In the courtyard with the Grand Pyramid in background
Michaelangelo sculpture
More beautiful sculpture
Paul in the Jardin des Tulieres with the Eiffel Tower in the Background
Sunday afternoon traffic on the Champs-Elysees, Arc de Triomphe in background
Shannon contemplates Parisian Haute Couture
Finally, a sunny day! Too bad it was our last…
Andrea Immer Robinson is one of my personal idols, so I take her food and wine pairing recommendations seriously. One of the pairings she raves about in her book, Great Tastes Made Simple, is Madeira with Chocolate. I have also heard her strongly encourage this pairing at both the appearances I have seen her make in the past year. Even though I have always adored Port with chocolate, how could I help but try out this new possibility?
For those of you who may not know already, Port and Madeira are both fortified wines. That means they begin as a regular wine, but have brandy added during the winemaking process to make them higher in alcohol, usually 18 to 20%. Both wines are sweet, which makes them excellent for drinking after dinner or with dessert. Port can be made in many styles, and is usually a blend of many years’ wines. Madeira is similarly, but is also heated and oxidized during the aging process… it is literally “cooked” so it has nutty and caramel aromas.
My first Madeira and chocolate experience was last February, when my husband and I were at the Madderlake Cafe on Seneca Lake in Geneva for our anniversary. Madderlake has a fabulous wine list with several dessert wines by the glass (I wish every restaurant would do this, by the way– it’s so much fun and such a great way to try some of these rare and expensive wines). I was thrilled to see a Madeira on the list… I ordered it and a slice of the most decadent dark chocolate dessert they had. The friendly server threw in a complimentary glass of LBV Port (late bottle vintage) to help celebrate our special occasion. Here was a chance to try the two pairings head-to-head! I was ready for the Madeira to knock my socks off… but it didn’t. My husband and I both preferred the Port head and shoulders over the Madeira. There was such a beautiful berry quality in the Port that corresponded beautifully with chocolate. The Madeira was blah in comparison.
I went away from the experience thinking that I must not have tried the “right” Madeira. Maybe the one Madderlake carried wasn’t a typical example. Or maybe the chocolate dessert had been too complex, or too dark. My idol couldn’t be wrong, right?
I saw Andrea give another presentation in late October at the New York Wine and Culinary Center. Again, she praised Madeira and chocolate. I left feeling the urge to seek out the pairing again.
I was fortunate to attend a Port and Madeira tasting led by Bartholomew Broadbent in November at the American Wine Society National Conference. My always-thoughtful husband smuggled in a piece of Dove dark chocolate for me to taste alongside the wines. There were 5 Ports and 2 Madeiras… a range of styles and prices. All were excellent on their own, especially the Broadbent Auction Reserve Port, the Ferreira 20 Year Tawny Port “Duque de Braganca,” and the Broadbent Colheita Madeira 1996. But still, the chocolate was much better with the Ports than with the Madeira. Again, it was the fruity flavors coming through in the Port that meshed beautifully with the chocolate. The Madeira had carmelized and earthy flavors that were okay with chocolate, but didn’t set off any fireworks for me.
So there. I have a disagreement with my food and wine pairing idol. Port with chocolate is my dessert pairing made in heaven. Sorry to Andrea Immer and all the other Madeira lovers out there. I guess it’s true that everyone is different when it comes to wine and food pairings.
Coming next, my favorite Ports for chocolate…
I.S.O. the world’s best chocolate
Published by November 26th, 2006 in General and Wine & Food. 1 CommentNow that winter is near, it’s getting to be prime chocolate time.?Ǭ† Chocolate is a wonderful food all on its own, but is wonderful with fortified wine as a little after-dinner snack.?Ǭ† In the spirit of winter, my next several articles will be on chocolate and wine.
Over the past several months, I have discovered that the world of chocolate is almost as complex as the world of wine. There are several chocolate-producing countries, styles of of chocolate (many of them designated by percent cacao), and delicious additives like coffee, nuts, and fruits. My local Wegmans supermarket has a gourmet chocolate section and I love picking out new varieties each week.
