is happily destined toward perennial bachelorhood, and invited myself over to a dinner party he and his sister were hosting.  The night ended with one of the most unusual dessert pairings I had all year.  As the night waned, we sat around his sparkling new flat-screen television and watched the remastered special edition of Sergio Leone’s The Good The Bad & The Ugly as my friend’s sister served us big bowls of warm chocolate brownies topped with vanilla ice cream and Hershey’s chocolate sauce.  And what did we have with this All-American of desserts?  The partiers convinced my friend to finally break open a 150^th Anniversary special bottle of Grand Marnier he had received as a Christmas present .  A blend of Cognac aged up to fifty years, this was Bliss in A Glass – aromas of caramel, vanilla, orange zest and rainswept forest; and an ultra-smooth delivery on the palate of vanilla, almonds and honey.  There was no point in caring too much about whether this was an ideal pairing of drink and dessert.  Both items were simply too delicious for me to care.   

 SATURDAY – YUCK

Sick, and still recovering.  But memories are such good medicine!

 

The Wine With A Funny Name

Lucien Albrecht Gewürztraminer With Indian Take-Out

It was “Take-Out Night” this evening.  My wife has been knee-deep in the finishing stages of a Master’s Thesis, and this required a quiet evening at home.  I felt like Indian food, so I told her I’d go to our reliable neighborhood Indian-hole-in-the-wall eatery and grab some food to go.  The guy at the counter knows me.  He rewards my patronage with extra nan bread, a gesture which does not go unappreciated.  He also knows that I like my chana masala spicy.  Not spicy to the point where your teeth start to melt, but spicy enough to form beads of sweat above the brow.  I also ordered some veggie korma tonight, which was a little more picante than usual. 

Something I learned from other spicy-food loving friends:  while water helps to dilute some of the heat, the best thing to try when you feel something is giving you too much of a fire in your mouth is rice.  I don’t know if it’s related to the starches in the rice either coating the tongue or sticking to the “spice molecules,” but either way it really works.    

I also felt that tonight’s meal made for a good excuse to open a Gewürztraminer I had laying around.  Lucien Albrecht is one of my favorite Alsatian wine producers.  Its sparkling Brut Rosé is among the best in its price point ($15 to $20).  The 2007 Gerwurz, which averages about $15 to $17 per bottle, is the epitome of what this type of variety should convey during dinner. 

First off, I have to say I’m not the biggest fan of Gewürztraminer, not the least of which because it has a name that is difficult to pronounce (“Geh-vurtz-trah-min-ner”) let alone spell.  It’s not a wine that I have ever enjoyed simply drinking on its own.  It’s utterly and completelydestined to go with food.  More precisely, spicy food. Like the Lucien Albrecht I opened, this wine when poured offers a traditional bouquet of orange peel, roasted carrots, cinnamon and honey.  On the palate, you can expect more of the same, with some additional nuances of anise and white pepper. 

The culinary soulmate of Gewürztraminer is spicy Asian food.  Think Thai, Chinese and – of course – Indian.  The flashes of sweet and sour in the wine almost cradle the spices of an Indian dish, while the tartness and acid cut through any cream or fat in the sauces.  The wine becomes a delicious side helping of what’s on the plate and overall enlivens the dining experience.  I can only hazard a guess that the Germans, Austrians and Alsatians who grow this variety enjoy its tartness and sweetness because it holds its own against a fatty, peppery schnitzel or something similarly hearty. 

But on its own, I don’t often finish even one glass of it.  Perhaps it’s the wine’s composition of such severe aromas and flavors which stops me in my tracks.  Regardless, I appreciate Gewürztraminer for how well it accompanies food.  Next time you find yourself at home with some take-out, I hope you find it to be as pleasant a dinner guest as I did.

 

Countdown to Halloween

"Butternut squash soup is people!"

Five Shopping Days to Go.  Are You Food-Inspired?

1.  This site says to pair blood sausage (or “boudin noir” in French lingo) with a Cote de Rhone, which is primary Syrah and Grenache.  The red vino should have enough tannins to cut through the fattiness of the dish.  I love the photo of the guy dipping his finger in the blood — how Dracula-like!

2. For our zombie friends, Food and Wine Matcher says to pair a wine from the Pinot family, such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Pinot Blanc, with calf brains.  I would think this means you’re in good shape with a full bodied champagne or sparkling wine, either a Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay) or Blanc de Noirs (traditionally Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier).

3.  Lampreys are scary looking creatures.  Imagine running into a giant one of these in your darkest dreams.  Amazingly, they are a delicacy in Bordeaux, France.  I haven’t found a definitive suggested pairing to go with these severe-looking creatures, but a safe bet is to go with a regional pairing.  I suppose if lamprey tastes anything like other eel varieties, a white Bordeaux, which is primarily Sauvignon Blanc, is a good choice.

4.  Slithering into your appetite may be a barbequed rattle snake or two.  This gentleman claims snake tastes like, well, chicken. Dark meat to be exact.  On the Ponderosa, a nice  dark Mexican beer like a Negra Modelo would be a nice topper to an evening of some charred rattlesnake and baked beans under the October stars.

5.  Recently, a monster-from- the- underworld acquaintance of mine asked me what would pair well with one of his fresh, succulent baby offspring.  Well, I had to decline any part in indulging his macabre request.   However, he told me that he wasn’t opposed to sampling Balut, which is fertilized chicken embryos and a delicacy in the Phillipines.  I’ve never tried this dish, nor is it my intention to ever try it, unless I had copious amounts of tequila in me.  Apparently that worked for this blogger.  So that ought to work for Monster.

6.  Ah, the countdown has ended, and it’s finally Halloween! Skip all the gross stuff, grab your plastic pumpkin basket and hit the pavement for some yummy candy instead.  Most name-brand chocolate candy bars are said to taste good with hot or iced teas.  This suggestion comes to us from none other than the wine and food pairing gurus Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page themselves.

So have a ghoulishly gourmand Halloween, whatever you choose to eat! Muwahahahaha!