Pairing of the week - Artic Char and Bolognani Moscato Giallo

On Friday night I made some very simply prepared, delicious Arctic char, if I do say so myself. Characteristically I did not follow a recipe and will not go into much detail regarding its preparation; not much detail is needed.

To accompany the fish I drank a delicious, dry muscat - a 2006 Diego Bolognani Moscato Giallo (Trentino). The low alcohol, crisp flavors and exotic, floral-herbal aromatics of a good dry Muscat really set off the delicate herbal component of the char. Additionally, the wine's pure, focused, crisp yellow fruit also acts as a terrific foil to the meaty, rich, slightly strong flavor of the char. As a red wine possibility, and because I had a two day old bottle of Chinon to finish, I also tried a 2005 Bernard Baudry Chinon. A bit too rich for the dish, though it was great with the fried potatoes. Very nuanced, balanced, slightly rich Chinon with just enough freshness and finesse to keep it highly drinkable. Next time I'll have the same crispy potatoes and a skirt steak instead of fish.

Here's a recipe for the fish.

Ingredients:

1 lb arctic char or salmon
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
A few tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
One small branch of rosemary (enough to yield 2 tsp chopped rosemary)

Simply start with one pound of as fresh a piece of arctic char or salmon as you can find (I used a great piece from Avedano's). Cut it into three even pieces, add salt, pepper, the juice of one half a lemon, a small pour of olive oil (nothing too fancy needed since it's going on a hot grill or pan) and a couple teaspoons of rosemary. Thyme would be great too - I used rosemary so as to not over-harvest from my young thyme plant. Let the fish marinate for twenty or so minutes at room temperature and either grill outside or pan fry it inside on a lightly oiled pan. Cook until desired doneness - my preference is for the fish to retain its deep salmon color on the inside, which would be on the medium-rare side. Serve alongside some thin rounds of fried or baked russet potatoes and a green salad or vegetable.

Scene from 'Babylon'

Yes, now we're back in the saddle! I seriously need to track down a copy of this movie, Babylon. The above clip features members of Aswad and the great Mr. Linton Kwesi Johnson (LKJ for short). This strikes me as sort of a UK response to Rockers which I have featured in a few previous entries. Fiyah, bredren, pure fiyah dat!

PRT - Shaykilah

Yesterday was a good day

At the shop we received some of the newly released 2000 LdH Bosconia Reserva as well as more 1997 Rosado (which will soon be justly labelled 'gran reserva' instead of 'crianza'), 375's and full bottles of 1999 Tondonia Reserva. These are my favorite wines to stock - so much fun to get these out on the shelves! Look for a post on visiting LdH in the not too distant future, as well as a write-up of the new Bosconia and Tondonia.

Happy Friday.

Oh, youtube for some reason is not working, otherwise I'd have posted two great videos last Friday. Trying to figure out what could be wrong, anyone else in Bloglandia having problems posting youtube videos?

SPAIN PT. V - Of Euskadi and Txakoli

Upon entering the countryside of what most Spaniards know as pais vasco, or basque country, and what Basques refer to as Euskadi, you cannot help but feel as though time and the rugged, mountainous geography have left this region completely isolated. Yes, mostly everything that you hear about this most peculiar of Spanish regions is true. The language is bizarre, not at all related to Spanish, any other Romance language or representative of any other family of languages for that matter. The lush, green hilly terrain suggests Ireland more than Iberia. Many signs, storefronts, even trucking companies are named with the same unusual, curved, basque font, which would seem to be heavily influenced by summer of love era, psychedelia inspired graphic design. Yes, the Basques apparently even have their own font.

As far as wine is concerned, in a country best known for its robust red wines from grapes such as Tempranillo and Garnacha, a low alcohol, slightly fizzy, crisp thirst quenching white is both the main wine produced and most popular wine to drink with the abundance of terrific, fresh local seafood. Using beautiful old town San Sebastian as a base, Natalie and I recently ventured into the region of Txacoli Getariako, centered in the hills above the port town of Zarautz. In the camping area around Mt. Talai Mendi lies Talai-Berri, run by Bixente Eizaguirre , whose 12 hectares of vineyards lie on low to medium grade hills, verdantly green from the cover crops and a healthy, not overly pruned canopy. For the soil nerds, the vines grow in arenisca, a soft, crumbly yellowish sandstone. Most of the vines are Hondarribi Zuri, and a tiny amount of land is dedicated to the far more rare Hondarribi Beltza. With a flavor profile similar to Loire valley cabernet franc, hondarribi beltza is used to make red txacoli in vintages that are warm enough to properly ripen these grapes.

Heading into the winemaking facility from the vineyards, I noticed the immaculate conditions of the winery, the stainless steal gleaming while Bixente explained the elaboration of his wines. One of the keys to txakoli production is the retention of CO2 in the finished wine, achieved by simply sealing off the fermentation vats in the final stages of fermentation (normally they would be left open for white wine production). This traps a bit of CO2 and provides the sparkle. Following a cold stabilization, the txakoli is kept in vats at a near freezing temperature and bottled as needed. After the quick walk through of his winemaking facility, I tasted the 2007 Talai Berri Txakoli. Produced from 90% Hondarribi Zuri and 10% Hondarribi Beltza, its flavor profile is classic txacoli: crisp, fresh, lively acidity, and a light sparkle. Perhaps it was a touch more full-bodied and rounded, with a pretty white peach note prominent in the mid-palate. Definitely worth noting is that Talai Berri's modest 8,000 case production makes them one of the larger producers of txacoli in the region, indicative of the fact that the production zone for txakoli is Spain's smallest D.O.

