Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category
MWG February 21st tasting (3/8): Two Mediterranean whites
Bandol 2011, Domaine La Suffrene ($22.85, 11903491)
The estate was created in 1996. This is the first of its wines to be offered at the SAQ. A 50–50 blend of Clairette and Ugni Blanc from vines averaging 35 to 40 years old. Manually harvested. To increase flavour extraction, the crushed grapes are kept on their skins for 12 hours at 8ºC before pressing (aka maceration pelliculaire). After clarification by settling, the juice is fermented in stainless steel vats for around 15 days at around 19ºC, then racked into other vats for fining and maturation. Filtered before bottling. 13% ABV.
Smells like Provence: preserved lemon, acacia blossom, herbs, pear and mineral. Dry in the mouth with a winey verging on unctuous texture, though the acidity and restraint prevent any heaviness. Flavours tend to garrigue and a faint, pithy bitterness. What fruit there is fades on finish leaving ashy minerals. Not a throat-grabber by any means but classic and elegant. Am anxious to try the estate’s red and pink wines. (Buy again? Sure.)
Corse Figari 2011, Clos Canarelli ($39.25, 11794660)
100% biodynamically farmed Vermintinu (aka Vermintino) from vines planted in 1997. Fermented with indigenous yeasts. Allowed to undergo partial malolactic fermentation. Aged mostly in large foudres as well as some old neutral barrels. Lightly filtered before bottling. 13.5% ABV. As far as I can tell, the estate doesn’t have a website; for background, see The Vine Route profile.
Outgoing nose of dried herbs, white fruit, a sprinkling of anise seed, a hint of dried banana and some charry ash. Not fruity but weighty on the palate. Not bone dry either, though the residual sugar is counterbalanced by acidity and a fine bitterness. Long, vaporous finish with lemon and mineral notes. Impressive, imposing, a white to contend with, the very definition of a food wine: Grill a sea bass and, just before it’s finished cooking, toss some dried thyme sprigs soaked in Pernod onto the coals under the fish. Serve with a squirt of lemon and a drizzle of fragrant olive oil. You’re welcome. (Buy again? Yes, with sea bass in hand.)
Riesling rules
If the photographs of dishes in Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s excellent new Jerusalem: A Cookbook leap out at you, the one of the crazy-good and super-easy Roasted Chicken with Clementines and Arak (adapted recipe follows) may be the long-jump champion. The combo of citrus, fennel (blubs, seeds and spirits) and a hint of sweetness present a wine-pairing challenge that Riesling seems uniquely qualified to meet.
Alsace 2009, Riesling, Grafenreben, Domaine Bott-Geyl ($27.80, 11778037)
100% biodynamically farmed Riesling from the Grafenreben lieu-dit in Zellenberg. The manually harvested whole bunches are gently and slowly pneumatically pressed. The resulting must is allowed to settle for 24 hours. Fermentation with native yeasts begins two or three days later and can last up to six months. When fermentation is complete, the wine is racked off the lees. No chaptalization or fining. 13.5% ABV.
Bone dry. Slight fizz at first. Among the most crystalline Rieslings I’ve encountered. Considerable extract and biting acidity. The ripe fruit is lemony and has a lot of pith. As the wine breathes and warms, it gains green apple and peach notes. The fruit quick-fades on the finish, leaving bitter minerals, a hint of hard caramel and maybe, just maybe, a whiff of petrol.
A fine bottle. The clerk I queried about the wine hadn’t tasted it but thought it would be a step toward off-dry. We should have looked more closely at the label, which bears a useful dry-to-sweet scale rating the wine 1 out of a possible 10. In any event, the flavours and weight worked well with the chicken, though a slightly less dry wine would have made for an even better match.
Nebbiolo and quail
Earlier this week I attended a tasting led by Aldo Vacca, the managing director of the world’s best wine co-op, Produttori del Barbaresco. The focus was on seven of the Produttori’s 2007 Barbarescos, including six single-vineyard bottlings, and I’ll post a detailed report on them soon. Today, though, a heads-up.
A second shipment of the latest vintage of the Produttori’s entry-level wine, the Langhe Nebbiolo, has just hit the SAQ’s shelves. The first shipment sold out in a matter of days; if anything, this will go faster. You’ll find my tasting note below and a recipe for a pitch-perfect pairing – pan-roasted quail with pancetta and sage – after the jump.
Langhe 2010, Nebbiolo, Produttori del Barbaresco ($22.00, 11383617)
100% Nebbiolo from young vines (Vacca told me that, though Langhe DOC regulations don’t require it, all the grapes come from the Barbaresco DOC). Fermentation with selected “Barolo” yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats. Macerated on the skins for 22 days. Matured six months in very large oak barrels. No fining, light filtering, minimal sulphur dioxide.
