Outlet Radio Network

No Apology Necessary

Monday, September 13, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
September 13, 2004

No Apology Necessary

What is it about wine that makes people think they should know about it? I’m not referring to the basics of being able to tell if it’s white or red, or even whether or not one likes it. I’m placing my attention squarely on the prevalent view that one “should” know vast amounts of data on the subject.

This topic has been noodling around in the back of my mind for some time, but was brought to the front this weekend. A woman came into the shop to purchase a bottle of wine for dinner. Based on her manner of dress she was clearly what one would call a “career woman”. She opened the conversation with an abject apology for her complete lack of knowledge of wine – a situation which clearly made her feel inadequate as a human being. The apology showed signs of turning into a several minute soliloquy.

I stopped her and asked what she did for a living. It turned out she was an investment banker. Now, investment banking is a topic on which I could wax poetic for all of two seconds. I told her this. Her response was “but I should know about this!” My response – she spends her entire work day focused on investments. The people who need investment banking done rely on her judgment and expertise to handle it for them. I spend my entire work day focused on wine and food, as do the rest of my colleagues worldwide. She doesn’t need to know the topic, all she needs to do is rely on our judgment and expertise.

I can’t say that my answer completely satisfied her, but she did see the point, relaxed, and we talked about her dinner and picked some wine to go with it. I can’t say the answer will satisfy anyone else, but I really do mean it. You don’t need to know this stuff in some deep hardwired way. It’s why I write about wine and food – it gives you some ideas, some suggestions, and hopefully you’ll try them out. Because it really is what I do all day long.

I taste a lot of wine (and a fair amount of food). That doesn’t mean I open a different bottle of wine each night with dinner. It means I sit down with winery, import, and distribution representatives every work day and taste through numerous samples. On the order of well over one hundred a week. I taste good wine, I taste mediocre wine, I taste blatantly bad wine. It’s part of the job. Then I pick the ones that I not only do I like, but that I think my customers will like, and, that I think are fairly priced.

So when I’m asked about a wine off the shelf, I can actually talk about it. I really did taste it. Yes, at some point, I tasted every one of those hundreds of selections that I make available. I took notes, I reviewed them, sometimes I go back and taste the same one again to make sure. And, in any good wine shop, or good restaurant with a sommelier (or at least someone who is really responsible for the wine selection), they do the same thing.

So the next time you stop in to pick up a bottle for dinner, take a minute to get to know us. You don’t need to apologize for not knowing about wine. We don’t care. We’re going to take care of you anyway.

[Update] My column earlier this month elicited several responses, all positive, but all with the same request… if you’re tasting so many wines, why don’t you share them with us!? So, from now on, I’ll include a couple of favorites from recent samplings at the end of each column. My only caveat, of course, is that not all wines are available everywhere, though any good wine shop ought to be able to track down a source for you – I will try to include information that will help them do so. Prices vary from area to area, not to mention shop to shop, but I’ll try to give you a rough estimate.

Both of this column’s wines were selected out of a tasting from local distributor Martin-Scott Wines.

Torii Mor Winery Pinot Gris, 2003, $15

Famous for it’s high-quality, handcrafted Pinot Noirs, Oregon’s Torii Mor has become a recognized label amongst the wine cognoscenti. This was the first time I’d tasted their Pinot Gris (which is the same grape as Pinot Grigio – just a difference between the French and Italian names for the varietal) and I was totally blown away. This is the best domestic Pinot Gris I’ve tasted in years. Rich and ripe with flavors of pear, melon, and just a hint of sweetness, this is a fantastic match for spicier foods… maybe a nice five-spice crusted salmon filet… Winery website

Pagor Tempranillo, 2002, $15

The classic grape of Rioja and Ribera del Duero in Spain, tempranillo is generally a medium-bodied, spicy, earthy red. It is a great match with lamb dishes and hearty stews. The plantings of this grape are few and far between outside of Spain, with, to the best of my knowledge, only about half a dozen wineries in California growing it. I know little about Pagor Winery itself, but I’ve been impressed with this wine vintage after vintage. The 2002 shows bright cherry and berry fruit with a touch of dark chocolate and spice. (Pagor Winery: 800-484-8100)

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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Liquid Salad

Friday, August 20, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
August 20, 2004

Liquid Salad

The end of summer is already visible on the horizon and I feel like it’s barely started. A strange one, at least here in New York. Grey and drizzle have predominated, blazing sun has alternated, and the usual July/August steambath just hasn’t happened. No dog days for us this year.

As anyone who knows me knows, I love to cook. During these warm months, I try not to turn the stove on more than I have to, so that means having fun with cold foods. I’ve always been a bit of a soup fanatic, and this time of year is perfect to experiment with the cold versions. I’m not talking about vichyssoise, which requires cooking and then cooling. I’m thinking cold fruit soups, cold herb soups, and, my favorite, gazpacho.

For those who aren’t familiar, well, first, just where have you been living? Second, it’s a cold vegetable soup, or maybe bread soup, or almond soup, or… and, umm, it’s from Spain, or Mexico, or South America, or… I’ve read through dozens of “official histories” of gazpacho and its origins and no one seems to agree on just what it is or where it is from. The name may have come from ancient Spanish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, or any of several other proposed languages. The most prominent theory seems to be Andalusia in Spain, and that it involves pounding stale bread, garlic, tomatoes, vinegar and olive oil together into a paste and then adding water to get your consistency right.

But walk into any restaurant here in the states that offers gazpacho and the most likely thing to be put in front of you is a bowl of fancy tomato soup. Cold. I’ve seen and tasted versions that were indistinguishable from Campbell’s tomato soup served straight from the can, I’ve seen versions that looked like they’d been constructed at the salad bar and doused with water, and every variation in between.

I’ve tried white gazpacho – a bread and almond concoction, redolent of garlic. I’ve tried yellow, green, orange, and red gazpacho. I’ve seen them with no tomatoes. I’ve seen them made with fruit – melons being the most prevalent. (In fact, finely diced watermelon replacing finely diced tomato in salad or soup makes a wonderfully refreshing alternative!)

Gazpacho is easy to make if you’re willing to forego classic notions of pounding in mortars and just have some fun. At it’s simplest, toss a piece of stale bread, a couple of tomatoes, a cucumber, a bell pepper, an onion, and a couple cloves of garlic into the food processor. Pulse until you get a coarsely chopped consistency. Add salt, pepper, olive oil, and a splash of vinegar, mix well, chill and serve a few hours or the next day later.

Recently, I went with an all-green theme for a dinner party. I wanted a touch of smokiness, so I spent a little extra time on this one. I charred some green tomatoes and some green “Italian frying peppers” (as the supermarkets insist on calling them) on my stove. I seeded the peppers, removed most of the charred skin from both tomatoes and peppers, and proceeded as above. Heaven in a bowl!

Charred Green Gazpacho

3 green tomatoes
2 green Italian frying peppers
1 cucumber
3 scallions
3 cloves of garlic
1 stale bread roll
¼ cup sherry vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
chives
crème fraîche

The first step is the hardest one. Charring the tomatoes and peppers. You need an open flame, preferably the top of your stove or a grill. If you have an electric stove or induction burners, you’re pretty much screwed on this one. Go out and buy a small propane torch at your local hardware store…

Over a low to medium flame set the tomatoes and peppers on top of your burners. Let the skin come in contact with the flame and char. When it blackens, use tongs or your fingers to gradually turn them around so that pretty much all the surfaces get an even charring. Remove them and place them in a paper bag and close it. Let them steam for a few minutes – this helps loosen the skins, and infuses more of the charred flavor into the vegetables. Take a couple of paper towels and rub the skins off – it’s messy, but it works. You don’t need to get every bit of skin off, a bit of the blackened skin adds more to the smokiness of this dish. Open the peppers and remove the seeds.

Plop the tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, scallions, garlic, and bread roll into a food processor. Use the pulse feature, or, if you don’t have one, just pulse it on and off by hand. Process until coarsely to finely chopped. This is pretty much a matter of your personal preference and how chunky you want the final soup to be. Add the vinegar and olive oil and mix. Add some cold water to get the consistency you want – probably about ½ a cup, depending on how juicy the tomatoes were. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in the refrigerator, covered, and chill for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Taste, add more salt and pepper if needed (after chilling you often will need to add a touch more).

Finely chop the chives, mix into a little crème fraîche (fancy sour cream, which you can use if you can’t find the crème fraîche). Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a dollop of the crème, enjoy. Eat.

Serves 4.

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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South Beach Cosmo

Monday, August 9, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
August 9, 2004

South Beach Cosmo

Never let it be said that we Americans don’t know how to carry a good joke just a little too far. My current fave for “okay, enough already” is the low-carb diet craze. Atkins or South Beach or whomever else has popped onto the radar, let’s stop the insanity!

