Rebel Rose

Thank you, Brad and Arielle. I am honored to be included in the eGullet team! My feet are size 5, so I can never hope to fill Craig's shoes, but I know I can fill mine perfectly. (Fortunately, we will still have Craig around to keep us "on our toes." ) My primary goal is to help new and returning visitors feel as comfortable in our forum as I felt when I first stumbled in. So, let's have fun!

The theme is "Provincial," which could certainly include Provençal, but I think the idea is to keep it simple. Three artisanal wineries will be sponsoring a progressive black-tie dinner focused on Rhones. A group of forty will gather in our home for the kickoff, and I need to plan my offerings and set a budget this weekend. The main course, served at Pipestone Winery, will be steak and morels prepared by Claude Chazalon. Dessert, at Linne Calodo, will be a chocolate cake stuffed with truffles. Dan and I like to cook, so we're looking for suggestions that we can prepare ourselves. I'm leaning toward finger food, with selections plated up ahead of time, simply because to me, eating with a fork makes me feel full, even if it's a tiny serving. I want to entice the appetite. Tease. Leave them begging for more. I'm thinking . . . tiny quiches prepared in madeleine tins, along with maybe, a nice cheese with candied lemon and fig, but I need . . .

Well, here I was googling around for recipes, and what do I find? A reference to eGullet, of course. Duh. I'm in charge of appetizers for a December progressive dinner, and the theme is French Provincial. Rather than post in the food forum, I thought I'd ask here first, since you guys are the gustatory experts, for your most memorable pairings with Rhone wines. I can offer a floral viognier (not the one you tried, Brad, but it's still pretty big), a grenache-based blend, and a smoky syrah. I'm leaning toward the viognier and the blend, since syrah will be served with the main course.

Sigh. I need to lose fifteen, but I don't think I can do without wine entirely. I went to Fitday.com and typed in what I consume during a typical day. The purple wedge (wine) is at least 30% of my calories. I know! I'll just cut out the protein and carbs!

That's a great menu for an impromptu gathering. No wonder you have so many friends!

Great travel logue, Jim, a culinary ride-a-long. I had a Cabernet epiphany a while back, and I wasn't even drinking the stuff. I was preparing food for our annual Superbowl party, but I had been reading Laube's cabernet reviews in WS. Although I think we all agree that he is very consistent, which is desirable in a reviewer, I was thinking how different our taste in cabs are. He likes cherry, cassis, leather, cherry, cassis, leather, cherry, cassis, leather . . . herbal notes are sometimes given a doubtful nod, sometimes a thumb down. I like herbs and pepper in cabernet! And I thought, 'A plain cab is as bland as . . . cherry pie.' And then I thought, 'Hey, why should cherry pie be boring?' So I made a homemade crust with tons of Parmesan and fresh ground black pepper and whipped out a cherry pie with a little more pepper in the filling. It was the hit of the dessert lineup, and went well with our casual array of red wine! It's kind of sad that thinking about cabernet and cherry pie together made me feel bad for the pie.

Thank you, Craig. I hope we will continue to enjoy your warm presence and insight into the Italian wine scene. Words cannot express how much I am going to miss your leadership.

Michael M, 'toasted' is simply a word we use to indicate that the seeds, or pips, have matured fully. When a grape is completely ripe and balanced, one of the signs we look for are seeds that are brown and toasty. They should crunch between our teeth with a pleasant pop and a flavor like nuts or popcorn. If the grape looks ripe and has high sugar, but the seeds are still green and bitter, it indicates that the grapes are out of balance, and we could have a problem with an acid-to-pH balance. Another problem might be that an otherwise deep and fruity wine will have astringent, 'green' tannins instead of soft, cinnamon-like tannin. This is one of the, ahem, scientific methods we use in the field, and again when the grapes arrive at the winery. (Who can resist a handful?) Before harvest, however, we also gather clusters from various parts of each vineyard and test them in the lab to evaluate them mainly for balance.

Don't reach for the geritol yet!! We're just trying to figure out where the demographics are for 10 million cases! I also know twenty-somethings and young parents who buy it. Besides, I'm told I look fifteen years younger than my true age, and since 75% of my calories come from wine, it must be the proanthocyanadolic oligamers!

Thank you, smallworld! That's one of the best articles on sulfites I've ever read. I encourage everyone interested in the subject to check it out.

Yikes. I will have to print this out to remember it all. Thanks for all the great suggestions so far!!!! But don't stop now . . .

