What's Going On in the World of French Wines

Even if the weather doesn’t want to cooperate where you live, there is no denying that there is a whiff of spring in the air. Living here in North Carolina, spring has a tendency to come on the early side – in fact there have been years where I’ve spotted flowers poking through as early as late January! There’s something about the start of spring that always fills me with excitement and energy, and a good dose of anticipation.
There’s also just something about warm weather that makes me want to entertain. I’m sure it has a bit to do with the fact that as we get further into spring and summer the fresh vegetables and fruits at the local farmers markets just beg to be shared. But there’s also something easy about parties that involve the grill and letting kids play outside. Recently, we had a brief window of warm weather and so we used the opportunity to get together with some friends. The menu plan was simple – burgers, hot dogs, salad, chips, pasta salad, fruit and ice cream. Nothing really fancy, but with 10 little kids running around, the object was to be as family-friendly as possible!
Of course, wine is always a big part of parties in our house, no matter the occasion. It might sound a bit resentful of me to say that my friends expect to be served something interesting at my house, but in truth, I’m glad that they do. I think it is all too easy to get into a wine rut (it has happened to me before) and I’m happy to help prevent that from happening. So for this particular gathering, I chose to serve the Lafite Réserve Spéciale Bordeaux Blanc and the Mas de Guiot Vin de Pays du Gard. The first is a white Bordeaux made from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon and the second is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Both wines went over well, but much to my surprise, it was the white wine that was the big success. In the past, I have found that my guests were more likely to drink red wines over whites, so this was a bit of a departure and I one that I chalked up to two things – the warmer weather seemed to make people favor white wine and also the wine was extremely drinkable, both with or without food.
I’ve consistently found that people who like Sauvignon Blanc don’t seem to know that it is one of the grapes used in white Bordeaux. While it is true that there are many Bordeaux Blancs that are on the more expensive side, there are also a large number of very affordable and food-friendly examples; wines such as the Lafite Réserve Spéciale, Chateau Coucheroy or Chateau Bonnet spring to mind. The combination of the zesty flavors of the Sauvignon Blanc grape with the more mellow orange marmalade notes of the Sémillon grape makes for a versatile wine that is delicious with or without food. And because white Bordeaux is usually a bit fuller in body compared to other white wines, it stood up to the hamburgers and hot dogs just fine.
So if the weather has started to warm up where you live, think about the possibility of getting a group of friends together to celebrate the fact that spring is right around the corner. And if you are looking for a versatile, food-friendly white, I recommend you take a look through the White Bordeaux section of your favorite wine store. You might just find something to put a little spring in your step.

A few weeks ago I found myself in the midst of a bit of a wine dilemma. I was in the process of planning my Mother’s 60th surprise birthday party and I was trying to organize the wines with the menu for dinner. Starting off with Champagne was a pretty obvious choice, and I knew it would go nicely with the two appetizers the caterer had suggested, so that part was pretty easy. But I have to admit that I had some difficulty with the appetizer and the entrée. My difficulty stemmed from the fact that I had to balance the wines that I wanted to pair and thought would pair best with the menu, with the need to serve wines that my guests would enjoy.

The appetizer was to be a goat cheese tart topped with mixed roasted vegetables and a small frisée salad. In my mind, this was a course that called for a Sauvignon Blanc or a Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend. However, when thinking about the family members who would be attending the party, I needed to take into consideration what kind of wine would best suit my guests’ tastes. I knew ahead of time that I was going to have quite a mix of palates at the party. I would have several wine enthusiasts, several novices, and quite a few individuals who don’t really care much for wine. It was important to me to have a wine that would work for all of these different types of wine drinkers. Adding to the challenge was the fact that I knew that a few folks wouldn’t drink the red wine I was planning on serving with the main course, so the white needed to be fairly substantial.

