Pairing with Whites Wines from the Finger Lakes

I’ll be joining several other wine writers on Twitter tonight for a virtual tasting of selected white wines from Finger Lakes region. The tasting is being hosted by the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance. I thought I might whet some appetites and get the juices flowing with a pre-tasting post.

As many of my readers already know I have only recently (last 9 months or so) spent time getting to know the Finger Lakes region and its wines. I’ve talked with several winemakers and winery owners from the region, and between the tasting room and the wines we brought home; both my wife and I are actively enjoying the fruits of their labors. I’ve been in the region twice in the last six months and will be back there in about five weeks or so for the WineMakerMagazine Annual Conference as both an attendee and a speaker. I am very much looking forward to meeting more of the people behind the wines and networking with the other conference attendees who I hope will be primed to explore the area. The two post-conference days of touring and tasting are going to give me lots of opportunity to visit wineries that are new to me and expand my understanding of the wine story of the region.

When the opportunity to participate in the Finger Lakes Wine Alliance tasting came along I jumped at it to further educate myself on the region. I will be posting a complete report on the wines, the conversation during the event and how the pairings I highlight below actually turned out, in the WineMaker Magazine blog early next month. Here’s what I am prepared to make based on the wines provided for the tasting and my experiences in the region to date.

Shrimp (cooked, cold) with a ginger sesame dipping sauce. There are four Gewurztraminers in the lineup, including wines from Sheldrake Point, Rooster Hill, Wagner and SenecaShore. I have had the first three and generally know that this style of wine in the Finger Lakes trends to the dry side with any sweetness well balanced by a healthy dose of acidity. I think the potential range will work well here with both the ginger in the dipping sauce, and the shrimp. The Pinot Grigio from Goose Watch and Reserve Chardonnay from King Ferry, both new to me, should also pair well with the shrimp, but maybe with just a bit of traditional cocktail sauce or melted garlic butter. Ginger might be a bit overpowering for the wines with a different aromatic profile from Gewurztraminer.

California rolls and spicy tuna rolls. With the consideration of white wines came an unusually immediate consideration of sushi or the like. It isn’t a common food on my table so I am not sure why it came to mind so readily. I went with it though. I am thinking the Gruner Veltliner from Dr. Frank and the Gewurztraminers mentioned above will also work here.

( Can't wait to check out the view from the deck at Dr. Frank again real soon! September 2011. )

Cheeses, Brie and blue in particular. I am betting all the wines will pair well with the cheeses, including the Pinot Blanc from Glenora, which I found to be unusual in the region when I first had it in 2011. I’m going to warm some of the Brie up to allow it’s naturally pungent aromatics to be part of the pairing equation.

White bean & garlic dip. This is a Provencal style dish and my immediate thought was the Glenora Pinot Blanc, and also the Goose Watch Pinot Grigio. The Gewurztraminers might present an unbalanced nose to the herbs and garlic in the dip.

I’m destined to try quite a few combinations tonight because I’m willing to be as wrong as I am right, so long as I enjoy the experience!

To check out the conversation and get tips on wines and wineries to experience in the Finger Lakes use the Twitter hashtag #flxwinevt tonight (April 18^th, 2012) at 8PM.

Cheers!

Jason

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” 

Summer of Riesling Pairing – Chilean Sea Bass & Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling

The 2011 Summer of Riesling is winding down, but I’m not quite finished yet! This week I paired the Chateau Ste. Michelle (CSM) 2009 Dry Riesling with a pan roasted Chilean Sea Bass for some late-summer magic.

Dry Rieslings are very versatile wines, pairing well with a wide range of flavors and textures. Without the sugar of their more casual drinking oriented peers these wines are easy partners with savory dishes that don’t go too heavy on sauces or earthy flavors. I wouldn’t try to put a dry Riesling up against a steak or pasta dishes with lots of red sauce, but I would go out on a limb with spices, white wine braises, salads and as I did this week, fish.

