What's Going On in the World of French Wines

I’m working on a post on Bordeaux for later this week, but I had a really interesting wine last night and so I wanted to share it with everyone on the blog. A few months ago, I was in a wine store in my area when I spotted an interesting looking bottle of wine. The first thing that caught my eye was the label – it was one of those labels that grabs your attention – not because it is showy or there’s a cute animal, but because it was, well, so very pretty. Intrigued, I picked it up and was even more interested to see that it was made with organically grown grapes and that, best of all, it was priced at $9.99. So, naturally, I had to buy it!
So what’s funny about this is that the Les Chemins de Bassac Isa Rouge has been sitting in my wine fridge in my kitchen untouched since that impulse purchase. Every time I’ve gone to pull out a wine for dinner, I’ve looked at it and then thought to myself, am I really in the mood for this wine? I’m not really sure what made me hesitate to open the Isa – I think I was so excited to find it that I was worried that drinking the wine would be a bit of a let-down…amazing how sometimes you can be your own worst enemy!
Well, last night I made spaghetti and meatballs and when I went to grab a wine to serve with dinner, lo and behold, I discovered that I was out of my stash of everyday Italian wines. Yes, I keep a selection of inexpensive Italian red wines on hand to serve with my red sauce – I find that my tomato sauce tends to go best with either a Valpolicella or a Chianti. But I digress…so, unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, there were no Italian reds to be had. So I went searching through the other shelves to see what I could find. And that’s when I spotted the Isa, which had been languishing on the top shelf of the wine fridge for way too long.
What the heck, I thought – why not open it? I’ll admit it, I didn’t have high expectations – not only because of the potential problem of pairing it with my red sauce, but also because I had stupidly convinced myself that something that pretty, that reasonably priced and made with organically grown grapes wasn’t going to be all that tasty – it seemed just too good to be true. Well, silly me. The Isa was lovely, with soft earthy black fruits, notes of spicy plums and hints of ripe cherries. The tannins were fairly soft and the acidity and alcohol were balanced, but somehow the wine went very nicely with the sauce. Perhaps it was the addition of the meatballs to the sauce, but the combination was really enjoyable, and the wine that was left in my glass was equally delicious with my dessert of chocolate chip cookies.

The Les Chemins de Bassac Isa Rouge is a Vin de Pays des Côtes de Thongue, which is located in the Languedoc, in the South of France. The wine is a blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir and the grapes are all farmed organically. If you would like more information about the wine, I recommend checking the estate’s website.
So what did I learn tonight? Well, first off, it was a great reminder that I need to take my own advice when I spot something interesting – I need to not hesitate to open the wine once I get it home! I foolishly made some assumptions about the wine (the label’s too pretty and the wine’s too reasonably priced for it to be really good) that were definitely without merit. And this was a great reminder that there are wines made with organically grown grapes that can be found for under $10. So for all those people who say you have to pay extra for grapes grown without synthetic chemicals, the Isa is a terrific example of the value wines that are available these days. Finally, it was definitely a treat to discover a delicious wine that stood up to my red sauce – and I bet it would be great with a whole bunch of other dishes too!

I have to admit it – overall, I’m not such a big fan of Valentine’s Day. And it isn’t just because of the whole “what if you don’t have someone to spend the most romantic day of the year with” issue. No, personally, I find it tough to get excited about the prospect of overspending on a so-so meal at a crowded restaurant with a dozen outrageously expensive roses and a box of boring chocolates. Call me cynical, but I think that there are a lot of better ways to show someone how much you love them.
What might those be? Well, I’m glad that you asked. Instead of going out for a meal this Valentine’s Day, I would propose that you create your own night of romance with a delicious, but simple meal and a bottle of wine that will set the stage for an evening that you will both enjoy. And the wonderful thing about this idea is that you can even adapt this meal for a group of friends, so that no one has to feel left out of the celebration.

There are so many different ways to plan a menu that will work for Valentine’s Day. There are any number of foods that are considered aphrodisiacs and a variety of ingredients that are supposed to also encourage a feeling of romance. One list of foods that I came across included: Chile Peppers, Peaches, Mint, Ginger, Honey, Chocolate, Mangoes, Saffron, Almonds, Rosemary, Vanilla, Figs.
So, here’s my idea for a menu for Valentine’s Day based on using some of the above ingredients. Feel free to adapt it to fit your needs and your own taste preferences. First course: A spinach salad with figs, goat cheese, toasted almonds and strawberries with a honey poppy seed dressing. Second course: Grilled beef tenderloin that has been coated in salt, pepper and chopped fresh rosemary served with small roasted potatoes that have been tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary. Dessert: Vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce (with optional whipped cream and cherries).

