Tequila Shrimp and Russian Hill Chardonnay

Posted on May 4, 2020 by thewineraconteur

Fezzik: “Why do you wear a mask?  Were you burned by acid, or something like that?

Man, in Black: “Oh no, it’s just that they’re terribly comfortable.   I think everyone will be wearing them in the future.”

As the clock keeps ticking and the everyone is watching the casualty list, like out of the scene from “Gone with the Wind,” there is the potential glimmer of hope that the lockdown will ease up and perhaps the state won’t be totally bankrupt.  I know that I have done over two complete incubation terms in lockdown or quarantine, if you prefer and both my Bride and I are not showing any symptoms or secondary symptoms.  Though I do wonder, if the governor of the state has even done one day of lock up or, is she waiting to be a martyr that will never occur.  Personally, I think if the citizens have to do without income, the least our elected officials could do is match, what they are so willing to wish on the masses, and forget about their token percentage that they have given up.  It is now demanded that anyone that goes out into another building should wear a mask, though the one person that should, has not been seen by me or reported in any photo. 

On a saner situation, is how we are coping with all of the dictates, and yes, we are still going out for our daily walks, waiting for the weather to be totally agreeable.  My Bride has been wracking her brain trying to make dishes that sound more like what we would have in a restaurant, if we could go to a restaurant, and not have to bring something home, just to be reheated, it may as well be fresh, at least for the first night, as we have been alternating dishes and left overs, so that we are not in a rut.  Well, she found a recipe for Tequila Shrimp that sounded interesting and we even found some Tequila in one of the liquor cabinets.  While it was good the first night, she ignored the original recipe and doctored it up the second time with the leftovers and really zinged it up.  The original recipe must have been created for people that prefer food not spicy.   The second night it was awesome and she felt vindicated, though I ate it the first night stoically the second night was wonderful; because why complain?

As I have stated, I am in the midst of rearranging the wine cellar and moving the whites to another location and I found some white wines that I had forgotten about, and just in case, I knew that I had backup selections to choose from.   The bottle that I put in the refrigerator to chill was Russian Hill Chardonnay Gail Ann’s Vineyard Russian River Valley 2007.  Patrick Melley is a self-taught winemaker and co-founder of Russian Hill and Talawind Ranch wineries.  He went from the restaurant industry to making wine himself, back in 1989 he started making wine at home, and then in 1993 he co-founded Benicia Cellars Winery.  In 1997, he and his partners moved to the Russian River Valley and founded Russian Hill Estate Winery.  I couldn’t find any winemaking notes on this wine, but it was the tenth year that the winery was in existence.  I forgot to grab my Durand and used one of my other corkscrews and the cork crumbled, and I had to put a coffee filter into a funnel and pour the wine into a decanter.  The wine had a deep amber-gold color, looking more like an aged Sauternes, and my Bride was afraid that the wine had oxidized.  I was the guinea pig, the nose was soft, almost non-existent and the taste was subtle and soft and the fruit was gone, with a finish that evoked alcohol.  It actually was a beautiful drinking wine, not showy or pretentious in the least.  The next day when we enjoyed her doctored version of the Tequila Shrimp, we finish off the decanter of Chardonnay and the taste and finish was the same as the first day and I just wish that I had tried a bottle of it earlier when it was young, but those things happen.  The lesson of the day, is don’t presume a wine is over the hill, give it a chance. 

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London Broil and Galante Cab

Posted on May 2, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“You wanted a place by the ocean. I had it opened. It was closed for the season. All these tables are for two people. Pick whatever one you want.” As we are all getting used to being locked in our homes, we now have masks to wear, and my Bride is still making and sending them to her friends.  In fact, the first sets she mailed, the out of state people got them in about a week, the locals, who she was told would get them in three days, didn’t get them for three weeks, and one package was still never delivered.  The joys of what is going on today and how we are coping.  I think that I am working my way out of the funk and depression, though everyone that I have talked to, discuss the mutual ennui of the masses, that doesn’t seem to be shared by the governors.  We are busy getting our communications using the phones, FaceTime and Zoom, just like everyone else.  We are like all of the parents and grandparents who are missing the pomp and circumstance of witnessing the Graduation Class of 2020.  We had originally planned on going to Vegas and throwing our eldest grandson a graduation party, by the time we get there, he may be in college, so we will have to have another plan for when we see him. 

