Tuesday, June 29, 2010

#91 - Pistachio-Saffron Scallops & Squid Ink Pasta With Two Albariños (ish)


I didn't know what to expect.

We've had some Il Macchiaiolo squid ink pasta sitting around after our last trip to Fox & Obel in February.

I don't know anything about Il Macchiaiolo pasta (not cheap but not bad), just that I regretted not buying squid ink pasta in Toronto last year.

We've had squid ink pasta before on tasting menus, though I can't remember where, but never cooked it at home.

Thankfully, the results when combined with great scallops, a light touch of saffron and raw corn were all summery and sublime.

Food: Scallops, squid ink pasta, saffron-pistachio vinaigrette and a sunflower greens and mâche blend

Seared Whole Food's scallops on a bed of perfectly cooked squid ink tagiolini pasta with a saffron-Muscadet-pistachio vinaigrette splashed over everything and raw corn sprinkled over the top of the entire plate.

I can't really describe squid ink pasta. It's tastes mostly like...pasta...but something else is there, something a wee darker in flavor and a bit more substantial. Doesn't even really taste like something derived from seafood, more like pasta flavored with the most fancy gray sea salt and bright earth you've ever tasted and ever so subtle. Best I got to describe it. Something...

Mostly with the meal, it was in the combinations. A bite of scallop with pasta and a little raw corn with the vinaigrette drizzle was the winner. I loved the pasta by itself almost as much. It was just so well-cooked. Nice resistance with the right give at the right time.

Sunflower greens are stupid expensive for the amount you get. This was our first time trying them and...they're worth it. Sort of like pea shoots and sunflower dust had a baby.

I don't enjoy much about corn. Creamed corn can blow me. That's not food. But corn on the cob and its little de-cobbed friend raw corn has a place. This was good stuff, juicy and sweet and added an element that was probably integral in the success of the meal. It made it all summery, brighter and corn with albariño's mineral qualities are quite great together.

Wine: 2008 La Cana Albariño Rias Baixas ($15 - WDC) and 2008 Quinta do Feital Auratus Alvarinho-Trajadura Vinho Regional Minho Portugal ($15 - Binny's)

An albariño mini-tasting. Or duel. Or something. Spain v. Portugal, just like the World Cup match-up today. And just like the 1-0 win by Spain, the Spanish albariño won a close one.

La Cana is a project between the Gil family (Juan Gil line) of Jumilla and importer Jorge Ordoñez. This is the first vintage. Both of us found it bland by itself with nothing particularly distinctive or interesting but that changed dramatically with the food.

Light yellow in the glass with a hint of green. A pear core with chalky lime on the finish and a gentle acidity that nonetheless kept it in the zippier vein. Pleasing and balanced with nice verve and good minerality. In the albariño world, it's fine and good, especially for ones that highlight their natural acidity and minerality over more distinctive fruit.

The Auratus was the undisputed winner by itself. Darker gold with tons of stone fruit and lemon meringue notes though it settled into something more pedestrian. Still tasty with a fine core of minerality as well and just enough acidity, though less pronounced or interesting than the La Cana. The Auratus is a Minho wine, a wine region covering roughly the same territory as Vinho Verde in northern Portugal but is a regional classification similar to a Vin de Pays that allows more blending freedom. This one is 70% albariño with 30% trajadura.

As a comparison, while the Auratus seemed to be destined to win the night, I reached for the La Cana more often with the food.

Pairing: 91 It's albariño and seafood. Like Muscadet and vermentino, it's why they make the stuff

Though oddly, the corn might have been the best with both wines. Something about the summer quality the corn brought (have I mentioned how summery everything was?) with the zippier acid and minerals in both albariños that made it magically delicious.

Both wines brought something different with the food but the sheer volume of choices on the plate and in the glass was what made everything so nice to eat and drink.

We went through a trial trying to figure out what to pair with scallops and squid ink pasta, including a thorough scouring of wine-pairing websites. Albariño was barely mentioned.

We stayed basic and intuitive about the whole thing and it entirely paid off.

Oh...and cold walnut-chocolate pie rules.

#90 - Jerk Chicken, Hushpuppies & Pineapple With NV Sparkling Vouvray


Quick one today.

We could have gone in a lot of directions with this meal. Zinfandel would have been nice and made it all California-y. Maybe a shiraz would have brought the fruit and let it wander into more big and hearty.

But thinking about other choices and what they would have done only made us think of what it might not have been compared to what it already was. Which was pretty darn solid, tasty, refreshing, oddly light and satisfying.

Plus, jerk and French sparkling feels fancy.

Food: Jerk Chicken with hushpuppies and grilled pineapple

A staple in the Ney house, having last had it in December but with a different jerk recipe. Also, this time cooked under a brick from a recipe by Mark Bittman in the New York Times.

The jerk marinade from Saveur using soy sauce, onion, scallion, chiles, cloves, five-spice, allspice berries, nutmeg, S&P, thyme and veg oil. This will be replacing the jerk in our house from now going forward. Great stuff.

Cooking under a brick made for better chicken as well. The skin fell off a bit but the chicken was insanely moist and all the jerk seeped deep into the bird.

Hushpuppies made at home were a new one for us. Outside of the Long John Silver's fare that creates an instant flashback to mid-80s fancy family meals for me, I haven't had many others. Intense cornbread taste with a crispy outside made for a tasty side that wasn't dense in the least. Served with a spicy tomato chutney found in the freezer. Oddly easy to make according to Mrs. Ney so...yes...more in the future.

Grilled pineapple (another staple) and a bed of pea shoots to round out the meal and topped off with a deliciously boozy walnut-chocolate pie made with Maker's Mark.

Just goshdarn delicious and a great Monday night meal.

Wine: NV Domaine Vigneau-Chevreau Demi-Sec Sparkling Vouvray ($18 - Binny's)

I couldn't find a ton on this wine without the disgorgement date listed on the bottle (similar but wrong label above). All I can say is that we've had this one a few times before and this time, it was most definitely a different batch.

Not as many distinctive chenin blanc notes, missing some of the honey and beeswax notes. This one was more yeasty with more delicate fruit showing mostly green apple notes. Came off more like a solid bargain Champagne than a sparkling Vouvray. Nice balance, though with the bread notes constantly changing, mixing well with the small, vibrant bubbles and a more true medium dry than the very dry last bottle we had.

We keep buying it because it keeps being good.

Pairing: 89 In the end, nothing in the house would have been better in the price range

The spice in the jerk killed the fruit a bit in the wine but we were entirely okay with that. The joy came in its refreshing aspects, helped by the medium dryness and fine bubbles, than any individual bite with wine standing out.

We thought about other pairings during the meal but it always came back to what other wines wouldn't have offered that the sparkling Vouvray did.

Nothing in the meal would have came off heavy with another wine but it might not have so oddly light with, say, a zinfandel or shiraz or even a sauvignon blanc or rosé.

Plus, the belches were awesome.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

#89 - Bison Flank Steak & Mushroom Tart With '06 Chateau Des Tours Réserve


Tuesday's lamb was probably better.

