Showing posts with label fish and wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fish and wine. Show all posts

Saturday, December 5, 2020

A 'SEEYANEVER2020' TOAST WITH ITALIAN BUBBLY

Photo: Payal Vora

In December the Italian Food Wine Travel folks are exploring the sparkling wines of Italy in An Exploration of Italian Sparkling Wines for the Holidays hosted by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Cam. Read her invitation post to find out more. Fraciacorta, Prosecco, Lambrusco, they're all going to be there! So see what everyone's poured and paired below, and join us on Twitter under #ItalianFWT at 8 AM PST on 5 December to tell us your thoughts!

Susannah Gold of Avvinare, who is a Vinitaly International Italian Wine Ambassador, generously provided two Prosecco samples for review.

PROSECCO
Photo: Payal Vora
Prosecco is a wine dear to me... it brings back memories of family summer holidays in Europe, of parties at university where Prosecco was often the affordable sparkling wine of choice, of summer in Treviso a few years ago. Little else is more perfect for a sweltering Italian summer than cold Prosecco and good company. A few years ago I had grant money I needed to finish up before I moved on to my next project and an architect friend in Munich happened to be free that summer so we drove over and explored every corner of Treviso. We stayed in agriturismos everywhere and every afternoon just when we got back to relax before dinner the staff would greet guests with a complimentary bottle of Prosecco... per room. Between Rolle, Conegliano, Asolo, Cison di Valmarino, and every other village in Treviso, we had a glorious summer full of photography, buildings, art, fashion, food, espresso, and all manner of Prosecco.

Prosecco is arguably the most well-known Italian sparkling wine in the US although it ought to be more popular - it is light, bright, crisp, great with food, and a perfect porch sipper. Made in the Veneto region in NE Italy primarily from the native grape Glera (85% min. in a blend), although only the sparkling type is most known in the US, there are three types of Prosecco: tranquillo (still), frizzante (lightly sparkling), and spumante (sparkling). The Treviso province in Veneto has the perfect climate and soil types for the higher-acid Glera grapes which are well-suited for dry sparkling wines. The best Prosecco comes from the steep hillsides but even the wine from the plains is perfect for casual drinking. As such, Prosecco is classified as Denominazione d’Origine Controllata (DOC) and Denominazione d’Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG). Prosecco DOC is a broader, less stringent category and the DOCG is stricter and the wines are from specific areas of Veneto, and supposedly better quality.

https://www.winemag.com/2020/03/10/best-prosecco-guide/
Read more about all things Prosecco and the region's recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2019) here.

VAL D'OCA + THE WINE
The Val d’Oca co-operative founded in 1952 is one of the oldest producers of Prosecco. Their sparkling wines are made from Glera grapes cultivated and vinified in the hillsides of Valdobbiadene. Val d’Oca produces Prosecco Superiore DOCG from the hills of Valdobbiadene and Prosecco DOC from the greater Treviso province. The winery has always had a forward looking approach and their recent efforts include a sustainability budget that follows the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030.

Clusters of Glera grapes (Payal Vora)
Val d'Oca Prosecco
11% ABV | SRP $13
85% Glera, 15% Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay

Colour: 
Lemon, fine bubbles

Nose: 
Citrus, ripe peach, green apple, white flowers

Palate: 
Similar to nose: A bright citrusy opening leads into juicy peach, apricot, and green apple with fragrant white flowers bordered by a slight mineral edge. A very crisp balanced wine with juicy acidity, medium body, medium+ finish. This Prosecco would be terrific on its own as an aperitif, paired with a slew of foods, or in a cocktail. Best now or within 2 years but not meant for prolonged cellaring.

THE FOOD
Most meals at our house are lively affairs but in 2020 I think we've been celebrating even more than usual as a way of encouraging the year to just end already! I suspect that we'll continue this throughout December so we can charge on with real life where exciting things happen and where we freely hug and mingle with humans in all corners of the world and where if we get sick we have treatment options. I.e. real life in our real world with boundaries beyond home. And so, on this evening dinner was a bottle of Val d'Oca Prosecco paired with the first course, entrée, and main, and for dessert we had a silky cognac flip with a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg.

Photo: Payal Vora
FIRST: We eased into our evening with parmesan-black pepper biscotti and a pour of the Val d'Oca Prosecco. We usually have this biscotti with champagne and it's a superb pairing, so it was a bit of an obvious choice for Prosecco. The biscotti was delicious and so was the Prosecco, but together they were anything but. Something about the combination of the biscotti and Prosecco resulted in a most unappetising metallic taste. A combination to be repeated NEVER AGAIN.

ENTRÉE: We got past that pairing fiasco and moved on to the thing we were eagerly awaiting: East Coast oysters. Briny, meaty, and perfect for any dry sparkling wine, especially this Val d'Oca Prosecco. We had Cotuit, Blue Point, and Wellfleet oysters with a squeeze of lemon. They were all terrific with the Prosecco but the Blue Points, the briniest of the lot, were exceptional with the fine bubbles and citrusy mineral notes in the wine.

