Cheers To You

Brynn writes:

Every six months or so I try to get together with my girlfriend who I’ve known for 28 years. In that time her family moved to Orcas Island, we attended different schools, went off to college, graduated, lived in separate states, married and had children — her second child is just 5 weeks younger than our son, Ryland. What I love about our friendship is, it doesn’t matter how much time passes between our meetings, when we see each other it’s like nothing has changed.

She lives in Bellingham and so we make a practice of meeting at my mom’s house in the north end of King County because it’s our midway location. Typically we have dinner, uncork a bottle of wine and try to catch up, all the while chasing after our kiddos who don’t seem to understand that sometimes Mommies just need to unwind.

Our last catch up weekend was at the start of April. To keep it simple we did Thai takeout and she swung by Trader Joe’s on her way down and picked up a bottle of wine. She went for economical, I think the wine retails for $6 or less, but don’t let the price trick you into thinking you’re about to drink plonk.

This California red blend was a treat on my tongue. It was warm, full-bodied and exuded cedar and spice notes that hinted at time spent on oak. That oak aging also softened the blackberry and currant notes. The blend breakdown is 58 percent Merlot, 15 percent Petite Syrah, 16 percent Zinfandel and 11 percent Syrah.

If you happen to be at TJ’s looking for a decent red to have with dinner, I’d recommend this wine. I’m not sure how long it will be carried, my friend thought it might be on closeout, so if you see it, grab it.

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It’s sometimes hard to find a wine to match food that falls into a category where a wine accompaniment isn’t necessarily a natural connection.

That’s the case with Ann Vogel’s rhubarb muffin recipe, which she recommends for breakfast or lunch. Most of us lean toward coffee, juice, or milk as our beverages of choice for breakfast. Lunch is another story.

Luckily for you, we’re here to introduce you to different wines and do all the work when it comes to finding the perfect one to go with the latest recipe to try.

Now we know what you’re probably thinking: “Really? You have a wine that works with rhubarb and is appropriate to be had with muffins?”

Of course we do!

We’re bridging the morning/afternoon gap with our wine choice for this hearty spring treat. It’s the perfect wine to sip for a midmorning brunch on a lazy Sunday, or as an accompaniment to compliment the muffins.

We recommend an orange muscat. You might be more familiar with the term Moscato d’Asti, which is a white wine with a slight spritz made from the Moscato Bianco grape grown in the Piedmont region of Italy.

While most of us probably think of muscat as a white, sweeter wine — it was supposedly the third most consumed white wine in the United States in 2012 — it actually can be white or red depending on how it’s made. Often the grape is used to make a variety of sweet dessert wines, but it isn’t classified as a dessert wine.

While it’s a major grape variety of Italy, Muscat has made its way to American soil as well. Look for an orange muscat grown in California or Oregon to pair with these rhubarb muffins.

California’s Quady Winery makes two kinds of orange muscat. One is more of a dessert wine, the other is perfect for the rhubarb muffins. Electra is light, refreshing and easy to dink. It is reminiscent of oranges and peaches with the added benefit of low alcohol so you can have a sip with your muffin and still get on with your day.

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Mary writes:

Ravenswood makes dozens of Zinfandel, from “pinkie up” single vineyard to their everyday vintners blend.

This affordable, everyday wine from the master of Zinfandel, Joel Peterson,  has aromas of cherries and blackberries and rich black fruit flavors with good balance of tannins and fruits.

The blend is 75 percent zin, 16 percent petite sirah, 6 percent syrah and 3 percent mixed blacks (field blends of black grapes) that are sourced from old vineyards around California.

The best part? It’s under $10.

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Brynn writes:

A couple weeks ago I was having a rough couple of days, well more like a rough long weekend. It wasn’t any one thing that was making it stressful, it was more like 100 things.

I decided to allow myself the luxury of a glass (or two, or three) of wine to relax after a long day of juggling work and being a single mom while my husband was away covering a wrestling tournament at the Tacoma Dome. (Have you ever tried to write a 40-inch story while trying to keep a 9.5 month old entertained? I don’t recommend it.)