Though not carb-related, it first struck me when I picked up a carton of Tropicana OJ and noticed that the label now proclaims that it is Cholesterol Free! And Lactose Free! Yes, I was quite worried about all the animal fat and dairy in Florida oranges. Okay, it’s just marketing for the masses, but…

It came up again in the wine shop. Someone came in and asked to be directed to the low-carb vodkas. Someone else asked about the low-carb wines. Then in a bar someone ordered a cosmo made with low-carb vodka.

Let me set the record more or less straight…

Here are the raw numbers: Carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram; Fats have 9 calories per gram; Proteins have 4 calories per gram; and Alcohol has 7 calories per gram.

A standard five-ounce glass of wine has approximately 100 calories, of which roughly 90 calories come from the alcohol. The rest comes from, yes, Carbohydrates – a whole 2-3 grams of them. (Actually, to be technical, they are Carbohydrate Equivalents – there are really less than 1 gram of true carbohydrates in a glass of wine.) The new “low-Carbohydrate” wines are reduced to an amazing 1.6 to 1.9 grams, cutting the Carbohydrate calories by approximately one-third!

The wine still has almost 95 calories.

Straight spirits, i.e., vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and whiskey, have zero carbohydrates. Yes, zero. Always have, currently do, probably always will. So a “no-carb” vodka on the shelf for twice the price of your current favorite brand? Totally marketing hype.

And that cosmo? The carbohydrates come from where? Oh yeah, the cranberry juice, the triple sec (sugary orange liqueur), even the lime juice! Not the vodka. No carbs to cut. And the only way to lower the calories in spirits is to lower the alcohol content.

Oh, and a final point… All those low-carb diets tell you not to drink alcohol during the initial phase, and then limited quantities in the later phases. Why? Not because they have carbs. Because they screw with your blood chemistry and tend to induce you to eat more.

Gin & Tonic please? Hold the lime, I’m watching my carbs…

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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Doneless Deconstruction

Monday, August 2, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
August 2, 2004

Doneless Deconstruction

“Grilled Doneless Pork Chips in AMex Spicy Saucy”. I hope and pray that this special advertised at a local eatery was merely the result of a poor command of the English language. If it isn’t, the trend towards “creative” cookery has just gone way ’round the bend. The image of thinly sliced, undercooked bacon with bits of credit card and chilies piled on a plate doesn’t do much for my appetite.

Now, I’m all for experimentation in the kitchen. I do it all the time. We all do. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that. Sometimes you open the refrigerator and there’s a jar of olives, some left over fried chicken, and an apple, and we say “oh, what the hell…” We don’t tell anyone we ate them together. Over day old rice left from the Chinese food.

But there’s a trend out there in the world that makes me uneasy. The current shining light is a Spanish gentleman by the name of Ferran Adria. He is touted by many as a slightly mad genius – turning food into foams and essences, powders and leathers. I’ve never eaten at his restaurant, and am unlikely ever to do so. I can’t say that it wouldn’t be an interesting experience. I can say it’s not really the way I want to experience dinner.

He’s not the only one. Every major dining city now has it’s dean of “deconstruction”. Yes, deconstruction is the term used for turning a perfectly delectable melange of flavors into an awkward experience of its components. Two of my favorite writers from the New York Times recently hosted a dinner party where they experimented with the concept. I enjoyed reading about their experience, it would have been fun to attend, but they also approached it with a “just what the hell is this all about” attitude. And you can bet the next day dinner was a bit more, well, put-together.

I’ve had dinner at a couple of those kinds of places, one in New York, one in Florence. My experiences at both were of the “this kind of stuff will be liked by people who like this kind of stuff” variety. Or, as one of my best friends phrased it, “blender food”. Lacking in a bit of substance to sink your teeth into. Air, foam, essence. Not dinner. I haven’t been back to either place.

And, by the way, it’s been done. There’s a packet of orange powder inside the famous blue box alongside the macaroni. Let’s see one of these temples of dining experience line that up with a pat of butter and splash of milk… Now that’s a cheese plate.

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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Blue, Blue, My World is Blue

Thursday, June 10, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
June 2004

Blue, Blue, My World is Blue

They fight aging, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, they fight bad cholesterol, infection, cure the common cough, prevent blindness (and improve night vision) and strokes, improve your motor skills, and improve your memory. In fact, if I’m reading the USDA’s study correctly, they apparently helped laboratory mice remember just where they left their car keys. Bears will travel fifteen miles on an empty stomach just to find them.