My Bride has been cooking up a storm, as I am sure is a common occurrence in all the home kitchens these days.  As we have been going through the freezers and seeing what is what, because a lot of the food that we buy is for the big monthly parties and for other unique occasions at the house, and now, every evening is a unique occasion.   One of the cuts of meat I noticed had a London Broil designation from the butcher shop and she was going to make a roast from it, which would have been fine, but I suggested that she make it as a London Broil.  London Broil was all the rage in restaurants when I was a young man, and it is not an offer usually seen any more, since filets have taken center stage.  It quite simply is a thick top cut, that has been marinated for several hours, and then broiled.  We also both got a chance to use our new toys, her Joule Sous Vide and my Durand corkscrew.  The trick is to cut the meat diagonally across the grain.  It is a big flavorsome cut of meat, but not a delicate as a filet, and it is a bit chewier compared to the steaks being featured.  She spoiled me, by also having Bearnaise Sauce to accompany it, as you can tell we are suffering here.  We also had Sautéed Brussel Sprouts done with Bacon and Aged Balsamic Vinegar and Armenian Rice Pilaf.  I was in my glory, and then to follow up this feast, for dessert she had made Crème Brulee. 

I had been slowly liberating wines from the cellar, because we were way past using the opened bottles of wine.  I am trying to make some room and looking at some of the single bottles that are down there getting a comfortable layer of dust from being undisturbed, some maybe since, I built the cellar.  I found a gem, that I had never even posted about, though I have written about later wines that I have received through my wine club A Taste of Monterey.  I found a bottle of Galante Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Red Rose Hill Vineyard Carmel Valley 2003.  The Galante family has a long personal history in the Monterey County of California.  Jack Galante’s great grandfather, James Frank Devendorf, was the founder of Carmel-by-the-Sea in 1900, and later built the Pine Inn and the Highlands Inn (which we have enjoyed a couple of times).  In 1969, Jack’s parents purchased a seven-hundred-acre cattle ranch in what was then rustic Carmel Valley.  In 1983, the Galante family began growing premium wine grapes on the property, specializing in Cabernet Sauvignon.  In 1994, Jack Galante built a winery and used his grapes to produce his estate bottled wines.  Red Rose Hill Vineyard sits above a large swathe of crimson rose bushes, higher up on the side of the valley to take advantage of the daily swings of temperature and the long growing season.  This wine was pure Cabernet Sauvignon, and I didn’t want to take any chances, and I needed more practice using my Durand corkscrew.  The cork came out in one piece, and after a half-hour of breathing, the wine was perfuming the kitchen all by itself and competing with the dinner being made.  The wine still had a deep color, with just a trace of brownish-red at the rim.  The nose was earthy and the tannins had softened and were very mellow, the fruit had faded and there was a nice long finish that evoke the terroir, and brought me full circle to the earthiness of the nose.  It is kind of hard to describe an almost twenty-year old wine, if one has never had it before, because so many of the modern wines are big fruit bombs and they never get a chance to be cellared.  This was the perfect wine to have paired with an old-style entrée for dinner, and it just made the moment light years from the current lock down that we are all enduring. 

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Tilapia and Two from Franken

Posted on April 30, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“The best thing we can do is go on with our daily routine” is a quote from Nurse Ratched from the theatrical play and then the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.  This is Day 40 as I write this, and to be truthful, I had hoped that it would have been over, as I am sure that everyone else feels the same way too.  We have created an artificial routine that has helped to keep our sanity and it has worked so far, as it has been good here.  We still split the household duties, which basically has been the same since we married.  We get up in the morning and do our morning routines, then my Bride has breakfast and goes to work, her office is at the moment the dining room table, so that she can spread every thing out and have a couple of monitors in operation at the same time, lunch, more work, then dinner and then she relaxes with a hobby or a some television.  Whereas after breakfast, I read the paper, do some computer time, lunch, do some writing and some projects, dinner and then after words, some Social Media; as a side we also either take our daily walk at lunch time or before dinner and we are actually enjoying some sun, for a while, we were actually walking in the wind, snow and or rain or a combination of all three. 

Meals are the saving grace these days, and in spite of the fact that some days she is trying to make me healthy with altered recipes from Weight Watchers, all is good.  With all of the food we have purchased prior to this newest bug, as a normal policy, I still have seen no real contraction of the shelfs in the refrigerators and freezers, and this way is good, because we haven’t had to fight the maddening crowds and witness the empty shelves as if we are in a Third World nation.  That is not to say that we have not bought some additional food, but have bought around what we have.  Some dishes are not what I would order at a restaurant, but some of the food is what she might have made for herself, if I was out and she was eating alone for the night.  We had Tilapia, and it is a catch-all name for a group of about a hundred different species of fresh water fish.  It is a white, flaky and bland fish that requires spices and creativity to give it some zest.  Tilapia is actually the fourth largest selling fish in America.  With a salad, potatoes and vegetables, one has quite the meal.  I have not attempted to step on a scale, because I normally only do, when I see my physician, but my Bride has achieved her desired goal and it holding and she is very happy. 

