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Baked Meatballs, Tomato Sauce, Brown Rice, and Binyamina Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

July 28, 2010 by winemusings

This week we were interested in trying some new stuff.  Last week we could not eat meat leftovers, so it was vegan week.  However, this week we decided that it was time for some meatballs.  We have made meatballs before using a boiling technique in tomato sauce, but I always want to monkey with meatballs, for a reason I truly do not know.  So, I went looking around the internet for people’s opinions on meatballs, and most folks are of the opinion of frying or baking, but very FEW recipes recommend boiling meatballs in a sauce.  So I went with Alton Brown’s recipe, but used ground almonds to coat the outside of the meatballs instead of breadcrumbs, and the spices from my recipe linked above.  We liked the meatballs but where I was looking for a crunch or at least some resistance on the outside of the meatball, we found almost none, this even after baking them at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  I will try this recipe again as I am reticent to fry the meatballs unless I am absolutely forced into that technique to get some crunch.  The tomato sauce was the exact recipe I always use, and it was awesome.

Tomato Sauce Recipe:
2 pound of sliced onions
2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of sea salt
5 cloves of garlic
4 tsp of fresh basil
2 tsp of black pepper
2 28 oz cans of whole tomatoes
2 cups of red wine

The recipe is as simple as it gets.  Heat a wide and deep pan with olive oil, once the oil starts to shimmer, add the sliced onions and sprinkle them with salt (to help them release their water), and then sauté them until they brown nicely.  Once the onions are browned, drop in the garlic and basil and wait for them to start to toast and become fragrant, NOT TOO long or else it will burn.  Then add the tomatoes and wine to the pan, along with some black pepper.  Cook the sauce until it starts to reduces by a third, then let cool down over night, reheat the next day and serve with whatever you want.

I wanted to have a nice and powerful red wine for this meal.  Normally the pairing calls for a Chianti, Pinot Noir, or acidic Merlot.  However, I was in the mood of a bigger wine, so we went with the 2006 Binyamina Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.  I bought this wine for a song during the Passover sale, and I regret not buying more.  As you will soon see, this wine is already feeling the effects of the mevushal process, but the wine is still awesome and has another year at least.  The only other regret I have was not having had a non-mevushal bottle of this wine to compare side by side.  Binyamina has started to release mevushal wines for the US market, and seems to do the mevushal process (flash pasteurization) at bottling time, which is the worst time possible.  The earlier you do it, the better chance the wine has of surviving it.  Hagafen and Herzog have both done fantastic jobs of mevushal-ing their wines and still garnering large and respectable scores.  That said, not doing any mevushal-ing is even better!  The process of flash pasteurization takes the wine from room temperature to absolute boil (210 degrees or so) and back to room temperature in less than ONE second.  Still, one never wants to boil their wines, so doing the process is still harmful to the wines, and the later you do it, the worse it damages the wine as well.  So, it would have been great to taste the two wines side by side, one with and without mevushal-ing, but they do not export the non-mevushal wines reserve wines to the US.

As explained already, we normally boil our meatballs in our favorite tomato sauce.  However, this time we baked the meatballs and did NOT put them back in the sauce as that would have just made their shell soft.  However, we served the baked meatballs alongside brown rice, topped with tomato sauce, and another side of fresh green salad.  The wine matched well with the tomato sauce and meatballs, as the wine has enough acidity to match the tomato sauce’s acidity, and enough body to match the meatballs and the earthy almond coating.

The wine note follows below:

2006 Binyamina Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet to black colored wine is hopping with ripe blackberry, raspberry, black plum, rich and extracted oak, loamy dirt, and spice. With time the wine’s nose changes to show mounds of pepper, almost redolent with pepper and some stewed plums or prunes (from the mevushal process). The mouth on this full bodied wine is complex and concentrated with blackberry, ripe plum, and bramble. Clearly the oak and tannins play a huge role in this wine. The body opens and softens with clear oak and tannin presence, along with nice weight. The mid palate is nice and balanced with acid, oak, integrating tannins and a hint of chocolate. The finish is super long and concentrated with blackberry, plum, oak, and a dollop of vanilla and tannins. After time the finish is equally long, super spicy, with oak, an explosion of pepper, blackberry, black plum, along with some nice vanilla at the end.

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Spaghetti alla Puttanesca and a nice bottle of Côtes du Rhône Le Mourre de l’Isle

July 21, 2010 by winemusings

This past shabbos saw us back on home soil, and we could not be happier.  Hey, nothing against Australia, but two to three weeks away is more than enough for me in one stretch.  So, with little time to prepare, we arrived home dead on Thursday, we went with a simple standby, our Puttanesca recipe, along with whole wheat spaghetti.

