White Bordeaux – Château Graville Lacoste

Bonjour à tous!  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today, we’re posting a short note about white Bordeaux.  In all our wine explorations and travels, the only white Bordeaux we have tried have been the dessert style wines of Sauternes.  We’ve never tried a dry white Bordeaux!  Shocking!  I’ve never felt particularly attracted to them.  When I think of Bordeaux, I think of the magnificent red wines of the Médoc or Saint Emilion.  While browsing in a wine shop near Jackson, we happened onto this wine, it wasn’t too expensive, so we decided to try it.

Bordeaux is the famous wine region in the southwest part of France, as you can see on this map where the red teardrop marker is located.  It isn’t too far from Spain.  It is near the Atlantic Ocean and is defined by rivers, especially the Gironde.  The ocean provides moderating cool temperatures from the west.  Forests near the ocean buffer the strong winds.  The river helps prevent frost in the spring and cools the surrounding vineyards during the growing season.  The climate and varying soil types provide ideal conditions for the traditional grape varieties, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petite Verdot, and Malbec among the reds.  The white varieties of Bordeaux are much less well known and include Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.

When I think of Sauvignon Blanc, I usually think of other regions such as Sancerre in the Loire Valley of France, many examples in California, or the distinctive wines of New Zealand.  When I think of Semillon, I typically think of the luscious dessert wines of Sauternes and Barsac.  Well, I should keep an open mind.  Mary was enthusiastic about trying this dry white and it turned out to be a great success!

A bit of an aside is the importer of this wine is Kermit Lynch in Berkeley.  You can see that at the top of the label.  We learned years ago that Kermit Lynch appreciates wines of character, elegance, precision, and value.  We’ve just about reached the point that if Kermit is on the label as the importer, we will probably like the wine.  Once again, he was right.  It was delightful!

Château Graville Lacoste is in an area of Bordeaux called Graves, having nothing to do with cemeteries.  It describes gravel or gravelly soil, which is well drained and excellent for growing Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc.  The Graves area is just southwest of the city of Bordeaux, barely far enough to be considered a suburb.

The stony soil, expert viticulture, and careful handling in the cellar produce a wine with great minerality, balance, and vivid flavors which pair well with food.  We paired the wine with a dinner of grilled swordfish, topped with a soy and lemon sauce, pasta with basil pesto, and a gratin of broccoli and red pepper.  We both enjoyed it completely.  We definitely will try this wine again with other foods.  I think it would be delicious with shellfish preparations and poultry dishes.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Château Graville Lacoste Graves 2009.  What a pleasant surprise.  We had no experience with white Bordeaux other than Sauternes.  This one had the imprimatur of Kermit Lynch and not too expensive, so Mary talked me into trying it with our dinner of grilled swordfish.  It turned out to be a pleasure.  It was quite young and the color was a pale straw with flecks of green.  The aroma was mostly lemon citrus with a definite stoniness.  The palate showed a round texture, medium body, but nice, fresh acidity and flavors of lemon, perhaps a little grapefruit, tree fruit, and the same mineral quality we noted on the aroma profile.  Very nicely balanced, food friendly, moderately complex, medium length.  We'll try more of this.  75% Semillon, 20% Sauvignon Blanc, 5% Muscadelle, only 12.0% alcohol.  We paid $23 at Vintage Wine Market at the Renaissance in Ridgeland.

The lesson I learned is to be more open-minded about trying things that have not always appealed to me in the past.  I needed my adventurous Mary to talk me into it, so, thanks, honey!  That’s our post for today, we hope you enjoyed it.  Keep checking back for more wine and food adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

 

Mary♥Brian

Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande

Hello, everybody, and welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Today we’re highlighting the wine and history of Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande and Madame May-Eliane Miailhe de Lencquesaing.  We recently shared a bottle of her wine with our very good friends, Beverly and Mark, and it occurred to me this would be a nice blog post.

Pichon-Lalande is located in the commune of Pauillac, arguably ground zero for the finest Bordeaux, at least on the Left Bank of Bordeaux.  Her neighbors are household names … Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Mouton-Rothschild, Château Latour.  The wines are characterized by finesse, structure, delicacy, complexity, and long lives.  They are wines that require something of you, not merely a beverage to be consumed at a meal without conscious thought about the wine.

May-Eliane Miailhe was 14 years old when World War II was declared between France and Germany.  Her family was well known in the wine world.  In addition to Pichon-Lalande, the Miailhes owned Châteaux Siran, Coufran, Dauzac, and were part owner of Château Palmer.  May-Eliane’s aunt, Renée, had been orphaned in World War I and knew the implications of the unfolding catastrophe.  The Miailhes welcomed two families of frightened Italian Jews to take shelter at Château Palmer.

