A votre animable attention, Arthur Barolet

This surely must be the week of co-worker appreciation here. Earlier in the week , I mentioned that Jason bestowed upon me the gift of espelette peppers. Today, it's back to wine and an example from the universally strong 1978 vintage. Through the generous gift of another co-worker, I was recently able to sample a true curiosity.

Dr. Arthur Barolet, a quality oriented, smaller negociant based in Savigny-les-Beaune, passed away in 1969, apparently leaving 200 228 liter casks of maturing wine to his sister; the oldest of these containing wine from the 1954 vintage. So clearly, the man preferred to take his time aging the wines he bought. I am not sure if the 1978 Barolet et Fils Savigny les Beaune "Le Village" was similarly aged for a long period of time. Though I do know that it has what I so relish in wine a few decades of age or older: mature yet still lively fruit, savory, meaty and/or earthy complexity (in this case that aged Burgundian jambon quality), a softer texture (i.e. tannins that are either fully resolved or at least balanced) and a harmonious balance between all the aforementioned flavor components. If I were more successful in researching the wines of Barolet, I'd offer more information about their wines but this has proven to be difficult to come by (at least online, anyway). I'll have to consult Mr. Clive Coates at some point today for more information. I imagine that Dr. Arthur Barolet is one of those names whose history and wines are known by relatively few, passed along through sheer anectodal knowledge and the occasional appearance on the auction block.

Freshly ground espelette peppers

Thanks to a new co-worker of mine who is sayin' it loud (he's Basque and he's proud) we now have incredibly flavorful, freshly ground espelette pepper in the house! Even better, we have seeds which we will sprout soon and plant later on in Sacramento, along with Padron peppers as well. Yes, 2010 will be the year of the Peppers Project. Jason, thank you for your generosity and may you once again take home the title for best sausages.

Peep the simple ground espelette production process.

Wine drunk recently (one word TN edition)

2007 Alice & Olivier De Moor Aligoté - invigorating

2007 Movia Ribolla - splinters

2005 Richard Leroy "Les Noels des Montebenault" Anjou Blanc - generous

1996 De Montille Volnay 1er Cru - iwuzrobbed

2007 Federico Tinto Roble Ribera del Duero - roblemineralidad

1991 Lopez de Heredia Viña Bosconia Gran Reserva Rioja (signs of seepage on top of cork) - Advanced

2000 La Rioja Alta Viña Ardanza Reserva Rioja - Awyeah!

Visionary hip-hop dj/producer plays SF, DJ's, drinks Viña Ardanza

This is my idea of a really fucking good time. Great music, musicians, and fine wine, particularly a magnum of 2000 La Rioja Alta "Viña Ardanza" (a bit fuzzy, but shown in the above photo). There was also some Occhipinti Frappato in the building. Though it was fun, playful and inviting, it's so different from, and as a result not as easy to appreciate on its own merit, the heavily oak influenced (in a good way) 2000 LRA Viña Ardanza (which was showing amazingly out of magnum I might add). It was the first vintage that they released magnums for sale, a format that I hope they continue to bottle going forward. Oh yeah, the record selection and overall crafting of Madlib's set was quite skillful as well. Unfortunately we had to take off early, though I suspect that the crew might be back later in the year since everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that DJ Shortkut was working the one-ses and two-ses as well. Incredible skills. Check out the 1998 DMC Finals here. Dude does Daly City proud!

TEA - Brewing the Phoenix

As I predicted earlier, my silly Cuppa' Chaa tea series title has fallen by the wayside in favor of the simpler, cleaner, more concise, TEA. My year in Chinese tea continues, with another look at a different type of oolong, the Phoenix Dan Cong oolong. For a quick primer on the history of this tea's name, check out the blog of the owner of Tea Habitat, an excellent Los Angeles area based store and website specializing in Phoenix Dan Cong teas. By the way, I must point out that I love the focus of Imen's selections. Yes, she does offer a few various types of Chinese green, white and black tea, but primarily it's all about her greatest tea passion, Phoenix Dan Cong.