But last night's meal has a place. And what a place it was!

Much of the comparison came down to seasoning. The lamb was beautifully seasoned with hints of the marinade subtly popping up here and there. The bison and mushroom tart was aggressively well-seasoned, with sometimes so many flavors going on that we both gave up trying to figure out what exactly was going on and just loving the bites. Nothing was overdone, just...a lot!

Also, after last night's bison, it will be, for the most part, replacing ostrich is the lean meat-type substance category. It's cheaper and maybe even a bit more versatile with some of the bigger wines in our collection that we've ignored of late. Australian shiraz, I'm looking squarely at you.

Food: Bison flank steak with mushroom tart and Swiss chard

Whole Foods bison flank steak from the Whole Foods at Halsted, a store with some of the most helpful people on Earth. Seriously. Marinade of crushed fennel seeds, juniper, black pepper, extra virgin olive oil, roasted garlic, glop of honey and a splash of balsamic vinegar. A Chris Cosentino marinade for bison. We'll be visiting Mr. Cosentino's Ferry Building establishment in San Francisco, Boccalone, in a month during a "we gotta get the hell out of here" three-day trip to the West Coast.

Cooked medium-rare, there was a pause after the first bite. Crap, it was good! Juicy, tons of juniper and fennel seed coming through with a touch of ever-so-subtle sweetness from the honey and acid from the balsamic. In pure meaty deliciousness that shocked me with how good it was, rivaling the onion skirt steak and Asian beef filet. This is great stuff, cheap-ish, lean as heck and takes on even the most aggressive seasoning and marinade with great effect.

Farmer's Market cremini mushroom and bulb onion tart. There's a difference. There just is. Compared to Whole Foods produce, which are good, our experiences with the Farmer's Market in Lincoln Square recently has been just the tops. Great. Product. Rosemary in the crust of the tart (along with the juniper) was the star supporting actor of the night.

Farmer's Market sautéed Swiss chard done up with gaeta black olives and orange zest. The olives and orange zest didn't really add much but the chard itself was a much more subdued version of chard compared to what we've had in the past - less bitterness, more grace. I won't be bullying any conversation by going into raptures about the Farmer's Market but we've really loved it.

With the entire meal, it was in the combinations of bites. The mushroom with the bison. The onion with the bison. The mushroom and crust with the bison. Great every time. Really, a veritable smorgasbord of flavors in front of us to pick and choose as we please and so much going on.

Wine: 2006 Chateau des Tours Réserve Côte-Du-Rhône ($27 - WDC)

Grape: Grenache (65%), Syrah (20%), Cinsault (15%)
Region: Vaucluse
Vintage (WS): 93 Ripe, pure and balanced reds, with fresh flavors and bright finishes. In the mold of 2004/1999 but slightly more concentrated; whites superb

Chateau des Tours is the third estate of Emmanuel Reynaud, the owner of the renowned Châteauneuf-du-Pape estate, Chateau Rayas. He took over all three estates after his uncle, Jacques Reynaud, the man that made Chateau Rayas what it is, had a heart attack in 1997 but he ran Chateau des Tours for years before running the entire show.

Chateau Des Tours also has a second wine, Domaine Des Tours, a wine that we've had a few times before and, while hit or miss with food, consistently loved (outstanding with fig tart).

Darker ruby in the glass, raspberry, alcohol and brush on the nose, and elegant, if a little subdued on the palate. More elegance here than the Domaine des Tours, showing more integrated raspberry and fainter spice than the cherry and bolder spice that I remember from the DdT. Some alcohol initially that blew off quickly and settled into an almost elegant, if not terribly exciting red that was nice to have around.

Sometimes, lik here, wines never get out of the "Hey, that's really nice!" category. That's not to say there was anything wrong with it, just that nothing really jumped out of the glass. Both of us don't really prefer dominant raspberry fruit notes. More simple grenache-based wine tends to be that. While the Domaine des Tours can be a bit more bumpy and rough, we might prefer the rough edges in comparison. The Chateau des Tours is a better technical wine, but at roughly $12 more, the Domaine might offer more excitement and unpredictability. But with more craft involved in this wine, it probably would be more consistent with food and last night's pairing was certainly "consistent."

Pairing: 89 Rhônes and pepper, Rhônes and pepper, nothing better

The wine was a trooper with the aggressive seasoning, standing up to it and even offering some personality here and there.

And there were great bites and drinks. Like the food combos alone, mushroom and bison with wine and mushroom, crust and bison with wine were lovely, pleasant, welcome. Any pepper bite was great stuff like Rhônes tend to be.

My mind never really wandered to other possible wines during the meal but it did afterward. With the juniper, a better Australian shiraz might have been the play. Bigger fruit might have helped and brought much more. I don't know. It's a tough call. The entire meal may have strolled right into a ridiculous kaleidoscope of flavors offering way too much. But tons of credit should be given to the pairing for its gracefulness, proper weight and welcoming nature.

In the end, no complaints and we liked much of it, almost all of it. Nothing paired badly here and it was tasty.

I just wonder what a shiraz with some polished blackberry would have done with the juniper and bison. Just curious.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

#88 - Lamb & Farro With '07 Angela Pinot Noir


Some of the more flowery language in wine-speak can be a bit much.

And with the 2009 Bordeaux First-Growth futures starting to trickle out, it's like the playoffs for "letting superlatives fly!" with prices to match. Haut-Brion = $800. LaFite = $1,200.

We'll most likely never dabble in the First-Growth world to any real extent but last night, we dabbled in the more evocative (Read: Pointless but fun) world of wine-speak because, well, it was that nice to return to a wine that causes such forthcoming superlatives to spew.

Question. What's better? Hitting all the green lights on an extended stretch in the city when you're having a crappy day or slipping into a hot tub for a long soak after having a crappy day? Probably the hot tub. Even though both of us can count on one hand how many times we've even been in a hot tub in our lives, the hot tub can make you forget the day happened. Hitting the lights is just a momentary blip that makes handling the crappiness a tad easier.

The 2007 Angela Pinot Noir with great lamb, cherries and farro last night was like the steamiest and most relaxing hot tub soak ever.

Food: New Zealand lamb rack with a cherry and farro salad and mâche

Trader Joe's New Zealand lamb rack marinated in herbes de Provence, extra virgin olive oil, a small glop of balsamic vinegar and a bit of green peppercorn mustard, seared medium-rare in the cast-iron skillet and cut into lollipops. Herby herbaceousness. Juicy and almost rustic.

Some great lamb and while Mrs. Ney has always found lamb with pinot noir as probably the most perfect pairing in the world, I've always stayed in the duck breast-pinot noir vein. That's tailed off a bit lately for me. Still love duck breast and pinot noir but I think I burned myself out on it last year. We've only had medium-rare duck breast once since the inception of this blog and that was the strange little meal involving celery root, star fruit and bok choy. It's kinda like the time when I was 10 and ate four Suzie-Qs in one sitting because they were two for a $1 at Casey's and promptly threw up. After that, Suzie-Qs were no longer on the "I want that" list.

