Chicago Foodies

2010 Burgundy First Peek: Futures, Drink Now & Tasting Notes

When it comes to sampling wine, I relish the opportunity to sample fine Burgundy.  Elegant and complex, to me there is no place in the world that can produce Pinot Noir and Chardonnay--or shall we say no place can produce wine--like Burgundy--and no place ever comes remotely close no matter how hard they try.   Burgundian wine making is a combination of art and science - with winemakers deftly knowing how to handle what is thrown at them, and true to form, there is less of masking faults with toasted oak or extraction.  By picking earlier and accentuating the terroir of the individual sites, growers in Burgundy typically provide a wide range of soil types and styles to showcase, from fruit-forward to more nuanced and soil-driven.

White Wine Tasting at Oceanique

Last week the editor-in-chief of Chicago Foodies and I met Philip André, the wine director of Oceanique, an intimate French-American seafood restaurant situated in the city center of Evanston that has been in business since 1989.

Philip was kind enough to show us a few wines on his day off, and most of them were from Alsace.   While I've shifted my tastes in red wine over the years, for whites it was love at first sip for me when it came to Alsace, and I haven't looked back.  In fact I may even take top Alsatian grand crus over first-growth Bordeaux, but I'd have to think about it first.

2009 Quail's Gate Gewurtztraminer

Scoring Canadian wine in the United States is much harder than finding drugs, ice wine excepted.   Wine in Canada is relegated to domestic consumption, and most wine produced is in two regions:   Niagara Valley in Ontario and the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, both of which have been praised for quality and whose wines have won several well-deserved awards

Canada, surprisingly, has a wide variety of wines, from expected cool-climate Rieslings, Gewurtztraminers, Pinot Blancs and Pinot Noirs to Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, as well as hybrids such as Marechal Foch.   I've noticed that Canadian wines tend to be more nuanced, with less sweetness, less extraction, and less fruit, definitely a function of climate, but perhaps also influenced by the market. 

2000 Ghislaine Barthod Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Beaux Bruns

If good red Burgundy weren't so damn expensive, I'd drink more.   Sure, you can get $15 Burgundy, and it makes for a nice table wine, though you have to appreciate its angular quirkiness along with the low price tag.  And I do, but there's a huge gap in quality between $15 and $80.

Pinot Noir to the uninitiated, red Burgundy is a real treat.   There's great Pinot Noir elsewhere, in places like Germany, where it is called spätburgunder, as well as Alsace, where it is simply known by the grape varietal name.  Then there's the demand for West Coast grown Pinot, sometimes resulting in a heavily extracted, sugary, high alcohol wine that barely resembles the delicate and nuanced expression of the grape from its source in France.

Alinea's Failed Health Inspection

I feel like a writer from the Gawker spinoff known as Eater for being so nefarious as to pass this along (even though it is old news), but it did pique my curiosity to see that Alinea actually failed an inspection.   I spoke to a former line cook who was sent home for dropping a kitchen utensil on a prep table, which made me more intrigued to hear of this.  Luckily, the restaurant received a passing grade from the inspection team a week later.  

Serving Alcohol at White Castle

For those of you who've visited White Castle in the wee hours of the morning, or even the middle of the day for that matter, feel free to have fun with this story from the Trib.a I mean what else goes with a crave case but a 6-pack?

"This was something that customers had been suggesting," said Jamie Richardson, a spokesman for Columbus-based White Castle System Inc. "They thought that beer and wine might go nicely with the barbecue that was available at Blaze. We're certain that we might have some customers who might enjoy some sliders and a beer or wine as well."

Other fast-food restaurants also are dabbling with alcohol. Earlier this year, Burger King opened the Whopper Bar South Beach, a restaurant in Miami Beach offering beer, and Starbucks Corp. has been testing beer and wine at a few sites.

2008 Domaine Bernard Defaix Chablis 1er Cru Côte de Léchet Reserve

I picked up this bottle a while back and had it sit on the wine rack, followed by an extended time in my refrigerator.  I finally decided to pair it with some mildly curried pierogi that I had made.

