In the last year or so, the drumbeat seems to have been heard. No, sherry hasn’t taken the world by storm. Nobody’s bidding up the prices, which remain highly reasonable, with world-class wines starting around $15 a bottle. But in small specialty shops, in restaurants where ardent sommeliers hold sway and in bars mixing creative high-end cocktails, fuddy-duddy sherry is taking its turn as a new hip thing.

So, essentially, the people who have always touted sherry’s awesomeness- and it is awesome- are finally being heard by a small group of people that are likely to be open to the idea of drinking sherry.  I guess that’s a win?

Regardless, wine geeks have always loved sherry but many non-initiated still pigeonhole it as fussy English ladies’ tipple.  And, while there is a varied spectrum from light, crisp Finos to nutty Amontillados (and even that extra special category, Pedro Ximenez) most of the public is only familiar with the mass-produced, gooey stuff like Harvey’s Bristol Cream.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with HBC, espeically when it acts as the gateway to a wider world of more complex sherries.  My father kept a bottle of it in the kitchen to enjoy when he came home from a tiring day at work.  I remember one time, after fielding a particularly nasty phone call from the ex boyfriend back at college, pouring myself about eight ounces out of the bottle.  I was still underage and was just looking for anything to numb the pain, but I was surprised how much I liked it.  The sweetness probably didn’t hurt but there was something else- that nutty, oxidized note that to this day I still viscerally love.

Apparently most of these new sherry drinkers aren’t coming to it by way of their parents’ liquor cabinets- they’re drinking it in cocktails. There’s a burgeoning sherry cocktail movement! That I knew nothing about.

“The sherry cocktail movement is probably the single most meaningful or driving force in the recent resurgence of sherry,” said Steven Olson, a former sommelier whose company, a k a Wine Geek, has been actively promoting sherry for 12 years.

Well, good.   I’m not sure how you would find that something as complex tasting as a sherry needs to be covered up in a cocktail.  But, hey anything to get more to jump onto the sherry bandwagon.

Via: NYT

Image by Phil Kline for NYT

Pop Chart Lab sells these awesome flowchart posters for 25 bucks a piece.  One shows the “Splendiferous Array of Culinary Tools” the other, “The Very Many Varieties of Beer”.  They need to be in our kitchen right now.

So many kinds of tools! I think we have most of them...

We need to drink them all!

apologies for the bad resolution…it’s better here.

A Dry WSET Tasting Note:

This wine is deep purple, with slow moving, tinted legs and signs of sediment already being thrown in the half bottle. The nose is youthful with a medium plus intensity showing blackberry jam, mocha, black pepper, and dark chocolate. On the palate, the wine shows flavors confirming dark fruits, pepper, and chocolate.  The younger/stalky tannins are medium in intensity.  Acid in the wine is of med intensity while alcohol is medium plus.  The wine’s body is med plus/high.  The finish is medium plus in length and shows the wine’s only green/bitter notes.  The intensity of flavors on the palate is a medium plus/high as the wine displays a port-like richness.

Conclusions:

A very good/excellent example of the complex and extroverted New World style of wines that is characteristic of Ridge winery.  The use of American Oak is noticeable in the prevalence of the mocha and chocolate flavors that compliment varietals’ characteristics nicely. The barley/yeasty note on the nose confirms the use of native yeasts. This wine is ready to drink and will improve.  Drink through 2020.

Non canonical (i.e. not looked well upon by the WSET judges but more interesting) tasting notes:

Ridge appeals very much to the American in me.  It’s as if there were a wine version of manifest destiny and Ridge Vineyards took it all, did it all, and did it their way.  I recall the first time I ever tasted a Ridge Zin- particularly because it was embarrassing.  It was in a blind tasting given to me during an interview for a sommelier position.  I believe the bottle was a 95 Geyserville but it may have been another vintage/vineyard.  What’s important is that, I called it as an Amarone.  I thought, what else would be so rich and extracted yet complex and fully dry?  I didn’t get the job but, no one else in the room called, “Vintage Californian Zin dominant field blend, indigenous yeast, American oak” either.  And that’s not because you can’t suss those things out of the wine.  It’s a big wine and all of those characteristics are backed up by unique flavors and aromas.  It’s just that, who else does that?  Not a lot of wineries that’s for goddamned sure.  And honestly, if a lot of people did do it, I’m sure we’d get tired of it pretty quickly.  But few do and I still fucking love Ridge.  It’s big, its fruity, its funky, its chocolatey. It’s American.

