F*%K Nouveau!

F*%K Nouveau! Whoops, somebody pissed in the pool, everybody out! Nope, I’m not gonna let that happen.

Nouveau Day 2011 (Twitter: #NouveauDay), the celebration of the current year’s Beaujolais Nouveau harvest & wine, saw the critics, the supporters and the revelers mixing it up pretty good. I heard and read points all over and on both sides of the love it or hate it question when it comes to Beaujolais Nouveau. I appreciate everyone’s position on the wine and the marketing party around it. I enjoyed the hang out because, and not in spite of all of it. And no, nobody has to tone it down. You have a right to your opinion and I say sing it proud.

I try at least one Beaujolais Nouveau each year just in case I find one that for a short while might be drinking well enough to enjoy a bottle or two. That hasn’t happened but twice (2005 and 2009) in the ten years I have been tasting it, but there is so much variability in the world’s wines why punish this wine excessively for the same potential?

So far I have only tasted the Duboeuf art covered bottle and didn’t find it notable. The label is again a feast of orange and yellow, a trend of the last couple of years. During the live tweeting last night I didn’t get many responses to anyone drinking other labels so I couldn’t gauge whether there were others that would be worth a few bucks this year. The producer Bouchard Aine & Fils came up several times and I might seek that one out. If anyone reading had it please leave some thoughts in a comment.

The Duboeuf is intensely purple as expected. I was showing my friends at the Salon I go to (haircut during happy hour) what the wine looked like up against a piece of white paper. The lesson about that being a dead giveaway for a very young wine that might be super fruity wasn’t lost on a couple people.

The juicy fruit and candy like aromas were pleasant and consistent with the style. The wine was low in fine tannins providing little structure for the wine. Again, consistent with the majority of the years I am familiar with. The tannins of the 2009 and 2003 Nouveau’s were somewhat bigger and led to a more complete experience for me.

The wine is moderately full in the mouth and finishes a bit sour. Not quite balanced from nose to tail. There isn’t anything flawed about the wine, it’s just that it can’t have the finesse of most other wines with the short time frame for production. It is a great example of being what something is going to be.

I broke out a bottle of the Duboeuf 2009 Julienas during the TweetChat and compared the two. I participated in Burgers & Beaujolais with friends earlier in the year where we shared a flight of Cru Beaujolais. A selection from Julienas was tasting pretty good during that event and I was happy to have an extra of a different bottle from that region laying around.

Yes there is nothing fair in this, comparing a Cru from a good year to the Nouveau, but experience is king and tasting them side by side and contrasting the differences in wine from same grape is instructive.

So the Duboeuf 2009 Julienas is ruby colored wine with purple tendencies and medium concentration. The nose is lively with fruit, some funky earth and a bit of oak. It is a dry, a more earthy than fruity wine in the mouth, with a long dry finish. I picked up strawberries in the finish. The tannins are reserved and structurally sound. The wine has a well balanced acidity and is pleasant to drink on its own. The distinctions of this wine or my favorite Beaujolais’s from Saint-Amour are clear. I prefer my Beaujolais to have the time to come into its own and a little finesse with age.

Beaujolais and Thanksgiving get asked about all the time. The timing of the release is certainly no coincidence. Here is a link to my first blog post about the relationship between the two, entitled Food & WinePairing #1 from Thanksgiving 2008. I don’t find Beaujolais to be a universal hit as a food pairing wine, but in good years like 2005 and 2009 I can see how it doesn’t take away from the food on your Thanksgiving table and thus isn’t memorable for having messed up your holiday!

Continuing the Thanksgiving tangent for a second. In that same post I also make an interesting assertion that there is a new domestic wine revolution going on with hybrid and cold-weather hardy grapes and how those wines make for better holiday pairing in my opinion. With three years of wine travel and tasting experience since writing those words I would say I was on to something. Many areas of the country are springing to prominence for their local, and not “California style”, wines made from lesser known grapes. I have paired wines made from those grapes grown here in New England with holiday meals several times with considerable success.

Do you Nouveau? The date has come and gone and over the next few weeks more wines will arrive for quick consumption. The new year’s Nouveau is worth checking out for the experience and also to get people riled up about wine. Sometimes that’s the only reason I keep doing this…

Cheers!

