The Last Throes of Summer - Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc

( A great place to sit at sunset, too bad it was cloudy at picture time! )

* This wine was the recommendation I contributed to today's (9/1/2011) post 12 Most Fabulous Wines to Enjoy Now For Under $20 at 12most.com which was coordinated by my wine blogger friend Marie Payton at www.lifeofvines.com. Click the link above to see the other 11 recommendations.

The sun is dipping ever more quickly at the end of each day now in New England. Summer is fleeting. While we hang on to those warm days our summer drinking habits still reign, and the Kim Crawford 2010 Sauvignon Blanc is a wine with summer written all over it!

Light in body with aromas of tropical fruit, herbs and a crispness that begins to quench with the first sip, this wine can help make your warm weather occasion the most it can be.

But all may not be well. It’s almost like I’ve gotten two different wines (both labeled as the most recent vintage) in my last two outings with the Kim Crawford 2010 Sauvignon Blanc.

My most recent tasting, for this post, was of an herbal, bell pepper driven Sauvignon Blanc with limited fruit in the nose and a just bit more on the palate. This was not what I expected. The wine is sound and pleasant to drink, but with a different profile than I have experienced before. I can see this wine working in the place I have in mind for it, because it is refreshing when cold, but without the tropical notes up front it just doesn’t have as strong of a link to summer. I have another bottle on hand and can’t wait to see what it holds.

My prior tasting was at the Firegrill in Montreal with Margot and her family as we celebrated the life of their uncle who had lived better than most people ever hope they could. Maybe the wine tasted better as I rode high on emotions, BUT it was different! The aroma on it was huge, slightly floral and definitely tropical. There was a touch more acid in this one than the most recent, and the finish was a bit more flavorful as well. This is the version I recall from two prior tastings. It was summer in Montreal and the warm walk back to the Grand Seminary with a bit of spring in my step from the refreshing wine was therapeutic.

This wine was sourced from my local state run liquor store for $17.99.

As we grasp the last days of another summer what are you drinking? Have you already thought of switching gears for the cooler days ahead?

Cheers!

Jason

New Zealand Wines

Check out our guest post at Sticks Forks Fingers on New Zealand wines today. Pam is off enjoying her honeymoon in New Zealand and keeping with the theme we have provided a little back ground on New Zealand winemaking and a review of a Pinot Noir from the Marlborough region we recently enjoyed.

Check back here tomorrow for Margot's review of three granolas from the Nuts About Granola company.

Cheers!

--Jason

World Cup Kick-off

In honor of the World Cup we selected two wines from countries participating in the cup to take with us on our first visit to Margot’s sister Celeste’s new home.

From the host country, South Africa, we selected the Indaba Sauvignon Blanc 2009 and from Spain, the Marques de Caceres Rioja Reserva 2002. My brother-in-law Bob is not as much of a wine drinker as the rest of us so I also put some of the homemade Belgian White and Belgian Trappist on ice for the trip. We didn’t know what was on the menu so I hoped my wine choices would have broad enough food worthiness to work.

Upon arriving Celeste indicated she had used a new recipe and was openly nervous about how it had come out. Unfortunately being so food obsessed makes people think I never have a so-so or bad experiences. I do, and often. With the amount of stuff I try not all of it can possibly succeed the first or ever!

We all sampled the Sauvignon Blanc and the beers with some snacks and tours of the new house. The Sauvignon Blanc was universally liked and clearly demonstrated some citrus and cut grass flavors. It was crisp and acidic, but not overwhelmingly so. I had also brought along some of the 2010 Thomas Hooker Watermelon beer to try. I had been told it was better than the previous year, their first, and that information was correct. Both the flavors and aromas were more pronounced with a bit more of the citrus aftertaste I had expected when I had first had it. It wasn’t a fan favorite, but it was being sampled alongside my Belgian White which has proven to be a strong competitor.

With the secrecy of the menu finally removed we sat down to a wonderful dinner, good wine and hilarious conversation.

Baked Chicken with an Apricot Preserves, Onion Soup Mix & Oregano Glaze

Creamy Red Mashed Potatoes

Sautéed Spinach with Garlic

So the apricot preserves on the skin of the chicken had worked its magic and become crispy and well cooked. Celeste was so hung up on this. The skin peeled off easily and underneath was a flavorful and delicious piece of chicken. We finally had to tell her stop going on about it, and I told the story about Cuban-style pork I made a few weeks back that took tools to find the meat inside the charred exterior!

I spent a few minutes with the Rioja before I ate just to get a feel for the wine. It had nice red fruit flavors, some wood and had a long smooth finish. Later Celeste remarked how much she loved the wine as she killed the bottle. She and I love to hang out and drink wine. It had been too long!

Both the Rioja and the Sauvignon Blanc went well with the chicken and it was a toss up on which one could be deemed a better match for it. The spinach and the Sauvignon Blanc went very well together, although the potatoes made it taste a bit sour, not a surprise at all. The Rioja worked better with the potatoes, but seriously, they were so good on their own I wasn’t struggling for a good pairing.

Dinner with family was spectacular. We never did get the name of the person who made the chocolate and peanut butter cake we ate for dessert. We do know they work at one of the local Shaws Supermarkets though…

We did watch some of the USA vs. England World Cup match earlier in the day and I am hoping to have some more fun pairing wines to the games as the tournament plays out. What a great excuse to try some new wines and yell at the TV for a while.

