Wine Infographic: Wine and Food Pairing Cheat Sheet

Next in the wine cheat sheet series:  wine and food pairing.

To see the Cheat Sheet in full size…
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A Simple Greek Meal with Greek Wine

This week kicked off a project relating to the history of wine, which I’ll be working on for the next year and a half. (More on that soon.) To mark the occasion I decided to drink a wine from one of the oldest winemaking countries in the world. The Greeks have made wine since at least 600 BC or so, and possibly much earlier.

The cheapest, easiest, laziest way to cook with wine.

Okay, I know what I'm about to say sounds bad, and I'm the first one to advocate for drinking good wine and serving it correctly. But when it comes to cooking with wine, I just don't have the time (or the budget) to be a perfectionist. So I've developed some strategies to get the great flavors from cooking with wine without any of the hassle.

The general rule is to not cook with any wine that you wouldn't want to drink. You might open a single bottle to put into the dish you're cooking and to drink while you eat it. Or, if you're cooking with the leftovers from an open bottle from a few days ago, you'll want to make sure you preserved that bottle properly, using a vacuum or gas system and putting the wine in the fridge.

This approach is admittedly not that hard, but I have a few issues with it, because maybe I'm cheap and/or lazy. First, I'll spend about $15 on a bottle of wine to drink with dinner. I won't do it every day, and I'll spend more on special occasions. I'm reluctant to pour a $15-a-bottle wine into spaghetti sauce. If I spent the money and chose the wine, I want to drink it! And if I'm supposed to always cook with wine I would drink, then we have a problem.

Second, I cook dinner for my husband and myself 4 or 5 nights a week. This requires a lot of both planning and improvising. Sometimes I plan a meal and use a recipe; sometimes I make it up as I go along from whatever we happen to have in the house. Sometimes we're drinking wine with dinner, sometimes not. Figuring out which bottle of wine to cook with complicates things, not in an insurmountable way, but in an "I worked all day and need to cook something healthy and fast and I don't want to deal with one more thing" kind of way.

Ideally, it would be nice to have a couple of different types of wine on hand for cooking (red, white, etc.), without having to plan ahead, without having to worry about an open bottle spoiling, without cringing as you pour some of your yummy $15 bottle into the pan.

Here's how you do it!

An Organic Bargain from Chile

I've written a couple of times before (here and here) about Emiliana in Chile.  Emiliana produces organic grapes which are farmed sustainably, and some of their wines are biodynamic.  (More on biodynamic wine here.)  I liked the wines I had tasted so far, but I had never tried Emiliana's Sauvignon Blanc.  So when I saw it in Fresh Market today for $10, I had to try it.

Emiliana's Natura Sauvignon Blanc comes from the Casablanca Valley in the Aconcagua Region in northern Chile (check the Chilean Wine Cheat Sheet to see where that is).  Its aromas are fresh and crisp, with lime, grapefruit, and grassy notes.  Like most Sauvignon Blanc, it has a bit of vegetal character (like asparagus or canned mushrooms).  The flavor is dry but fruity, crisp and tart, with tropical fruit and citrus notes.  Overall it's well balanced and has a nice finish.

I drank it with a spinach and mushroom crustless quiche, and it was perfect.  

You really can't do better than this for a $10 Sauvignon Blanc.  This one is going into my regular rotation.

top 5 things to know about eculent

eculent opened last year, but I just recently learned about it and ate there last week. I don’t often review restaurants, but this one is unique, local, and has a winery connection!

1.  molecular gastronomy

Some people hate this term, but it’s frequently used to describe cuisine that combines science and art with food. It presents food in unusual forms (powder, foam, gel, freeze-dried) with unusual combinations of flavors. eculent adds visual and auditory elements to create “cognitive cuisine.” Explore the “lab” on their web site for more information about the technology involved in making the food. Sometimes this type of food is considered snobbish, but the manager told us directly that the food is meant to be fun. If an elegant meal can be playful, this one was.

2.  local focus with 3, 8-course seasonal tasting menus

The 3 menus are:

• “flora” – vegetarian, gluten free, and sourced from within 25 miles.
• “1845” – Texas-inspired (includes meat of course), and sourced from within 250 miles.
• “coast to coast” – sourced within 2,500 miles.

When I ate at eculent, my husband and I ordered “flora” and “1845” and shared everything. The menus had several dishes in common. Consider ordering “flora” even if you are not vegetarian. The meat was excellent, but I find that vegetarian tasting menus are often more innovative than ones with meat. A few weeks before dining at eculent I happened to have eaten at the French Laundry, and I was the only person at my table to order the vegetarian menu there. I was happy I did, because I think the limitation of not including meat drove the chef to create more interesting and unusual dishes. I also find that vegetables are more difficult to prepare well and display the skill of the chef more than meat.