I had never had the Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling before opposed to being no stranger to their sweeter wines. The standard CSM off-dry Columbia Valley Riesling is the first wine that both my wife and I can remember drinking together who knows how many years ago! We visited CSM in 2010 during our extended trip out west for the WineMaker Magazine conference in Stevenson, WA. Moving beyond the Rieslings we found single vineyard gems like the Wahluke Slope Syrah and the Canoe Ridge Merlots, including the Ethos Reserve Merlot that really knocked my socks off. I’ve enjoyed both the Indian Wells Cabernet and Eroica Riesling several times, and highly recommend all of these wines if you want to see what CSM brings to the table as a winery.

The wine pours a light gold color and brilliantly clear. It offers up peach and tropical notes in the nose, with a hint of petrol to round it out. In the mouth I picked up much more peach and citrus, with the citrus riding along for the finish. I did experience some sulfur aromatics during a few sips, but it wasn’t consistent. The wine is nearly dry with 0.76% residual sugar so just a touch of sweetness comes through if you focus on it.

Preparing Chilean Sea Bass at home was another first for me. This could also be the first time I have ever had it as well, but I can’t specifically remember whether I have had it or not, so I won’t make that claim.

The preparation of the fish was dreadfully simple. I started by slicing half of a white onion, half of a red pepper and thinly slicing two small garlic cloves.  I also preheated the oven to 450 degrees. The veggies were sautéed in an oil coated pan just until they began to wilt. I deglazed the pan with dry sherry and then added vegetable stock, salt and pepper, cooking it until it thickened. While the sauce thickened I heated a cast iron skillet over medium high heat with a tablespoon of oil until it just started to smoke. I salted and peppered the clean fish and placed it in the skilled skin side down for 4 minutes. After four minutes I flipped it, allowing it to sear for 1 minute longer. I then transferred it to the hot oven for about 2 minutes until the fish was a healthy golden brown. To serve the fish I placed half of the vegetable mixture on each of two plates, laying ½ of the fish on top of the vegetables. I light dusting of salt and pepper is all that was required to season it to taste.

The fish melted in my mouth like butter and the nuance from the sherry and stock in the vegetables was a killer combination. The wine accented this dish with the fruit flavors and a touch of acid to make everything pop. I honestly believe this is one of the best food and wine pairings I have ever executed, one I will look forward to repeating and riffing on in time.

Next week brings the end of this ride for 2011, but not without some renewal . On Wednesday I am going to taste and share the Inniskillin Riesling Ice wine for my sweet finish. I’ve had this wine before and drool every time I think about having it again. On Thursday I am going to participate in the Riesling Hour virtual event which heralds the arrival of the 2010 vintage of Finger Lakes Riesling. Having just returned from the Finger Lakes I have several 2010 bottles to choose from when I go to raise my glass!

Cheers!

Jason

Chicken & Squash Curry with Riesling, a Summer of Riesling Pairing

Food and wine pairing is fun to do in an experimental way because you never know what is going to happen and you have to be ready for both success and failure. Luckily a came out on the success side with this pairing for my enjoyment of the 2011 Summer of Riesling.

I included the Kendall Jackson Vintners Reserve 2009 Riesling based on my past experiences with their Grand Reserve Chardonnay and expectations that they produce equally enjoyable Rieslings. That’s a risk in itself, but one that as I alluded to above, I was prepared to be on either side of. As it has been with quite a few of my Summer of Riesling wines, the wine is accessible to many and has a reasonable price point, $11.99 at my local store, making it a solid everyday recommendation.

Kendall Jackson Vintners Reserve 2009 Riesling

Dry stone, apricot and tropical notes in the nose. Very light on the palate, sweet but not very at all. On the palate I picked up citrus flowers and a spicy element that moves back and forth between spices (ginger, cinnamon and the like) and minerality. The finish is smooth and clean. Overall none of the elements of the wine are pushy so a balance is there making it a very approachable wine.

The wine is not a 100% varietal bottling, and has Chardonnay, Gewurtraminer, Viognier and Muscat Canelli also in the mix. An interesting blend to be sure. KJ doesn’t bottle a straight Riesling which if available would be interesting to contrast with this wine.

The next chance I took was attempting a pairing without having had the wine yet. That’s where the fun comes in. I knew it had some residual sugar so using spices in the dish it would be paired with was the first thing that came to mind.