Those who know me well know I can’t get enough of gummi type shit. I’ve seen (and enjoyed) the gummi sushi concept before but here you actually mix the gummi/gell and then piece together the sushi. Culinary nerds should watch until the end where a pre-packaged form of sperification is demonstrated. Pre measured packets eliminate the need for all that pesky weighing of sodium alginate or calcium chloride.

via DoobyBrain

It was the slowest time of day during the slowest time of year at the sleepy San Sebastian airport. We waited in the cafeteria and drank Amstel Regulars and Etxeko (a liquorice -y, sweet, if uncomplex, fortified Basque wine) while we watched the Guardia Civil “take their café con leches” and try to look intimidating in green windbreakers.

An excerpt from our conversation re siestas-
-L, “So do people in Europe just hang out a lot?”
-C, “I dunno. That’s the gist I get.”

It wasn’t an entire waste of time as I found an information desk with magazines welcoming us to Gipuzkoa: the most fun-to-say province in Spain’s Basque country. Amongst enlighteningly- translated tidbits about Basque culture such as “Inland, beef is the main protagonist,” we also learned that we were fortuitously in the area during the Tamborrada. A festival of unexplained provenance/purpose, the Tamborrada involves 24 continuous hours of San Sebastian adults and children inexplicably dressing up as chefs or soldiers and banging on barrels and drums. Also, as we would find out later, a lot of drinking.

After finally retrieving our Renault “Picasso” from our refreshed-looking rental agent, we went to our hotel for our own mini siesta before dining at Arzak. We stayed in the Astoria 7 a rebuilt cinema turned contemporary hotel. Each of its rooms is “individually dedicated to personalities, actors, actresses or directors, who have attended the San Sebastián International Film Festival ever since it first edition in 1953.” We stayed in the Dennis Hopper room, two doors down from the Mel Gibson room and down the hall from Glen Close, where we both learned from the poster above the bed that Mr. Hopper had died last May.

We had a fabulous meal at Arzak later that night. But, that will get its own post.

Inadvertent drug references at Astoria 7

bad whole foods. bad.

Wow.  That is a wine pairing fail.  Just such a terrible, terrible mistake to make under the guise of a “recommendation”.  I know I sound like a wine pairing fascist, but you don’t play hard and fast with pairing rules when chocolate is involved.

I’ll reluctantly allow that chocolate can sometimes go with dry wines.  Sometimes. And, that’s really in a very few instances when the chocolate itself isn’t too sweet (say it’s in a mole or a braising liquid) and the wine itself isn’t too delicate (some extroverted New World cabs or zins).  But really Whole Foods?  This is the best you could do?  I should have taken pics of the more reasonable “pairings” next to this one like the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label with “a picnic” or the Billecart Salmon BdB with “something to celebrate!” Don’t suggest anything at all if you don’t put in the effort or if you’re get it completely wrong.

The most disappointing part of this sign is that brut rosé sparklers may be one of the most versatile wines to pair.  With what, you ask?  Let ys count the ways- oysters, mussels, salmon, cheeses from brie to manchego, many hors d’oeuvres options, chicken, mushroom dishes, ham, and even beef carpaccio.  The list can go on and on and on…but dark chocolate isn’t there.  In fact, you’ve probably noticed that the whole list is savory.  Despite however many weddings you’ve been to where a brut sparkler was served the cake, rule #1 when pairing wines with sweet items is that the wine should be sweet, if not sweeter, than the food itself.  It’s not just that the intense, complicated, dark, roasted flavors of the cocoa will overwhelm all of the rose’s delicate fruit, but that a brut level of dryness will seem unpleasantly bitter when competing with the sweetness of even a bitter, dark chocolate.  It just won’t work.

In my opinion, dark chocolate is best with the raisin and caramel notes in heavily extracted, sweet fortified wines like Ports and Pedro Ximenez-based sherries.  But, if you still can’t get the idea of chocolate and a sparkling out of your head it may be worthwhile seeking out a Bracchetto d’Asti or Bracchetto d’Aqui.  These unique Piedmontese red (think deep red, not rose) frizzante wines made from the Bracchetto grape have enough weight of fruit and sweetness to occasionally go well with a chocolate dessert.  They are even better if the dessert has a fruit component like raspberry or strawberry preserves that can act as a bridge to the red fruit flavors in the wine.

