RESPONSIBLE INDULGENCE:Wine Notes
February 2021
2021 is moving at rapid pace! It is hard to believe that we are already talking about Valentine’s Day, but I welcome the opportunity for anything to do with hearts & chocolate! With that also comes the weather for grilled cheese sandwiches and warm, rich stews and soups, thick slices of buttered toast, baked goods, and roasted vegetables, lasagne, and roasted whole herbed chickens. I am a fan of winter menus and the wines to pair with them, so this newsletter is all about that.
I am please to find something new emerging in my work, a positive outcome of a challenging year-I have more time to eat, drink, and think. Yes, my mantra persists, but it is not absent of meaning. I have stopped cooking professionally, but find myself with more time to cook with my close friends, which inspires me to pair wines that will elevate the experience. I spend a lot more time thinking about food and wine, and that has a direct correlation to the new and fun wines and foods on my shelves. Foraging for good products from ethical sources preoccupies me now more than ever. That work, regrettably, was often neglected while I was busy in the kitchen at 11 Memorial. I loved doing it, but it was not a sustainable business model. I am so grateful for all of your compliments and nostalgia for some of my signature dishes, but I must tell you honestly that I am happier than ever and have the time to do the work I love. My strategic move to save my business has resulted in more time and resources for me to cultivate and forage for me & for you.
To begin with I have the time to work with people I respect and admire. There are many wine shops and online sources for wines, but you choose my club, and I take that responsibility seriously—selecting wines that are hard to find, responsibly and ethically produced, foods that are made with an equal commitment to integrity and quality, and providing for you a good value for your glass and your table! This just takes more time, but it is worth it!
This month’s selections begin with food! Did you know about our Food Lover’s Membership? For $35 monthly, you receive 3-5 ingredients to stock your pantry or add to your table! This month, with sweets on the brain, I chose Eclat’s Cocoa Powder, a half pound of premium baking powder, Castagne al Miele, chestnuts sauced in honey, and Quai Sud’s Lemon Sugar. These three pantry ingredients will have you ready to throw together a quick delight to enjoy on these snow filled days. I just used the lemon sugar to make a delicious lemon pound cake (if I may say so myself!), and the depth of lemony flavor is exponentially more satisfying! Having these ingredients on hand means that you can open the cupboard for inspiration. You always have eggs and flour—let me add a few key pantry items to equip you for your own reality TV show fantasy. (Don’t tell me you haven’t talked into the microwave as if it were a tv camera with an audience on the other side!)
For the Value wines, I had in mind my message from last week’s email regarding wine without ceremony. After a month and a half of holiday consumption, the first quarter is about simplicity. The Value Wines this month bespeak simplicity and quality without pomp and circumstance. Also, I added one red, as it is cold out, and, well, truth be told, a lot (like almost all) of you asked me to. I do listen. For the whites, I thought about texture, body, and low acidity to give you a blanket of comfort, albeit a lighter one. The 2020 Radley & Finch, Chenin Blanc has been a perennial fav around here, and this new vintage is particularly good. I love the gooseberry that I get on the nose on this one. I suggest this with that grilled cheese I referred to above. I rounded out the Super Value 3 Pack with two fuller bodied reds with a little spice on them to pair up full flavored winter meals. The 2018 Langa Pasion, Garnacha from Spain is undoubtably rich and juicy but it gets just enough time on oak-roughly 6 months—to give it some texture and structure. Structure is key with more full bodied reds for me. I find without texture they can just exhaust the palate. Texture and structure with acidity offer balance. Bodegas Langa is a family run winery in Catalayud with a commitment to sustainable farming and simple, traditional wine making techniques, letting the grapes speak for themselves. The dark fruit will allure you! Enjoy it with some Spanish Jamon and some tortes.
Similarly, the 2019 Chateau Saint Preignan Cabernet Pays d’Oc from the Languedoc has balance of full fruit and good texture and acidity with just enough tannin to give it a bit fo grip. This is Cabernet Sauvignon is able to have ripeness from the region’s abundant sunshine but remain nuanced because of the wind that this area boasts—rivaling the mistral of the southern rhone. That wind keeps things dry and cool, allowing for a longer hang time and greater grape maturity. This deep red wine with even a purple darkness is very expressive, dense, and satisfying. I would like it with a NY Strip, pan seared and finished in the oven, some smashed potatoes, and a salad, s’il vous plait!