With Tisha B’Av coming up, we had to stay away from meat, as we do not eat meat on the week that Tisha B’Av falls.  So a non-meat dish was in order, and we had a hunkering for a warm cooked meal, so puttanesca it was.  We threw in some whole wheat spaghetti and fresh green salad and that was all.

To pair with this tangy and acidic dish, I went with a lovely Côtes du Rhône that was selling for a steal during the Passover sale at KosherWine.com.  Keeping it simple on this post, wine notes follow below:

2007 Vignobles David Côtes du Rhône Le Mourre de l’Isle - Score: B+ to B++
The nose on this purple colored wine starts off hot initially, after it settles down it shows black plum, cranberry, cloves, coffee, oak, and stone/mineral notes. After it has enough air, about 1 to two hours, the nose cleans up, and a bit of oak is noticeable, along with black cherry and more cloves. The mouth on this dense and interesting, yet not so complex wine, starts with layers of black cherry, black plum, and spice. This wine is a spicy with sleek race horse lines that have enough concentration to make you look up from your glass.  The dense flavors roll into a soft, acidic, and mineral mid palate. The finish is long with a trail of oak, nice tannins, black cherry, plum, pepper and coffee.  The wine is spicy and sultry and lingers long on the palate with coffee, spice, and black cherry.

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Surfer’s Paradise, Mortadella & Brisket Cold Cuts, Israeli Salad, and Teal Lake Shiraz

July 21, 2010 by winemusings

Our second shabbos in Australia was magical for many reasons.  First the hotel was gorgeous, close to the beach in Surfer’s Paradise, Australia.  Surfer’s Paradise reminded me and my wife of a nicer and less seedy Miami Beach. Second the hotel was literally next door to the synagogue!  No joke, I promise!  Crazy cool. Third, we picked up some great stuff to enjoy for the Shabbos meals.  First we picked up some lovely rolls at the partially kosher bakery chain; Goldstein’s Bakery. Partially kosher, because only the articles clearly labeled as kosher, along with uncut breads are kosher.  Along with the lovely rolls, we picked up two packets of cold cuts at the Synagogue’s kosher food store, and a lovely Pumpkin/Sweet Potato soup.  The two cold cuts we bought were ones we never saw, at least in cold cuts anyway.  We bought Mortadella and Brisket. Mortadella is normally made of finely hashed/ground heat-cured pork sausage which incorporates at least 15% small cubes of pork fat (principally the hard fat from the neck of the pig). It is delicately flavored with spices, including whole or ground black pepper, myrtle berries, nutmeg, coriander and pistachios, jalapeños and/or olives (from Wikipedia). This particular Mortadella had no pork, of course.  Instead, the ingredients read Beef, Chicken, Water, Salt, Spices, peppercorns, and mineral salts.  The brisket seemed to be pastrami, but I could not be sure.

Overall, the meal and the area were just fantastic.  The sad thing was that to find a decent bottle of kosher wine in that area, was close to impossible – which was truly sad.  In the end, we found a bottle of Teal Lake Shiraz, and even that was a fair amount of work – we found it at a wine and spirits superstore called Dan Murphy’s, which reminded me of BevMo (a wine and spirits superstore here in California).

The wine note follows below:

2008 Teal Lake Shiraz – Score: B+
The nose on this purple colored wine starts off hot initially with spicy oak, ripe plum, blackberry, mineral notes, stony, raspberry, bramble fruit, white pepper, and jasmine or rose flowers.  The mouth on this full bodied wine hits you with spicy blackberry, raspberry, and plum that fill your mouth with soft and integrating tannins.  The mid palate is brooding with acid, oak, and pepper.  The finish is long with oak, pepper, blackberry, and more tannin that linger long on the palate with plum, oak, and chocolate.  This wine went downhill quickly after my initial notes, so I would drink this up now.