As soon at the Germans occupied Bordeaux, they told the Miailhes to leave Pichon-Lalande and find another place to live.  The family moved to Château Siran, where May-Eliane’s grandparents lived.  Their Jewish friends were in a building attached to Château Palmer.  To the horror of the Miailhes, Château Palmer was requisitioned by the Germans.  Before they arrived, however, the Miailhe family quickly bricked the passageway between the house and the annex. 

At the risk of their own safety, May-Eliane and her family provided food, news, and basic living necessities to their friends hiding at Château Palmer, passing items through a trapdoor concealed by vegetation.  She recalls riding her bicycle through the vineyards to deliver food to her friends.  The Germans would say, “Bonjour, mademoiselle,” never suspecting she had food in her bicycle basket.  By July 1942, the Miailhes knew it was a matter of time before they and their friends would be discovered by the Germans.  With the help of the French underground, they found someone who could forge papers and help them flee the country.  Under cover of darkness, they helped the Italians escape, ultimately taking the last ship to Argentina.

In 1948, May-Eliane married a French military officer.  She spent the next 30 years in various locations around the world, including two postings at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.  While living in the U.S., she visited Napa Valley and was impressed with the wines.  In a 2005 interview she said, “The wine was beautiful.  Better than now, in fact.”

In 1968, May-Eliane de Lencquesaing returned to Pichon-Lalande to manage the estate.  She installed new equipment, replanted vineyards, and restored the château to its former glory.  In 2006, without heirs who wanted to own and run the operation, she sold a majority share of Pichon-Lalande to the Champagne family that owns Louis Roederer.

While enjoying the 2001 vintage of Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande with Beverly and Mark, we reflected on May-Eliane and her family, the risks they took, the sacrifices they were forced to endure.  They are some of the many, many heroes of that time from all around the world, our own American fathers and grandfathers and families, ordinary people who performed extraordinary acts of courage under desperate conditions, reminding us of essential goodness.

So, it is with admiration and gratitude that we pay tribute to May-Eliane Miailhe de Lencquesaing and the Miailhes of Pauillac and Bordeaux.  She is now age 86, still vigorous and involved in wine.

Here are my notes on the 2001, which we enjoyed with a fantastic dinner of grilled ribeye, twice-baked potatoes, and a cool green salad.

Château Pichon-Longueville-Lalande Pauillac 2001.  This is a stunning wine.  It had everything we could expect of a great Left Bank Bordeaux.  The aromas showed beautiful floral notes, perhaps violets, herbs, currant, cedar, leather, very complex.  The palate was silky smooth in texture, with medium body, good acidity, and flavors of cherry, currant, herbs.  It had finesse, elegance, and delicacy.  It was completely balanced, complex, and long finishing. Outstanding.  45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petite Verdot, 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $90 for this wine.  It was worth every penny.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Keep coming for more wine and food adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian

Sources:

Don & Petie Kladstrup, Wine & War, Broadway Books, 2001.

The General of Pauillac.  Wine Spectator, Dec 31, 2005.

Champagne House Invests in Bordeaux’s Pichon-Lalande.  Wine Spectator, Oct 31, 2006.

Vegetarian Paella with Cool, Refreshing Wines

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Cèpage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  Long hours at work and business travel have kept us from blogging for a few weeks, but we’re back with lots of interesting food ideas and delicious wines.

Today we’re describing vegetarian paella, our latest meatless meal.  We love authentic Spanish-style paella with chicken, shellfish, or pork, but I recently had a vegetarian version at Las Ramblas, a Spanish restaurant inside the Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk in San Antonio.  It was delicious and interesting, so we decided to give it a try here at home, inspired by a recipe from Martha Rose Shulman’s book on Mediterranean cuisine.  Martha Rose is a regular contributor to the food section of the New York Times.  We enjoy her columns and recipes.  The vegetarian paella turned out great, nicely seasoned but not hot and spicy.

