Holiday Wine and Food Survival Strategy #1: Leftovers and Sauvignon Blanc

It's officially "holiday season." This week marks the beginning of it, and it won't end until 2008. OK, early in 2008. But still. On the list of things that are both joyful and stressful about the holiday season we find food and wine. What to eat, how much to eat, and what to drink with it is such an issue that my traffic triples between November 1 and January 1 with people looking for gifts, menus, and food and wine advice. So what stresses me out during the holidays and how do I cope?

First up: leftovers. I find leftovers stressful. They sit in the fridge chiding me for buying too much food. As they turn green, they chide me for not eating them more quickly. And whatever the leftovers are, I'm usually bored with them--that's why they turn green.

The answer is a 30-minute pot pie courtesy of Rachael Ray. (photo courtesy of FoodNetwork) Even if you normally turn away from Ms. Ray's culinary creations, do not do that now. This is not any old pot pie. No fiddly crusts, no poufy puff pastry from the freezer. We're talking rich, comforting, and creamy pot pies with tiny little peas, carrots (of course), chunks of chicken or turkey, fresh tarragon snipped into the sauce, and then a layer of cheesy polenta on the top. Ms. Ray requests freshly browned chicken bits, but chunks of cooked, leftover bird would be just perfect. This layered beauty gets put in one or several oven proof containers and run under the broiler for a few minutes to get brown and bubbly. Voila. Perfectly unrecognizable leftovers, suitable for immediate eating, for sticking in the fridge and taking out after you get back from the mall so you can warm it in the microwave, and even for sticking in the freezer and warming up on a snow-day when you can't leave the house. I'm fond of single-serving pot-pies that you can do in oven-proof soup bowls or ramekins, but you can certainly make one giant one if you wish.

A great wine that doesn't cost too much and goes with practically everything will only increase your odds of holiday survival. A perfect partner for the pot-pie (and scores of other foods to numerous to mention) is the very good QPR 2006 St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc. I received this from the winery as a sample, but you can easily get yours for between $12-$20. This California sauvignon blanc is made with a nod to New Zealand's Cloudy Bay, but because it possesses Napa Valley fruit it is rounder and riper. Aromas of pink grapefruit, lemon, and chalk are juicy and fresh and very enticing. Flavors of pink grapefruit, apple, and mineral are the perfect follow-through to these aromas. I found the mineral note very distinctive, and it made the wine really stand out for me. Furthermore, this wine was rich and medium-bodied, but not oaky. This proves that you don't have to reach for the oak if you want a fuller sauvignon blanc. This was well-made and a definite rebuy as far as I was concerned.

With potpies and sauvignon blanc waiting in the wings, I am confident I will survive. At least until next Sunday!

An Inconvenient Surprise: 2007 Beaujolais Nouveau

I had to do it, didn't I?

I went out yesterday and got 2 bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau at my local Beverages & More wine supermarket. One was slightly more than $10, one slightly less. I decided to drink the better known 2007 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau ($11.99) with family in a few days. But I ordered takeout pizza and popped the cork on the other bottle after leaving it in the fridge for about an hour.

The wine was a 2007 Bouchard Aine et Fils Beaujolais Nouveau ($9.99). And it was a surprise. I went in expecting to scoff entirely at this wine, but found myself enjoying it more than any beaujolais nouveau I've had in quite a while. The wine was unexpectedly heavy for a new gamay, with a true cherry color. Aromas of strawberry and earth also appeared in the flavors, along with a note of cracked black pepper. There was a bit of an artificial banana aftertaste that was especially noticeable when the wine was just opened, but I found it blew off leaving me with something that was not too far off a normal inexpensive beaujolais. This wine was just great with takeout pizza, and it wouldn't be bad with turkey and all the fixings on your big day, or with leftovers in the days (and weeks) after that.

Is this a profound wine? A serious wine? A wine to lay down by the case? No.

Can you do better for under $10? Yes. QPR on this wine? Irrelevant. What are you going to compare it to? Previous beaujolais nouveau? With the dollar doing what it's doing?