The menus range from $95 to $135. Eating here is not cheap, but is a good value for the meal you get. Many people would spend that much on a fancy steak dinner, but for my money this kind of unique and exciting meal is a far better investment. Sometimes people see pictures of tiny, elegant bites of food and worry that they’ll go home hungry. You won’t! Remember, there are LOTS of little plates coming your way. 

3.  home-grown veggies

eculent focuses on farm-to-table eating, so all of the greens for our meal were grown on site. This makes them ridiculously fresh and extra delicious. In keeping with the scientific leanings of the restaurant, eculent uses hydroponic growing systems designed by NASA.

4.  locally made wine

eculent and Clear Creek Winery share the same owner and the same building. eculent is on the ground level, the winery is on the 2nd level, and the tasting room is at the top. eculent serves wine (and mead, port, etc.), but no beer or liquor. All the wine is made on site at the winery, with grapes coming from California and Texas. You can order by the glass or get the wine pairings that are matched with each course of the menu. The night we went to eculent this included a sparkling aperitif, a glass of white wine, 2 reds, a mead, and a port-style dessert wine. I recommend splitting the wine pairings with a 2nd person unless you have a high alcohol tolerance!

Serving only locally made wine in this case is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side, serving a local product fits perfectly within the farm-to-table ethos of the restaurant and allows wine to be crafted specifically to match the food. On the negative side, the quality of the wine is a step down from the quality of the food. At my meal, between the paired wines and the wines my fellow diners ordered by the glass and allowed me to taste, I tried 7 wines. They were a mixed bag, including a good sparkling Moscato from Texas grapes, a somewhat odd Pinot Gris, a slightly fizzy Pinot Noir, a pleasantly floral Petite Syrah, a very tasty red blend (of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Syrah), an incredible orange-spiced mead, and a fine port-style wine.  (Clear Creek Winery will get its own, more detailed post soon.)

5.  it’s in kemah ... yes, kemah

I love the Kemah Boardwalk, but it makes me think of tourism, kitsch, dive bars, and bikers, rather than exotic top-echelon dining. I’m thrilled to discover this unexpected gem in my own backyard. Much of the cool stuff that Houston has to offer is stuck inside the loop, so it’s great to have one more thing to brag about in the Clear Lake area. 

I loved my meal, and I left wanting to return as soon as possible! 

Easy Chocolate-Port Brownies

I was tasting wine in Sonoma last week with some friends, who loved a Port-style wine but were hesitant to buy a bottle because they didn't know if they'd finish it before it spoiled. I proposed 2 solutions to this problem:

1)  Keep the bottle in the fridge and have a few sips every night after dinner.  That bottle will be empty before you know it.

2)  Make Port brownies!

I first experienced Port brownies in a wine class, when each week a different student was responsible for bringing dinner for the class. One girl brought these brownies, and we all fell in love with them. They're simple but impressive. Here's how to make them.

Buy a good quality brownie mix, like Ghirardelli. You'll also need Port and some dried cherries. Look at the amount of water (or milk) the brownie directions call for, and measure out that much Port instead. Take some dried cherries - about 1/2 cup, or however much looks good to you - and soak them in the Port while the oven heats up. Continue to mix the brownies according to the directions on the box. (It may work best to remove the cherries from the Port, mix the Port into the the other ingredients, then gently fold in the cherries at the end.) Bake as directed.

For a really impressive dessert, serve these brownies with the Port you used to make them.  The flavors will be wonderful together.  Port, cherries, and chocolate are a perfect match.

For a fancy way to serve them, I like to use this tequila set.  I don't drink much tequila, but this nifty set is perfect for Port and brownies.  It comes with six glasses and a tray, or as single serving pieces.

     

Meet Ferrari (not the car, the sparkling wine!)

Lately, I've been interested in learning about wines from higher altitudes (as you may have noticed from the Wine Altitude Cheat Sheet and the article on wines from San Juan, Argentina), and an invitation I received to taste the wonderful sparkling wines of Ferrari fit perfectly with that theme.

Giulio Ferrari founded the company in 1902, and in 1952 handed it over to the Lunelli family, which still runs it. Fun fact:  by law the name Ferrari may be used in Italy only by the car maker and the wine maker - no one else. 

Ferrari is famous for its sparkling wines made in the traditional method (though it also makes mineral water, Prosecco, grappa, and non-sparkling wines). Only 10% of sparkling Italian wines are made using this method, and Ferrari is the most well known producer. The traditional method is the same as the method used in Champagne and is called Metodo Classico in Italy. (See the details of this process here. Most Italian sparkling wines, like Prosecco and Moscato d'Asti, are made using the tank or Charmat method.)