So how did it all turn out? Well, for the first course I chose to serve a Vouvray, a Chenin Blanc with some residual sugar. I knew that several of the people who would be attending tend to prefer wines with some residual sugar to them, so that was one of the key reasons I chose it over a Sauvignon Blanc. The issue of residual sugar in wine is an interesting one to me. There are lots of folks out there who seem to believe that if a wine has residual sugar to it, then it is either less sophisticated or downright bad. Other wine snobs will tell you that people who prefer sweeter wines have less-sophisticated palates. I don’t particularly care to pay attention to either point of view. While I will definitely agree that there are lots of wines made with residual sugar that are not very good, then again, I will also point out that there are also lots of dry wines out there that aren’t so hot either. The key to me is whether or not the wine is in balance.

Personally, I love wines with a sweet side, but in order for me to love them, they need to also have a high level of acidity to balance the sweetness. This way, the sugar doesn’t make the wine seem cloying, but rather refreshing. So a good quality Vouvray, which is made with Chenin Blanc which is a grape with lots of racy acidity, is rarely sticky sweet and syrupy, but rather vibrant and mouth-watering. And in terms of that whole “sophisticated” palate argument, I often wonder why people think that is so important anyway. Why does having a “sophisticated” palate make you better? Do you enjoy your food more? Speaking for myself, some of my very favorite meals that I have ever had were not elaborate exotic chef creations, but were fresh, in-season foods that were simply prepared. My goal for my Mother’s party was that people had a pleasurable meal with good food and good wine – it wasn’t about a palate challenge to rate sophistication levels. When so much of our experiences with wine come down to whether or not we have a pleasurable experience with it, why do we worry so much about what other people think?

Now the Vouvray might not have been my number one choice for a pairing match for the goat cheese tart, but it was a fine pairing, and I also knew that it would go fairly well with the main course, which was a beef stew. I also served a red Bordeaux with the stew as there were some people at the party who were red wine lovers and well, to be honest, the beef and Bordeaux combo is a personal favorite of my Mother’s (and mine, for that matter).

In the end, the party – especially the surprise of it – was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy both the food and the wine. Which for me, was the sweetest part of it all.

Last night we had dinner at Revolution, a fairly new restaurant here in Durham, NC. It’s been fun to watch the restaurant scene expand here over the last few years, and this place is one that people have been eagerly anticipating the opening of for quite some time. Usually, I like to focus my food and wine pairing posts on meals that I have at home, as I think what you eat and drink every day is what should get the most attention. However, that being said, every once in a while I have a restaurant experience that I think is worth blogging about, and last night was one of those times.
I’ll start with the food. The menu was very interesting, with lots of dishes composed of unusual and creative combinations. As there were four of us having dinner, the meals that were ordered were fairly diverse, although two of us did opt for the same entrée. Bill and I decided to share an appetizer of thinly shaved parma ham served with a side salad of arugula, parmesan cheese, almonds and hints of orange. For our main courses, Bill’s Dad, Tony, ordered the salmon which was grilled and served over a bed of lentils. Bill chose the scallops which were served with a side of goat cheese and diced potatoes, which as I type this sounds sort of strange, but was actually really delicious. Bill’s Aunt Barbara and I both opted for the pork chop served atop a bed of tomatoes, onions and sweet potatoes. Again, the combination of the sweet potatoes and the tomatoes sounds a bit odd, but it was extremely tasty, with the acidity of the tomatoes cutting through some of the sweetness of the sweet potatoes.
Now I will say that the entrees we ordered were not the most challenging food and wine pairings I’ve ever had to deal with, but they certainly were a bit tricky. You’ve got pork, seafood and shellfish, not to mention the strong flavors of tomatoes, sweet potatoes and goat cheese to balance.
So what did I do? Well, the wine list presented a bit of a challenge. It was a bit on the short side, but there were some very interesting wines. However, given our mix of meals, there were really only 3 or 4 that fit the bill. Add to that that there was a request for the wine to be white, and my options went to 2, although in hindsight, after tasting all of the dishes, I do think that a white was the way to go – the tomatoes/sweet potato combo would have been an issue for the Pinot Noir I was thinking about as a red option. After a few minutes of deliberation, I selected a 2007 Albert Mann Pinot Blanc from Alsace.

