Wines of the Week (sort of)

Hello, everybody, and welcome again to Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today, we’re describing a couple of wines, the next installment of our unofficial wine(s) of the week.  These two wines are readily available, good values, and are versatile with food.

Sauvignon Blanc is hugely popular as an easy, not-too-expensive white wine.  Not usually complex, its racy acidity, citrus, and herbal grassiness make it an ideal wine for summer.  It is not summertime, obviously, but Mary and I have shellfish or flaky white fish such as tilapia, halibut, sea bass or something similar a couple of times a week.  Sauvignon Blanc is a terrific pairing for everyday cooking with light seafood or poultry.

Like many varietals, Sauvignon Blanc yields to the hand of the winemaker and is influenced by location.  In my experience, there are predictable flavor profile differences between, say, New Zealand, California, and the Loire Valley of France.  As long as it is not too gussied up with oak, I really prefer California Sauvignon Blanc.  It is not too fancy, but has just what I mentioned above…good acidity for food friendliness and delicious citrus and herbal aromas and flavors.

St. Supéry Vineyards and Winery is in the heart of Napa Valley, right on Highway 29 in Rutherford.  They specialize in Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc.  What I especially like about their style of this varietal is that it is completely oak-free.  It is fermented and stored in stainless steel tanks until bottling, so the consumer is getting the grape in all its glory.  Here are my notes on this wine.

St. Supéry Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 2008.  This is not a highly complex or ponderous wine.  It is just delicious with a plate of light fare, such as the paneed tilapia over lentils and carrots we enjoyed.  It is classic in its nose and palate of Sauvignon Blanc with white grapefruit and lemon citrus, grassy herbaceousness, and mineral notes.  The palate shows tangy, clean acidity on a light-bodied frame with the same citrus, herb, and perhaps a little bit of tropical fruit such as kiwi or lime citrus.  This particular version had a softness or roundness that makes me think it had a little neutral oak treatment, but the St. Supéry technical information at their website says it was all stainless steel.  It was beautifully balanced, modestly complex, with medium length.  It is an excellent example of a high quality California Sauvignon Blanc, a little different from other regions that produce this wine, and that's as it should be.  13.9% alcohol.  We paid $18 for this wine at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.  It is widely available.

The next wine is from a region that might not be familiar to many wine drinkers.  Cahors is an appellation in southwest France, southeast of Bordeaux.  The principal red grape of Cahors is Malbec.  Nowadays, we often associate Malbec with Argentina, but Malbec is actually one of the five traditional Bordeaux red grapes, the others being Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot.  As is often the case when contrasting New World and Old World wines, the Malbec of Argentina is big, juicy, often quite ripe, and high in alcohol when contrasted with Malbec from Cahors.  It is a powerful and intensely dark wine, to be sure, but it retains balance and a degree of elegance in Cahors.  It is all a matter of preference, but personally, I prefer the restraint, balance, and food friendliness of this version of Malbec.  I think this wine would pair nicely with a wide variety of food.  We paired it with grilled chops with tomato bruschetta topping, garlic spinach, and garden peas (called crowder peas here in the South…Mary’s not wild about them).  A small plat du fromage of sliced Manchego from Spain for dessert was delightful with the wine.

By coincidence, a wonderful video that presents the wine, the food, the geography, and culture of Cahors has been posted to a terrific website on wine, Grape Radio.  Go to http://www.graperadio.com/ to view The Scent of Black.  I think you will find it interesting and enjoyable. 

This particular producer includes a dollop of Merlot to add fleshiness and complexity.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Clos la Coutale Cahors 2008.  This turned out to be delightful and a good value.  My brother brought a bottle to a family gathering last Labor Day and I remember being impressed by it.  I had seen it at Briarwood and kept thinking I should try it, but hadn't gotten around to it.  With decanting in the glass for a bit over half an hour, it evolved quickly from mostly briary fruit and licorice to also reveal a sort of underbrush character, perhaps sage and thyme, perhaps flowers, not sure.  The palate showed medium body, smooth texture, and good acidity, nicely balanced and was very approachable, even in its youth.  Bright red cherry, red and dark berries, the same herbal characteristics were all present.  Balanced, moderately complex, medium in length, a delicious wine we both enjoyed and will drink again.  80% Malbec, 20% Merlot, 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $19 at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.  Considering my brother in Chattanooga brought it to our Labor Day event and I also saw it here in Jackson, it must be readily available.