Domaine Bernard Defaix has nineteen acres on the slopes of the Burgundian village of Milly and on the banks of the Serein River, from which this bottle is sourced.  The Domaine, like many in Burgundy, has seven different wines from Chablis alone, all of which are 100 percent Chardonnay, typical of the region.

Alpana Loses Lettuce

The news is out this week that Alpana Singh has left  her post as Wine Director for restaurant giant Lettuce Entertain You, where she started out as sommelier for Everest,  a temple for Alsatian wine, arguably the imprint of Jean Joho's homeland more so than Singh herself. Singh had been with Lettuce since 2000, becoming their Director of Wine in 2005, and was the face of LettuceWineCellars.com.

The high profile sommelier and host of Check! Please has not made her future plans quite clear, and according to her Twitter posts, she says she plans to stay in Chicago.   Money talks, though, and a financially lucrative move to New York or L. A. may prove to be tempting for the media-friendly, presentation-worthy wine expert.

2006 Josmeyer Le Dragon Riesling

Josmeyer is one of my favorite wine producers from Alsace.  Never on the big or showy side, it produces steely, concentrated, and well-balanced wines without much residual sweetness or generous acidity.

I procured a bottle of the Le Dragon on sale for $30 at House of Glunz. For the price it was good value; it had a characteristic limestone nose and a color half way between straw and gold, with flavors of limes and passion fruit with a touch of tangerine, some oiliness, and a nice expression of terroir.  It is a fun wine to let your tongue play trampoline and feel the varied notes of acid, oil, velvet and density.

2010 Casal de Armán Blanco

I posted earlier about the Ribeiro, a region bordering Portugal and a sleeper in the world of Spanish wine.   Some of it is very well made and impressive, while others are rustic and angular.   For me I will quite happily take rustic and angular over most bottles on supermarket shelves today, in part because I find them interesting, and arguably, better made.   Most consumers haven't been persuaded or, perhaps more appropriately, educated, and the cliché – "familiarity breeds contempt" is appropriate here.

2010 Domaine Herbauges Collection Plasir Grolleau Gris

From time to time I like to be on the lookout for obscure wine varietals and look for a big score.   I was walking down Webster and bumped into wine shop Vrai Amour and decided to view their selection.   The Grolleau Gris caught my eye and I decided to procure the clear, unusually heavy and tapered bottle, similar to but not quite like a German Riesling bottle, and with a heavy punt more appropriate for a Champagne bottle.

Limited Edition Hennessy Bottle Designed by KAWS

On Wednesday this last week, Hennessy had a release party for their new, limited-edition, bottle designed by artist KAWS at Blackbird restaurant.  Eager to learn more about Hennessy, I jumped at the opportunity, and, hey, it's Blackbird!

Walking in I tried to hide a smile on my face when I noticed models, bodies painted to reflect KAWS' work, and scores of cocktails that no one was drinking as of yet, something that I had mentally called into question (Fortunately that situation was rectified later in the evening).

  The event provided an opportunity to showcase other products in the Hennessy line but focused on the V.S., of which only 420,000 bottles with the label are to be sold.   Blackbird house mixologist, Lynn House, provided some great cocktails to start, among them being the Plum Smash, which is muddled plums, lime, mint, and mint blossoms, which Lynn told me she harvested from her back garden earlier that day.   The mint blossoms, in particular accentuated the cocktail's flavor with their fragrance, which was not dissimilar to a mint julep, but not as strong,  less cloying, and much more refreshing.

Stoned 75 was Lynn's other pre-dinner cocktail, mixed with peach puree and apricot jam, Ruinart Blanc de Blanc Champagne, and  Hennessy Privilège V.S.O.P.   Using Ruinart as an ingredient was rather decadent in my opinion, given its sticker price of around $60 per bottle, though it was a nice cocktail, especially for a brunch or summer afternoon.

Artisanal Food Producers Threatened: A Disturbing Trend?

