Pressed For Thought August 2023
A Deep Dive Into Summer Flavors
Has anyone ever said that they have had enough of summer tomatoes? I doubt it! I love all seasons, but the bounty of summer’s fresh fruits and vegetables is the best time to cook and eat in New England. Big, plump tomatoes that burst with juice when you slice them. Their bright reds and yellows stacked between fresh toasted bread, slathered with mayo and sprinkled with salt, layered with crispy bacon, and adorned with iceberg lettuce. I feel a sense of satisfaction, as if I have been rewarded for waiting all summer as my teeth bite through the crunch of the toast, break the skin of the tomato, and feel a little juice on my chin. My first summer BLT is divine. It is a simple sandwich, but it is salt, sweet, fat, and acid in perfect balance.
Tomatoes, peaches, corn…whatever rocks your boat, here’s some music to inspire you to dance in the kitchen, loosen those apron ties, and cook without recipes!
life’s a peach
easy peach galette: roughly cut 5 peaches, toss with a tablespoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, tsp vanilla paste, and a pinch of kosher salt, layer inside a square of Dafour all butter puff pastry, put 6-8 small slices of butter on top, gently fold the edges of the pastry around the edge of the peaches, leaving the center open, and bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 45 minutes. Top with vanilla ice cream & enjoy!
Responsible Indulgence—
August Wine Notes
Twice a year, I have the opportunity to order from the Louis/Dressner collection. It is a remarkable portfolio of independent artisan wine makers that has been curated for over thirty years by the Louis/Dressner family. Like all the wines in my shop, every winemaker’s story is as much part of the bottle as the delicious wine inside. This importer works hard to help complete the connection between the maker, the place, and you. Knowing where the wine comes from and how it is made expands our experience of the wine, providing a context and a history that we become part of when we open that bottle and prepare a meal to share with a friend.
As I get only two chances a year to order, and the wine comes in all at once. The model for this importer is unique, but because the wines are such small production, it is necessary and it works out well for you! Most of these wines will not even make it to the shelves. They go to you first because you support my efforts to advocate for small, independent, organic, sustainable, and responsible winemakers. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
The Louis/Dressner Selection wines celebrate organic, sustainable, natural wine making techniques. They are steeped in tradition while innovative in style. Don’t be alarmed by a little sediment, brightness of acidity, and other surprises that natural wine making produces. Yes, occasionally it looks a little murky, but fear not! There is very little filtering or fining involved in the process of making these wines. That said, they are true to their place and tradition, they are clean and delicious, and they are ideally suited for all of the bright, high acid vegetables that adorn our summer tables! These are food driven wines that almost always will perform best with some pairing, so I have focused these notes on what foods would best harmonize with the wines.
There are a couple of wines from outside of the Louis/Dressner portfolio in here, two to be exact, but they practice a similar set of values.
Eat Drink Think
Value Wines
2021 Chateau Combel La Serre Cahors Julien and Sophie Ilbert produce an impactful Cahors, that delivers a rugby style flavor tackle! Julien is an avid rugby player, so I could not resist the metaphor. All joking aside, I think this is a case of wine embodying the producer, it is a charismatic wine, full of character and bold in flavor. The wine is 100% Auxerrois (aka Malbec or Cot, as it is locally known). He is committed to a particular style, so he keeps macerations short and uses largely whole cluster vinification. The wine remains fresher this way, and there is a playful character to them. Yes, it is Malbec, so meat is a good choice, but because of the gentler approach, the wine has greater range and pairs well with grilled vegetables kissed with some balsamic condiment.
2021 Domaine du Possible, Fruit de Hasard, comes to us from Roussillon, a beautiful village in the south of France. The name translates to “Fruits of Chance.” It is an expression intended to celebrate the great things that happen to us just by chance. This is a semi-carbonic maceration with limited punch downs, so the name fitting. They put these bunches in a vessel and see what happens! It is fruity and fresh, light and aromatic, and it will pair beautifully with tomato and corn salad with seared or grilled sea scallops. You could pair this with lighter meats, as well, but my feeling is to chill it and enjoy it with something lighter.