The sparkling wines of Ferrari have several things in common with Champagne, in addition to using the same process. A second similarity is the grapes, as the wines are made primarily from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. A third is the soil:  Ferrari's grapes grow mainly on limestone, while Champagne is famous for its chalk, which is a type of limestone.

Ferrari's vineyards are located in the Trento DOC area, within the larger winemaking region of Trentino-Alto Adige in far northern Italy. Altitudes range from 985-2300 feet (300-700 meters). You can read about the potential effects of higher altitude winemaking here, but in this case the most important effects are that it helps the Chardonnay grapes to maintain their acidity, slows the grapes' ripening so the flavors can become more complex, and creates very gentle tannins in the Pinot Noir. Some say the altitude also helps the resulting wine stay younger and fresher longer.

Ferrari's grapes are both estate grown and supplied by local growers in close partnership. No herbicides or pesticides are used, and all the growers are either already organic or transitioning to organic.

Ferrari's sparkling wines come in 3 categories:

• The Classic Range, including Ferrari Brut and Ferrari Rosé
• The Perlé Range, including the regular Perlé, the Perlé Rosé, and the Perlé Nero, with about 5-6 years of aging
• The Riserva Range, including the Lunelli and Giulio Ferrari wines, with 8-10+ years of aging

Despite the similarities with Champagne, these wines do come across quite differently. They give a younger, fresher impression, with less of the richness, heaviness, or breadiness that some people don't like about Champagne. But they maintain the great flavor and complexity that you want from a good sparkling wine. The prices are attractive, with the Classic Range starting at below $30 per bottle. The upper level ranges are also competitive with the prices of top quality Champagne.

I tasted Ferrari's delicious wines at Houston favorite Tony's restaurant, paired with wonderful food, and I've included some of my notes below. I hope you'll try Ferrari for yourself this holiday season. I love these wines, and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Ferrari Perlé 2007, 100% Chardonnay, $35

Aromas of brioche, apple, peach, floral. Tastes crisp, young, and fresh, despite being 7 years old. This was served with a salmon tower with cucumber, granny smith apple, avocado, and mango. Try it with any seafood or poultry that's light, fresh, and not too strongly flavored.

Ferrari Perlé Rosé 2006, 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay, $59

The wine is a beautiful pink-salmon color, with most of the aromas mentioned above, plus ripe strawberry (and maybe candied orange?). It was served with lobster risotto with mushrooms and lobster roe. This is for your seafood or poultry that's rich and a bit more flavorful.

Ferrari Perlé Nero 2006, 100% Pinot Noir, $78

This is similar to the rosé described above, but richer and heavier. Accordingly, it should be paired with food that's one step heavier and richer as well. We drank it with heirloom beet and foie gras soup. The soup was possibly the most surprising dish of the meal, rich and delicious. I like beets, but I had no idea they could taste like this. I ate it all before I even thought about taking a picture...


Moving on to the Riserva Range...

Ferrari Riserva Lunelli 2006, 100% Chardonnay, $59

This wine goes back to Chardonnay, but has more tartness and minerality than the Perlé made from Chardonnay. It's quite rich, with vanilla aromas that come from the 1st fermentation in oak.

Giulio Ferrari 2001, 100% Chardonnay, $100

Due to the age, this wine was a dark yellow color, almost gold, and smelled of roasted pineapple, brioche, honey, pastry, and almond. Amazing.

With the previous 2 wines we ate halibut with caviar, raisins, and kale.

Giulio Ferrari 1995, 100% Chardonnay, $100

I felt so lucky to get to try this one. It was still amazing after 19 years, with aromas of almonds, honey, vanilla, floral, a maybe a little raisin?

For dessert we had a pineapple and white chocolate "candy bar," which was even more decadent than it looks.

Wines for Thanksgiving

I've been drinking more Texas wine lately, so this year I'm serving Texas wine at Thanksgiving.  I like to offer guests a red and a white, so I've chosen McPherson Viognier and Becker Claret.

Here are some previous posts that can help you decide what to drink with your Thanksgiving meal this year:

-- Riesling, whether sweet or dry, is a classic choice.  If you go this route, you might want to consult the Riesling Cheat Sheet or "My continuing quest for cheap, dry Riesling."

-- Reds or rosés from the Southern Rhone Valley in France would also be a good choice.

-- If you're interested in serving sparkling wine, check out "The 2-Minute Guide to Bubbles."