I had a hankering for white wine, but when I went to our collection I realized the whites I had to choose from were a little pricier than what I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy to pull the cork on a nice, $40 bottle of white, but when I’m drinking just a glass (or two, or three) I feel better pulling it from a $8 to $10 bottle.

Deciding to remedy this problem, I went to Fred Meyer to look for some “everyday” whites. And that’s where the J. Lohr Estates Riverstone Chardonnay caught my eye.

I’ve had this white before and really like it. (Warning if you’re not a fan of oaky chardonnays, this wine is not for you). What I like about this wine is, for roughly $12 you get a wine that tastes like it comes from a much higher price point. It’s full-bodied mouthfeel is creamy and rich and balanced by acidity.

Here’s what the website says about the California-based winery’s 2011 vintage:

2011 joins 1991, 1998, 1999 and 2010 as the coolest vintages of the last twenty years. These years are characterized by either El Niño or La Niña Pacific Ocean influence, with above-average rainfall and unseasonably cool summers. Despite the challenges that cold weather can bring, such as increased mildew and botrytis pressure, these cold vintages have produced outstanding varietal definition in our Chardonnay and White Riesling in the Arroyo Seco. The Chardonnay showed ripe apple, citrus and nectarine flavors with high levels of natural grape acidity. As a result, we incorporated higher levels of malolactic fermentation to balance the acidity in our 2011 Riverstone Chardonnay, creating a wine with intense varietal character, palate weight and palate-cleansing acidity.

Winemaker’s comments:

This elegant Chardonnay has an attractive pale straw-yellow color. The aromas are of nectarine, pear and apple, combined with a perfumed roasted hazelnut and butterscotch bouquet from the barrel fermentation and sur lie aging. The flavors are very soft with ripe pear, tangelo citrus and vanilla toastiness, producing layers of complexity with a silky balance of fresh fruit acidity and palate weight. —Jeff Meier, Winemaker

Food pairings:
Pair with dishes such as lobster pappardelle with chive butter, grilled late summer vegetables and creamy butternut squash soup.

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Beer is the first beverage we’d choose to accompany curry — something ice cold and quenching — rather than a fine wine.
But seeing that this is a wine column, we figure we better stick with what we know — or what our readers expect. When we think of wine for curry, a white wine — one that’s fruity and slightly acidic — comes to mind.

Lighter curried dishes, like chicken and potatoes or a Thai basil fish dish, call for fruity white wines. But for Ann Vogel’s lentil curry recipe, a red wine with weight and complexity is the way to go.

So, what red wine would be curry and lentil friendly? We’ll break down the dish to help us decide what wine is the best match Lentils have a nice earthy quality; tomatoes sweetness and acidity; squash adds more sweetness and body. The curry is the spice.

For a red wine to pair with this dish it needs to have at least some syrah blended in. That’s because syrah has an earthiness that pairs well with lentils. The sweet, acidic tomatoes do best with a juicy, acidic wine like a Barbera or Zinfandel. The weight of the squash matches the weight of a red wine and the spicy curry needs to be paired with a red that has a lot of fruit and low tannins.

What does this all mean?

It means we have the perfect wine in mind. Marietta Cellars Sonoma County Old Vine Red is a gorgeous blend of mostly Zinfandel and other grapes such as syrah, Carignan, Petite Sirah, and Barbera.

This wine has a sweet bouquet of spice and summer fruits, black cherries with an earthy, leathery note. Notes of plum and black currants on the palate pair with a nice balance of black pepper and a smooth, rich body.

The old vines where the grapes from this wine are sourced are planted in Geyserville, Calif. just outside Sonoma. The vineyards are planted in the traditional Italian immigrant way: a row of this, a row of that. The vines are grown together, harvested together and fermented together. Wines produced from this style of winemaking are called field blends. Back in the day, it didn’t matter to winemakers what grape name was on the label, they made the wine in the tradition of the old county by blending.

