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Sausage Stew, Spinach Kugel, and a lovely assortment of kosher wines
Well we finally got back into the saddle and had ourselves a gaggle of friends and family for a lovely Friday night dinner. The menu was fun to create as we needed a recipe that could be eaten by both carnivores and vegans 🙂 After going through our recipes, we fell upon a decent idea, making two of the same dish, one with meat and one with a suitable substitute. The best option for that direction was our Sausage Stew recipe, the carnivore version was made with Neshama’s sausages; Breakfast Delight and Country Apple, and the vegan version with Tofurky’s Italian Sausage. The cool aspect of making the same recipe for both types of diets are that the dish stays the same, as does the recipe and ingredients (other than protein), along with same timing for the vegetables, and same completion time. In other words; cooking made fun and easy.
We started with a course of smoked salmon, green and black olives, hummus, and my wife’s killer whole wheat challah. We followed that with the main course of the two stews, while my wife made some spinach kugel (parve souffle), along with some nice fresh green salad. The wines were paired well, I think. Some were clear winners, while some were not perceived by all as winners during the meal, and then there were the filthy, sick, and wild wines that were winners at the dinner and after. The winners were the 2001 Capcanes Peraj H’Abib, which is in the DRINK up state, enjoy it before you regret it! SUPER kudos go out to the Covenant Winery, who also had an entry in the winner’s circle, their 2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon, which was from their maiden voyage. I am so happy that I held on to it to be enjoying it now. Finally, to be honest I whiffed on two wines; the 2009 Herzog Petite Sirah Second Edition and the 1996 Four Gates unoaked Chardonnay! Talk about messing up! I did not like either when we opened them, but WOW did that change fast. The two of them were drinking lovely a few hours later, while the Petite Sirah was better the next day.
Finally a friend of ours brought a surprise, a Kosher Akhasheni Georgian wine! The grapes used in this wine are called: Saperavi from the Akhasheni vineyards of the Gurdzhaani district in Kakheti, a province of Georgia.
The wine notes follow listed in the order they were drunk:
2006 Galil Mountain Winery Pinot Noir – Score: B (DRINK UP or Cook!!!)
Truly a shadow of its former self. It is dead and dying quickly, all at the same time. Some liked the wine, but not me. The nose on this dark ruby with serious brown halos colored wine has notes of dark cherry, aging raspberry, barn yard notes, vanilla, and stony rocks. The mouth on this medium bodied wine died off quickly with deep minerality, dark cherry, raspberry, and vanilla. The wine tasted old and dying, its structure was spicy and brambly with minerality with dark red fruit and still nice acid.
1996 Four Gates Unoaked Chardonnay – Score: B++ to A-
Wow this wine was clearly not on my radar, and was a really nice surprise from Benyo; I did not know it existed. We have posted in the past about its bigger oaked siblings (sulfur and non-sulfur), but I had no idea this one was lying around in the Four Gates cellar. The nose on this wine did not start nicely out of the bottle, but heck, how do you think you would smell if you were lying around in a dusty cellar for 15 years! Two or three hours later this light gold colored wine was hitting its stride, with clear and lovely notes of pineapple, grapefruit, lemon, citrus, white peach, and lychee. The mouth on this full bodied wine was channeling it inner nose, with pronounced pineapple, grapefruit, citrus, and peach. The mid palate was packed with core acid and lovely fruit. The finish was long and luscious with more summer fruit, pineapple, and a hint of grass and/or minerality.
2009 Herzog Petite Sirah – Score: B++
The nose on this black colored wine starts off closed and very unapproachable. However with time, the nose explodes with black cherry, blackberry, plum, hints of blueberry, black currant, light mocha, tar, tobacco, mounds of black pepper, roasted meats, oak, and floral notes of rose or violet. The mouth on this full bodied wine becomes rich and mouth coating with lovely tannins that are soft but still integrating. Along with pepper, tar, blackcurrant blackberry, and a hint of blueberry. The mid palate is packed with acid, tar, tobacco, oak, and lovely floral notes. The finish starts off stunted and short – DO NOT fret, it will open! The finish is long and sensuous with mocha, floral notes, blackcurrant, tobacco, and black pepper. Floral notes, blackcurrant, tobacco, blackberry, and oak linger long after the wine is gone.