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Harkham Winery and the Sydney Skyline make for a wonderful shabbos in Australia

July 20, 2010 by winemusings

We left for Australia on Monday night, and we arrived Wednesday morning – 14+ hours in an airplane!  Thank God we slept most of the flight.  I must say that kosher airplane food has become so inedible, that it is an honest to God disgrace.  Really, does the food have to be so bad?  Thank goodness my wife brought food along, so we were covered.  Anyway, this trip was not about wine, it was all about seeing this wonderful country and a bit of relaxation.  Really, you are in a country for two weeks, that is the size of the 48 contiguous states, and you are still wondering why it takes so long to drive to that mountain range or walk to the beach.  The place is huge, it is the fourth largest exporter of wine, yet as much as we drove, we never saw a vineyard.  Sure they exist, and we saw signs for wineries, but nary a vineyard in sight.  It is like saying I drove through all of California on the main highways (5 or 101), and I visited San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and I did not see a single vineyard.  Yeah, because the place is huge and that is NOT where they are!!  Anyway, the country is gorgeous, the people are so nice, the only real issue I had with the place was that everything other than casinos, some restaurants, and a tiny number of supermarkets, everything closes at 5 or 5:30 PM sharp!  Are you kidding me!

Anyway, we arrive in Sydney on Wednesday, and take in the sights of the Sydney harbor, the rocks, the botanical gardens, and much more.  By the time we get back we are dead to the world, but we have to shop for shabbos, as we were staying in the city, and not going to Bondi beach (where most of the Jews in Sydney live).  Our friend was SUPER nice and picked us up from the hotel and took us to the area to shop for food.  There too everything was closing already, but we got the chance to go into the local kosher market and other than a few items, we left empty handed.  The prices are crazy high, and the value was nowhere to be found.  I took a quick peek at the wines there, and none were very interesting or good (base line Barkan and the such), and again the prices were out of control.  So we went to Katzy’s to wait for our friend, who was getting his kids to sleep, and then coming by for dinner with his wife.  We had not seen him for some 11 or so years since he left the bay area, so it was great catching up with him.

Now, I was still minus a bottle of wine for shabbos, and the proprietor of Katzy’s was kind enough to point out that most of the things we would want for shabbos could be bought at the rare (yes it exists) 24 hour Coles supermarket at Bondi Junction.  We went to the store later in the evening, after dinner, and it had tons of kosher items, which is nice, but they had no wine, as in Australia wine, beer, and spirits are NOT sold in most stores.  Rather, they are sold at shops called Bottles Shops, and they too are not allowed to be open too late.  Anyway, while waiting at Katzy’s for our friend, I did what can only be called a David.  Yep, my wife has named my behavior after my name.  I walked up to a person waiting in line at the restaurant, and asked them “Where can I find a decent bottle of wine around this area”?  The person turned around and said, no, but maybe this guy does, pointing to a young man to his right.  Who did this person turn out to be, the son of Menashe Harkham, the owner of Harkham Windarra Winery!!!  Yep, by “sheer luck” I fell upon the winery. The young man sold me a bottle of 2009 Harkham Windarra Winery Aziza’s Shiraz Preservative Free.

The winery was initially called Windarra Winery, which started in 1985 and produced wine and liquors.  The wines slowly went down in quality and the winery was finally sold to the Harkham family in 2005.  Initially, they produced no wines or liqueur, after taking the winery over.  However, Richard Harkham, the winery’s GM, one day entered into the winery to help the old owner, and never looked back.  Soon after that he won his first award for his 2007 Shiraz.  The first kosher wine was the 2008 vintage, which sold out to restaurants and wine stores.  The 2009 vintage (which is on the web page) was splintered in a way.  The entry level wine – the 2009 Shiraz was sold out to Royal Wines, who has just imported the wine into the USA, and is mevushal.  As we finally sat down for dinner with my friend, Menashe swung by the table, and kindly offered us a glass of the 2009 Harkham Shiraz (Mevushal), and we kindly accepted.  I was so tired from the trip that I could not really taste the wine, from a tasting perspective, but it came over a bit lighter than I expected with pepper, floral notes, and a distinct mevushal taste.  It may have been me or the wine, but I will be doing a more official tasting of it, when it arrives in US stores.  I never got to taste the 2009 Shiraz Reserve, as it too was 100% sold to restaurants and shops.  When I contacted Richard a few days before our departure, he was super kind to point me to the lovely wine shop in Vaucluse (a suburb of Sydney) called Vaucluse Cellars.  We picked up a couple of bottles of the Aziza to take home and try again in a few months.  The Aziza’s Shiraz was also sold 100% to shops and restaurants. The Aziza’s Shiraz is named after Richard’s Grand Mother who passes away in early 2009.