We can thank “layers of sheep dung” for almost perfectly preserving the 6,100 year wine making facility “complete with a vat for fermenting, a press, storage jars, a clay bowl and a drinking cup made from an animal horn.”  Way to go archaeology.

via NYT

Last night’s wine:

Ok, first big surprise is that it’s a white.  Typically we store the reds and whites in different parts of our cellar (again, just a closet on the shady side of the house) but somehow this one ended getting mixed in.  So I’m already pissed because I’m fairly certain that, with the exception of some ultra-premium bottles stored in a separate part of the cellar-closet, that all the whites we have are pretty shitty because we’ve drunk all the good ones.  Not to mention, we figured it was a red and therefore did not chill it, so our first taste will be room temperature. Admittedly, the above may have jaded my first impressions.

Nose: Lemon, Apple, the greener, not-so-ripe fruits, I’ll throw apricot in there.  A sort of pithy-ness. Not very aromatic.

Palate: There’s the lemon again.  Apple and maybe I’ll call that pithy-ness apple skin.  A slight minerality that makes me think more of darker stones (granite? I’m not much of a geologist…) than limestone or chalk.  Acid is reasonably present, not screaming but substantial.  Body is medium plus…well at least that’s interesting.  Alcohol medium.  Finish falls off a cliff.

Conclusions-

-Clinton, “I don’t know.”

-Lindsay,  “Something Italian from somewhere in Italy.”

The reveal: Marco Carpineti “Capolemole” Lazio Bianco 2009; A blend of Malvasia, Bellone, and Trebbiano $11, 13% abv

What we learned: Frankly, not that much since I’m surprised the Malvasia didn’t give the wine a little more ripe and flowery perfume.  I’m sure the natural inertness of the Trebbiano didn’t help, but oceans of “Italian wine from somewhere in Italy” are indeed made with it.  Bellone?  I don’t know what that is so I’m going to look it up…..

What the experts say about Bellone:

-The Oxford Companion to Wine is not much help saying only, “very juicy ancient dark grape grown near Rome.  About 3,00 ha/7,400 acres survived into the 1990s.” That’s cool, so maybe we’re looking at white made at least partially from red grapes?

-I didn’t find it indexed in The World Atlas of Wine.

-In an entry about Lazio, The Global Encyclopedia of Wine says only, “There are restricted plantings of southern Italy’s Greco and outcrops of the local bellone and bonvino (bombino bianco) all used in minor roles in blends.” Jesus, this is an obscure grape.

- From Wikipedia, “Bellone is a red Italian wine grape variety that wine historians believed was cultivated in Roman times. A white skin clone also exists.” Dammit… it’s probably the white clone after all.

-Finally…after literally a minute of goggling I found this article which not only references the producer of the wine we just tasted but also notes that bellone is quite full bodied which probably explains the fuller mouthfeel we noted above.  Thank you Internet!

-And one other thing.  I’m fairly certain “Bellone” translates into “big and beautiful” in Italian.  How can that not make you smile?

Clinton has become obsessed with Harvard’s “Science and Cooking” lectures. Wylie Dufresne’s “Meat Glue Mania” has been his favorite so far.  All of them provide a great insight into basic cooking through molecular gastronomy.  A great source of information for both neophytes and the most experienced cook.

Auchentoshan: fruity, lowland single malt for those looking for an entry-level Scotch.  From the back label- “triple distilled and matured in American bourbon oak, the whisky is finished in Spanish Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks.  The result, a Lowland single malt whisky rich with dark fruits, thick butterscotch, roasted hazelnuts and the signature smooth, delicate, Auchentoshan taste.”  From Clinton to Lindsay.