-- See last year's recommendations for reds, whites, and sparkling wines at "Ideas for Thanksgiving."

-- I recently posted the Botrytis Cheat Sheet, a primer on the fungus that contributes to many amazing dessert wines. Any of these botrytis-affected wines would pair well with your pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving!

How to Host a Chianti Tasting Party

Recently I received 3 Chiantis to try (full disclosure: these were sent to me as samples), so I set up a tasting party with some friends who are Chianti fans. We paired all 3 wines with a variety of appetizers and snacks – the kind you might serve at an informal party. If you're hosting a holiday party this year, make it a wine tasting! Chianti pairs well with Fall weather!

THE SETUP

It's always a good idea to start with a little background information about the wines. We used the Chianti Cheat Sheet to familiarize ourselves with what we were drinking.  I find this extremely helpful for answering the basic questions that everyone has at the start of a tasting, like where the wines are from, what the names mean, which grapes are involved, etc.  All my Wine Cheat Sheets are designed for easy printing on standard 8.5 x 11 paper, so you can easily print a few to have on hand.

  

We also used wine aroma wheels to help us figure out what we were smelling and tasting in the wine. It’s a good idea to provide pen and paper too, in case people want to record their impressions.

Offering a separate glass for each wine is a great idea, if you have enough glassware, and if it’s a sit-down event. (More on choosing glassware here. I use these.) It really helps to be able to compare the wines next to each other. For a walk-around party, one glass per person would work. To help everyone keep track of which wine is in which glass, I find a numbered tasting placemat helpful (though not essential). I made these myself using PowerPoint, then printed and laminated them at a local office supply store. 

 

To make your own tasting placemats, view the picture below in full size, then print.

 

A new addition to my table was the chalkboard table runner. It did quadruple duty by numbering the wine bottles to match the placemats, showing basic information about the wine, letting people share their impressions creatively by writing (or drawing?) them on the runner, and protecting the table from spills. I am officially in love with it. (Items made from chalkboard fabric have been appearing online and in craft stores a lot lately. Buy chalkboard markers to write on them, and then you can erase using a damp paper towel.)

  

THE WINES

We tasted 3 Chiantis:  1 basic Chianti DOCG, 1 Chianti Classico, and 1 Chianti Classico Riserva. A combination like this is a good choice for a tasting, because you’ll get three fairly similar wines, but they’ll also have noticeable differences, due to slightly different requirements (see below). The ability to compare and contrast creates the most interesting tasting (for more about that, see "Building a Better Wine Tasting").

Wines from the Chianti region of Italy have to meet different requirements based on how they are labeled:

• Chianti requires 75% Sangiovese grapes and 3 months of aging.
• Chianti Classico requires 80% Sangiovese grapes and 10 months of aging.
• Chianti Classico Riserva requires 80% of Sangiovese grapes and 24 months of aging.

Here's what we tasted:

1) Bolla Chianti

Bolla Chianti has bright, tart cherry flavors with a bit of blackberry mixed in. Medium acid and tannin levels make it easy to drink and easy to like. It's 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo (remember that Chiantis must be at least 75% Sangiovese, but many exceed that minimum). 12.5% abv

It paired especially well with spicy salami (more about the food in a minute).

2) Banfi Chianti Classico

Banfi Chianti Classico is a bit deeper in color and flavor than Bolla, with black cherry and tobacco aromas. The acids and tannins are both a bit more intense, but the alcohol is the same at 12.5% abv. Chianti Classico is typically a bit more rich and intense than Chianti. As required, Banfi Chianti Classico is predominately Sangiovese, but is mixed with small amounts of Canaiolo Nero and Cabernet Sauvignon.

This Classico paired especially well with sheep's milk cheese, raspberries, and apricot jam.

3) Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva

The main difference between Chianti Classico and Chianti Classico Riserva is additional aging, which imparts more vanilla and smoke aromas. This wine is heavier, richer, higher in acid, higher in tannin, and higher in alcohol (at 13% abv) than the previous two. Riservas are built for aging, and I think this one, which was already the favorite of the night, would be even better after a few more years in the bottle.

The Riserva paired especially well with strong cheeses and the saltier foods.

True to style and as expected, tasting the 3 Chiantis in this order revealed a progression from lighter and fruitier to heavier and richer. Our group, comprised mostly of lovers of big red wines, preferred the wines in that order with the Riserva being the overall favorite. The general sentiment went from “this is good” (Bolla Chianti) to “this is even better” (Banfi Chianti Classico) to “this is REALLY good!” (Banfi Chianti Classico Riserva).

Because these wines are all reasonably priced, you could drink them as an everyday red to go with dinner, or serve them for a group at a tasting party without breaking the bank.

