Mise en Place

Month: July 2021

Jesse Katz at work in the Aperture Cellars winery. (Courtesy Aperture Cellars)

What I’m Drinking This Week: A Loire Favorite, British Bubbles, a Carmignano Riserva, and More

July 29, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Tasting wines on a daily basis brings abundant opportunity for assessment, reassessment, discovery, and reinforcement (“that wine is as good as I thought it was,” or, “I did not notice such stark acidity in my previous tasting of this Riesling”). It is an illuminating process.

The other day I opened a bottle of Domaine Guion Bourgueil “Cuvée Prestige” — 2018 vintage — with comparison as the goal … that, and enjoying a glass of something that I liked immensely back in April of 2020. I wanted to see how the ’18 had changed in the bottle between tastings. Little, was my answer; it was still one of my favorite wines of the year, and I look forward to drinking more of this wine come 2022 (and beyond).

Stéphane Guion knows how to make fine Cabernet Franc. (Courtesy Domaine Guion)

Stéphane Guion is the man behind this bottle — the fruit comes from vines averaging 50 to 70 years of age planted on a domaine that’s been certified organic since the 1960s — and works from his base in Bourgueil, in the Loire Valley. I first tasted wines from this producer back in the 1990s, at a dinner in New York, and recall that they were inexpensive and delicious.

Cabernet Franc is one of my favorite things to drink, and this one is among my top picks. Low alcohol, lovely acidity — cellar this one for a decade and thank me when you open it in 2031 — with wonderfully ripe, soft tannins. You’ll appreciate violet and strawberry aromas, plus some spice and tobacco. In the mouth, dark fruit and subtle black pepper. Pair this with everything from grilled asparagus to lamb, sausage, and seafood stew. You can find this wine for around $17 at select outlets, including Chambers Street Wines.

Buy as much of this as you can.

The lesson — or one lesson — to be had from the act of daily tasting is, aside from the pleasure of it, development of the palate. While taste is subjective, objectivity is vital to individuals engaged with wine. Taste, taste, then taste some more.

Another wine I sampled recently: the 2018 Aperture Cabernet Sauvignon. Jesse Katz, the young winemaker behind this bottle, has for a good while been the recipient of accolades for his approach, one that he began working on (if originally through osmosis) while traveling as a young boy with his father, photographer Andy Katz, in Bordeaux, Burgundy, and other wine-growing regions. The younger Katz was the first winemaker to be included in the “Forbes 30 Under 30” list, and Wine Spectator named him a “Rising Star.” He made wine for Justin Timberlake. And if all of that does not impress, his wines, including his Devil Proof Malbecs, will.

Jesse Katz made this.

First, know that the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon from Aperture Cellars is drinking well now. If you were to open a bottle of it this evening and pair it with a grilled ribeye you would have no regrets. However, this wine will also reward patience. Drink a bottle now, and put one (or a case) away for eight years or so.

The Alexander Valley AVA is the source of this wine, which is 86 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 7 percent Malbec, 5 percent Merlot, and 2 percent Petit Verdot. It retails for $70. The Cabernet here is sourced from four volcanic-soil sites on hillside slopes, and the wine is unfiltered, unfined, and un-acidified.

By the way, if you can get your hands on some of Katz’s Malbec, do so.

Do give this bottle some time to breathe … decant it for a few hours. The cassis, tobacco, and coffee notes will please your olfactory senses, and the dark fruit and slight spice and vanilla will linger in the mouth.

A sparkling wine with a British accent. (Courtesy Nyetimber)

Let’s turn to some sparkling wine from England — West Sussex and Hampshire to be exact. It’s from Nyetimber, and it’s a multi-vintage cuvée (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier) that retails for $55. I consider this one of my go-to sparkling wines at that price level, and like to keep one chilled at all times.

The Nyetimber Classic Cuvée is aged for an average of three years, and its toasty quotient is remarkable. Brioche, frangipane, a slight nuttiness … all of that is there, plus fine bubbles and an elegance that makes this wine more than ideal for celebrations, anniversaries, and brunch. Would I pair it with oysters or salmon? Yes, and if toro and ebi were served to me I’d be happy drinking this wine with them as well.

