I was so pleasantly surprised to find a killer value Vermentino from Giovanni Cherchi this last weekend. I was traveling through San Francisco and was deciding on a place where my wife and I might find dinner and we happened across a new restaurant named Anchor and Hope. This is the third restaurant from the Town Hall and Salt House group and it was excellent. We ordered seafood and I could think of nothing better than to go to the Italian islands and find an excellent bottle of white wine to go with our dinner. Giovanni Cherchi is a cherished young winemaker from Sardegna, Italy. He has about 20+ hectares of land with about 60% of it planted to the delicious Vermentino variety. Almost all the vineyards in Sardegna are located close to the water and this is no exception. About 200 meter elevation and close to the cliffs of the coast Cherchi’s Vermention is the classique full bodied wine that you would expect with the coastal ocean terroir heavily influencing the nuances of the wine. Pale straw in color and delightful pear, honey and citrus fruit tones balance with the saline terroir to give an excellent finish and fine pairing to fresh seafood.
Explore a Vermentino if you haven’t already, they are worth the effort to seek out.
Have you heard of Cava? If not let me briefly explain. Cava is Spain’s version of Champagne. It was not until the 1980’s when the European Community outlawed everyone outside of Champagne, France from labeling their wines as Champagne, thus Spain adopted a new translation and this amazing wine now is known as Cava. in 1872 a young man named Josep M Raventos went to Champagne to study, record and learn the methode champenoise (or the rules and protocols of making true champagne). Mr Raventos brought the hand written notes, diagrams and directions back home and began making his own version of champagne with indigenous grape varietals of Penedes, Xarello, Macabeo and Parallada.
I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with his great grandson who oversees this venerable and magnificent property in Spain (about 25 east of Barcelona). Young Josep Raventos is the 19th generation in his family to grow grapes and the third generation to make wine under their family’s name, Raventos. It boggles my mind that just after Columbus set sail to “discover” the new world the Raventos family was planting their first vineyards, and on their property still lives a 500 year old oak tree that represents the time, terroir and history of the family and their lives that have been intertwined with all those seasons, all those vintages and good God, all those glorious wines.
If you are looking for truly one of the best Spanish wines and have not tried Cava this is the one that you must experience. Everything is done to perfection, balance and harmony, even their entry level Cava called l’Hereu (meaning heritage in Catalan) is as delicious as spring time. They also make a still wine named Silencis out of mainly Xarello. Stunningly bright with mineral edges and wafts of lemon blossom on the finish.
I can’t say enough about the family, so if you are in Spain look them up. If you are in the States just grab a bottle of Cava for your next dinner.
I have a hard time thinking of few gastronomic pleasures better than bacon, but duck fat has to be up in the stratosphere for pure frying pleasure. With that in mind this is my story: last month I’m driving through rainy, misty New England on my way to Maine and my mind is wrapped in warm thoughts of woodfire stoves, Irish sweaters and mugs of steamy soup to counterbalance the wet, cold, gray rain and patches of slowly melting snow. The drive seems longer than usual and state troopers are pulling drivers over every 10 miles or so. The traffic is moving at a modest 65mph (I know if you are in California you are thinking to your self, isn’t the speed limit a minimum, not a maximum?). I pull into the gorgeous seaside town, Portland, and begin searching for food. I pull hard to the right when I see a small sign in yellow painted on a window that says DUCKFAT. What? Are they duck fat renderers/producers, a cold storage operation for the North East’s confit lovers, or someone who just has a great sense of humor? They are a restaurant. And their slogan is, “Why duck fat fries? Because DUCK FAT makes fries taste good!”
I stroll into the lovely smelling, tiny restaurant where you order at the counter and they bring directly to you amazing home cooked, from scratch meal and french fries of course cooked in duck fat. So I order an Allagash White (a delicious Belgian style wheat beer with hints of spice and a textured and smooth body), fries and a hot, crispy duck confit panini.
There is seriously nothing better than to enjoy homemade gourmet food in an authentic small restaurant and to be warmed not only by the food but by the spirit of the place and the honest care in preparation and execution. DUCKFAT, I will be back!
My lovely wife and I were so happy that a new wine bar opened in Chicago this last weekend that we ran out of the house to check it out. It is the brain child of Shane and Jill Kissack in Andersonville - Chicago, owners of a great bottle shop called In Fine Spirits that houses not only excellent wines at all price points (that are hard to find or off the grocery store radar) but they have killer micro brew beers and premium sake! So they do it again and bring to sleepy and adorable Andersonville a brave new wine bar. But guess what? At a wine bar I was lured into COCKTAILS. And they were unbelievably good. I try not to discriminate in my drinking (I drink any and all types of beverages, someone needs to keep up with those mixologists) so I was convinced by an extremely enthusiastic and adept bartender, Carlo, to try his signature, old school Manhattan. This was, without a doubt the best Manhattan that I’ve ever had. Perfectly balanced, perfectly chilled and flavors and aromas that were seamless with one another. Here is Carlo’s recipe:
2oz. Benchmark Bourbon
1oz. Sweet Vermouth
Tiny, tiny splash of marasca liqueur and two skewered dark/black cherries. Shake and stir!