I have tried nearly everything they have at this point, and my favorite is Santander Dark Chocolate Columbian Single Origin 65% Cacao. It claims to be the only single-origin chocolate from Columbia, with the cacao grown in the state fo Santander in Eastern Columbia. Who knew that there were chocolate appelations? This chocolate is so complex, it reminds me of an aged Bordeaux. It has fruitiness, coffee flavors, and nuttiness on top of the expected chocolate flavor. It’s texture is a wonderful balance of smoothness and grittiness. You couldn’t ask for a more enjoyable chocolate experience. And the price is very reasonable– usually about $2 for a 70g block.
Tonight, I tried a different variety of Santander with 100% Columbian Espresso Coffee added. This one is 70% cacao. You can really taste the espresso flavors, yet there is still a lot of rich chocolate flavor and smooth texture. The regular 70% cacao from Santander is a little too gritty and powdery tasting, but I liked the version with espresso.
If you have a sweet tooth, I recommend the Santander Milk Chocolate with Hazelnuts 36% cacao. It tastes watered down compared with the dark chocolate versions, but will be a hit with those who like it mild.
One other chocolate that I can recommend is Hershey’s Cacao Reserve Dark Chocolate 65% Cacao with Cocoa Nibs. Again, it’s value prices with wonderful flavor for the money. I’ve tried several others that are much less interested but cost much more.
In my next post, I’ll talk about matching wine with chocolate…
In case those of you outside the area were wondering, here are the results for the 3 election races that had candidates endorsed by this blog:
Hillary Clinton won a resounding victory for U.S. Senator from NY. 67% of the vote!
Eric Massa conceded to Republican Randy Kuhl one week after the election. It was quite close, with Massa taking 48% of the vote in a heavily Republican district. Hopefully Randy Kuhl got the message that he needs to do more for NY farmers.
John Martini was running unopposed, so he will continue to serve as a Democratic rep on the Torrey Town Council.
So, in this blog’s first foray into politics, we were 2 for 3. Hooray!
Last month, I paid a visit to the quaint yet elegant tasting room of Ravines Wine Cellars. Ravines is a boutique Finger Lakes winery run by husband and wife team Morton and Lisa Hallgren. Morton trained as a winemaker in France and was head winemaker at Dr. Frank’s for several years. Lisa is a gourmet chef and has a marketing background.
They are as friendly as they are talented, and I highly recommend stopping at their tasting room if you are on Keuka Lake. It’s located on the West side of the lake on Rt. 54, directly opposite Bluff Point. They are not part of the wine trail, but are hard to miss if you are driving by.
One of their wines has particularly sparked my imagination: Keuka Village White 2005, Finger Lakes. This off-dry wine is a blend of Vignoles, Cayuga, and Traminette grapes. Developed to resemble Riesling and Gewurztraminer in flavor profile, these three hybrid grapes are more disease-resistant, more cold-tolerant, and higher yielding than their alter egos. Expertly blended to accentuate floral and stone fruit aromas, this wine has trademark Finger Lakes acidity and medium body.
It reminds me of Pierre Sparr’s Alsace One, a white blend from the Alsace region of France that blends Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, and Muscat. These grapes are the primary varieties of Alsace and together give you all the best attributes of the region rolled into one.
Ravines’ Keuka Village White is their lowest-priced offering at $10.95, and also their sweetest at 0.8% residual sugar. It may be on their list only to appease the sweeter wine drinkers that frequent Finger Lakes tasting rooms. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic example of the quality and value possible with hybrid grapes. A blindfolded taster would probably not pick this wine out as being made from hybrids. It is the type of wine that should be in every winery’s portfolio.
Bad Service Alert
Published by November 15th, 2006 in General, New York Wine and Wine & Food. 0 CommentsI like to believe that although I think about wine most of the day each day, I’m not a wine snob. But certain, shall we say, wine faux pas, really irk me from time to time.
A business colleague and I had lunch a few weeks ago at Edgar’s Restaurant in the Belhurst Castle in Geneva. Edgar’s claims to be a fine dining establishment and has prices that match. Their wine list has a nice selection of New York wines by the glass and bottle.
