December 12, 2009 · 1 Comment
About a week or so ago I wrote a post about some delicious, delicious red Burgundies I shared with some staffers of the Nota Bene. However, that was only half the story, as along with the three excellent pinots we tried three chardonnays.
I think a lot of people, when they think about Burgundy, see in their mind’s eye big jug wines labeled “Burgundy.” (An aside: I was looking up Carlo Rossi’s Burgundy to see what grapes go in it but was unsuccessful. I have no clue what goes in their Burgundy, and apparently no one on the Internet cares enough to do the research!) This is horrible, and my hat goes off to those wine drinkers who appreciate well-crafted, artisanal pinot noir-based Burgundies from Burgundy, France.
But that’s not all this wondrous region has to offer. I would argue that some of the world’s greatest white wines–and definitely the world’s greatest chardonnays–come from Burgundy. Those white Burgundies I’ve tried have all been vastly superior–to my palate, at least–to those super-oaky butterballs that California seems to churn out with a vengeance.
To each his own, though, right? This might be the case, but in my age demographic (20-30, generally) white Burgundies get ignored. This can be chalked (heh) up to four broad reasons:
- When people think of Burgundy, they think of horrible jug wines.
- When people don’t think of Burgundy in terms of jug wines, they think that all Burgundies are red.
- Many people are turned off by the “butterball” super-oaky style of chardonnay championed by Californian winemakers.
- White Burgundies can be friggin’ expensive.
I’ve already addressed numbers one and two. As regards number three, white Burgundies are as a general rule much less oaky than California wines. However, they do exist on a stylistic scale ranging from lean and mean to round and supple, which makes Burgundy a veritable playground of chardonnay.
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Categories: tasting notes
Tagged: Burgundy, chardonnay, France
I. Introduction
If you’re reading this blog you’ve probably seen or at least heard of the movie Sideways, which chronicles the last hurrah journey of two friends through the Santa Ynez Valley. It is filled with fine wine, boozing, women, and other misadventures. One of the sadder scenes is when Miles, the protagonist, drinks a bottle of his prized ’61 Cheval Blanc alone with a foam fast-food restaurant cup.
Having been in a fraternity, I’ve imbibed from many different sorts of containers: mugs, plastic cups, boxes, the bosom of life. At the time, I was proud of my set of four Crate and Barrel wineglasses (price: $3.99 each), into which I’d pour only the finest Yellowtail Shiraz and Merlot.
What a difference a few years make.
II. Riedel glassware is awesome.
Drink wine long enough and you’ll eventually come across mention of Riedel stemware. Riedel has been in the business of glassmaking for eleven generations, so they’ve not only had time to perfect what they’re doing, they’ve had the time to come up with a whole host of awesome crystal products.
Drinking out of a Riedel glass elevates the wine experience for at least two reasons. First: they’re simply beautiful and well-designed glasses, period. Most of their lines—including the affordable machine-made Vinum series—are made of lead crystal, which classes up any drinking situation. They’re well-weighted and feel good in the hand. Their lips are thin, which avoids the problem some glasses have where it feels like you’re drinking wine from a coffee mug. And, they are simple and elegant.
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Categories: discussion
I’ve been meaning to update this blog with the results of a fantastic Burgundy tasting I hosted for the staff of the Nota Bene a few weeks ago, but I never got around to it (I think finals, which start next week, has something to do with it). However, a post on the Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant blog “Inspiring Thirst” inspired me to post at least a short entry on a few of the wines we drank that evening.
We had a spate of seven wines for the tasting, starting with the decidedly NOT Burgundian Drappier “Carte d’Or” Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne which I included because, hell, it’s 100% chardonnay, and hell, who doesn’t like Champagne? We went through three whites–a basic Mâcon-Villages, a Chablis, and a Chassagne-Montrachet–and three reds.
The first red, the 2005 Domaine René Leclerc Bourgogne, was a basic rouge I picked up at MacArthur Beverages for around $25. However, it was really, really good, with nice acidity, some spice, and a hint of funk. This is definitely something I’d pick up as a “house Burgundy” if I ever make that much money in the future.
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Categories: tasting notes
Tagged: Burgundy, champagne, chardonnay, France, pinot noir
As I had mentioned in my previous post, my roommate Alex ran the JFK 50 Miler on Saturday, finishing 41st out of 1050 competitors. As per our custom, to celebrate and to help him recuperate I cook a “fancy” protein-filled dinner for him a day or two afterwards.
This particular meal, however, would be extra-special.
I had purchased a case of wine from the excellent MacArthur Beverages in Georgetown a few months ago, ostensibly for the purpose of hosting various wine tastings (including the Spanish tasting, the notes from which you can read here, and the outstanding Burgundy tasting, the write-up of which will be coming out later this week). While there I came across this bottle:
It was the 1990 Weingut Max Ferd. Richter Erdener Treppchen Riesling Spätlese from the Mosel region of Germany (seen on the label as Mosel-Saar-Ruwer).