Jason

Foodbuzz Festival Day 1 – Meeting & Greeting

I came to San Francisco and the Foodbuzz Festival to meet new people, some I would know from Twitter and their blogs, and many others to whom I would be newly introduced and take time to share stories and geek out about food with.

Anything else that came of my time with the Foodbuzz community would be that proverbial bonus and the side trips I had planned before and after the festival are sure to lock in the trip as worthwhile.

The Foodbuzz Festival kicked off with a welcome reception and dinner at the Terra Gallery not far from the Hyatt which was the base for the conference. I chatted up a few folks on the bus as we rode to our destination and it was clear everyone was excited to check out what the FB crew had planned for us. Laura from Sprint 2 The Table and Sarah from Smart Kitchen were particularly interested in my beverage and winemaking slant. I was hopeful that my blog’s focus might resonate with the foodies I would meet. 

Having the priorities that I do the first placed I headed to was the bar. I already knew that Bonny Doon and 21 Amendment Brewery would both be pouring their products, giving me lots of worthy options!

I started off with the Querry from Bonny Doon, an apple, quince and pear cider (maybe not specifically the right word, but it conveys the understanding) which I recommended to several other festival goers checking out the bar selection after arriving. It turns out cider is more of a solid common denominator for the foodie set than I had ever imagined. And that makes me immensely happy. I love cider, think it is underappreciated and can see it going places with more attention.

I wandered over to two friendly looking ladies, Kelly and Shannon, who had also just met. We started talking about the festivities ahead and the cider that we were all drinking. The cider pours cloudy with considerable carbonation and moderate white head, much like a golden ale. It is very nuanced with tart cider apples and some subtle spice influence, something I would characterize as like ginger. This product presents itself very much like a sparkling wine or champagne, making its appeal to women that much more clear to me.

( Me, Shannon and Kelly enjoying a late night drink. )

Shannon’s blog is named Killer Bunnies which I found hugely memorable and a great conversation starter. To find out that her blog is that of a vegan baker nearly made me piss myself. I came to find Shannon snarky, funny, irreverent and quite fashionable if her shoes on Saturday night are any indication. Shannon, I need a picture of your shoes to show my wife, she might think I was being creepy otherwise!

One of the meetups I was very much looking forward to was Meg Maker from Bonny Doon Vineyard. Meg also writes the blog Maker’s Table. The big joke was that we both live in New Hampshire and had to travel to California to finally meet. With a hug exchanged I introduced Meg to Kelly and Shannon and asked Meg to talk a little bit about the cider. We talked a bit and Meg moved on to work the room.

Kelly writes the Pink Apron and was equally interested in the time in SF to meet new people, check out the festival food and have some fun. Kelly’s admission that she worked in food marketing and that one account she supports is McDonalds inspired some interesting conversation about foodies and the foodie agenda. That conversation morphed into one about local food and how foodies and food bloggers can be so driven about the importance of local food but be so ignorant of the economic and accessibility issues that go along with it. My biggest concern is the one size fits all mentality where foodies push local food as an imperative that everyone must take up without recognizing how few people really care about the idea and aren’t in search of a solution to the perceived problem. As I always state with these comments, I’m not saying that this is right or just, but it what it is and more people pushing the agenda need to acknowledge it, understand that their passion may not be shared, and act accordingly.

I went back to the bar and grabbed a 21 Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA. This is another 21A beer that is pleasantly drinkable with plenty of hops and a little sweetness to balance everything out. And the name! Anyone from NH or members of our homebrew club Brew Free or Die can get with that!

We transitioned from the reception to dinner and you’ll note I haven’t mentioned the food yet. That’s because I didn’t pay much attention to what of the passed appetizers I had consumed. The people were more exciting. Before moving on I grabbed a glass of the 21A watermelon ale thinking it might make for interesting pairings over dinner.

We moved upstairs found a table and hit the buffet lines to seek out some eats. The variety was broad with a wide range of ingredients and techniques. There were dishes made with scallops, pork belly, a beef stew, macaroni & cheese with bacon, lentil salad, beet ravioli and others. Many of the recipes were provided by Foodbuzz Featured Publishers, a great opportunity to share with the community to be sure.

