Hey Everyone,
Today I am writing about my most conflicted of feelings in the entire world of wine. It is the strange phenomenon of the head versus the heart and the knowledge of the former pitted against the uncompromising nature of the latter. The subject matter: Italy, the dilemma; I know it's good and that I like the styles of wine produced there, yet never will I choose a bottle of Chianti over a Rioja or Barolo over Bordeaux. I wrote a post last year about how much I like the rustic wines from appellations such as Chianti Rufina and Abruzzo, and I really enjoy a good bottle of Barbera with a bowl of pasta or a steak, but I fear that my consumption of Italian wine is somewhat forced.
A friend of mine, the proprietor of St. Andrews Wine Company is planning a dinner with a local restaurant which promises to be a truly inspiring experience with a well considered selection of wines to match each course. At first the theme for wines of the evening was said to be the Rhône Valley and I was ecstatic. I pictured a gorgeous dinner starting with duck liver pate and Condrieu or smoked fish and Chateauneuf-du-Pape blanc followed by a braised beef with a spicy Cornas or Cote-Rotie, all to be washed down with a sweet Muscat Beaumes de Venise. Thats when someone suggested Italian wines and my dreams of a Rhône dinner were dashed.
Thats because interesting Italian wines are exciting for just about everyone except me. For some reason I like Italian wines to be simple and easy, not big and complex. I don't know exactly why, because I want this from every other wine I drink; perhaps it is a realm of refuge from the overly cerebral bottles I usually encounter. When it comes to beer, though I love interesting well crafted ales, I can get tired of 7% hoppy IPAs. It may be that Italian wine fulfills the same role for me that English bitter fulfills in respect to beer. It is an escape. That said I know that top flight Italian wine is amazing stuff and whenever I taste it I am happy to have done so, but I cannot say that I would ever choose it for myself.
For instance, last night in the wine shop, Peter opened a bottle of 2008 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It was massive, big bright black fruits reminiscent of Napa Cabernet with the alcohol to match. It was excellent stuff, better than most of the wines I've been drinking lately, and perhaps ironically, way better than the Crozes-Hermitage (from the Rhône I love so well) I had two nights ago.
I recognised long ago that loving wine is a growing process, with twists and turns. Where one thing is your passion at the moment and the other your passing fancy, these things may change any moment. There was a time when I wouldn't have even considered buying a bottle of Bordeaux over an American Cabernet, but my tastes have changed and tasting this beautiful Vino Nobile may well have changed my thoughts on what people call 'more interesting' Italian wines.
If there is something you are prejudiced against out there in the wine world, as I admit to myself, make a concerted effort to change your opinion or at least find out exactly why you feel that way. It could be an exciting revelation!
Much Love,
G.
Wednesday 16 January 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Tuesday 1 January 2013
Wines of Christmas
Hey Everyone,
So the holiday season is thoroughly underway, with Christmas Day passed, New Years ahead and a long, long winter to come. One of my favourite parts of the holidays is the succession of family events where the dinner table assumes the role of centre stage. This is when the greatest, most heart warming meals of the year take place; when your favourite foods are cooked and the best wines are drunk.
this years, owing to the newly regular uncertainty of all my siblings' schedules we were able to miraculously pull off three incredible dinners and as we couldn't match last years Mouton '83 and Jarvis '97 for all of them, we had to improvise and that we did well. Christmas is different for everyone with small traditions here and there that make it so wonderful and unique. For us, we have a massive dinner for 30 immediate family members from my dad's side of the family over on Christmas day and serve up a massive rare roast fillet of beef for everyone with all sorts of trimmings and sweeties on the sides.
Seeing as this is a uniquely large family dinner we weren't about to willingly provide anything super costly so we rummaged around the cellar for something that might work nicely, recalling that we had a couple bottles of Indian Wells Cabernet that would do just fine. What. Came up with was a bit of a forgotten gem. Sitting mostly for decorative use on a barrel in the corner of the cellar was a magnum of 2001 Falcor Red. It had been standing upright for god knows how long so we had no way of knowing if it would still be good but we dug through the wax and my brother decanted it and we were happy to smell a wine that would serve well enough.
As the meal went on it became apparent that this Falcor was no simple Napa Cab. It was refined, elegant and very much like a 2003 from Bordeaux. It was big yes, but there was something restrained and backward about it for a California wine. The blend was about 50% Cabernet Franc with the rest about equal between Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot and it showed off its notes of autumnal leaves, toasty oak and sour forest fruits wonderfully and delivered with a composed balance I had not expected. Overall it was an awesome bottle of wine and though not a match made in heaven for the beef, it was excellent.
For my immediate family, however, the main event is always Christmas Eve and that is when we try to go all out with wine and food. This year we were unsure of when my brother could make it home, so we decided that we would have our usual Christmas Eve dinner on Boxing Day. Seeing as he arrived a bit earlier from New York than expected we were blessed with two beautiful dinners in very short succession. The choice of wines was therefore a bit improvised but proved to be excellent.
