Headed "north" with a 2006 Hans Lang Charta Trocken Riesling and homemade Borscht.

2006 Hans Lang Charta Trocken Riesling - Rheingau

I'll start with the wine because I've been excited to crack this one open.  Rieslings are one of my first loves when it comes to wine.  This goes back to when I first started reading about wine.  Almost all my studies have begun with Alsace, France and riesling.  Although they relatively come from the same part of the world, German rieslings have a unique character that can't be found anywhere else in the world.

This "trocken" (dry) riesling was true to its label.  There was no residual sugar on the palate, but there was still plenty of aromatic fruit to go around.  As I've been re-reading some of my older wine post I realize that my strict-to-ISG standard tasting notes are not the most user friendly, so I'm going to try something new: para-phrased, sentence form tasting notes (although I still have my notebook with ISG tasting notes if you ever want to see thorough, objective tasting notes).

With a beautifully faint, yellow tinge and swift but well-defined legs, my first impression was that this wine was going to have a little residual sugar considering its 12.5% alcohol (although that is fairly high for a typical German riesling).  On the nose the fruit is sweet and very ripe.  It almost reminded me of a basket full of delicate fruits that have been sitting out a couple days too long.  Another drag at the nose and the definite mineral backbone and sweet honey and petrol notes emerge.

Then it hits your palate.  Wow, this a dry riesling.  No residual sugar, crisp but in check acidity and low alcohol give this riesling some serious body and length on the tongue.  The fruit on the palate is less expresive than on the nose, giving more evidence of bruised, ripe yellow apples and tangy, sweet persimmons.  Again, there is that minerality that does almost as much for the structure of this wine as its acidity.  I would imagine that is why good riesling, and this is a good riesling, can take some bottle age.

Check out this interview with Mr. Lang:

http://www.trulyfinewine.com/videos/winery_hanslangvideo.html

Borscht

So what do you eat with riesling?  (I guess most people ask what you drink with food, but often find myself a bit flip-flopped.)  Cold weather food of course!  My inspiration to make this Russian beet soup was inspired by the sour beets recipe in the book Wild Fermentation which was gifted to me by a friend.

First, I julienned a HUGE beet into long strips and fermented it for two weeks with caraway seeds in a saltwater brine.  Similar to my Porotos Granados recipe, I sweated the garlic and onions and then added the chopped potatoes, carrots, celery and beets.  I also added some ground, pan-toasted caraway seeds and about a tablespoon of fresh dill.  Then, I added boiling water, stired and lowered the heat to simmer for 20 minutes.

Topped with a nice quenelle of sour cream and some more fresh dill, here is the finished product:

2004 Chateau Bélair Premier Grand Cru Classé Saint Émilion

2004 Chateau Bélair Premier Grand Cru Classé Saint Émilion

Appearance:

Clear, deep ruby core w/ red rim variation, high - intensity with staining in the legs, med viscosity.

Nose:

Clean, high intensity, tart black cherries, tart black currants, jammy blackberries.  Organic earth notes, mushrooms and marshland.  Lots of oak, sweet baking spice, cigar box, leather, tobacco, spicy herbs, thyme and cedar.

Palate:

Med body, med acidity, med + length on the tongue, med + grape tannins, med (+) oak tannins.  Black cherries, black currants, tart black berries.  Organic earth, dense woody mushrooms and stoney minerality.  Lots of oak, sweet & spicy herbs, leather, tobacco, cigar box, cedar.

This wine is still very young!  The tart fruit still pierces through the sweet and spicy oak.  Good acidity, low alcohol and plenty of structure leave me curious how it will mature in 5, 10 and 20 years!

A classic Chilean lunch: Porotos granados, pollo asado and cebollas escabeche.

Making this meal actually started a few months ago.  One of my favorite memories of Chile was spending time at the market in Temuco where you can walk around and find Cebollas Escabeche in bulk: 

These red-wine vinegar pickled onions were one of my favorite snacks and I had been thinking about making them.  So I did:

All you have to do is quarter a medium sized yellow onion almost all the way through and skewer each quarter through the center with a knife.  Place them in a jar with a nicer red wine vinegar and let them soak in a cool dark place.  They can be eaten from a few weeks to a few months.  I am just finishing the first batch I made almost 6 months ago.