That’s our post for today.  We hope it is interesting to you.  Check back for more posts at Cèpage et Cuisine.

Cheers!

Brian♥Mary

Rack of Lamb and Ratatouille

Hello again, everybody, and welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today, we’re talking about rack of lamb with ratatouille.  This dinner is a “candidate” dinner for a wine event we’re planning for January, which will highlight Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet-based blends.  We’ve done traditional dishes like steak, short ribs, and roasts for previous events.  They were all successful, but we wanted to try something a little different, something our wine friends probably don’t experience very often.

Mary grew up eating lamb in California.  She loves it, especially the leg of lamb her mom prepared around Easter.  Here in the South, though, lamb is not part of our regular dietary repertoire.  I don’t think I tasted it until I was grown and moved away from my hometown in Georgia.  Even now, I would describe my experience with lamb as very limited.  So, in the spirit of culinary adventure, off we went.

The ratatouille is also part of the adventure.  It’s tempting to stay with the tried and true sides with a dish like rack of lamb…potatoes, carrots, etc, but what the heck, let’s try something different!  While traveling in France last May, we encountered a vegetable dish in the southern Rhone region that they called simply, légume du jour, or vegetable of the day.  It was chopped vegetables, stewed or sautéed with Provençal herbs and spices.  It was served as a side with hearty foods like roasted meats.  Mary loved it and with some online research, we decided it was ratatouille.  She has made it several times, always delicious.  One of the lamb recipes we saw suggested it, so we decided to try it as a single side dish to accompany the rack of lamb.

I think Mary should go into business as a food photographer!  Here she is, discussing the preparation -- These are the ingredients for the ratatouille.  Considering the vegetables in the picture above, I knew that ratatouille was a great summer dish, when everything is in season. I wasn't sure I'd find what I need in December, but I was happy to find eggplant and zucchini are still available.  Plum tomatoes, bell peppers, parsley, onion, and garlic complete the picture.

Here are the ingredients for the main course: the rack of lamb, garlic,

good olive oil, fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. It's really an easy dish to prepare.

The rack of lamb was marinated for several hours in a combination of olive oil, garlic,

rosemary and thyme.  Once that was in the fridge, I turned my attention to the ratatouille.

Eggplant, zucchini, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic are chopped. I learned from Julia Child's book to slice and salt eggplant and zucchini and put on a paper towel to absorb much of the water so it cooks up better in the skillet. This particular recipe called for cannellini beans, which Brian and I really enjoy, but the authentic ratatouille we had in France was strictly vegetables and herbs.  Either way is delicious!

First I sautéed the eggplant in olive oil. 

Transfer that to a small bowl, and sauté the zucchini (below).

Also transfer the zucchini to a small bowl, and sauté the onions and peppers.

Now the veggies stay in the skillet, and you just add the rest in layers: first the garlic ...

... then the tomatoes ...

... then the beans and parsley ...

This all cooks together for 15 mins or so, and then the eggplant/zucchini is added back and simmered slowly (covered) for 15-20 minutes. 

While the ratatouille was simmering, I seared the rack of lamb in a hot skillet in a little olive oil, browning both sides. The recipe suggested covering the bones with foil before roasting in the oven, so I did that and smothered the rack of lamb with the marinade. Into the oven it goes for 25 minutes.

And here is the finished product.  It looks and smells fantastic!!

We are happy to report that it was delicious!

Now, back to Brian and the wine.  Since we’re considering this dinner for our Cabernet Sauvignon event in January, we paired it with a very traditional Bordeaux red.