When I read this article about Nice Cream threatened to be shut down by the State posted in the Tribune, I had a mixture of disappointment and "see, I told you so", following  "food safety" legislation passed in Washington.  Though this may or may not be related to various laws passed, it is certainly germane to the discussion.

2008 Chateau Grand Traverse Gamay Noir

To me wine from Michigan sounds as exotic as something from a place such as Moldova or Georgia.  Hard to find, yet so close to Chicago, and moreover, it's a challenge to pick a good Michigan wine.   When I was up in Lansing over a year ago, I decided to scope out a good wine shop and buy a bunch of bottles.  One of the recommendations was a Gamay Noir, best known as the grape used in Beaujolais.  

Chateau Grand Traverse is in the Old Mission Peninsula, which as I discovered in learning about wine, is the peninsula east of Leelanau in the vicinity of, as the name implies, Traverse City. The winery produces a variety of Rieslings, as well as Pinot Noir and even cherry wines.  

I served this wine lightly chilled with grilled pork sausages.  It had a cherry nose, but an interesting red-brownish color that was rather dark for a Gamay, a grape for which I normally see more purplish hues.  

--Brian Ziegler

2009 Villa Monteleone Campo Santa Lena Valpolicella Classico

I discovered this wine for $13.99 in a small shop from the town of Lake Mills, Wisconsin called The Wine Vineyard.   At first taste I wasn't in love with it, but I know the key to really appreciating many of the wines from Italy is serving it with food, and in this case I served it with pesto sauce over pasta.

According to the bottle the alcohol level was a very reasonable 12 percent, something fairly rare in dry medium- and full-bodied reds.  The color was a medium red with slight purple hues.     It had great acidity, with cherry, strawberry, and raspberry notes.  Tannins were very light.

I've written before about Valpolicella before a couple of years ago, and the wines are rarely disappointing.  From the Veneto region of northern Italy, these wines make for wonderful food pairings, and its mellow tannins allow for another glass or two after dinner.

--Brian Ziegler

French Wine Tasting at Que Syrah

On June 30, a nice little wine event at Que Syrah was co-hosted by Roy Cloud of Vintage '59 Imports and Teresa Matchett of Expedition Wines & Spirits, a local distributor.  The wines covered most of France's great regions:  Loire, Champagne, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the Rhône.  

Kafka Wine Shop – Joseph F. Kafka, 1971-2011

Kafka is a nice little wine shop in the East Lakeview neighborhood, a few blocks from my house.  I knew Joe Kafka by face more so than by name, though I think we may have shook hands.  We had a few discussions about wine, and he had a great knowledge and passion for wine. Going into Kafka was always fun, getting good value wines like a great white Burgundy I recently enjoyed, and some of the best summer rosé wine I've drunk.

Joe combined ingenious marketing with affordability, with great presentation and its slogan of "250 wines under $15" gave it a classy touch with warmth, as evidenced by his Boston Terrier that had free reign of the place.

He will be sorely missed in the wine community.  Rest in peace.

2009 Viento Grüner Veltliner

The editor and founder of Chicago Foodies, Josh Brusin, was kind enough to give me a bottle of Viento Grüner Veltliner, freshly flown in from the Evergreen State (Washington, that is), for my fortieth birthday.

Ribeiro Wine Tasting – A Surprising Spanish Region

Perhaps it's my lack of Spanish language knowledge, but I honestly thought that this was a Ribera Del Duero wine tasting until after I got in the door, expecting some rich Tinto Fino, known in Rioja and elsewhere as Tempranillo.  Much to my surprise, I was delighted to find out that for me this was completely unchartered territory.  So small and relatively unknown that a keyword search on CellarTracker only yielded eighty wines.  

Veuve Clicquot & Doughnut Vault – Champagne Pairing

Champagne pairs wonderfully with a long list of things.  From fried chicken to sushi to oysters, this classic bubbly tends to pair with a wide range of things, though care must be taken not to overpower its delicate flavors.