Alongside our dinner of seared duck breast with orange risotto on the 24th we had a nearly forgotten bottle of Cakebread Syrah 2004. Not generally intended to age long, this wine held up marvelously and showed a distinctly Rhone-like character and a great purity of blackberry and sour cherry alongside emerging hints of green olive and brine. This went along with an obscure 1997 Mercurey from Domaine Voarick, which was another wine bought long ago and more or less forgotten until we happened upon it the night of the dinner. Despite the cork crumbling into oblivion, it tasted great with a leathery farmyard profile and a lot of raspberries.
For dinner on Boxing Day we cooked up our traditional roasted rack of lamb. This meal lends itself so well to Bordeaux that I could not resist opening my 2004 Chateau Talbot. While it was clear that this wine has a long life ahead of it, perhaps as much as five or six years before it reaches it's peak, it was excellent in its richness, with chunky tannins, restrained, backwards fruit and searing acidity cutting through the oily fat of the lamb. I generally think that 2004 in Bordeaux is underrated and offers classic style and a good value for money, but in particular I believe that the classed growths of Saint-Julien are often great buys from this vintage.
So overall it was a great holiday for wine and with some bottles I may never find again coming into play I think it was a treat to try some of these. Year in and year out, Christmas never fails to bring out the best in my family and I was blessed not only with these wondrous meals and wines but first and compost with the company of those who surround the table.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
G
So the holiday season is thoroughly underway, with Christmas Day passed, New Years ahead and a long, long winter to come. One of my favourite parts of the holidays is the succession of family events where the dinner table assumes the role of centre stage. This is when the greatest, most heart warming meals of the year take place; when your favourite foods are cooked and the best wines are drunk.
this years, owing to the newly regular uncertainty of all my siblings' schedules we were able to miraculously pull off three incredible dinners and as we couldn't match last years Mouton '83 and Jarvis '97 for all of them, we had to improvise and that we did well. Christmas is different for everyone with small traditions here and there that make it so wonderful and unique. For us, we have a massive dinner for 30 immediate family members from my dad's side of the family over on Christmas day and serve up a massive rare roast fillet of beef for everyone with all sorts of trimmings and sweeties on the sides.
Seeing as this is a uniquely large family dinner we weren't about to willingly provide anything super costly so we rummaged around the cellar for something that might work nicely, recalling that we had a couple bottles of Indian Wells Cabernet that would do just fine. What. Came up with was a bit of a forgotten gem. Sitting mostly for decorative use on a barrel in the corner of the cellar was a magnum of 2001 Falcor Red. It had been standing upright for god knows how long so we had no way of knowing if it would still be good but we dug through the wax and my brother decanted it and we were happy to smell a wine that would serve well enough.
As the meal went on it became apparent that this Falcor was no simple Napa Cab. It was refined, elegant and very much like a 2003 from Bordeaux. It was big yes, but there was something restrained and backward about it for a California wine. The blend was about 50% Cabernet Franc with the rest about equal between Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot and it showed off its notes of autumnal leaves, toasty oak and sour forest fruits wonderfully and delivered with a composed balance I had not expected. Overall it was an awesome bottle of wine and though not a match made in heaven for the beef, it was excellent.
For my immediate family, however, the main event is always Christmas Eve and that is when we try to go all out with wine and food. This year we were unsure of when my brother could make it home, so we decided that we would have our usual Christmas Eve dinner on Boxing Day. Seeing as he arrived a bit earlier from New York than expected we were blessed with two beautiful dinners in very short succession. The choice of wines was therefore a bit improvised but proved to be excellent.
Alongside our dinner of seared duck breast with orange risotto on the 24th we had a nearly forgotten bottle of Cakebread Syrah 2004. Not generally intended to age long, this wine held up marvelously and showed a distinctly Rhone-like character and a great purity of blackberry and sour cherry alongside emerging hints of green olive and brine. This went along with an obscure 1997 Mercurey from Domaine Voarick, which was another wine bought long ago and more or less forgotten until we happened upon it the night of the dinner. Despite the cork crumbling into oblivion, it tasted great with a leathery farmyard profile and a lot of raspberries.
For dinner on Boxing Day we cooked up our traditional roasted rack of lamb. This meal lends itself so well to Bordeaux that I could not resist opening my 2004 Chateau Talbot. While it was clear that this wine has a long life ahead of it, perhaps as much as five or six years before it reaches it's peak, it was excellent in its richness, with chunky tannins, restrained, backwards fruit and searing acidity cutting through the oily fat of the lamb. I generally think that 2004 in Bordeaux is underrated and offers classic style and a good value for money, but in particular I believe that the classed growths of Saint-Julien are often great buys from this vintage.
So overall it was a great holiday for wine and with some bottles I may never find again coming into play I think it was a treat to try some of these. Year in and year out, Christmas never fails to bring out the best in my family and I was blessed not only with these wondrous meals and wines but first and compost with the company of those who surround the table.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
G
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