Fresh Halibut

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in southwest Ohio. There was full sunshine and all the new, green that spring brings with it. It was cool, but a light jacket was all one needed to be outside.

One more sign of spring is the appearance of Alaskan Halibut in the area seafood departments. The fish is bright white, clean, and totally refreshing. It was dusted with a bit of chipotle powder, pan seared on the flesh side for a minute to give it a slight crust, flipped over and finished in a hot oven with a couple of crusty rolls. The sauce was a reduction of orange and lemon juice with butter added at the last minute. There was fresh asparagus and some Butanese red rice to fill out the plate. The red rice is firm in texture and has a distinctly earthy taste to it that I find appealing.

The wine was a 2007 Chapoutier Belleruche Cotes du Rhone Blanc. The nose was interesting because there was a bit of banana hiding among the ripe apple, peach and melon notes. This wine has more body than a crisp young white, and the acid was a touch low but it matched well with the citrus sauce on the fish and was superb with the Butanese rice. The rice brought out an earthiness in the wine that the fish and citrus did not. It was an interesting combination.

Today is Easter and that makes it the unofficial opening of "summer rose'" season. There's a family gathering with a large ham so there will be a couple of rose's to try.

Good Friday Wine

The title here is somewhat of a play on words because this was really an excellent Friday wine that just happened to get opened on Good Friday.

This was my last bottle of the 1995 Fontodi Chianti Classico Riserva, Vigna del Sorbo. The color was beginning to turn on the edges from red to reddish umber (Sienna?) but the body of the wine was still dark red. The nose was bright, tart cherries, smoke, and some dried herbs. The taste was mouth filling with the cherries, tasting darker than the nose promised. The oak was totally integrated and gave the slight smokiness to the wine. The finish was long and ended with just a bit of the smoke on the back of the palate. This was like Chianti meets Burgundy and it was an outstanding wine. It lasted throughout the evening with only the least bit of fading. There is one more glass left for later today.

It rather overshadowed the small steak and the mushroom tortellini, not that I minded with this wine.

There was a reason that I opened this wine. There was an on-line sale and one of the loss leaders in this sale was the 2004 vintage of this wine at more than 50% off the price I've seen on it locally. The merchant is a reputable one that I've dealt with in the past and they were even offering free shipping. What more was there to do but order three bottles. I doubt that any of them will see their thirteenth birthday as the last 1995 bottle did.

Mediterranean White

Always on the lookout for a bargain I couldn't pass on trying this $4 bottle of wine, Rene Barbier Mediterranean White from the Catalunya area of Spain. Clean, crisp, low alcohol and refreshing are words that come to mind. There's some citrus zest in the nose mixed with some herbs and flowers. The taste is light and dry, not heavy. This is a wine for a hot summer day. It's not vintage dated so it's probably a blend of several years. Grapes involved? The back label says indigenous grapes and in this part of Spain that probably means some Viura and whatever else was growing locally. This is not a wine to discuss, just one to drink.

Sunday was beautiful in the morning with not a cloud in the sky. Temperatures were in the 60 degree range by noon. As the day wore on a cold front with November colored clouds rolled in and we finished the day with thunderstorms and a lot of rain. Today's high is not expected to break 40 degrees and there is a chance of snow tonight. Welcome to spring in the great American Midwest.

I spent several hours grooming Scott yesterday, clipping, trimming, pulling out undercoat and making him look like a Gordon Setter again instead of an overgrown mass of black and tan hair. He spent the time on the grooming table watching the birds on the neighbor's bird feeder. The birds knew the front was coming in and they were seed loading to get through the next couple of days.

Dinner was simple, but good. I threw a whole chicken on the grill to roast. For the last few minutes of cooking time some asparagus joined the bird on the grill as did a couple of crusty rolls. No need to use the indoor oven to warm the bread when the grill is going. There was some prosciutto and provolone ravioli tossed in olive oil to finish the meal. It was a very Mediterranean meal to match the wine.

1999 Torbreck RunRig

The computer is repaired and running smoothly, though it will be some time before all the programs and customizations are finished.

The evening meal last night was wonderful. There was a rack of lamb done on the grill with fresh herbs and wild mushroom and black truffle ravioli on the plate next to it. Throw in a small salad and some grilled asparagus and it was a great meal.

The wines weren't too shabby either. While the lamb was cooking we dove into a 1999 Kilikanoon Oracle from Australia. Dark color, lots of fruit p front but still with some tannin to provide a counterpoint. Perhaps a little low in acid. Nice long finish. Definitely a big wine that is at or just past it's peak.

Wine #2 was a J. Vidal Fleury 2004 Crozes-Hermitage. This wine reminded me of a perfectly colored Burgundy with its medium depth. The nose was all about dry earth and dry leather and a few herbs thrown in. Great acidity and lots of bright red plum flavors. A good and interesting wine.

