Categories

• Food Babble (6)
• Home Life (1)
• In the Fridge (2)
• Recipes (9)
• Reviews (13)
• Travel (1)
• Updates (1)
• Wine Babble (1)

The Map

View Larger

Archives

• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• November 2009

Search

Search for:

Meta

• Log in

My Classy Palate (or) Amanda Sniffs Out the Expensive Stuff

March 13th, 2010

This past Thursday, we had the great pleasure of attending a wine tasting put on by Hoyt Hill of Village Wines here in Nashville, TN at F. Scott’s Restaurant.  What I knew going into the tasting was that we would be tasting Chateau Reignac (a wine from Bordeaux, France) against some of the first growths (Margaux, Lafite and Mouton) but what I didn’t know was that it was a blind tasting. Exciting, non?

Evan and I are very into French wine, but we tend to gravitate toward Burgundy as our region of choice.  In fact, when Evan and I first started learning about wine, I hated Bordeaux. Too tannic, too heavy: the wines felt like a punch in the mouth where the Burgundy wines (and especially my beloved Gevrey Chambertin) were unctuous and sensual and fragrant.  Over time I’ve learned to love Bordeaux for the things that it is over the things it is not, but that preference sticks with me. This preference, however, helped me this night.

So off we went with 60 of our closest friends to taste the wines of Chateau Reignac against three of the best-known wines of the region. At each seat were placed seven glasses, three of which, we were told, contained Chateau Margaux, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild (none of which retail for less that $800US). The other four contained different selections of Chateau Reignac.  Before we started tasting, we were treated to a video about how Chateau Reignac performed in a similar tasting a few years back, paired against other amazing vintages of high-end, gone-off grape juice.

As the tasting began, we were instructed to sniff the wines carefully and try to decide which ones seemed the lightest so as to not overload our palates immediately.  I tasted through the wines before me in the order that seemed best, based on my nose.  After several minutes of swirling, tasting and slurping, I settled on my ratings.  The table discussed and we assigned aggregate scores to each of the wines before us.

Before the official results were announced and the truth about the wines’ identities were revealed, Evan and I wrote down on our sheets what we guessed the wines to be, mostly trying to figure out which ones were Margaux, Lafite and Mouton.

The one thing I knew was that I liked wine #5 the best. There was something elegant about it: sumptuous and fragrant.  It reminded me of Burgundy.  For this reason I was convinced that this one was Margaux.  I had heard that Margaux was this way: the iron fist in the velvet glove, the more feminine of the first growths, the most fragrant of all of them.  I wrote this on my score card, confidently and pointedly, sure in my choice.

As it turned out, I was right!  I picked Chateaux Margaux out of the ranks as my favorite and called it by name.  In fact, my ratings spoke for themselves better than my guesses did across the board.  Here’s how I ranked my wines (along with my tasting notes).

1. 2006 Chateau Margaux
   Silky and beautifully fragrant: great fruit.
2. 2006 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild
   Leather and dirt in the nose. Finish is sharp and acidic but fresh.
3. 2006 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild
   Good fruit and oak, smooth lovely finish.
4. 2005 Chateau Reignac
   Tannic and beefy but not too heavy. Slightly smoky and very fruity. Opened up beautifully, amazing with food.
5. 2006 Chateau Reignac
   Very alcoholic and hot. Tannins are strong, finish is bready.
6. 2006 Chateau Reignac Balthus
   Crazy tannins: OW.
7. 2005 Chateau Reignac Balthus
   Eh. Strong tannins, not much fruit, flat and minerally.

Afterwards, Evan decided that I simply have a taste for the expensive. But there was just something about that Chateau Margaux: it spoke to me in a way that the others did not.  In the end, we bought three bottles of the 2005 Chateau Reignac, which, after it had a chance to open up (and after I tasted it with a little bit of a water cracker) had an amazing complexity that I think will present beautifully with food: rich black cherry flavor and a spicy, wonderful smoky quality that I really liked.

Of the ones that faired poorly with me, they seemed tannic and heavy, but that’s not to say they won’t age well.  Evan’s second-favorite (after the Margaux which he also favored) was my second to least favorite, the 2006 Reignac Balthus. His opinion is that the wine is built enough to have great aging potential.

I enjoyed the tasting (and the dinner afterwards at F.Scott’s bar, a topic for a food post at some point). Someday when I am fabulously wealthy, I hope that Chateau Margaux can be a staple in our cellar.  We had a blast: Hoyt and Yves Vatelot threw a great party.

Cheers!