The Harkham Winery has been doing extremely well in Australia, with rave reviews and a continuous stream of people knocking on their door for their wines.  The super cool thing is that the wine is NOT known as the ONLY kosher wine produced in Hunter Valley, but rather as a really good winery that produces wine in Hunter Valley.  The kosher symbol is almost impossible to find on the bottle, and that is fine.  It brings back memories of the first time I heard about Capcanes Peraj Ha’Abib (from Montsant Spain) from a friend of mine who received Robert Parker’s newsletter – the Wine Advocate.  The newsletter called the Peraj Ha’Abib the best kosher wine (at that time), and one that no one knew about, as it was not yet imported by Royal at that time.  So I went scurrying around to find a few bottles, and I called the then importer Eric Solomon of European Cellars, and asked which wine stores you sold the wines to.  He gave me a wine store in NY (no not Gotham), and when I called them I asked them if they had the kosher wine from Spain?  That was a mistake.  They had no idea that Capcanes was even kosher – and for good reason – because the wine was killer whether it was kosher or not.  Anyway, same here, the nice man who sold me my bottles of Aziza’s Shiraz, could care less if the wine was kosher or not (though he knew); he just really liked the stuff.  In fact so does many wine stores and bars in Sydney! Check out these non-kosher restaurants and wine bars that pour the wine!  Yulli’s Bar, Number One Wine Bar, The Bentley Bar, Seans Panaroma and Bilsons.

All this and I have yet to mention the other amazing facts of this winery.  They are the only winery in Hunter Valley that has produced sulfite and preservative free wines!  No not quite Alice Approved, as it used oak and yeast, but the oak is not so pronounced in the wine, as the notes below will show, but the yeast is a non-starter :-)  Richard is the co-wine maker, but he uses the expertise of one of the renowned flying wine makers; Beaune (Burgundy) based Christian Knott.  It is a win-win situation here.  Think about it, February and March are pretty dull in Burgundy, not much going on wine wise, except for maybe some bottling.  However, in Australia it is harvest season and the wine maker is busy full time.  This of course works great for the flying wine makers.  They work half the time in France and half the time in the southern hemisphere, either South America, South Africa, or Australia.  Christian clearly brings a Burgundian approach to the wine with bramble and mineral, but it still has the massive pepper and crazy dark complexity that says Hunter Valley.

When we talk about preservative free, it does not mean organic!  What? You see in the USA, the rules are VERY simple, you CANNOT add any preservatives in ANY manner – as described here, (sorry the data is in a PDF) on the USDA website.  But in Australia, they are allowed to add up to 125 ppm (parts per million) of sulfites to the wine. However, the Aziza’s Shiraz is 100% preservative free, meaning no added sulfites.  As described above, there is almost NO 100% free sulfite wine, unless the sulfites are filtered out.  Why?  Because sulfites happen naturally when wines are fermented.  Further, to be called organic in the US or in Australia, the grapes must have been grown and maintained organically.  The grapes at Harkham Winery are not yet organically grown and maintained, so the bottle cannot be labeled with anything other than 100% preservative free, instead of 100% organic, which would be far easier in Australia to pull off.  That said, there is a push and a market being created by the need of people for 100% preservative added wines – why?  Because there are a small percentage of the world who are allergic or react poorly to sulfites in wine.  How many?  The USDA describes it as 1/100 as stated here.

Well, after enjoying dinner with our friends, we bought a rotisserie chicken from Katzy’s to go, and then our friends kindly drove us back to our hotel.  We also made our way back to Bondi Station on Thursday night to pick up some more stuff for Shabbos and we were set.  The chicken was so-so, not a huge hit with my wife, and the chicken soup that we also picked up at Katzy’s was more salt than flavor, so no winners from Katzy’s for the shabbos.  That said, the hummus and Israeli salad that we made, along with some nice brown rice was a winner and it all worked out in the end.

Many thanks to Richard, Menashe, and his other son, for allowing us to enjoy the wonderful wine from Harkham Winery, and best wishes on more success in the future!  The wine note follows below:

2009 Harkham Windarra Aziza’s Shiraz Preservative Free - Score: A- to A
This wine has two lives it starts with red fruit, but as it airs out, the wine turns black with chocolate.  At first the nose on this dark purple colored wine is redolent with huge floral notes, massive white pepper, rose hips, ripe plum, and fig.  The mouth on this full bodied wine is complex, layered, rich, and crazy concentrated to start with white pepper, a crazy attack of tannins and structure, floral notes, plum, raspberry, and nice oak.  The mid palate flows off the mouth with solid acid, integrating tannins, and oak.  The finish is long with oak, figs, cocoa, plum, and raspberry, and white pepper.  The pepper and intensity flows all the way through.  Once the wine grabs a few gulps of air, maybe an hour at most, the nose of the wine transforms into a black beast, with blackberry, ripe black plum, chocolate, and oak.  The wine turns inky and black in the mouth, with extra ripe blackberry, inky concentration, black plum, more concentrated white pepper (which softens with time), and nice oak.  This wine has a powerful backbone of acid which will hold it in good stead, as there are no added sulfites, which will allow it to lie in the cellar for a few more years at least.  A fun and powerful wine that I look forward to tasting again in a few months.


