Blame it on Rioja

In this, the third and final installment of Doug Frost’s lead up to the first wine of a Rioja seminar held at the Culinary Institute of America’s Greystone campus during that institution’s Worlds of Flavor Conference earlier this year, our esteemed MS/MW takes us up to the modern era, again using the López de Heredia Viña Tondonia ‘81 Blanco Gran Reserva as a point of reference, singling the wine out as coming from another era.  It is this wine and this house to which Doug makes reference at the beginning of the clip, as we have just learned that the wine spends 9 and 1/2 years in oak before bottling.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to end it here, since the video of the last part of Doug’s speech, in which he briefly touches on the winemaking mechanics of the ‘International style,’ a later and even more modern development, is unusuable. Once I find a way to put the audio over other images, I may release it as a podcast or as another posted video

Grapefruit Drizzle: Lily Peachin puts the final touches on a new holiday classic

The great thing about coming up with your own recipe is that you get to do it exactly the way you want–no needless nods to misbegotten ceremony (Ambrosia anyone?) or to someone else’s notion of what goes with what.

Sometimes it’s as simple as bringing together a handful of your favorite things.  In the case of Brooklyn wineshop owner Lily Peachin, that meant composing a salad of Bibb lettuce, avocado slices, and grapefruit sections (a few of her favorite things) and topping the whole thing off with the juicy and colorful  pips of the Christmas-y pomegranate fruit and a drizzle of vinaigrette made from the free-run juice of the sectioned grapefruit.

Lily’s handful of favorites on a plate–a variation on a salad her mom, Gail Peachin, came up with after a trip to Mexico a few years ago–proved such a hit this year,  it may just end up a holiday perennial in her household for many years to come.

Bibb Lettuce Salad with Avocado, Grapefruit, and Pomegranate Seeds

1 Head of Boston Bibb lettuce, ribs removed, rinsed and spun dry

1 Yellow Grapefruit

1 Ruby Red Grapefruit

2 Ripe California Avocados

1 Pomegranate, seeds removed

2 tsp. White Wine Vinegar

4 Tbl.  Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

1.  Over a bowl (to catch runoff juice), peel each grapefruit with a sharp paring knife, making close rounded cuts along the length of the fruit from top to bottom in order to remove strips of both the rind and outer membrane in the same motion.  Once the fruit is peeled (and while continuing to catch the runoff juice), section out each wedge of juicy pulp from its inner, pinwheel-like membrane with close incisions, avoiding traces of both membrane and pith.  Set aside grapefruit sections and reserve

4 Tbl. Fresh Grapefruit Juice

2.  In a mixing bowl, combine the vinegar and reserved juice. Using a whisk, gradually add olive oil until dressing is emulsified.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

(Steps 1 and 2  can be done several hours  in advance.)

3.  Just before serving,  slice avocados into two-inch wedges and remove from skin.  Arrange three or four leaves of lettuce onto six-inch salad plates, topped by three or four slices of avocado and an equal number of grapefruit sections.  Shower plates liberally with pomegranate seeds.

4.  Drizzle each plate generously with dressing and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Lily Peachin is the owner of Dandelion Wine in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. To accompany her salad, of the 500 or so labels she stocks on her shop’s shelves, she recommends both a sparkling 1997 Lambrusco Rosato from the house of Lini in Correggio and López de Heredia’s Rioja Rosado Gran Reserva 1997.

Fast forward to the 19th century, when phylloxera decmates the vineyards of France and panicked negotiants from Bordeaux, fearing the sudden loss of their overseas markets, look south for salvation. Modern Rioja is born.

Along the way, pioneering bodegueros discover that some barrels are aging with enviable grace. Thus, the Gran Reserva is born.

Check out part two of Doug Frost MS, MW’s introduction to Rioja last month at CIA Greystone in Napa. We are just about to get to our first wine, López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Blanco Gran Reserva 1981.

Stay tuned.

A on-going series devoted to finding tasty wines for less than $20

Barbara Werley MS, one of the five sommeliers who joined us earlier this year in Rioja, was recently part of a tasting panel convened the Dallas Morning News, which took a look at a bunch of wines paired next to cider-braised pork shoulder with carmelized onions.

“Our panel favorite was a citrusy chardonnay from New Mexico, surprisingly,” Tina Danze writes in her tasting report, which appeared last Thursday.  She continues, “Only one of four reds sampled had the right soft, fruity profile to mesh with the dish.”

That red turned out to be Marqués de Cáceres 2004 Rioja Crianza, a complex quaffable widely available across the country for less than $14 a bottle.

Here’s the panel’s write up:

Crianza isn’t a varietal; it’s a term referring to the amount of time a Spanish wine has been aged one year in oak, and another year in the bottle for those from the Rioja region. Made of 85 percent tempranillo, this wine’s ripe cherry, strawberry and raspberry flavors laced with cinnamon notes proved an ideal partner for the pork. “It’s simple, soft and fruity, with no bitter finish,” said Barbara Werley. “It’s the best of the reds [sampled].” James Tidwell noted that unlike other reds, it’s “not gushy-fruity, not bubble gummy grape-y. It’s ripe pure fruit without a lot of oak.” Blythe Beck liked the way the wine “meshes well with the fat” in the pork and the mashed potatoes. George Howald hailed this as “a balanced wine that integrates nicely with the dish.”