Farro [cooked with chestnuts and thyme in chicken stock] salad with shallot, jalapeño, cherries and mint; drizzled with walnut oil and cherry-balsamic vinegar. The meal planning started with cherries and while they oddly didn't match up perfectly with the wine or coupled with a lamb bite (or even a farro bite, really) they nonetheless were nice to have around. They kept the meal in a certain lamb-cherry-pinot noir realm that was entirely wanted.

Mâche drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and cherry-balsamic vinegar. As always, mâche has that quality that doesn't bully the plate like arugula's slight bitterness can.

Mrs. Ney thought the meal was a little safe. Delicous, perfect with the wine but a little safe. This is the place where I channel my inner-Top Chef and ramble on about the wonders of simplicity. But I can't and won't do such things because while I loved the easy clean-up afterwards, I don't cook and only know that this meal was freakin' delicious. Who wants complicated meals to prepare all the time when this one did this well with a freakin' beautiful wine?

Everything topped off with clafoutis, French almost pie that tastes like cherry pancakes.

And it's fun to say.

Clafoutis!

Clafoutis!

Wine: 2007 Angela Pinot Noir ($60 - In Fine Spirits)

Grape: 100% pinot noir
Region: Savannah Ridge in Yamhill-Carlton, Oregon
Vintage (WS): 84 Mostly delicate wines can benefit from cellaring, but many are weak

Angela is an Oregon project owned by a half-dozen people with Ken Wright as the winemaker. Go here to read all about it. I believe 2005 was the first vintage and I haven't yet seen a 2008 Angela. From what I can gather, with the goal of single-vineyard/organic in the future, everything's in a bit of a transition right now. The wine is not what Ken Wright does. He's a single-vineyard, terroir winemaker and Angela is a blend for now, though the current spec sheet says 2008 is exclusively Clawson Creek Vineyard instead of a blend, as the 2006 was (again, from what I can gather. It's a bit confusing with differing reports from different sources).

The 2006 was a bit of a revelation for us. It changed what we thought Oregon pinot noir could be. We loved Oregon pinot noir but this was different - dark, brooding, silky, layered and probably one of the top 10 best wines we ever had. Maybe top five.

It's tough to judge the 2007 against the 2006 because it's difficult to separate the first impression and utter originality that the 2006 offered to us but I'll try.

Straight medium ruby in the glass with a pretty core and a touch of browning on the edges. On the nose, grill notes mixed with some blackberry and wet leaves. On the palate, silky black cherry, a little pomegranate and a background note of blackberry. And TONS of black tea. In fact, by itself before the food, mostly all black tea with medium tannin and low-ish acid.

I remember the 2006's fruit being integrated a bit more with maybe a bit more explosion of dark, smothering flavors (more dippy wine-speak but apt) but the 2007 is right behind it in goody goodness.

The Angela line took on cult status with its low production in '05 (300 cases) and '06 (400 cases) and high demand and can't really be found for purchase anymore but the '07 is still out there. With the 2008 vintage in Oregon being so universally praised and not being able to find any news about a possible 2008 Angela, it makes Christo sad.

Pairing: 95 lamb + pinot noir = always great. Great lamb + great pinot noir = hot tub

It was pretty close to perfect. And that's with the cherries oddly not bringing much to the party.

A farro-lamb bite with the wine was perfect with the herbs on the meat bringing out a forest floor element in the wine. Lamb by itself and farro by itself came in a close second.

And the low acid level by itself perked up beautifully with the food, becoming an even better version of itself and a more well-rounded wine.

In the end, outside of the greens and the cherries to a certain extent, it was a pairing that defined why food and wine together are so great. Everything became more.

Cracked an '07 Ponzi to compare and it didn't. Ponzi is always good, one of our favorite Oregon wines, but it became a lesson in the difference between a great $30 bottle and a ridiculously great $60 bottle.

Monday, June 21, 2010

#87 - Garlic Shrimp & Farro Pasta With Vintage Brut Cava


Okay! Fine!

We like shrimp! Happy?

As Mrs. Ney said, "What can we have for a Sunday night dinner when Christo is going to be home but I don't want to cook and I DEFINITELY don't want to shop anywhere else?"

I was home on a Sunday because years of waiting tables has taught that you don't work on holidays like Father's Day. It's one of maybe four or five days a year when people who normally don't go out to eat go out to eat. And that only brings pain.

So...Sunday night at home, a rare thing, that.

Usually reserved as Frozen Food night, this Sunday did include the use of frozen shrimp. Other than that, this was a finely crafted meal taken from solid recipe sources, executed to perfection and lovingly fawned over. I'm channeling my inner-Pat Bruno.

Food: Spanish-style garlic shrimp in farro pasta, jalapeños, orange/lemon zest, mint and basil

Frozen Wild Blue Shrimp ($10.99/lb) from Trader Joe's cooked in copious amounts of garlic and olive oil using this recipe from Cook's Illustrated. Perfectly cooked, having that nice multi-textured bite to them. There were fears it might be a tad garlic-y but they weren't. Great stuff.

Dried spelt spaghetti bought at Fresh & Wild in Toronto, a vacation taken last year that...well...just read this. Snore fest. Good food but we had some issues with things.

Pasta tossed with tons of mint, normal amount of basil and parsley, two parts orange to one part lemon zest and two raw, deseeded jalapeños. Just freakin' sung. Jumped out of the bowl.

Brightness from the zest, a hint of that wheaty quality you got from farro, the right level of heat came from the jalapeño and a refreshing aspect from the mint. Flavors. Just. Kept. Changing.

Getting a little bit of everything in one bite made for a taste I won't soon forget. And we'll be having this again quite soon.

A note to new home cooks out there who patently refuse to use recipes because they think they need to channel some inherent, perceived, improvisational talent they think they have. Use recipes. There are people on this planet that know tons more and have more experience with things of this nature than you and HEY! They publish their results in an easy-to-read format using a step-by-step guide. I say this because the Ney household is sick of listening to people wax on about how they injected their own personality into last night's dinner to weird results. It's not jazz. It's food. Execution and precision is a wee bit more important. Rant done.

Wine: 2006 Raventós i Blanc "L'Hereu Reserva" Brut Cava Penedes ($18 - Binny's)

Grape: Parellada, Macabeo and xarel-lo (biodynamically grown)
Region: Penedes, Spain

We love cava but cava sometimes gets a bad rap. Champagne is the undisputed king of bubbly and the bargain/budget sparkler shopper tends to fawn all over Prosecco before cava. It can be a tad rough and if you like that exact style of roughness, it's great but it's not for everybody, I guess.

We like that exact style but this one isn't your average, everyday cava. It's more fancy pants.

Tons of minerals here with the best type of dryness. Where good Champagne shows brioche notes in their yeasty quality, cava tends to be more in the raw yeast, bread dough vein. This one is more refined, raw at first only to blow off and fall into a nice baguette-type track. Apple and pear throughout but nothing over the top, never clouding the core of minerals and refreshing, tight bubbles. Great cava, spectacularly balanced, under $20 and somewhat widely available. Huge fan and has been on El Bulli's wine list for years.

