From the category archives:

Far afield

The Burger Chronicles – Farafield at The Gill Tavern

by glenn on August 22, 2011

 

The bar at the Gill Tavern

Each summer, I spend time in the hill towns of Massachusetts. Several years ago, my hostess – this still is a gender specific word, isn’t it? – introduced me to the Gill Tavern. Located in the quiet town center of Gill – a chuch or two, Town Hall and of course, the library –  the tavern was once a country store, gas station and garage, now reborn to another life. Operated by the same folks running the venerable and esteemed People’s Pint in Greenfield, the tavern is extremely casual, friendly and a source for simple, straight-forward food well-prepared. The menu devotes an entire page to the local sources of its foodstuffs. We urbanites may have become inured to this locally sourced hyping, but out in the country one’s vendors are likely to be one’s neighbors. Since my initial visit, I’ve come back several times. On my last visit, I opted for the burger – and what a good decision that was.

The menu description -

 

Grilled local grass-fed beef burger, roasted potato wedges, lettuce, onion, pickle
9
add New Hampshire North Country bacon   2.50
add Cabot sharp cheddar, Chase Hill Farm dutch gold or blue cheese   1

 

I chose to enhance my burger with the bacon and the Chase Hill Farm Dutch Gold cheese.

 

And this is how it went down – [click to continue…]

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Confer

by eleni on March 12, 2011

All of a sudden I’m facing skyscrapers and am surrounded by steak houses; I’m not sure if I’m in Boston or if I really landed in Philadephia.

My excitement at this last minute trip stemmed from my hope to visit some of my favorite museums.  The Philadelphia Museum was hosting both a Chagall exhibit, Paris Through the Window: Marc Chagall and His Circle \and even an Alessi exhibit  but all the museums seem to close at 5 during the week. 

Opera?  Thwarted again.  So I turned to the tried and true food and wine.

First off, I investigated the Philadelphia School of Wine.
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The Art of the Blend with Château Kirwan’s Rodrigo Laytte

by rodney on November 18, 2010

Rodrigo Laytte

As true as it is said that you only get one chance to make a first impression, it is equally important to set the environment in which to be impressed upon. Below is an excerpt from my first trip with CRUSHPAD Bordeaux to the Médoc to meet Eric Boissenot, oenologist of the Grands Crus, Châteaux Latour, Margaux, Lafite-Rothschild…

Stephen Bolger, CRUSHPAD Bordeaux: So, what are you going to ask Eric when you meet him?

Me (embarrassingly unprepared): Ah. Well. I haven’t thought about it.

Me (several kilometers later and after considering several trite alternatives): I do have one question.

(fast-forward to the end of the meeting with Stephen, Eric and Cecilia Grallert, CRUSHPAD’s Viticultural Consultant)

Me (shamefully posed in English): What is the most important lesson I should learn about Bordeaux winemaking?

(after the laughter subsided from a winemaking question in the same vein of an ecology student asking an environmental scientist the one thing she could do to avoid melting the polar ice caps, I got my answer)

Eric (grossly paraphrased and oversimplified): Blending. Blending varieties to elevate, express and respect the terroir. Blending!

I recalled that answer at every future tasting opportunity.  I’d ask, “What varieties did you use?”, “How much this or that?”.  Thinking that I was gathering data points that I could later utilize.  However, I never fully appreciated the complexity and Art until my visit with Rodrigo.  (Not surprisingly, Eric also consults for Château Kirwan.)

Château Kirwan 2010 Barrel Samples

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Saint Emilion UdP: The Red Envelope of Wine Coopératifs

by rodney on November 11, 2010

I’ve driven by the Saint Emilion Union de Producteurs dozens of times in the last five months.  Today was the day to check them out.  With the tagline, “Métier d’Art, Vigneron”, how could I resist.

The Saint Emilion Union de Producteur coopértif was formed in 1931 by six top producers led by Robert Villepigue of Château Figeac, one of the oldest châteaux in all of Bordeaux.  Today, it is situated at the foot of the village of Saint Emilion and boasts to house more than 160 producers and process more than 750 hectares of fruit (38,000 hl of wine), annually from 5 Appellations:Bordeaux Rouge, Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge, Côtes de Castillon, Saint-Emilion and Saint-Emilion Grand Cru.

It’s capacity and diversity, combined with my own ideas about next-gen mesh cooperatives, made the Saint Emilion UdP an interesting visit.

In a traditional cooperative, winegrowers sell their fruit to the cooperative which is vinified and blended under the cooperative’s brand.  The average grower might be paid ~€1/kg for their fruit, end of transaction.  The typical cooperative grower farms around about one hectare.  Not enough quantity to establish a marketable brand.

But, what if you are a grower of higher quality and quantity than the regional average?  You either find a recognized brand to buy your fruit or go it alone.  Not so if you are a grower in Saint Emilion.  You can join the ‘union’ and maintain your château/clos/maison brand and benefit from the economies of scale and vinify, bottle and sell your wine at their state-of-the-art facility. (Note: I did not determine the UdP’s pound-of-flesh for such a benefit)

Admittedly, I’m sadly no longer impressed by rows of temperature-controlled stainless steel fermenters, pressers, sorters, pumps, gears and gadgets.  Just tools of the trade to be used, cleaned and maintained for me now.  Yes, the honeymoon is over.

So, in this instance, I was more interested in the customer facing element of the operations: The Red Envelope-esk Tasting Room / Retail Shop.  Not on par with my Millésime experience, but remarkable nonetheless.