How about a Chicken & Squash Curry? The Indian spices would offer that zippy vector and the creamy, slightly sweet squash would get a boost from the fruit and sugar in the wine. Here’s the recipe I pulled together from several ideas and some of past experiences with making Indian food at home.

Chicken & Squash Curry

For chicken preparation:

1 lb boneless chicken, cubed

½ tsp ground allspice

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp olive oil

Dash of salt

Dash of black pepper

For the curry:

1 large white onion, chopped

1 large red pepper, chopped

2 inch piece of ginger, minced

6 garlic cloves, minced

½ jalapeno, minced

4 Tbps butter

½ Orange Buttercup Squash, peeled, cleaned & cubed

1 Tbsp curry powder

2 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Thai fish sauce

1 Tbsp lime juice

1 can light coconut milk

4 oz pineapple juice

2 cups vegetable broth

1 Tbsp cornstarch & water to mix

2 Tbsp cilantro paste

6 servings of Basmati rice cooked with water and 2 Tbsp cumin seeds

Heat the olive oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Begin to brown the chicken in the oil. Add the spices and cook until no pink is visible and spices are fragrant. Remove from heat

Melt the butter in a large pot, add the onion, pepper, ginger, and garlic. Sautee until the onions begin to brown. Add the jalapeno, squash, curry powder, Garam Masala, fish sauce, lime juice and toss to coat. Add the coconut milk, pineapple juice and broth. Increase the heat to bring the curry to a boil. Once boiling add the chicken and reduce the heat to med-low and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Some of the liquid will boil off and the curry will begin to thicken. Add the cornstarch and water and increase the heat to continue to thicken it. Cook for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from the heat and mix in the cilantro paste. Serve over the hot rice with Indian flatbread and/or appetizer items like Pakora and Samosa.

The pairing of the curry and the wine really did work. Here’s why. Both the wine and food retained their unique attributes when taken together with neither of them getting smothered by the other. The spices in the curry and the sweetness in the wine were balanced against each other. The amount of black pepper (in the Garam Masala too), use of standard non-spicy curry powder and restraint on the jalapeno produced a mild curry where a good deal of spice came from the ginger. I think the limited residual sugar of the wine found a good home here. The fruit in the wine tasted great up against the meaty flesh of the squash which had gotten soft but wasn’t outright falling apart. The manageable acidity and clean finish of the wine helped with the creamy density in the curry from both the coconut milk and the squash.

A success! I was very happy with this pairing experiment and even if it hadn’t gone well, both the food and the wine have considerable merit on their own so nothing would have been lost in this.

Are you enjoying the Summer of Riesling? If not, consider taking a Riesling for a spin over the Labor Day Weekend. There are so many to choose from and quite a few aren’t the simple plonk that Riesling’s reputation often suggests.

Cheers!

Jason

Why Do You Buy Wine?

A conversation about group buying got me thinking about the reasons people buy wine and how knowing more about that would shed light on the types of opportunities present within any group of wine buyers.

I'm sure many of you just thought, "to drink it, of course", and that is the obvious reason to buy a beverage like wine. The question I am really asking is what prompts you to determine that you need to head to the wine shop and pick up some wine? I can only answer for myself, and am genuinely hoping for some feedback from others so I can gain perspective on how other people do it.

I buy wine for a purpose. Two things might be useful for context. I make my own wine at home and that does have a relationship to how much commercial wine I buy. I don't collect wine. I have a small cellar that turns over fast. Here are several of the current motivators for me to buy wine:

• I am cooking a regional dish and need a wine that would typically be paired with the dish. I am doing this to maximize my appreciation for the food and drink of the region I am inspired by.
• I need a wine from a specific region and of a certain style as an assignment for a Boston Sommelier Society wine tasting.
• I am looking to explore a type/style of wine, and typically from multiple regions, as inspiration to make a batch of it at home.
• I am participating in an online event where specific wine(s) will be tasted and reviewed.

I am exposed to a great many more wines through local tastings, travel and an occasional dinner out. Only recently have I begun buying wine and having it shipped home from my travel destinations. This is generally because the wine is not available to be in my local market, and is often a mixed case destined for short-term consumption.