As I have stated a couple of times, our dinners are designed so that we can have at least a second dinner, if not a third or sometimes as a lunch.  It finally got to the point where we had used up all of the partially opened bottles of red wine and all of the white wine that there as a go-to, emergency wine, though I think that there are still a couple of bottles of sparkling still waiting to be grabbed.  One of my self-appointed projects is to rearrange the wine cellar and I have been finding some strays that I have liberated from my raids and we have been having some wines out of the ordinary.  Two wines that I knew we had, but I wasn’t quite sure where I had placed them were a couple of splits of German wines and I thought it would be perfect to try them on two different nights with the same dinner. These were also gifts brought from Germany by The Wine Raconteur, Jr.  The reason the bottles were off by themselves is that they were in the historic “bocksbeutal” bottles that look like a flask, a kind of short and squat bottle.  The first bottle is Weingut Geiger and Sohne Muller-Thurgau Kabinett Halbtrocken 2016. Weingut Geiger and Sohne was founded in 1850 and is the oldest winery in Thungersheim am Main. One of the unique differences about Franconian wines is that Riesling is not the leading grape of choice. As one can tell from the label the grape varietal is Muller-Thurgau, which is now the leading grape of the area. This wine has the Pradikat of Kabinett, which means that the proprietor feels that this wine is better than the basic wine, but it is not a late harvest pick like a Spatlese, and that this wine will have even more nuance and traits of what they feel is true for them. The wine is also “semi-dry” or “half-dry” as the label indicates “Halbtrocken.” I could not find any production notes on this wine, but this wine was delightful with just a touch of sweetness and some acidity that was very refreshing with the meal.  The second half-bottle is Burgerspital Wurzburg Silvaner Trocken 2015. Burgerspital is one of Germany’s oldest charitable foundations that owns a wine estate, and this wine comes from Wurzburg, probably the most known and important village of the area. This wine is made from the Silvaner grape, which used to be the leading varietal for Franconia. This wine is listed as “dry” from the notation “Trocken,” and some writers have likened the wines of Franconia to be more like a French white wine compared to the “classic” German white wines.  This wine suffered from being compared to the first wine as it was very understated and was not exciting, and in hind-sight I should have probably served this wine the first night.  We are trying to make the most of it. 

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Gamberi con Carciofi and Chardonnay

Posted on April 28, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“If any form of pleasure is exhibited, report to me and it will be prohibited! I’ll put my foot down, so shall it be… this is the land of the free! The last man nearly ruined this place he didn’t know what to do with it. If you think this country’s bad off now, just wait till I get through with it! The country’s taxes must be fixed, and I know what to do with it. If you think you’re paying too much now, just wait till I get through with it!” as spoken by Rufus T. Firefly.  Finding quotes from cinema, is much harder than finding a menu or a wine these days.  We are getting into a routine, as most people have getting used to the new normal. My Bride is working from 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday and even dresses for work, in case of a Zoom or FaceTime session.  I am doing my blogging and other projects and trying to keep busy, as I do not want to become a growth on the sofa.  At 4:30 we venture out of the house, while the yellow ball is up in the sky and we do our two to three mile walk, in the subdivision, seeing the occasional car, cyclist or the odd couple walking like us; as we haven’t even ventured onto a secondary road, not that there is any traffic there either.  We enjoy our walk and our chat, and by that time of the day the menu has been selected and perhaps the wine as well.  After dinner, she catches up on some of her programs that she enjoys and I go and discover what is new on Social Media and then eventually it is time for bed, so we may repeat the process the next day. 