Recipe: Short Ribs Braised in Red Wine

November 14th, 2009

This is a weekend kind of meal because it needs a lot of time to cook properly; it’s not something you can rush.  Short ribs are stringy and chewy if you don’t cook them long enough, but they are buttery and succulent when done right.  But in saying that, don’t let me scare you:it’s not hard to make these at all, just time consuming.  Short ribs are very forgiving as well as inexpensive: it’s dang near impossible to screw them up and if you do manage to, well, it didn’t cost you much.

I am braising these in red wine but you can braise in any liquid, even water: just depends on what you want things to taste like. I’ve tried several varieties of wines and beers, Lapsang Souchong tea that had just been brewed (lemme tell you, caffeinated beef is somethin’ else!), as well as stocks of various varieties.  For this recipe, we’re going with a bottle of red wine that was corked that I have been saving in the fridge.

Corked wine makes EXCELLENT cooking wine.  So does wine you open that doesn’t agree with you for whatever reason.  Don’t pour it down the drain!  Save it and use it later.  You’ll thank me and so will your wallet.

When buying short ribs, look for ribs with good marbling and minimal chunks of fat that you will just have to cut out anyway: fat is all part of the weight, so look for a package that has the most edible chunks.  I like to start short ribs a day ahead of time by salting them.  That’s all it sounds like: season them on all sides with some kosher salt and throw ‘em back in the fridge.  Then, 24 hours later, you’re ready to go.

Ingredients

• 4 short ribs
• 1 fennel bulb
• 2 small onions
• 1 cup carrots
• 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2-3 cups red wine
• 3 ounces of slab bacon (optional)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Directions Part 1

1. Like I’ve said before, salt the short ribs a day ahead of time, trimming them of any excess fat in the process.  Keep in mind that short ribs are a little fatty and that a lot of this fat will be cooked to such a degree that it will almost disappear.
2. Preaheat your oven to 300°F. That’s right: not super hot. Remember, you’re cooking this for about 3 hours!
3. Cut your carrot, fennel and one of the onions into large chunks.  Cut the other onion into a smaller dice.  The smaller bits of onion will cook down more easily and disappear into the liquid of the braise.
4. When you’re done with all your prep, heat 1 tbsp. of olive oil on medium-high in a large oven-safe stockpot (should be big enough to fit into your oven, too: don’t go usin’ a lobster pot on me).
5. Brown the short ribs on all sides, turning with tongs, then remove from the pot.
6. Add onion first, stirring to coat evenly in any remaining olive oil.  When the onions are fragrant, add the fennel, carrot and herbs and stir together.
7. Turn off the heat on the burner and nestle your short ribs in among the vegetables in the pot.  Make sure they are not touching.
8. Season with salt and pepper, then pour over your wine until the liquid comes a 1/2 of the way up on the meat.  You want things to be touching the liquid but not submerged!
9. Make sure the herbs are pressed into the liquid and, if using the slab bacon, submerge it in the middle of the pot into the liquid.
10. Cover your pot and slide into the oven, set your timer for three hours and go take a nap.

I’d like to take a second here to talk about the bacon I just threw in.  You don’t have to do that but I, however, am a bacon lover extraordinaire.  I also really like more complex flavor profiles in my food.  When you have two different kinds of meat in a dish, it gives it an amazing layered quality.  The slab of bacon will cook slowly, along with the meat, offering its flavor but also its aroma, making things that much richer.

And it’s not like it costs you any time or that much extra money, right?  I mean you always have slab bacon in your fridge, right?  Wait, what?  You don’t?  Oh heavens, now I know what I’m posting for my next In The Fridge installment.

Anyway, back to it.

Directions Part 2

1. The timer has gone off and your house should be full of an absolutely heavenly aroma.  If you are in an apartment building, your neighbors will be completely dissatisfied with whatever they were planning on making for dinner for themselves and wishing you had invited them over.  And hey, maybe you can: there are four short-ribs in the pot.  You don’t have to eat them all, you know.
2. Remove the stockpot from the oven carefully and uncover.
3. You can do a few things now:
   A) If you want to make a heavenly sauce to go with these, you can ladle off some of the liquid in the pot to a sauce pan and reduce the heck out of it.
   B) If you just want to dig in, pair these with some of those dirty mashed potatoes like I made the other night.
   C) If you’re looking for a quick side dish, you can also use a slotted spoon and dig out some of those carrots and serve them alongside everything: they should be awesome by now, too.

This is an amazing plate of food. The meat will literally fall off the bone, no knife required at all.  Mm!