When Color's Worth A Thousand Words

Color is a huge factor when blind tasting a wine. Color is hue, intensity, clarity...the whole gamut. This is a short post, but an interesting one for those who want to do more than just taste...

Color hints at may aspects of the wine, including age, winemaking, and grape variety. Clarity can range from opaque, to cloudy, to clear. Hues include purple, magenta, pink, garnet, ruby, orange, and more.

Without too much technical detail, it is extremely important to pay attention to these details when assessing wines. More delicate varietals such as pinot noir can be so clear that you can read through them, whereas some wines, such as Napa cabernet sauvignon or Northern Rhone syrah, can be so opaque that you can hardly see your finger through the glass.

When it comes to age, reds get lighter and whites get darker with age. Clear, straw colored young chardonnay will transform to a rich golden, almost brown color with age (if it's really brown its usually too old...). Reds in youth will be more purple, with age transforming violet hues to more ruby, and eventually garnet (red/orange brick) colors. Older wines can also tend to absorb more light, and sometimes even become dull...

The wines shown in the photo show the difference between a Beaujolais Nouveau and an aged Burgundy Pinot Noir. Beaujolais Nouveau, on the left, is extremely young wine, undergoing carbonic maceration, to produce youthful purple and magenta tones (the pinkish magenta is very common for wines going under carbonic maceration). The Pinot Noir, on the right, not only shows its typical varietal clarity, but shows age with subtle rim variation, as an orange-ish rim can be seen around the edge of the wine in the glass. This is a tell-tale sign of age, and is considered a solid garnet hue.

Color can sometimes be a product of oxidation, not age. Extensive oak barrel ageing or intentional oxidative viniculture styles can result in advanced color development without advanced age. Nebbiolo is the primary example of this, as young examples often display solid garnet, bordering orange hues.

Until next time, sip responsibly :) 

(It is Friday after all!)

Bourgogne? BourgognYES.

The weekend past just happened to hit smack dab in the middle of my France module in school, with Burgundy straddling the days off on the Friday and Monday. The result? An extended weekend of Burgundian bliss.

Units (in school) like France and Italy really are the best, giving you the excuse to spend a little more than you normally would on tastings where you can't help but finish everything you open because it is DELICIOUS. Even some of the wierder Chenin Blancs we have tried are just so intriguing and austere that "study sessions" almost feel criminally fun :) Study shouldn't be that fun, right?! As much as I can appreciate the classic quality of a Napa Chardonnay or an Aussie Shiraz, it just doesn't have that sexy European thing going on. There may be a hidden man comparison in there somewhere but we are talking about 50 shades of purple, garnet, and ruby here....not grey.....

I guess part of the reason I love Burgundy so much is because it has one of the richest and most fascinating historical frameworks. A bottle of Burgundy is, in its purest form, a historical artifact. Terroir, in France more than any other country, is so much more than elevation, rainfall, sun exposure, soil composition...but a family history of vineyard ownership and cultural evolution. From the Cisterian monks whose detailed maps in the 15th and 16th centuries to Napoleon's inheritance laws and love of Gevrey-Chambertin....the characters of these wines are truly unique.

We've split Burgundy into multiple days, conquering Chardonnay in one, Pinot Noir (largely all Chablis and Cote D'Or examples) in the second, and the surrounding areas of Jura, Savoie and Beaujolais in the final class. The wines in class have been divine, and I've been in a sea of mushroom, leather and mossy cherry heaven. I wanted nothing more than to pull out a rare filet mignon with shaved truffles to pair with the 2006 Drouhin-Laroze Latricieres-Chambertin Grand Cru.

Over the weekend "The Nose" and I met up to "study" the french whites we had covered so far, with a melange of Bourgogne Blanc, Vouvray Sec, Sancerre, and some other fun "off topic" things. By the end of it we had our noses in scotch bottles to compare the "petey" smell with the "mossy" smells of the straw-dried late harvest wine I had brought and the Bordeaux style Dau Cabernet Sauvignon. I should certainly dedicate a whole different post to my ridiculous obsession with dusty dried rose bouquet of Chenin Blanc.....but certainly best left for another time.

The biggest thing that I have walked away from this week has been the importance of THE PRODUCER when purchasing or selecting Burgundian wines. Good vintages are good and bad vintages require more creative wine making, but the scarcity of Burgundy and the specificity of its AOC (Appellation D'Origine Controllee) causes prices to shoot through the roof regardless. Scarcity of wine can cause a price to rise regardless of the quality. Knowing good producers, whose quality is reliable, is therefore absolutely essential unless you want to risk spending $100 dollars on a Chablis which could be upstaged by a Bourgogne Blanc. Boutique wine shops with educated staff (or even places like Total Wine) are great places to find these wines, which if you are unfamiliar, can be guided to the good value bottles versus taking shots in the dark.