What conclusions do I draw from my own wine buying habits? I am focused and spur of the moment. I don't plan that far ahead and don't buy wine I've never had to have it in my cellar for the future. Price is important, as it is any time I open my wallet, but it is not a significant driver for how I buy wine.  I may not be a good candidate for promotions that would have me considering wines I don't yet have a purpose for.

Why do you buy wine? What motivations for buying new (new or new-to-you) wines do you have? How does price factor in to how and when you buy wine?

Please leave a comment with some feedback about your wine buying habits. I am truly intrigued about this subject and hope that it can help others better identify opportunities that exist to source and market wines from around the world.

Cheers!

Jason

Sterling Vineyards Vintner’s Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 - #winechat

This month’s topic for #winechat is red wine. To get everyone’s thirst up I thought I would post a new review right before the event.

I picked the Sterling Vineyards Vintner’s Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2007. This is the value line from Sterling and is a collection of wines that are generally easy to find in our area. I have enjoyed it before, but never sat down to do a formal review.

Tasting Notes

Purplish red color with no obvious brown shift. Blackberry and wood notes come out in the nose. Greens and blackberry show up in the taste. I also picked up vanilla and a little bit of smoke. I found it to be dry with average tannins and smooth with a medium length finish.

Overall I wasn’t blown away, but there is nothing at all wrong with this wine. I saw a lot of reviews that noted dark chocolate powder and smoke meat flavors. I didn’t pick those out in my tastes. I also saw that many folks allowed the wine to breathe a bit and found it to improve. I look forward to the opportunity to try it again in an hour and see what happens.

#winechat is held on the last Tuesday of each month from 8PM EST to 10 PM EST. We have difference topics each month and questions prepared in advance to get the conversation going. Join us for TONIGHT for the April 2011 #winechat!

Cheers!

Jason

Can We Really Love Red Wine Too Much? - #winechat

#winechat is on for this month again, and it's tomorrow night!

This month we are going to talk about red wine. We're really going to get in there with discussions about the flavors, aromas, body, oak, how you enjoy it, what you enjoy it with and why you can't live without it!

Here are some of the questions that will be asked to get conversation going:

What are your optimal attributes for a really great red wine?
What is the least "classy" food you enjoy red wine with?
What is your favorite style (not label) of red wine?
When you think of red wine, what non-food ideas come to mine?

Last month at our inaugural chat we had hundreds of tweets contributed by several dozen participants. We had great stories, lots of questions and information sharing, and many new tweeps connected.

If you love wine you need to check out #winechat! 8PM - 10PM EST the last Tuesday of every month. Use the hashtag #winechat to participate.

Cheers!

Jason

#WBW72 - Helping Japan

When I saw the theme for #WBW72 that was posted I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I don’t have a lot of experience with Japanese food and don’t feel that I have discovered any local restaurants that would be worthy. Trying something new was the obvious conclusion, and I do that best at home.

The events that have unfolded after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear concerns in Japan are heart breaking. On the one had you want to think that we have come so far as a civilization that scenes like we saw shouldn’t have been so easy to create. Then you remember exactly how powerful nature is and how small we really are. Unfortunately the people of Japan have a long road back to a place close to where they were before all of this, and there is only so much any of us can do to speed that along. But we can help. And reaching out and lending a hand becomes of symbol of what we have in common and what we share no matter how much or how little our support changes the reality as it stands. At the bottom of this post is a link to the Red Cross donation site where you can lend support to those in need.

The plan I crafted was to make Miso Soup and Vegetable Tempura at home, neither of which I have done before. Sake would be a generally obvious choice for pairing, and with that in mind I decided I would do something else; two things actually. I decided to pair a homemade Belgian White beer with the soup and a Gruner Veltliner with the tempura.

I am lucky to work right on the edge of Boston’s Chinatown so picking up ingredients I don’t usually stock at home would be reasonably easy. Many of the packages in the C-Mart are labeled with a combination of Chinese ( I think) and English so finding certain ingredients can be a challenge. I did alright and found my seaweed, bouillon, tofu, tempura flour, miso paste and green tea during my lunch hour.