2004 Chateau Labegorce Lede Margaux – Score: B to B+ (DRINK UP!!)
I know Daniel Rogov believes this wine is still alive and active, but the bottle I had was not over its peak, but clearly not as enjoyable as the one he tasted. It was nice but lacked so much body that it felt dead. The tannins and acid on this wine are clearly still kicking but I do not believe this wine is getting any better – drink up and open one hour in advance.
The nose on this dark garnet to mahogany colored wine is filled with tobacco, chocolate, cedar, raspberry, blackberry, herbs, and lovely dirt. The mouth on this medium bodied wine was nice and round with lovely tannin, blackberry, raspberry, and a touch of currant. The mid palate is bracing with acid, tannin, chocolate, herbs, and smoky characteristics. The finish is long, nice, and smoky with oak, blackberry, raspberry, dirt, chocolate, and herbs. Drink UP!!!
2001 Celler de Capçanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera, Montsant – Score: A- to A (DRINK UP!!)
Drink up – this wine is lovely but is really at its peak or a drop past it!! The score from previous tasting is a bit lower then the first score we gave this wine, and the same as my second tasting, but not because of tannins. Rather the score is a bit lower this time because of the color and age on the bottle. The notes are very much in line with my previous tasting except for color and tannin, but the structure is the same. I recommend opening the bottle 1 hour ahead of time, and NO more than that and enjoying it then. This bottle will not last four hours after opening, so drink now and enjoy.
The nose on this deep black colored wine, with a bit of a brown halo, is popping with blackberry, plum, cassis, sweet cedar, herbs, raspberry, licorice, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied and mouth coating wine is now smooth and layered with blackberry, plum, black currant, and cassis. The mid palate is packed with lovely tannins, bright acidity, and concentrated black fruit that comes at you in layers. The finish is super long, spicy, and concentrated with cloves, herbs, blackberry, plum, raspberry, chocolate, tobacco, and sweet cedar. The wine lingers long with cedar, plum, tobacco, vanilla, and chocolate.
2003 Covenant Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A- closer to A
Are you kidding me! This wine is as close to “filthy” as it gets without being covered in dirt and muck! This puppy is downright crazy, lovely, and insane! This wine was the clear winner of the evening, even against my clear, biased wines that I have a love affair with, the 1996 Four Gates Chardonnay and the 2001 Capcanes. Both were really nice, but in the end, fell a bit short, each for different reasons. This wine was the clear winner, and for bloody good reason! One other crazy thought, when this wine finally calmed down and lost some of its special characteristics, it was VERY close to the Capcanes. To the point where they were almost brothers, excepting for the color, where the Capcanes was clearly going brown and the Covenant being black as day.
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is packed with rich ripe blackberry, tobacco, chocolate/mocha, crushed herbs, black currant, vanilla, raspberry, plum, and sweet oak. The mouth on this blockbuster medium to full bodied wine is concentrated, layered and mouth coating with lovely and almost integrated tannins, blackberry, black currant, raspberry, and ripe plum. The mid palate flows off the mouth with balancing acid, sweet oak, mocha, tobacco, and more nice tannins. The finish is long, spicy, and continuous and, while maybe being the best part of this wine, which is saying a lot, with sweet cedar in the fire box, a long puff from a fat stogie, a warm cup of mocha in your hand, while munching on blackberry, black currant, and vanilla. Tobacco, plum, blackberry, and sweet cedar linger long on the palate.
2004 Yarden Merlot – Score: A-
This is a clear and powerful wine and one that when compared side by side with the other wines we enjoyed in the evening came across as over the top. The nose on this dark garnet colored wine was screaming with extra ripe and sweet plum, blackberry, and cassis, along with spicy oak, crushed herbs, and tobacco. The mouth on this intense and full bodied wine hits you up front with super ripe fruit, spicy and still active tannin, and cassis, blackberry, and plum. The mid palate is balanced with nice acidity, sweet cedar, lovely tannin, and sweet cedar. The finish is super long and extracted with tobacco, oak, black fruit and herbs. A nice wine that is fine for a couple more years but one I always have trouble with given its intensely ripe black fruit and mounds of oak.