Nyetimber as a producer has put a lot of money and thought into reducing its carbon footprint, and I like that. Thirty percent of its estate holdings is comprised of “nonproductive” hedgerows, sheep from a nearby farm graze the grass and other ground vegetation in vineyard plots — their waste supplies nutrients to the soil, and their eating habits reduce the use of tractors and lower carbon emissions. I am a firm believer in the adage that every little effort counts, and these types of practices at Nyetimber (and at many other producers) add up.

The Contini Bonacossi family has been making wine for a long time.

Finally this week, a red wine from Italy that spoke to me with confidence and promise. It’s from Tenuta di Capezzana, an estate whose founding dates back to 804 A.D. It’s situated 12 miles west of Florence, and is a leading name in the Carmignano region, the history of which is fascinating.

In 1716, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo III de’Medici, granted the region official and legal status; today, Carmignano DOCG regulations stipulate that Sangiovese must be at least 50 percent of the blend, and allow 10 to 20 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon or Cabernet Franc, as much as 20 percent Canaiolo Nero and 5 percent Mammolo and Colorino, and up to 10 percent white grape varieties, such as Trebbiano or Malvasia.

To the wine: It’s the 2015 Trefiano Carmignano Riserva DOCG, and it has a suggested retail price of $59. It’s bottled during the best vintages only, “best” as deemed by the winemaker, and it’s aged for 18 months in French oak (10 percent new oak) and an additional year in bottle.

The 2015 is 80 percent Sangiovese, 10 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10 percent Canaiolo, a blend put together well by Benedetta Contini Bonacossi (Capezzana is owned by the Contini Bonacossi family). For those of you who are interested in names, Trefiano refers to the 15th-century villa purchased in the 1920s by the Contini Bonacossi clan. Five hectares of vineyards that surround the villa are the source of the grapes used to make this wine.

Deep ruby in color, the Trefiano greets the nose with dark cherry and cedar. This is a wine with serious intent, and I loved it with lamb. Steaks, wild boar, and sausages would be other great pairings. Ripe tannins never jar the drinker, and the tobacco notes on the palate are delightful. I’m looking forward to revisiting this vintage in five years.

I also sampled three other offerings from Capezzana, bottles at different price points; each is worth consideration.

I began with the 2018 Barco Reale di Carmignano DOC, at $18 a great value. It’s 75 percent Sangiovese, 15 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 percent Canaiolo, and 5 percent Cabernet Franc, and is fermented in stainless steel and aged in Slavonian oak. Drink now.

Next, the 2016 Villa di Capezzana Carmignano DOC ($30). It’s considered the flagship wine of the estate; 80 percent Sangiovese and 20 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, fermented in French oak and aged for a year in the barrel. Drink now-2026.

Finally, the 2013 Ghiaie della Furba Toscana IGT ($51). As with the Trefiano, this wine is made in the best vintages only. “Ghiaie” refers to the gravelly soils near the Furba, a stream on the estate. It’s 40 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 35 percent Syrah, and 25 percent Merlot. Delicious now, and is still full of aging potential.

Next week, I’ll be sitting down with, among other selections, some California Zinfandel, a Prosecco, and a Malbec from the Temecula Valley AVA.

Want more wine? Read on.