For the remaining value wines that offer a bit more quality and value, I kept my eye on satisfying, full flavored wines that will enhance my winter menu. I love whites all year round, as I have made widely known, and that is due in part to my love of fresh fish throughout the winter. Stu at Fearless Fish Market keeps me stocked, and when I am roasting my whole fish with herds, I want a white that will not overpower with flavor, but has enough going on to make me feel the warmth of summer. The 2018 Fief Aux Dames Musadet S &M sur Lie “Tradition,” Melon de Bourgogne gives me freshness with texture and body in what is a fairly simple, dry (bone dry!) white with brightness. The wine is fermented sur lie, which just means that the wine maker allows the wine to sit with the natural yeast sediment, rather filtering or racking to remove those tasty bits. Many winemakers (myself included) argue that this gives the wine more flavor, more weight, more texture. These are all pluses, in my book! Classic pairing for Muscadet is oysters, but I ave been loing it with my roasted whole fish rubbed with NYShuk Harissa. The two additional reds are not quite as full bodied as the two “super values,” though they are certainly full figured!
At least once a week right now, I roast a whole chicken (recipe follows), and while this may seem boring to some, I never tire of this is a main. That said, I like to mix it up with a couple of different sides, and I always want a different wine. Whites can work, for certain, but these two reds were selected with their ideal pairing compatibility with my friend the roasted chicken. 2018 Domaine de la Lyre Cotes du Rhone Rouge, a 60/40% Syrah/Grenache blend from the souther Rhone region of France, and the 2019 Wine of Good Hope, Pinotage, a hybrid varietal grown almost exclusively in South Africa. These wines have a medium body, smooth texture, lively brightness on the palate, and a lovely warmth on the finish. They wrap you up like a soft familiar blanket! If roasted chicken is not your bag, you can safely pair these with a lot of options from Mexican inspired dishes to curry’s—they can take the heat!
I often say that when I make my selections for my Select Wines, I seek wines with a “little more going on.” What I mean by that is you get a wine of greater quality and finesse. The wines are roughly twice the price of their Value brothers and sisters, so they should be better, and you are getting an elevated quality level. I still wanted to keep the wines simple this month, to give comfort and familiarity, but that does not indicate any less delicious. These six wines are an excellent example of terrior—wines that speak of their place of origin. These wine makers are not trying to make some crazy example of a varietal that tastes nothing like what you expect. No doubt, that is fun, at times, but this is not the time for that kind of tomfoolery! (I am seeking comfort, if you hadn’t already picked up on that.) The whites offer body, texture and full flavor, balances with freshness. I am loving Chenin right now, and so we have two this month: 2016 Gabrielskloof Elodie and 2018 Petit Coteau Vouvray Sec “Grenouilles,” are two beautiful examples of Chenin done well and with integrity to their origins. If the opportunity allows, open them together and taste them side by side to see the subtle differences between the South African and the Loire versions of this lovely undervalued grape. Let me know which you like better & why. You will see it, trust me. You may love them both! And, they will last a week if you pop the cork back in and stick them in the fridge. You will give yourself a lesson in the two (join me for Virtual Wine Talk & Taste: Discussion of Chenin on February 11 5pm). If it something brighter that you seek, try the 2019 Lagar de la Santina Riax Baxas, Albarino with your next frittata, risotto, roasted vegetables and lighter meats. I love the aromatics on this one, it is so inviting with a rich melon and pear aroma, it makes me want a plate of thinly sliced jamon and goat cheese. This Albarino will surprise you with its pithy finish—citrus and just a touch of sour lime pith.