On this particular week night, when most of us had to get up early for work the next day, 3 bottles were more than enough for 4 people. Of course, on a weekend that could vary. Keep in mind that each bottle holds 4 full glasses, so for larger groups you may need more than 1 bottle of each wine you want to taste.

THE FOOD

Here are some recommendations for foods to serve at wine tasting parties, and with Chianti in particular.

Herb bread:  Herb bread is always yummy, but it goes particularly well with Chianti, which tends to have a more herbal, savory quality than many other reds.

Sliced Meats:  For Chianti, I recommend things like salami, pastrami, or prosciutto.  You’ll find that some wines will hold up better against a spicy sausage, and some not as well, but the experimentation is half the fun.  Foie gras (or any another type of paté) is another good option, which provides a rich, mellow contrast to Chianti’s strong favors.  (These days you can even find tasty vegetarian styles!)

Selection of cheeses:  Go for a mix of styles – sharp, creamy, soft, hard/aged.  Not only will you have something for every person’s taste, but you’ll discover that they pair differently with the different wines.

Fresh fruit:  We had raspberries, which went very well with the Chianti.  Cherries and blackberries would have been great too.  Try to pick fruits that will match some of the fruit flavors you expect to find in the wine.

Raw veggies:  Baby tomatoes and sliced red and yellow bell peppers went well with the Chiantis.  I tried raw jicama for the first time and learned it’s a fantastic palate cleanser between wines, as well as being delicious on its own – sort of the texture of an apple, but with much less sweetness and tartness. Of course, carrots are always crowd-pleasers.

Olives:  These are just a great addition to any appetizer plate, but sometimes they play nicely with wine and sometimes not.  Chiantis have a good chance of standing up to the strong flavors of olives.

Jams/preserves/honey:  A bite of something sweet is always welcome when you’re serving so many strong, savory flavors.  Again, try to pick a flavor that will fit with the flavors of the wine.  In our case, we had apricot-rosemary preserves.  The rosemary echoed the herbal flavors in the bread and the wines and kept the preserves from seeming too sweet.

Dessert:  Speaking of dessert, chocolate and red wine are a match made in heaven.  We happened to have dark chocolate ice cream, but anything dark chocolate would do nicely – brownies, a good quality chocolate bar, etc.  (If you’re making brownies and happen to have some Port handy, use it as part of the liquid ingredient in the recipe!)

If you throw a Chianti tasting party, or any kind of wine tasting party, I’d love to know how it went. Did these ideas work for you? Did you think of better ones? Send pictures!

  

Visiting Tara in East Texas and Tasting Stagecoach Red

Tara Winery is part of the Piney Woods Wine Trail in northeast Texas.  I visited the winery a few years ago and really enjoyed the wines, but only recently drank the bottle I purchased when I was there.  As you may have guessed from the picture, Tara is named after and built to resemble Scarlett O'Hara's house from Gone with the Wind.

Tara grows the Lenoir grape (aka Black Spanish) onsite and buys other grape varieties from other places. This estate-grown Lenoir figures prominently in my favorite of their wines, Stagecoach Red.  It's made from 50% Lenoir, 30% Merlot, and 20% Syrah (from California). This bottle was not vintage dated, but I purchased it in 2012.

• Color:  Medium ruby-garnet
• Aroma:  Red and black fruits, toffee, sweet baking spice, cedar, plum, plus a hint of tobacco and vegetal aromas. 
• Palate:  The flavors on the palate generally matched the aromas, with a hint of smokiness on the finish. Medium acid and strong tannin.  12.5% abv
• Price:  $18 at the winery (in 2012)

I love this stuff.  My notes from tasting it at the winery were positive, but the wine improved as it aged. (I stored it in a wine fridge for most of the 2 1/2 years before I drank it.)  It might have improved for another year or so, perhaps, but I think I got lucky and ended up drinking this bottle at or near its peak.  It really did taste great.

  

I drank Stagecoach Red with what we happened to have for dinner that night:  spaghetti squash topped with a rich, meaty tomato sauce, which I made in the slow-cooker with herbs, capers, and chicken thighs.  It was a big wine for this food, but still paired reasonably well.  The earthy sweetness of the squash paired with the fruity/earthy/sweet-spice qualities in the wine, and the wine was acidic enough to stand up to the tomato sauce.  This pairing worked because of the rich sauce, but Stagecoach Red would really shine with grilled meat or a steak.

I believe Tara's wines are currently available only in east Texas and the DFW area, or directly from the winery when you order online or join the wine club.  I'm hoping they'll appear in the Houston area soon.