Well, take for example the pepper sauce discussion above. Without a little residual sugar, sometimes a spicy grape, like Gewurtztraminer, might taste a little bizarre. There are dry gewurtzes out there, and it's a stylistic decision of course, but sometimes that little trace of sugar somehow helps amplify a spicy component. In addition, many northern Rhones include up to 5% Viognier, an extremely fragrant white wine, in the blend. While the Viognier itself may or may not be sweet, its floral profile adds fruit and often highlights that elusive violet aroma in the Rhones. Sugar might also help balance a high alcohol wine like a zinfandel by toning down a potentially hot mouthfeel. It will not rescue a wine that is not otherwise in balance. For instance, a raisiny, poorly racked, high alcohol zin with sweetness will just taste like a raisiny, reduced, hot, sweet zin. But a zin picked at optimum ripeness with great pigment, flavor and toast pips may benefit from a .2 to .5 RS. As for a heavy texture, that is often contributed by higher alcohols, so sugar doesn't really "create" a heavy texture, but in a rich, heavy-bodied wine, sugar adds to the 'perception' of heavy. KJ Chard is a good example, it seems completely dry, yet has a deep, buttery mouthfeel that people find very appealing. I think it's a perfectly acceptable chardonnay (when not offered anything more exciting).

Donk79, thanks for sharing your notes on the Vin de Glacier. You're right, some vintages have been better than others! GrandCru, I think it will be my turn to host our "ladies' book club " in February, and I'm thinking of a dessert wine gathering, with baklava and other sweet, and savory, snacks that might go with white dessert wines and champagne. For a light pairing, what's your favorite with Sauternes?

Helenjp, I thought of you this weekend . . . an American couple living in the Carribean came to taste. They were a little stuffy at first, but somehow we got on the subject of peppers, which should be on the national flag there I guess, and which we happen to have in abundance here in Paso. They said they were experimenting with their own pepper sauce, but had to dispose of batch after batch, until they added sugar. It seemed to balance the heat and highlight the flavors . . . which naturally led to recipe swapping and an interesting discussion on delicate yet sweet wines.

You're very sweet to think I'm that thorough. I'm afraid my approach to pouring is more like, "Well this here's our Bella Zin, and this here's our Old Vine Zin. I think ya'oughta try 'em side by side. Whaddya think?" To answer your other question, most of my encounters are in the tasting room, but I also teach wine tasting courses and food and wine pairing seminars. Generally in a small group of professionals, it's easier to discuss residual sugar. In the tasting room or at trade tastings, where people simply approach and taste, is where I encounter sucraphobia. I'm not concerned about how to handle that as a representative. I just think this would be a great place to celebrate all the wonderful, slightly sweet wines out there.

Can I use that? Meanwhile, let's move the dessert wine notes here, and continue with a discussion of 'slightly sweet' in this thread. I'd like newcomers to the world of wine to feel comfortable with a trace of residual sugar. After all, it emphasizes spice, balances high alcohol, and helps create a heavy texture in wine.

I humbly admit it. Of the readily available US dessert wines, I have many uses for the Bonny Doon Framboise (raspberry dessert wine). The Vin de Glaciere, which I'm sure will be discussed later, is lovely but expensive for many people. The Framboise half-bottle is an explosion of pure raspberry flavor. After an exhausting, foot-swelling wine festival I've been known to bypass every other wine and pour an aperitif glass (in my case, a vodka glass) of chilled Framboise, put up said feet, and just breathe for 10 minutes. For the holidays, Framboise with fresh, pitted dates stuffed with a fingerful of cream cheese, topped with a raspberry and tiny slivers of toasted almond, drizzled with Framboise.

Dover Dan once tested KJ in a lab, and indeed it does have hefty residual sugar. Which is not to say that it isn't a silky, consistent, fruity production. But hey, it's not dry . . .

The discussion in Wine 101: Tannin reminds me of an experience I had a few years ago . . . An elderly lady announced to me firmly and loudly that she "only likes dry wines." I poured the chardonnay. She immediately retched into the spit bucket and declared, "Oooh, that's sour!" Where did this snobbery come from? I encounter visitors frequently who pass over anything 'sweet.' Even if our viognier is completely dry (and it isn't always), tasters will turn up their noses if they even suspect it is. God forbid I should try to pour a dessert wine. I've actually had people snatch their glasses away, leaving me in the foolish position of pouring wine on the table. With the holidays coming, we should probably have a 'Fabulous Dessert Wine' thread, with food pairing (ala Jim) but what about all those wonderful wines that have just a trace of residual sugar? Why are American wine drinkers so sucraphobic?

Niiiice! Dang, those are good ideas!

You are correct in that there are two different types of 'dryness' in a wine. The first is a lack of residual sugar. However, a wine can be techically dry and yet still so exuberantly fruity that it might give a perception of sweetness, simply because people associate it with summer fruits or fruit salad. The second experience of dryness comes from the tannins, as Katie pointed out. The extra astringency of the tannins add to the 'dryness' effect. As an example, yesterday I had a couple in the tasting room who wanted to bounce around the tasting list. They ended up with our Bordeaux blend at the same time. The gentleman came to it after three white wines, and remarked that it was dry and very tannic. His companion tried it after the syrah, and she thought it was deeply fruity, like cherry skins, plums, and cinnamon.