The other important thing when purchasing Burgundy is understanding that varying terroir and the chameleon like quality of pinot noir as a varietal can bring significant differences between neighboring towns, or even neighboring vineyards! Trying through different villages to develop more specific tastes is helpful for the aspiring Burgundy enthusiast, as Saint Aubin Rouge will be significantly different from a Volnay or Givry. Generally you'll get a mouthful of mushroom, minerality, and macerated red fruit (cherry, strawberry, raspberry, cranberry, pomegranate), but even generalizing to that level can be a mistake.

Spent a good part of the weekend in Paso Robles wine country interviewing at vineyards. Great experience and can't wait to dig deeper into some of these career opportunities!

Until next time, remember varietal and jammy are not technically real words.

Elmer Fudd and the Demise of Bugs and Daffy

So the other day I found a young spring rabbit when shopping at my local Whole Foods (it's a particularly good one....except no bar...) and had the inspiration to do a game themed dinner (not like I don't usually....I mean, this blog is living proof!). When presenting the menu to my father, he immediately quoted Elmer Fudd, referencing the fact that I was indeed grilling up Bugs and Daffy...now we finally know what happened to our beloved Looney Toons celebrities. I charred them.

To be honest, I don't even know what we started with. It involved cheese, fish, olives, and other things. But I was too concerned with my game. Rabbit is notoriously difficult to cook, and I had only SEEN it been done before....and that one time, I was the one who cleaned the freshly shot animal right before we threw it on the grill. Needless to say, I was a little out of my comfort zone.

I had a HUGE D'Artagnan duck breast frozen away, so I pulled that out for one course. One full breat is the equivalent of two personal portions. I'm feeding three people...and not just any people...MY people....so not nearly enough. I decided the rabbit and duck would be an excellent comparison of game styles while just enough food. I threw the duck into a ziploc to marinate with half a bottle of red wine, a little port, a shit ton of thyme and rosemary sprigs, salt, pepper, and fennel sprouts. I threw the whole rabbit in a marinade of olive oil, fresh lemon wheels, parsley stocks, garlic, and white wine. All to seep overnight.

For the duck, I  paired it with a winter vegetable mash. That means you sautee fennel, leeks, shallots, onions and boil potatoes and parsnips. Blend them to a puree with heavy cream, black truffle oil (fancy, I know!) with lots of salt and pepper. It's divine. For the meat, I removed the duck from the marinade (but did not clean it at all) and sear it at an extremely high temperature on the fatty side down. After just a few minutes, place it in the oven to finish cooking and cook to temperature. NEVER turn the duck on the meat side down. Just don't do it. All of my chef friends forbid it and have put the fear of "chef" into me. Now you know. To plate, I sliced the medium rare breast over a bed of the mash, and topped with a homemade rosemary/port/cranberry sauce. You could top it with a blackberry sauce, blueberry sauce, raspberry sauce, currant sauce. Anything of the variety would work. Was delicious. Moving on.

For the rabbit, I decided to grill it. Risky, I know, but I didn't want to stew it. Or roast it. I think I was just having a testosterone fueled moment. So how do you prevent lean meat from overcooking on the grill?! You wrap it in herb butter and pancetta and glaze it with honey. I did the whole rabbit, rather than sectioning it first. The large majority of that decision was laziness. But regardless, I threw a large piece of aluminum foil down on the grill and place the pancetta honey glazed animal down on it and let it smoke. I carved it just before plating and served the bunny joints over a salad of roasted wild mushrooms and pearl onions tossed in herbs and fresh lemon juice.

The rabbit was my favorite of the evening because it was delicious! So moist and delicate and so easy to overcook. I watched it like a stalker follows their long lost imaginary love but it was worth it. It was the dish that I definitely will claim the most pride in its turnout.

To finish, I plated pistachio and coconut macaroons with candied pears and hazelnut gelato. Was great! Light and nutty, not too sweet. Even the pears weren't overkill on the sweetness.

I am in the middle of my Thanksgiving planning extravaganza. The two dinners I absolutely demand dictatorship of are Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's the Irish in me really....I love a good bit of tradition. But I am an untraditional traditionalist...so I'm doing an Italian themed Thanksgiving. I spent the day on the very cold beach collecting shells for plating and table settings, which luckily the weather warmed up for. Also made all of my fresh pastas, gastriques, and other sauces in advance this evening. Can't wait for all the pieces to come into focus on Thursday!

Until next time...be thankful!!!!!

Bon appetit!