I made a pot of green tea for us to enjoy while we cooked our dinner. I find tea to be a really great way to drink water, and if you drink tea with no caffeine and minimal sugar there really isn’t any downside. On these cool in-between days of later winter and early spring a hot glass of tea can make a big difference!

Miso Soup
(makes 4 servings)
4 cups water
2 tsp chicken soup bouillon
1/2 cup miso paste
1 tablespoon dried Wakame seaweed, soaked in room temperature water
1/2 cup cubed tofu
3 chopped green onions

Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the bouillon into the boiling water using a whisk. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the cubed tofu.

Drain the seaweed and add to the pot. Simmer for several minutes. Turn off the heat and move the pot off the burner. Add the miso paste to the soup and whisk smooth.

Ladle into bowls and add the green onions. Serve immediately.

The soup was paired with a homemade Belgian White beer. I chose this pairing after seeing it pop up in a search for pairings with Japanese food. It caught my attention because it wasn’t something that was obvious to me, and I love to try new things. Believe me when I tell that this pairing worked beyond my imagination. The soup is salty and the creamy beer cut that salt incredibly well. The citrus and spices in the beer meshed in with the soup swimmingly and was a combination worth savoring.

When I crafted this plan I felt that by expanding my knowledge of Japanese cuisine and trying to some classic dishes at home I would be projecting a symbol of care and understanding in a small, but meaningful way. I hope this same bump in enlightenment is shared by all the folks involved in #WBW72. Who knows when roles will be reversed and we will be in need of the support of folks from afar.

The second part of our meal was vegetable tempura paired with the Durnberg 2008 Select Gruner Veltliner. First the wine review.

Durnberg Gruner Veltliner 2008

Light gold color, brilliant with a little sediment. Citrus & herbs showed up on the nose. I found citrus, green apple, minerality and a little spiciness in the mouth. Balanced acidity, with a clean medium length finish. I liked this Gruner but was surprised as the light amount of sediment in the glass. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the wine, but I found it to be unusual. It presented itself as very food friendly with the balanced acidity that could go in different directions depending on the flavors in the food you paired with it.

For the vegetables we selected:
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Red Pepper
Sweet Potato

The choice of avocado was done very late in the game after I happened to see a tweet from someone who mentioned having avocado tempura and loving it some much. I’ll try that!

The tempura batter was 2 cups of the tempura flour and 1 & ½ cups of ice cold water. I read that the two keys to tempura are using cold, cold water in the batter to suppress the gluten development and making sure the surface of the items to batter and fry is dry before battering it. I put the water in the freezer 20 minutes before using it and laid all the cleaned and cut up vegetables on paper towels and patted them dry.

The cooking oil, I used a clear soy-based frying oil, should be about 360 degrees before you being to fry anything and once you begin you will need to turn up the heat a bit to maintain the temperature. The process of frying is a visual one, you are looking for a light golden color to the finished product. Laying the fried items out on paper to soak up the excess oil is another excellent step in the process.

We also made a simple dipping sauce for the tempura using Tamari soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and green onions. Just a little gives a nice zip to the fried vegetables.

Tempura is an art form and I am sure I didn’t get it as right as I will with more practice. What I can say is that it took longer than I thought to fry everything, but when it was done I was quite happy for the effort. The texture of the lightly breaded and fried avocado is pretty freakin’ amazing. That and the sweet potato paired with the wine were my favorites. The wine found solid matches with everything including the asparagus. Asparagus can be a tough wine pairing food, but I guess when you bread it, fry it and then pair it with a notoriously food-friendly wine you should expect to come up aces.

So it was with tempura in one hand and a well matched wine in the other that I sent kind thoughts of support to our friends struggling in Japan. To help them by supporting the mission of the Red Cross please use the link below to make a donation.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton

Cheers!

Jason

Four Star Cheese Straws

I made the cheese straws again. This time I used Grafton Village Cheese Four Star Cheddar which I bought as bulk ends at the factory store in Brattelboro. There is nothing like getting a great product at a fantastic price. It didn’t need to look pretty because I was going to cook with it!