And my wine suggestions? For the first course, I would suggest a Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé and for the main course, a full-bodied red wine such as a Syrah from the Northern Rhône or a Cabernet Sauvignon-based blend from Bordeaux. There’s also the possibility of using a wine with a little bit of a romantic theme to it – you might think about looking for a Beaujolais from the Cru of Saint-Amour. And you can’t forget a dessert wine for a Valentine’s Day meal. I have two suggestions for dessert – either an off-dry Champagne (to which I would add a raspberry in the bottom of each glass – just to provide a hint of red) or a fortified sweet wine, such as a Banyuls, which is a great pairing for chocolate. (Throw in a chocolate brownie and you are guaranteed to hit a home run on dessert.)

Keep the focus on simple ingredients that work well together and won’t require a lot of work in the kitchen and you will be assured a special meal. Sometimes, less is actually more when it comes to making a meal memorable.

And if you have any other suggestions for a wonderful (but easy) Valentine’s Day meal, please post your thoughts below - I’d love to hear about them!

Thursday, January 22

Today is one of my all-time favorite holidays – the feast day devoted to the patron saint of winemakers, St. Vincent. While many winemakers mark the day, those in Burgundy are particularly well-known for their St. Vincent day celebrations. This year there will be parties taking place in a number of villages in Burgundy, including one in the village of Chardonnay (Yes, Virginia, there is a village called Chardonnay in Burgundy!).

My love of St. Vincent’s Day goes back many years to my days as a wine student preparing for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust’s Diploma at the International Wine Center in New York City. At some point in my studies of Burgundy, I came across some references to St. Vincent and how vignerons hold services and celebrations in his honor each year in hopes of being rewarded with a good year in the vineyards. I loved the idea of marking the beginning of a new year in the vineyards with a celebration of vintages past. While I didn’t have a vineyard, it occurred to me that I could create my own holiday honoring St. Vincent by throwing a tasting party for my friends and that our enjoyment of past vintages would also help me make room in my cellar for some new vintages.
My party was a huge success, in fact I think it remains one of my very favorite parties that I have ever thrown. I served a variety of foods – lots of different cheeses, shrimp, mini roast beef sandwiches, various desserts, vegetables, mini quiches – you name it. The idea was to give people an opportunity to pair a wide variety of wines (I think I opened somewhere between 50 and 60 bottles of wine) with a wide variety of foods. The most exciting part of the party though, was that I had the chance to open so many different wines for my friends – some of whom tasted grape varieties that day that were completely new to them. While it wasn’t an educational tasting per se, I did want my friends to be able to learn about wine that day in a fun and relaxed way.

So today, in honor of St. Vincent, I encourage you to do one of two things. Either open up a bottle of wine tonight that you have never tried before, or invite some friends over and celebrate St. Vincent with a tasting party of your own. Whatever you do, though, be sure to say a few words wishing all of the vintners around the world good luck as they embark upon the 2009 vintage. And as for me, I’m planning on calling up a few of my neighbors to see if they want to stop by for some drinks after work. I think I’ll open up a few different French wines made with grapes that most people are probably not familiar with, such as Chenin Blanc, Colombard, Gewurztraminer, Mourvèdre, Semillon, Ugni Blanc and Viognier. If some of these grapes are new to you, you can check through my top picks list by grape variety to find specific wines. Enjoy!