And just great with the bowl o' shrimp pasta.

Pairing: 91 Refreshed, cleansed and offered up oodles of goodness

With a dish offering heat and zest, a sparkler seemed apt.

And it was in a pretty great way. The cava cleansed the palate of the heat from the jalapeños. It was like hitting a reset button with every sip after a bite of food, allowing us to enjoy the heat without letting the heat become the dominant taste in the meal.

The mineral quality in the wine also worked beautifully with the shrimp and, especially, the orange zest. All the underlying fruit in the wine didn't get lost in the food and the wine retained a sense of self without ever saying, "Look at me!"

A nearly perfect compliment to an impromptu Sunday meal.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

#86 - Vitello Tonnato & Puff Pepper Swirls With An '07 California Arneis


We have eaten well this week. Very well, actually.

And since baseballs are the only thing juggling in my brain, I offer an analogy.

Our wine pairing slumps in the last year or so have been shorter, more productive. As we get into the finer points that inform us as to what ultimately works best, we know when and how to shorten our swing and wait for our pitch instead of trying to swing our way out of it.

In short, when we miss, we mostly know why and understand not to do it again. We also know that there are things in life that are time-tested and shouldn't be screwed with.

Like last night's meal. Italian food preparations will most likely work best with Italian-style wine. And when you're making vitello tonnato for the first time, see what other people that know stuff about it think works best.

Food: Vitello tonnato on arugula with puff pepper swirls

Poached Paulina Market veal cutlets.

Sauce: oil-packed tuna, anchovies, mayo, lemon juice, capers, evoo, white pepper

Glop sauce over meat, top with parsley and refrigerate as long as possible. Serve with hard-boiled eggs for me, not for Mrs. Ney.

After having a vitello tonnato at The Bristol last month that we wished had more tuna taste, Mrs. Ney wanted to give it a try. Typically, vitello tonnato is refrigerated overnight and sometimes as long as a week after putting sauce to veal. This one had an afternoon's worth of "flavor marrying."

In our view, it didn't suffer from its short humping time. A nice and subtle veal taste came through, the tuna and anchovies also came through. Together, everything found a place that was something greater and that probably had to do with the deft hand in seasoning.

Everything really worked, making it a pretty great dish. We kinda loved it, something just a few hours before wasn't a certainty as Mrs. Ney warned during the preparation that we might be going out.

A semi-homemade starch with puréed jarred Macedonian peppers stuffed with feta and dill added, then wrapped with store-bought puff pastry. It was a "let's see how this goes" attempt at avoiding a trip to buy some potatoes and they succeeded. Butter and spice with a bright and light heat that contrasted beautifully with the cold vitello tonnato.

Arugula dressed with extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Eating the pile of arugula at the end of the meal with the rest of the tuna/anchovy sauce clinging to it was just great stuff.

We were just shocked how much we loved everything and this will be made again very soon.

Wine: 2007 Enotria Arneis ($17 - In Fine Spirits)

Grape: 96% Arneis, 6% Tocai Friulano, 2% Pinot Blanc (most likely. Blend used in 2001)
Region: Mendocino County, Ukiah Valley vineyards

Enotria specializes in growing Italian grapes from Piedmont. Located well north of Napa Valley and just north of the Russian River valley, the cooler climate is similar to Piedmont in northern Italy in many ways, allowing them to grow grapes such as arneis, barbera, dolcetto, nebbiolo and moscato.

In our world, trying to find reasonably priced wine from California from grapes not typically grown (or at least promoted) in California has been difficult. They tend to go the small production, organically-grown route and haven't been around long enough to justify lower prices with higher economies of scale still in effect. Sure, we applaud such efforts but many we've tried start at $30 and we haven't been blown away by the quality.

This one was $17, more than reasonable and justifiable if you want to mess around at length with grapes grown in regions not usually seen in those regions just to see the difference and compare.

Shimmering yellow in the glass. The palate reminded both of us of viura in its essence but with higher alcohol and brighter acidity. Honey, a bit of fruit showing pear and apple and some of that ever-so-slight dusty quality that comes with viura. Wee hints of cream and sugar. This is a dry wine but the high alcohol and good acidity probably made me think of the sugar (just learning about that technical interplay and its details).

Everything still came off medium-bodied and almost pretty. Nothing over-the-top spectacular but a pretty great wine for $17.

And it lined up well with the food.

Pairing: 92 Italian food + Italian wine = Goodness

And I might even be tempted to go higher after trying a more dry, lower alcohol and lower acid wine that we very much like (Skouras Moschofilero) just to see the difference. It...wasn't good.

The wine offered flavors sufficiently different but still in the same ballpark to make everything in the meal shine. Bigger, brighter acidity lifted everything that really didn't need any lifting but still made for a great compliment. Deeper flavors in the food welcomed a bigger white that nonetheless didn't make any attempt to bully anything around. A true-blue flavor intensity balance.

Played nice with the spice in the puff pepper swirls and was entirely welcome with the arugula-tuna glop.

Having a collective seven years now working in Italian restaurants, I still don't eat much in the way of Italian food when not at work. Just never gravitated toward it, something that probably has something to do with being around it so much. But when the Italians get it right, they Get It Right.

Last night was right and proper.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

#85 - Thomas Keller Chicken & Market Veggies With Two Whites


I tend to recoil from the preachers of the Church of Local, Organic & Sustainable.

It's not that I don't support all of that. It's just that the bulk of the congregation doesn't ever shut the hell up about it. It's the proselytizing and the manner in which it's done.

A few years ago, we took a trip to San Francisco, got to our hotel and realized the coffee maker was too small for our needs. So, in what's become a tradition on our vacations, we drop $30 on a big coffee maker. At the nearby Trader Joe's, while picking up some other supplies, we asked the cashier if there was a place near that sold coffee makers. A woman piped up behind us, saying, "You know, french press is the best coffee." Even though we didn't drink much french press at that time, it wouldn't have mattered as the hotel didn't have a stove or a hot plate to boil water anyway. Mostly, it was the way she said it. It had nothing to do with helping us or directing us to the CVS just down the street. She just wanted the world to know that she drank quality french press coffee and she wasn't going to miss an opportunity to tell the world.

The members of the Church of LOS work in a similar vein. It's never a conversation offering real information or tips. It's an opportunity to express their bona-fides using as many superlatives as possible. It's never a real human interaction. It's a pitch and the product being pitched is themselves.

All that being said...last night's radishes and English peas from the Lincoln Square Farmer's Market were, by far, the best I've ever tasted. There. I'm one of you, if only for a brief time.

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with radishes and English peas

"Amish" Indiana chicken from Whole Foods using the new, better, easier chicken recipe from Thomas Keller on a bed of tarragon. Great chicken again.

Farmer's Market steamed English peas ($5) done in butter, mint, white pepper and salt. Never had peas like these (sing it! testify!). And I never particularly loved peas. These peas be the bee's knees. Tasted like it had a hint of great toasted breadcrumbs mixed in with the mint playing around with a natural and great mellow, subtle pea flavor beautifully. I'm a convert. When's the baptism?