The first time I made paella, the traditional kind with chicken, shrimp, and pork, I used a large frying pan, which worked fine.  Since then, we bought a couple of Spanish paella pans at Sur La Table (13.5 inches, $19.95, http://www.surlatable.com).  As you can see in the photo, it is a wide, shallow pan with a dimpled bottom for more uniform heating.  This size is plenty for our needs, even for a couple of guests, but we have seen paella being prepared in enormous pans.  When traveling in Provence a year ago, we saw paella cooking at an outdoor farmers market.  Brian says the pan was larger than a bicycle wheel, a little smaller in width than a child’s inflatable wading pool, tended by a gregarious man wielding a large wood paddle for stirring.  Huge!  I really like the authentic paella pan. Everything fits so well.  The shallow depth makes it easy to handle and no steaming occurs due to the higher sides of a frying pan.  If you don’t have a paella pan, don’t let that keep you from trying anyway.

The ingredients for this dish are eggplant, vegetable broth (which I bought in a carton), olive oil, onion, artichoke hearts, cannellini beans, red bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, asparagus, garlic, chopped tomatoes, paprika, rice, and saffron. 

I cubed the eggplant and put it into a colander with salt to get rid of some of the moisture so it cooks up nicely. I did this first and let it sit while I chopped the other vegetables and got organized.

I sautéed the onion in olive oil in the paella pan, then added the artichoke hearts, red pepper, zucchini, mushroom, asparagus, and eggplant.  This cooked together for about 20 minutes.

Then, I stirred in the garlic, salt and pepper, and cooked for only about a minute.  The tomatoes and paprika went in, and cooked 10 minutes more.

Saffron is a topic of debate.  Some Spaniards insist that paella must include saffron, which gives a distinctive yellow color to the dish.  Others says it is not essential.  It is the world’s most expensive spice by weight and comes from the saffron crocus flower of Southwest Asia. I left it out of the paella I made in the past, but included it in this recipe.  The photo below is a picture of saffron I bought for this dish.  It came in a 0.06 oz jar, wrapped in paper, and cost about $18 at my local grocery store (Kroger).

At this point I added the rice, beans, and saffron.  After that all cooked for a few minutes, I poured in the vegetable broth. The whole mixture simmered (stirring once), then I reduced the heat to low.  It cooked for 20 more minutes without stirring.  I turned off the heat and covered it tightly with foil and let it stand for 10 minutes.

Ready to serve! We decided that next time it could stand a little more broth (and then cook a little longer) as the rice was a bit al dente.

The vegetarian paella turned out great!  It was delicious and satisfying.  We really didn’t miss the chicken or shellfish, although it is certainly delicious in the more traditional style, as well. This is not a hard dish to prepare. Chopping the veggies is the most time-consuming part. Total cooking time is less than an hour and a half. Now to Brian and the wine.

We enjoyed the paella over two nights, so I will describe two wines.  I must say, however, that the paella was better the first night.  The rice became sticky and starchy by the second day, but it was still good for an easy dinner of leftovers.  The first wine was a rosé by La Vieille Ferme.  This wine from Ventoux in the Southern Rhone Valley of France could also be considered a Provence rosé.  It is perfect for summertime quaffing on its own and with hearty fare like the paella.  It is light, brisk, refreshing, not complicated or ponderous, just easy to enjoy.  It is an excellent value and widely available.  We like to keep a few rosés on hand and this is one of our favorites.  Here are my notes on the wine.

La Vieille Ferme Cotes du Ventoux Rosé 2010.  This is a nice, refreshing rosé, great during summertime and pairs nicely with a vegetarian paella dish.  It had nice aromas of berries and flowers, good acidity and light body on the palate with berry, cherry, melon, and spice notes.  Nicely balanced, not too complex, easy to drink.  Blend of Grenache and Cinsault, 13.5% alcohol. $11 at Colony Wine Market in Madison.

The second wine was a crisp, refreshing Grüner Veltliner from Domäne Wachau in the Wachau region of Austria.  It is a lovely dry white wine, which we enjoy year round with a variety of dishes, but like the La Vieille Ferme, it is ideal for summer enjoyment.  It has the citrus and floral notes of many similar whites, but a signature white pepper element on the finish that makes it distinctive.  It is a bit more expensive at about $17, but still a good value and widely available.  Here are my notes on the Grüner.

Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner Wachau Federspiel 2010.  Always delightful with aromas of grapefruit and flowers.  The palate shows crisp acidity, spiciness, and citrus and mineral notes.  “Federspiel” refers to an intermediate level of ripeness at harvest in Austria.  Beautifully balanced, modest complexity, medium length, very solid everyday wine.  12.0% alcohol.  We paid $17 at Colony Wine Market in Madison.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it.  Here’s a final look at a delicious, healthy dinner of vegetarian paella and refreshing wine at our house here in Raymond.  Keep checking back for more articles about food and wine at Cèpage et Cuisine.  In the meantime,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian