Funerals and Good Wine

Off from work today and out the door very early to attend an uncle's funeral in Kentucky. Nice to see some relatives that I haven't seen since the last family funeral. They all looked older, but then of course I'm preserved by the wine. There was a nice discussion with my wine loving aunt about her trip to Italy and we made plans for a couple of Italian dinners in the near future, one here in Ohio and the other in Kentucky.

I arrived home without having stopped for lunch so I was quite hungry when dinner time arrived. There were some very large shrimp in the fridge and some fresh pasta as well. The shrimp were combined with lots of garlic, shallots, olive oil, a large dose of red pepper flakes and a little butter in a large skillet. I threw in a chopped tomato, a pinch of Spanish saffron and some white wine. When everything reduced a little I stirred in a tablespoon of heavy cream, some salt and black pepper, and some parsley. Then we tossed in the cooked tagliatelle. A couple of crusty roles and it was a great ending to the day.

With the heat from the pepper I opened a 375 ml bottle of 2006 Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett. We already had a spicy Italian meal with a Spanish accent so I saw no harm in adding a German touch. The wine was tart with ripe apples and lime in the nose, wonderful acidity and just enough sweetness to marry perfectly with the spiciness of the pasta. This wine is a touch drier than the 2005 version and not quite as long in the finish, but it is a very good wine in its own right. It is probably closer to a true Kabinett style than the 2005 since it is drier. Nice wine.

Chicken Every Sunday and Chardonnay

There is a large pot of moss roses on the front step by the door and they are in full bloom. As I was growing up my mother always had moss roses on the front step, and it's a tradition that is easy to continue as witnessed the photo on the left.

We are back to the stormy season here in Ohio as we had a major storm roll through last evening and another came through this afternoon. Last night I was all set to grill some lamb rib chops when the storm began so they were done inside.

The chicken that was supposed to go on the grill went in the oven today because a storm rolled through just I was lighting the grill. The bird was brined, air dried and rubbed with rosemary, thyme, and lavender before going in a hot oven. There was some fresh pasta to go with some just made pesto and a little store bought corn salad. One of the two large pots of basil on the patio is producing a prodigious amount of leaves and while I wait on the local tomatoes to come to market in another month or so I'm using basil for just about everything. The second pot of basil is running a month behind the first so that it will produce when the tomatoes are ready.

The chicken was wonderful and with it we opened a wine just coming into the market place.
Meranda-Nixon is another Ohio winery that is helping revive the Ohio River Valley appellation for wine. I have tasted several of their wines but the 2007 chardonnay was new. They make a traminette that is very drinkable and they just released their first cabernet, a 2006, that shows some promise. The rest of their wines are on the sweet side and that doesn't appeal to me, though they seem well made for what they intend to be.

My initial reaction was that this was a mediocre wine. But with the chicken it was young, fresh, alive, and simple, tasting of tart white grapes and Granny Smith apples. There was a small sweet spot in the mid palate, but the finish was dry and crisp. This is a wine that's not trying to be anything but young and refreshing. Oak and butter? Not a hint. It was almost a chardonnay version of a German halb-trocken. By itself it was fine, but with food it came alive. A good, honest wine for $12.

The appellation on the wine is "American" meaning the grapes came from one or more of the 50 states. Let's hope they grow some or more chardonnay in their vineyard and continue to make this "summer" style wine in an estate version.

Summer

Pleasant day here yesterday for the first day of summer, 81 degrees and little humidity. Last night the temperature was in the upper 50 degree range so the air conditioner was off except for about an hour or so in the evening.

The local market had excellent, dry aged ribeye steaks on sale so I fired up the grill, rubbed the steak with a anchovy paste, sprinkled it with fresh pepper and tossed it on the grill. There was some leftover pasta and a small salad.

The wine was a pleasant surprise, a Chateau des Capitans 2005 Julienas. It was medium in color and at the stage where it is going from Beaujolais purple to more of a garnet. The fruit was a little more mature than the up front grape tastes so there were some dark cherries in the mix as well. All that carried over into the taste, along with good acidity and just a touch of ripe tannin and earth. There was a wonderful light finish and feel to the wine, making it a perfect summer red. It was great with the steak and with the 12.5% alcohol I could have more than a glass. I actualy had three.

It was a surprise becaue it is distributed by Georges Dubouef, though it was made and bottled at the chateau. Duboeuf sells some sound, solid wines but this seemed a step above what I am used to from him. For $14 a very god wine.

Simple Things

Thanks to the cool weather in May this year the strawberry season in Ohio was a little behind schedule. In the last week and a half, however, they have come to the market in full force.