My continuing quest for cheap, dry Rieslings

As regular readers know, dry Riesling is quite possibly my favorite white wine.  Many good, dry Rieslings are priced around $20 (or more), which puts them out of my "everyday wine" price range, so I'm always looking for inexpensive options.

First, it bears repeating that, contrary to popular belief, not all Rieslings are sweet.  There are various ways to tell whether a bottle of Riesling will be sweet, dry, or somewhere in between.  I wrote about a strategy for predicting the sweetness level of German wines here.  Even better is the International Riesling Foundation's sweetness scale, which some producers put on their labels.

My current favorite cheap, dry Riesling is Pewsey Vale from the Eden Valley in Australia (which I've mentioned before here).  It runs $12 - $15, which is a great value.  But there are several other dry Rieslings which are widely available and even cheaper!  So of course I had to try them.  

The title holder and the challengers:

  

The 2 "challenger" dry Rieslings both come from the Columbia Valley in Washington State.  The Pacific Rim Dry Riesling costs about $9, while the Chateau Ste. Michelle is around $8.  Incidentally, they both use the International Riesling Foundation's sweetness scale on their back labels (as does Pewsey Vale).

One difference between these wines jumps out right away - the different bottle shapes.  Chateau Ste. Michelle uses the traditional German flute, while Pacific Rim uses the common "Bordeaux" bottle.  This can indicate a difference in the style of the wine.  German-style Rieslings tend to be lighter and more minerally (less fruit-forward), while Rieslings from the "new world" of wine (outside Europe) tend to be richer and fruitier.  Sure enough, when I tasted them side by side, Pacific Rim was fruitier, while Chateau Ste. Michelle in the German-style bottle was lighter and leaner.

Here are the full tasting notes:

2012 Pacific Rim Dry Riesling

• Color:  pale yellow
• Aroma:  pungent citrus and rich apricot with mineral undertones
• Palate:  high acid, flavors generally match aromas, slightly bitter and hot on the finish, medium body, 12.5% abv

2012 Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling

• Color:  pale yellow
• Aroma:  bright lemon and peach with lots of earthy, mineral character, and a hint of the "petrol" quality that some Rieslings have
• Palate:  high acid, flavors generally match aromas, medium body (but a bit lighter than Pacific Rim), 13% abv  (Though this alcohol level is higher than the Pacific Rim, this wine seems better balanced and integrated.)

Neither of these were bad wines, but they didn't blow me away.  I liked the Chateau Ste. Michelle a little better.  They're both a good value for the price, but I think in most cases I'd pay a few dollars more and buy a bottle of Pewsey Vale.  So Pewsey Vale remains my favorite cheap, dry Riesling, but I'll keep my eyes open for other potential contenders.  Please let me know if you have one to recommend!

A note on food pairings:  Rieslings are often paired with Asian and/or highly spiced foods, so I drank these with Baharat roasted cauliflower and Indian-spiced eggplant over pasta.  Please forgive my poor food photography...

The wines paired well with these dishes.  But don't forget that the Riesling grape originates in Germany, so Rieslings are a good choice with any type of German food as well, like sausage and sauerkraut, pork chops, chicken and dumplings, etc.

Drinking Barolo and Eating Rose Petals

I've written before about how long to store and age wine (the question of "when to drink") and admitted that I often wait too long to drink wines, because I'm saving them for the perfect occasion.  Well, recently I opened a wine that I'd been saving, and I think I got the timing just about right (if not early), so I thought I'd share my experience.

I purchased a 2003 Prunotto Barolo about 6 years ago and had been storing it in a wine fridge.  A Barolo is a type of wine (DOCG level) from Piedmont in northern Italy which is made from the Nebbiolo grape.  Many Barolos can age and improve for decades.  They can be very expensive, but Prunotto is mid-range.  To decide when to drink my bottle, I did a little research online.  Some sites recommended aging this wine for a few more years to reach its peak, while quite a few of the personal reviews from those who had tasted the wine suggested it was time to drink now.  Since I had the right occasion coming up - the birthday of a friend who loves big, red wines - I decided to go ahead and open it.

The typical aromas of Barolo (and Nebbiolo) are roses and tar, and they usually have a lot of acid and tannin.  This Barolo had aromas of fresh and dried cherries, along with floral and earthy qualities.  The flavors basically matched the aromas, with an earthy, savory finish.  It tasted great.

