Wine matching at restaurants - special winery dinners

Wine matching at restaurants can be an extremely variable business. The occasions when the restaurant is hosting a special winery dinner (often sponsored by the winery or importer) should really be special occasions guaranteeing success, but that is not always the case. The really serious winery would test out the pairing with all the dishes and the wines, but this does not always happen.

Once the beautiful Auslese of a prestigious German estate completely overwhelmed a dessert of double boiled papaya with snow fungus, but that was no real disaster. One just took the dessert and wine separately. On another occasion, the wines were presented ion the order of their innate potential, rather than their readiness for consumption, the latter of which would have swapped two consecutive vintages of Ornellaia around. Sometimes a match is just incomprehensible - why pair jambon persille with a Bourgogne Rouge when  the dish is supposed to be made with Bourgogne Aligote?

Tenuta Belguardo 2003

I had this Super Tuscan over the Chinese New Year, though with the very untraditional fare of roast lamb rack. I had seen this wine around in the shops before, but what I had not known was that the Mazzei family which owns the estate goes back to the 11th century (well before the 1435 on the label) and that Ser Lapo Mazzei (1350-1412) was considered the "father" of Chianti! The Mazzei also own the well known Chianti estate, Castello di Fonterutoli.

Back to Tenuta Beluardo, which was purchased by the family in the 1990s. They see their mission as promoting the awareness of the Maremma region in Tuscany, and have expanded vineyards and built a new cellar. The flagship wine, Tenuta Belguardo, was first made in 2000 from predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, with small proportions of Cab Franc and Sangiovese. In more recent years, Sangiovese seemed to have been dropped in favour of Cab Franc, though the 2003 which was tasted contained Sangiovese but no Cab Franc. This wine was a ruby with brick tints, and had a sweet acid plummy nose. The palate was sweet plummy with a bit of wood, supported by an acid slightly tannic backbone.

Beef that did not go with red wine

Not all beef goes with red wine. I just had some beef in a cold cut platter that threatened to clash with the house red that I was having. OK, it might be the house red that is the problem, yet on the other hand the Chilean Merlot went well with roast lamb (I must add that roast lamb in this instance was a whole lamb roast "on a spit" over charcoal). The wine also fared reasonably with the braised oxtail.

As you can see on the plate, there was some pork sausage to the right and some dried beef of sorts to the left - it turned out to be bresaola rather than viande des Grisons (though it looked more like the latter when looking up Wikipedia). I also tried it with the house white - a Chilean Chardonnay from the same stables, and it seemed to clash less. Although both Hugh John and Matthew Jukes included reds in their line-up for anti-pasto, those were Italian reds rather than Chilean Merlot, and that might explain the threat of clash in this case.

Travelling with wine

Wines typically con't travel well, but if you want to drink but either the local selection is questionable or non-existent, then you will have to bring your own. The first time was when we went to Osaka, and we decided to make a day trip to Kobe and have some of its famous beef. We took along a bottle of le Petit Cheval and it went down very well, except for the fact that the highest grade of Wagyu is so "marbled" that it sort of behaved like pork as far as wine matching is concerned. At other times we have also bought locally, but only when there are good wine retailers nearby.

It is usually a better idea to bring your wine when have a short break in Mainland China (especially if one is relaxing nearby in Guangdong Province). We went to a small town near Zhongshan and we would want to drink at some meals. We took along a simple Italian everyday wine made from Merlot, Sangiovese and Sagrantino, as well as an AC Bordeaux. We had it when we went to the roast goose restaurant; they both went down a treat.

Verdea or San Colombano

I mentioned that I tasted the San Colombano grape when I tried this 1997 Vinsanto at this ad hoc tasting of Vin Santo di Toscana at last year's Wine Fair. Looking it up in Wikipedia to identify the name by which this grape is most commonly known internationally yielded the entry on Verdea, which is the prime name given in VIVC. As I had also just had a new grape called Verdeca, I double checked to make sure one is not just a misspelling of the other. No, indeed they are two different grapes from 2 distinct localities, Verdea originated in Tuscany but is now grown mainly in Lombardy. Verdeca on the other hand is from Emilia-Romagna and Apulia.