Cheers!

--Jason

Fantastic Fermentations

The week since we got back from Washington & Oregon has been busy tending to my "children". In all I have ten batches of wines fermenting, all at various stages on their journey to blends and varietal bottlings that with some age should proved to be quite good.

I picked up grapes from Chile and frozen white grape juice from Lanza Vineyards and Sutter Ridge, all through M&M Wine Grape in Hartford, CT.

http://www.juicegrape.com/

I also made a few changes this year with the addition of a yeast re-hydration agent and a gentler yeast nutrient to use along the way. Go-Ferm and Fermaid are products from Lallemand, a well known and trustworthy source of yeasts, enzymes and cultures. The equipment shop at M&M had these on hand.

Once the buckets warmed up from being frozen, on the count of me being out of town for a week the day after the grapes arrived :(, I tested them for pH, TA and Brix and decided not to make any adjustments based on other numbers and notes I had seen from folks using similar products.

Above is a picture of the top of one of the Malbec buckets. I have been punching the caps down on all the red wine buckets several times a day all week!

All the buckets had been sulfited before freezing so once I hit the mid 60's in temperature I had to be ready to pitch the yeast and keep an eye on them.

I also used Opti-Red and Opti-White this year. These are enzymes formulated for to sequester more of desired molecules in a grape must and either make them available to the fermentation or drop out of the process. Everything I had heard and read suggested this step as a big enhancement.  What you see to the left is the new Cab/Syrah blend in the picture on the left and five gallons of a jalapeno cooking wine that will be used to make drinks and sauces on the right. The other reds are a Cab, Syrah and a Malbec.

Rehydrating the yeast with Go-Ferm according to the very easy steps on the package resulted in a start and no problems since for every single bucket I pitched. Including the smaller buckets that makes 15 total!!

Last night the first batches of whites went from bucket to carboy. They are moving along nicely with pleasant aromas and some nice color. Before blending I will have two buckets of Chardonnay, one Sauvignon Blanc and one Viognier. I'm not sure what the configurations and bottle counts from the remaining will be just yet.

Overall I am very happy with the fruit, but not until the wines get a bit farther along will I really be able to say how wine made from it will be this year. With no fermentation troubles I am hopeful that I'll have lots of fun stuff to do.

You can see the orange color of the Viognier to the right, it is the second carboy from bottom. The image with the full carboys staring down their former containers was unintended, but it is pretty entertaining.

We started our first malo-lactic fermentation on a Chardonnay last night. Should be interesting to see how it comes out compared to the other batch that won't see MLF or oak.

Thank you to my wife for being crazy enough to let me do this, M&M Wine Grape for good products and services and WineMaker Mag for the conference and chance to meet some very nice and very helpful people.

Cheers!

--Jason

Late Harvest Wine with Lavender Sugar Cookies

I caught this recipe for Lavender Lemon Sugar cookies in the Foodbuzz Top 9 today. It is brought to us by the 52 Kitchen Adventures blog.

http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/2238861-lavender-lemon-sugar-cookies

I immediately thought of a late harvest wine that is sweet, but not too sweet, with enough acidity to work well with food. I realized I hadn't had one that I could recomend first hand.

I have experimented with lavender from my own garden and with some more on the way this year I plan to try some additional preparations. Not only does it smell great during the growing season, think about a strategically placed flower box where the breeze blows into the house; it smells great during cooking and makes a wonderful compliment to both sweet and savory dishes.

After a bit of research I found a Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc made by Errazuriz from the Casablanca Valley in Chile. From the description seems like it would do the trick. The description includes mild aromas and flavors of melon and pineapple and is summarized as being a more intense version of its traditional dry sibling. I can imagine some amped up grassy and herbal notes as well that present as fresh fruity in nature. I read the review at http://www.slashfood.com/2006/12/21/dessert-wine-notes-errazuriz-sauvignon-blanc-2005-late-harvest/ as the basis for my conclusion. Both the healthy, but not super-high, sweetness and crisp acidity are mentioned which I think are requirements for these delicate cookies.

This is truly a fanciful pairing that is imaginative and inspiring. Hopefully it forms as wonderful of a mental picture for you as the experience should prove to be.

Cheers!

Jason

Wine Pairing with Creamy Potato & Ramp Soup

Peter over at Once A Chef Always a Chef brings us a recipe for Creamy Potato & Ramp Soup that was featured in the Foodbuzz Top 9 today. I had never heard of a Ramp before so the description and location of the wild find was very interesting. I thought I would try a wine pairing with this recipe even though I have never had Ramp. Hopefully the simiarity to garlic will guide me well. Check the recipe out at:

http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/us/wisconsin/fond_du_lac/2214117-creamy-potato-and-ramp-soup.

I am going to reccomend two different varietals using the same guidelines. Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc that have not been oaked should work provided they have some grassy and/or citrus aromas and flavors to pair with the ramp bulb and leaves. Unoaked Chardonnay is often more expressive with the fruit flavors than its oaked sibling which breeds similarities to a typical Sauvignon Blanc. A creamy texture to the wine would would also be an asset with the creamy texture of the soup.

Try these if you can find them:

Jibe Sauvignon Blanc - New Zealand
Chateau St. Jean Fume Blanc - California
Louis Jadot Macon-Villages
Macon-Fuisse (some may have light oak which would be alright)

Cheers!

Jason