Tea Habitat Da Wu Ye (Big Dark Leaf) Special Grade Spring 2009

Judging by the color of the infused leaves, this oolong from the Phoenix mountains outside of Chaozhou in eastern Guandong province, is not too heavily oxidized or roasted. It has a unique, delicious, slightly honeyed flavor of stone fruits and mandarins. It's neither as green tasting as a formosa (taiwanese) oolong nor as roasted as a wuyi or anxi oolong.

Leaves prior to infusion - they are indeed big and dark

Leaves after a few infusions

More Pizza

This past pizza Monday we invited a few folks over to be guinea pigs to sample our pies as part of our continuing quest to make excellent pizza. We had two de-frosted doughs which had been frozen for a week, and they actually were the ones that were easiest to work with and form a round, normal pizza shaped pizza. The two batches of fresh dough which had been proofing overnight were possibly under kneaded, as they were a bit wet and not as elastic as they should have been. They made for tasty, if a little bit ugly and less standard looking pizza.

The pizzas (sorry, no photo's this go 'round):

Margherita (x2)

An improvement over the prior week, at least the first pie was anyway. The second pie was not as well formed, but we were a few bottles in by then so thankfully everyone showed some mercy and at least pretended like they enjoyed it.

The "root down"

This was quite the hit and I think most people's favorite of the evening. For the 'sauce' I boiled three carrots chopped into thirds and half a celery root cut into large cubes with some salt and two bay leaves. After cooking until tender, I mashed the celery root and carrot, and then added butter, salt, and olive oil. Over the sauce I sprinkled a chopped boiled potato, sauteed onion and goat cheese mixture which Natalie had used to fill some savory brioche pockets she had made several days before. After baking, I added some baby arugula, sea salt and good quality olive oil to finish the pizza. Maybe not a traditional pie, but a solid combination of root veges, good quality dairy, and fruity olive oil.

"Greens, pig, piave"

Greens=chard, pig=bacon, piave=piave. I sauteed the bacon beforehand, and placed directly on the dough, along with green swiss chard, piave, olive oil and salt. Took out of the oven and finished with a bit more olive oil, salt, and lemon juice. A tasty pie.

The wines:

Industrial prosecco (Zonin)
Drunk Chicken Côt (Dom. de la Pepiere)
Funky, squat, bumpy neck bottle of nebbiolo (2000 Villa Maria Gattinara)

Truth be told, the Zonin was an enjoyable quaff. Pepiere Pepié Cot was ok but less enjoyable. Villa Maria Gattinara was delicious: mineral, fresh, red fruited, elegant, piemontese and damn...only $15. Only because I want you to drink this (and because I need to spend less on wine) I'll divulge the source (Bi-Rite) and if they still have it I would buy every last bottle.

Pizza is the greatest - pt. 1

Yet another series in the making, here? After a long hiatus, Natalie and I are back at it, attempting to make respectable Neapolitan style pizzas. When I feel as though we're producing consistently good pies, I'll share the recipe for the dough. Until then, the experiment continues, and I'll occasionally share photos of our latest creations, along with our wine pairings for the night.

(background) Margherita - tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella (not di bufala, but not of Sargento, either)
(foreground) Untitled - tomato sauce, nettles, fresh mozzarella, minced garlic, fresh chilies

2007 Fattoria San Francesco Ciró - Soft, gulpable, low tannin gaglioppo grape flavored wine. Simple, mellow southern Italian that makes for easy quaffing.

Our results were ok. The Margherita was well sauced and tasty, though perhaps a bit plain without the basil and without a sufficient use of salt in the pizza sauce. It was not rolled out thin enough and came across, for those of you in the Bay Area, as reminiscent of a slice at The Cheeseboard. Satisfying and tasty, but not quite Neapolitan style. Untitled was rolled out to the perfect thickness, which is to say quite thin. It was not crisp from crust to tip, though. Also, the fresh chilies, though used sparingly, were still a bit overwhelming.

More pizza to come. In the meantime, if anyone has ideas for a dough or other production tips which will help to yield a great Neapolitan pie, feel free to contribute them here. Our basic recipe uses a 50-50 blend of 00 and all purpose flour. Then we allow for an initial doubling in size before punching down, dividing the dough and refrigerating over night. We then roll out the dough the following day, sauce and top, and then place on a pizza stone in a 500 deg oven.

Good pizza to you and yours.