I have to admit that my Bride is taking all of this in stride, much better than I am.  She is trying to stretch her culinary skills, as long as she doesn’t get out of my comfort zone.  She knows that I am fussy and there are some cuisines that will go unnamed that I would rather miss a meal then eat.  Just call me a Limited Foodie.  Since she has been using the Weight Watchers regiment, she has had good result, though I still have trouble getting used to food being called protein.  We have been eating quite a bit more shrimp and that is fine with me, as long as it is real shrimp and not the plankton that some places try to pawn off as shrimp.  She decided to make Gamberi con Carciofi which we have often at restaurants, but not at home, and it is just the Italian way of saying Shrimp with Artichokes.   She has told me that plain shrimp has zero points as a protein according to Weight Watcher and then the count goes up depending how it is prepared, so I would have to presume that the old Beer-battered Deep-fried Shrimp of my youth would be off the charts and you would have to borrow points from the next day.  Her dinner was excellent along with the rice and vegetables.  And I knew that there was enough to have as leftovers for another night, so that we don’t get into having the same dinners over and over. 

I think that I grabbed the last white wine in the refrigerator, and I guess I will have to reload it with some more whites.  I opened up a bottle of Broadway Vineyards Chardonnay Carneros 2015.  Broadway Vineyards feel that they embody the essence of the Sonoma lifestyle.  In 2002 Jim and Marilyn Hybiske found property just two miles from the Historic Square in downtown Sonoma.  Six of their friends joined them to develop a small vineyard focusing on Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah.  Work began on the vineyard in 2004 and the first harvest was in 2006.  The results each year got better and better and the wine started being appreciated by others than the original investors and they started to take off.  Since the estate is small, there is only a finite amount of wine that can be produced.  The winemaker for Broadway Vineyards is Philippe Langner who began his career at Chateau Clarke, a Rothschild property in Bordeaux, France.  The three different varietals were chosen very carefully to be planted on the estate from day one to take advantage of the soil and the cool nights and warm days and the area was perfect for the three cool-climate varietals.  The Broadway Vineyards Chardonnay 2015 was hand harvested at the beginning of September, 2015.  The wine was barrel aged for ten months, bottled in mid-June of 2016 and then spent nine months in the bottle before being released.  There were only one-hundred-sixty-two cases of this wine produced.   A soft floral nose and a real good Chardonnay with enough butter to give it a nice finish.  It will be a pleasure to finish the wine when we finish the leftovers, oh the joys of sheltering at home.

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Chili and Rioja

Posted on April 26, 2020 by thewineraconteur

 Major Clipton: “Are they both mad? Or am I going mad? Or is it the sun?  Another day in someone’s version of utopia and we are making the most of it.  I have been in a funk, but I think that I am working it out, the best that I can, as I talk to others and read other people that are in places much darker compared to me.  I saw a meme that asked “Remember when you wanted a longer weekend, well are you happy now?”  I guess everyone is kind of getting a taste of retirement, though my Bride, is really one of the lucky ones, as she is logging in everyday, contacting her people, her accounts and everyone else, as if she is still at the office.  We even wait until her work day is finished before we go out for our daily walk, though I have been doing more exercises in-house to off set the fact that I had just joined a spa, just as they all had to close, it was almost as if it was the proverbial New Year’s Resolution happened with out asking me. 

I donned my chef’s whites for another venture into the kitchen, in spite of the fact that my Bride claims that all of my dishes taste the same, they don’t really, but they all kind of start off on the same principals, because of back when I used to prepare a week’s worth of dinners on a Sunday afternoon.  I was going to make Chili, I guess with an Armenian twist to it.  Actually, it started off the same way as my Sauce Bolognese, but then makes a turn into Southwest Detroit for a different set of spices and heat.  The best part is that just about everything was found in the two pantries in the house, that we have been slowly raiding and I hate to say, that we can probably survive in our situation for some time to come, though I really miss going out to a restaurant.  I can’t describe what my Chili is, but I know that it isn’t the type of Chili one would get at a Coney Island in Detroit, and it is not the Chili that one would get at their local Mexican or Tex-Mex eatery either.  It has  onions, garlic, beans and a ton of South of the Border spices along with some other spices just to change it up a bit, including some ground Mustard, only because whenever I taste Chili, I always seem to envision that spice, and I know it is odd.   Also, I thought we needed an eclectic assortment of dinners while we are sheltering at home.