Domain Berthet-Bondet Cremant Du Jura: Chardonnay and Savagnin sparkling blend from the AOC between Burugndy and Switzerland.  Jura’s better known for vin jaune or “yellow wine”  (a name that for some reason always makes me think about pee), a Sherry-like oxidized wine from Savagnin grapes.  I’ve had a hard time finding that in the States, though.  From Lindsay to Clinton

R Jelinek Fernet: A Czech Fernet, much sweeter and more raisin-y than Fernet Branca (but still an amaro).  From the bottle- “This digestive beverage was created during the period of the Hapsburg dynasty in the latter part of the 10^th century in the region of central Europe near the famous health spa town of Luhacovice, Czech Republic.”  Or whatever.   I like it with two ice cubes and some orange peel.  Purists probably prefer the much drier and more complicated Fernet Branca but this one is a lot easier to down. From Lindsay to Clinton.

Kistler Sonoma Mountain Les Noisetiers 2008: Chardonnay barrel fermented with native yeats.  Unfined and unfiltered.  From Robert Parker- “If Kistler Winery could be magically transported to the middle of Burgundy’s Cote d’Or, it would quickly gain a reputation as glorious as any producer of Burgundy grand crus.”   To clarify, I did not buy it because of Parker- I pulled that quote from the Kistler site post purchase. From Lindsay to Clinton

VacuVin Wine Saver: Vaccum pump to suck out the pesky oxygen before re-corking an unfinished bottle, which actually does happen sometimes.  Helps keep wine a day or so more.  From Clinton to Lindsay

Chopsticks: I guess we needed more? I dunno.  From Clinton to our kitchen

A Truffle Brush: Totally and completely necessary.  From Clinton to Clinton

Realistic-Cheese-and-other-Culinary –Themed-Ornaments: For our food and wine themed tree. From my aunt Jen to us.  Yay thanks Jen!  I bought you a nice bottle of Pinot but have not sent it yet because I am lazy and also a terrible person.

An Ah-So: for opening older bottles with delicate corks.  Clinton claims the term came from, “Aaaahhh…soooo…what we’re going to do here is use this thing.”  Wikipedia says its the “translation of the German title, “Ach so!”, an expression meaning roughly “Ah, I see.” It is named so because its appearance often baffles people, but when its use is demonstrated, they often exclaim “Ah! So that’s how it works”.”    So maybe that’s true.  From Clinton to Lindsay

The Momofuku Cookbook by David  Chang: David Chang’s not so much loved by the bay area culinary intelligentsia after his SF food is all “figs on a plate” comment but the book is good.  The man knows his pork belly. We both actually met him a few months ago at the CIA’s Worlds of Flavor conference.  We even prepped one of his dishes for him.  He was nice, if very sweaty and somewhat peeved that the security guard downstairs wouldn’t let him up to the kitchen because he didn’t look like a chef (to the guards credit, he was wearing a porter shirt, sneakers and jeans).  From Lindsay to Clinton

The World Atlas of Whisky by David Broom: To go with the Auchentoshan.  Part of my whisky-noob gift set.  From Clinton to Lindsay

One Day at the Laundry/One Day at Per Se by Some Scandinavian Guy: The name says it all.  One side is about TFL.  Flip the book over and upside down and it’s about Per Se.  Half in English half in some Nordic language (I think).  Neat! Beautiful pictures too.  From Clinton’s work to Clinton

Meat Hooks: for hanging the larger cuts of meat that Clinton is curing in our garage.  From Clinton to Clinton

Cake Testers: Not for testing cake-ha!  A good way to determine the doneness of fish by holding it against your upper lip or (more sanitary) the inside of your wrist.  From Clinton to Clinton (another one?!?!)

12 Foodie Days of Christmas Hand Towels: A set of holiday hand towels with not one but TWO foodie versions of the 12 days of Christmas song.  From my Aunt Jen to us.  Ok…I’m going to mail that wine tomorrow.  Promise.

Mastering Cheese: Lessons for Connoisseurship from a Maitre Fromager by Max McCalman and David Gibbons: This will probably be the fourth cheese book we own.  No offense to Steve Jenkin’s encyclopedic Cheese Primer but, this is my new favorite.  An impressive level of detail and nuance is imparted to every topic from beer and wine pairings to the different typicities of a given animal breeds’ milk.

Not Pictured: All of the wonderful donations our family members have made to our upcoming tour around Northern Spain and Southern France (thank you!!);  maps from my parents; and a large meat platter and serving bowl left over from our PB wedding registry from my Aunt Jen (seriously, I am such an asshole….need to mail that wine).