O Canada

I was lucky enough to spend this past week in Ottawa, Canada. If you have never been to Ottawa you should go. The people are wonderfully friendly and accommodating. In the hotel where I stayed, and the restaurants in which I ate, the level of service was high.

I was there as part of a Le Cordon Bleu International training program where chef instructors from the US are invited to Ottawa to reverse their roles, so to speak. We, the instructors, became the students. We had lectures on learning theory and classical cooking. We were able to experience the process of culinary education from the standpoint of a culinary student rather than as instructor.

We had the opportunity to meet fellow instructors from around the US and work with them for the first time. The instructors were also responsible for doing "teaching demos" where we presented, in teams, to our fellow "students". Nothing like having a dozen or so fellow chefs to critique your food and presentation style!

At the end of the week, we were treated to a formal dinner in the restaurant at the school, Signatures. The restaruant sommelier paired wines with the food.

1st course: Deconstructed Andalusian Gazpacho with Lobster served with a Sancerre, 2005, Chateau du Nozay, Pascal Jolivet. This was a gazpacho presented in a shot glass and then had its component parts featured in individual presentations on the plate. The wine was fruity, rich and with a wonderful undertone of minerality and chalkiness so typical of these wines.

Second course: Seared foie gras poele with a truffled boudin blanc and apple/rhubarb compote. The wine was Canadian, Niagra Escarpment 2006, Indian Summer Riesling. This is a delicious late harvest wine with all the penetrating flavors of a classical Riesling, and almost over ripe notes of apricots, peaches, and honey.

3rd course: Boletus crusted scallops with oxtail ravioli and truffle jus. An unusual combination that was not wholly successful and made the wine pairing somewhat problematical. The wine chosen, a Macon 2000, Les Heretiers du Comtes Lafon did not have the body to stand up to the assertive flavors of the food items. A better quality Burgundy would have worked better, or, my choice, an Alsatian Pinot Gris.


A granite led to the entree course:

Roasted veal medallions with truffle coated sweetbreads and gratinee Swiss chard and pine nuts.
The wine here worked wonderfully well, a 2003 Pommard, Clos de La Platiere, Prince de Merode. It displayed the legendary Pommard nose of earth, mushrooms and barnyard with a vibrant color and fruits flavor that was intense but always elegant.


A votre Sante.

A Sense of Place

In earlier postings I spoke about the Loire Valley and some of the wines. There are many components that go into making wine, but certainly one of the most important is the dirt. In a certain place, a winemaker can expect to produce a certain type of wine. This depends on climate and local weather. It certainly depends on the grape variety. But consider the dirt.

What is the top soil? What is it made of? How about the sub-soil? And maybe the bedrock? Is the top soil deep or shallow? Does the top soil lose or retain moisture? Are the vines able to penetrate the sub-soil to seek out nutrients and moisture? What happens when a vine does this? Can the vines seek deep roots to protect themselves from surface freezing of the soil in the winter and can they protect themselves against a dry growing season?

All these questions pertain directly to what we call TERROIR and it’s direct effect on the wines produced in a certain area. When all human influence is filtered out, what remains is the terroir, that special sense of place that can make the difference between an OK wine and a great wine.

The terroir does not guarantee a great wine. But certain types of terroir are more like to produce great wines than others. Certainly, the skill of the winemaker and vineyard manager are immensely important. But there are time tested characteristics that, tested over hundreds and hundreds of years, indicate where the best dirt is.

Indeed, as far back as the Etruscans and the Ancient Greeks, where a wine was made had a measurable effect on the choice of the grape variety as well as the price of wine produced.

So next time you try a well made wine, think dirty thoughts. But in a nice way.

Cheers.

How Sweet It Is-2

Last posting we talked about how some of the world's greatest sweet wines are made. This time, we'll take a look at some of these extraordinary wines and maybe get you to try some.

Sauternes: From Bordeaux, the Sauternes region precisely, these wines are some of the most luscious, complex and long ageing wines on the planet. Made primarily from the Semillon grape, and sometimes Saugignon Blanc as well, affected by botrytis, these wines exhibit flavors and aromas of honey, vanilla, oak, honeysuckle, sweet spice. The list goes on. With a satiny mouthfeel and long finish, these wines can be immensely satisfying.

What makes these wines, and all great sweet wines extraordinary, is balance: the balance the winemaker achieves between the intense sweetness, the acid and flavors highlighted in the wine. The fungus also adds a "flavor" as it is not removed when the wine is made.

The King of the Hill is Chateau d'Yquem. Are these wines expensive? Well, yeah! If you want to try this one, sell your house and buy a bottle. It's probably worth it. But also look at wines from Barsac and some of the lesser known regions: Bommes, Fargues, Preignac. SAUTERNES classifications put Yquem in a class by itself, Premier Cru Superieur Classe. Just below that come the classes of Premier Cru and Deuxieme Cru.

Late Harvest Wines from Germany and Austria: These wines are made mostly from the Riesling grape. Each category of late harvest wines has its own specific level of sugar required per liter. An Auslese has a certain amount, a Beerenauslese requires more. The categories are just about the same for the two countries: Auslese, Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese. Austria has an additional category, Ausbruch, that is between Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. Good names. huh? Auslese means grapes from a harvest, LESE, that are left over or remaining, AUS. Hence, AUSLESE. BEERENAUSLESE-beeren refers to grapes shriveled to around the size of blueberries or smaller, the result of botrytis extracting more and more water.
Trockenbeerenauslese means the shriveled berries of Beerenauslese have continued to shrink and are now raisin sized.

