WINE AND DINE
One of the perks to being in this business is that you get invited to a lot of wine dinners and this past week I was lucky to attend not one but two!
The first was a private affair held by wine connoisseurs John and Cheryl Connery.
They featured three outstanding wines: a 2007 G.D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo, a 2000 Guigal Cote-Rotie Brune et Blonde and a 2006 Secco Bertani Valpolicella Valpentena Ripasso. Each one distinctly different from the other.
Some people would call a Nebbiolo coming from Langhe in the southern corner of Piedmont a “poor man’s Barolo,” but this wine was young and fresh with an easier drinking character and lighter in the mouth. It complemented the first course of ravioli with red sauce quite nicely. It was a great lead-in for the second wine, a mouth filling black cherry spice bomb from Guigal. This wine was full-bodied with great acidity. The wine is 96% Syrah and 4% Viogner. I know that some people are surprised when they realize that Viogner is a rare aromatic white grape blended in with the Syrah but it is a knock out combination . 24 months in oak also adds to the flavor profile and this matched very well with the main beef entrée.
The final wine, the Secco-Bertani we had with an apricot filled cake. This was quite a combination. This was no ordinary Valpoliicello but a Ripasso one. What this means is the simple combination of 70% Corvina 25% Rondinella and 5% Molinara , the usual grapes that make up any Valpolicello have the added benefit of “resting” on the lees (read skins) of Amarone wine. This imparts great character and flavor not to mention boosting the alcohol count. There is a Black Cherry minerality that carries over from the nose to the palate. Great acid and tannins combine with a long dry finish to conclude this package. The fruit of the cake combined nicely with the nutty spiciness of the wine!
If this wasn’t enough, two days later I attended a celebration of Oregon Wines at Abby Park. (www.abbypark.com) If you haven’t been to this gem of a restaurant in Milton, you must check it out.
Oregon is known for its Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir and the wines showed well with the courses offered. We kicked things off with a great A to Z Riesling. This winery has filled in the gap for pricing Oregon wines at less than $20.
What excited me most about this dinner was the fact that several wines from one of my favorite Oregon wineries, Abacela in the Umpaqua Valley were being featured. (www.abacela.com)
I also learned that they have been named one of the Hot Small Brands in the wine industry. While travelling out west several years ago I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of Earl and Hilda Jones. Back in the 60’s Earl and Hilda had fallen in love with Spanish wines especially Tempranillo. There one dream—start their own winery and produce their own Tempranillo. Having a son who had studied climatology helped and a tiny spot in Oregon called Roseburg was selected as having the ideal climate for growing these grapes. Quite ironically if you drew lines of latitude across the globe they would coincide with Rioja, Spain the homeland of Tempranillo. In 1997 they were rewarded with their first vintage and it became the first commercial Tempranillo in the pacific northwest. We got to taste the 2006 with a delicious 4th course of venison ossobuco. This was just one of the highlights of the wine dinner. Their 2008 Albarino, yet another Spanish varietal was paired with Taylor Bay Scallops in a blood orange vinegar. I also can not leave out the beautiful Duxbury Oysters with a crisp “07” Bethel Heights Pinot Gris and dueling Pinot Noir’s from Rex Hill and Bethel heights matched to wild Copper River Salmon. Is your mouth watering yet? We finished off with a special treat of Abacela Port made with the traditional Portuguese varietals Touriga National and Tinto Ruiz.
The Abacela winery is worth exploring if you have the opportunity to go out west. The good news if even if Ma. Won’t let them ship to you, we can do the work for you at the Fruit Center. They have some great varietals: Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, (already sold out this year), Dolcetto just to name a few.
They believe in a total harmony between the grape variety and its terroir. To further that end they also believe in a minimal handling idea and let the grapes do the talking . Here you see the of Gravity Flow over the traditional method of crush and pump in the fermentation process. What do I mean by this? Simply, the winery makes use of multiple levels to move the wine very gently without pumping over. Just imagine the grapes arriving on the top floor for sorting and de=stemming and falling into stainless steel fermenters on a level below and finally to aging barrels below that. Neither the grapes nor the wine are ever moved by pumps. The results really show!!! Thank you Isaac Newton.
There you have it! There is another wine dinner coming up on Tues March 16th ; 6:30 at Upstairs 0n the Square, (http://www.upstairsonthe square.com/happenings) tkts are $68, very reasonable compared to lets say the Boston Harbor Hotel dinners…
The wines are from a great little Ca. Hirsch Vineyards,(info@hirschvineyards.com) If you enjoy intense Pinot Noir’s made in small batches, you will love these wines. I am going, so why not join me? See you there!
Cheers
Alan
No comments:
Post a Comment