At the UdP, you are treated with a complimentary tasting of their own wine brands.  Unfortunately, none of the single château wines, whose brands were unrecognizable to me, were available for tasting.  (Suggestion to the UdP: Showcase one single château a day/week/month. Perhaps have the producer come in to talk about the wines/fruit/terroir. — side note: same suggestion I made to Planete Bordeaux).

So, of the eight or so coop-branded wines, I choose to try two of each of the extremes.

At the low end of the spectrum, I found the Royal Saint-Emilion and CôtesRocheuses to be fruity, overly-acidic, light generic wines.  Expectable for their price point.  Admissible but not agreeable.

At the top of their pyramid, the Aurelius and Galius were pleasing and more interesting.  They happened to be aged and have spent more time in oak.  The fruit-juicyness was consumed by the oak and sour-patch-kids acidity was malo’d away.  Just the way I prefer.

In short, the difference between €5 and €15 is clearly apparent in the wine of the UdP, as one would expect.  Not exactly on my list of must-visits, but I’d definitely venture back for a tasting of their single château wines.

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Behind The Scenes: Millésima, S.A.

by rodney on October 31, 2010

Very few wine merchants open their doors to the general public for tours and tastings.  In fact, according to the wine tourism pamphlet through which I found them, Millésima is the only one in Bordeaux.  It’s understandable when you consider that they are also the only merchant that sells direct to the consumer.  So, seeing as I am a consumer, connoisseur, and aspiring winemaker, I scheduled a tour to witness their 2.5 million bottle cellar for myself.

Millésima, S.A.

Millésima, S.A., founded in 1983 by Patrick Bernard, is a familial endeavor of the brandy producer Lucien Bernard.  Dealing primarily in Bordeaux wines, they also carry wines from Burgundy, Champagne, Alsace and the Rhone valley.  They produce a catalog and set prices once a year on January 1st.  As we all know, wine prices tend to fluctuate quite a bit and at a moments notice.  Not so at Millésima.

Aside: In regards to prices, for €38.32, I decided to buy a bottle of Château Giscours, 2001. (The fruit for the Margaux-based wine that I am making at CRUSHPAD Bordeaux comes from a nearby parcel).  Subsequently, I found other online sources of the same wine for €62.40. Needless to say, but, I am pretty happy with the value of my purchase.

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American Invasion in Bordeaux

by rodney on September 20, 2010

“We need to get rid of the Americans.” “They haven’t yet removed the Americans.” “Damn Fucking Americans. (pardon my French)”  No, these aren’t the answers to the Jeopardy category, “Unwanted in France”.  However, that’s exactly what I thought during my first visit to the vineyards of Bordeaux.  What they were referring to, as passionately as American southerners speak of Kudzu, were the undergrowths emanating from the american rootstocks.  Phew.  That would have been my shortest visit to France, ever.

By now, even the most casual wine drinker knows of, or is at least familiar with, the story of Phylloxera and how the vines of France (and other parts of the world) were saved by the grafting of american rootstocks.  Case closed, right?  Not so fast.

Just as I was determining the level of offense my North American brethren were causing the Bordelaise, I stumbled onto this articledebating whether rootstocks obscure or impede the truest transmission of terroir.  The rolled eyes from the vineyard consultant at Crushpad Bordeaux when I posed the question to her told me all I needed to know in this debate.  However, what she did say was that rootstock choice is very important and deserves careful consideration when planting a vineyard.

The main concern for viticulturists when choosing a suitable rootstock is its ability to adapt to its local environs and aid the scion (the fruit producing part of the plant) in producing the highest quality of fruit possible.  Three of the most important qualities that I could infer were drought resistance, limestone tolerance and the vigor of vegetative growth.  None of which, you’ll note, refer to ‘expressions of terroir’.

Only true wine geeks need continue… [click to continue…]

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Institution or Trap

by rodney on August 7, 2010

Picture this if you will.  You’ve arrived in a new city, in a new country.  In the city center, adjacent to the Office de Tourisme, you pass a long line of people (both locals and tourists) waiting to enter a restaurant named, L’Entrecôte.  Now, from your limited language skills, you realize that this is a restaurant named after one of your favorite dishes.  You now have a choice.  Institution or trap? I chose Institution and was snared in the trap.  Doh?

To make matters worse, I was accompanied by a lovely, local Bordelaise woman who graciously indulged my need to fly toward the flame.

Now, trap would perhaps be too strong for L’Entrecôte.  But, it is not exactly haute cuisine de Bordeaux.  How could an all-you-can-eat steak-frites restaurant be, after all.

The long and the short of it is this, the steak is lean and adequate, the frites are fried and the wine… Yeah, abstain if you can or bring your own. Which I was told I was welcomed to do after subjecting myself to the exact wine that the CIVB wants to eradicate from Bordeaux.

Live and learn…

I’m smiling because I haven’t tried the wine yet.

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An afternoon with Pedro Teixeira of Running Brook Vineyards

28 December 2009

My primary responsibility for any family gathering is to “bring the wine”.  When you study wine for two years at Boston University, force your friends to drink your homemade wine and start a blog with your fellow wineaux, somehow you’re labeled for life.  So be it.  I accept this burden without reservation (mostly because I [...]

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Portugal Food & Wine

1 July 2009

My last post from the Algarve.  Just a quick Food & Wine video.

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A Really Goode Job

2 June 2009

After years of wine study, sampling 500+ wines, constraining my travels to wine producing regions and just when hope of combining my techno-wine geeknocity seemed lost, Murphy-Goode Winery to the rescue.
The Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma has created my dream job.  A Really Goode Jobis the ideal application of my seemingly oddball skill set.  Here’s my video [...]

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