After the Talai Berri visit, Natalie and I descended the hill in our car to the village of Getaria, where we had a delicious lunch of fresh fish (turbo for her and hake for me). Hake, or merluza a la vasca (grilled with the perfect proportion of olive oil, garlic and parsley) is one of my favorite Spanish seafood dishes. Paired with a bottle of 2007 Ameztoi Txakoli, while sitting within view of the Bay of Zarautz, it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon in Basque country, surrounded by water, green hillsides and tourists, from as far away as Australia and as nearby as Madrid. And surrounded, of course, by bottles of txakoli at every table.

Flaws in natural wine (red)

Quick post today, for the wine geeks and folks who are familiar with winemaking. I’d like to pose a question. Certain wines, often those produced with minimal use of sulphur, seem to have a malty, nutty quality to them. Occasionally they will have a bit of spritz which blows off with air; this I understand since liberal use of sulphur will discourage the formation of CO2 in the bottle. But the nutty maltiness, is that a sign of instability if it is too pronounced? Perhaps bacterial issues with the wine, or an in-bottle malolactic fermentation?

As an example, today I tasted two organic, seemingly naturally produced wines from Argentina, of all places, from a bodega named Montlaiz in Mendoza. The wines were all relatively low in alcohol (13.2% - 13.6%), not overly extracted and surprisingly dry and natural tasting in the mouth. Very cool considering that they are from one of the hotbeds of overmanipulated, oaked, lifeless, cookie cutter wines: Mendoza, Argentina. But, in varying degrees, they were also fucked up. Weird, malty, nutty, bacterial flavors dominated. Now I've come across these flavors in wines from the likes of Olivier Cousin and Jean Courtois in the Loire, as well as from producers in southern France and Portugal, but the degree to which they dominated was much lower. Plus the wines were more interesting.

Anyone care to shed some light or share their own experiences here?

What I’ve been drankin’

Well I just returned from an overnight stay in Point Arena, Mendocino County, and unfortunately did not visit any wineries. Instead most of the time my girlfriend and I were at a wedding party, eating terrific, spicy homemade lamb sausage (aka merguez), venison prepared from a deer recently shot by the groom (yep, it was my first Northern California hippie style wedding), and a wonderful variety of fresh salads and vegetables: tomato and mozzarella, caponata, Israeli cous-cous and corn kernels, shredded beets and cabbage strands in a sweet and tangy dressing. There was cheap, highly chaptalized Cortese and Barbera, so I opted for some Scrimshaw Pilsner instead. Much better.

A few nights ago I tasted a few things at Terroir:

2007 Dashe McFadden Family Farms Potter Valley Zinfandel ‘L’enfant Terrible’– Approachable, juicy, well-behaved zin. Apparently this comes from a single 900 gallon barrel of zin, with very little added sulphur in its production. A bit ripe for my tastes (strange as it’s from fruit grown in the ‘cool’ climate Potter Valley – ok, it actually is really cool there from what I hear, certainly cooler than Napa or much of the Sonoma coast). Dashe zins have recently struck me as being good and ripe though.

2000 Ferret Pouilly Fuisse ‘Les Menetrieres’–
Fully mature, plus a little more maturity. Then again, I tasted from a bottle opened a few days earlier. If you’ve got it in your cellar, drink up this PF from the iconic, now defunct Cote Chalonnaise winery, lovingly depicted in Neil Rosenthal’s recent memoir.

2004 Raveneau Chablis ‘Les Forets’ 1er Cru
Clearly this is very good wine. Very clean, very focused. Very tight and very difficult to describe. Maybe this recently arrived to the shop? My first Raveneau experience. BRIGHT citrus and mineral. But it really seems tight and not too generous right now. I’d like to try it again, maybe even in another 6 months to see what happens.

Luc Massy Chasselas Dezaley Chemin de Fer Grand Cru 2001
My favorite wine of the evening – thanks again for the tastes, Guillhaume. 100% Chasselas from Switzerland (imagine that) labeled as Grand Cru. I would tell you more about the wine but it’s imported by Robert Chadderdon, who of course as everyone knows does not need to have a website or any information about his producers because – as everyone knows – they’re the best. Why offer more info, just buy the wine, and know that you’re getting the best. Anyway, the wine was fleshy, viscous, with some red apple and yellow stone fruit flavors, a touch of red banana, moderate acidity, and super intense minerality. A hint of white pepper as well. Gruner veltliner-like, just alpine style.

2000 Roagna Barbaresco ‘Paje’
Thank you to SFJoe, who was in the house and was generous to give me a taste of this soft, juicy, precocious Barbaresco. Dark fruit, cocoa powder, just a suggestion of secondary flavors; fun and genuinely approachable.