2021 Radley & Finch Chenin Blanc This one comes to us from South Africa, and it is not its first appearance in the club. This new vintage is as bright in acidity and rich in fruit as previous years. I love all the fruit in this, think apricots, nectarines, blood orange, with a little honey and almond flavors. Yes, it is rich, but then there is all this bracing acidity to balance it out. The wine pairs great with all of the abundant summer vegetables, but I am going to focus on corn with this. Make a batch of fritters! Yes, I included a recipe!
2022 Caves de Rauan, Fleur is an easy, approachable rosé from Bordeaux, and I picked it because it has aromatics and flavors of fresh summer peaches. When I tasted this wine, all I could think about was pairing it with a peach, tomato, burrata salad with crumbled crispy prosciutto on top. Pour a glass, preheat your oven to 375. Just cook your prosciutto on a baking sheet for 10-15 minutes. It will crisp up, let it cook & crumble it up—yes, prepare for your mind to be blown by this combination!
2019 Mas des Chimeres, Nuit Grave is a red from the Languedoc in the Southwest of France. It is 45% Syrah, 38% Grenache, and 17% Mourvèdre that is hand harvested from both young and old vines, lending complexing and mature flavors and aromatics. Everything is vinified separately, giving the wine maker a bit of control when blending, then it is aged for 12 months in large old oak barrels. This one is bigger, dark purple in color and spicey. You will pick up some clove, cinnamon, licorice and coffee along with loads of brambly fruit. It has the tannins to support all of that. You will find some sediment in this one, but don’t worry, it is fine. Decant if you prefer, but either way, serve this one with some red meat on the grill, maybe some spicy grilled sausages with onions and peppers!
2022 Majas Cotes Catalanes Rouge & Blanc come to us from Alain and Agnès Carrère. They founded the winery together in 1992, and today they have 30 hectares of vines in the commune of Caudiès-de-Fenouillèdes. Originally, Alain had only two hectares, but he began with that, and they have grown the winery and converted the vineyard to organic, making wine with purpose and personality. Truth be told, he had a contract for a grocery store to buy all of the wine, but the wine they wanted had no integrity, no soul, so he walked away from that deal, choosing instead to make his own wine, his own way. The result is wines of character. You have had these before, and you will enjoy the new vintage.
The white is a blend is 45% Macabeo (aka white Rioja), 45% Rolle, 10% Carignan Blanc grown in clay, limestone soil form 35-year-old vines. The lees fermentation gives the wine texture and complexity, but it is the aromatics on this one that entices me. The Macabeo brings white flowers, melon, pears, lemon verbena and anise with freshness and acidity, Rolle (aka Vermentino, in Italy) provides bright green flavors bursting with juice, and the Carignan Blanc will provide a roundness. They come together in harmony and would pair nicely with some of the richer seafood, like lobster, salmon, and monkfish, add some grill scapes, sautéed greens and garlic, or zucchini fritters.
The red is Carignan and Grenache Noir in a roughly 50/50 blend. The vines in this vineyard are considerably older, some as old as 120 years. It is remarkable that they are still producing fruit! While the age of the vine does not guarantee quality, it is widely accepted that older vines have greater concentration of flavor, more complexity, and are lower yielding. As this vineyard needs replacing of non-yielding vines, there are also young plants. This adds youthful flavors and yet another layer of complexity. This is a serious wine in a value category. It is fermented in whole cluster bunches with a short maceration, which keeps it light and fresh, playful, and wonderful with a chill on it. I enjoyed this one with some slow cooked pork shoulder with a traditional Puerto Rican adobo spice marinade. It handled the heat and loved the fat! The flavors of the wine and the marinade were in tandem—citrus rind, grapefruit, cinnamon, strawberry and cherry with loads of herbal notes!