Traditionally, you eat Cebollas Escabeche dipped in salt as a condiment to go with a corn and bean stew called Porotos Granados.  Right now in Seattle the most accessible fresh beans I was able find were fava beans.  I would also use lima or navy beans.  Here is the recipe for about 4 servings:

Porotos Granados:

3 tbsp olive oil
4 coarsely diced garlic cloves
1 medium chopped onion
2 red fresno peppers, seeds removed and diced
1 med chopped tomato
3 ears of corn on the cob, kernels cut off of cob
2 1/2 lbs fava beans pods, removed from pod and removed radicle (the little embryonic stem)
1/2 kobocha squash (or other green skinned, orange flesh winter squash
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp kosher or sea salt
4 pinches of fresh chopped cilantro (or basil) for garnish

Sweat the onion, garlic, peppers and cumin in olive oil with a little salt over high heat until fragrant.  Add the tomato until it starts to fall apart a little bit.  Add the corn and stir well.  Add the beans and stir well.  Add the squash and stir well.  Cover with boiling water and stir, then lower heat to medium-low.  Stir occasionally until beans  and squash are soft, about 25 min.  Garnish with fresh cilantro.

I served this with 1/2 a broiled chicken.  Just rub the halved chicken with olive oil and liberally apply salt and pepper.  Place in the center rack of the oven on a baking tray, skin side down at 325* F until almost fully cooked.  Then flip and turn on the broiler until the skin gets crispy and a little charred.

All you need now is to put out your Cebollas Escabeche with salt for dipping and a little pebre (hot sauce with cilantro, oilve oil and finely minced garlic) for the chicken.  Now there is a CLASSIC Chilean lunch.  Grab yourself a nice bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc and you might as well be in Chile!

2009 Burgans Albariño Rias Baixas DO

Appearance:

Clear, transparent, low + intensity, straw color w/ green flints, low + viscosity.

Nose:

Clean, high intensity, citrus: key limes, stone fruit: tart nectarines and plum, tropical fruit: mango, and green apples.  Inorganic earth: chalk, granite and chalkboard.  No noticeable wood.  Lots of aromatics, white flowers, lilies.

Palate:

Clean, med acidity, low alcohol, no tannins, med - body, med + length on tongue, Green apples, plum and tart plum skins, tropical fruit.  Earth: well-structured inorganic minerality: chalk and granite.  No noticeable wood.

As the wine open up and warms up a little, I am wondering if this wine did see a little oak aging.   All of the incredible aromatics of a stainless white wine are there, but it develops that body on the tongue that a little oak can bring out in a white.  With that, there is still very little oak influence on the palate.

This albariño is one of the most balanced I've had, with acidity, lush mouthfeel and incredible aromatics!  Awesome! My new favorite albariño.  This wine is part of the Eric Solomon portfolio.

A Trip to the Northern Willamette Valley, Oregon

One of my strongest desires is to learn wines from the "root" to the glass.  Recently I had the opportunity to head to the Willamette Valley to do just that: walk the vineyards, browse the wineries and sample the tasting rooms.

The Willamette Valley is home to some of my favorite Oregon winemakers.  They are known for their earthy Pinots Noirs, and seeing the land on which they grow and the environment they grow within gives you deeper appreciation for that mysterious term: terrior.

This is a view of the Torii Mor vineyard in the Dundee Hills appelation.  At the time of this tour, in early April, many of the vineyards are in the spring pruning phase.  Many of the local vineyards are trimming their vines low using the Guyot Training System (Single Guyot Training pictured above).

To give you an idea of how moist the Northern Willamette valley is, this is a picture of the woods atop the lichen and moss rich hills.  This is the image that comes to mind when I'm picking up those "forest floor" or "organic earth" notes that I love in a deep, complex Pinot Noir.  It makes sense that some of the ambient yeast from the appellation find their way into the winemaking process, leaving their "I was here" mark.

