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Four Gates Shabbos, Willm Riesling, and Tal Ronen’s fantastic vegan paella
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.
Willm Gewurztraminer, ElviWines Matiz Rioja, Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
This past week saw us eating at our brother’s house and we brought over a few bottles of wine. The dinner started with a sweet and sour Salmon, so we complimented it with the newly released 2008 Willm Gewurztraminer. On an aside, this is the very first time that one of the famous houses of Alsace has released a kosher wine, super cool! The wine’s crazy alcohol content is some 16% – and I think it was higher! The mouth is super rich, with lychee, apple, and honeyed flavors, and DRY! Forget about that sweet and cloying like wines that some of you folks drink for Kiddush or desert. Nope this is a classic Alsace Gewurztraminer, which is dry and honeyed and can stand up to sour and/or spicy foods. In many ways it tastes like a Viognier, except without a drop of sweet oak or sweet flavors. That said, the sweetness comes along in a weird way because of extremely high alcohol and not because of a heavy perfume and/or residual sugars.
After the bottle disappeared between the meal occupants, my sister-in-law brought out a bevy of main courses – four of them I think, along with an abundance of side dishes. The main courses consisted of a beauty roast, potatoes and meatballs, pepper steak, and shoulder roast. The side dishes were large and varied, along with some nice kibbeh and Moroccan cigars. My sister-in-law made a ton of food, and many others, brought over food, and it was a crazy feast.
We had a two wines to pair with the rich meat dishes and both of them were nice, but the clear winner was the 2003 Ella Valley Cabernet. The other wine was the 2008 Elvi Wines Matiz Rioja. The Matiz was awesome out of the gate with rich chocolate and tobacco on the nose and mouth, but that petered out quickly and what we were left with was a slightly boring wine, to be honest. The EV Cab on the other hand was a multi layered and complex wine that was just awesome. Really a nice showing for the winery, and it is not even the acclaimed Vineyard Choice.
Thank you my brother and family, and I hope to share many more happy occasions. The food and the ambiance were killer! The wine notes follow below:
2008 Willm Gewurztraminer – Score: B – B+
The nose on this rich golden yellow color, is hot from its 16% alcohol, along with honeycomb, jasmine, lemon, lychee, and a touch of mineral. The mouth on this medium bodied wine is viscous and tastes somewhat sweet while not being so (an offshoot of the alcohol). It follows with a Muscat like flavor that helps to pick up the rest of the mouth that consists of honeydew, apple, and orange juice. The mid palate is light on acidity and bitter from mineral flavors. The finish is medium long with a strong honey presence and some bitterness that trails out of the mid palate. This is an OK wine, but it lacks balance, crispness, and is a bit too bitter.
2008 ElviWines Matiz Rioja – Score: B+
The nose on this dark garnet, 100% Tempranillo wine, starts right out of the bottle with a powerful nose of chocolate and tobacco. As the wine opens up, the chocolate and tobacco give way to cherry and raspberry notes. The mouth on this full bodied wine is smooth and concentrated, with cherry and raspberry fruit that follow the nose. The mid palate is bright enough to balance out the wine while sharing space with a hint of tannins that are integrating nicely. The finish is long with a return of the cherry fruit, acidity, on a bed tobacco leaves and chocolate candy.
2003 Ella Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – Score: A
The nose on this dark garnet to black colored wine is hopping with blackberry, cassis, plum, sweet oak, and roasted herbs. The mouth of this brooding, complex, and multi layered wine is really nice with black fruit that comes at you in layers after layers of blackberry and plum. The mid palate flows nicely from the layers of fruit with oak, bracing acidity, and integrating tannins. The finish is extra long with black fruit from the mouth, along with hints of sweet oak, tobacco, and spice.
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