For eleven months out of the year we are subjected to California strawberries, but what difference the month or near-month of local berries makes. Unlike their California cousins which are red on the outside and white and sometimes bitter on the inside, the Ohio berries are red to the center. They are totally ripe when they hit the markets, roadside stands and small produce barns. They are what a fresh strawberry should be, sweet and juicy.

The berries pictured here came from a small roadside stand on Saturday, having just come out of the fields and been washed. So far they have been sliced and served atop pancakes with warm maple syrup, dipped in plain yogurt and brown sugar, and tossed on top of some cereal for breakfast this morning. Tonight will be strawberry shortcake night.

For the rest of the year we will make do with, and appreciate the California berries, but for the next week or so we will over indulge in the local ones.

Father's Day

Sadly, Father's Day doesn't mean quite as much now, but I was invited to a cookout today to help some others celebrate the day with hamburgers and bratwurst. With the weather being cloudless, sunny and in the low 80 degree range it seemed to call for a rose'.

The 2007 Artazuri is from the Navarra region of Spain and is 100% Garnacha. I've had a previous bottle and it is full of strawberries and acidity and very little residual sugar. Since it was a pink wine and we hadn't run a picture of a flamingo on the site in some time it seemed like the perfect occasion to take the above photo. Rose's should be about fun.

Later tonight there will be a wee dram of single malt Scottish whisky to end the evening.

For the last twenty or so years that he was alive a bottle of single malt was my gift to my father on Father's Day. It fulfilled several requirements; it was easy to buy, it was very much appreciated, and I always got to spend some time helping him drink it over the course of the following month or two.

About 15 years ago his youngest brother was in town when I arrived with the bottle and he helped us put a dent in it over the course of an evening. When he left to return to northern Ohio he handed me his kids' phone numbers. "Call and explain things to them," he said. "All I ever get from them is socks or ties or things I don't want or need." Ever since then at least one of them has bought him a bottle of single malt for Father's Day. I'll call him tonight while I'm sipping a Lagavulin and we will no doubt exchange a story or two.

A Late Addition
There was a very good 2005 Schug Cellars Chardonnay at today's event but the day was stolen by a 2004 Silverado Solo. This is a varietal Cabernet from a single vineyard in the Stag's Leap area of Napa Valley. Balanced, dark, and full it continued to open an evolve over the afternoon. A very, very good wine that actually showed some restraint.

2005 Bordeaux

I was running low on every day wine so I made a trip this morning to one of my favorite places for some bargains. They should have warned me that a container of 2005 Bordeaux wines had arrived. Above are the two that I adopted along with the inexpensive wines I went to purchase. Buying in a case lot meant a 10% discount and that was all the false justification I needed to add these two wines to the mixed case

There was a good selection and they are planning a major tasting once the wines settle in from their trip. These were two that had their strongest recommendation. The Chateau De Sales from Pomerol is a wine I am familiar with from previous vintages and has always been consistently good. The Chateau Ferran from Pessac Leognan is a recently restored property that has been getting some great reviews. My taste in Bordeaux seems to run to wines from the Graves and Pessac Leognan area so this one was easy.

I'll be adding a few more moderately priced 2005 Bordeaux, but the prices on the major wines are too high to purchase in any quantity.

And speaking of high prices, the "house" white wine for some time has been the Marques de Caceres at the bargain price of $7 a bottle. The new price is $12 a bottle so the search will be on for a replacement as soon as the current supply is gone.

Abymes

It's been a hectic week here with all the rain and storms continuing. Fortunately for us in southwest Ohio the major flooding has stayed to the west and northwest of us, though we have had some nasty downpours, including one about two hours ago. If the flooding moves this way it's comforting to live on a hilltop.

Very nice dinner tonight, and quite simple. I marinated a small swordfish steak in fresh rosemary, olive oil, garlic and lemon peel for twenty minutes. It was pan seared over high heat just to brown each side then tossed in a hot oven for another seven minutes. That was just long enough to steam some fresh asparagus. Toss in a toasted slice of garlic bread and it was a meal far beyond its simple preparation.

The wine was very interesting. It was a 2006 Domaine Labbe Abymes from the Savoie region of France. Light and pleasant on the nose it just reeked of limestone. What fruit that was there was tart green grapes, green apples, and citrus peel, but the minerality just shone through. It was crisp on the taste with a definite sweet spot in the middle and then finished with a dry, tart taste. Nice medium length and definitely palate cleansing. The sweet spot in the middle was almost Riesling-esque.

It went down very easily with the swordfish and actually stood up to the asparagus, which really accented that sweet spot. Very interesting wine and for $11 a very good buy.