Select Wines
2020 Fillatreau Saumur Champigny & the 2022 Blanc are from the Loire Valley, near Saumur on a historic vineyard. Paul Filliatreau has been producing wine here for over fifty years, but it was his shift to using shorter macerations and stainless steel vinification that changed the style of the region in the 70’s. The reds of the region are Cabernet Franc and the whites are made with Chenin Blanc. The soil and subsoil of this region are highly calcareous, which gives the wines intense minerality, but also make for particularly juicy wines with good acidity. It is acidity that gives the wines freshness.
The Chenin Blanc has both depth of flavor and fresh, crisp flavors, a balance which is achieved by the vinification of half the juice in oak and half in stainless. It has classic flavors of Chenin: apple, pear, quince and honey, orange peal with a touch of almond and tea on the finish. What I love about Chenin is all the acidity that allows it to pair with fattier foods like pork belly, spicey Asian cuisine.
The Cabernet Franc is ideally suited for green vegetables that can sometimes be a challenge, like asparagus, broccoli, and artichokes. It is dreamy with peas, too, so maybe a barigoule or ratatouille would be the summer pick for this wine.
2022 Valerie Forgues Sauvignon Blanc & 2019 Touraine Cot are also from the Loire. It is a region that I gravitate toward, for certain, as the wines are typically a little lighter in style and concentration, which I like, and they are also very good values. The region is often undervalued, which results in great values for consumers. That said, the wines are also ideal for summer when we lean toward lighter wine, but still want loads of flavor. Valeries story is a good one. She began her wine making as a project that her then husband wanted to embark on, and she agreed. Roughly twenty years later, she found herself a single mom with a vineyard and winery to run. She faced some very serious challenges, but she persevered and was supported by the friendship and sage advice of neighboring winemakers who shared her philosophy of organic/ethical/sustainable wine making. (Yes, it resonates with my own story.)
Her Sauvignon is delicious. This is not my favorite grape, as many of you know, but the arrival of her Sauvignon Blanc makes me joyful. It is made with 35+year old vines, unfiltered, with a malolactic fermentation in enamel lined cement tanks. It is fresh, clean, and mineral driven with lots of citrus and white flowers, but it has body and a creaminess that I just love in combination with its bright acidity. I suggest a cheese and charcuterie board with this lovely, elegant wine.
The red from Valerie is 100% Cot (some say the French name for Malbec, others argue it is a close cousin of Malbec) is a more full-bodied red for those of you seeking that intensity for summer grilling. The wine has an alluring deep dark color, brambly and plummy fruit, and rich in tannins and earthy flavors. It is wonderful with grilled meats, and even better when you have the added smoke from a charcoal or wood fired grill.
2021 Bonhomme VDF Rouge Telquel is made by Pierre-Oliver Bonhomme, and this vintage is 100% Gamay macerated whole cluster and vinified in tronconic wooden vats, and ages in barrel for 6 months prior to bottling. The result of all of this work is a delightful, approachable Gamay that has the fruitiness of carbonic maceration with the complex flavors and texture that comes from the exposure to oak. The name Telquel deserves some explanation, as it is a pun that reflects something of the character of the winemaker and the wine. It is playful misspelling of the French name of a Dachshund or a wiener dog, Teckel, but spelled Telquel, it is pronounced the same, but means “as is.” In other words, the wine is what it is, simple and delicious. I enjoyed this one with friends for brunch, we made omelets and salads, and the pairing was wonderful. It likes the richness of eggs, cream, and cheese with salt, and handles the acidity of the vinaigrette with charm.
2021 Luneau Papin Muscadet "Les Verger" is one of those magical, iconic wines of the region. The grape is Melon de Bourgogne, and the wine is dry, fresh with salinity and bracing acidity. The Luneau family has been making wine in this region for now 9 generations, and they do it with particular care and purpose. Pierre-Marie and Marie organically work their vineyard together, at one point reducing the size from 50 to 38 hectare, to accommodate their commitment and keep up with the work associated with organic farming, hand harvesting, and making single vineyard cuvees. All this work results in a muscadet of the highest quality. In truth, the region has been historically known for bulk wines of mediocre quality, and the Leneau family has worked hard to change that. I suggest that you shuck some oysters and crack it open, nice and cold!
