WINE WITH DINNER – Dining out?

I’ve noticed that more and more people today are cutting back on the number of drinks they order when dining out. Some may do it to save money in this tight economy, but I suspect that others want to cut back on the total alcohol they are consuming, and I am now one of them. My alcohol tolerance is fairly low, so, when I have a Scotch before dinner, I now just order a wine by the glass with dinner, rather than ordering a whole bottle to split with my wife. Or I start off with a glass of Prosecco (my favorite) with the appetizer and then my wife and I either split a bottle of wine with dinner or order wine by the glass. Also, we drink more water with our meals than we used to and, more often than not, we skip having any after dinner drinks.

If you share my concern about consuming too much alcohol with dinner, here’s another tip when ordering a bottle of wine to go with your meal. When the wine steward or waiter brings the bottle for you to check the name on the label and the vintage year before it is opened, note the alcohol percentage printed on the label as well. Most dinner wines run between 12% and 14% alcohol. But some of them can be 15% or 16% or higher, which is more than what is found in many Fino Sherries! In this regard, be wary of the heavier-bodied Australian reds, California Zinfandels, Italian Amarone and French Chateauneuf-du-Papes. When presented with such wines to inspect, if you think that the alcohol percentage on the label is too high for you, just ask for something similar, but lower in alcohol. Bon Appétit! – Jay Roelof – www.suburbanwines.com

Creative Editing

Customers often envy the fact that as a wine taster I get to taste all the great wines of the world. There is another side –a tale from the dark side…..

As a professional I evaluate aroma, taste on palate, consistency, weight, and finish. Recently I had the misfortune to taste a wine that not only had strange things floating in it but also,
Had the aroma of exhaust fumes from a 1954 pre-catalytic converter Buick LeSabre,
Had the initial taste of aged road kill on a deserted road,
Had the consistency and color of a 10-50 weight used motor oil,
Had the finishing taste of blackberries with freezer burn,
And finally the finish of shellac that stayed with me the rest of the day.
I have to say that this was the worst wine I have ever tasted.

After turning over my comments to our editor I gratefully moved on. The next day my review read

“A unique, one of a kind full-bodied, unfiltered red wine with a smoky, meaty bacon-filled aroma and is loaded with rich dark fruit. You can look forward to a long lingering finish that will complement its uniqueness. Not to be missed.” – Fred Horowitz – http://www.suburbanwines.com/

CARMENERE

I am a BIG fan of the Carmenere grape. Grown in Chile and almost nowhere else, this classic grape is loaded with dark fruit and soft tannins. Ask how long one can store a good Carmenere and everyone shrugs their shoulders.

Once a significant player in French Bordeaux wines in the 1800’s, then wiped out by the phylloxera outbreak and not replanted, the grape was thought to be extinct for many years. In the 1990’s however, in an effort to find out why some of the Chilean Merlots were of poor quality, analysts discovered that many of the Merlot grape vines were in fact Carmenere. Requiring and getting 3 weeks longer to ripen and blessed with a longer growing season than in France, Carmenere has found a home in Chile and Chile has found a national grape.

A good Carmenere can be found in the $9-12 range. A really good Carmenere and carm-blends can be had for $15-25. Great Carms from $30+. Buy a great one and store it away ---but don’t ask me for how long. – Fred Horowitz – www.suburbanwines.com

WINE WITH DINNER – A Special Wine for Special Dinners

For me, every dinner at home with my wife, family or friends is a special dinner. A time to slow down and enjoy good cooking paired with an appropriate wine…a time to savor a nice meal and, more importantly, the good relationship(s) present at this special event.

But, some dinners - because of the occasion or the nature of the food served and/or the people present (or all of the above) - are more special than others. So, a more expensive wine in the $30 to $40 range is appropriate. But what kind to serve? Certainly, a meat dish like braised lamb or a pasta dish with a hearty marinara or Bolognese sauce, might call, respectively, for a full-bodied Bordeaux or Tuscan red. On the other hand, many fish, poultry and “white meat” meals might call for an elegant white Burgundy (although, sometimes a soft red wine might work as well). But, when considering white wines for a special meal, have you ever thought about Brut Champagne – the real thing?