The Torii Mor tasting room Pinot Noir lineup: from left to right they have their Black Label, Deux Verres, Chehalem Mountains Select and the Temperance Hill Vineyard productions.  All of their wines were incredible, displaying unique personalities.  Yet, the Deux Verres was one of my favorites as the signature "Burgundian" style wine from Jacques Tardy, a fifth generation Burgundian winemaker (2008 Deux Verres Info).

Here is a view of the Double Guyot trained vines from the Lange Estate Vineyard in the foreground and a view down into the Willamette Valley in the background.  There is a fairly significant elevation change between the lower parts of the valley and the top of some of the rolling hills, in this case, the Dundee Hills.

Here is another view of the Lange Estate Vineyard.  You can see that the vines are trained using the Double Guyot System (for more on vine training techniques, check out the Vino Diary).

Even more of that "terrior" brain food.  Do you get a nutty, woody earth note on your Dundee Hills pinot?  That could be an excellent call considering this stump (and many more like it) are around and within the vineyards of the Willamette, like the Knudsen Vineyard, growing grapes for the Argyle Winery.

What wine trip is complete without some locally produced and exquisitely prepared food?  This is the pulled-to-order, housemade mozzarella at the Laurelhurst Market Restaurant.

And their charcuterie plate...  The food was incredible and I am very impressed that since my visit, only a week ago, they have changed much of the menu to represent the seasonal ingredients arriving at the "market."

Stay tuned for the tasting notes on the Torii Mor "Deux Verres" Pinot Noir!  Also, I had a recent conversation with a friend about kimchi that reenergized me, so I will get rolling on episode two of "Kimchi (An Ecosystem in a Jar of My Own Creation)."

Kimchi (An Ecosystem in a Jar of My Own Creation).

My recent attempt at making homemade kimchi has led to an interesting question: how long can it be aged, and why?  What goes on inside a jar of kimchi?  How does preservation work?

First, I must tell you that Kimchi is one of my favorite foods.  The balance of the red pepper spice, the crispy and wilted texture of the cabbage, the umami imparted from the fish sauce or seafood and the fizzy, sour quality resulting from fermentation work perfectly together to create an extremely nutritious and versatile ingredient.  The public praise for kimchi has been tremendous.  Health magazine has called kimchi one of the top 5 healthiest foods. (http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20410299,00.html)

The way that I personally enjoy food is to understand it at the most basic level, dig deeper, and figure out how it works.  Then, I can knowledgeably and intimately control the quality.  The project that I want to embark on is just this: understand fermentation and how to use it to make kimchi that can satisfy my high standards.  (Who knows, maybe some of what I learn might be applicable to wine.)

2009 "Domaine des Braves" Régnié Beaujolais

Here is a fun one the wine rep. brought into the Dahlia recently -- thanks for the taste RE!  Gaining the designation in 1988, Régnié is the newest Cru Appellation from Beaujolais.  Located just southwest of Morgon, Régnié is the third southernmost of the ten Crus.

2009 "Domaine des Braves" Régnié Beaujolais

Appearance:
Clear, ruby core, pink rim variation.  Medium intensity with slight staining in the legs, low + viscosity.

Nose:
Ripe red fruit: raspberry, cherry, strawberry.  Piercing minerality with slight organic notes of forest floor & mushroom.  Any possible oak notes are lost under the classic, carbonic maceration induced candy notes and sweet herbs.

Palate:
Medium acidity, which was suprisingly low for a Beaujolais.  The ripe red cherry and raspberry fruit becomes more stewed on the palate.  Irony minerality continues, initially offering balance in the mouth and then lingering far beyond the fruit.  Again, any oak influence is impercievable under the wine's other characteristics.  Medium alcohol (13.5%), low tannins and medium body.

Here is a pairing idea... an old desserty snack from the region:  Beaujolais soaked baguette piled high with fresh sliced strawberries!