For reds, I went with robust of flavor with 2018 Le Grand Bouqueteau Chinon Reserve, Cabernet Franc, a classic Loire Cab Franc with just a little extra roundness on it. I want the reds right now to stand up to meats and stronger flavored vegetable dishes, like a Morrocan stew or curry. These dishes warm us and fortify us against winter weather, and we need wines that can handle spice and richness. The Bouqueteau can and will with its backbone that holds together all of its fruit and juicy intensity. If that leaves you wanting more concentrated flavor and bigger body, try the 2016 Chateau Nozieres Cahors Ambroise, Malbec for its additional earthiness and tannins. This wine has a wonderful freshness to it that is probably the result of good acidity, but it makes it all the better pairing for protiens. The Spanish inclusion this month comes from the Langa family mentioned earlier, for its little brother Pasion, but the PI is a perfect example of the distinction between Value and Select wines. The 2017 Familia Langa PI Red, Consejon is a more finessed nuanced wine with character. It is a grape that I had not heard of before I tried this one, and it has a wonderful unique flavor. You will want some fat with this one! It even smells of it on the start though also lots of spice. I particularly like the stoney mineral taste on the finish that will give a real sense of what this means for a red wine. That gives the wine a freshness and clean finish after a full flavored sip.
I am curious what you think, so please let me know! This is meant to be a conversation. So email me, or you can post at the end of this blog post. I promise to write back! (I have a hard time keeping this to 4 pages!!)
For those of you trying to advance your wine knowledge even further and who are contemplating cellaring, we have a couple Collector Level Wines for you to consider. 2017 Domaine Jean Guiton 1er Cru Ladoix “La Corvee” &
2017 Tortochot Gevrey-Chambertin “Vieilles Vignes.” As I wrote in the January Wine Notes, 2017 was not a simple year with some challenging weather conditions for Burgundy, but by the end of summer and into harvest, the conditions improved and ultimately resulted in a very fine vintage that will age well. If you choose to drink the wines young, you will see all of the promise, decant and you will not be disappointed, but if you can wait you will be rewarded.
Importer’s Notes: “Jean Guiton tended vines for several producers as an “ouvrier,” until he has the opportunity to buy some vineyards in Ladoix and Aloxe-Corton and start making wine on his parents property in Bligny-Les\_Beaune in 1973. Domaine Jean Guiton was born. In 1987, a second opportunity allowed Jean to purchase more vineyards, this time in Savigny, Beaune and Pernand-Vergelesses and soon thereafter in Volnay and Pommard too. Jean’s son, Guillaume, is at the helm of the domaine today and the 2nd generation producing wines for his family’s estate. He joined the family business in 1998 (fresh out of the Lycée Viticole de Beaune) and took over the reigns of the domaine completely in 2009. Jean embraces a lean style of winemaking (no pigéage), while maintaining great structure. Though the vineyards are not certified organic, the entire property is farmed without the use of systemic herbicides or pesticides. The domaine consists of 12 hectares of vineyards dotted around the following villages (comprising Village and 1er Cru appellations): Bligny-Les-Beaune, Volnay, Pommard, Beaune, Savigny-les-Beaune, Pernand-Vergelesses and Ladoix. Total production is only around 5,400 cases from 12 appellations. They produce mostly red wines (95%), exclusively from Pinot Noir, with a bit of Aligoté as well as Chardonnay for his Haute-Côtes-de-Beaune white.”
“Gevrey Chambertin has a rare and unique Terroir thanks to the alluvial fan that comes from a valley situated just behind (to the west) of Gevrey called “La Combe de Lavaux”. This glacier melted many millions of years ago and spread the rich top and sub-soil layers out through what is now the town to the plains beyond. It is not surprising to find that 9 of the 33 Grand Crus come from this village including the famous Chambertin as well as 26 Premier Crus ! The town also boasts over 100 wine estates ! The Domaine Tortochot is one of the more famous estates in the area and has been in the Tortochot family for 4 generations. When talking about her style of Pinot Noir, Chantal Tortochot, the head of the domain, explains: “Here we make a more traditional Gevrey Chambertin, with lots of fruit, strong tannins and good acidity.”
I have had the pleasure of tasting both of these producers with Pascal and Camille, the importers and distributors of the entire month’s selections—value, select, and collector. Their portfolio has been emerging now for several years, and they share my commitment to work with family owned and operated wineries from the finest regions of the wine world. They are like me, and all of the producers we work with, preoccupied with quality and integrity over quantity. It is a joy to drink wine with them and an honor to support their book. If you have been to tastings you have met Pascal, his joy for life is contagious!
Cheers,
Maria