We ordered a bottle of Lamoreaux Landing Blanc de Blancs 2002, Finger Lakes. The wine was superb, but the following occurrences obstructed our enjoyment of it.
Service Fault #1: the wine was listed as NV (non-vintage) though it was actually the 2002 vintage.
Service Fault #2: the server loudly popped the cork so that everyone in the dining room turned to look at our table.
Service Fault #3: the server set down two regular wine glasses in front of us (instead of sparkling wine glasses); the quality of glass was on par with what you would get as a giveaway glass in a wine tasting room (rolled rim and thick glass)
Service Fault #4: the server poured us each a full glass of wine after opening (instead of a small taste for us to make sure the bottle was okay)
If we had been dining at anything less than a fine dining establishment, I would have been able to excuse pretty much all of these faults. After all, wine is supposed to be fun, not stuffy. But when you’re paying $30 for a bottle of sparkling wine, it would be nice to get a glass that shows it to its best advantage.
Belhurst, please get your act together. You’re doing a big disservice to your customers who love wine, and to the NY wine industry, who needs to be represented with the highest standards.
PS Brock Endorses Clinton, Massa, Martini in ‘06 Election
Published by November 6th, 2006 in General and New York Wine. 0 CommentsAnyone running for office in New York shouldn’t shy away from photo ops with New York wine.
Earlier in the year, the staff of the NYWCC had a long, back-and-forth discussion about an impending visit by Governor George Pataki. Should his speech be in the beautiful, well-appointed tasting room, or in the more staid demonstration theater? Would a Republican with presidential aspirations want to be photographed and filmed standing in front of a wall full of wine bottles?
In the end, we decided to play it safe and put him in the theater. The whole thing made me slightly disgusted. What is wrong with our culture that politicians worry about being seen near wine bottles? Nobody had even mentioned him taking part in a toast or (gasp!) taking a sip.
PS Brock Wine is endorsing the following candidates for political office due to their wholehearted embrace of wine drinking, and the NY wine industry in particular. But wait, doesn’t every upstate NY politician claim to be a supporter of the wine industry? Of course they do. But these people are actual wine drinkers… and I’ve observed two of them drinking wine in public!
NY Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the NYWCC late last summer. We held a mini NY Farm Day, in which several NY state food producers had samples of their products for the senator to try. She sampled widely from the wines that were being offered. I witnessed her enthusiastically try NY’s best sparkling wine, Chateau Frank Blanc de Noirs 2000, Finger Lakes, and compliment winery president Fred Frank. She has a picture of herself in a vineyard on her web site (see below). This country needs role models who know that moderate consumption of locally produced wine is not only good for one’s health… it’s good for the economy.
Although he didn’t try any wine on his visit to the Center, US Congressional candidate Eric Massa (NY-29) also wins PS Brock’s endorsement. He made an impromptu stop back in July to introduce himself to our Executive Director, Alexa Gifford, and took the time to walk around the Center, introduce himself to staff and ask questions about the facility. He told me he didn’t have time for a tasting, but that he loves to drink wine and is supportive of the industry in NY. He even has a picture of grapes and a Finger Lakes view on his homepage (see below)!
Every other politician that has visited, including Massa’s opponent, Rep. Randy Kuhl, and Rep. Tom Reynolds have used the Center for fundraisers but haven’t demonstrated much support for NY agriculture or the Center’s mission. Reynolds’ guest of honor at his fundraiser, House Majority Leader John Baynor, even complained to two of my staff members that we only had NY wine. Boo and two thumbs down!
Lastly, PS Brock endorses John Martini, owner of Anthony Rd. Wine Company, for re-election to the Torrey Town Council. (Torrey is a little town in Yates County). What better way to ensure the wine industry’s views are heard than by having winery owners in office? This is a man who has exceptionally good taste in wine, as well as sound judgement in political issues (he was instrumental in the interstate shipping campaign). Residents of Torrey, get out there and vote!