The biggest challenge for the food was that because it was being made for so many people it didn’t have the charm that the recipes they were made from hint at. A few examples might help people contextualize what I am suggesting. The pork belly was lukewarm and chewy rather than soft. The lentil salad was absent of some spice and salt making it seem flat. The bacon on the macaroni and cheese tasted like Baco’s and I have doubts that it what was intended. I didn’t find anything that was outright bad, but I can’t gush about what I did have. When I get home I will take a stroll back through the menu and seek out any recipes that I might want to replicate at home.

Jen from Tiny Urban Kitchen, and the winner of Project Food Blog 2010, shared  a bit about her journey in food blogging and what she is up to since Project Food Blog. Her primary topic was her motivations to donate her PFB winnings to charity. You can read more about her post PFB adventures in her recent blog post.

The Foodbuzz Blog Awards seemed to be very casually received and with the amount of talking during the announcements I can only think many people didn’t care. We were nominated in the Best Single Topic category and while we didn’t win I was the person in the room clapping the loudest for all the nominees and the ultimate winner. Being a good sport is an absolute requirement for authenticity. Shame on many participants for not being more engaging in the award announcements. There is a lot of talk about community and in this case I didn’t see it. Foodbuzz, you might want to scrap this activity in the future, I don’t think enough people care.

While I was mingling around I grabbed a glass of the BonnyDoon Contra, a red field blend of 6 different grapes. I found a nice mix of black fruits and earth in both the nose and mouth. I didn’t give it as much attention as I would have like, but then again I do know where to get some if I want to give a more thorough review!

We moved on to dessert which came off more positive from what I saw. Multi-colored macarons, truffles, mini cheesecakes and cookie sandwiches all got some thoughtful consideration. The most overwhelming feedback was on the pate du fruites, which from what I understand was massively sour. I didn’t try it and I’m not sure what result was expected, but the feedback I saw didn’t seem to make me think this was it. The most interesting dessert item for me was a chocolate hummus filled pastry cup. The savory aromas and flavors gave the hummus away easily. The presentation was oddly reminiscent of refried beans, which certainly is an interesting twist. With a little less sugar the filling could be used in a savory dish where chocolate was a good fit. This versatility gave me a few things to consider.

Over dessert I shared a bottle of my own 2010 Strawberry wine with my tablemates including Monica, Debby, Joshua,  Allie, Shannon, Kelly, Dorothy, and Cynthia. Sharing the fruits of one my passions with new people is always exciting for me. I love feedback and collecting impressions from new tasters offers me information that is crucial for better understanding my own wines. I was honored at the positive feedback and the mentions I got in the wrap-up of several of the tasters the following day. Check out Shannon’s kind words in Foodbuzz Was Fun Last Night and Cynthia’s Facebook pictures from the table.

The event wound down and I boarded the bus headed back for the hotel. Earlier I had thought some form of after-party would have been fun, but as I got closer to the hotel I realized water and TV was going to be enough to see me off to sleep. Having been up for almost 20 hours and knowing I needed to rest up for day two, this plan didn’t bother me at all.

Cheers!

Jason

Tips For #WBC11 From a First Timer

This will be my first attendance at the Wine Bloggers Conference, but not my first wine-related conference. I've attended the last two years of the WineMaker Magazine conference (2011 recap & 2010) which is about the same size and has an equally action packed schedule. What I've learned from those trips is applicable to the WBC and is helping me prepare.

Hopefully some of this helps first time and repeat attendees alike.

• Keep it simple.
• Don't over think your planning. Going with the flow when you get there is going to take you in unexpected directions.
• Exercise your cheek muscles before you leave and be ready to smile a lot. It makes you approachable and has you ready for pictures at all times!
• Assume all presentations will be available (during or after the conference) and you need only write down your notes about what is said, and not everything that is said or presented.
• Figure out the most straightforward way to describe yourself and what you do. Practice delivering it quickly. You'll do this a lot.
• Pack for the weather. Outdoor events are great, but not if you aren't comfortable.
• Plan on spitting out a lot more wine than you swallow. Intoxication is no good to keep yourself lively to taste more wine, be fun to be around or handle the fast paced schedule of the event. 
• If you use business cards, and many people still do, bring them. Even in the massively online world of wine blogging reconnecting with a deluge of new people via cards works.
• If you can't bring wine from home to share, pick some up when you arrive. Nothing makes a great first impression as a wine conference like wine!
• Try not to get twisted about missing stuff. There is going to be so much going on that you will miss something. Try to really enjoy what you do participate in. Those memories will go farther.
• Depending on your normal regimen, pick a cut-off time for yourself and get some sleep. A little less than normal, if it doesn't hurt, might be a reasonable accommodation!
• And don't forget to eat reasonable meals. Too much and you might not feel well when wine tasting comes around. Too little and you might fall down if you tip a few back.
• And finally, plan on having fun!