Wines should indeed be balanced, but everyone's palate is sensitive to different characteristics. All you need is confidence in your own taste. Understanding the concept of tannins, however, will help you understand why you might like some wines more than others. And I'm sure there are some excellent wines with tannic backbone in the 'Eminently Drinkable Plonk' thread! A few years ago, I was writing back labels for Norman Vineyard, and Art Norman gave me a bottle of his (then $12) No Nonsense Red. It was made from barrel 'leftovers' of his estate Cabernet and Zinfandel, and a neighbor's Cab Franc. I had a glass while I prepped my dinner, another glass while I cooked dinner, a glass with dinner . . . it was tannic, but so yummy I polished off the bottle all by myself, and in the morning I couldn't remember a durn thing. Talk about 'creative writing.'

Wine 101: Tannin Wine is such a mysterious beverage. We sniff it, quaff it, swizzle it, and then come up with all these wild descriptors: cassis, meadow, leather, mushroom. Where do all these elusive aromas and flavors come from? Partly from the grape, partly from aging in oak, (partly from our imaginations), and partly from tannin. Tannins are a group of chemicals that occur in the bark of many trees, cinnamon is an example, and in fruits, including grapes. Tannins are also present in black tea, and cause the astringent, drying effect that you experience after several cups of strong tea. You'll also notice a dry, sandpapery effect in your mouth after eating a whole bunch of table grapes. The tannins in grapes are a woody substance in the skin and seeds. The pulp of a grape is mostly juice, as you can see if you slice a grape open. This is why wine grapes are generally small and round. Table grapes seem to get larger, longer, and more seedless every year (and in my opinion, a little more tasteless). Wine grapes, unattended in rich soil, can also become quite large. I have seen bunches of zinfandel grapes as long as my forearm and as heavy as a small salmon. But this is exactly what winemakers do not want. Smaller grapes have a higher skin-to-juice ratio, resulting in wines with color, flavor and tannin. Some grapes, like Syrah, Nebbiolo and Cabernet Sauvignon have naturally higher levels of tannin than other grapes. Winemaking styles also preserve or delete some of the tannins in wine. Tannins, which are insignificant in white wines, quite strong in young reds, and softened in older red wines, have a drying effect on the palate. Sometimes wine tasters claim that a completely dry wine tastes "sweet" to them. What they may be tasting, however, is a dry, fruity wine that has very little of the drying astringency contributed by young tannins. Tannins are derived from flavanoids by condensing together catechin and proanthocyanidins. Catechin, a natural compound used in tanning hides, is also making press in health reports these days as one of nature's compounds responsible for maintaining a healthy heart. Proanthocyanidins simply mean pro (from), cyan (blue), antho (plants); meaning a complex of substances derived from blue fruits like grapes and plums. White wines are made without much contact between the juice and skins. Without the blue pigments and flavors of red grapes, the skins of white grapes are simply bitter, and are discarded early in the winemaking process. Woody flavors in white wines are generally contributed by oak. Red wines, however, are allowed to ferment for up to ten days with their skins and seeds, sometimes stems as well. In fact, as the skins and seeds float to the top, winemakers and cellarmen make an effort to punch them back down into the wine several times a day; much the same as stirring a slow-cooking pasta sauce. Tannins play an important role in the aging of wine, particularly red wine, and need careful mastery during wine-making as they can taste bitter and astringent if the fruit is squeezed too hard in the press, or if the skins are left in the juice too long. Handling the skins and seeds during winemaking is one of the most critical steps in optimizing the quality and character of red wine. Tannins in wine come from both the grapes, and the wood in which it was aged. However, the tannin in wood differs in significant ways from grape tannins. And since wine barrels hold fifty-five gallons or more of wine, the ratio of wine to wood is less and the effect gentler. Over time, as wines mature in the barrel, and particularly as they age in the bottle, tannins are removed. The tannin molecules agglomerate and polymerize, chaining together to form larger, more complex substances, so that eventually those molecules above a certain size precipitate as sediment and no longer have any bitter or astringent effect on the palate. Medium-sized polymerized tannins interact with the proteins of taste buds sensitive to bitterness, while larger ones function as tanning agents and a natural preservative. This is why well-made red wines can age for years, while white wines should generally be drunk young. This is also why it's difficult to properly taste white wines after drinking red wines. The drying effect of tannin results in what we call "palate fatigue." I generally suggest to wine tasters that instead of tasting the entire gamut of white and red wines at several wineries, that they set up a wine "quest" for the weekend, and only taste whites or reds, but not both. It's also possible, if you are confused about whether you like wines that are sweetish or completely dry, that you prefer a certain level of tannin and oak. There are many levels of tannin structure in wines, in addition to the varying elusive flavors of the grapes. The next time you go wine tasting or buy a new brand of wine, take your time and study its aroma, its flavors, and that leathery, woody, seedy component called tannin.

Mmm, except we use an ozenator on all our barrels regularly, and only one wine right now has that "fresh forest after a rain" scent. After talking with two winemakers yesterday, the mini-consensus is that it's simply one of the aromas present in certain varietals.

Back to the oriiginal concept of the thread, Mark Sommelier put it well in the second post -- "Go global or die." Does that appeal to you? Or not? And why?