Bright, aromatic nose of bitter cherry and spice with hints of earth, minerals, tar, rose and old wood. Medium-bodied. Fluid and silky. The fruit is pure and ripe with a faint underlying bitterness. Fine, lacy tannins and tangy acidity provide structure and balance. Long, softly astringent finish. So charming, so beautiful, so easy to drink. A QPR winner.
Textbook Chablis
The staff at the Laurier SAQ outlet were swooning over this wine. It made a great pairing for salmon with leeks and cream (recipe after the jump).
Chablis premier cru 2010, Montmain, Domaine de Bois d’Yver ($29.95, 11635108)
100% Chardonnay from 30-year-old vines; the estate is converting to organic farming. Pneumatically pressed, fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel vats with native yeasts. Undergoes malolactic fermentation. 13% ABV.
Classic – and therefore irresistable – Chablis nose: intense lemon and green apple over chalk and straw with the faintest hint of smoky gun flint. Eventually gained floral (hawthorne?) and honey notes. Clean, delineated and tense with acidity. Minerals dominate and what fruit there is is lemony. The finish is bitter-tinged with a little butter creeping in. Broadened and deepened as it warmed and breathed: pull it from the fridge and pop the cork if crystals and acid are your thing; carafe a couple of hours and serve at something closer to 12ºC (53ºF) if in search of fruit and richness.
MWG September 13th tasting: report (3/3)
A member of the Mo’ Wine Group has a small vineyard just west of Lake Memphremagog in the Eastern Townships. The day of the tasting, he kindly delivered a shopping bag full of wine grapes, mostly red Marquette, that gave us the basis for dessert: a Tuscan winemaker’s grape cake (recipe after the jump). With it we served a vin santo.
Vin Santo del Chianti Classico 2004, Badia a Coltibuono ($41.25/375 ml, 11544193)
A blend of organically farmed Trebbiano and Malvasia from 10- to 30-year-old vines. Once harvested, the bunches are dried for several weeks in well-ventilated rooms, then pressed, fermented with indigenous yeasts. Fermentation and aging (four years) take place in small oak casks exposed to seasonal temperature variations. 16.5% ABV.
Enchanting nose of dried spice, nut brittle, apricot and autumn air. Intensely flavoured: mostly candied orange peel with some background caramel. Bordering on rich but saved from heaviness by bright acidity and residual sugar levels that are kept in check. Quite long if not especially deep. Enjoyable though it doesn’t erase memories of Isole e Olena’s often astounding vin santo.
Chimera classica
Dropped by the neighbourhood SAQ in search of a Sangiovese to go with spaghetti al pesto rosso (recipe after the jump) and walked out with this. Though I would have preferred a more reserved wine, it did stand up well to the bold flavours of the pasta.
Chianti Classico 2009, Castello di Volpaia ($22.85, 10858262)
100% organically farmed Sangioveto (aka Sangiovese) according to the estate’s website and the Quebec agent; others say it contains 10% Merlot and Syrah. Whatever the variety, the grapes come from the estate’s own vineyards, the highest in altitude in the Chianti region, and are destemmed and lightly crushed. Fermented with indigenous yeasts for two weeks, with twice daily punching down. Macerated on the skins for a further ten days. After malolactic fermentaion, the wine is transferred to large Slavonian oak barrels for 14 months’ aging. 13.5% ABV.
Reticent and slightly reductive on opening. Begins to open after half an hour in the carafe. The nose is dominated by earth, graphite, old wood and green tobacco aromas; the tangy red fruit – mainly cherry – is very much in the background.
Rich on the attack. The sweet, ripe fruit is immediately apparent but soon countered and eventually subsumed by bright acidity, light but firm tannins, a basso continuo astringency and a crescendoing bitternness that lasts though the long, very dry, cigar boxy finish. Gains weight, smoothness and a New World-like character (driving fruit, noticeable oak, superficial intensity) as it breathes, though the finish remains unmistakeably Italian. A chimera.
Lapierre’s 2011 Morgon (SAQ bottling)
This has just hit the shelves and will probably fly off them. It made a fine pairing for a bavette aux échalotes (recipe after the jump).
Morgon 2011, Marcel Lapierre ($27.95, 11305344)
100% organically farmed Gamay. In contrast to the standard “Nature” bottling, which comes in through the private import channel, this SAQ bottling is lightly filtered and sulphured to enhance its stability (and, unfortunately, strip it of some charm). 12.5% ABV.
A little reductive at first. Red berries, sweet spice, a floral note (rose? peony?) and, with coaxing, earth and minerals. Light, bright and supple on the palate. The beguiling sweet-and-sour fruit is darkened by some vine sap and a dissipating lactic note. Lacy albeit tight tannins swell then fade on the tangy, slatey finish. Elegance and purity it has in spades but not, for now, a lot of depth. Of course, this isn’t the Nature. And the wine is just off the boat. And the estate is very consistent. And 2011 is an outstanding vintage in Beaujolais. And the wine did gain weight as it breathed.