Well, that is my tip list for successfully navigating a wine-related conference. See you all in two weeks!

Yesterday I posted some of my expectations for the conference and a thank you to the scholarship program donors. Check out Expectations for #WBC11 & My Thank You.

Jason

Expectations for #WBC11 & My Thank You

With just about 2 weeks to go before the start of the 2011 Wine Bloggers Conference I have to say I am getting pretty excited. In some ways this trip will be like many other wine-oriented trips I’ve taken, but I am pretty sure it will end up being much more than that. What am I expecting?

• I am going to meet lots of people with faces and names that I will struggle to remember.
• I will get a first-hand understanding of the “style” of many wine bloggers whom I only know online.
• I will taste a lot of wine.
• I will make some new and unexpected connections.
• The information and tips will come at me fast and furious, and what I do retain will give me lots of inspiration for projects when I get home.
• I won’t sleep enough and will come home needing a vacation from my vacation.
• I will get to experience an area of Virginia that has changed a lot since I was last there as a kid.
• I will laugh a lot, both before and after I taste a lot of wine!

A big thank you is due to the scholarship fund donors. A generous scholarship is helping make my trip to WBC  2011 in Virginia wine country possible. 

• Vin | 65
• Enobytes.com
• Cornerstone Cellars
• Cartograph Wines
• Melissa Dobson
• Debbie Lessner-Gioquindo
• Vintank
• Hahn Family Wines
• Layercake Wines
• Soirée
• Melanie Ofenloch
• Joe Herrig
• Amy Corron Power
• Liza Swift
• Amanda Maynard
• Megan Kenney
• Scott Wadlow
• Doug Levy

* Note: the above list was drawn from the WBC Scholarship web site donor page and blog posts. If I have missed anyone, please let me know and I will definitely get them added for their well deserved thank you.

The scholarship committee had quite a task to review all the applications and make their decisions. I must thank them as well for all the effort on behalf of all the applicants, my fellow recipients and myself.

Are you going to the Wine Bloggers Conference? If so, what are you expecting? Do you have any tips on how to take it all in? Drop a comment to share your WBC excitement.

Cheers!

Jason

Tour de France Foodie Blog Roundup

My love of the Tour de France started in a similar way as it did for Barbara at the Winos & Foodies blog, just one year earlier. If you haven’t read any of Lance Armstrong’s books, you should. Attitude is altitude, and we all could use an attitude boost now and again! Check out Barbara's LIVESTRONG With A Taste Of Yellow story

I wasn’t blogging at the time, and even when I started I didn’t connect the Tour, food and my blog until this year. I had some early plans of doing meal and wine pairings with key stages, but some other projects came up and I had to make a choice about the reach of competing ideas. The Tour lost. With some time I figured I could at least see what else is going on in the food blogosphere related to the tour.

The Gastronomic Duo, a blog I read often, have been profiling stages with recreated dishes and regional wines. From the first read I knew what kind of research and time goes into such an undertaking. Keep that in mind as you take a look at what others I found have been up to this year. Please read and comment on these works, they represent many individuals collaborating to celebrate many different countries coming together to compete. The best of humanity.

Winos & Foodies organized a Taste of Yellow 2010 group project for the Tour this year with different bloggers profiling the food and drink for each of the stages. I wandered through a sampling of the posts and found lots of history, geography, regional foods and of course wine. The tour is travelling through Reims (center of the Champagne region) and will be holding the time trial in Bordeaux and Pauillac so there is plenty of good wine within reach of the spectators! I'm in for next year.

David McDuff also has a stage by stage food blog going, an obvious pairing of his everyday wine blogging activities and interest in cycling. In his profile he mentions offering private sommelier services to local clients, something I will be asking some curiosity questions about for sure!

