Super Sunday

There was another spot of spring yesterday afternoon, sunshine and moderate temperatures that were promises of things to come. There is enough daylight and warmer temperatures that the fresh herbs are finally peeking above the ground. In a couple weeks the chives will be up enough to start harvesting.

The 2006 J Vidal Fleury Cotes du Rhone was another wine that was in the mixed case purchased on Saturday. I tried a bottle about six months ago and at $16 I thought it was a very good wine at the time. At it's sale price of $12 it was an even better wine. Lots of bright strawberry fruit and a touch of dirt in the nose and taste coupled with soft tannins and good acidity made this wine very easy to drink. Just as yesterday's Chignin wasn't a wine with subtle nuances to demand too much thought, this wine just went down easily. There was a hint of pepper at the end but basically it left the mouth refreshed and ready for more. There are times when that is all I want from a wine, and yesterday was one of those times.

Since the day was so nice we filled the grill with charcoal and roasted a whole chicken over indirect heat. We made a compound butter of finely grated lemon peel, freshly grated ginger, some white pepper and salt and rubbed that between the skin and the flesh. The inside of the bird got a handful of thyme and the entire thing roasted in the dry heat of the grill for almost two hours. There was a slight wind yesterday and the new neighbors were the beneficiary of the sweet smoke with ginger-lemon overtones. They finally came over to ask what the "fantastic" aroma was and went home with the brief recipe.

I added some fresh asparagus mixed with porcini tortellini and finished with a 2008 fresh pressed olive oil just off the boat from Tuscany and some grated pecorino cheese. The lemon, ginger and thyme flavored the chicken to near perfection and the light smoke from the charcoal really set off the wine. I will eat and drink this combination again.

Good weather, good wine, good food and a happy dog who got some pan drippings and a little chicken skin mixed in his dog food made for a wonderful afternoon and evening.

Chignin

I went shopping yesterday and brought home a mixed case of wine, some new, some familiar, some to open immediately and two to put away for awhile.

The wine pictured here was in the open soon category, and dinner last night proved to be the perfect time. The wine is a Chignin from Savoie. In this case it was a 2006 Domaine Andre et Michel Quenard. My entire experience with wines of Savoie consists of Abymes, so this was an entirely new wine to me. The wine is 100% Jacquere.

After a very slight chill we poured a glass. Very neutral in color and best described as very pale straw. The nose was dry and smelled of Meyer lemons and grapefruit with an underlying hint of wet slate. The taste was not as dry as the nose, but it was the Meyer lemons and minerals that stood out. This wasn't a rich fruity wine by any means, the minerality was definitely its strong suit. It was light and bone dry except for just the slightest touch of sweetness at the very end. The wine was 11% alcohol by volume.

Dinner was an Alaskan cod fillet, laid on a bed of julienned leeks and carrots and covered with a garlic, lemon peel and thyme butter. Everything was enclosed in parchment paper and baked for fifteen minutes. The cod was delicious and there was just enough butter involved to ease the dryness in the wine. A good match, as neither the wine or the food was overly serious or complicated. They made each other better.

Summer Preview

It's still a few days until spring, but last night was a preview of summer, though everything was done indoors. Above is a pan seared halibut fillet with a pan sauce of white wine, butter and fresh parsley. This was the first good halibut of the season. The salad is farrotto Nicoise. The wine was a 2007 Burgans Albarino, crisp, tart and refreshing.

The farrotto is one of my favorite summer dishes and is full of cooked farro, green beans, tomatoes, tuna, Nicoise olives, hard boiled egg and shallots all dressed with a sauce of olive oil and lemon juice. It's a true meal unto itself.

Road Trip - An Italian Sunday

Went to visit an elderly relative yesterday evening. She is a true pasta fan and eats very little meat so that's what we did for dinner.

All the meat involved consisted of this 1/4 inch slice of pancetta, diced and slowly fried in some olive oil until the bits were crunchy. I definitely have this thing for pancetta.

Next up was some spinach and chive pasta tossed with a good dose of fresh pesto sauce, then sprinkled with the pancetta bits and topped with a simple slice of tomato to add color to the dish. Earthy, light and perfect with a small salad and a rosemary dinner roll. Save for the slice of tomato and the brown pancetta bits the meal was very green, and in this case I'm talking color instead of environmentally friendly.

The wine was a 2005 Mauro Molino Dolcetto D' Alba. Dark color, lush fruit on the nose, good acid and light tannin all combined in perfect proportion in this wine. The taste was pure, sharp dark fruit with just enough tannin and acid to clear the palate. Dolcetto means "little sweet one" in Italian and this certainly fits that description. The wine was in a "close-out" bin at the market about six weeks ago and discounted so that the newest vintage, 2007, could go on the shelf. The price was an wonderful $11.

This was certainly the best $11 wine I've had for some time. Dolcettos and Barberas from northern Italy remain some of the best bargains on good wine in the market. Easy on the pocket book and easy to drink and they all seem to go great with food. This one was no exception.