Marietta Cellars is named after founder Chris Bilbro’s great aunt, who was an Italian immigrant. He started the winery in 1978 in the Dry Creek Valley.

Bilbro produces red wines of incredible consistency, including a Cabernet, Zinfandel and Syrah.

Old Vine Red is available for around $12. But hurry, it doesn’t last very long, it’s that good.

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This week’s recipe from Ann Vogel comes straight from a cookbook filled with celebrities and their favorite recipes, available now for purchase just in time for the holidays, and to benefit a good cause (Meals on Wheels).

Vogel highlights the Barbecue Brisket of Beef in her column, so that’s what we’re going to recommend a wine pairing for.

Barbecue can sometimes be tricky to pair with because, as we’ve repeatedly said, everything comes back to the sauce. If it’s vinegar based barbecue — like what you’d find in North Carolina — you’d want to pair an Italian Barbera with the course.

But because this recipe calls for brown sugar and ketchup — both indicators that this sauce will be thicker and sweeter — a Barbera, with its low tannins and high acidity, may not be able to go toe to toe in the weight division.

For this recipe, we consulted our trusty food and wine pairing Bible, “What to Drink with What You Eat”, by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, (another great holiday gift idea if you’re looking for something for a wine or food lover).

For sweeter based sauces, these two food and wine gurus suggest a cabernet sauvignon from either Napa Valley or Chile.
Now there’s a number of Napa cabernets that we’d love to recommend (Frog’s Leap is just one that comes to mind), but in most cases the wines are priced higher than we’d typically recommend in this column. So we went a little south and east of Napa to the Lodi region of California.

Here you can find the Noble Vines wines. You might know the label — all black with just a number in bright red. In this case we’re recommending the 337 Cabernet Sauvignon. The “337” is the name of the clone from France’s 337 cabernet sauvignon vine.

The 2010 has aromas of black cherry, ripe currant and lightly roasted coffee. Tannins balance well with acidity, making it a great match for the brown sugar-based barbecue sauce. The wine exhibits flavors of black cherry, blackberry and cassis, with sweet herbs and black pepper spice accents.

Another nice thing about this wine? Unlike the Napa cabs that tend to start around $40 and go up from there, this wine can be found at the grocery store between $10 and $15.

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Brynn writes:

Yes I’m reviewing a chardonnay, again. Sorry, but as much as I’ve branched out, there are still some wines that I just can’t stay away from.

This wine is from Napa Valley. But unlike the over the top chardonnays that can come from this region, this one has a great balance between oak flavors and the fruit.

The Cakebread Cellars 2010 Chardonnay is a beautiful straw yellow color, has a citrus nose that makes your mouth water in anticipation of the crisp apple flavors to come. The oak aging — 88 percent of the juice was fermented in barrel — lends notes of vanilla. The mouthfeel is medium-bodied, but I’d say on the lighter  end of the scale so it’s not overpowering.

What’s nice about this wine is the balance between the oak and the true flavors of the grape. According to Cakebread’s tasting notes, 12 percent of its chardonnay is fermented in a stainless steel tanks, while only 11 percent of the wine goes through malolactic fermentation — this is what produces those buttery notes. The wine that is aged in the barrel is aged sur lee with periodic stirring. This means the dead yeast cells stay in the juice during fermentation, giving it fuller body.

I liked the marriage between the oak and stainless steel blending. While the oak flavors rounded out this wine, I could still taste the grape’s flavors, including apple, melon and citrus. This gave the wine a brightness that reminded me of a white Burgundy.

This is definitely a food wine, although I’ll admit it was my dessert the other night…

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Wine with pumpkin bread you ask? Well sure, why not?

For this fall harvest treat we bring to you a wine that’s much easier to drink than it is to pronounce. Gewürztraminer is a popular wine grape in Alsace and Germany, where it’s easy for them to pronounce. (The easiest way to sound like a native or to make others think you’re wine savvy, is to just say “guh vertz.”)