Inauguration Day is just around the corner, and no matter what your political beliefs, I think we can all agree that the day a new president takes the oath of office is a day to celebrate the unique pageantry of American politics. So, I don’t know about you, but I started to think about a potential menu to mark the occasion. What do I have in mind, you might ask? Well, to honor our president’s unique background as well as the mix of cultures that make up the US, I would suggest something with a bit of a multi-cultural theme that focuses on the idea of bringing luck and prosperity to the world. You might think of it as being similar to the idea that you should eat certain foods on New Year’s Day to bring you luck in the new year. The way I look at it, we could all use a bit more luck and prosperity these days, so why not plan your own lucky feast to celebrate the inauguration and a new period in the history of our country?
In Spain, eating grapes as the clock strikes 12 on New Year’s Eve is considered very lucky and so, for our purposes, since this isn’t actually a New Year’s Eve feast, we can tweak it a bit by considering wine the key part of our bountiful feast. And now, what to pair with our wines…
I would recommend going with a first course borrowed from the Far East – the spring roll. According to my research, spring rolls are thought to bring wealth to those who eat them because their color and size make them look a bit like gold bars. Perhaps a bit far-fetched, but I’m willing to bite! The lucky spring rolls would be perfect served with a unifying wine made from a blend of grapes, Pierre Sparr’s ONE from Alsace. This wine is also a wonderful mix of both established traditions and new, dynamic ideas.
For the next course, I would suggest that we jump over to Italy. Now, you might wonder what President Obama has to do with Italy, but I would argue that we all have something to do with Italian food. It definitely ranks right up there on the list of Americans’ favorite cuisines and I seem to recall that one of the Obamas’ favorite restaurants in Chicago is an Italian place. In Italy there are several foods that are considered lucky – among them lentils, gnocchi and risotto. Depending on your preference, you could make a main course out of any of them and add sausage (also considered lucky) to any of the three. I personally would lean towards the gnocchi, mainly because it is one of my almost-three-year-old son’s favorite meals. For serving alongside your lucky Italian food, I would go for the Paul Jaboulet Aîné Côtes du Rhône “Parallèle 45″. This blend of Syrah and Grenache is, according to Jaboulet, named in honor of the 45th North parallel which runs two kilometers from their cellars. So in honor of the imaginary lines that circle the globe and connect us all, this would be a delicious and versatile red wine to serve.
And we wouldn’t want to forget some veggies with this meal, so I would suggest you look to the South for this part of the meal and serve up some cooked greens, such as collard greens, kale or chard. Various cultures consider eating vast quantities of greens important as these very-good-for-you foods bear a strong resemblance to money. So eating your greens with this meal could hopefully inspire some good financial fortune to come your way.
Finally, in France, it is apparently good luck to eat pancakes on New Year’s. So, I propose a dessert of either fruit or chocolate crepes – or maybe a combination of both! You can pair this with a sweeter style bubbly, like the Moet & Chandon White Star, or with a dessert wine such as the Castelnau de Suduiraut Sauternes - which would be terrific with a crepe stuffed with bananas and drizzled with caramel sauce.
Whatever meal you decide to have on the 20th though, I hope that it brings you some good luck in the new year and, at the very least, some fortuitous wine choices over the next few months!

Happy Holidays to All! I hope that everyone had a great Christmas or Hanukah and that you are all gearing up for a fun New Year’s celebration. I can’t believe that we have finally reached the end of 2008. I’m usually a little sad to see a year end, but this time I am not feeling quite so nostalgic. I, for one, will be very pleased to be starting a brand new year and can only hope that 2009 brings a new feeling of optimism and joy to all of us.

To help me ring out the old and ring in the new, I’ve planned a small dinner party with some close friends. I was given a fantastic bottle of vintage Champagne a few months ago and it will serve as the centerpiece for our celebration. We’ve decided to keep it pretty simple this year menu-wise and will be serving a selection of appetizers, a cheese fondue course and a big salad. We will close with a chocolate fondue and some Moet & Chandon White Star Champagne to enjoy when the ball drops.
I’ll be back in a few days with some more updates to the blog and don’t forget, I am starting my search for my list of picks for 2009, so if you have a wine you love that you want to nominate, I’d love to hear about it. I’m especially looking for great French wines that are between $8 and $25, so if you have a favorite, please share it with me!

I wish all of you readers a safe and happy New Year and thank you for being a part of the 2008 Wines of France blog. I am so excited about some of the things we have planned for 2009. So be sure to stop by in the new year to see what’s happening. In fact, you can add it to your resolutions – Read the Wines of France blog on a regular basis. I love resolutions - I’m at 5 goals for 2009 at the moment – 1) be more consistent about my running, 2) conquer the obscene amounts of paper in my office, 3) find at least four new wines a month to share with you all on the blog, 4) park my car in the garage (we STILL can’t get our cars in the garage at the new house), and 5) make a decent Thai curry. I’m sure I will think of a few more between now and midnight, and if you have any you’d like to share (besides continuing to be a devoted WoF blog reader), be sure and drop me a line.

Happy New Year!

Even though we didn’t host Thanksgiving, I went ahead last week and cooked a giant turkey just so I could have the leftovers. I love to make my own stock and I figured that a big turkey could provide us with a number of different meals. One of our favorite leftover turkey dishes is turkey tetrazzini.

Although it sounds like it might be an Italian dish, the theory is actually that the recipe for turkey tetrazzini originated in San Francisco. Supposedly, it was named to honor an opera singer named Luisa Tetrazzini (1875-1940), who lived there.