Farmer's Market radishes ($1.50 per bunch!!!!) with dill in a lemon/shallot vinaigrette. Never been a huge lover of radishes either. Always liked them enough but never really sought them out. These were spicy with a deep flavor that went on forever. In fact, I was still tasting them hours later, if you get my drift. And that was welcome.

Labriola baguette and "French Pyrenees cheese" from Whole Foods ($7.99/lb!). With the Byzantine laws surrounding French food and their classifications, seeing a cheese that simply said "French Pyrenees cheese" is akin to seeing a bottle of Bordeaux wine that is labeled "French Bordeaux wine." Don't expect much. But it was cheap and actually quite nice. Very creamy, a bit like havarti with even more creaminess. Made from cow's milk which is a bit more rare in the Pyrenees where goat's milk cheese tends to dominate, from what we've read.

A fancy Midwestern meal with a southern (?) French bent. Lovely stuff.

Wine: 2006 Chateau de Maimbray Sancerre ($22 - WDC) & 2007 Chateau La Nerthe Blanc ($28 - WDC)

The Chateau de Maimbray Sancerre (100% Sauvignon Blanc) has been a favorite of mine for a couple years now. I'm under no illusions about its quality. It's a bit straight-forward and simple, more raw and obvious than better Sancerres even in the same price range. But something about its obviousness appeals to me. It misses some of that subtle minerality and grace that better Sancerres have but with food, it offers a big net and hasn't really ever disappointed.

Very pale yellow in the glass, very little nose offering lemon rind and wet stones, subtle mixture of lime, lemon and grass on the palate with some small touches of minerals (and pine tree?) mixed in. Medium finish, simple and forward. Welcome. Nice. Not really a bargain but I like what it offers. Didn't realize it was a 2006 until halfway through dinner, thinking it was an '07 the entire time. Still going strong and might be better than previous bottles drank younger.

The Chateau La Nerthe is another wine that's been sitting around, begging to be drunk just to get it out of my face. Initially, I thought this was going to be the best wine of the night but it turned into something that didn't offer much. More deep yellow in the glass with a honey and mineral nose. All dried white flowers and honey bark on the palate with maybe some star fruit (read: no fruit) mixed in. Lower acid than the Sancerre. The fruit was gone with this one, turning it into something that wasn't necessarily flabby or undrinkable, just something that sat there, offering little.

Pairing: 87 The Sancerre was the fun one at the party, playing the right tunes and making the funniest jokes

I would have thought a Châteauneuf-du-Pape white would have performed better with a simply cooked chicken but it fell a bit flat compared to the Sancerre. Drinkable but not interesting.

The Sancerre, on the other hand, did what I like about it. It cast a wide net and caught everything. The obviousness and relative rawness of this one is its strength in some ways with it being able to take its basic flavors and meld well with the radishes, peas and chicken quite nicely. Everything had a similar weight on the palate but just enough differences in flavor. Spectacular with the peas, tasty with the radishes, nice with the chicken, playful with the tarragon. Brighter, grassy wine with brighter earthy veggies picked the day before. Good stuff.

The La Nerthe was best with the cheese though. But at a $40 release price, bought at $28 and drinking like $12, we wouldn't do it again.

The Sancerre at $22, even with others in the same price range being a bit more complex, offers an appealing rawness. It's like a friend that's never had his life together but he's funny and you always have a good time when he's around.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

#84 - Leftover Onion Skirt Steak & Pumpkin Seed Potatoes With '05 Crasto Old Vines


It's "Try New Things" and "Drink Portuguese Wine" summer!

For lunch, sandwiches from Bari's. Oddly had never been. Best old-school, pizza parlor-ish subs on the planet. Just spectacular stuff.

For dinner, we rid ourselves of a wine we were sick of looking at and a wine that the critics slovenly gushed over two years ago, especially Wine Spectator when they put it at #3 on their top 100 list of 2008.

We were less impressed when we first had it. Liked it enough but it paled in comparison to the quality of Quinta do Vale Meao. In fact, we bought last night's wine for the first time three years ago because the Quinta do Vale Meao suddenly began to dry up around town.

The first time around, it was pleasant enough, just not particularly interesting and certainly not one of the best wines on any list. Last night showed that it may have just needed a little more time in the bottle.

Food: Leftover skirt steak, pumpkin seed potatoes, spinach and a roasted corn and bacon relish

It was clean out the freezer night for more urgent reasons than simply making a little space. The fridge teetered on the verge of "fritz" Friday, leaving oodles of items on the scary side of safely eatable.

So...it was rustic Californian with Spanish flecks! Or "let's see what can be made from what can be eaten."

Leftover skirt steak (in the safe freezer) from three weeks ago (served then with Jiménez-Landi). Onion/parsley marinade, cooked medium rare and turned out nearly as good as the previous one, which might have been the one of the best skirt steak preparations I've ever had.

Pumpkin seed potatoes made with "picada" of pepitas, baguette crumbs, parsley, garlic and saffron. An alteration of almond potatoes last served two months ago, also with skirt steak and the Torres Celeste. I didn't know it wasn't almonds instead of pumpkin seeds until Mrs. Ney told me. Par for the course, really. One of our favorite potato preparations, mainly because of the delicious garlic/parsley/saffron goopiness slathered all over them.

Relish-y type garnish consisting of roasted corn, sautéed onion and pepper, bacon, thyme
spinach and basil. I hate corn. Grew up in Iowa and I hate corn. I also become an Angels fan in the heart of Cub country. And a Browns fan in the heart of Bears country. As a child, I had a compulsive need to be different. As I grew older, I reexamined many of my prejudices, coming to tolerate the Cubs, accept that the Bears had a right to exist, even didn't wretch when I saw a Maid-Rite. But screw you, corn. Creamed corn = the most disgusting concoction on the planet. Corn niblets is a close second. But oddly, roasted corn has a begrudging, if ever so marginal place. Even corn on the cob isn't really that terrible when drenched in butter from a piece of Wonder bread (which would be a flashback of historic proportions!).

Roasted corn mixed with bacon, onion and garlic is quite good and mixed in with baby spinach and basil, it made for a side that transformed the meal a bit. It lightened everything up and brought some freshness.

Surprisingly good, even kinda great meal as Mrs. Ney had zero expectations. Broken fridges will do that.

Wine: 2005 Quinta do Crasto Reserva Old Vines ($38 - WDC)

Grape: Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and up to 30 others
Region: Douro
Vinification: Foot-crushed and aged in a blend of French and American oak for 18 months
Vintage (WS): 94 Warm weather, with even ripening during harvest, made balanced and powerful reds

Speaking of expectations, we had none. As I said, the last time we had this one, we didn't love much about it, but it was much more open this time.

Reddish-purple in the glass, Asian spice nose. Gobs of plum on the palate with some wild dark berry mixed in. Explodes about halfway down with hugely expanding fruit and starting to show some dark cherry that subsequently retreated. A very small amount of Asian spice was present, not as much as some great Portuguese reds, but present nonetheless. Hints of very dark bitter chocolate that was welcome on the finish with not the most refined tannins but were nice enough.