As you would expect, each degree of ripeness yields less and less wine per grape. The price goes up. Anything beyond Auslese must be individually picked berries. The cost goes up. In Germany, especially, where the climate can be variable at best, these wines cannot be produced every year. The price goes up. Get the idea?

Austrian late harvest wines tend to have more affordable prices as the conditions for production are less variable than in Germany. Most years will produce late harvest wines of wonderful richness.

These wines, beyond Auslese, are sold in 375ml bottles and can range from around $25 for an Austrian Beerenauslese to several hundred dollars for a German TBA, Trockenbeerenauslese.

Well, I wrote more than I thought I would.

To be continued. Where to next with sweet wines? Greece, Southern France, Canada, Alsace. Stay tuned.

How Sweet It Is!

Something may be rotten in Denmark that makes people a little crazy and prone to extreme acts. However, when we talk about a good rotten that's a different story.

I am not speaking of soul searching Danes here; rather, the rot of grapes know as "noble rot." This may be a tough concept for some folks, but hang in there. (Get it? Hang in there? Late harvest grapes hanging on the vines?) Anyway, if you are still reading, a magical process occurs under special circumstances that is oft-times responsible for some great sweet wines, what some would call dessert wines. More on that idea in the next column.

When grapes stay on vines longer than usual and certain weather patterns occur, there is a possibility of having Nature make a wonderful wine possible. The fungus, Botrytis Cinerea, attaches itself to the grape skins in the fall when moisture, generally in the form of ground fog or river mist, covers the vines. If the sun emerges later in the morning and drys the moisture on the grape, what's a fungus to do? We go inside the grape and get our water there. The fungus is interested in water: no sugar, no flavoring compounds, no dissolved grape solids. Water.

The fungus extracts the water, thereby concentrating everything else in the grape. And remember, the acid level in the grape is not affected by all this fungal drinking. With a skilled winemaker, it is now possible to make botrytised wines: grapes shriveled with all their flavoring elements concentrated are individually picked and gently pressed and crushed into luscious sweet wines. Some of the wines can last for a century or more in the bottle.

What makes these wines so special is that, despite the richness, of which sweetness is only one component, they are not cloying. Because the acid remains the wines retain a balanced flavor and texture profile. Sweet? Yes. Viscous? Yes. Lots of acid to make a body salivate? Yes.

Next posting I will speak of "dessert wine" and types of late harvest wines that you can serve as dessert.

Local Wines

If one were to enter a wine store or a restaurant and look at the offerings for sale, how many different chardonnays, cabernets, merlots, syrahs, etc. would one find? LOTS! Not that there is anything wrong with that. But how much is enough?

One of the most interesting aspects of the wine trade at the moment is the “discovery” of indigenous grape varieties that can produce excellent wines at their best; and well made and flavorful wines at the least. These are grape varieties that have previously not made the leap into the august realm of international celebrity status, but have remained on the more or less local level. Why are some of these grapes becoming more well known?

One of the reasons is that many of these “new” grapes are from southern Italy, Spain, the south of France; others are less well known Rhone Valley varietals, and so on. Some, such as Gruener Veltliner, are virtual specialties of a single country, in this case Austria. In the south of Europe, with a Mediterranean climate, days are very hot in summer. Without modern wine technology, white wines can often start to oxidize before they are pressed, with the result that the must is slightly brown and tastes bitter. Not exactly a great flavor profile to start with. Reds that ripen too quickly lose balance by being overly alcoholic and have a super ripe taste; that is because the balance of acid crucial to quality wines is not present in the grape must.

Modern wine technology can alleviate many of these problems. Night picking and temperature control fermentation tanks, refrigerated transport from vineyard to pressing facility, alcohol extraction, and advanced scientific knowledge have all made immense contributions to the quality improvement of less well know grapes; and often these grapes have come from regions that historically were not wealthy areas, think Puglia. The EU made money available for improving wine technology; we are seeing the results of these efforts now.

What is also happening is that producers in Spain, Italy, Greece, etc. are getting into international varieties, sometimes at the expense of local varieties. Albarino produces a wonderful white from Rias Baixas. But this terroir is also good for sauvignon blanc. Puglia has a wealth of black grapes, including Negroamaro, that produce earthy, tannic, rustic wines that marry with the intense flavors of the regional food. But classic red Bordeaux varietals also do well here. In Spain, we have Mencia, a very old native Spanish grape that produces a spicy, dark fruity wine and is just being discovered after about 2,000 years of hiding out! But this land also does well by syrah.

What I am getting at, is that we should relish the chances we have to sample all of these wonderful local wine varieties, as we do regional cuisines. Why would anyone go to Spain or Italy or Greece and eat at American style restaurants? Or watch American television shows at night? We have a wonderful opportunity not available to people ever before: to experience, appreciate, and cherish our regional differences in foods and wines from around the world. If I want a chardonnay I can select a Burgundy, a million labels from the US and Australia; if I want a cab, well you get the idea.

And remember, in addition to grape varieties, “local wines” reflect where they are produced. They reflect the Terroir where they live, the soul of the people who live there, and the foods that grew up on the same block as the wines.

Let’s just hope that winemakers do not give up the dynamic variety of local wines to offer yet another international flavor.