With a little nosing around online–the Pro version of www.wine-searcher.com also helps, a bargain at $29.95 a year–one could score bottles of the ‘04 Cáceres for quite a bit less than the $18.99 list price mentioned in the DMN piece. In fact, one of the lowest prices I found was right here in NYC: $10.99 a bottle at 67 Wine & Spirits in good ole Manahatta.

Only three more days till the eating event of the year, and like lots of folks this fall, I’m staying put, cooking with Lily and Gail across the river in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with Mom and Dad coming in Thursday morning for the day’s festivities, plus an extended weekend involving a good amount of walking and probably more eating and drinking.

But let’s focus here. Thanksgiving.

(more…)

In yet another sign that appreciation for “traditional” wines is hitting the mainstream, this week’s ‘Wines for the Weekend’ column on Forbes.com, entitled “Wines Columbus Would Drink,” features two classic-style wines–one from Italy, the other from Spain–going head-to-head for the holiday.

Tyler Colman, a.k.a. Dr. Vino, came up with the match-up (and a few other minor bouts), which pits a 2003 Barolo from Giuseppe Mascarello with a 1999 Rioja Reserva from the house of R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia. Eric Arnold is the author.

The keywords for both wines: ‘light,’ ‘delicate,’ and ‘age.’ Preference is a subjective matter.

Click here to see a short video related to the taste off.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

After yesterday’s light but persistent rain, we are all happy to see sunny skies again today. From what I am gathering, a little rain this time of year is not catastrophic, especially this year, which was quite dry. Harvest is still two weeks away for most vineyards in Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, so there is time for the soils to bounce back, although I keep thinking about what Jorge Muga said about his bodega’s high elevation clay soils during our interview last year.

“The problem with clay is that it keeps the water too much. If it rains a lot in September, forget about the harvest.”

Marqués de Vargas
Our first stop, a single estate winery just outside of Logroño, in an area known as Los Tres Marqueses, for the large holdings of land here originally held by three distinguished marquis: Vargas, Murrieta, and Romeral (the last property of which I am told has been broken up, though I have noticed that the brand lives on, bottled by the bodega giant, AGE). On our brief tour of the 70-hectare Marqués de Vargas property, in fact, I notice that Marqués de Murrieta is right next door.

Although the inclusion of Cabernet Sauvignon in blends here is not advertised (it is referred to in materials here as “other varieties”), it’s abundantly clear that the property has considerable “grandfathered” plantings of that French variety.

I have tasted Vargas’ wines before and have quite liked them, but today I am still quite taken aback by their wines’ high level of quality and distinctiveness. Careful grape selection and handling, along with spare-no-expense winemaking, are likely the keys here to the wines’ deliciousness, but so too is the interesting fact that the winery uses a lot of Russian oak.

I was a little at a loss to describe the aromas of the one wine here that uses all new Russian oak, the 2004 Marqués de Vargas Reserva Privada–aromatic green herbs? a pencil lead-like minerality?–but I do know that I really liked it. Winemaker Javier Pérez Ruiz de Vergara called the aromas of Russian oak floral and feminine, saying that women tend to like this wine. David Rosengarten, who said that he picked up a lot of vegetal character in the wine, guessed that it had more to do with the 20% Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend.

Dinastía Vivanco
For years, the wines of this bodega, based in the Rioja Alta town of Briones and now managed by the Vivanco family’s fourth generation, played second fiddle to its terrific–and, I might add, non-self promotional–Museum of Wine Culture. I am pleased to say that this is no longer the case.

Winemaker Rafael Vivanco, who graduated two years ago with a Diplôme National d’Oenologie from the University of Bordeaux, is as kind and unassuming as he is influential. He’s also recently made some killer wines. I’d like to spend some more time in the future writing about the entire lineup we tasted today, a portfolio slowly making inroads in the American market, but for now, as an expample, let me say that Rafael’s latest blanco release, from the 2006 vintage, took everyone by surprise. Sourced from the best Viura plantings Rafael could find and kept on its lees for several months, the 2006 Dinastía Vivanco Blanco is as vibrant a white wine you’re likely to find anywhere in Rioja. With correct tree-fruit aromatics and a hint of citrus on the nose, the wine gives no hint to the mouth-watering acidity that hits the tongue on first taste.

“Other whites in Rioja are less acidic and focus more on the oak,” Rafael says. “Natural acidity is very important to me.”

Bodegas Franco-Españolas
Not so long ago, vineyards north of Logroño crept right up to the Ebro River, a stone’s throw from the city center. That was exactly the case at this venerable old bodega just down the street from the town’s former slaughterhouse. Inside you’ll find old photographs of the vineyards that once grew behind the bodega’s late 19th century structure, where now apartment buildings stand.

And speaking of photographs, found out today that back in the early 1950s, the city’s official photographer took images of Ernest Hemingway in front of this very bodega, while the author was traveling up to Pamplona in the company of bullfighter Antonio Ordóñez. Lost for half a century, these images were recently discovered by the photographer’s son in his father’s cellar, and he generously handed them over to the winery. The one that appears here shows Hemingway arm in arm with one the bodega’s floor sweepers. Story goes that the American writer was quite charmed that this gentleman happened to be wearing a Hawaiian shirt.