“He’s gone,” my sister Julie’s words came from the phone, and in that second, on that night, it struck me: April is the cruelest month.
I looked at Angela, and I cried.
Since that night, April 12, I’ve attempted to keep my mind and heart silent and still about my father. This was — is — a reflex, an unconscious reaction, because it seems I am not able to bear thinking of him in his hospice-room bed, unable to move, or smile, or talk. I’ve not been fully successful in keeping my mind, or heart, still.
I last spoke to my father about a week before he died. He was unable to form the words he wanted to communicate, and that tore.
My father was a singer of songs. If he was awake, he was humming or whistling or singing. Some of my earliest memories are of those sounds. He had a beautiful voice.
For the past several years his songs have been silent to others, in his head only. I am certain he was singing there. That’s one thing he never stopped.
The final time I sang with my father was several years ago, shortly before he entered a nursing facility. I was helping him get to the bedroom he shared with my mother, so she could undress him and prepare him for sleep. He was using a walker then, and it was necessary for someone to accompany him. He was always in a hurry and would move so fast that the walker would roll too far in front of him, and he would fall. As I was helping him we began belting out “I Got You (I Feel Good”) as loudly as we could. His voice was weak, faltering, but the rhythm was still there, and the happiness singing always gave him was vibrantly alive in his eyes and on his face.
Knowing I’ll never again hear his beautiful voice or see the smile in his eyes makes me sad. It’s the hardest part.
My father, James Brock, Sr., was a good man. He was actually a good man. I never heard anyone — friend, colleague, relative — say anything bad about him. All of my childhood friends thought he was cool. He was cool.
There is so much more I want to write about him and his life and what he meant to so many, and I will write it, all of it, about the way he loved his wife — June 30 would have been the 60th anniversary of their wedding — and his children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and how he cut a record for his mother’s birthday when he was a teenager, how he took us to Alaska and Germany and so many other places and opened the world to me … I’ll write all of it.
Do you know Sannio? Some of you might, but for those who have never heard the word I’d like to provide a primer and recommend some wines from the Italian region, which lies north of Naples and offers lots of value, whether one is discussing wine, travel, food, or real estate.
Perhaps the first thing to know is that Sannio is located in Campania, in Italy’s southwest. It’s a land of hills, and the soils that produce Sannio’s wine grapes are mostly limestone and sandstone beneath gravel and stone, along with some volcanic soils, which were deposited by the region’s many active, dormant and extinct volcanoes.
One interesting and notable fact about Campania’s (and Sannio’s) place in the wine world is that it is home to an astoundingly large number of native cultivars, a treasure that all lovers of wine should appreciate. Forastera, Piedirosso, Sciascinoso and Coda di Volpe Bianca are but four of the region’s grapes that deserve more exposure to the outside world. (The poverty in the region was one reason that farmers did not pull out their “old” vines and replace them with more popular and profitable names, such as merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Simply put, farmers in the area did not have the money to rip out their traditional vines.)
I tasted through a few wines from Sannio recently at a lunch sponsored by the Sannio Consorzio Tutela Vini, an organization that supports the area’s viticulture, and was impressed with the lineup. The quality on display left me with no choice but to recommend all of the following bottles to anyone looking for everyday selections at great prices. A case of any of these wines would be a welcome addition to any party or gathering.
A sparkling wine from Sannio, one that would suit nearly any occasion. (Courtesy Corte Normanna Società Agricola)
We’ll begin our Sannio tour with a sparkling wine, the Corte Normanna Società Agricola Falanghina Brut. It is made by the Charmat method, and one can find it for around $10 a bottle. The perlage here is fine and persistent, which adds to the pleasure of drinking. You’ll enjoy pairing a bottle with salade niçoise — the olives will love this sparkling — or goat cheese and a baguette. Serve chilled, of course, and be sure to have at least two extra bottles on hand, because your guests will want more than one glass.
Falanghina For You
We’ll stay with Falanghina for our next wine. It’s a grape that has a long and storied history. Some posit that it is the source of the fabled Falernian, which you might recall reading about in the Satyricon. (Others give Aglianico the nod, but no matter.) Falernian was popular in the classical Roman period, and it was a strong drink. Pliny the Elder was familiar with it, and in the 14th book of Naturalis Historia noted its high alcohol content: “It is the only wine that takes light when a flame is applied to it.”
Falanghina, an ancient grape that offers great value and taste. (Courtesy Cantina Sociale La Guardiense)
Our second bottle is from Cantina Sociale La Guardiense, a cooperative that produces a wide variety of wines, including Aglianico, Fiano, Greco and a very good Falanghina, all part of its Janare program, which was instituted to “safeguard and improve local grape varieties.” (I spent some time in Campania a few years ago and was impressed with the stewardship shown by winemakers for their indigenous plants.)
The Janare Falanghina offers tremendous value for its $11 suggested retail price, and it is remarkably friendly with food. Want to serve a white wine with aged provolone? Looking for a great pairing for baked rockfish with olives and garlic? This Falanghina is a perfect option for both scenarios.
It’s dry, possesses remarkable acidity, and leaves nothing but pleasure. (I love a good ratatouille, and look forward to popping the cork on a bottle of this wine next time I make the dish.)
A third Falanghina was on the tasting agenda during my lunch, and it was from Azienda Olivinicola Terre Stregate. If the phrase “Tre Bicchieri” means anything to you, you’ll be happy to hear that this Falanghina, named “Svelato” by the producer, has been awarded that accolade for seven years in a row. I’ve tasted previous vintages of this wine, and I am pleased to report that the quality has been maintained with this bottling. (A recent search located it for sale at K&L for $19.99.)