There was a small amount of leftover pasta and Scott enjoyed it mixed in with his dog food this morning.

Almost Spring

Fantastic weather yesterday, partly sunny and a high in the low 70 degree range. Prime ribeye steaks were on sale at the market and that made it an easy decision to light the grill. A small salad, some oven roasted baby potatoes and a steak just cried out for a red wine. In this case the wine was a 2003 Jocelyn Cabernet from Napa Valley.

I purchased this wine a little over two years ago after a tasting dinner with Susan Curtis, winery owner, at a local restaurant. The dinner featured four of their wines, two chardonnays and two cabernets, each paired with a different course. All four wines were good but my favorite was the regular bottling of the cabernet.

Two years has done wonders for the wine. The nose was a touch closed at first but came around with some swirling. Black currants and dark fruit were predominant. There was also a hint a vanilla from the oak used in the wine. The taste was the same, fully ripe currants with cherries and a little enriching from a hint of sweet cassis. The acid was nice and the tannins were pleasantly dry. They were a touch strong at the start but quickly blended into the wine. At 14.5% alcohol it is a little higher than I prefer, but it was well balanced enough that it never went over the edge into the overblown style I've come to hate from Napa. A very good wine and there are two more in the cellar.

This past fall I was at the local market and when I passed through the wine area I saw a familiar face. Susan Curtis was back in the area on another tour and it was good to hear that the small winery is doing well. It was also great to taste their new releases. I purchased three bottles of their 2005 Cabernet that day and they are resting patiently.

Due to a "disagreement" with a winery with a similar sounding name the official name is now Jocelyn Lonen.

Romanesco

Once in awhile a trip through the produce section of the market ends with something new. That was the case yesterday when I came home with a head of Romanesco. Unusual in appearance and color it almost jumped into the cart. I believe this was the first chartreuse vegetable I've eaten.

Internet research told me that it was one of several things. First, it was a cross between broccoli and cauliflower. Second it was not a cross between them, rather it was an ancestor of those two. Another source said it was simply in the same family.

There were surprisingly few recipes to be found so in the evening I simply cut it into florets and steamed them, tasting them every few minutes to determine when they were done. It took about ten minutes, less than broccoli and more than cauliflower. I gave it a slight drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of salt. It reminded me somewhat of broccoli and somewhat of cauliflower, though it wasn't nearly as pungent as steamed cauliflower can be. To be honest, I think preferred it to either of it's relatives. There is enough left to experiment with over the next few days so there's some fun coming.

There was also a marinated and grilled veal chop and some oven roasted potatoes to go with the veggie. We opened a 2006 River Village Cellars Cabernet Franc and had thoroughly enjoyable evening. The wine was of medium weight, fruity, inexpensive and a good match for everything.

At the end of the meal Scott decided that he liked the Romanesco and he eagerly ate two florets. Looks like it will stay on the menu.

Open That Bottle Night

For the last ten years John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter who write the "Tastings" column for the Wall Street Journal have been promoting the last Saturday in February as "Open that Bottle Night." Put briefly, everyone has a special bottle or two that they have been saving for a special occasion that never seems to come. OTBN is promoted as the time to open that bottle and relive the memories of what made it a special purchase or acquisition.

There was a small gathering last night to celebrate OTBN and there were three wines with different reasons for being opened. The first was another bottle of the Reggiano Lambrusco discussed here in this blog. It's the wine that started my long journey, and as it turns out the journey of two others at the party. Each person had a funny story about Lambrusco and it set a great tone for the evening. This is not a wine to take seriously, just a wine to have fun with.


The second wine was one that I opened to "peek in the window." I bought a fair number of 2005 Burgundies when they came on the market and they are stored away. While I've opened a few regional and village wines from the vintage I thought it was time to check in on how some of the others were progressing. The 2005 Louis Jadot Clos de Malte Santenay seemed like a good candidate. It was medium colored in the glass with a nice burgundy color. There was a hint of earth, but mostly bright cherries and ripe strawberries in the nose and the taste. There was great acidity and finish and over the course of the evening the wine just kept improving in the glass. It went great with some chicken breasts with pine nuts and a side of filled pasta. The wine is more than drinkable but shows enough of everything that it needs a couple of more years to really open.

The real hit of the night was opened by friends whose reason for opening it was that they always wanted to drink a bottle of the wine. It was a 2002 Stags Leap Vineyard Cask 23 from the Stags Leap area of Napa Valley. This was a dark wine in the glass with a nose of cassis and dark cherries, a hint of cinnamon and vanilla, and maybe just a bit of pipe tobacco. The taste was fully dark fruits and berries, a little spice and a hint of oak. The tannins were fully in balance as was the acid. Everything was together to make this more old world rather than new Napa style. It was elegant. My only complaint was with the finish. There was a moderate length to it, but the Cask 23's I've had in the past lingered and slowly faded on the finish. This wine finished with a taste that was there one second, then totally gone the next second. I went back to it several times through the evening and while the last taste was the best that finish was still sudden. Very interesting.

It was a fun evening.