Back to Verdea, its history can be traced back to a mention in a 1303 of Tuscan viticulture and had been used in Vinsanto production traditionally. The largest area of cultivation is now around the village of San Colombano al Lambro in Lombardy, explaining the synonym used by the vignerons which produced the Vinsanto I tried.  This mid-ripening grape has good resistance to botrytis, allowing it to hang on the vines late into the growing season, explaining its use in passito wine production.

The Lichtenstein Taittinger 1985

This bottle of Taittinger released in 1990 (but containing champagne from the 1985 vintage) was by the American abstract expressionist Roy Lichtenstein, who also led the New York Pop Art movement. Lichtenstein drew inspiration from cartoon figures and painted them in a design with just a few dominant colours, Van Gogh yellow, royal blue and English green. He also extended the hair to merge with the vine on the other side of the bottle, making the design a truly 3D one, fit for a special champagne.

The 1985 harvest was small but of high quality. The blend was 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, sourcing fruits from the great vineyards of the Cote de Blancs. I look forward very much to tasting it.

Make wine, not war!

One of the slogans that was bandied around by the hippies in the early 1970s, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War was "Make Love, Not War!". This adaptation of mine came as I got to realize that some war torn areas and regions actually produced some interesting wines. Take Champagne for example, which was the site of a lot of trench warfare during WWI. I first learnt about it when a classmate from medical school went cycling in Champagne to visit the WWI battlefields. Alsace changed hands many times between France and Germany that its wines could be considered as French versions of German wines!

Apart from battlegrounds which are famous wine producing areas, we can also find a battle site where both sides of the conflict produce interesting wines of some quality. I am referring to the Bekaa Valley and the fact that both Lebanon and Israel makes quite good wines. I had already blogged about Chateau Musar, Chateau Kefraya and also mentioned Chateau Ksara obliquely in another post - thus covering the 3 most famous Lebanese wineries. As for Israel, there are quite a number of famous wineries, but I don't seemed to have covered them yet in this blog. Anyhow, that is a theme with which  I can organize a wine dinner that is slightly off the beaten track.

Wines for Valentine

This is a topic I had blogged about before and the wines I had mentioned included : St Amour, Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru les Amoureuses and Chateau Calon Segur. Having signed up to the email list of a number of wine merchants, it is interesting to see what they are promoting as the wine to drink or buy for your Valentine.

Apart from the choices above (though I had not seen St Amour being promoted), rose wine are featured by a number of retailers, both still and sparkling. Sparkling wines are also favourites amongst the promotions, but only the Deutz Amour de Deutz can claim any specifically romantic connection as such, though the Art Nouveau decoration of the bottle may let Perrier Jouet Belle Epoque champagnes in by a whisker.

The other category are dessert wines, with Tokay, Port and the higher levels of German sweet wines being promoted (really spatlese doesn't qualify though one retailer included it). There was one other that stood out from the crowd, which was the Fisher Vineyards Wedding Vineyard Cabernet from Sonoma. Perhaps the wine for proposing on Valentine's Day dinner?

A Primitivo from Salento

Primitivo is the same grape as Zinfandel but the Italian version is often not quite bold and brash as its American counterpart. I taseted this version from Salento made by Rosa del Golfo the other day at the neighbourhood organic wine shop. Rosa del Golfo was the name of a rose they developed in the early 1960s, which proved so successful that they changed the name of the company to reflect this. The estate itself was much older that the rose, and went back two centuries, but it was only in the 1930s that the owners took the step of setting up a sales concern to market their wines.

This IGT wine is not a varietal Primitivo but contains 10% Negroamaro. The wine was a star bright ruby, with a red fruit leafy nose. The palate was sweet a touch salty fruity with a touch of tannins, which was joined by acid and an orangey fragrance to form the backbone.