As wines age, their characteristics change:

• fresh fruit aromas/flavors turn to dried fruit
• fruity aromas/flavors diminish, while non-fruit aromas become more prominent
• acid levels diminish
• tannin levels diminish (the tannin molecules join together and precipitate out of the wine, creating sediment)

So, did I drink this wine at the right time?  Yes and no.  I could have waited longer, because the wine still had lots of fruit aromas, lots of acid, lots of tannin, and surprisingly little sediment.  This tells me it could have aged longer and developed more complex aromas.  On the other hand, 11 years is a decent amount of bottle aging, the wine was delicious, and it was a good choice for the occasion.  I don't regret drinking it, but the next time I have a bottle of Barolo, I'll probably give it a few more years.

Here's what we drank it with:

Fresh bread and sharp cheese are always a good idea.  The espresso rind on this cheese made it especially good with the earthy flavors in the Barolo.

Sundried tomato tapenade and sausage are great options with Italian wines.

 Of course, cherries went well with the cherry aromas in the wine.

Because of the typical rose aroma, I thought it would be fun to smell/taste with actual, edible rose petals.  I bought these candied rose petals online, and they paired really well!  (The ingredients are just rose petals and sugar.)

Dark chocolate is usually good with big red wines.

We also had a few other cheeses, some wine crackers, and fresh tomatoes with balsamic vinegar.

The full spread:

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A Tuscan wine with simple, Tuscan-inspired food

This week I planned to write about Banfi's Rosso di Montalcino.  As usual, I was tasting it on a weeknight, after a long day of work, having given very little thought to what was for dinner or whether it would go with a Tuscan wine.  Following the general rule that "what grows together goes together," I figured I needed some classic Tuscan flavors.  Following my rule that if I get home from work after 6pm and intend to do a serious tasting I will not spend more than 30 minutes making dinner, I needed simple food that would come together quickly.  A 2-minute Google search confirmed my expectation that marinara sauce and salami were good options.  It turns out that truffles are classically Tuscan as well, which worked in my favor since I happened to have truffle butter at home. With the addition of bread to dip in the marinara, spinach to saute in the truffle butter, and some roasted onions for good measure, we had a meal that would pair nicely with the wine.

3 things I should probably mention:  1)  Roasting onions in the oven is the greatest thing ever, and I can't believe I went so many years without knowing that.  2)  I love the taste of salami, but I don't like greasy foods, so I always cook mine to remove some of the grease.  (Confession:  when I say "cook" I mean "microwave for a minute in between lots of layers of paper towels."  It's not classy, but it works like a charm.)  3)  Cheese would have been an obvious and delicious addition to the spread, but I'm lactose intolerant, so I don't have cheese around the house very often.  (The small amount of truffle butter for the sauteed spinach was not enough to be an issue.)

Finally time to drink!

Rosso di Montalcino is a DOC region in Tuscany, just south of Chianti Classico.  It's made in the same area as its bigger brother Brunello di Montalcino, but Rosso requires less aging, so it is lighter, fruitier, cheaper, and less tannic.  Both are made from 100% Sangiovese grapes.

Here are the details on the Banfi Rosso di Montalcino from 2011:

• Color:  Medium ruby with a hint of garnet.
• On the nose:  Cherry, cranberry, plum, leather, and spice, with more subtle floral and mineral qualities.
• On the palate:  Dry, with flavors that generally match the aromas.  High acid, medium+ tannin, 14% abv.

This wine has a nice balance of fruity and savory characteristics.  The tannin is higher than it seems at first, since the mouth-watering acidity (this is a compliment) masks the tannin somewhat.  It opened up and mellowed out in the glass, so I think you could either drink this now or hold it for another 3-4 years easily. If you're impatient, you could decant it, but you'd miss experiencing the gradual in-the-glass evolution.

All the food paired just fine.  The standouts were the tomato sauce and the salami - no big surprise. Sangiovese really can't be beat when you're eating tomato sauce.  The spices in the salami brought out the spice notes in the wine.  The earthiness of the spinach, truffle butter, and onions were good too. 

My local Spec's on Bay Area stocks this wine and sells it for $20.  At that price, at least in my mind, it's not meant to be a regular weeknight thing, but it doesn't have to be saved for a special occasion either (like you might do with its big brother Brunello).  This is a great in-between wine for when you feel like indulging a little, and not regretting it later.

Comparing 2 Texas Viogniers

Almost a year ago I linked to an article about a competition in which wines made from Texas-grown Viognier grapes beat wines from France's Rhone Valley (the home of the grape) and California.  (Go here for the full story of the tasting and a list of winners.)  Viogniers are one of the rising stars of the Texas wine industry, and I've been wanting to get to know them better, so I selected 2 to taste and compare.  I wanted 2 Texas Viogniers that both scored well in last year's tasting, are widely available, not too expensive, and roughly the same price.  So I picked McPherson and Becker.  Both the McPherson and Becker Viogniers are made from grapes grown in the panhandle of Texas (though Becker is based in the hill country).  Both were the 2012 vintages.  Let's taste!