Is it worth $28? The answer’s not as obvious as it was for the 2009 and 2010 but I’m inclined to give Lapierre the benefit of the doubt, especially this weekend when the price is $25.15.
If you’re one of the lucky few who can score some of the Nature bottles, don’t buy this in preference. If not and you decide to give it a shot, carafe it an hour or two beforehand or cellar it for at least a few months and up to five years.
COS I love you
Looking through the bottles I had on hand for a wine to go with Saturday’s seasonal dinner, a guinea fowl braised with green figs (recipe after the jump), I ended up with this. While it made a wholly satisfactory pairing, I couldn’t stop thinking that the same estate’s soon-to-arrive just released 2011 Frappato ($24.70, 11695004) would be even better.
Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2009, Classico, Azienda Agricola COS ($29.35, 11577391)
Biodynamically farmed Nero d’Avola (60%) and Frappato (40%) from 18-year-old vines. Temperature-controlled fermentation with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats. Aged in barrels for 18 to 24 months. Bottled unfiltered. 13% ABV.
Ferociously reductive on opening. Righted itself after being vigorously carafed and left to stand for 45 minutes (the last 20 or so in the fridge). Fragrant nose of tart red fruit (cranberry, pomegranate, red currant, cherry) against a backdrop of slate and dried wood. Medium weight with a bordering-on-velvety texture. The lithe fruit (pomegranate again) sweetens on the mid-palate and sours on the finish. Darker, more minerally, even earthy layers emerge as the wine progresses through the mouth. The supple tannins structure the whole and linger astringently. An elegant, complete wine that delivers the same kind of satisfaction as good Burgundies costing half again as much.
Isole e Olena’s 2009 Chianti Classico
This 50-hectare Tuscan estate was created in the 1950s by combining two farms, one called Isole and the other called Olena. It’s good to see their Chianti Classico returning to form after the lean and green 2008. The wine made a near-perfect match with the chicken recipe you’ll find after the jump.
Chianti Classico 2009, Isole e Olena ($27.80, 00515296)
A blend of Sangiovese (82%), Canaiolo (15%) and Syrah (3%). Fermented on the skins in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks for around one week, with daily rack-and-returns and pump-overs. After malolactic fermentation, the wine was racked into old barrels and 4,000-litre botti and aged for about one year. 14% (!) ABV.
Textbook Chianti nose: black cherries and pits, tobacco, terra cotta, cedar, leather and a whiff of kirsch. Medium-bodied. Very dry, almost to the point of austerity but saved by the fruit, which is somehow both very present and elegantly reserved. Astringent tannins – like those in long-steeped tea – and souring acidity provide just enough structure. Long finish with lingering plum peel, wood (not oak) and minerals. Ready to go and probably not a keeper. Sangiovese lovers needn’t hesitate.
Torrette syndrome
(Pardon the pun. I made it so Nick won’t have to.)
The next Prince Edward County post won’t be up for another day or two. In the meantime, here’s a note on an obscurity.
Vallée d’Aosta 2010, Torrette, Grosjean Frères ($25.55, 11660645)
The Aosta Valley is the narrow alpine corridor that connects northwest Italy to France over the St. Bernard pass and, these days, through the Mont Blanc tunnel. Torrette is one of several areas within the larger, but still small, Valle d’Aosta DOC. Torrette wines must be at least 70% Petit Rouge but may also contain Gamay, Dolcetto, Pinot Noir and/or any of several local red grape varieties. At a minimum, Torrette must reach 11% ABV and be aged six months (12% ABV and eight months in oak for Torrette Superiore). Grosjean’s version is 80% Petit Rouge and 20% Vien de Nus, Fumin and Cornalin, all from vines planted between 1975 and 1995. The grapes were destemmed, then macerated on their skins for seven or eight days, with pumping over three times a day. Maturation took place in stainless steel vats. This is stoppered with a plastic cork and clocks in at 12.5% ABV.
Odd nose: dried cherries, leaf mould and earth until you swirl, then dried blood and a hint of vinegary fish sauce. Medium bodied and dry. Not very tannic, though the understated fruit does nothing to hide the fine tannins, meaning there’s an astringent undertow that lingers long. Light, supple, sweet cherry quickly fades to a tart, faintly bitter finish with leaf tea and dried wood notes.
Pricey for what it delivers today. Torrettes are said to improve with up to ten years of cellaring, but you wouldn’t want to test that claim when the closure is a syncork.
This goes well with charcuterie, including lightly smoked meats. The winemaker also recommends it as a pairing for Valdostan “soups,”* a role I can see it playing supremely well.
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*For example: In a baking dish, alternate layers of sliced, butter-toasted country or black bread, Savoy cabbage braised with onion, and slices of fontina cheese. Ladle meat broth over. Top with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and a little nutmeg, if you like. Bake in a medium oven until the cheese melts.
Brett happens 