Collector Wines
2020 Texier CDP Rouge Vieilles Vignes is special wine made by a truly remarkable winemaker. Eric Texier began his professional life as a Nuclear Engineer, science and research are a skill set, and he is a boundary pusher, creating space for innovation and creativity. While he is also known to be jovial and energized with a broad smile and an authentic hope to make people happy with his wine, he is also very serious about how he makes wine. “I’m in the Terroiriste” camp, Jules Chauvet style. I don’t like modern wines or super natural wines that scream “fuck tradition.” (Pardon his French!). He believes that he has a responsibility to accept what his region, weather, and climate give him. He aims to make wines of terroir.
Eric’s Chateauneuf du Pape is 100% Grenache, which is unusual but allowed in the appellation. He sources his grapes from Jean Riche, exclusively. He does a 100% whole cluster vinification with a long cold maceration and ferments in concrete. He does not filter or fine this wine, as Grenache doesn’t really need it. I love his wines, and this one is a favorite. It inspires me in my own wine making, trying to find a balance between power and elegance. Certainly, the intensity comes from flavor and aromatics, berry and cherry notes with spice and earth, but the wine is stylistically more elegant on the palate. It has a wonderful freshness. Enjoy this with gamier meats like duck with an au poivre sauce and some sautéed greens, or lamb chops on the grill.
If you can wait, age Eric’s wine and drink the second bottle in your box or bag. As the CdP is a $90 retail bottle, your 2 pack is admittedly a little economically lopsided. Typically, they are evenly priced, but not this month. I wanted to give you a special bottle, so you will enjoy one rockstar and one punk, for lack of a better word, this month and in September, when you will get his white CdP. Thanks for indulging me, and, well...you are welcome ;)
2021 Domaine du Impossible Tout bu, or Not Tout bu, that is the question. This is a playful wine, easy drinking and well made. Loïc Roure makes this Grenache entirely different than Eric, though they both believe in terroir driven wines. How one uses techniques in the winery makes all the difference. In this case, full carbonic, which means whole cluster bundles are placed into a closed vessel, where the grapes begin to ferment intracellularly, or from the inside out. The berries eventually burst open and mix with the skins. The result is a much lighter, bouncy wine with more apparent acidity and less tannin.
The pun on the name of this wine is a testament to Loïc’s witty sense of humor, and it bespeaks the hope that there is another bottle. It is easy to drink, and you will want more. This one is ideal for predinner with some cheese and charcuterie while you cook with friends around the grill!
Corn Fritters—my take on a summer delight
Combine & whisk 2 large eggs, 2/3 cup of milk, 1tsp fine kosher salt 1/2 tsp finely ground black pepper, pinch of cayenne.
Cut the corn off 4 ears, cooked or uncooked does not matter. Add to the liquid and stir .
Combine 1/3 cup of flour and 1/3 cup corn meal, and add mixture to liquid.
Cut 1 scallion on an angel and add to mixture.
Add ¾ finely grated sharp cheddar, and let the mixture rest for 10 minutes.
Heat 3 tbsp vegetable oil in a pan, fry 3-4 fritters at a time by spooning into the pan and flattening with a spatula. Fry 2 minutes on each side over medium-high heat till lightly brown.
Remove to a paper towel, sprinkle with Maldon salt while still hot.
Enjoy with that Radley & Finch Chenin Blanc!
Get Inspired
My inspiration often comes from reading others who transport me beyond the page, inspire me to create, and provide the tools to make it my own. This month’s book is “Lateral Cooking,” by Niki Segnit. She will inspire you to let go of the reigns and just ride!
Segnit has a energetic voice, vast ingredient and cooking knowledge, and reminds us that we can combine flavors freely and have great success in the kitchen.
It is a philosophy that shapes the way I approach everything!
Happy Cooking!
special thanks to Steven Andersen for musical contribution, inspiring sketches,
& for dancing in the kitchen with me
“Wine rejoices the heart of man and joy is the mother of all virtues.”