You can eat them. They have vitamins, fiber, and free-radical antioxidants. They are not, however, a cure-all, I found no listings for eliminating hang-nails, regrowing hair, or making your teeth whiter. They are low in carbohydrates, and approved, I believe, by all appropriate low-carb diet plans – since all of us are on one of those these days. They are, by the way, blue.

Blueberries in fact.

There are entire websites devoted to them. “Googling” on the health benefits of blueberries yields up a serving of over 26,000 websites. Blueberries all by their lonesome manage nearly half a million sites. According to these various sites, blueberries are the oldest known plant still living, with evidence of their existence from over 13,000 years ago! They are one of the few native foods indigenous to North America, or so these websites proclaim. In fact, they are so All-American that when they first appear on their bush, they are white, then turn red, and finally blue!

E-Bay, as of today, has 1145 blueberry related items for sale (well, okay, a few of those are Macintosh computers in blueberry color, but…)

The Maine Wild Blueberry Association is sponsoring research into Blueberry Burgers.

They come in lowbush and highbush varieties, they are known by aliases such as Bilberries, Whortleberries, and Hurtleberries. They are not, however, and this is emphasized in many places, the same thing as Huckleberries. Confusing the two is apparently a major Berry Faux-Pas. They are the state berry of the state of Maine. And, for nearly two centuries, there has been a special tool, the Blueberry Rake, dedicated to their harvest.

Next month, July, will be the fifth annual National Blueberry Month. Really and truly.

In preparation for the festivities, my team and I set out to provide you with all the tools you need to make sure you can have the best of the summer blueberry soirees.

Blueberry Cornmeal Muffins

Let’s face it, most of us only eat blueberries in muffins, so we had to start there. These are not your average, day-to-day, blueberry muffins. These will bring tears to your eyes. And your car keys will magically appear in your hand immediately after consuming one.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3 cups milk
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup molasses
1 cup melted shortening or butter
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Take about a tablespoon of the flour and toss the blueberries in them to lightly coat, this will help prevent them all sinking to the bottom of your muffins as they bake. Sift together the dry ingredients, and in a separate bowl, combine the wet ones. Combine the wet and dry ingredients, and then stir in the blueberries. Grease a muffin tin and divide the muffin mixture evenly. Bake at 400F for 25 minutes. Makes 12 large muffins.

Savory Blueberry Sauce

Anyone can open a can of sweetened blueberry sauce to pour over cheesecake, onto blintzes, or just to eat with a big spoon. We wanted a sauce that could be used for savory dishes – a delicious fruit sauce for meats – game, ham, turkey, use your imagination!

2 tablespoons chopped shallots or onions
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ cup dry red wine
½ cup water
1 pint of fresh blueberries

Saute shallots in butter in small saucepan. Add flour, thyme and rosemary, cook and stir until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Add wine and water and stir in the blueberries. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes until it thickens.

Makes 2 cups.

Our last task was to set out to explore the world of Blueberry Spirits. Nothing you might worship, light incense for, or perform any particular rituals on behalf of. Wine and liqueur. There is a thriving industry in the production of Blueberry Wine, and a fair amount in world of sweet cordials. They are not always easy to find unless you live in a Blueberry-centric part of the world, but we managed to scrounge up a few to taste and review.

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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The Greatest Threat to America…

Saturday, April 10, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
April 2004

The Greatest Threat to America…

I have just returned from a week in Las Vegas. Sin City. Gambling Capital of America. Crowded, noisy, a trifle on the grungy side, too much neon, too much spandex.

Home of the All-You-Can-Eat Buffet.

There is, perhaps, no greater evil threatening America. The words all-you-can-eat bring out the worst in people. How so? Thank you for asking.

First, the eating all you can part. I have watched friends push away half-eaten plates of pasta, steak, well, anything, at fancy restaurants where they were shelling out three-figures for dinner. Comments like, “oh, I couldn’t eat another bite”, and “it’s just so much food”, and “it’s so rich” echoed across the table. I watch with amazement as some of these same folk belly-up to the steam table for their third and fourth load of deep-fried, cream sauce laden, over-cooked mediocre slabs of unidentifiable victuals. “I’m gonna get my money’s worth!” seems the cry of the day.