We are out of Margarita Mix, which is preferably my first choice for a beverage when I am having this type of dinner, so I had to rummage around, and I really didn’t have to rummage around much.  I know that it will always make my Bride’s day when she sees the brass chicken wire enclosure around the bottle.  I am talking about the legendary Herederos del Marques de Riscal Rioja Reserva and this wine was Vintage 2012, probably the one Rioja that I have had more of, than any other wine from Spain and it was even accessible back in the early ages when I first discovered wine.  This wine was founded in 1858 by a Spanish diplomat that had lived in Bordeaux and he brought back some concepts that were probably a bit heretical in the day.  The wine became so popular that the wire mesh was the way to insure the quality of the wine, and in fact part of the label was glued to the mesh, now the mesh is just a quaint tradition that is maintained, and I might add that this winery has a fantastic library of their wines going back to the very early days and the wines are still reported as glorious when opened.  The Marques de Riscal is the majority shareholder and winemaker of the company to this day.  This wine is a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo.  The wine is aged for twelve months in barrels and then is aged an additional three years in the bottle, before it is released, because it is a Reserva.  I know that the wine has a big production, but over the years, I have never had a bad bottle, no matter the vintage, so it is a trusty old friend and one that I can tout to those interested in trying a bottle of wine, as I think it is a great starting point.

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Piqueras and Piccata

Posted on April 24, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“Von Luger: Are all American officers so ill-mannered? Hilts: Yeah, about 99% Von Luger: Then perhaps while you are with us you will have a chance to learn some.  Ten days isolation, Hilts. Hilts: CAPTAIN Hilts. Von Luger: Twenty days. Hilts: Right, Oh, uh, you’ll still be here when I get out? Von Luger: (visibly annoyed) Cooler!”

We are still here, gallows humor and all, making the most of the situation.  I am sure that most of the country, if not the world is into “Social Distancing” and isolation.  We are all trying to keep our wits about us.  Life goes on, a bit slower, perhaps, but it does.  You can talk to the family and trust that everyone is good and that is all that we can do, travel is not essential.  We are actually trying to keep to a schedule, my Bride is for sure, as she is one of the fortunate ones that can work remote, so from 8:30 to 4:30 she is manning the computer and phone, I mean she went so far as to have her desk phone at work transfer all the calls to her cellular phone, so that she doesn’t have to retrieve messages.  As for me, I have been practicing being retired, and perhaps I will go back to practicing when this is all over, but I am retired with no place to go and no one to see.  We check the morning newspaper for the latest changes if any and then we also will check the official rules listed by the State Police.  We will get out to see the daylight beyond our thirty-minute three-mile walk.  I am not laying down watching television, I gave that habit up almost forty years ago, just like smoking, salt and coffee, but I still enjoy wining and dining.  I also discovered that I am drinking more at home then in my entire life, only because unless we had company over, we normally did not drink at home, but we did drink out.

So far, between the two refrigerators and the one chest freezer, and the two pantries we are surviving quite comfortably.  As I have stated before, my Bride once had a bad stretch and she never wants to repeat those days again, so she has always bought groceries anticipating Armageddon.  It paid off in spades this time, as we have besides groceries, cleaning supplies of all types, alcohols and disinfectants, medical supplies and paper products.  We won’t have to rip pages out of first editions and hopefully the price of toilet paper will be normal, by the time we need to buy it again.  I am even thinking, but only thinking that perhaps I might even go through all of the spice containers and maybe consolidate what we have and see if the ones that we have are still worth saving; who knows I may even organize the DVDs.  Anyway, my Bride is trying some new dishes and it has been good.  She made Chicken Piccata, a dish that we usually have if we want something lighter when we go out for dinner.  She was very happy that it was much easier than she had imagined and she didn’t use as many capers as the recipe called for, so she was glad and as for me, I just enjoyed the dinner. 

I decided that I wanted a red wine for dinner, as we have had quite a bit of white wine, as that is what she still basically grabs as her go to wine.  Chicken with lemon, garlic and capers made me think a bit, as to whether I would attempt a red, but I figured why not, if it didn’t work, we have whites on reserve.  I am a realist.  So, I went to some of the more esoteric reds that we somehow accumulate and then I sneak them in, especially at parties, where wine tends to evaporate.  The wine I selected was Bodegas Piqueras Black Label 2015.  The winery is in their fourth generation and is found in Almansa, a newer DO (1966) located in the much larger Castilla La Mancha of Spain.  They have been growing wines there since the Sixteenth Century in an area that is known for their lack of rain, but the gravelly limestone soil seems to hold the necessary water for the season.  Almansa “prefers” red wines, but the DO does “authorize” some white varietals as well.  The most famed grape for Almansa is Monastrell, or Mourvedre as it is known in the rest of the world, and this particular bottle is half Monastrell and the other half is Syrah, another grape that does exceedingly well in Spain.  The wine is aged four to six months in a mix of French and American Oak barrels.  The wine had a natural spice to me, that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, and I thought a kind of frizzante finish which I know shouldn’t be there, I really enjoyed it for a change of pace, my Bride, not as much, but she did say that a day later when we reopened it, that she felt that it was much better the next day.  Even wines like to get into fresh air. 

