Monthly Archives: June 2009
Sushi and Four Gates Chardonnay
This past Friday night saw us enjoying a lovely meal of Ahi Tuna sushi rolls. Normally, I reach for Sauvignon Blanc when enjoying sushi, but this time, we had some 2000 Four Gates Chardonnay in the fridge, so we enjoyed that all the same. The Ahi tuna was really quite nice, and I finally learned that refrigerating the sushi rice, pretty much kills it. By accident this time we left the rice out of the fridge, but cool still, over night. The sushi rice was far more malleable (then when we refrigerate it over night), and the rolls came out much better the next day, and we are here still to tell you about it. I guess what I need to do, is find a way to keep it cool overnight, but not too cool.
Anyway, the Ahi Tuna (which was of course refrigerated), was wonderful. It was rich and flavorful, which is always the case since we started buying it at Whole Foods.
The wine notes follow below:
2000 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A-
This bottle can be hit or miss, and this one was quite nice. Very much like the old days with this wine. Tons of fruit on the nose – peach, apricots, and some custard. The body is full and oaky – but not velvety, which is fine with me. The acid and fruit balance very well into a long and satisfying finish.
Kalamata Olive and White Bean Soup, Beef Bourguignon, Zemora Cabernet Franc, Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc, Ella Valley Cabernet Franc, and a Four Gates Specialty Blend
This past week saw us hosting our friends for a special night of Cabernet Franc. As stated already, we really love Cabernet Franc for how true it stays to the fruit, and for its wonderful olfactory qualities. So when we had the chance to unleash our own Cabernet Franc vertical, it was a no brainer. I have been saving these for an evening, and it was really nice to say the least. The meal matched the wine to perfection, if I say so myself. As was advised here by Daniel Rogov, we paired it with a nice Beef Bourguignon and our ever changing Kalamata Olive and White Bean Soup. To be truthful, I can never keep to a recipe, I am always tinkering while leaving the core consistent. The soup is always a shock to first timers, but once they get over the obvious existence of olives in their soup, they come around to appreciate their subtle yet forceful personality. The main course was a combination of Beef Bourguignon that was modified to be gluten free. The batter for the meat was substituted with ground almonds, which were actually quite nice. I totally forgot to put my signature on the Beef Bourguignon by throwing in cranberries, which would have matched nicely with the wines. Still, the Beef Bourguignon went over quite well. The Beef Bourguignon was matched with a wonderful spinach kugel and a fresh green salad.
If you are interested in my diatribe on Cabernet Franc – it can be found here. Just a small aside, the wines here were mainly Cabernet Franc, but as always, they seem to be blended with something else. Some of the wines were blended with Merlot and are so documented. I did not know they were blended, but saw it in Rogov’s 2009 book. Otherwise, the wine notes follow below in the order they were enjoyed:
2005 Zemora Cabernet Franc – Score: B++
There are many who slam this bottle and winery, but my experience was a very pleasant and chocolaty wine. The nose on this bright garnet colored wine screams with chocolate upon opening and slowly calms down as it sits in the glass. The chocolate is complemented with nice floral fragrances, slight heat upon opening, rich plum, rich oak, and hints of vegetal aromas. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine was rich and mouth coating with creamy oak, plum, and cranberry. The mid palate is busy with balanced acidity, and light and integrated tannins. The finish is long with chocolate, plum, sweet oak, and a touch of acidity to round out the package. This was a nice showing for the wine. I am happy I enjoyed it as there is none of this stuff in America anyway.
2005 Gush Etzion Cabernet Franc – Score: B+
The nose on this garnet colored wine was busy with blackberry, plum, chocolate, and oak. The mouth on this medium bodied wine was not very Franc like, with strong red and black fruit, and some nice oak flavors. The mid palate was braced with nice tannins and acidity, though not quite balanced. The finish is medium long with more oak, black fruit, chocolate, and a hint of vegetal flavors. Some on the table liked this more, but I think it was more Cabernet than it was franc.