I was intrigued. Law students don’t come across 19-year-old bottles of wine very often; one comes across old white wines even less frequently. The price was right, too, at around $35-$40. Phil, one of the wine stewards, saw that I was getting a few off-the-beaten-path-type wines like the 1999 Viña Gravonia Crianza and recommended the wine, saying that it was still very much alive and well though with some of the characteristic oxidation found in aged whites. To seal the deal, the wine was apparently stored at the winery in perfect conditions until only a few months prior. I couldn’t resist.
After the Burgundy tasting a few weeks ago, this was the last wine from my memorable trip to MacArthur Beverages. But it was soon to join its noble brethren, as I had plans to open it for Alex’s celebratory meal.
For dinner, we invited the always engaging (and fellow Golden Bear) Waiching, who brought fresh blueberries and blackberries for dessert. I can’t really describe what I cooked–it’s a recipe I made up some time ago and never bothered to write down. I guess it could loosely be named lemon-mushroom chicken. For my own purposes (I forgot what ingredients I needed while I was shopping for the meal at Trader Joe’s) I will list the recipe here:
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Categories: food pairing · tasting notes
Tagged: riesling
My roommate Alex just finished an ultramarathon–the JFK 50 Miler–yesterday, coming in 41st out of 1050 competitors. (Congrats, Alex!) Needless to say, he’s pretty intense when it comes to running. He subscribes to running magazines, plots out his training schedule months in advance, and reads books upon books on marathoning.
I harbor no similar aspirations of athletic greatness, but I do read a lot on my own passion, wine. The first book I read was Karen MacNeil’s excellent, excellent Wine Bible, which is a must if you’re at all interested in wine. Other books I liked were Mark Oldman’s Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine, which is a very accessible primer with useful recommendations on everyday value wines, and the haughtily entertaining tome on French wines from the British wine writer Clive Coates, MW, An Encyclopedia of the Wines and Domaines of France, which though published in 2001 is still an exhaustive overview of literally every appellation of France. (He writes like how I’d imagine General Cornwallis would have written had he been a wine critic in addition to being commander of the British troops in the Colonies.)
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Categories: discussion
It’s the holiday season, which means there will probably be a lot of celebrating going on. If you’re having a party, you may be looking to pair wine and cheese, which is an often-daunting prospect. Thus, I’m delighted to have this guest post from Sara Kahn, Founder of The Cheese Ambassador.
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Whether you are hosting a soiree or a casual get-together this holiday, your mission is to provide your guests with warm hospitality, lively conversation and a delectable spread of food and drink. Whether the menu is complicated or simple it better be delicious. Serving a sumptuous gourmet cheese course is perfect as a starter or centerpiece of the meal. Not only is the preparation simple (no cooking!) but more importantly, your guests will enjoy discovering and savoring new favorites. As a wine lover, you want to impress with the right pairings but the overwhelming selections of wine and cheese can make your head spin. Relax. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to choosing the right combinations of cheese and wine. Just keep in mind a few simple considerations.
A cheese course is about observing and enjoying contrasting and complementary flavors. For a foolproof gourmet cheese course, select 3 – 5 cheeses that vary in texture and flavor. Add some crusty bread, fresh or dried fruit, olives and nuts and voila!
Remember, wines are meant to cleanse the palate, wash away the tongue-coating richness of the cheese and prepare your mouth for the next delicious bite. It’s important that your selections don’t overwhelm the cheese and vice versa. Essentially, you’ll want to match wine and cheese of the same intensity level. Just remember “like for like”.
Take a look at the gourmet cheese categories and wine recommendations below for guidance. You’ll see how easy it is to serve an elegant wine and cheese course. For best results, just add friends and family.
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Categories: food pairing · guest post
October 27, 2009 · 1 Comment
There is something therapeutic about seeing trees and towns and wide blue sky passing by you at 80 miles per hour as you sit in a car, listening to good music, on your way to somewhere. It is an added bonus when those trees are at that moment when they are still lush but where the leaves are no longer green but various hues of yellow, red, brown, and orange.
Such were the trees on the road on the way to Lexington, North Carolina, whose Barbecue Festival my friend James (of The Eaten Path fame), our friend Nick (of the US Patent and Trademark Office) and I attended this past weekend.
(Thank you to the Lexington BBQ Festival for this poster!)
For those of you who do not know of James by this point, he is one of my good friends from Berkeley who has for the last year called Brooklyn, New York home. While his more regular contributions to the blogosphere can be seen on The Eaten Path, he also is a huge aficionado of all things barbecued, once spending a few weeks traveling through the Smoky Crescent and eating and observing the best the South had to offer. It is one of his goals to publish a comprehensive and awesome book on barbecue–a noble goal, indeed.