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Lemon & Red Pepper Flakes Roasted Chicken, Brown Rice, and Four Gates Chardonnay

July 18, 2010 by winemusings

Dinner for the shabbos of June 25th, 2010 was meant to be a quick and simple dinner that had minimal leftovers as we were leaving for Australia early the following week.  As usual when we need a quick dinner and little fuss, we went with the usual Lemon/Red Pepper Flakes Roasted Chicken.  We also went with plain brown rice, a fresh green salad, and were good to go.

To match I went to an old standby – 2004 Four Gates Chardonnay.  I have had two different outcomes with this wine, in the past, one which was oaky and fruity, and one which was toasty and oaky.  Well this time, the bottle was toasty and oaky, which was so good, that it reminded me of the 2007 Castel ‘C’ Chardonnay – super oaky, toasty, and fruity.  The wine was awesome, and I want to let the rest of my bottles lie and see how they turn out.

The wine note follows below:

2004 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A-
The nose on this electric light gold to gold colored wine is filled with heavy and luscious toasted oak, a whiff of burnt oak, lemon, melon, peach, toasted almond, spice, Crème brûlée, and butterscotch.  The mouth on this full bodied wine is spicy with Crème brûlée, layers of concentrated toasty oak, along with butterscotch, melon, and a hint of almonds.  The mid palate is packed with more oak, lemon, and bright acidity.  The finish is long and spicy, with tasty oak, butterscotch, and lemon.  The oak calms down a bit with time, but the flavors are still there with tight concentration and brightness.

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Smoked Salmon, Bison Vegetable Stew, Spinach Kugel, Roasted Vegetables, Quinoa, and some great wines

July 18, 2010 by winemusings

On June 18, 2010 it was finally party time again, but in a more calm and controlled manner.  My nephew and his friend were back from their trips, so it was time to get party!  I invited Benyo, and he brought along his friend who I have heard of many times, from Benyo and his sister.  So it was the six of us, and we had a ball.  We made a classic vegetable stew with bison meat, my wife made a lovely spinach kugel (parve soufflé), and we once again bought some awesome roasted vegetables.  The farmer’s market was almost closing so we had to motor through it, and only found some fennel, yellow & red beets, and squash.  We cubed the vegetables and roasted them in the oven after covering them with garlic and olive oil.

Benyo brought some bottles over and I opened a couple of mine.  We started with Benyo’s yet to be released wine, so sorry no notes.  We followed that with another bottle of the 1996 Sulfite Free Chardonnay.  This bottle was not as good, but it was still nice.  It was a bit musty to start, but over time the musty smell dissipated, and it came close to the home run we had at Benyo’s house.

We then opened a bottle 2003 Carmel Kayumi Cabernet Sauvignon.  I must say, it may still not be at its peak.  That said, the bottle we had was wonderful and will last at least another year.  However, given that I have had too many of my wines that were past their time, I am more than happy to consume the wine a bit early.

We finished the meal with a bottle of Brobdignagian Wines Grenache, from Santa Barbara California.  This is a wine made by Jonathan Hajdu, who is the associate winemaker at Covenant Wines.  This is not a Covenant wine, but rather a wine made by Jonathan on the side; he is still the associate wine maker at Covenant, and doing a great job of it.

The wine notes speak for themselves.  We also “opened” a bottle of wine for Saturday day.  The real story was that I put the bottle in the freezer to cool down, and I forgot about it!  AHHH!!  Well, the cork popped, so I was “forced” to try it out, and it was pretty nice.

The wine notes follow below:

2007 Brobdignagian Wines Grenache Santa Barbara County - Score: A- to A
The name comes from the colossal, gigantic, extremely tall, and giant creatures discovered by Gulliver in his travels on the Northwest coast of California and is used today (although not by anyone I know) to describe anything of colossal size. That said, the wine does in many ways follow the moniker. The wine has a 16.3% alcohol, is massive in the mouth, and in the bottle! The bottle (empty) is one of the heaviest I have ever seen, quite extreme. The name of the winery, though unpronounceable by me, is one you already know by association. The wine is made by Jonathan Hajdu, the associate wine maker for Covenant Wines, owned and operated by Jeff Morgan. Jonathan also makes a Syrah, which I hope to get to taste soon.
The nose on this massive wine is almost unapproachable out of the bottle. It is closed, with just hints of what is to come. After 30 minutes of sitting in the glass, the wine’s nose pulls the wool out from under its eyes and exposes a world of joy, starting with expressive oak, cedar, tobacco, concentrated dried red fruit, raspberry, and spice. The mouth on this currant colored wine is super concentrated, almost laser focused, and layered with dried cranberry, raspberry, and plum. The attack is what makes this wine; it is clean lined with heft and power, yet focused on delivering not a single but many blows of dried fruit and oak. The mid palate flows from the mouth with acidity to balance the beast, along with nice tannins, cedar oak, and tobacco. The finish is super long and concentrated with more oak, red dried fruit, tobacco, and spice. This is quite a wine and one that should be enjoyed first from the glass, and then with food.
2003 Carmel Cabernet Sauvignon Kayumi (Israel) – Score: A- to A
The nose on this expressive yet refined royal blue to purple colored wine is exploding with heaps of tobacco leaf, rich ripe black plum, blackberry, crushed herbs, smoked meat, and spicy oak. The mouth on this big and refined wine is layered, complex, and somewhat concentrated all at the same time. The mouth is coating and full with mostly integrated tannins that give the mouth a soft and refined feel while still having heft. Black plum and blackberry are all buoyed by core acidity and spicy oak that borders on cedar, black plum, spice, tobacco, smoked meats, and soft caressing tannins. The mid palate flows balanced and full from the mouth with more core acidity, cedar oak, and tobacco. The finish is super long, luscious, and fantastic, with black plum and blackberry fruit, along with oak, spice, tobacco, and smoked meats that linger long after the wine is gone.

2009 Backsberg Estate Chardonnay (Paarl) - Score: B++
I threw this bottle into the freezer by accident, so I was stuck drinking this one during the week. The nose on this light straw colored wine explodes with ripe melon, kiwi, tart green apple, crème, and orange peel. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is tart up front with green apple and ripe melon, kiwi, and pear coming along for the ride. The mid palate is packed with bracing acidity and spicy notes. The finish is long with spice, orange peel, and ripe summer fruit that linger. A nice quaffing wine for sure, but also one that will stand up to light dishes, white meat, and soft cheese.

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Pan Seared Pepper Encrusted Salmon, Mango Madness Sauce, Roasted Vegetables, and Casa Da Corca Douro

July 18, 2010 by winemusings

On June 11, 2010 my wife and I sat down to a quiet shabbos dinner that involved some wonderful pan seared salmon.  The fish recipe was exactly the same as I did when I was in Chicago with my Brother’s family.  However, my wife felt there was too much pepper on the fish, so next time I think we will try to use some other corn(s) that give us the coating without the heat.

To temper the heat of the pepper I once again created a sweet sauce, but not like last time’s recipe, as my wife is not a huge fan of cooked peppers.  This time we again started with browned red onions, but instead of filling up the sauce with sweet peppers, we used wonderful mangos!  Yep, we bought a pair of really ripe mangos and cubed them into the pan, followed by garlic.  Instead of cubed fig, we used cubed dates, which worked fine.  Finished the sauce with some white zinfandel and agave.

Mango Madness Sauce
2 or 3 sweet onions
2 ripe mangos
Few cloves of crushed garlic
7 or 8 dates cubed
375 ml of light white or rose wine
2 tbsp of agave nectar

On the previous Sunday we went to local farmer’s market in Los Gatos, and we picked up some lovely fresh yellow and red beets, along with some early yellow and green squash.  We roasted these in the oven along with a bit of garlic and olive oil, and waited till the vegetables caramelized, and we were good to go.  We had some green salad as well.

To pair with these dishes, I went into the cellar to look for something with body, while not being over the top.  I chose a wonderful wine that comes from Portugal; Casa Da Corca Douro.  The funny thing about wines from Portugal is that it all started with the release of the 2003 Terras de Belmonte (Land of Belmonte) that was by the then imported by the Abarbanel Wine Company.  Since that time, Abarbanel has gone out of business, which is a true shame, as they were a solid company with great wines, and a good competition to Royal Wines.  I have nothing against Royal Wines, but every business that is consumer based, needs competition.  Since then, Royal Wines started importing the Casa Da Corca, a still red wine, along with two Port wines.  I found some wonderful articles around the city of Belmonte, but the best one may well be this one.  Even the country is getting behind it, by advertising the fact that kosher wine is back in Portugal.  Portugal has so much more to offer than just Port, and I am happy to see that there is fine kosher wine being made there.  That said, the other two wines produced in Portugal are not being imported to the US, maybe because there is no appetite for them, or maybe because the product is inferior, or maybe because it is too hard to produce, given that there is no fulltime Rabbi in Portugal, that can manage the process.  Either way, I hope we will see more coming from this region in the future.