Politics and Wine
Published by November 6th, 2006 in General, New York Wine and Other Wine. 0 CommentsIn the NYWCC tasting room, we featured Hermann J. Wiemer dry Riesling 2005, Finger Lakes, during the month of October as part of our Gold Medal Month. The wine won the coveted Governor’s Cup, best overall NY wine in the New York Wine & Food Classic Competition.
One of our tasting room visitors asked me a very interesting question about this Riesling: “Did the Governor actually select it as the best wine?” I laughed to myself, smiled, and said, “of course not… the governor is not a wine expert. There is a panel of esteemed and experienced wine judges who decide.”
But this innocent question got me to thinking, why doesn’t the governor have some say in it? And, more broadly, why doesn’t anyone ever ask political candidates questions about their wine preferences?
I would be much more inclined to vote for someone who is a wine drinker than not. Barring any health problems that prohibit them from alcohol consumption, of course. The wine drinker is apt to be more cultured and definitely more healthy. How many studies have come out now touting the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, and of wine consumption in particular? I’ve lost count.
And if both candidates for a particular office are wine drinkers, seeing a list of their favorites would help me have insight into their values– just like those personality tests they give job candidates in certain fields.
For example, I would much rather vote for someone who goes for a spicy Trimbach Gewurztraminer for their Thanksgiving dinner than someone who reaches for Woodbridge Chardonnay. The Gewurz drinker is sure to be more thoughtful and open-minded than the “sheepish” Chardonnay drinker.
Does the candidate like French, German, and Spanish wines? I feel confident they would take a more diplomatic approach to dealing with the world than the current administration.
And if somebody lists fruit wines or native grape wines on their top ten list, you can rest assured that they will be egalitarian and fair-minded in their decision-making. Grape racism, after all, is akin to all racism.
In these days where the values-voter makes the difference in politics, I’ll take the values of a savvy winedrinker over those of a “faith-based” candidate any day.
Nearly everyone who has ever done a wine tour of the Finger Lakes has stopped at Hazlitt on the East side of Seneca Lake. It’s Red Cat and other sweet wines are legendary, along with their college bar-like atmosphere.
My very first memory of wine tasting was going to Hazlitt 1852 Vineyards with my parents. I was 12 or 13 and we were visiting my sister, a college student at William Smith in Geneva, NY. Even then, Hazlitt was developing a reputation for fun and frolic. I remember the wine server picking my sister up in his arms for a photo, and looking the other way when my mom let me try a sip of each of her generously-sized samples. I often attribute my love of wine Finger Lakes wine to that early introduction.
As a senior at Cornell University, I went back to Hazlitt with my sorority sisters while on a limo tour. The twenty-or-so of us lined up at a special tasting bar reserved for large groups and the gentleman server announced that anyone who showed him a tattoo or body piercing would get extra wine! About 50 percent of us, including me, gladly took him up on the offer. We loudly chanted the Red Cat anthem after his instruction. That tasting was the highlight of the day and we each left with at least half a case of wine.
Two years ago, I returned to Hazlitt with my family. My taste in wine having greatly matured by that time, I was resigned but not excited to stop there. Imagine my surprise when I found delicious and expertly crafted Riesling and Pinot Gris among the tasting lineup! I bought several bottles of each to take home to Washington, D.C. (my home at the time) and have stopped back each year to get more.
This year, both the Pinot Gris 2005 Finger Lakes and the Homestead Reserve Riesling 2005 Finger Lakes are very limited, and available almost exclusively at the winery. The Pinot Gris bears close resemblance to those of Alsace, with a voluptuous and silky mouthfeel and bright fruity aromas. The Riesling combines peach, apricot, and citrus aromas with moderate sweetness, and a crisp mineral finish.
We enjoyed a bottle of the Pinot Gris last week with a delicious dinner of seared scallops and sauteed beets garnished with curry-infused olive oil. The richness and moderate spiciness of the scallops was a brilliant match with the rich and off-dry Pinot Gris. Yum!
The winemaker at Hazlitt deserves a medal for being able to sustain production of crowd-friendly sweet wines such as Red Cat, White Stag, and Lame Duck, while at the same time creating beautiful, age-worthy, fine wines like the Pinot Gris.