And “abc” over at the Wine Book Girl blog has her beverage focused stage by stage profiles going as well. I haven’t gotten through all of the posts yet, but the wine list from all of them will be useful region by region wine tour of France.

At this point in the Tour the riders are deep in the Pyrenees and climbing away. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Pyrenees having been ridden in the Tour, which doesn’t really matter much to me. Climbing these mountains looks hard and is not something you’ll catch me doing anytime soon!

I did a little searching of my own to better understand the food and drink you might find in the Pyrenees, a crossroads of cultures, political divisions, languages and food.

Cheese was the first thing mentioned, which always works for me. Shepards in this part of the world typically (until recently) make their own unique style of cheeses, with variations having partly to do with what animal the milk comes from and what the animal was grazing on. Charcuteries (pate, tourine), confits and other types of duck preparations came up was well.

Cassoulet is the dish the region is most known for, a flavorful casserole made from white beans and several types of meat. The dish is slow cooked and recipes are varied throughout the region.

Today’s stage 15 finish is in Bagneres de Luchon often known just as Luchon. It turns out that Luchon has two dishes that are uniquely its own, Pétéram and Pistache. Pétéram is made from sheep tripe and served with potatoes soaked in white wine. Interesting. Pistache is a stew of mutton, tarbais beans and ham. That seems a bit more my style.

The region also had a number of sweet treats that hail from it, including Croustade; an apple tart made with flambéed apples lightly wrapped in pastry. I think a tasty glass of Armangac and some Croustade sounds good to me. Especially after a tough day of watching the tour!

And finally, the beverages. There are several regional wines that like many from other winemaking regions of the world are the best fit for the local food.

Madiran is an age-worthy local red wine that is suggested to pairwell with the local cheeses, meats and cassoluet. Madiran is made from the Tannat grape which is known for its high level of tannins. This wine was described as powerful in several places I researched it.

Jurançon, a local white wine was recommended for pairing with the local foie gras. Jurançon is made from the grapes Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng and Courbu. It is made in both dry and sweet styles.

Armangac is and eau-de-vie (brandy) made in Gascon, a region in Midi-Pyrenees. It is typically served as a digestif after meals or an ingredient in the best dishes. It does not have the profile of Cognac, to which it is similar, although Armangac is the oldest brandy to be distilled in France.

Although I haven’t watched the coverage of today’s stage yet I do know the outcome and what a Tour this is turning out to be! I am still a fan of Lance and since Team Radio Shack is leading the team competition I still have a lot of cheer for. I am a fan of Cavendish for the sprinting competition, but I can’t say whether he will get there this year. I don’t have a favorite for the king of the mountains, but a Frenchman wouldn’t be a bad thing at all. For the overall winner I am a Schleck supporter and am hoping that Levi Leiphiemer can pull himself up to the third spot, but that seems like a far way off.

Cheers!

Jason

Our Wine Friends are the Best!

One of the blogs I follow is The MA Winemaker at Aaronap Cellars which is written by Noel Powell, who I just recently met in person at the WineMaker Magazine conference. He posted his re-cap about the conference with a huge shout out to us and a link to our blog as well. This type of recognition is a true honor and is cherished. Please visit Noel's blog for another take on making wine at home. He's a chemist so his perspective is definitely different from mine, something I hope to learn from.

Cheers!

--Jason

Food Porn?

OK, I have to admit I can't be much of a foodie if I was just introduced to the term food porn this week. I'm a wine guy so I guess can stop beating myself up about it.

Wikipedia has a nice article that describes food porn as "a provocative term variously applied to a spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials, cooking shows or other visual media, foods boasting a high fat and calorie content, exotic dishes that arouse a desire to eat or the glorification of food as a substitute for sex." Check out the entire entry for more information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_porn

Good looking photos of food can make you hungry and the elation at eating a good meal is pretty high up there. I guees I thought we already had other words and phrases to describe these things.

There is an active community of folks who try to capture their own spin on food porn. Check out these links for a little taste...

http://www.foodporn.com/
http://foodporndaily.com/
http://www.foodieview.com/views/

Hopefully I have shared a bit of my education with you and you are now wiser to one of the counter culture trends just below the surface in the food world.

Cheers!

--Jason