If you are going to buy one of this year's beaujolais nouveau wines, drink it now. When you do, you will be participating in one of the world's silliest wine rituals--though I am deeply alarmed at the carbon footprint issue that goes along with this wine and may have to give up my yearly habit. And if you like it even a teensy little bit, do yourself a favor and drink a real gamay wine. They are superb!

An Expensive Disappointment

I don't often write about wines that I find disappointing. With so much good wine to review, and only so much time, I would rather focus on the great finds that you can make in your local wine store, rather than listing all the wines that I'm less thrilled with once I've opened them. I also do a fair amount of research and go to a lot of tastings, so I'm less likely to wander too far away from wines that I have a reasonable expectation of liking.

There are times when I pop the cork only to discover that the wine inside the bottle doesn't live up to my expectations. This is even more aggravating when I've spent more than usual. I found a bottle of the 2005 Adelsheim Pinot Noir for a great price, and was excited to try it. (Red Carpet Wine, $24.83; available elsewhere for between $23 and $34) There is a lot of positive buzz about this winemaker, the WineScamp loved this wine, and I'd never had one before. I love pinot noir. It all looked good!

It turned out to be an expensive disappointment.

The 2005 Adelsheim Pinot Noir had aromas of funky earth, acetone, and stewed cherries. There were flavors of earth, pine, and sour cherry. The wine was reasonably complex, but the flavors and aromas didn't hang together and that acetone note was hard to get past. It made the fruit fade into the background, and the wine lacked balance as a result. For this price, I didn't feel that QPR was there, so poor QPR on this bottle.

I don't drink much Oregon Pinot Noir, it should be said, and I'm not the world expert on wine chemistry either. Anyone who is reading this who'd like to chime in with their experiences with this wine, or to let me know whether this may have been flawed by volatile acidity, please do so. Otherwise, I'm just chalking this up to experience.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #39: Silver Coast Burgundy

This month's Wine Blogging Wednesday has a theme that's near and dear to my heart: value wines from Burgundy. Our host for this week's event, and the genius behind the theme, is Neil the Brooklynguy Who Loves Wine. He asked us to look for Burgundies from a specific region that often has better values than those found on the Cote d'Or (Burgundy's Gold Coast). In the Cote Chalonnaise and the Maconnais (map of the latter to the right), Neil explained, it was possible to find excellent wines that were characteristic of Burgundy but did not always have astronomical prices associated with them.

I've been drinking a lot more Burgundy this year, since I am trying to get over my phobia that all Burgundies are going to be wildly expensive. So I was eager to see what the store would turn up. What I found was a white Burgundy from Pouilly-Vinzelles in the Maconnais: the 2004 Domaine Larochette-Manciat Pouilly-Vinzelles Les Longeays made from chardonnay grapes. ($15.95, Chronicle Wine Cellar; available from other merchants for around $19).

This was one interesting bottle of wine: it was fascinating to drink and gave you lots to talk about if you were tasting it with others. It was bright straw in color--not too golden, nor too pale. When you sniffed it there was no fruit. At all. It smelled instead of almond, hazelnut, and stone. These nutty and mineral notes were echoed in the flavors, with perhaps just a whiff of citrus when the wine entered your mouth. The wine had a quality of a live electric wire after a storm (in a good way!), and it felt tense and alive in your mouth. This wine was fresh and complex, and delivered an awful lot for just under $16, so I thought it represented excellent QPR.

We had the wine with some mustard-tarragon roast chicken, some noodles tossed with parsley, and a salad. It was nice with the dish, but I think something even simpler--broiled scallops or fish, perhaps--would have been an even better pairing. The tarragon and Dijon mustard threatened to overwhelm the wine here.

Thanks once again to our host, and to Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours who dreamed up this event more than three years ago. I'll be sure to let you know when Neil posts what promises to be a terrific roundup, and I'll see you back here in December for WBW #40.

Exploring Portuguese Wines: They're the Next Big Thing

I'm a novice when it comes to Portuguese wine. Until recently I'd never had anything other than port from this region. WBW #38 really opened my eyes to the wonderful variety and stunning value of Portuguese wines, and so it was especially exciting for me to attend yesterday's "Wines and Portos of Portugal" tasting in Los Angeles at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Ray. Sponsored by the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto and ViniPortugal, I learned so much from this tasting.

