Of Wine and Other Pleasures

Whether shopping online or browsing the local Binny’s, I love to read the descriptions people give to various wines. Mostly it’s because I’m intrigued that they can get all of those flavors and aromas out of the wine.  Apparently I don’t really have that discriminating a palate. 

Frankly, most of the time, the best I can do is pick up a hint of one or two of the descriptors.  But there’s one universal truth.

I know what I like.

And I pretty much know from the very first sip.  It doesn’t really matter at all about the price tag of the wine either.  I’ve had some absolutely delightful bottles for well under $10 and I’ve regretted some significant purchases, too.  I think what I’m most in awe about is how different the same type of wine can be.

I can pick up a carton of grape juice and it pretty much doesn’t matter what the brand . . . grape juice is grape juice.  It pretty much all tastes the same.  But pick up a Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards next to each other and the wines can be radically different.

The French have a term, terroir, to describe some of this. Perhaps the best translation I’ve come across is that it describes the vine’s “sense of place.”  But this sense of place only describes a part of the differences.  I think that more of it lies in the hands of the craftsman known as the winemaker.  Instructions given to the field workers can radically alter the unique characteristics of various wines.

Obviously the type of grape and the varieties added to blend with the main varietal all play a role.  And that’s where the skilled winemaker comes into play.  That’s why I try the small to mid-sized producers and when I find a wine that I like I tend to branch out to other wines that they make. 

Just the other day I was watching a great Woody Allen film, Midnight in Paris, and there was this scene where this one pompous individual was describing a wine at a tasting. I’ve been in tasting rooms where there’s this one individual making his pompous pronouncements about the quality of the wines.  As it turned out his assessments were, shall we say, not on target.  It happens all the time in tasting rooms around the country.  I’ve felt a little out of place at times wondering if I was out of my element. 

Well . . . I probably was.  A friend who drinks wine but who isn’t what one would call a connoisseur recently spent some time in Napa.  They felt intimidated by all the people around them who were making a big deal about the “nose” and the “chewiness” of the wines.  It made them want to not be there and frankly that’s a shame.  

But that’s not the point.  Wine isn’t something that should be just for the rich and famous.  It should be for everyone.  It makes me wonder how those folks working in the tasting room can deal with this day in and day out.  Personally, I’d toss their pompous backsides out of the tasting room.

There’s something inherently pleasurable sitting in a street side café drinking a glass of house wine (that turns out to be something pretty good and reasonably priced) watching the world as they go about their business.  Sharing it with friends exponentially increases the pleasure.

And that’s why I love Monday’s @ Mark’s.  It’s the sharing in the richness of life with good friends where you can watch their surprise at noticing the difference between an average bottle of wine and a really good one. 

Before I go for this week, I want to challenge you to do just that.  Open up a bottle of your favorite wine and put out some tasty appetizers or just go with the old standby of some delightful cheeses and really crusty bread and share them with some friends.  Relive some of the good times you’ve shared together and just relish the joys found in life and friendship.

The Unexpected Party

So what happens when it’s Monday and the reservations you had for your 17 person dinner for Thanksgiving falls through?

After the initial wave of panic passes, I think it’s time to throw a party. If you think that can’t happen, it happened to my family this past Thanksgiving.  I had already spent about two months planning a special 50^th Birthday event for my twin brother and me for the Saturday after Thanksgiving so I hadn’t planned on Thanksgiving, too. 

Since my cousin and I were “in charge” of managing Thanksgiving for family coming in from out of town, the first thing I did when I heard the news was to say “No problem, we’ll have it at my place.” Now before you think I live in this palatial estate, I live in a little two bedroom condo. But what I’ve learned over the years is that people aren’t coming for the space, they’re coming for the food and the company.

My experiences hosting several of my Monday’s @ Mark’s events where upwards of 30 people came showed me that you don’t need a big space to entertain. 

The good news is that the house was clean in anticipation of my parents staying with me and hosting the party on Saturday.  But even if it wasn’t a little straightening here and there and “it’s all good!”  Step two was to check the wine cabinet.  Now I’ve been accused of being a wine snob but it’s not really true. I just know what I like and have some really fantastic wines.

For Thanksgiving, I decided that, for the red wine drinkers, I would be serving Carignane and Grenache.  Over the last several years, I’ve been expanding my wine palate.  I started out pretty much a Cabernet or Merlot drinker but found myself drifting – with the help of my friends at Seghesio Family Vineyards – migrating to Zinfandels.  Seghesio has a lot of really great Zins.  And they’re really versatile. 