There are also vineyards planted to this grape in Austria, Washington and California. These wine growing regions all offer cooler climates and that’s what Gewürzt likes best.

The skin color of the grape can range from green to pink, so in the glass, some wines may have a slight tint of pink. It’s also high in natural sugars, so sweeter versions abound, but like riesling it can run the gamut in sweetness from ice wine to dry. Either way, it has a very distinctive aromatic nose with layers of rose petals, lychee and ginger being the most common.

Gewürztraminer is a versatile wine that pairs well with Asian cuisine, Indian curries and with old fashioned Thanksgiving dinners from turkey to pumpkin pie.

With Ann Vogel’s pumpkin bread recipe we would choose Pacific Rim Washington Gewürztraminer ($11) with its rose petals, lychee and pear aromas and flavors as an accompaniment. The residual sugar is around 1.7 percent but there is good amount of acidity to make it beautifully balanced.

Finding a Gewürztraminer is not an easy task, so if the Pacific Rim isn’t available locally, others to look for would be Hogue, Columbia Crest or Chateau Ste. Michelle — all in the under $15 category.

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Growing up Brynn’s dad was the chef of the family, tweaking recipes and adlibbing on the fly to produce his own take on traditional recipes.

Being raised in a household with someone dedicated to making gourmet meals on an almost nightly basis, you’d think would produce a child with an adventurous palate. Although she appreciated her dad’s cooking, when it came down to it, nothing beat a meal of macaroni and cheese — more often than not from a box.

What she didn’t know until much later was that when her dad made her the boxed mac and cheese, he often took a spoonful or two for himself  — to make sure it wasn’t poisonous, of course.

Since Ann Vogel’s intended audience for her Max Mac and Cheese is teens on the go, we’ve dedicated our wine pairing to all those parents out there who find themselves “testing” their children’s food, just to make sure it’s OK.

Brynn recently tried a chardonnay from California’s Sonoma County that would be a nice match to the extra sharp Tillamook cheddar cheese suggested for this baked mac and cheese dish.

It’s from Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery, one of the pioneers of the Carneros wine region. While it’s what you might expect from a Carneros chardonnay — hints of oak continue throughout this wine — it’s not a stereotypical California chardonnay that knocks out your palate with oak overload.

The 2009 chardonnay reflects the growing conditions that year. The growing season was cool and long, resulting in fruit notes taking center stage. Apple and pear punctuate this wine, while mineral flavors and high acidity keep the oaky flavors from barrel fermentation in check.

This medium-bodied wine has hints of vanilla and a slight sweetness at the finish that balances with the notes of pear, lemon zest and apples. The restraint used to keep the buttery notes in check, allow he acidity to shine in this wine, which is why it’s a good accompaniment to the mac and cheese.

The weight of the wine will stand up to the sharp cheddar flavors, while the acidic notes will cut through the fat of the cheese.

If you feel you just can’t do chardonnay, we also suggest a Riesling, or if you prefer red wine, a cabernet sauvignon.

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Mary writes:

We had a special treat from the cellar the other night, Sean H. Thackrey’s Pleiades XIII.

Sean Thackery has been making wine — all red — since the early 1980s. He does small batches and most are named after the stars — Orion, Andromeda, Sirius and Aquila. Not widely known, but they always sell out.

This particular wild California blend is a mix of old vineyards, grapes and vintages. This bottling has seven grape varieties: Syrah, Barbera, Carignan, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Sangiovese plus a dash of Viognier.

The wine is named after the constellation Pleiades the Seven Sisters. Pleiades XIII is a glass-staining dark ruby. The aromas from this 6-year-old wine were complex with lots of berry, cherry, pepper, tobacco, and spice. Mouth-filling and ripe, it reminds me of a southern Rhone blend with its raspberry, white pepper and spices flavors.

Because this is a blend of different vintages, Thackrey uses the Roman numerals for this series.

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