Regardless of where it comes from, it is a popular dish in our house, and with so much left-over turkey, it was a perfect choice for dinner the other night. I use the Cooks Illustrated version, but you can find a lot of variations on the web if you are interested in finding a recipe for yourself. Essentially it is turkey, noodles, mushrooms, onions and peas baked in a cream sauce – sounds good, right? My version calls for a lot of parmesan cheese and a toasted breadcrumb topping that I find keeps the dish from getting bland and mushy.

As I made the turkey tetrazzini (Peter really enjoyed saying this out loud, by the way), my thoughts naturally turned to wine and I did a mental run-down of what I have in the cellar at the moment. I decided that I was in the mood for a white wine. We had paired the turkey with a red wine a few days before and while it was delicious, I felt like trying something completely different. So I selected a bottled of the Jean-François Mérieau, Sauvignon de Touraine, “l’Arpent des Vaudons” to serve with the turkey tetrazzini.

While I was a bit apprehensive that the Sauvignon Blanc might be too aggressive for the cream sauce, the combination was actually quite good. The earthy flavors from the mushrooms and the turkey balanced the fruitiness of the wine and the nice acidity on the Sauvignon Blanc was a good counterpart to the cream sauce. The wine seemed to brighten up the dish a bit and it made for a very refreshing match. I think I could have also paired this with a Pinot Blanc, a Chardonnay or even a Pinot Noir with great success, as this is a pretty wine-friendly meal. But there is something so lively and fresh about Sauvignon Blanc that it always makes a meal fun. And given this particular dish, it somehow seemed an apropos choice.

I had a bit of a hectic but fun week last week with wine events in both New York (blustery and 45 degrees) and Los Angeles (sunny and 78 degrees). The events were luncheons for folks in the wine trade (press, restaurants, retailers, distributors, etc) and offered a unique opportunity for me to see how two very different chefs paired wines selected from my list of top picks with some of their favorite dishes. I thought it might be interesting to share some of the pairing highlights with you.

The lunch in New York was at Bar Q, a fantastic place in the West Village that features Asian-style barbecue with a little bit of a French twist. The chef, Anita Lo, is exceptionally talented and innovative and it was both tasty and fun to see what she created. Each course was delicious, but there were two that really stood out. The first was a Spit Roasted Berkshire Pork Belly with Kimchee, Takuan and Steamed Buns. The pork was paired with the Le Loup Blanc La Mère Grand 2004 from the Minervois and also with the Château de La Chaize 2006 from Brouilly (one of the crus in Beaujolais). The combination of sweet and spicy flavors was really interesting with the two wines. The La Mère Grand was a bit fruitier than the earthy Château de La Chaize, but both wines worked with the course and balanced the exotic flavors of the pork beautifully.

My other favorite course (besides dessert, naturally) was a delicious Grilled Shortrib with Korean Flavors that was paired with the Marc Kreydenweiss Perrières 2005 from Costières de Nîmes and with the Christian Moueix 2005 Saint-Émilion. Again, both wines showed nicely with the dish, although I, personally, thought that the pepper and spice from the Kreydenweiss made for a slightly better pairing with the shortrib. But when I asked for a show of hands as to who preferred which wine with the shortrib, the room was pretty evenly divided.

Two days after the New York lunch, it was on to LA where the luncheon was held at a very cool place called Palate Food + Wine .
Palate is not only a restaurant – it is also a wine merchant (I ended up buying a bunch of wine before I left), a cheese cellar, a tasting bar and a lounge. Chef Octavio Becerra prepared a wonderful meal for us that featured lots of fresh, local ingredients. My favorite course was a Pork Tenderloin with grits & apple compote that was paired with 2 wines: the 2006 Domaine Le Peu de La Moriette Vouvray and the Lucien Albrecht, Crémant d’Alsace, Brut Rosé. The dish was superb – I loved the combination of flavors and textures and the apples were cooked perfectly. Both wines were sensational and I loved how the pairing worked both with an off-dry Chenin Blanc and a dry sparkling rosé.

Dessert was also terrific with a Valrhona spiced pumpkin tart paired with the Moët & Chandon White Star Champagne and the 2003 Castelnau de Suduiraut Sauternes. The combination of the pumpkin tart and the Sauternes was sooooooo good – I made a mental note to make sure that I serve the Castelnau de Suduiraut with my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

 All in all, a busy (but delicious) week. Of course this week is all about payback – lots of laundry, catching up on email and of course, trying to get in a few workouts to make up for all of the great food and wine of last week. But it was definitely worth it!

The other day I had the pleasure of lunching with Ray Isle, who is the Deputy Wine Editor at Food & Wine magazine. I’m a fan of Ray’s work and his musings on his Food & Wine Magazine Blog, so it was a lot of fun to have a chance to sit and chat.