Photo: Payal Vora
MAIN: We had chimichurri-topped halibut on dressing with bread, celery, etc. and sage-laced roasted butternut squash with cranberries. I usually pair wine to the flavours of the dish rather than a single meat or vegetable and the rounded acidity (red wine vinegar FTW!), hint of herbaceousness, and the savouriness of garlic in the chimichurri were such a lovely complement to the bright notes of the Prosecco. The mild sweetness of the butternut squash and the tart-sweet cranberries we equally delicious with the wine.

Overall it was a splendid meal and I would absolutely recommend pairing Val d'Oca Prosecco with any course, not just the beginning of your meal. It offers such an excellent QPR that I would extend this pairing to a large dinner party, not just intimate gatherings. You can count on the Val d'Oca Prosecco being offered at our first garden party of 2021 when we reacquaint with real life! I'll take the liberty of speaking for all of us and say: We Cannot Wait!
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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

AUDE: ALIVE IN MORE WAYS THAN WINE


This month in May the #winophiles focussed on Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France, hosted by LM Archer. A lucky few of us received samples from Gérard Bertrand, who makes biodynamic wines at his Demeter certified winery in the Aude department of Occitanie in Languedoc-Roussillon.

The present-day region of Aude has done a lot: been inhabited since 1,500,000 BC, site of Europe's oldest human skull, lived through the usual European tumult of the Greeks, Romans, even Arabs for a while, but also benefitted from the "civilisation" part of each of these groups who brought viticulture, agriculture, cuisine, art, architecture, and cultural diversity.

The Greeks planted the first vines in Aude in the 1st century, but the industry really only caught on in the early 19th century. Around the same time as the French architect and theorist Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), who was not a formally trained architect but spent more than half of his career restoring Gothic-era castles, cathedrals, and public buildings, including the Notre Dame de Paris and the city walls of Carcassonne in the Aude. He is considered one of the first theorists of current architecture and historic preservation practices, a proponent of using restoration materials that inform the function of the structure rather than simply duplicating what was there. His theories of honest structural integrity and creative interpretation over exact replication made him a controversial figure and he continues to be so, hotly debated by all of us in historic preservation and engineering. When designing replacements for the statues at the top of the Notre Dame de Paris, he precociously designed Saint Thomas to resemble himself. The statue is there for all to see!

A third of the land in Aude is now planted with grape vines, although Aude/Languedoc-Roussillon might not be the first wine region you think of in France. But vintners like Gérard Bertrand are bringing more of a sense of place to the wines there, and making creative wines "of the land" through biodynamic practices rather than recreating what was already being made there. Much like V.-l.-Duc's writings and practices that inform but aren't the same as our evolving approaches to restoration and theories of historic preservation. E.g. in the reconstruction of the Notre Dame de Paris roof that will never be rebuilt to what was there when it burnt - which was already not original - but rather it will be rebuilt to remind us of what was there while also being foremost a roof. Considering how much Aude has lived from prehistoric man to V.-l.-Duc and forward thinkers like Gérard Bertrand and his biodynamic ways in the single largest wine growing region in the world, we can agree that Aude and Languedoc-Roussillon continue to be alive in more ways than wine!

2018 GÉRARD BERTRAND "CIGALUS" BLANC

 According to the GB website, "Cigalus enjoys a hot, sunny Mediterranean climate (described as “semi-arid with temperate spring variants”) ensuring early ripening of all the grape varieties. This arid climate (low rainfall) is offset by the very deep soils (sediments deposited by the Aussou, a stream at the edge of the estate) which store the winter rains for longer but which are less fertile due to the presence of a slightly chalky sandstone in the subsoil, dating back to the Campanian (secondary era, prior to the emergence of the Pyrenees). LABEL DEMETER"
WINE: The wine, a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and viognier, is a beautiful pale gold colour with lightly viscous tears, aromas of ripe citrus, citrus peel, white stone fruit, toast, honey on the nose. On the palate the wine is supple and silky with an unctuous mouthfeel and notes of butter in addition to the same aromas as on the nose. See the Tech Sheet for the winery's biodynamic approach to this wine, and other information.

 PAIRING: We paired the wine with acciughe al verde, or anchovies in green sauce. The salty anchovies and the herbal sauce are a match made in heaven for a wine like the Cigalus Blanc. The acidity of the wine walks with the brininess of the anchovies and the oak aging helps tone down each bite while the citrus enhances the light fruity olive oil and the salty fish. Fun Fact: This classic Piemontese snack is a hark back to the days when salt was smuggled through France and Italy in creative ways including by hiding in layers of anchovies under the pretext of preserving them. The heavily salted anchovies that we desalinate before using today, were a way to smuggle salt in to Italy where it was in demand amongst the rich. Salt was the truffle of the 18th/19th century! 

We also had a delightful tuna ceviche which went splendidly with the wine. The occasional heat of the green chiles de arbol in the ceviche was a nice surprise soothed by bits of avocado. Fun Fact: Chiles de arbol are commonly used dried in Mexican cookery but in regional Indian cuisine they are used in all their green splendor in all manner of ways including just biting into them with a meal. It's hard to believe that chiles came to India relatively recently, through the Portuguese via Spain via Mexico where they are native. Potatoes and tomatoes are equally foreign ingredients that are now well integrated into all types of Indian cuisine.

Check out the other #winophiles thoughts on Languedoc-Roussillon wines!
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