Mostly, it was a quality Portuguese red, a little simple but balanced enough to make it feel like opening it was a good choice given our preconceptions going in.

Pairing: 89 Nice to have it there, agreeable with everything

Sometimes, you find cheap meals that work well with cheap wines (Roulades and Nero d'Avola). Sometimes, you find fancy meals that work well with fancy wine (Dry-aged filet and Heredia).

And sometimes, you find a meal and a wine that falls right in the middle. We have done pretty well in this range in the last two years or so. Gettin' better at this.

This meal was one of those. Quite good with leftover skirt steak, probably the best with the potatoes and entirely acceptable, even good with the relish. Great with the basil and the surprise of the night.

All the different flavors in the food and in the wine melded together for something that went above what was on the plate and in the glass.

Happy and full. Happy...and...full.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

#83 - Thomas Keller Chicken, Mâche & Cheese With Two Chardonnays


We have a few prejudices that we're more than willing to let linger as we find our wine feet.

Mostly, it's "screw Cabernet and Chardonnay". We just don't enjoy their guts as much as other wines. We know good Cabernet and Chardonnay are good and have had a few good ones. And we know we'll eventually get to them more at length. But we also know that "good" costs money, especially with those two grapes.

With both of us having worked in the restaurant business/wine retail-ish world for so long, we've had tons of overpriced and bad Cab and Chard. They can wait while we spend our money getting into the nuances of wines and regions that we truly enjoy. We've opened up to virtually every style of wine. These two linger as a judgment though and we have no impulse to mess around trying to find bargains of two grapes we don't care about.

But, last night, threw a wrench into the works a bit. And both of us thought that might happen.

A wine writer for the now-defunct New York Sun quoted Henry James when discussing the Királyudvar Sec, a glorious wine that we've had on multiple occasions since November and a wine we almost switched to last night:

In a rare moment of concision, the novelist and critic Henry James observed, "There are two kinds of taste, the taste for emotions of surprise, and the taste for emotions of recognition."

We seek out surprise in wines. But, for us, the impulse hasn't been there to be surprised by Cabernet and Chardonnay.

Champagne has been recently scratched off the "don't freakin' care about" list. I can't believe I'm writing this but Chardonnay...you're now off the list. Cabernet...(and Malbec and Tannat and Zweigelt...OH!...and Pinot Grigio, something that's well ahead of Cabernet in our 'screw you' world)...you are the only ones really left.

Thanks to what might have been the perfect recipe to get into Chardonnay, the response to last night's meal was, "Why was THAT so good?!"

Food: Thomas Keller chicken with pea shoots, mâche with avocado vinaigrette and baguette with Burgundian cheese and Irish butter

Here's the recipe. Get to know it because it's stupid good. Better than Wine Can Chicken, five words I thought I'd never say, and easier to prepare.

No one element of the chicken made it delicious. It was the total product. Simply prepared and tasted exactly like what people mean when they extol the virtues of simplicity with an almost brightness in its earthy goodness. It's the new "Winner Winner" in Chicken Dinner.

The Burgundian cheese, delice de Bourgogne, nearly matched the chicken. Like brie without the brie-ness. Intensely creamy without choking you with its creaminess and just enough funkiness that knows when to go away. Served with LaBriola baguette. No baguette is better and it's not every close.

Mâche with an avocado vinaigrette made with crappy, store-bought guacamole that was used previously for a quickly whipped-together taco lunch a few days earlier. Just extra virgin oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Complimented the chicken beautifully and served to help the already present brightness in the chicken along. Pea shoots brought something more crunchy and became the bridge between the mâche and the chicken.

We could have served any of our favorite wines with this meal and would have loved it.

But it's Try New Things Summer.

Wine: 2007 Domaine de Roally Viré Clessé ($20 - WDC) and 2008 Craggy Range Chardonnay Kidnapper's Vineyard ($17 -WDC)

2007 Domaine de Roally Viré Clessé

Grape: 100% Chardonnay
AOC: Viré Clessé in the Mâconnais subregion of Burgundy
Vintage (WS): 92 Precise, pure and elegant, with lively structures if harvested late; at worst unripe if picked early

2008 Craggy Range Chardonnay Kidnapper's Vineyard

Grape: 100% Chardonnay
Region: Hawkes Bay

We sampled both wines before the meal and the Burgundy was the undisputed winner right out of the bottle. More golden yellow than the New Zealand wine, which had a crisp green in the glass, the Domaine de Roally had a huge barnyard funkiness to it that was deliciously weird. A bit of oak and butter but the hay and something that was almost lavender (without the overt lavender quality) was unique and good. Initially, the Craggy Range was all buttered toast, the exact quality that we don't enjoy at all about Chardonnay, with a wee hint of pear.

Things changed over the course of the meal though. The Craggy Range quickly showed more nuance with more expressive pear and hints of lime and a clean, refreshing acidity with the excessively buttered notes falling into the background. Almost delicate with even some limestone notes. Mrs. Ney put it perfectly. Blind, it could have been an enjoyable California Sauvignon Blanc.

Very much less acidic and more rich, the Domaine de Roally evolved into buttered baked fruits with the barnyard quality integrating more into the fruit profile and tons of minerals. A better, more interesting wine than the Craggy Range with an elegant coating of the throat as it went down.

Comparing both styles seemed apt given our aversion to the grape and we benefitted from it. It was a classic Old World/New World thing with two great examples of both. And both at or under $20.

Just really enjoyable and "surprised" the heck out of it.

Pairing: 94 As a total meal, that's the score but it's tough to score something like this

Nothing went off the rails but some things were better with a specific wine. And some things were the definition of perfect.

Eating the delice de Bourgogne and baguette with the Domaine de Roally would turn anyone skeptical of what wine does with food and what the French unequivocally get right with food and wine in about two seconds. Pure silk and made us pause.

The mâche and avocado vinaigrette with the Craggy Range did nearly as well. The lime and mineral notes in the wine exploded and together, they both sang.

The chicken played right down the middle, serving both wines well and we alternated back and forth, picking up what we wanted, when we wanted it at each particular time. Mostly, it was the nice backbone of minerality in different forms in both wines that made the chicken pairing (particularly with the nicely salted skin) work so well. Oh, and we slathered butter on the chicken because Thomas Keller told us to. You don't question Thomas Keller. Delicious with the Domaine de Roally.

I'm not going to say we going to rush out and buy up as many Chardonnays as we can as soon as possible. But in our world, it's found a small niche, made that way by what might have been the perfect meal to make that happen.


A quick note. Went to Mado Tuesday for another goshdarn good meal. Appetizer menu was meat platter of chicken liver paté, testa and copa, roasted carrots in ras el hanout goat cheese and cumin honey, farm fresh egg on toasted cornbread, citrus-cured lake perch, and asparagus and peas with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Entrees were spaghetti with spring onion, chilies and bread crumbs and eggs in purgatory, a sort of Sicilian green olive, spiced tomato and breadcrumb stew. We were happy and full.