Yesterday's event was one of a series of tastings that are being held throughout the country to introduce folks to Portuguese wine, and if you are living in Portland, Seattle, or Boston I highly recommend that you attend one of the public tasting events that is happening over the next few days and weeks. More than seventeen different producers were there, pouring both ports and table wines. The cost is only $25-$30 and the proceeds benefit local humane societies (the cover image from the program celebrating another indigenous Portuguese beauty, the water dog, is to the right).

So what did I learn from my tasting?

1. Portuguese wines are food friendly. I sampled dozens of wines and I can say in truth that I didn't taste a single one that didn't make me think, "oh, this would be so great with X food." The real revelation for me here was Trincadeira, a native varietal that has all the silky and fruity qualities of pinot noir, with aromas of summer flowers and fields. The 2006 Vila Santa Trincadeira made by Joao Portugal Ramos was silky, and tasted like blackberries and cream. It would have been perfect with any food that you normally pair with pinot noir. I was so keen on Trinacadeira by the time I left the tasting that I went home and opened up a bottle that was in my cellar!

2. Portuguese wines represent insanely good value. Many of the wines I tasted are not yet available in the States (see #5) but of those that were, I was taken aback at how inexpensive they were compared to other US and European bottlings. Most were well under $20. And they had complexity and finesse, to boot.

3. Portugal produces aromatic reds and crisp whites. Portuguese wines will clear all the cobwebs out of your palate. These whites were crisp, clean and lively, especially wines such as the NV Aveleda Vinho Verde, which retails in most places for around $5. Some tasted like champagne without bubbles, like the 2006 Quinta da Aveleda Vinho Verde which retails for around $6. On the red side, the table wines had amazing, evocative aromas of flowers, herbs, and stone. The 2003 Herdade do Meio Garrafeira from Alentejo smelled of violets, and had flavors of blackberry and cherry. The 2006 Marques de Borba had aromas of cherry blossom and raspberry. And the 2003 Conde de Vimiosa Reserva exploded in your mouth with eucalyptus, cherry, and an intriguing note of grilled meat.

4. Portuguese wine makers are experimenting with the newer "international style" of wines, but they haven't forgotten their wine-making roots. Trinacadeira, Touriga, and Maria Gomes are just some of the varietals that I tasted yesterday, and they are featured in the blends that so many Portuguese wine makers favor. There is cabernet sauvignon, too, and Aragonese (as the Portuguese call Tempranillo), as well as Alicante Bouschet. Portuguese wine makers are clearly dabbling in the more international style of wines made with more oak and heavier body. One of the standouts of this style for me was the 2004 Bacalhoa Palacio da Bacalhoa, with its blend of Touriga, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. This was smooth, silky, and aromatic with dry black cherry flavors and a sophisticated use of oak to lend it some grip and smokiness. But they are not leaving their native varietals, relatively low alcohol levels, and traditional flavor profiles entirely behind, either.

5. Portuguese wines need wider distribution to US consumers. These are fantastic, fantastic wines. Yet many of them are not available in the US. If you are a store owner, distributor or sales rep and you are reading this, what are you waiting for? I found 1 bottle of Portuguese wine in my area of LA last month after 3 weeks of searching and visits to nearly a half dozen stores. US consumers are thirsty for more great value wines, and they are more willing to try new varietals than ever before. Help us out, and bring these wines into our stores. If you are skeptical, I assure you that one Saturday tasting is all it will take to get them flying off the shelves.

After this tasting, I am fully convinced that Portuguese wines are the next big thing. Spanish wines have primed us for all that the Iberian peninsula has to offer. And what a fun trip it will be to explore this region and its wines! I'll have some more specific notes on wines and producers in upcoming posts, but until then start asking your local merchants to stock some Portuguese wines.

I sure hope that this will become an annual event here in LA, because I ran out of time before I tasted a drop of the ports that were being poured! And they were pouring some that were 40-years old.