2006 Alaverdi Akhasheni – Score: B to B+
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is hopping with dark cherry, candied fruit, perfumed nose, floral notes of violet, lovely chocolate, dates, and spice. The mouth on this full bodied wine is velvety, mouth coating, and enriched by the residual sugar of this semi-sweet wine, along with dark cherry, date, nice tannin, a bit too much residual sweetness, and candied fruit. The mid palate is balanced with acid, lovely tannin, oak, chocolate, and spice. The finish is super long and rich with candied fruit, sweetness, cherry, and oak. The wine linger long with chocolate, date, and spice.
A nice Celler de Capcanes Peraj Petita and a not so great Pasta Sauce
I have been trying to make meatballs with less meat and more vegetables, and finally with a binder that is gluten-free. I started to research the subject on the web, and I found that you could use well sautéed onion, mushrooms, eggplant, and zucchini as a binder. So I thought this was great, until I tried it and well, let’s say that it was nothing short of a disaster. I believe I added too many vegetables, and used ground turkey (which is softer and less dense than ground cow meat). So, we threw it all together and tried to make a meat sauce, and well that did not work for me – but heck I tried. I am not giving up on my dream of building the perfect vegetable and meat ball with a low-calorie gluten-free binder.
We made some nice fettuccine and a nice fresh green salad to go along with the ill-fated pasta sauce. We pulled a bottle of 2006 Celler de Capcanes Peraj Petita to pair with the dinner. The wine does not come close to its bigger brother, but nice all the same. The quest for knowledge does not stop on failure, but still, I am bummed out. More trials will be coming, but until then, eat we must.
The wine note follows below:
2006 Celler de Capcanes Monstant Peraj Petita – Score: B+
The nose on this ruby towards garnet colored wine pops with cassis, plum, sweet rich notes, raspberry, an almost enveloping nose, with a bit of pepper. The mouth on this medium bodied wine has plum, cassis, and raspberry, with an almost mouth coating consistency, and integrating tannins. The mid palate is balanced with core acidity, a hint of oak, and mouth coating tannins. The finish is long with bright red fruit, vanilla, and a hint of leather.
Three great wines from Spain, Israel, and the U.S.A. (and a dud) along with some great food
Three weeks ago saw us hosting a meal with a bride and groom to be, family, the bride’s parents, and Benyamin Cantz as usual. To us they are all family and we were so honored to have them over a week before the wedding day. In honor of this wonderful occasion, we cracked open some wonderful wines and Benyamin brought a pair of wonderful wines, one that we have had before, and one that is still under wraps. We did have one dud that shocked me greatly given Daniel’s rating of it, but so it goes. For this dinner we started with lovely roasted squash bisque. Yeah, I said bisque – simply because most of the famous roasted squash soups calls for a ton of cream or soup stock and they render the soup into essentially a thin and boring presentation of such a lovely vegetable. So we decided that this was not going to work. Instead we went with a hybrid. We roasted two sliced squash for 1 and a half hour. While that was going on, we browned quite nicely a pair of diced/sliced onions while the roasting was going on. Once that was done, we threw the lightly blackened squash into our large soup pot, and threw in a bottle of white wine. We then puréed the pot until it was a bit mushy, but not creamy or thinner.  Instead it was thick bisque. On top of that we threw in, what we thought was, a bit too much orange zest (which worked out in the end), thyme, and nutmeg. Yes, this soup does match well with the season, but that was not the inclination for making the soup. Rather, there was a cold spell coming through the area, and we wanted to have a thick and warm soup to start off the meal.
Roasted Squash Soup
2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed into large chunks
Olive Oil Spray
Garlic, Nutmeg
3 onions
Bottle of white wine
Vegetable Stock – if more liquid is needed
Grated Ginger
Orange Zest
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Cooked chickpeas
Cayenne pepper (if you can handle it)
Peel and cube the squash and lay them in an oiled baking sheet. Spray them with olive oil and sprinkle garlic powder and nutmeg over them. Bake them at 400 degrees until slightly blackened. While roasting the squash, we browned the pair of diced/sliced onions quite well. Once that was done, we threw the lightly blackened squash into our large soup pot, and threw in a bottle of white wine. We then puréed the pot until it was a bit mushy, but not creamy or thin. Once the soup consistency starts to change, grate the ginger and orange zest, drop in cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Honestly, I rarely follow amounts. I add till it tastes right. Once the bisque is in motion and mixing well, we throw in the cooked chickpeas to add a cool twist of texture. I personally love to add in cayenne pepper, but many do not.