I made both a rosemary and a red pepper version this time.

Four Star Cheese Straws

12 ounces chopped Grafton Village Four Star Cheddar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed rosemary (batch 1)
or
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (batch 2)
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream

Set the oven to 350°F.

Place everything but the cream in food processor. Pulse until coarse crumbs appear. Add the cream by the tablespoon and process until the dough forms a ball.

Flour a rolling surface and a rolling pin. Separate the dough into two pieces and form each into a ball. Roll the first dough ball into a rectangle that is about 1/8-inch thick. Use a pizza cutter to cut 1/3 in strips along the short edge of the rectangle, making as many as can be. Carefully transfer the strips to a parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/4-inch between them. Repeat with the second dough ball.

Bake the straws on the middle oven rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the ends are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.

We served these at our Relay For Life charity wine tasting and of course they were a huge hit again. I tried them with a couple different wines. The rosemary version was quite nice with my homemade un-oaked chardonnay. The red pepper version found a good partner with the Shiraz that our new winemaking friends Dave & Robin brought to share.

Cheers!

Jason

Provencal Beef Stew

( That will get ya thinking! )

We didn’t have any beef dishes while we were in France so when I was home for a week or so and yearning for the aromas and flavors from the trip, I went searching for a good recipe. I found a whole bunch of different recipes for Provencal style beef stews and as I often do I picked different aspects from several to pull together something new.

Provencal Beef Stew over Steamed Vegetables

2 1/2 lbs of stew beef
1/3 cup flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 tsp olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dry red wine (Cotes du Rhone is perfect)
3 cups low-sodium beef broth
1 pound of diced tomatoes (frozen fresh from last summer), undrained
1 Tbsp. Herbes de Provence
1 lb potatoes, cut into ¾ inch cubes
4 large carrots, sliced
2 Tbsp corn starch
2 oz water
1/2 cup niçoise olives, pitted and cut in half
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 large zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 large yellow squash, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
12 oz green beans, cleaned and trimmed

1. Combine flour, salt and pepper. Reserve 1 tablespoon flour mixture. Lightly coat beef with remaining flour mixture.

2. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in stockpot over medium heat until hot. Brown 1/2 of beef; remove from stockpot. Repeat with remaining 2 teaspoons oil and remaining beef. Place beef in a slow cooker that had been sprayed with cooking spray. Set the slow cooker on high.

3. Add onion and garlic to stockpot; cook and stir 3 to 5 minutes or until onions are tender. Add wine; increase heat to medium-high. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until browned bits attached to stockpot are dissolved. Pour this mixture into the slow cooker. Stir in broth, tomatoes, Herbes de Provence and remaining flour mixture. Add the potatoes and carrots. Cook on high for 1 hour, reduce heat to low and cook for 6 hours.

4. Mix the corn starch into the water. Add to the stew. Add the olives and basil and mix the stew well; cook on high for another 30 minutes until the olives are heated through and the stew has thickened.

6. Steam the green beans, zucchini and yellow squash until tender.

7. Serve the stew over the steamed vegetables with crusty bread and the remainder of the wine used to make the strew.

( Fair herbs, you will soon be making me happy! )

The aromas in the house while the slow cooker did its thing were amazing. The Herbes de Provence blend you might find in the store will vary in the ingredients, including savory, rosemary, thyme, basil and lavender. I often have all of these on hand and will definitely experiment with different combinations in future Provencal dishes.

The wine I selected to use in this dish and then enjoy with it was the La Vielle Ferme Cotes du Ventoux Rouge. As I noted in my post on the wines we enjoyed while in Provence (I had this wine on the Air France plane flight over), this wine has a wonderful nose and for the value price it is a great wine to have on hand.

( The final cut! It was so good. )

When paired with the stew and crusty bread the wine performed exceptionally. The influences of the garlic, onions and herbs flavored the beef wonderfully and the wine’s combination of fruit and earth added complexity to each bite. The steamed vegetables were cooked separately so with a bit of the stew sauce they retained a good deal of own flavors, which when paired with the wine was a lighter and fresher pairing.

Cheers!

Jason