This past year they came out with their own Carignane for the first time in many years.  They’ve been using it in their blending but not as a stand-alone.  I was blown away.  Then I picked up some Carigane from the Frick winery.  I also had a couple of bottles of Seghesio’s Grenache as well as a Grenache from their sister winery, Chamisal Vineyards.

With the wine selected, step two was to work out the menu.  Between everyone, it was decided I would handle the turkey, we’d buy the pumpkin pie from Sam’s, my cousin would handle the side dishes and my sister-in-law would handle the cranberry salad. The last thing I ever want is to run out of food and, unfortunately, I could only find a smallish turkey.

Solved the problem by getting two 10 pound turkeys.  Not only would they cook faster than a bigger bird, I would do one in the oven and one in the smoker.  I love smoked foods.  To pump up the difficulty factor I decided to do some oysters on the grill.  With the proliferation of cooking sites on the internet finding recipes wasn’t a problem.

Nor was finding the time as luckily I had planned to take vacation the whole week.  As it turns out I needed every single minute.  As an aside, when you’re smoking a turkey in Chicago in November, you have to count on a few more hours than you would, say in July. But here’s the good news . . . with enough good wine people don’t really care that much about the timing of the food.

Perhaps the most challenging part of the whole cooking experience was opening the oysters.  I had never done that before and it took me a few oysters (and a little blood) before I realized that the way you open the oyster is through the hinge.  Everything went much easier after that.

Everyone had a great time.  I don’t think anyone felt cheated by not having the original Thanksgiving dinner. And reflecting over a glass (or two) of Seghesio’s Dionigia Port, I realized that it isn’t about the food.  Everything turned out fantastic. Or even the wine.  Which, by the way, if you haven’t ventured beyond the old standby’s, I’d recommend you give both a Grenache and Carignane a try. They’re well worth the travel beyond the ordinary. 

At the end of the day, it’s about the company.  It’s about a house filled with laughter and joy even amidst the detours of life. That’s what Monday’s @ Mark’s is all about.

A New Day

For those of you who know me, you know that I love great food and I love great wine.  But more than that I love sharing it with those who are important to me.

For a number of years, I've been hosting parties for friends and co-workers at my home, well you probably guessed by now, on Mondays.  I referred to those events as Monday's @ Mark's.  What this is really is an excuse to get a bunch of friends together and enjoy a relaxing evening with some good (sometimes great) wine and some tasty munchies.

I haven't really talked much about it but thought it's about time to share some great meals along with some great wines.

One of my friends, who's primarily a beer drinker, was asking some questions about wines that he and his wife might like.  After reviewing some basics (red vs. white, sweet vs. dry, etc) I suggested that we have an evening doing a white wine tasting with some of my favorite wines.

This was not an exhaustive tasting but I wanted to get some idea of what might or might not work for him so over the course of the night, we tasted 5 different white wines.  Now, to pair with the wines, I smoked a salmon and served it with rice and asparagus.  Pretty simple when you're using one of Cameron's stove top smokers.

Here was the line-up:

• Chamisal Vineyard's 2009 Stainless Chardonnay (a great wine for folks who struggle with the oak flavors found in wines that age in oak barrels)
• Chamisal Vineyard's 2008 Estate Chardonnay
• Chamisal Vineyard's 2008 Califa Chardonnay
• Seghesio Family Vineyard's 2009 Fiano
• Seghesio Family Vineyard's 2009 Pinot Grigio

 Now I'm not sure that we gave either of the Seghesio Family Vineyard's a fair sampling because we weren't just tasting the wines, we were drinking them one at a time until the bottle was finished.  Since there were five of us, we each ended up drinking a bottle a piece.  But here's what we found:

My friends discovered that not all wines, even of the same variety, taste the same.  It was an amazing difference between the unoaked Chardonnay and the oaked Chardonnay.  Both good but the stainless had such a light touch.  It's perhaps my new afternoon in the sun drinking wine.

Now frankly, you can't go wrong with any of these wines.  They were all delicious in their own ways but at the end of the day, my friend discovered a starting point for his foray into the world of wine drinking. Since this happened a few months ago, I'm a little fuzzy on all the details but future blogs will be much more specific.  Some may even have a few recipes. 

I'd love to hear your experiences of sharing food and wine with friends.  So if you have a great story, I'd love to hear it and if you have some great wines you think I should try . . . I'm all ears.