After the soup we served meat lasagna, along with roasted green beans, spinach quiche, and fresh green salad. The dinner worked well, and the wines paired wonderfully. We had six bottles in total. Benyamin brought three and we opened three as well. Benyamin brought two experimental bottles that will remain undefined for now and one bottle of a 1999 Bustan Merlot. I opened a 2001 Yarden Ortal Merlot, a 2001 Capcanes Peraj Ha’Abib, and a 2002 Capcanes Peraj Ha’Abib. The Bustan was a massive dud, while the three that we opened up were fantastic – thank you :-).
I do not have an official tasting note for the 1999 Bustan Merlot, but to say the least it was DOA (Dead On Arrival). The wine, to be fair, was full in the mouth, but it had almost no fruit and no real complexity at all. What it did have was a nice mouth and that was about it. Really a shame. The other three wine notes can be found below in the order they were drunk:
2002 Cellar de Capçanes Peraj Ha’abib, Flor de Primavera, Montsant – Score: A-
This was either the clear winner or it came in tied with the 2001 Yarden Ortal Merlot. The nose on this crazy black colored wine was screaming with rich tobacco, sweet oak, super ripe plum, blackberry, cassis, and raspberry. The mouth on this full bodied wine has now soft tannins, sweet oak, blackberry, plum, and tobacco. The mid palate is smooth with balanced acidity, and soft mouth coating tannins. The finish is super long and extracted in a polished manner, with more acid, tobacco, black fruit, and licorice. What a wonderful wine, I have no more, but again very happy that I drank it at a nice point in its life curve.
2001 Cellar de Capçanes Montsant Peraj Ha’abib Flor de Primavera – Score: A-
The nose on this deep black colored wine is popping with blackberry, plum, cassis, sweet oak, licorice, and tobacco. The mouth on this full bodied wine is still clearly tannic in nature and far from integrated. The mouth is layered with sweet oak, blackberry and cassis. The mid palate is packed with not yet integrated tannins, bright acidity, and concentrated black fruit that comes at you in layers. Where the 2002 vintage has integrated tannins, this vintage has mouth puckering tannins. The finish is super long and concentrated with dark chocolate, tobacco, more black fruit, and acidity. Quite a nice wine as well, but still not quite there yet. I have scored this bottle a bit lower than our previous tasting, because of the tannins, but the rest is holding well, though I missed the mint this time around.
2001 Yarden Ortal Vineyard Merlot – Score: A-
Thank God this wine is back! The last time we tasted this wine it was as close to a dud as this wine can be :-). Now it is back, it is sleek and beautiful. The nose on this dark purple colored win is alive and talkative, with blackberry, ripe plum, licorice, and rich oak. The mouth on this full bodied wine is mouth coating and plush with layers upon layers of ripe plums, blackberry, and integrating mouth coating tannins. The mid palate is popping with balancing acid, chocolate, and roasted herbs. The finish is luxurious and long with more black fruit, chocolate, tobacco, and sweet oak. Thank goodness this wine is back. It was either a close second place finish to the 2002 Capcanes or it was tied. By score alone it was in second place, but thanks goodness man does not live upon score alone, but by the word, expression, and feelings that a wine leaves you with after it is long gone.
This past week’s wine….
2000 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A
I have blogged about this one – but it has improved. I think I gave it a score of A-. That is old news. This wine is still a beautiful golden straw color. The nose is getting stronger. It is replete with peach, citrus, apricot, creme, and vanilla. The mouth of medium to full bodied wine is almost velvety smooth but still kicking. The fruit forward nose flows through to the mouth. The fresh fruit flavors, peach and citrus are very evident and they are joined with tight wood to make a melodic conversation that is complex with layers – but not annoyingly such that it would get in the way of enjoying it. The wine is great by itself – but even better with some nice hard cheeses (because of its acidic nature), fish and roasted chicken. The clean yet complex lines make this a real winner.
2004 Four Gates Chardonnay – Score: A-
The nose on this straw colored wine has lychee, citrus, apple, and wood aromas. The mouth of this medium bodied wine is filled with citrus, peaches, and lychee. The wine is complex with sweet wood and spice that play in tandem with each other and make the long finish quite enjoyable. This wine has filled out since my last tasting. It continues to get fatter and a bit more buttery. Nice with heavier foods.
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