Thus, when he said there was a barbecue festival in North Carolina I asked if I could go. I figured I wouldn’t have very many more chances to have a purpose to go to North Carolina, and besides, any reason to get out of DC is reason enough.
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Categories: food pairing · tasting notes
Tagged: Argentina, garnacha, malbec, North Carolina, Spain, syrah
One of the perks of having a German (ahem, Bavarian) roommate is that he’s quite knowledgeable about beer. I’m more of a wino myself, so I’m only too happy to defer to his judgment, always excellent, on German beers. (Then again, I can’t not defer, lest I want stormtroopers to take over my living room.)
That being said, Alex the Roommate decided we should have an Oktoberfeast™ where we would feature delicious German foods, beers, and spirits. Our Berkeley friend Waiching was gracious enough to provide her apartment (and her large dinner table and large number of chairs) for the feast. Alex invited two friends from his work and I invited one of my Berkeley friends, Mia, and her boyfriend. That made for a small but wonderful dinner party of seven.
This isn’t an entry about Oktoberfeast™, however; I did want to mention that Alex outdid himself by making from scratch traditional German fare such as Blaukraut (“blue cabbage”, which is made from red cabbage, red onion, raisins, and apple and seasoned with things like nutmeg and bay leaves) and putting together a three-course beer menu, the highlight of which were incredibly potent “smoke beers” from Schlenkerla. The first variety was their Märzen, a “dark, bottom fermented smokebeer, brewed with . . . Smokemalt”; the second, which I had, was an even more intense Urbock, “[s]imilar to, but much bigger than the classic [Märzen] style.” The Märzen smelled of smoked gouda, declared Waiching, but my Urbock smelled of a richly-smoked cut of bacon. They were very unusual but very delicious and well-crafted. We followed up the beers with some William Christ Pear Brandy, an intoxicating spirit straight from Germany. Utterly redolent of pear on the nose, it had a hint of sweetness and coated the mouth wonderfully. It had a slow, steady burn deep in the stomach and helped me digest my huge, huge meal.
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Categories: tasting notes
October 13, 2009 · 1 Comment
I write a wine column for my law school newspaper. Unfortunately, they only pay me $10 per column, which will hardly pay for a bottle of good Portuguese Douro. I will say that there are a number of great wines out there in the $10-$15 range, but there are a HUGE number of even better wines at the $15+ range.
Short of taking out more in loans, a grad student has few options for financing an education in wine. Luckily, one of those options is hosting wine tastings where everyone chips in for some really great bottles.
So, I’ve hosted a few tastings for friends and for fellow staffers at the Nota Bene, and we’ve been able to try some delicious, delicious wines (and cheese… and patê…). The first was themed “Summer Reds” and featured lighter reds (such as Beaujolais and Pinot, including a pretty wonderful pinot–the 2006 Radio-Coteau “Savoy” from the Anderson Valley of California). The second was themed “Spanish Wines”, which is the topic of this particular blog post, and the third will be based around both red and white Burgundies.
We tasted a number of great Spanish wines: three whites and four reds. The four reds were further subdivided into two groups: two bottles from Rioja, and two from Ribera del Duero. One in each pair was “Old World”-style (generally aged longer before being released, less assertive oak, leaner) and the other was “New World”-style (released after a fewer number of years, more assertive oak, bigger and fuller profiles).
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Categories: discussion · tasting notes
September 16, 2009 · 3 Comments
A very quick post on a wine I might forget otherwise. I took a friend out to dinner at Leopold’s Kafe a week or two ago. Leopold’s, which is a modern Viennese-style cafe/bar/restaurant, is one of my favorite places in DC: it offers very well-executed, delicious food at reasonable prices, as well as outside seating and the best Euro eye-candy you can find in Georgetown. It is especially good for brunch or dinner and is a great place to take a date, parents, or people you wouldn’t want to entertain at a TGI Friday’s.
I had the steak frites, medium rare. The “steak” in question was skirt steak, which is often used to make carne asada. It wasn’t the most tender cut of meat, but it was tender enough and very, very flavorful. It came with what I took to be caramelized shallots and a sort of creamy chimichurri on top, as well as Leopold’s breathtakingly good frites. She had the roasted chicken which came with potatoes, warm escarole, and some sort of mustard sauce. Both dishes were very good and very filling. After dinner we shared a topfentorte (cheesecake with passionfruit gel, mango, and berries) and each had a kleiner Brauner, which is basically like an Austrian machiato.
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Categories: food pairing · tasting notes
Tagged: Austria, grüner veltliner