Chateau Lynch Bages is a highly regarded producer from Pauillac, one of the prestigious villages of the Left Bank region of Bordeaux.  Like almost all Bordeaux, it is a blend of more than one varietal.  The cèpage is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, but also includes Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  This bottle is quite mature.  As you can barely see on the label, it was the 1994 vintage.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Chateau Lynch Bages Pauillac 1994.  This wine was probably a bit past peak.  Its aromas were muted at first, but with time in the glass, the wine opened to reveal wonderful currant, cedar, graphite, and mineral notes.  The palate was medium in body, had medium acidity, smooth texture, and flavors of red cherry, currant, and herbs.  It was nicely balanced, moderately complex, medium in length.  I wish I had opened this wine a few years earlier.  It was delicious nonetheless.  The pairing with the lamb and vegetables was just about perfect.  The lamb and vegetables stood up to the power of the wine, maybe bringing out the fruit flavors of the wine even more.  Likewise, the wine did not mask or overpower the flavors of the dish.  The refinement, finesse, and elegance of a mature Bordeaux heightened the flavors of the overall dish, creating a flavor synergy that cannot be obtained with only the food or only the wine.  73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot.  13.0% alcohol.  We paid $65 for it.

Voilá!  There you have it!  Rack of lamb, ratatouille and Chateau Lynch Bages 1994.  The finishing touch is mint jelly on the edge, which adds a wonderful punch of flavor (so says Mary).  Mary swooned over the deliciousness of the dinner.  I think her mind was floating back to those great childhood leg of lamb memories of 35th Ave in San Francisco and all her St. Gabriel and Presentation friends, but wherever she was, here or there, it was a happy place.  I think we can safely say this is the winning candidate for our Cabernet event.

Thanks for reading the blog.  Let us know what you think and offer suggestions for future topics.  We'd love to hear your comments.  In the meantime, keep checking back at Cèpage et Cuisine.

Cheers,                                                                

Brian♥Mary

 

Do You Come Here Often?

Hi, everybody, and Happy Holidays.  Welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, Brian’s and Mary’s wine and food blog.

This is the first of what we hope will be approximately weekly posts on specific wines or wine types, sort of a wine of the week.  This week we’re highlighting two wines.  The first is La Vieille Ferme, one of the labels under the umbrella of the Perrin family that makes Chateau de Beaucastel in the Southern Rhone Valley of France. 

The red wine of La Vieille Ferme is from the Côtes du Ventoux, usually a blend of Grenache, Syrah, Carignane, and Cinsault.  The white is from Côtes du Luberon and is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulenc, Ugni Blanc, and Roussanne.  They also produce a rose’ of Cinsault, Grenache, and Syrah.  The wines are all delightful and usually priced around $10.  They are widely available at any good wine merchant.  While they are entirely drinkable and serve well as a sort of house wine, they are inexpensive enough to use as cooking wine in recipes that call for dry red or white wines.  The La Vieille Ferme red has notes of red fruit, minerals, and pleasant earthiness.

The other wine you see here is a Petite Sirah, produced by Christopher Creek Winery in the Russian River Valley area of California, near Healdsburg.  Let me tell you, there is nothing petite about Petite Sirah.  The grapes are small, but the skins are thick and the wine is highly structured with immense tannins and intense fruit flavors of blackberry, boysenberry, plum, and spice notes, great for comfort food like burgers, nachos, pizza, and hearty soups around the holidays.  Mary even put a little Christmas bell on there to celebrate the season.  Christopher Creek is not widely distributed, especially here in the eastern U.S., but a good wine merchant will have other good selections of Petite Sirah for you to enjoy.  The Christopher Creek wine is $30, but good examples of Petite Sirah are available for under $20.

That's our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Let us know what wines you are enjoying during the holiday season and the kinds of food you pair with your wine.  In the meantime, keep checking back here at Cèpage et Cuisine for more posts.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

Brian♥Mary

Coq au Vin

Hello again, everybody.  Here we are again at Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary's and Brian's wine and food blog.  Once again, Mary has prepared a delicious dinner based on a recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  This time, she made Coq au Vin, which is basically translated to chicken and wine.  If you saw our previous post on Boeuf Bourguignon, Coq au Vin is the poultry equivalent.  It is classic French country cooking, satisfying, delicious, rich and complex.  It has many of the same ingredients and same steps, but doesn't take quite as long as Boeuf Bourguignon.  We visited France last year and have served this dish to people who know French cooking.  I think and our friends think Mary's cooking is just as good as the French.  Vive la Mary!