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Dan Petroski on Soil and J. Alfred Prufrock
A Canadian Makes Good in Mendocino
Bouchaine’s Chris Kajani Tackles the Challenges of a Pandemic
A Bosnian Winemaker Finds a Home in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA
From a Michigan Backyard Vineyard to Sonoma
Paul Hobbs Knew She Had Talent
Ian Cauble: From ‘Somm’ to SommSelect
Eric Sigmund is High on Texas Wine
Jeff Cole, Sullivan Estate’s Winemaker
Jon McPherson Talks Tokay and His Mentor Father
Two Reds From Chile
An Italian Chardonnay From the Cesare Stable
Mi Sueño’s 2016 Napa Valley Syrah
Joshua Maloney on Riesling and Manfred Krankl
Brothers in Wine
Two Bottles From Priest Ranch
A Derby Day Cocktail
Nate Klostermann is Making Some Great Sparkling Wines in Oregon
Matt Dees and the Electric Acidity of Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay
Baudelaire, Pinot Noir, and Rosé: Kathleen Inman’s Passions
Colombia, France, and California: This Winemaker is a Complex Woman
Michael Kennedy Talks Sailing and Zinfandel
Spain Opened the World of Wine for Spottswoode’s Aron Weinkauf
Alta Colina’s Molly Lonborg Wants a Bottle of Château Rayas
Mumm Napa’s Tami Lotz Talks Wine and Oysters
James MacPhail on Pinot Noir, White Burgundy, and Russell Crowe
A Very Proper Sparkling Wine
Talking With David Ramey
A Merlot That Your Snob Friend Will Love
French Couple Make a Sauvignon Blanc in California
A Perfect Afternoon Chardonnay
Terry Theise Talks Reisling
A New Wine Wonderland
Paris Wine Goddess Tells All
Rice Village Wine Bar Has a Cleveland Touch
A Texas White Blend for Your Table
A Pinot Noir Full of Flavor
This Pinot Gris From Oregon Pairs Well With Cheese
Willamette, Dammit!
A Value Rioja
Drink Pink!
Underbelly Veteran Goes for Grenache
A Man of Letters and Wine
Ms. Champagne Wants a Nebuchadnezzar
The Wine Artist Goes for Chardonnay
This American Loves Spain and Its Wines
Houston’s Wine Whisperer Has a Soft Touch
Blackberry Farm’s Somm Pours in Splendor
Mr. Pinot Noir: Donald Patz of Patz & Hall
A Cork Dork Wants to Spend More Time in Tuscany
Sommelier Turned Restaurateur Daringly Goes Greek
Texas Master Sommelier Debunks Wine Geeks
A Bottle From Gigondas Changed This Houston Man’s Life
Oil Man Falls in Love, and the Rest is Good-Taste History
Ryan Cooper of Camerata is a Riesling Man
Mixing It Up With Jeremy Parzen, an Ambassador of Italy
Sommelier at One of Houston’s Top Wine Bars Loves Underdogs

Stage’s Pushkar Marathe Cooks With His Travels in Mind

July 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I am in Jupiter, Florida, near Palm Beach, visiting my parents and my sister and her family. I’m cooking a lot — this morning I made some cornbread, and a pot of pinto beans is simmering on the stove. Those two items, with a glass of buttermilk and perhaps a tomato slice on the side, make up one of my father’s favorite meals, something he’s been eating since his childhood. I’ve always had an appetite for fermented food — sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, and buttermilk included — and imagine that it was passed down to me from my father’s ancestors.

On a recent evening, Angela and I made a reservation at Stage Kitchen, a restaurant whose chef, Pushkar Marathe, is from India. Nagpur, to be exact, which is in the state of Maharashtra. He attended culinary school in Switzerland, and worked under Dean Max, as well as in restaurants in the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the United States.

We are here to help my family navigate a stage of life that often comes with growing older, one that involves moving my father into a care facility and assisting my mother as she prepares for hip replacement. The only constant is change, and that is a verity made very real when a parent begin showing signs of cognitive dysfunction. So I am cooking for my parents and carrying out other errands and chores.

The way I see stage is like it’s a big tree. The branches are my travels all over the world, but the roots are deep in Inda

Pushkar Marathe

When I am not cooking, I make a reservation at a restaurant, to get a sense of the area’s food. A friend had mentioned Stage when I asked her about places to try in the Palm Beach region, and I trust her palate, so we added it to the list.

Pushkar Marathe, second from right, and his business partner and general manager, Andy Dugard. (Courtesy Stage)

“Fusion” is not a word I use freely, and I was glad to see that Marathe has no use for it either on the restaurant’s website. Instead, he speaks of travel and diverse experiences and global culinary traditions. I never fail to sense when food I’m eating was made by someone possessing a broad and open palate and mind. It’s more alive, honest. It carries no hint of trendiness. This is Marathe’s food at Stage.

Naan done Pushkar Marathe’s way

He serves a naan filled with spicy cheese, and while it is unlike most naan I have eaten, it is a bread I would order every time I dine at Stage. Crisp exterior (two naans, one placed over the other), dense interior filled with a peppery cheese whose piquancy lasts. Marathe’s naan is served fresh from the tandoor, and you’ll see that it is not dissimilar to a grilled cheese sandwich. But it’s much better than the average grilled cheese. (We took some home with us, and it was just as good reheated at lunch. No stale fat or butter taste, nothing but satisfaction.) Marathe also makes garlic naan and a black truffle naan.