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A Night of Shrimp Cocktail

Posted on April 22, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish. Silence! In addition to that, all citizens will be required to change their underwear every half-hour. Underwear will be worn on the outside so we can check. Furthermore, all children under 16 years old are now… 16 years old!” That is a classic quote of nonsense that I remember from a film, back when I was in school. I am developing a sense of gallows humor as I write this article it has been 26 days that I have been under shelter at home rules and the rules are getting more stringent, while I have heard of others that have endured ten days and are getting back to some form of civility and humanity.  Michigan is the third in the country for the most golf courses and second in the nation for registered boats and the citizens are not allowed to do either, along with dining in, and getting haircuts and manicures.  The rules have since lightened up a bit, you can go on your boat if it doesn’t have a motor, and you can golf on a private course if you carry your own clubs and keep a social distance from your golfing partner. With tuberculosis they ended up building sanitariums out in the country and let the people reside there, until they were cured or died. I realize that we must be safe, but I don’t remember such measures in my lifetime about any other disease, and there have been several terrible diseases that have been seen over the last ten and even to twenty years.

One of the Friday evening meals, my Bride decided that we were going to make a meal of Shrimp Cocktail, because we are still in Lent and she abides by the rules, and hence so do I, by osmosis.  She had a bottle of Cocktail Sauce with fresh horseradish that she wanted to try.  She also had a commercial rice pilaf that she had bought that was with almonds, but she altered their suggested method of preparation and used chicken broth in place of water, and it was a much better alternative, I am sure.  Actually, it was kind of fun to have such a casual dinner and she probably allotted too many shrimps, but she says that she has plenty more for other dishes.  Actually, it has been an interesting experiment, even if I do complain, but I think that those that obey, suffer more harshly compared to ones that are out gallivanting as if the laws don’t apply to them.  I guess that is why there are parts of Michigan that are suffering more recorded ailments, but I feel that our satrap governor may be demanding that every medical incident, be it a hangnail or cancer be listed as the whatever the current politically correct name is for this disease.

We were still making room in the refrigerator in the garage, for storage of dishes waiting to be used as leftovers, trying to be as efficient as possible.  So, I grabbed a bottle of wine that was already chilled.  The Joseph Carr Josh Cellars Pinot Grigio California 2019 is a wine that I felt that I needn’t worry about as we have always had success with his Chardonnay.  Joseph Carr began in 2005 making his line of wines, representing the best of vineyards for a California version of the classic French wines.  In 2007 he created the Josh Cellar line to represent California wines in a more relaxed, and affordable price range and named this collection after his father.  The fruit for this wine comes from all parts of California.  Joseph Carr is part of the much larger Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, and as an interesting side note, Joseph Carr lives in Cape Cod when he is not making wine.  I was also very impressed with an add that I just saw from Joseph Carr and Josh and their pledge to the Restaurant Workers’ Community.  Normally, with shrimp I think I would have gone with a white wine that had more body, but I thought that a chilled Pinot Grigio would be a more low-key pairing with the Cocktail Sauce with fresh Horseradish and it worked quite well.  Onward to more wining and dining at home. 

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Thank God for a Cellar

Posted on April 20, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“Papillon made it to freedom. He lived out the rest of his natural born life. The Penal Colony did not.” As the days dwindle away, I almost feel like I should be making hash-marks on the wall.  We are making the most of it, the same way everyone else is.  The liberty that we enjoyed just weeks ago, seems like a bittersweet memory as we are just pawns in a political fiefdom.  I can think of plenty of things to do, and I am trying to make small dints in the progress, but I just can’t get truly motivated and I am really a happy go-lucky guy.  It is hard to believe that a virus has put a stranglehold on parts of the world, and yet we hear nothing from other parts of the world.  My Bride and I are doing what we can, and we are still maintaining our life style.  Getting up in the morning, three square meals a day, household duties and our daily half-hour walk, which may have to be extended, because soon the route we walk will be finished in less than a half-hour, but we do need that brisk walk, as we walk all over the place, so as not to invade the space of other neighbors that have decided that they need to get out in the fresh air as well.