Here's Mary:
The ingredients for this dish are basically a whole chicken, already cut up, bacon, mushrooms (champignons), pearl onions, garlic, and herbs.  Red wine, chicken stock, Cognac, and tomato paste add to the flavor complexity.

The bacon is browned in butter in a Dutch oven, then the chicken is added in small batches and browned. Once all the chicken pieces are browned, simmer all of it in the pot for 10 minutes.  The only liquid in the pot at this point is the fat from the butter, the bacon, and the chicken.

About a quarter cup of Cognac is added and ignited.  The vapors of the Cognac are volatile, so the match or igniter can be placed just inside the dutch oven and it will light right up.  We tried to take a photo, but the flame is a pale blue, hard to see.  The pan is shaken and the flame dissipates quickly, leaving only the flavor elements of the Cognac.

I added three cups of red wine, which is basically a regular size bottle of wine.  Here, you see Brian pouring from a one cup measure because we finished off one bottle of wine and used part of another, so we were trying to be a little precise.

After the wine, I added enough chicken stock to cover the chicken.  As I have said in earlier blog posts, homemade stock makes such a noticeable difference in the quality of the dish when it comes to the table.  You can buy chicken, make the stock, then freeze it for future use.  In this photo, you also see the herbs, bay leaf, and tomato paste.  The chicken is simmered for half an hour, then the chicken pieces are taken out (and kept warm) while you reduce the liquid. This is the tricky part for me, as it doesn't always get as thick as it's supposed to get.   

Here is the final product.  You see I paired it with parsley potatoes and peas.  You can use whatever you prefer as side dishes.  These peas are called lady peas here in the South.  We grew our own parsley in a pot on our deck, perfect for wintertime.

Here's Brian again, talking about the wine.

You might think a chicken dish always calls for a white wine, but Coq au Vin actually pairs much better with red wine, which Julia also recommends in her book.  Plus, the dish is cooked with red wine.  Many wines would be excellent choices, but we selected a powerful California Cabernet Sauvignon to see how the dish would stand up to a really robust wine.  It turned out to be an excellent choice.  The richness and complexity of the dish was every bit the match of the wine.  The fruitiness and softness of the wine from Sonoma Valley created a flavor sensation that was just wonderful on the palate.

B.R. Cohn is a producer in the Sonoma Valley of Sonoma County, not far from the town of Sonoma on Highway 12.  Olive Hill is a vineyard on their property and that's where the grapes for this wine are grown.  They even produce their own olive oil right on the property.  This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.  We purchased the wine at the winery on one of our wine vacations.  It has been lying in our cellar for at least seven years, waiting for this dinner.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Definitely New World in style, it was delicious, nonetheless.  The aroma profile was not distinctly Cabernet, but it had lovely dark cherry and plum on the nose.  It didn't have the cedar, herbs, or tobacco of many Napa Valley or Bordeaux wines.  The palate had good structure, even a bit drying, indicating the tannins were not fully resolved, but the texture was very smooth anyway.  The acidity was on the low side of medium, but the wine was nicely balanced.  All that California sunshine came through with cherry, plum, and currant fruit.  It was nicely balanced, moderately complex, and medium in length.  I would describe it as a good wine, bordering on excellent.  We agreed it was delicious.  14.0% alcohol.  We paid $40 at the winery.

That's our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it and that our posts are interesting to you.  We'd like to hear your comments and ideas!  In the meantime, check back again for more blog entries at Cèpage et Cuisine.

Cheers,

Brian♥Mary

Boeuf Bourguignon - So Much More Than Beef Stew!

Ok, everybody, let the juices flow and the lip smacking begin!  Welcome again to Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  We want to share with you a classic dish Mary prepared recently during a visit by her sister, Fran, and our friends and neighbors, Mike and Dorothy.  Boeuf Bourguignon really is so much more than beef stew.  This recipe is pretty much lifted from Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Julia’s recipe takes up three pages of the book and includes about 20 ingredients.  Some of the ingredients even have their own recipe with more ingredients!  It is a bit of a project, so think in terms of a weekend or a special occasion, even though it is essentially French country cooking.  Without rushing, it is a two day project if you make your own stock from scratch.  It is rich, delicious, and satisfying.  So, here we go!