The garlic naan at Stage (Courtesy Stage)

We began with oysters, a half dozen Malpeques, from Prince Edward Island, served with turmeric and a truffle-yuzu mignonette. Our selections had the characteristic combination of brininess and sweetness that rewards one when Malpeques are on the table, and the mignonette was tangy and rich, with a touch of spice. The 2019 Butterfield Station Chardonnay from Sebastiani Vineyards we were drinking was good with the shellfish.

Oysters on the half shell (Courtesy stage)

The restaurant, which opened in 2019 and was then forced to close by COVID-19, is located in a mixed-use development off of a busy street in Palm Beach Gardens, a community between Jupiter and West Palm Beach. Its open kitchen is a focal point, as is the bar, situated at the right rear of the spacious interior. A long, high communal table that seats 16 or so diners is directly in front of the pass, and behind that table, toward the front of the interior, is a wall of tables that also offer primes seats for all the cooking action. Booths and outdoor seating are in the mix at the large restaurant, which was mostly full on the evening we were there.

Color, texture, and well-designed seating: Stage has that. (Courtesy Stage)

Masala Dosa. You know what that is. Marathe’s version would not surprise anyone, at least not in a bad way. It looks good, crispy and shiny — though my dining companion did say that it had been slightly overcooked and was dry in some spots, a verdict with which I agreed after several bites of it — and it was filled with potatoes, peas, and cauliflower, all cooked well, neither too soft nor too hard. A creamy, piquant tomato sauce, specked with fried cumin and mustard seeds, rounded out the dish.

Marathe’s Masala Dosa is not far from the traditional. (Courtesy Stage)

Angela wanted to try the White Truffle Mushroom Karanji, and that was the next item to come to the table. A karanji (also known as gujia, gujiya, pedakiya, and gughara) is a sweet deep-fried dumpling made with either semolina or all-purpose flour and filled with milk solids and dried fruit. It’s fried in ghee. Marathe’s version eschews sweetness and goes for savory, with mushrooms and truffle. The sauce is thin enough to run slowly when you cut into the crisp empanada-like shell, but thick enough to hold all of the ingredients together, meaning each bite of the dish is equally satisfying.

Umami-rich: Savory and imminently shareable, Stage’s truffle and mushroom karanji is a fun twist on the traditional Indian dessert. (Courtesy Stage)

Lamb is one of my favorite proteins, and the kebab at Stage is definitely one for lovers of the meat. The mixture Marathe uses is light and tender in the mouth, and the masala combination sings. At one minute cumin leads, then ginger, followed by coriander. I love ground lamb prepared in this manner, and Marathe’s is one of the best I’ve had this year. The pickled red onion and mint cilantro chutney served with the dish complete it well.

Lamb kebab done with a deft and assured touch. (Courtesy Stage)

When deciding what to order next, Angela and I knew we wanted to share something, and narrowed the choices to peri peri chicken and local grouper. The chicken won out, mainly because shrimp and mussels had featured in some of our recent home-cooked meals.

Peri Peri sauce is a good way to go with chicken, and this rendition left nothing undone. The skin of the bird (half a chicken) was blackened well by the flames, and the meat, both dark and white, was moist and full of smoke and peri peri flavor. Patatas Bravas and a mixture of scallions, cashews, and black sesame seeds nestled alongside the main course.

Peri Peri Chicken, with color and verve. (Courtesy Stage)

We arrived at Stage at 6:30 that evening, and an hour or so later the place was completely full, and lively. Some might find it noisy — high ceilings can wreak sonic havoc — but the flavors of the food should pull your senses away from the sounds.

Dessert was all that remained, and it was Garam Masala Cheesecake. I wanted more spice, but the peach compote was a revelation. Bracing, acutely acidic, and intriguingly approaching sweet, our final course, while making us remember Thanksgivings past, was a fine close to the evening.

The wine list at Stage is small, but includes a few solid bottles, such as Son of a Butcher, from Y. Rousseau, and Diatom, from Brewer-Clifton. Corkage is $25.

Marathe has plans to open a traditional Indian restaurant in the area, and based on the flavors he’s creating at Stage, it should be embraced by the area’s diners. Until then, they’ll have to settle for his current body of work.

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