We had lunch at a great new restaurant in NY called Allegretti. The food was delicious and the staff exceedingly friendly. Ray and I both had the Autumn Salad with assorted greens, anjou pear, gamonedo cheese, candied walnuts and a white balsamic walnut vinaigrette and for a main course, I choose a roasted chicken while Ray went with the lamb shank. I had brought along a few wines from my list for us to taste with lunch and we also decided we would select one wine from the restaurant’s list. The list has a great selection of French wines and they range from the very affordable to the super-duper-supreme-special occasion wine.

Given our mix of lamb and chicken, we settled on the 2004 Domaine Gauby “Vieilles Vignes” Cotes de Roussillon Villages. Domaine Gauby is a biodynamic producer and I had recently read some very interesting things about them in Monty Waldin’s outstanding book, Biodynamic Wines. The wine was, in a word, delicious. A blend of Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre and Syrah, it showed notes of violets, black fruits and minerals. The wine was elegant and balanced with juicy acidity and it went beautifully with both my chicken dish as well as the cheeses we sampled for “dessert.” I was so impressed it was all I could do not to take the rest of the bottle home with me…

But the biggest thing that stood out about the Domaine Gauby was that it was served at the right temperature. I’ve talked a lot about this on the blog before – about how we tend to drink our whites too cold and our reds too warm. This red, which was probably served at somewhere around 60 degrees, was perfect. The coolness enhanced the minerality and the acidity of the wine and made it seem more refreshing than any of the other wines we had on the table. Two of the wines I had brought along were some of my favorites on the list, but when served next to the Gauby, they seemed a bit too hot and dull.

My hat is off to Allegretti not only for a lovely lunch, but also for serving its red wines at the right temperature. This was a very good reminder to me of just how important serving temperature really truly is. If you have a chance, at your next get-together, I encourage you to try sampling the same red wine served at two different temperatures. Try opening one bottle that has been out on your kitchen counter all day long and the other that you have chilled in the fridge for 20 – 25 minutes prior to opening. See if you taste a difference between the two wines and be sure and let me know which wine tastes better to you. I’ll be waiting to hear from you!

Rushing through the grocery store yesterday, I happened to spy a bottle of the 2007 Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages on the shelf. I’ve always enjoyed the Jadot wines and find them to be a pretty good value, so I was very interested to taste the new vintage of the Macon-Villages.

I am finally just about all set up in the new kitchen, so I will admit I did entertain a few brief fantasies about cooking some sort of elaborate meal to pair with the wine. However, one thing after another seemed to crop up last night and suddenly it was after 8 and dinner was not even close to being ready.

So, we decided to simplify the menu and grill some chicken breasts seasoned with salt, pepper, mustard, white wine vinegar and olive oil. I made a small salad of mixed greens, cucumbers and toasted pecans and threw together a simple vinaigrette. In the mood for something else, I used the leftover canned diced tomatoes and mozzarella that I had used when making Peter’s dinner and added them to some orzo (chosen because it takes only about 10 minutes to make). I worried slightly that the tomatoes might not pair so well with the Chardonnay, but I figured it might be worth a shot.

Haphazardly planned as it was, our “quick to the table” dinner was actually very tasty. I had added some walnut oil to the salad dressing and the nuttiness was delicious with the chicken. The wine had a bright citrus and green apple note to it that balanced the oil and enhanced the flavor of the chicken. The orzo, while very tasty, was an ok pairing with the wine. I would have probably been better off if I had added in some different seasonings, but all in all, the wine did stand up to the tomatoes better than I thought it would. The bright acidity of the wine and the tangy nature of the tomatoes when combined with the chicken and the salad made for a very pleasurable mix of flavors.

So keep an eye out for the Jadot Mâcon-Villages 2007 – it is a very food friendly and enjoyable wine and, as evidenced by my meal, a wine that can pair well with almost anything you can throw together in the kitchen!

 
Wow – where has October gone? I can’t believe that we are just about to head into the last week in October. Halloween, which is one of my very favorite holidays is only a week away! And I still don’t have my costume sorted out. Or my son’s for that matter…if you have any suggestions, please feel free to email me!

But speaking of the last week of October, I just wanted to let you all know that I will be hosting another wine dinner in NY on Monday, October 27th at Brasserie 8 ½. The last two wine dinners (the pictures are here) conducted up in NY were so much fun that I can’t wait for this one. The dinner will feature wines from some of my very favorite French winemakers and the menu looks fantastic (dessert is a frozen banana praline soufflé – how good does that sound???). So head on over HERE to make your reservations. I hope to see you there!