Muscadet wines from the mouth of the Loire

I remember buying Muscadet wines to drink with seafood at some point in the 1980s, and I remember being recommended to get the sub-appellation Muscadet de Sevre et de Maine, aiming for the wines bottled sur lie. Since coming back to Hong Kong some 22 years ago, I found that this wine is not well known and few recommended it to drink with seafood.

Produced from the Melon de Bourgogne grape in a region at the mouth of the Loire river near Nantes, Muscadet is atypical of AC names in that it refers to neither grape nor geographic area. There are 3 sub-regions, Sevre et de Maine and Coteaus de  la Loire which were named from the beginning and Cotes de Granlieu which was later added in 1994. Since 1994, there are special restriction on what qualifies for putting sur lie on the label. 

A Vinsanto from 1997

I had blogged about this ad hoc Vinsanto tasting that I did during last year's Wine Fair, whilst going around the Italian Pavillion. This wine from the 1997 vintage was the oldest wine available for tasting, made by one of those agroturismo estates Tenuto il Corno, offering not only wine and olive oil, but also hotel accommodation. They followed a tradition way of making the Vinsanto, pressing the grapes on the first full moon of January. The traditional approach also meant they used the San Colombano grape which I had not tried before.

As for the wine, it was a golden tea with a sweet nutty dried apricot acid nose. The palate was sweet, rich and slightly smoky, still full of nutty notes,which persisted throughout to the finish, bring joined by dried apricot acidity to form a good supportive backbone.

A Greek Malvasia Candia Aromatica

I tasted this wine at a Xmas party held at one of the neighbourhood wine shops. I have tasted quite a few Greek wines, but have not tasted anything quite like this. Before this wine, I would have said that the Santorini Assyrtiko is the Greek wine which has left me the most lasting impression, but the fantastic aromatic profile of this wine also left a very strong impression. However, the Santorini Assyrtiko still ranks as one of the best Greek food wines I have tasted, because this wine can be a bit overpowering when it comes to delicate food, or so I'd thought.

Malvasia is one of those very large groups of grape varieties, and this wine is probably made from the same grape as the one used in making Malmsey Madeira. I have tasted other Malvasia varieties, inclujding Malvasia della Lipari (whose prime name is Malvasia di Sardegna). The wine is a light straw colour with a slightly sweet aromatic tropical fruits nose. The palate was fragrant, off dry and fruity with good acidity, with an aromatic acid backbone for support.

Ch Sociando-Mallet

This is an estate which I have tasted a good number of times, but like Ch Haut-Bergey, I could not recall how many times I have done so. Sociando-Mallet is an estate well known for the quality of its wines, but due to the decision of its owner, it has not been listed as one of the Medoc Cru Bourgeois. Tracing its history back to the 17th century when the land was part of the estate of a Basque nobleman named Sociando, it was later acquired by Madame Mallet in 1850 when it was noted to be a leading cru in the commune of St Seurin in the Haut Medoc north of St Estephe. It was a forgotten and run down property in 1969 when it was acquired by its present owner, who had turned the estate around to achieve a good reputation again.

Recently I tasted the 2005 vintage. It was a purple ruby, with a sweet slightly tannic fruity acid nose. The palate was sweet, slightly astringent and acid with plummy notes, supported by a plummy acid tannic backbone.

Champagne Louis Barthelemy

I found their champagnes on the special offers list of a certain importer last Xmas, so I bought a few to try out. I tasted their Brut Saphir 2005 over the last weekend. The champagne house was founded by Princess Baudry (of Russia) in 1923 as Baudry Lebrun & Cie. The house was acquired in 2002 by Jean-Barthelemy Chancel in 2002 and the winery was moved (from Epernay) to Ay in 2011. The house specialises in wines with long lees aging and small dosage, though their range actually covers the whole range of sugar dosages from demi-sec to brut zero. Only one vintage wine is produced - the Brut Saphir, the 2005 vintage of which I had recently tried.