I myself was guilty of consuming a stack of three chicken-fried steaks with biscuits and sausage gravy at breakfast one morning. That was, of course, after the pancakes, fruit, yogurt, bacon… oh, and save room for dessert at the end. Dessert? At breakfast? Oh, why not, a slab of apple pie is just fruit, right? So much for last month’s anti-cholesterol efforts… thank god I’m only in Vegas for a few days.

Second, woe betide anyone who gets in the way of one of those spandex clad neon-phytes enroute to the mound of recently thawed shrimp cocktail. When I went up for my first dozen they had just put out a basin the size of a small bathtub mounded a foot high with the pink and white critters. By the time I’d reached the end of the steam table there were scraps left and two hefty visitors were slashing at each other with tongs for rights to claim the last few. I was passed by a gentleman who had two dinner plates heaped as high as he could with crustacea.

A few years ago in May, I hosted a dinner on Mothers’ Day. The old adage always was that the best thing you could get mother on that day was a reservation somewhere. In my family, the budget tended towards take-out and fast food. So, for that dinner, I reinterpreted a collection of classic take-out fast foods – and made ‘em all you can eat style. It was a simple parody of culinary gems from Taco Bell, Arby’s, McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Wendy’s.

With apologies to Micky D’s for stealing their obviously trademarked, registered, copyrighted, servicemarked, and probably patented McMuffin name, I present the modern, updated, and actually probably decent for you, Mushroom McMuffin.

Mushroom McMuffin
Serves 4

4 large biscuits, english muffins, crumpets, or something similar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced

4 portobello mushrooms of roughly equal diameter to the biscuits
1 cup of chicken stock
¼ pound of asiago cheese
4 quail eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

I’m not going to tell you how to make the biscuits. Use your favorite recipe, buy the Pillsbury ones in a tube, pick up a pack of Thomas’ – it’s all good.

Combine the garlic and olive oil and let sit for a few minutes. Split open the biscuits and brush with the oil mixture. Toast in a warm oven until they are just lightly golden.

Meanwhile, separate the mushroom caps from their stems. Take the stems, chop them coarsely, add to the stock in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes until liquid is reduced by half. Strain, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Season the mushroom caps with salt and pepper and saute in olive oil (you could also grill these if you have a grill) until they are soft, lightly browned, and smell wonderful.

In shallow bowls place the bottom of each biscuit. Top with the mushroom caps, then carefully crack open the quail eggs and top each cap with one (uncooked). Shave asiago cheese over the whole thing, add a little more salt and pepper, and lightly spoon the mushroom reduction sauce around each. Eat. Oh, you should have made more…

I matched this dish with a slightly off-dry Vouvray, a Chenin blanc based white wine from the Loire Valley. It was a delightful combination, and the whole thing somehow seemed better than an Egg McMuffin and burned coffee.

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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Priorities!

Wednesday, March 10, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
March 2004

Priorities!

Bombs in Iraq, bombs in Pakistan, terrorism threats, the rise of anti-Semitism, banning of head scarves in French schools, gay marriage and a bad white truffle harvest. It’s clear we’re headed for some sort of disaster… or, to paraphrase the Ghostbusters team:
Real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together. Mass hysteria!

Now I know this stuff is important. But my cholesterol is up and I put on a few pounds. I’m supposed to go on vacation and lay around a pool with some friends in a few weeks. While that may not sound like a disaster of Biblical proportions, it certainly borders on Rubenesque proportions.

I have to admit, that occupies more of my concern than any of the above, except perhaps the white truffle harvest. I don’t want to start taking Lipitor, that would just seem like license to go out and eat badly. I didn’t put on enough weight to “go on a diet”.

It’s more like I actually have to make use of my gym membership and eat more carefully.

Top that off with some of my readers actually demanding that I provide vegetarian and fish recipes! I was all ready to share some sort of spring lamb extravaganza and then the weight of the world is dumped on my shoulders. Well, if Atlas can shrug, so can I. Have some fun with these dishes:

Pan Seared Salmon in Shallot Sauce

Serves 4

4 6-8 ounce salmon fillets, 1″ thick
garlic powder
coarse salt
olive oil
2 dozen small shallots, peeled and quartered
1 stick unsalted butter or margarine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon almond or hazelnut oil
2 branches of fresh rosemary
green lentils
butter or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Start the lentils cooking according to package directions (plan on 20 minutes cooking time). Melt the butter with the nut oil, salt and sugar. Add the shallots, rosemary, salt and pepper, toss to coat. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly, until shallots are soft and caramelized (plan on 15 minutes). Lightly coat the salmon fillets with salt and garlic powder. Sear in olive oil until lightly browned on both sides. Cook until medium rare-medium. Drain lentils, toss with butter, salt and pepper to taste. Put into individual serving bowls, top with salmon fillets and portion the sauce over each fillet.