We have a well stored larder, which is a bonus today.  My Bride had a brief period in her life, where food was limited and since that time, she has been determined to have more food that is needed, and it has paid off now.  Our meals have been varied, not frou-frou, but with the ability to maintain our strength and our soul.  Just before this ordeal, she had signed on with Weight Watchers, because she thought she was a bit overweight, and she had maintained the regimen, I have been kind of under the same system as we both are eating the same meals, but she is more strict and she is getting the results that she desired.  One of the meals that we have had, and yes, just about every meal has been made to have at least one additional meal was Kielbasa and Sauerkraut.  Definitely a good Ethnic dish, but we have always had discussions, as she always bought “fresh” and I was always a fan of “smoked” and one day she tried the “smoked” and she really liked the flavor.  She also used to boil the meat, and I have always preferred it fried with the sauerkraut and onions and some diced potatoes.  After a meal like that, one is not hungry, which is good, because if anything, I have to lose some weight as well.

Since, it was time to open another bottle of wine, I had to do some decision making.  With Fresh Kielbasa it would be much easier, because the meat is rather bland, except for some spices used in the preparation.  With Smoked Kielbasa, the flavor is heavier and more pronounced, and even the fat has a different personality.  So, I was looking at my different wines, not the usual suspects, I was looking at some of the wines that we buy for company, but we have no company to entertain.  I went with a winner, actually a real winner.  The wine was a spectacular wine from Michigan, namely Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017.  In their Twentieth year of production Black Star Farms on Old Mission Peninsula in Michigan, they were honored to receive the 19’th Annual Canberra International Riesling Challenge (CIRC) -Best Wine of the 2018 Challenge and only the second time an American wine came out on top.  There were 567 Rieslings from six countries (Australian, New Zealand, USA, Germany, France and the Czech Republic).  The Black Star Farms Arcturos Dry Riesling 2017 scored 98 points, in addition to taking home Best Dry Riesling and Best American Riesling.  The acidity of this wine just did wonders with the potentially difficult Kielbasa and the two just paired perfectly.  Even my Bride enjoyed it the nuances of flavor, so we may not be at the French Laundry, but we are wining and dining as best as we can, as we all look forward to an end of this period. 

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A Dish for All Nationalities

Posted on April 18, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“These walls are funny. First you hate ’em, then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.”  Maybe, a week went by and were deciding on other dishes to make.  I mean, if we are going to cook, we may as well make enough for a second night of food and then it can feel like it is a “doggie bag” from dining out.  The mind has to try to make the most of the situation that it has been given.  Slowly, our personal liberties have been taken from us, by the Nanny State, as the State knows what is best for us, no dining out, no shopping, no barber or beauty parlor trips and the list goes on.  Now, in the big picture, it is true and we must all bear the burden together, or do we? Somehow, some people suffer more than others and in parts of the state, the whole set of rules have seemed to be ignored, because certain pockets have much higher casualties compared to other parts of the state. I think that we are all feeling claustrophobic and powerless in our own homes. I will feel better when I can go out of my house for more than our daily three mile walk in the neighborhood, avoiding anyone else that also wants some fresh air to clear out the cobwebs. While we all wish for the end of this mess, and hope for the best, there is still an undercurrent of them against us, that I also hope will end.

Anyways, we were trying to come up with a dish that was different and I suggested Stuffed Peppers.  I mean, to me there is not a dish that is more universal.  Growing up, in my little borough in Detroit, which was the “melting pot” that they used to talk about when discussing America.  Every kid that I grew up with, grew up eating Stuffed Peppers, there might have been different nuances on the ingredients, some might have used lamb, beef or pork and the spices may change, but otherwise it is rather universal.  To be truthful it, it is even a dish that we hadn’t had for some time, because it isn’t a dish that one thinks of ordering when one goes out for dinner (remember those days).  We haven’t really even done take out, because of the rumors that people driving around are viewed as “enemies of the state” and you may need letters of transit, but that is another movie, but there is no prison scene in it.  Oh, a bonus to making the Stuffed Peppers is that my Bride made Rice Pudding from the extra rice.  The funny thing is that with all of the grape products in this house, we had no raisins, so she got creative and used raspberries; and it worked. 