So, the unexpected amazing intoxicologist at a Chicago wine bar blows my mind, not with deft and savvy wine stories or poetic and romantic histories of European wines, but with a classic American cocktail that left a sweet memory. It was so good I had to post it. Go figure, or better yet, go get a cocktail!
I was tasting wines at another Chicago locals spot tonight and we opened a bottle of 2005 Domaine du Caillou Chateauneuf du Pape. Holy Cow! It is dellllllicious! The Vacheron family and winemaker Bruno Gaspard have some amazing vineyards and it really speaks true with this wine. I can’t believe that this wine is almost all grenache (99%). It was a silky smoothness that I don’t normally find in pure grenache ( not the normal dusty tannins and juvenile grip). Perhaps it has to do with the 100+ year old vines, or the modern wine making technique. Tasting this wine tonight shows the clean, pure and vibrant texture of brilliant CNDP. It is darker in aroma than the last time I was fortunate to taste it, with more country side floral aromas and blackberry than raspberry tones. The small amount of bottle age is treating the wine extremely well. Excellent finish and garrigue like terroir. I only wished that we’d had some duck or rabbit to go with it. Well, even if the dollar is slumping against the Euro, the price of oil continues to rise, and the value of my house is going steadily down, at least I know that there is still breathtaking wine out there.
I was having lunch at my favorite Chicago Italian restaurant, Gioco, in the South Loop. The General Manager was kind enough to pour us some killer Gavi di Gavi. 2006 Stephano Massone Masera Gavi from Marc de Grazia Selection Imports. It was brilliant in structure, citrus and almond notes on the nose with a very good dose of terroir that is reminiscent of sun-baked granite. The structure and balance rings true on the palate and the wine was perfect with our first 60 degree day in Chicago this year!
And then we noticed a bottle on the back bar that just screamed SNAFU. Another blunderbuss in the wine industry. 40cs of Jewel Collection pinot noir of Provincia di Pavia made at Woodbridge were shipped to Chicago with the front label printed upside down. What, upside down? Who was on the bottling line having a smoke break? I was told the story over lunch and just couldn’t resist in sharing. Here’s to all the daily snafu’s that we meet in all walks of life.
The night before last I was sitting with a poetic bottle of syrah that makes me a believer again in the nobleness of this grape. It was bottle #278 of 3100 of 2006 Owen Roe Lady Rosa Syrah. Mr David O’Reilly really has a magic touch and it doesn’t hurt that the fruit for Lady Rosa is one of the most profound terroir vineyards of the North West, Dubrul. Hugh and Kathy Shiels spend so many diligent hours in their vineyard maintaining and improving the land, the terroir, the fruit, that high kudos has to go to them. That being said, how magical is it when you open a new world bottle of syrah and your senses are hit with wild game aromas, dark freshly ground coffee with just a dash of bitter Mexican chocolate, grilled bacon, and then the fruit. David is a master of blending vineyard and primary expressions. It’s the balance of letting the land, the terroir speak, at the same time giving us a nearly hedonistic wine that screams to be drunk. The sad but true part of the story is that on day two (I was saving the bottle to appreciate its amelioration over several days) I found that the remaining juice in the bottle had been used in a meat and pasta dish that my wife made! Suffice it to say the sauce was dramatically good, I was just wishing the whole time for another sip while we twirled spaghetti.
Chicago, IL - Brought my snow blower to the neighborhood small engine repair shop who told me it would be ready in 4-6 days. Called on the 6th day, Saturday 12/15, to follow up. The owner told me it was ready, they weren’t normally open but he’d be at the shop for another 30 minutes. I was across town buying a Christmas tree with the family and told him “no worries, I’ll pick it up Monday morning.” That same afternoon and evening Chicago got over 5 inches of snow. My back is still sore. Thank God for red wine!
~Overoaked
Since SNAFU is a red wine, California made, perhaps we should have a couple of discussions on red wine. What makes wine red? Why does it taste so different than white? Why do some people only drink red wine (or only white wine for that matter)? Can’t we have a non-discriminating wine drinking public?
Thoughts from a roaming wine drinker.
Location: Northern California
Date: Recently
Story: He looked at me. Not with shock or surprise, but with a pale certitude. Is that how fate looks you in the eyes? I always thought that destiny laid its hand upon you in anonymity. Isn’t it something that just happens? When we turn around and look up into the balcony of passed time we can review how all the pieces come together to make the quilt of the whole.
So I took a sip and the word my senses could only describe was “overwhelming.” That’s a wine epiphany. And he nodded in agreement.