The wine note follows below:

2006 Casa Da Corca Douro (Portugal, Douro) - Score: B+
This incarnation started very slow out of the bottle. From the start the wine was way too hot and closed. Once it received its first bit of air, it had its unbalanced yet enjoyable stage. The nose on this dark ruby colored wine was busy with bright fruit, soft yet over tannic mouth, with black plum, raspberry, and dark cherry. The mid palate is slightly off kilter with bracing acidity, tannin, spicy oak, and coffee. The finish is mineral and spicy, with the spice and oak dominating the after finish, along with mineral notes, raspberry, and plum.
In its second life – after many more hours of air, the wine truly showed its best side, with the mouth turning super plush with date, spicy oak, mounds of vanilla, and cranberry. The mouth’s tannic and unbalanced structure totally changed, to the point of truly changing the wine into a very enjoyable and successful bottle. The mid palate is far more balanced with acid, oak, integrated tannin, date, and coffee. The finish is long with plush tannin, oak, and coffee. Quite a nice wine and one worthy of drinking after at least a few hours of air. I would recommend tasting the bottle three times. Once at opening, once during the meal, and once at the very end of the meal.

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Four Gates Shabbos, Willm Riesling, and Tal Ronen’s fantastic vegan paella

July 16, 2010 by winemusings

On June 4th, 2010 we found ourselves being driven to Benyo’s Four Gates Winery for shabbos by friends of ours.  I brought a bottle of wine with me, and we did have it for Shabbos day, but before that we went through a bunch of wines that are either not yet for sale, or ones that should have been sold long ago.  Before shabbos started Benyo went into his cellar and looked for bottles that he was unsure about, and it was great trying them all, but no wine notes available – sorry.

Benyo was super gracious as always, and made tons of food and served tons of wine and it was really a nice enjoyable shabbos.  I did bring a bottle of white wine with me – a bottle of 2008 Willm Riesling.  Willm is a winery in the famous Alsace area of France.  Alsace wine is famous for its oily, petrol, and perfumed wines, and there have been few of them that are kosher out there.  I have had Abarbanel Alsace wines and none of the Herzog Alsace wines.  The Willm wines, and there are many of them, are nice, so I recommend trying them out.  The wine note follows below.

After Shabbos our friends drove us back and we were faced with a not so usual problem, we had nothing to eat for the week.  You see, we make a large amount of food for shabbos, and normally eat it for supper the rest of the week, or most of it anyway.  However, because we spent a lovely shabbos at Benyo’s we had no leftovers.  So I used it as an opportunity to finally make a recipe from Tal Ronen’s awesome cookbook – The Conscious Cook.  All of his recipes are long and complicated, but the flavors are fantastic!  The recipe we chose is called “paella with ‘sausage’, nori-dusted oyster mushrooms, and wine braised artichoke hearts.  The recipe requires many pans, lots of time, and crazy amount of prep work.  But in the end, the flavors and texture were so good, maybe some of the best stuff I ever made, and my wife loved the stuff as well.  Two notes about the book, the book is a cookbook for vegan minded folks, and so one would think it is 100% kosher.  Unfortunately not, besides the wines that he recommends that are not kosher, the gardein product, take on ”garden proteins”, is not kosher.  Also, the vegetables and salad he uses are kosher of course, but please be very careful to check them all well for bugs.  That is a reason why we skipped many of the wonderful recipes, because besides the crazy amount of work for each recipe, we were not ready to clean the ruffage as well :-)

2008 Willm Riesling (France, Alsace, Alsace AOC) – Score: B++
The nose on this light straw to light gold with green shimmers colored wine is screaming and perfumed with musk, jasmine like perfume, ripe melon, pear, orange rind, peach, and mineral notes. The mouth of this medium bodied wine is screaming with bright tart lemon, melon, oily structure, and pear. The mouth is oily with a perfume that balances the fruit forward wine and makes it a joy to just drink or enjoy with food. The finish is long and tart with lemon, mineral notes, ripe melon, and orange rind. This wine can be enjoyed well with spicy food, fish dishes, and light pastas. Truly a fun wine that stands up to spicy and/or medium heavy dishes.