There are many sparkling wines (and most of them also go well with a wide variety of foods), but there is only one special class of sparkling wine that can truly be called “Champagne” and that is the sparkling wine from the Champagne district of France…and Champagnes are not just for toasting, they are terrific, all purpose, dinner wines!

True Brut Champagne is something really different, in a class by itself. There are several Grande Marque (or “big brand”) Champagne houses as well as small, artisanal, “Grower” Champagnes that can be purchased for less than $40. But, for my money, the Grower Champagnes offer much more value to those who can get beyond the label and into the quality of the wine inside the bottle. You will find several of them on our website where we list about 30 Grower and Grande Marque Champagnes.

Want to learn more about Grower Champagne? Here’s a good blog on the subject with links to other sources on the Internet that I ran across recently: http://www.interactiveheet.com/bottledup/2007/12/Grower-champagne.html - Jay Roelof

Suburban Goes to Italy and France - Part Four

Today I have a mission. I am searching for some Dolcetto. The 2006 vintage offers many things to like and I am glad to be able to taste through many of them in one sitting so I can make my selections. The above picture is an example of how these tastings work. They set up a table and line up about 20 different Dolcetto’s. Then…we taste and make notes. Now, this is a special table set up so that one can taste through all of the 2006’s at once. If you choose to, you can taste them all individually and speak with the winemaker for each of the bottles (and taste the rest of their line). I did plenty of that as well, but since I was looking for Dolcetto, I decided that this would be a good place to look.

This is my opportunity to taste through the wines, review pricing, see what type of quantities are available, and get an overall opinion of the vintage. I usually find myself craving Dolcetto this time of year. No logical explanation for this, but I think it could be related to the start of “eating outdoor season” (I just made that up). I really enjoy lighter pastas and grill inspired pizza outside in the spring, and Dolcetto is a perfect match….. – Lance Cerutti – http://www.suburbanwines.com/

WINE WITH DINNER – Leftover Red Wine

Last month I was talking about buying bag-in-a-box wine for cooking as a way to keep the number of opened bottles of wine down in your refrigerator. But someone pointed out that, like dandelions, miscellaneous bottles of opened wines still seem to constantly pop up from time to time. Leftover white wines don’t present much of a problem, because there are many times when you just want a small glass of cold white wine. Not so with leftover red wine.


Sure you can use it if you’re cooking something that calls for red wine. But another solution that I use, especially when more than one opened bottle of red wine ends up in my refrigerator, is to use the leftovers to make wine-soaked Kalamata olives. If you love black olives, you should try this trick. Next time you’re at the deli counter at your local store, buy a small plastic container of Kalamata (or your favorite kind of) imported black olives (make sure they are not "oil-cured") – but not the pitted kind. Domestic “jumbo” black olives have not worked as well for me.


When you get home, dump the olives in a strainer and wash the salt off of them in the sink (you may want to omit this step, but you still need to strain the olives). Place the strained olives back into the plastic container and cover the olives in the container with leftover red wine from the refrigerator. Put a sticker on the container top with the current date on it, firmly reattach the top and put it in the back of your refrigerator. It can stay there for weeks or even months and the olives just get better and better! – Jay Roelof – www.suburbanwines.com

WINE WITH DINNER – Prosecco

All of my basic wine classes at Suburban start out with a glass of Prosecco. Why? Because Prosecco is just a great way to start off an evening and that is why more and more people at restaurants are eschewing the perfunctory glass of Chardonnay as an opening beverage and, instead are asking for a glass of Brut Prosecco (like Champaign, Prosecco is also made in a slightly sweeter style called Extra Dry). They’ve grown tired of Chardonnay and are looking for something new and also in keeping with new trends in dining. Similarly, more and more hosts are serving Prosecco at home to their dinner guests to accompany hors d’oeuvres of most any kind.

Actually, Prosecco has been poured as an aperitif in Italy for generations. The best examples are from the DOC region of Conegliano Valdobbiadene in the Veneto region of north east Italy and cost between $10 and $20 at most retail wine stores (they cost more, of course, in restaurants, which is too bad – but that’s another topic). Brut Prosecco is a clean, crisp, refreshing white sparkling wine, made from the prosecco grape. It is made by the Charmat process which produces less bubbles than does the more expensive méthode champenoise and is relatively low in alcohol (below 12%) - the perfect way to start off an evening where other wines are to follow. – Jay Roelof – www.suburbanwines.com