Eaten with the 2007 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Ulises Valdez Vineyard ($75 - Binny's) and the 1999 Prager Riesling Smaragd Steinreigl ($16 - WDC). The Prager has been discussed here numerous times. It's almost done and the degree in which it's leaped toward its death was even more intensified since the last time we had it. All dried flowers and apricots with only a hint of sugar. Got better as it opened up. We've enjoyed every second of watching this one go. The Paul Hobbs, bought when I was in a spendy mood and apparently more open to overpriced California offerings, didn't come close to living up to its price tag however. Very Californian with that syrupy quality and pleasant enough fruit and decent balance. If I spent $30 on it, I would have thought it was a fine enough wine, even good. At $75, I was a bit pissy about it.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

#82 - Angus Bone-In Ribeye & Yuca With '01 Vega Sicilia Valbuena



Ever watch a film and like it so much that you immediately buy the DVD?

You know, the kind of film that made you see things in a different way or accomplished some vast and probing narrative with everything coming together, making you pause a little after seeing it. Nothing epic or spectacular but something that made you say, "Well...that was pretty great."

So you buy the DVD under the auspices that something like that should be supported and of course you're going to watch it again. And then the years pass and it sits there. The DVD case is never cracked, mainly because as time passes, you begin to pick the film apart a bit. You still consider the guts of the film a solid rendering of the material with flashes of brilliance from a great filmmaker. But...at three hours...and the material all too familiar...you're never really going to watch it again. Maybe in ten years but not in the near future.

Last night's wine was that. The 2001 Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5º is Steven Soderbergh's Traffic.

Food: Angus bone-in ribeye, yuca fries with mayo and arugula

Trader Joe's Angus bone-in ribeye. Well-marbled with that dusty, earthy Angus-y quality. Even a bit gamey. A good piece of meat from Trader Joe's. Simply prepared with smoked sea salt and pepper and a garlic-rosemary compound butter on top. But both of us are quickly coming to the conclusion that we just don't love ribeye. It's a lot of work for the payoff and we prefer something a bit more lean. Good meat here, though. Enjoyed it enough.

Yuca fries were yuca fries. We'll never get sick of yuca fries. Served with a smoked paprika/cumin/sherry vinegar mayo for dipping. The mayo turned the meal from something that could have been really any cuisine to a meal with a Spanish feel. Just that little bit of smoked paprika helped. And the yuca and ribeye together as back-to-back bites were goshdarn tasty.

An arugula and parsley mix with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic to finish the meal. Parsley and greens = goodness.

Happy and full. No complaints at all. Well-prepared, delicious and satisfying.

Wine: 2001 Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5º ($120 - Knightsbridge)

Grape: 80% Tempranillo, 10% Merlot, 10% Cabernet
Region: Ribera Del Duero
Vintage: 93 (WS) Drink or hold, Powerful wines, with ripe fruit, good balance and great aging potential

Vega Sicilia is the "cream of the class", as Dan Hampton would say, of Ribera Del Duero and probably all of Spain. It has one of the most technically advanced wineries in the world yet still produces wines in the old style based strictly on terroir. Typically, the flagship vintage wine, the Unico, releases for $300-400 a bottle, isn't released until ten years after the vintage, can drink for 50 and shouldn't really be drunk for another 20 years after the vintage. A non-vintage wine is also produced, the Unico Reserva Especial, currently a blend from three 90s vintages, typically goes for $400-500 a bottle.

We can afford the second label, the Valbuena 5º, a wine that spends three and a half years in barrel and one and a half in bottle before being released (hence the "5º" - there used to be a 3º but it was discontinued in 1988 to avoid confusion).

In 2001, while a good vintage for Ribera in general, Vega Sicilia didn't produce a Unico so all their grapes went into producing the Valbuena. A very hot summer led to early ripening, making the long barreling aging required for the Unico impossible.

The 2001 Valbuena was a mixed bag around the Internet on its drinking and aging potential. Wine Spectator had it finishing up in 2010 due to the ripeness of the vintage. Parker had it drinking well now with another 10 years to go. Tanzer didn't commit.

Decanted for about an hour. Opaque purple in the glass. Grilled meat on the nose. Right away, just a MASSIVE wine. Thick, almost a meal in itself, tasting like a wild Right Bank Bordeaux but settled down rather quick into a more medium-bodied mouthfeel. Tons of faintly sweet blackberry and maybe wild mulberry fruit with some background red fruits. A bit tart with some herb/spice notes that was probably sage with something approaching a wild brush blend and a hint of an elegant vanilla touch at the end. Tannins were big right away but quickly dissipated.

I initially questioned the short decant but this one evolved beautifully throughout the two hour meal, peaking in the middle to reveal a nicely composed wine full of nuance and ending with something a bit more simple. We lucked out.

No question, this is a beautiful wine and it may have the guts to go for a few more years due to the massiveness we experienced right away. And it certainly resonated well after the meal but not really the next day. At $120, if I'm in a spendy mood and at Knightsbridge, it might be interesting to see what this one does in a few years, but I'm not in any hurry or under any real compulsion to find out. That's a lot of money. Comparing it to something in a similar vein, we were both more intrigued by both the '06 and '07 Flor de Pingus at $50 less.

Pairing: 90 Straddled a lot of lines but in the end was quite delicious

Great with the yuca and smoked paprika mayo. Delicious with the meat. Great and delicious when we mixed all of those together.

The wee bit of vanilla in the wine was playful with the smoked paprika but the unquestioned star of the night was the rosemary in the compound butter and what that did to the wine. It became something that danced, becoming much more complex and put together than any other combination.

At times, the pairing struggled to get out of the Realm of Merely Good but in its totality, it made it to the Land of Borderline Lovely.

With Traffic, there was some Michael Douglas overacting and the lens filters got in the way at times. But there was also Benicio Del Toro and Don Cheadle and the lens filters brought a unique way to separate and connect the now-tired "interconnectness" visual storytelling. Like the Valbuena, it's a thoughtful creation of beauty rooted directly in its time and place.

But like Traffic, I don't know if I ever need to experience it again.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

#81 - Ostrich, Ravioli & Zucchini Cakes With '07 Gregory Graham Zin + 1


A Cleveland bent last night.

We finally exhausted the last of the prepared products bought at West Side Market in Cleveland during our two-day getaway two months ago, this time having smoked mozzarella ravioli.

From the sweet pea gnocchi to black bean ravioli to sauerkraut pierogi, each one has been quite delicious. The smoked mozzarella ravioli though may have been the best of the bunch.

We paired everything with a wine bought in Cleveland, a town seemingly flooded with cabernet, zinfandel and Italian wine. Mrs. Ney hit it on the head. It tasted like something we would have bought in Cleveland.