The wine was delicious, and exceptionally versatile. I’ve often found that Pinot Blanc is a wonderful wine for restaurant meals. It is capable of going with such a wide range of foods and spices and can be perfect for any number of different cuisines. Pinot Blanc has a touch of floral character, notes of melons and pears and can sometimes show a slight hint of nuttiness. It is more often than not well balanced in terms of alcohol and acidity and is a great wine to pair with any number of different seafood dishes.
The Albert Mann Pinot Blanc was very well balanced with notes of honeysuckle, pear, melon and a trace of nuttiness. It went with all of the different entrees on the table, including the appetizer. It is closed with a screw cap, which I find tends to be a plus for many white wines, although I do think that more wine servers need to be taught the easy way to open bottles with screw caps – too many of them struggle a bit because they hold the bottle and the very top instead of firmly grasping the neck and the cap and twisting in opposite directions – but that’s another blog entry altogether!
So if you happen to be in Durham anytime, I recommend checking out Revolution, and whether it is at that restaurant, or any other – when you find yourself in a tricky pairing situation, check to see if there are any Pinot Blancs from Alsace on the menu. This is one heck of a versatile grape that, more often than not, will prove to be a winning choice for pairing with a variety of foods.

I don’t know about you, but I think I might just be ready for winter to be over - although that doesn’t appear to be in the forecast. When the cold starts to really get me down, I find myself gravitating to the kitchen – not only because it feels like the warmest room in the house, but also because I find that food and wine are surefire ways to keep the dreary days at bay.
Lately I’ve been having fun making different stews and trying out new chili recipes. I have a chicken and dumpling recipe from Cooks Illustrated that I love to play around with – it is easy to make and I can make a few changes and make it into more of a thick chicken and vegetable soup that my whole family enjoys. Up until a few years ago, I had never made chili before, and it is now one of my favorite meals. I have a couple of different kinds I like to make, but my favorite by far is a turkey chili recipe I found in Cooks Illustrated’s Complete Book of Poultry. (Yes, I am clearly a big fan of Cook’s Illustrated.)

But eating hearty stews or a warming bowl of chili is not the only way to cope with winter. I also find that when the temperature drops I tend to open more bottles of red wine than I do of white. In our house this means that lately we have been enjoying a lot of wines from the Rhône Valley and the South of France (mainly from Languedoc-Roussillon). I haven’t decided if it is the idea of a Mediterranean climate, the slightly higher alcohol levels of the wines from this part of France or the specific combination of fruit and spice found in wines from this section of France, but whatever it is, for me, these are the wines that seem to go best with the cold weather.
In fact, I started to think about my yearly drinking habits and the more I considered them, the more I realized that I actually have a bit of a pattern. I tend, in general, to favor Burgundy, Beaujolais and Bordeaux in the Fall, Rhône and Languedoc-Roussillon in the Winter, the Loire and Provence in the Spring and the wines of Alsace in the Summer. I sort of feel a bit weird that I can actually come up with a pattern to my drinking habits. I’d have to say, though, that there is one exception to my seasonal drinking – Champagne. There is almost no time of the year where I don’t enjoy a glass of Champagne!

Perhaps it is the foods that I tend to eat and the way we cook that influence my taste buds, but I also think there are general wine tastes that appeal to me more or less based on the seasons. There is something about the Rhône that makes me think of curling up by a fireplace, and a Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire immediately makes me feel like the trees are budding and the daffodils are blooming. Now, of course, there are definitely exceptions and I do indeed drink white Burgundy in January (in fact, we just did the other night) and a nice Côtes du Rhône in July, but I’d have to say that overall, my tastes in wine do tend to change a bit with the seasons. And there is one other reason – availability. Rosés, for example, are much more available in spring and summer than they are in winter – so there can also be a logistical reason for consumption patterns!

So I’m curious – am I the only one who can think of a pattern to her wine buying and drinking habits? What about you all out there? Do you tend to find certain regions appealing at specific times of the year?