Here are the basic ingredients, not all.  For example, you don't see the oils and butter.  The key element is the beef, of course.  As Julia recommends, we use rump roast.  Your butcher can cut it for you into small chunks.  You also see bacon, carrots, onion, garlic, pearl onions, mushrooms (champignons), and herbs.  The jar is homemade beef stock.  A word about that... Real beef stock, like real chicken stock, makes a huge difference in the richness and flavor of the dish.  It takes time, but it's worth it!  You can buy neck bones or other parts at the meat department of your supermarket and combine that with vegetables and seasonings to make something special.  Make a big pot and freeze it!  Recipes for stock are widely available.

Put the beef on paper towels to dry it so it will brown nicely.  If you don't, then the beef gets steamed in the pan, instead of browned.

The bacon is cut into small pieces, then cooked in a Dutch oven.  The bacon provides flavor and fat for cooking other ingredients.

The beef is browned a few pieces at a time so they are not crowded and not touching in the pan.  Once again, this is important for browning, not steaming.

The bacon and beef have been removed.  Onions and carrots are cooked in the remaining fat until browned.  The meat is returned, seasoned with salt and pepper, and the flour added and tossed.  The pot is put into the oven for four minutes at 450 degrees, then the mixture is tossed, and cooked four minutes more to create a nice crust.,

The pot is removed from the oven and the entire bottle of wine is added, then the beef stock to cover the meat.  This is the braising liquid.  Once again, the extra time and effort to make beef stock will be worth it.

Let it braise!

While the beef is cooking, the onion and mushrooms are prepared.  The onions are blanched, cooled, husked out of the peel, cooked in olive oil and butter (wow!), then the frying pan is placed in the oven for an hour.  The mushrooms are sliced and also cooked in olive and butter (wow, again!) for about 10 minutes.  This can be done when things are almost ready.

Here's a class photo.  See how everybody is getting happy?  This is just before the assemblage.  The mashed potatoes form a bed for the beef braise, and topped with mushrooms, onions, and green peas.  Once again, here's the final product:

Here's the happy crowd!

Now, a word about wine.  Many red wines would pair just fine with this dish.  One might think intuitively that a red Burgundy would be the logical choice since the dish is native to Burgundy. I selected a Bordeaux-style blend, however, from a mountainside appellation in Napa Valley.  Here's a photo:

This wine is by Random Ridge Vineyard on Mt. Veeder, high above the Napa Valley floor.  I have blogged previously about Mt. Veeder.  It is a remote, rugged area, tough on grapes, so they produce intense flavors.  This wine is a blend of half Cabernet Sauvignon and half Cabernet Franc.  It is a mature wine, 1993, and was poured from magnum, equivalent to two regular 750 ml bottles.  Here are my notes on the wine:

Random Ridge wines are always a pleasure, always complex and balanced, and age beautifully.  Here is a 17 year-old wine that is elegant, beautiful, seamlessly compatible with food, a treat.  It had a medium garnet color and wonderful aromas of cedar, leather, sage and other herbs, possibly some violet, currant, and dark cherry.  I think the Cabernet Franc brings a distinctive floral note to complement the Cabernet Sauvignon.  The Cabernet Franc also adds a little softness to the wine, although after this much time, it has pretty much settled to a lovely refinement anyway.  The palate was silky smooth with medium acidity and exquisite balance.  Bill didn't include the alcohol percentage on his wines back then, but I would guess high 12s to low 13s.  Red currant, the same cedar, leather, and herbal qualities, and red cherry appear on the flavor profile.  Wonderfully balanced, complex, and a finish that lasts well over a minute make this an excellent wine.  50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Cabernet Franc, alcohol not labeled.  We paid $55 for this wine.

It was quite a production.  Mary invested her creative energy providing a fantastic dinner for us.  Hail to the chef!  Thank you!

That's our post for today.  The food was divine, the wine was beautiful, the friends, family, and conversation warm and convivial.  That's what it's all about, isn't it?  Thanks, Fran, for your expert photography! Check back for more blog posts at Cèpage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers,

Brian♥Mary