2004 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc – Score: A-
This is another hit for this rock star winery that continues to impress. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine is layered with earth, raspberry, floral notes, oak, and spice. The mouth on this medium bodied wine fills out as the wine sits in the glass. Actually, the wine was awesome the next day, so air will not hurt this beast. The mouth cleaned up nicely with rich plum, raspberry, and pencil shavings. The mid palate was soft with well integrated tannins, and slight acidity to balance out the wine. The finish was busy and spicy with tobacco, rich oak, and raspberry fruit. This was a nice showing for the wine.
2005 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc (88% Cabernet Franc and 12% Merlot) – Score: A
The nose on this dark garnet colored wine was hot out of the bottle, but was soon jumping with blackberry, cranberry, raspberry, sweet oak, and a nice amount of vegetal aromas. The mouth on this medium bodied wine filled out as it got more air. The mouth on this medium bodied is layered with rich oak, cranberry, blackberry, plum, and tannins that calm down as the wine sits in the glass. The mid palate is balanced with a rich mouth, just enough acidity, and not yet integrated tannins. The finish is long and luxurious with a playful amount of spice and chocolate that is joined in by rich fruit. This was the winner of our Cabernet Franc lineup for sure, and a home run for this wonderful winery.
2006 Ella Valley Cabernet Franc (95% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot) – Score: A-
The nose on this garnet colored wine was hopping with dirt, tobacco, raspberry, plum, oak, and spice. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine starts with an attack of gripping tannins, but follows with a full mouth raspberry and plum. The mid palate follows the mouth with more dirt, tobacco, oak, and tannins that are starting to balance with nice acidity. The finish is nice and long with spicy oak, tobacco, and red fruit. Once the wine had enough air, the mouth fills out and the tannins die down below a wonderful floor of rich fruit and tobacco. Another nice showing for the winery.
Four Gates Red Wine Blend (roughly 50/50) – Score: A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is hopping with sweet oak, rich plum, raspberry, vegetal aromas, tobacco, and bit of dark chocolate. The mouth on this full bodied wine is layered and complex with Chicken Cherry Cola, dark plum, and sweet oak. The mid palate flows from the mouth with more fruit, bright acidity, oak, and vegetal notes. The finish is long with dark chocolate, tobacco, and more fruit. Quite a nice wine that lingers long in your mouth after the wine is gone.
Alfasi Malbec/Syrah Reserve and Parve Spaghetti Bolognese
We have made Spaghetti Bolognese before, but this was a bit crazy, I must say. You know when you mother used to tell you, no going out with friends on a school night? Well, my friend Benyamin Cantz (from Four Gates Winery), had invited me to his house for a Sheva Berachot of friends of his. Well, I should have remembered my mother, when I accepted the invite. I had a grand time and when it was done, I was so tired (worked and cleaned up and God knows what else), that I barely could get up the next morning! Worse, I had yet to cook the meal for Friday night. So when I dragged myself in from work on Friday, I was pooped, and could almost not bring myself to whip up a nice Sabbath dinner. Thank Goodness I woke up enough to make a nice affair – otherwise, I would have been kicking myself all Sabbath.
This recipe was meant to be a Pasta Puttanesca, but we had bought all these lovely vegetables from our local farmer’s market (zucchini, eggplant, etc.), and they do not last forever, and they do not fit in Puttanesca. So, when we thought what we needed to create we came up with the Parve Spaghetti Bolognese. The recipe is pretty simple:
Parve Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe
As many onions you have or like (you can never have enough onions)
16 ounces of sliced mushrooms
3 Japanese eggplants
3 colored (yellow, green, striped green) zucchini
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Basil
2 packages of fake ground/crumbled meat
28 ounces of good tomatoes
1 jar of Kalamata Olives
Half a bottle of good cooking wine
It not only looks easy, it is crazy easy to make. Dice the onions and then sauté them until nice and brown. Throw in the mushrooms and sauté them as well until you have nice brown onions and mushrooms. At this point one could have thrown in some tomato paste to thicken the pot and food, but I passed on that, because I had little time. Now throw in the diced zucchini and eggplant until they cook down. Then throw in the herbs, garlic, and the rest of the ingredients, and cook down until the pasta sauce is at the consistency that you like. I like my sauce a bit thicker, so I cooked it a bit longer than most would.
The food is thick and heavy and yummy, and I grabbed a bottle of wine that I was not initially so sure about. But wow was I surprised, another great QPR (Quality to Price Ratio), though the score does not show it (as price is not part of wine scoring).