2012 McPherson Viognier

McPherson is located in the Texas High Plains wine region, which is in the panhandle of the state. This Viognier finished 4th in last year's tasting.

• Color:  Deep yellow.
• On the nose:  Tropical fruits and floral aromas dominate, along with peach, banana, and some earthy minerality.  
• On the palate:  The flavors on the palate generally match the aromas on the nose.  Full body, high acid. 13.9% abv.

I really like this one, and at $13 a bottle I will buy it again.  The rich flavors and full body combine with high acidity to make a versatile wine.  (I happened to be eating German food the night I tasted this, and it paired nicely.)  

2012 Becker Vineyards Viognier

This wine finished 3rd in last year's tasting.  The website tells me it also won a silver medal in Lyon, France. Though Becker is based in the hill country, these grapes also came from a vineyard in the panhandle. 

• Color:  Deep yellow.
• On the nose:  More minerality than the McPherson, with fruit aromas leaning more toward stone fruit than tropical.  Less fruity overall than the McPherson, but with more floral qualities.
• On the palate:  As on the nose, there is less fruit character on the palate here, but more floral, earthy, and mineral character.  Slightly higher in acid and lighter in body than the other Viognier.  Higher in alcohol at 14.4%. 

In my opinion, two things detracted from this wine, but only one of them is likely to be the wine's fault.  First, I wasn't crazy about the floral qualities.  This is probably my issue, not the wine's.  I enjoy floral character in wine, but certain flavors put me off and make me feel like I'm drinking perfume.  For example, Gewurztraminer and I have never gotten along.  I know, I'm crazy.  But this Viognier reminded me of the Gewurztraminer flavors that I don't like.  Becker's website says the floral aroma is of violets, so maybe I just don't like violets...  Anyway, it's nothing against the wine. Second and more important, I found the alcohol level too high, causing the wine to be out of balance. Perhaps a richer fruit component could have stood up to such a high alcohol level.  Like the McPherson, the Becker Viognier costs about $13.

Conclusion

I prefer the McPherson Viognier to the Becker, though the Becker performed better in last year's tasting. They're both reasonably priced, so if you're like me and you drink far more white wines in summer than any other time of the year, give one or both of these a try.

Improve Your Tasting Skills: Sauvignon Blanc and Gooseberries

Students of wine always want to improve their recognition of wine aromas and flavors.  A great way to do this is to smell and taste wine while you smell and taste the fruit that the wine smells like. With some wines, this is an easy task, because the fruits are readily available – lemons, limes, apples, peaches, strawberries, etc. Sauvignon Blanc is trickier.

The aroma of Sauvignon Blanc is often compared to gooseberries, especially if the wine comes from a New World wine region like New Zealand.  Gooseberries aren’t common in the United States, so most of us have no idea how they taste or smell.  But I have tracked them down!  Here are some local places where you can get your hands on gooseberries.

• Spec’s downtown location sells: 

Maintal Gooseberry Fruit Spread from Germany ($4 for 12oz)
Tiptree Gooseberry Preserves from England ($7 for 12oz)
Vavel Gooseberry Jam from Poland ($3 for 16oz)

 

• Oregon brand gooseberries in syrup can sometimes be found in grocery stores, in the canned fruit aisle or with the pie filling.

• IKEA sells gooseberry preserves.  I'm not sure if our local Houston store still stocks them, but you can order them online.  







• Gooseberries have a secret identity!  They are sometimes called golden berries and marketed as a "super food" in health food stores.  Golden berries are usually sold dried. You can buy them at Whole Foods Market (in the super food section in the health foods and supplements aisles in the center of the store, next to the wheatgrass).  Amazon sells them too, at a slightly higher price.  In Clear Lake, the new Fresh Market on Bay Area sells dark chocolate covered golden berries in the candy/bulk section.

• Speaking of golden berries, I've noticed in the last few days that one of the varieties of Evolution Harvest fruit and nut mix sold at Starbucks includes them (along with cashews, cranberries, and almonds).    

I've tried the Vavel gooseberry jam, the plain dried golden berries, and the Starbucks mix.  The jam tastes sweet and mild.  The dried berries have a strong, tart flavor more reminiscent of actual Sauvignon Blanc wine, so this would be my top recommendation.  The golden berries in the Starbucks mix are less tart.

Pick up some gooseberries (or golden berries) and improve your tasting skills.  Plus, it turns out they're probably good for you too!

Do you know of any other ways to get gooseberries?  I'd love to try them fresh!