I guess, we are trying to be good and before I start attacking the cellar with gusto, we have slowly used up the wines that were previously opened, and so far not a wine suffered for being opened and then resealed with one of those rubber corks and air pumps, so they are really a good investment.  I also have found that we are not drinking as much wine, in the confines of the house, which seems counter-intuitive, but that is the way it has worked out.  The Joseph Carr Josh Cellars Chardonnay 2018 is a wine that I never worry about, as it is always fresh, citrusy with a touch of oak/butter in the mix.  Joseph Carr began in 2005 making his line of wines, representing the best of vineyards for a California version of the classic French wines.  In 2007 he created the Josh Cellar line to represent California wines in a more relaxed, and affordable price range and named this collection after his father.  The fruit for this wine comes from both Mendocino and Monterey counties, both respected for producing quality Chardonnay grapes.  Joseph Carr is part of the much larger Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits, and as an interesting side note, Joseph Carr lives in Cape Cod when he is not making wine.  I really debated as to whether I should have used a white or a red with the dish, since the meat was beef, and there was a tomato based sauce, but the Chardonnay being chilled and with that touch of oak, was pleasant with the dish and the spices, and I think we both had seconds to finish off the wine, but it just tasted that good.  We would worry about the wine for the leftovers for a later date. 

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The Durand and the Joule for Easter

Posted on April 16, 2020 by thewineraconteur

“On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us. And, you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure.  Oh, I could write a sonnet about your Easter bonnet.  And, of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade.”  I have such memories of Easter that I even tried to maintain for my children, though I think that I lost the battle with the grandchildren.  I did not grow up in an affluent wealthy community, but we were rich in traditions and beliefs.  I can remember every parent and child looking their very best for Easter Sunday, as we walked to church, and actually plenty of people back then actually did walk to church, because where I grew up, I bet in a twenty block area there must have been a dozen churches from cathedrals to store fronts and they all had full attendance, especially on Easter.  I think children were excited to get something fancy to wear, not to mention that there would be an Easter basket or gift for them.  The other great memory was that we would be eating at our grandparent’s home, just because it was Sunday, but on Easter it was an extra special treat.  In this house we maintained having an Easter dinner, of course we even celebrated all the birthday people in the month as well, for a festive day.  A great tradition until this year, when a power-hungry brand-new governor with no real experience, shut down the state for commerce, education and for the citizens.  It was emphatically stated that people could not visit, even on Easter, this fiat came after the start of Passover.  I mean most people that I know would have been smart enough, not to mention that most of us had by that time already experience at least fifteen days of solitary confinement, so if we had been ill, it would have been apparent.  This was not good enough for the hob-nailed booted petty satrap that wanted total allegiance to her.  She had even in her infinite wisdom announced that home-schooling was not allowed, which had to be changed by her, when even some of her lackies had the common-sense to point out how bad of an idea that was.  Anyways, as I stated in the prior article, my Bride and I celebrated Easter at our home alone, and she watched Mass on the television, because attending church was also verboten.  We dressed up for our Easter Sunday and there were gifts, just like when we were kids. 

The only difference on gifts nowadays, is that at our age, we get items and will tag them for special occasions.  I mean she may buy a blouse and say it is for Easter and that is great, well there was a “toy” that we have watched being used a couple of times, and I even remarked that I could see her getting one eventually, well eventually was Easter.  We now have the Joule Sous Vide by ChefSteps in white.  What is Sous Vide?  Joule cooks food Sous Vide, by heating water to a precise temperature for perfect, predictable results.  The claim is that anyone can cook Sous Vide; one simply sets the Joule in a pot of water, place food in a “Ziplock style” bag, and drop the bag into the heated water.  Joule will let you know when it is done to the exact temperature that you want.  I have read some articles and there are two school of thoughts, some feel that the meat should be seared first, and others feel that the meat should be seared after; I guess it will take some experimentation to discover the best method for us. 

This year, my Bride did not give me an Easter basket, but a nice gift bag with a card and the required chocolate candies, alas not my one marshmallow peep, those candies that could probably survive in a time vault and still be “edible.”  Underneath all of that candy was a box, containing The Durand.  Now to back up the narrative, on another Social Media site I saw a very curious type of corkscrew being used on a very old bottle of wine with good success, and I have to admit that I have some very old bottles of wine.  Most of the time the corks crumble and I must decant the wine through a coffee filter in a funnel.  The Durant is a combination of two corkscrews that work in tandem with each other.  First you use a part of the tool that is a classic version of a corkscrew with a very impressive worm.  The second part of The Durand is the corkscrew that some call the “Ah So;” the tool that has two ribbons of thin steel that is slowly inserted between the cork and the glass bottle.  I think this two-part endeavor will be perfect.  Looking forward to trying it, but I will watch their instructional video on their website a couple of times, before I attempt the first one.  Another Easter has been put to sleep, and hopefully we won’t have another one like this. 

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