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Lentil Rice Pilaf, Lemon & Pepper Roasted Chicken, and Borgo Reale Chianti Classico Vespertino

July 16, 2010 by winemusings

On the week of 5/28/2010 we were again staying low, after having had a previously hectic week.  So when lying low, we always go for lemon roasted chicken and rice.  However, like I stated in my previous post, I had bought some pilaf mixture at a spice store in the famous Jerusalem shuk of Mahane Yehuda.  The mixture (from what I can tell) was made up of olive oil, raw lentils, dehydrated raw onions, and a couple of spices.  The spices were not initially obvious, but the ones I could pick out were curry, cumin, paprika, and maybe cloves or ginger, though I could not be sure.

This time I poured the rest of what I had (a cup or two) of the pilaf mixture and two cups of brown rice into a pan.  I let the lentils and rice soak up the oil that was in the pan, and then hit it with a cup of white wine, and three cups of water.  The rice came out nicely, and we had a fresh green salad to go along with it.

I was in the mood of a red wine, so we went with the Borgo Reale Chianti.  I must say that when looking for kosher Italian wines there are really only two options; Borgo Reale and Cantina Gabriella.  They are both fine wine procurers and are almost always have a high QPR (Quality to Price Ratio).  The wine was a bit weird I must say out of the bottle, but with time it got better.  I would recommend opening the bottle and trying it, and then making sure to have drunk enough to lower the level below the shoulder (wide part of the bottle), let it air for a few hours or more and try it again.

The wine note follows below:

2007 Borgo Reale Chianti Classico Vespertino - Score: B+
The nose on this dark ruby to light garnet colored wine starts off closed and inaccessible. As it gains some air it starts to show tart cherry, plum, coffee, dirt and loam, along with cranberry. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has not yet integrated tannins that softens with more air, and lends to a fuller mouthfeel, but out of the bottle, the wine is unbalanced with acid, fruit, and bracing tannins that are like a bunch of kindergarten kids, who refuse to play nicely together. Once the wine opens, after 4 or so hours, the mouth opens with date, cranberry, crushed herbs, dark plum, along with a soft and round mouth, that is spicy and smoky. The mid palate is unbalanced, acidic and tannic, but after air, it gets balanced with acid, oak, and coffee. The finish is long and fascinating, with tannin, coffee, lingering acid, along with dark tart cherry that lingers long on the palate after the wine is gone. This is a nice wine that lives up to its Chianti name, after you give it enough time and air. Drinks well with tomato sauces or stews.

Posted in Food and drink, Kosher Red Wine, Wine | Tagged , | Leave a Comment »

Whisky Braised Ribs, Lemon/Red Pepper Roasted Chicken, and Four Gates Wine

July 16, 2010 by winemusings

On May 21st, I found myself driving back from Four Gates Winery, where I crashed a wine tasting of Alice Feiring and Benyamin Cantz, and came away with a couple of bottles of wine to boot!  My wife made her usual Lemon & Red pepper roasted chicken, and we had leftover ribs from Shavuot.  We made some fresh green salad and Quinoa, to go along with the meat.

To pair with the meat, I had used the two wines that Benyo so gratuitously let me have; a 1996 non-sulfite Chardonnay and an N.V. Pinot Noir.  The Pinot Noir tastes consistent with the last time I tasted it.

The wine notes follow below:

N.V. Four Gates Pinot Noir, Santa Cruz CA – Score: A-
The nose on this ruby colored wine, with a hint of orange, is rich with oak, raspberry, Kirsch cherry, coffee, and a hint of plum. The mouth on this medium bodied wine rounds out nicely, after an hour of air, and the tannins are nicely integrated, giving the wine a full velvety mouth.  The mouth is also concentrated with a lovely tart cherry, raspberry, and oak.  The mid palate is balanced with nice acidity, integrated tannins, oak, and coffee.  The finish is super long with tart Kirsch cherry, along with acidity, oak, coffee, and lovely tannins.  A rounded flavor of oak and tart Kirsch cherry lingers on the palate long after the wine is gone.

1996 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: B+ to A- (not for sale but great wine all the same)
The nose on this cloudy gold colored wine was hopping with bright summer fruit, melon, lemon, sweet oak, and crazy amounts of butterscotch.  The butterscotch was so powerful – I thought someone had opened a box of butterscotch candies. The mouth on this full bodied wine is hopping with oak, lemon, butterscotch, and melon.  The wine is concentrated with these flavors and fresh.  The mid palate flows nicely from the mouth with more oak and lemon.  The finish is super long and lovely with oak, lemon, and butterscotch.  A wonderful wine that is special and different and one that only comes with time in the cellar and good structure.

Posted in Food and drink, Kosher Red Wine, Kosher White Wine, Wine | 1 Comment »

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