The highlight of the evening was opened just as the lamb came off the grill. This was a 1999 Torbreck Run Rig shiraz from Australia. Let's not waste words or time here - this was a remarkable wine. It was inky dark in the glass and the nose was strong and powerful with fruit, earth, spices and meat. The first taste was almost gamey but there was black fruit and berries to compliment the meat. The acid was very good and the tannins just tied the entire package together. The tannins were firm, but not harsh in any way. The wine was perfectly balanced and over the course of the evening it just continued to improve. Too many times I've tasted Australian Shiraz wines and been disappointed by the over ripe fruit and high alcohol that seems to be their claim to fame. That wasn't the case with the RunRig, there was restraint to match the power and the winemaker knew enough to stop before the wine became a caricature of itself. Excellent wine.

Both the RunRig and the Vidal Fleury were very good with the lamb, but they were definitely two different experiences. Great evening and the computer is running again. Life is good.

Spring and Riesling and a Time Out

Spring is definitely here now. The weather patterns are changing and we are getting warmer days, thunder showers, cold fronts, high winds, and the color green. It doesn't mean that we won't still see some snow, but it's unlikely to accumulate and even if it does it won't stay long. Fine with me.

Yesterday evening there was enough tarragon above ground to harvest the first few leaves of the season. That's another great sign of spring, the herbs never taste better than they do on that first harvest.

There is an excellent article in the New York Times where the panel is tasting German Riesling. Eric Asimov and I think alike in one regard, Riesling is the perfect spring wine. It's light on the tongue, refreshing and tastes great with fresh herbs.

Last night was a 2007 Kinkead Ridge Riesling from southern Ohio. Those are Kinkead Riesling grapes pictured above. There is a whiff of kerosene at the start, then the nose is all about lime peel and white flowers. The taste is citrusy with enough underlying oiliness to give it some body while still retaining the guise of being delicate. It's a nice balancing act and they got it right with this wine.

There was a pan seared chicken breast finished in the oven while the pan was used to make a sauce. That sauce was chopped shallot and a touch of butter that was slowly sauteed. Chicken stock and a bit of the wine were added, along with a small dab of tarragon mustard and a sprinkling of dried tarragon. When the liquid was reduced to near syrup consistency we added heavy cream and white pepper. That was allowed to reduce and for the last minute some of the fresh tarragon was stirred in. The chicken sat on a bed of this sauce with a spoonful of the sauce poured over the top and it was garnished with the last of the fresh tarragon.

The wine and the chicken were the perfect spring pairing.

There are pictures of the completed dish, but the computer is gradually failing and it won't let me transfer them from the camera. That means that we are shutting down for the weekend while the operating system is repaired and the computer restored to pristine condition. The repair-person is a wine geek so other than a couple of small parts one can imagine what will go on during the final stages of repair. I believe it involves lamb and both a French and Australian syrah/shiraz based wine.

The wine list at the computer hospital is certainly much better than those at a human hospital.

Staglin - Day Two

After being a little disappointed with the Staglin Cabernet Sauvignon on Sunday (see below) I decided to finish off the bottle last night.

When I left it on Sunday the fruit was fading and the tannin was taking over, this being after an hour and half. I put a vacuum stopper in the wine and returned it to the cellar. Last night was a small bowl of left over braised beef that was served over some egg noodles. Not wanting to open another bottle I pulled out the Staglin and poured a glass.

The fruit had reappeared and the tannins had finally subsided to the point that it was highly enjoyable. Very interesting because I thought the wine was gone. Obviously, the perfect time for this wine was somewhere between the vacuum sealing on Sunday and the time I finally drank the remains last night.

Note to self - hold on to the second bottle but decant it for a couple hours before drinking.

1997 Staglin Cabernet and Lamb

Sunday night dinner was wonderful, but the wine, while very good, was a little disappointing.

Pictured above is a small rack of grass fed Icelandic lamb. There is a local, free range and organic chicken producer who is friends with the folks in Iceland who produce the lamb, and he is the middleman for the local market carrying this. It is quite lean but very tasty. It was simply rubbed with a cut garlic clove then lightly dusted with herbs de Provence, pan seared and finished in the oven until medium rare. There were store bought, frozen, large ravioli from the New York Ravioli company. This version was filled with wild mushroom and truffles. They were boiled and finished with olive oil and grated cheese and parsley.

The wine was a 1997 Staglin from the Rutherford area of Napa Valley. Staglin is an excellent producer which owns and uses part of the vineyard formerly used to produce the Beaulieu Georges de Latour reserve wine a few decades ago - wines that I dearly loved. 1997 was considered by some to be the "vintage of the decade" in Napa. That's actually a silly term that really means you had to do something truly wrong to make a bad wine that year in Napa.

I have had two bottles squirreled away for some time and decided last night was the time to pull the cork. The wine was very dark in the glass. The nose was all about black currants and dark cherries with a touch of cinnamon thrown in for good measure. There was also noticeable oak in the nose. The first sip was full bodied and full of those same dark fruits. The tannins were gripping and big, and the acid was correct. There was a lengthy finish that ended with more of the tannin. It was a very good wine, but over the course of the evening the fruit seemed to fade and the tannins seemed to grow. This was good wine for certain, but not an exceptional wine. It was good with the lamb, but I was hoping for something more and that made it a little disappointing.

I drank of bottle of the 1996 Staglin last year and that wine from a supposedly lesser vintage was in better shape than this one from the supposedly superior vintage though they had been kept in the same conditions. That's just one more thing that makes wine interesting.