Okay, there’s butter in this recipe. Deal with it… (actually, I’ve found this great “butter-flavored” olive oil spread from Fleishmann’s that I’ve been using as a substitute).

Farfalle with Peas & Radishes

Serves 4

1 pound package of dry farfalle (bowtie pasta)
8 ounces fresh green peas
8 ounces french breakfast radishes with greens
1 tablespoon chopped mint
salt & black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Follow package directions for cooking farfalle to “al dente” texture. Simmer peas in water with one tablespoon of the butter until tender. Drain. Thinly slice the radishes, salt lightly and cook slowly in the other tablespoon of butter. Rinse the green thoroughly and roughly chop. Quickly saute in the olive oil. Add peas and radishes and season to taste. Add drained pasta to vegetables. Toss with the mint, adjust seasoning and add additional olive oil if needed to coat pasta.

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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A Sparkling February

Tuesday, February 10, 20040

Outlet Radio Network
February 2004

A Sparkling February

February is one of my favorite months. It’s not the weather, which is usually abysmal, at least any place that I’ve ever lived. It’s a combination of several holidays – Groundhog’s Day, Presidents’ Day (and all four presidents individual birthdays that happen during the month – can you name them?), Valentine’s Day, and Lupercalia.

Our little furry friend did or did not see his shadow, I can never remember which one is the good one. Nonetheless it is currently snowing and sleeting out my window, the sky is grey, the temperature is diving faster than Michael and Janet Jackson’s popularity with sponsors, and I’m in a perfectly delightful mood.

Valentine’s Day, a modernization slash christianization of the ancient fertility festival of Lupercalia (you were wondering, weren’t you) has to be my favorite holiday of the year. Except for whichever other ones are. I’m a holiday junkie. There’s something about all those cute little candied hearts, sending “Will You Be My Valentine” cards to all the girls in school (I wonder what would have happened if I’d given one to a boy in first grade), chocolates, roses, chasing naked maidens around with goat skin whips… sorry, slipped back into the old holiday.

But mostly, for me, it is, like all holidays, about the food. Valentine’s Day gives a chance to play with all sorts of seductive, sensuous and ostensibly aphrodisiac foods. There are those we are familiar with here in the U.S. – chocolates, oysters, caviar, honey, figs, strawberries… just to name a few. But with cultural variations there are so many other possibilities – truffles, coriander seeds, pinenuts, vanilla, nutmeg, ginger, garlic…

In fact, there are so many possibilities that it might almost be easier to list the foods that no one has claimed as an aphrodisiac than those that have been!

Now for me, there are a few simple rules. First, there must be somewhere there to share the experience with. If there’s not, I’ll just go draw a bubble bath and sip a glass of champagne. If there is, oh wait, I’ll go draw a bubble bath and break out the champagne anyway. The food should be sensual and slippery to the touch – part, no doubt, of the reasoning behind the crowning of the oyster as king or queen of the aphrodisiacs. And, you should be able to feed each other with your fingertips. No cutlery involved! Which kind of moves oysters out of my spotlight, unless they’re raw on the half shell.

I have to admit, the first thing that always comes to my mind for a seductive tLte-a-tLte is a strawberry dipped in warm melted chocolate alongside that glass of bubbly. In truth, I can rarely think of anything in the food world that is much more appealing.

Okay, the food is taken care of. I know, you thought I was going to give you a recipe this month. Sure, sure… melt some dark chocolate, get some fresh strawberries, dip, feed them to each other, hop in the bubble bath. Use your imagination.

No, via a circuitous route, I’m headed to the bubbly in the glass. Because for me, that’s where the romance part of the aphrodisiac comes into play. Maybe it’s the alcohol. Maybe it’s the bubbles. Maybe it’s the mystique. Champagne can, for me, make or break an amatory evening.

