In the May 1st New Yorker, Bill Buford goes to Italy, satiates his bloodlust, realizes that kitsch can be beautiful, returns to New York, and butchers a 200 lb. pig on his kitchen table.
(And if it's true, I'm particularly impressed by the fact that he transported the dead pig home from the market slung over the handlebars of his Vespa with his wife riding pillion. No mean feat, to be sure.)
My favorite pork chop recipe, adapted from Cook's Illustrated, after the jump.
The February 2006 Wine Spectator features some outstanding maps of Californian, French and Italian appellations by Richard Thompson. There are any number of similar maps online, but these are strikingly beautiful--I hope the Spectator ultimately makes them available in their archives. For now, some photos of the French maps are after the jump.
Mahoney Vineyards is a small winery in Napa's Carneros region that until a few years ago was known as Carneros Creek. They're known for their Pinots, but we just had a great Rhone blend, their 2003 Melange, Grenache and Syrah from their "Las Brisas" vineyard. At $24 from the winery, it's more than we'd usually pay for an everyday bottle, but we must have been feeling expansive. It's definitely a New World wine, full and rich and fruity, but it does its heritage proud--not overripe or sweet. It held up perfectly over two and a half days, with food and on its own.
These days give me a red Rhone or its California equivalent, French sparking (typically cheap crémant de Bourgogne, occasionally actual Champagne), and cheap rosés from anywhere in the world, and I couldn't ask for anything more.
tags: mahoney vineyards carneros
Alderbrook is an unassuming winery just southwest of Healdsburg in Sonoma County. Their 2003 Rose from Dry Creek Valley is outstanding and perfectly priced at $12. I'd like to know what's in it--no varietal info on the bottle or their site--but it's a perfect balance on the fruity-to-dry spectrum, and rich enough to stand alone but flexible enough to pair with all kinds of food. One of the best American roses, I've had in a while.
BTW, their Carignane has always been great, and the 2002 is a bargain at $19.
tag: alderbrook
Lambrusco is a sparkling red Italian wine, made in Emiglia-Romagna, primarily from the grape of the same name. Thanks largely to Riunite's success in the '70's (Does "Riunite on ice...that's nice!" ring a bell?), most people think of lambrusco as fizzy, berry-flavored mouthwash, a few steps above Thunderbird. That accurately describes much, if not most, of the lambrusco available in the U.S., but don't make the mistake of assuming it's all bad.
Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, a DOC within Emiglia-Romagna, is lambrusco at its finest and Barbolini's is the best I've had. It's pretty dry, even a little "musty" (hey, I'm no Robert Parker, that's the best I can do), and goes great with food (from steak to pizza), but it's still light enough to stand on its own before dinner. One of my favorite wines ever, and it's $12.
Pick it up in San Francisco from K&L Wines or the very friendly Wine Trading Company.
Frank Family in Calistoga has been one of my favorite wineries for years, and I've particularly enjoyed their sparking wines. But we've had barely any California sparkling over the past few years. Most of it is either affordable and disappointing, or decent but overpriced. Instead, we've been drinking French cremants, Spanish cavas and Italian lambruscos, typically for $9-12 a bottle. (You have to choose carefully among the latter two, but there are good ones to be found--perhaps my favorite bottle at the moment is Barbolini's Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, a rich, musty red that's a steal at $12. And the French are uniformly good in the same price range--note that we're not drinking actual Champagne, but sparklers from various towns in Burgundy or Limoux in the Languedoc.)
So it was with a sense of curiosity and excitement that we opened a bottle of Frank Family's NV Blanc de Blancs. This was probably the first wine that gave me an appreciation for quality sparkling, and it felt like the return of an old friend. And it was...fine. A perfectly good accompaniment to the French cheeses that were kicking off our meal, but mere decency was something of a disappointment. It lacked the richness and creaminess I expect of a Blanc de Blancs (which I prefer), and at $28 it was no better than the $9 J. Laurents Cremant de Limoux we had last week. Well, at least we have a case of the latter and just one more bottle of the Frank Family.
David Nepove has been tending bar at Enrico's for the past nine years, and he recently took first place in the Best Italian Aperitif category at the 40th annual Bacardi Martini Grand Prix, one of two premier international bartender competitions.
Kudos, Mr. Nepove. My hat's off to you. But I can't look at your gleaming dome without laughing at my own foolishness. Enrico's has been one of our favorite SF hangouts for years. The food's not outstanding, but it's good enough, and the space, and the people-watching, can't be beat. The wine list is quite nice, as are the hostesses. We were practically on a first-name basis with them for a few years when Amy was working in the vicinity.
But one overindulgent evening more than a few years ago I had a slight run-in with Mr. Nepove. Nothing crazy--the result was simply a stern "Is there a problem?" from Mr. Nepove and a tight-lipped "No problem" from me. But for some reason this episode stands out among my youthful indiscretions, and Amy and I remember him as "My Nemesis." So it was a little jarring to see him staring out at me from the back page of today's Wine section, but I'm certainly pleased to see him doing the home team proud.
And that corner of the bar where he's standing? Best seats in the house.
Casa Nuestra is one of our all-time favorite wineries, an absolute gem in St. Helena that's all the more fun to visit because it's so low-key and informal. And the wine is so damn good that they're one of three wine clubs we belong to--the others are Arrowood in Sonoma and Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz, giving us a nice destination for a day trip no matter what direction we're headed.
But back to Casa Nuestra. A few months ago, our friends John and Alexa told us a story about a recent wine-tasting trip to Napa during which they asked various pourers at various wineries where they should go, and they wound up at...Casa Nuestra. Where they had this rose--and they're not rose fans, mind you--that was the best they'd ever had in their lives.
Well, late this afternoon today the Fed Ex guy rings our bell, and I buzz him in and find down in the lobby our quarterly package from Casa Nuestra, which includes a 2002 Meritage, a 2002 Merlot...and the 2004 Rosado (34% Cab Franc, 66% Merlot). The first two go into long-term storage, awaiting the death of some noble Niman Ranch beast. But the latter goes right into the fridge for immediate consumption.
A wise decision--it's perhaps the best rose of the 20-odd we've tried this summer. And we'll be visiting Casa Nuestra in just a few short weeks. Hopefully they'll have a little left over.
One of the best wines I've had in my life. Just five years old and it reminded me of huge, ancient libraries, with thick, dusty, leather-bound volumes, and endless stone corridors. Complemented exquisitely by Niman Ranch pork chops with shitakes, roasted figs, and potatoes with ramps. Ramps! Who knew? Goddamn things are delicious. Not as good as the Nelson Estate, though. We picked it up this spring at the Family Wineries of Sonoma in Kenwood, sort of a co-op tasting room for a handful of small wineries that didn't have their own, including Deerfield Ranch and Mayo, in addition to Nelson Estate and a few others. Their site's still up, but we were told that the tasting room was closing down--if it's still there, get up to Kenwood as soon as you can. One of our best tasting (and buying) experiences in 15 years in the Bay Area.
A great rose, excellent with cheese, olives, etc., and just $12. Not quite at rich as the Copain we had the other day, a little more flowery, but excellent in its own right. The vintners domain is supposedly www.chateau-lascaux.com, but it appears to be down at the moment, so no more details to be had, other than it's a Kermit Lynch import, which always seems to be a good sign.
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