The wine note follows below:
2007 Alfasi Malbec – Syrah Reserve (50% Malbec/50% Syrah) – Score: B+
The nose on this ruby to garnet colored wine is hot out of the bottle, along with raisins, sweet oak, vanilla, roasted herbs, and nice heady and spicy aroma. The mouth on this medium to full bodied wine is busy with plum, raspberry, and cherry. The mid palate is where this nicely balanced and soft yet velvety wine comes to life with acid, integrated tannins, and a nice layer of dust. The finish is long with mounds of spice, coffee, white chocolate, and a dollop of vanilla. Quite a nice wine that really gets better with a couple of hours of air.
Psagot Viognier, Tzuba Port Style Wine, and roasted red pepper chicken
2006 Psagot Viognier
This past week we enjoyed some chicken, rice pilaf, and a pair of wines. The chicken was made as usual by my wife, and I helped to whip together the rice pilaf, which was simple and nice. The chicken was awesome, and it paired quite nicely with the perfumed and vegetal Psagot Viognier. I was surprised by the amount of green flavors that exist in the Psagot Viognier. Viognier wines are normally fresh and vibrant and show fruit characteristics that are hopefully infused with a nice perfume vapor. The bright fruit, perfume, and weight make Viognier, a nice replacement for those who are burned out from wood or butter infused Chardonnay. What is unfortunate is that while the Psagot Viognier is wonderfully perfumed and rich with fresh fruit, it is overly compensated with very dry tea leaf and vegetal characteristics.
Normally vegetal and herbaceous flavors come from pulling the grapes a bit early, and can be seen as a flaw in the wine. But as always, it depends on how it affects the wine. Recently, I blogged about a Four Gates Wine Cabernet Franc vertical where I stated that green/vegetal flavors are not so bad, but again, it is about how the flavors affect the wine, not that vegetal flavors themselves are not a flaw. Anyway, this wine threw me, but in the grand scheme of things, it is not so bad. I blogged about Viognier wines before, but wanted to highlight the vine’s fussiness. If you want that magical perfume flavors and nose in the wine, you need to pull the grapes off the vine within a two week period, and it may well be early – i.e. not fully ripe. I think this is what happened to the Psagot Viognier. I have not had the pleasure of tasting earlier releases of the Psagot Viognier, but I wonder if the vineyard’s geographical location (in a deep wadi/valley), contributes to the lack of sunlight or heat, which could limit the vine’s ripening potential. Also, white wine is not a huge seller in the kosher wine market. The summer months sees an increase in white wine sales, but more in the Sauvignon Blanc and Rose wines, which have a distinctive crispness to them. If you combine these two, it may be the Psagot Winery recently decided to stop making Viognier and Chardonnay varietals. Anyway, the wine is still fun, just not as good as it could have been.
2005 Tzuba Port
We also enjoyed a Port style wine from the Tzuba Winery, which was very yummy. The wine is based on late harvest Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that were aged for 14 months in French Oak barrels. The wine shows lovely spiciness and intense red and black fruit flavors that easily handle the sweetest of deserts.
The wine notes follow below:
2006 Psagot Viognier – Score: B – B+
The nose on this yellow to gold straw colored wine explodes out of the bottle with a rich honeyed perfume, that comes along with violet, peach, and strong vegetal aromas. The mouth on this medium bodied wine pops with bright acidity that somewhat overpowers the rich honey, peach, and pear roundness. If you can get past the herbaceous flavors, the mouth is rich and almost glycerol in nature and really cool. The mid palate is bright, fresh, and green, almost tea like. The finish is super long and spicy with more vegetal and honey flavors on a bed of tea leaves. This wine would have received a much higher score, if not for its out of whack styling.
2005 Tzuba Red Dessert wine in Port style – Score: A-
This wine is a real joy! The nose on this black colored wine is packed with sweet ripe figs, cherry, blackberry, alcohol, sweet wood, and pepper. The mouth on this full and luscious black and sweet wine is packed with spicy wood, cherry, roasted herbs, and tightly wound black fruit. The mid palate and long spicy finish is filled with core acidity, complex plum and fig fruits, and a nice dollop of alcohol that fills out the port styled wine. Quite nice indeed.