So, what’s the point of this all… Oh yes, to recommend some Champagne for you to drink! Whether for Valentine’s Day, Lupercalia, Groundhog’s Day, George Washington’s Birthday, William Henry Harrison’s Birthday, Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday, or Ronald Reagan’s Birthday (you didn’t think I’d leave you hanging, did you), here are some prime recommendations. Try something other than those “name brands” that you see everywhere (not that there’s anything wrong with them, but be adventurous). And, with the exception of the last recommendation, most of these will cost you less than the “usual suspects.”

One of my year in, year out favorties is Larmandier-Bernier’s Blanc de Blancs 1er Cru Brut, N.V. Oh my, what does all that mean? Let’s split it up a little… Larmandier-Bernier, the name of the estate, currently run by Pierre Larmandier. Blanc de Blancs literally means “white from whites”. As you may or may not know, Champagne can only be made from three different grapes – Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay. The former two are red grapes, the latter white – Blanc de Blancs being a white wine made from only white grapes – i.e., 100% Chardonnay. 1er Cru, or Premier Cru, is a classification by the French government that groups various vineyards into a ranking system – the highest being Grand Cru, then Premier Cru, then all the rest. So Pierre’s vineyards are in the second tier – but trust me, that’s not a bad thing. Brut is a level of dryness, which is a function of the amount of residual sugar in the bubbly when it arrives at your table. There is a scale for Champagne that goes from sweet (Doux) to bone dry (Brut Zero). The most common has just a touch of remaining sugar, and is called Brut. And finally, N.V. – Non-Vintage, which very simply means that the wine is a blend of more than one year’s production. This is quite common in Champagne as it allows the winemaker to keep a consistent style year after year by blending the results of several vintages to keep your tastebuds happy.

Back to the wine in question – laser focused purity of fruit with delicious apple and yeast flavors, medium bodied, and absolutely delicious!

A. Margaine Demi-Sec is my current fave when I want something with a touch of noticeable sweetness. Perfect with a cheese course or with dessert, this demi-sec, or semi-dry, has beautiful floral notes and a solid touch of minerals on it. As the importer puts it – “Are you man enough to like a wine because it’s pretty?”

Chartogne-Taillet “Cuvée St. Anne”, N.V. is a just plain “wow” sparkler. Big, rich, and just plain remarkable, this wine is a blend of all three champagne grapes. Flavors of baked apple, butter, and golden beets with a creamy finish make this a fantastic main course bubbly!

Beaumont des Crayères “Fleur de Rosé” is one of my favorite pink champagnes. Once the provenance of call girls and “stage door johnnys”, rosé champagne is not (and truly never has been) sweet pink swill. A few brands that were popular in their heyday gained that reputation, but truthfully, most of the stuff is elegant, dry, and delicious. The pink color comes from a blending of the red (remember the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meuneir) and white (Chardonnay) wines prior to the bubbly process. Which brings up a point – while white grapes can only make white wine, red grapes can make red or white wine! Bite into a red grape and notice that the red color is virtually all in the skin – with careful pressing, part or all of that color can be left behind in the winemaking process.

Duval-Leroy “Paris” is a winner not just for the delightful wine in the bottle, but for the bottle itself. A dark blue, wide bodied bottle, with a gold silk-screened Paris café scene created by artist LeRoy Neiman is beautiful to display. But pop the cork and find a blend heavy on the Pinot Noir with Chardonnay topping it off that yields a delicious quaff with flavors of honeysuckle, white flowers, and hazelnuts.

Comte Audoin de Dampierre “Cuvée des Ambassadeurs”, N.V. is made by a real count. Well, okay, he owns the place, he doesn’t make the wine himself. And the “Ambassadeurs” comes from the wine being the “house champagne” at nearly four dozen French embassies around the world. A delectable fifty-fifty blend Chardonnay and Pinot Noir has a wonderful golden color, and notes of wood smoke, flowers, and grapefruit. Quite nice!

Last, but by no means least (and the most expensive one listed here) as one of my favorite champagnes of all time, Vranken-Demoiselle “Cuvée 21”. Created by Champagne Demoiselle (now owned by the corporate Vranken Group), as the answer to champagne in the 21st century, this is a lush, rich champagne with flavors of fresh baked biscuits topped with apple butter. Oh, and the gorgeous bottle trimmed in gold and served up in its own blue velvet sack is pretty damned enticing as well.

Happy February all!

I started writing food & wine columns for the Outlet Radio Network, an online radio station in December 2003. They went out of business in June 2005.

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