Food: Marinated ostrich, smoked mozzarella ravioli and zucchini cakes

Ostrich marinated in balsamic, olive oil, honey and rosemary. Seared with salt and pepper. It's strange that we haven't had ostrich since starting this blog as we used to have it pretty regularly. That will most likely change as last night's ostrich brought back one of those taste memories. Tasted like 2007, the time when we probably ate the most ostrich. Concurrent memories flooded back of the Sox being bad so nothing's really changed. I first had ostrich (in the form of wellington) at the now-shuttered Speakeasy restaurant on Devon in 2004 (now Uncommon Ground). We miss that restaurant a bit. Probably the first place that we loved when we moved to Chicago and played a big part in us getting interested in food-type stuff.

This ostrich was delicious, perfectly cooked and just lovely in every way.

With this meal though, it was the complete plate that made it better than the sum of its parts.

Zucchini cakes that Mrs. Ney thought were doomed while making them turned out kinda spectacular. Crispy on the outside, soft in the middle without being mushy. Salty in a nice sense. Great bite o' food.

Smoke mozzarella ravioli brought it all together. Nice hint of smoke with well-crafted ravioli. Nothing too big, nothing too subtle.

To use an overused phrase - it tasted quintessentially Californian. Bit of smoke, bit of earth, bit of salt, bit of fresh, nothing too heavy, nothing too delicate. Everything had a similar weight, playing in a similar range without ever becoming boring or monotone. Just enough change between bites. It was like the food was made for each other.

Wine: 2007 Gregory Graham Zinfandel Crimson Hill Vineyard ($25 - Vineyards Wine Merchant - Cleveland)

Dark red in the glass with lighter red edges. Very little nose, mostly a basket of raspberries left in the sun too long. On the palate, it offered an under-sugared raspberry syrup with some indistinguishable herbs, probably sage but only faintly. Nice tannins that kept it alive and somewhat playful.

An entirely serviceable zinfandel that brought a modicum of balance and openness. Nothing particularly exciting, though. Made us regret the fact that we forgot that a Seghesio, a zin in the same price range, was in the house halfway through the meal.

Pairing: 84 Did its job but that's about it

Initially thought about a shiraz or syrah to pair with the ostrich - as shiraz has been beautiful with it in the past - but settled on a zinfandel to mix things up a bit.

Best with the ravioli, very good actually. Good with the zucchini cakes and fine enough with the ostrich with a wee bit of bitterness popping up on occasion. But the one-dimensional fruit - all red raspberry - made it for a one-dimensional pairing.

Nothing bad about it but it was a bit like when we got a Ford Mustang at the car rental counter in San Francisco. In the beginning, we thought, "Hey, this will be a change of pace and might even be fun." And then ten minutes into driving it, we thought, "Well...we've driven this and don't have to do it again."


A quick note. Tuesday's meal of tuna Niçoise wasn't posted, mainly because it's been done on this blog a few times already. It's a top-fiver and if you disagree, I will fight you. Perfect meal with rosé. Beautiful with Bandol, great with weird Bulgarian rosé, might be perfect with Saintsbury Vin Gris of Pinot Noir - another wine post I didn't do. Great little rosé though.

This time, it was paired with 2008 Neuchátel Oeil de Perdrix Pinot Noir ($26 - Fine Wine Brokers). Tasted like everything pinot noir is - musty on occasion, wet earth, a bit of strawberry, those pinot noir fine tannins all wrapped in a lifting, refreshing rosé style. I don't recall having a rosé that was so expressive of the grape. Give this one a try. Swiss rosé of pinot noir. Nothing wrong with that and worked great (91 score) with the best salad/olio of goodness on the planet.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

#80 - Duck Leg Stew With '07 Vallado Tinto


More of a Portuguese bent will be happening over the next few months as we just booked a trip to that deliciously weird country in September.

For two days during that trip, we'll be in the Douro and staying at the winery which made today's wine offering.

Excited is a mild term for our feelings about the trip.

While the wine missed the mark with the pairing, for $20, it's all Portugal, giving a glimpse into what makes Portuguese reds so gosh darn tasty.

Food: Duck leg stew with a sort of tapas spread

Well done duck legs stewed in prunes, Sicilian green olives, onions, leeks, carrots, tomatoes, chicken broth, bay leaf, salt and pepper with a picada sauce of garlic, parsley and nuts added later. It's a Catalan recipe from the inland region of Ampurdan taken again from the New Spanish Table cookbook.

The result was a sort of duck stew with a complexity of flavor I've never experienced. Deep earthiness with all the ingredients coming through at different times without becoming muddled or weighty. Wasn't coma-inducing or thick though. Almost bright and light. Looked like gravy, tasted like the best gravy I've ever had but didn't weight down the meal like gravy tends to do with flavors jumping everywhere. With delicious duck leg that nicely fell right off the bone, it was a true joy. Can't compare it to anything because I've never had anything like it. Just buy the book.

We'll be having it again.

Various accompaniments forming a sort of tapas spread included thinly-sliced linguiça, manchego cheese marinated in olive oil and rosemary, marcona almonds, medjool dates and baguette and butter.

A great meal not made better by the wine.

Wine: 2007 Quinta do Vallado Douro ($20 - Binny's)

Grape: Touriga Franca (30%), Touriga Nacional (25%), Tinta Roriz (20%),
Sousão (5%) and Vinhas Velhas (20%)
Region: Douro Valley
Vintage: 96 A cool, wet spring and summer cut yields by 20 percent, but ideal harvest weather delivered optimal ripeness

The estate "basic" tinto blend from Vallado (the reserva will be forthcoming). Opened 30 minutes before drinking (probably should have been longer). Dark red in the glass. Grilled plums on the nose. More plum dominated on the palate with some dark dried cherry and plenty of Asian spice. The flavors were straight-forward and entirely representative of what you get from a good Portuguese wine. Some nice heat with this one and a good backbone.

It performs better than most any other $20 Portuguese red blend we've had, including the wine press's favorite children, Quinta do Crasto and Vale Meão Meandro. But with Portuguese reds, a huge jump in quality happens from $20 to $40-50. In the latter range, you get something so ridiculously good, it's probably become our favorite style of wine on par with Heredia in its deliciousness.

If you haven't had Portuguese red, the Quinta do Vallado Tinto is a good place to start just to see if you dig the style. A grittiness mixes with a dark plummy creaminess vacillating back and forth dominates with some grilled meat notes and slightly less prominent Asian spice than you get from better, more expensive and expressive reds from the Douro. But it's worth every dollar in the $20 price tag. Maybe not more, but certainly worth the dollars paid.

I've never been particularly thrilled by lower-end Portuguese reds (good enough was about the best I could ever say) but I'd give my left leg for much of the higher end stuff. This one broke that mold and successfully landed right in the middle of all that.

Pairing: 80 Didn't work but I don't know what the heck would go with this food

The wine turned a bit gritty, flat and boring with most of the food, particularly the duck leg. With the linguiça, it reached the realm of mildly interesting but that was about it.

We were stumped completely by what in the world would have paired with the gravy-like goodness of the duck leg stew. Maybe a Rhône? Priorat? Other than that, not much would have had a chance, I think.

Solid wine, great by itself but bad pairing. Didn't matter, though. We're goin' to Portugal!