This wine has earned an impressive number of accolades, and deservedly so. (Courtesy Azienda Olivinicola Terre Stregate)
I love wines that offer exciting minerality, and this one has that quality in abundance. Apple, pineapple and hints of jasmine are all obvious on the nose, and you’ll appreciate the honeysuckle and lemon once you take a sip of this commendable wine. I will pair this bottle with roast chicken or mushroom pâté.
Finishing With a Red
The final wine I tasted during the Sannio seminar was from Fattoria La Rivolta — and it had the distinction of being the sole red we tasted. Aglianico del Taburno is a DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) designation for grapes grown around Mount Taburno, and the La Rivolta offering is 100 percent Aglianico, one of Italy’s finest wine grapes, an opinion I share with Ian D’Agata — who in Native Wine Grapes of Italy, a must-have for any lover of Italian wines, writes: “Aglianico is one of the world’s great red grapes, one that is finally carving a place in mainstream wine-drinking consciousness. Along with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese, it is generally believed to be one of Italy’s three best wine grapes, but in my opinion, it is far more. At the very least, it’s one of the world’s dozen or so best wine grapes.”
Pair this beautiful wine with grilled lamb, and you will not regret the decision. (Courtesy Fattoria La Rivolta)
The La Rivolta Aglianico, in addition to being the only red wine poured at the lunch session, was also the most expensive wine of the day — the 2017 vintage is available on Wine.com for $24.99 — but it is worth that price, and, according to my palate, will reward a few years of patient aging. Drink this with grilled lamb, pastas with tomato sauce and sausage, or eggplant baked with cheese and tomatoes. It’s a robust and full-bodied wine with gorgeous fruit undergirding impressive structure.
One of the pleasures of navigating the world of wine is tasting around the globe, trying things unfamiliar to you. I urge you to become familiar with Sannio and the excellence it offers.
Poaching a whole chicken is a simple process, and the outcome is, even if one is a novice cook, always satisfying. Water, some herbs and vegetables and spices, and a bird, plus a little time, and you’re set.
I prepare a chicken in this manner perhaps once or twice a month, on average, and a week or so ago decided to add some dumplings to the mix. My grandmother, and her mother and mother-in-law, made this dish, and those meals were magical for the younger version of me, whether the kitchen and dining table were in Savannah or in the country in Collins, Georgia.
The other inspiration for the dumplings last week was Edna Lewis, a woman I wish I had known. A cake she made is one of my favorites, and her pastry-like dumplings were just as delicious.
A simple dough.
Don’t stress over the design, but if you wish, diamond shapes are a nice touch.
Hard-boiled eggs are a nice touch, and are in Lewis’ recipe, and I added spinach to the broth at the end. Kale would work, too.
Spinach and eggs, and a broth from poached chicken.
My grandmothers would have been proud.
I poached the chicken on a Wednesday, and we made tacos that night. I reduced the stock for five or six hours, and Thursday night we had chicken and dumplings.
Orris root; winter savory; coriander seed; juniper; orange peel; elderflower; angelica. Quick: What comes to mind when you read those words? If your response is “gin” you win.
Gin is a thing of beauty, and it’s one of my favorite distilled spirits. It is a cherished and vital component of many cocktails I order or make on a regular basis, and its diversity excites me and pleases my palate.
The universe of gin is — and has been — expanding; it is no longer “what your grandparents drink” … though they probably still do partake of it.
What’s changed is that hipsters and moms and dads and “average” Americans have discovered the charms of gin, and more and more of the distilled spirit is making its way into American homes. According to Allied Market Research, the global market for gin was valued at $14.03 billion in 2020, a market that is predicted to reach $20.17 billion by 2028. That’s a lot of gin.
With that abundance comes, of course, the opportunity for confusion to enter. You pace up and down the gin aisle at your favorite spirits merchant and are both enchanted and befuddled at the seemingly infinite selections of bottles on display. What does it all mean? “I simply want to make a good gin and tonic,” you mutter to yourself.
Save the stress, I advise, and it’s easy to do so, at least when it comes to selecting gin. Here’s my angst-free system: Buy a bottle a month, gins made in diverse countries, states, and regions, and explore.
To start you off, here are a few selections I’ve sampled recently, and they’d all be worthy of a place in your bar.
6 O’clock Gin hails from Bristol, England, and traces it origins to the fruit farm belonging to Edward and Penny Kain. The couple began experimenting with their produce, and made some great fruit liqueurs, which sold well. That was about 30 years ago, and the brand is now available in many markets in the United States.
We’ll start with 6 O’clock’s Sloe Gin, which I used to make, yes, a Sloe Gin Fizz. For those of you who don’t know what sloes are, they are small berries (Prunus spinosa) that are in the same family as plums and cherries. They are native to Europe, and when eaten alone impart a sharp, mostly unpleasant taste.
A proper British libation … (Courtesy 6 O’Clock Gin)
But take the berries and steep them in gin for six months, as 6 O’clock does, and you have a lovely concoction that’s lower in alcohol than unflavored gins — 26 percent ABV compared to the 43 percent in 6 O’Clock’s London Dry Gin — and tart and sweet in a wonderful way. The berries impart a lovely plum-red color to the gin, and, yes, it’s perfect for a Sloe Gin Fizz, among many other cocktails. I found this gin for sale at Binny’s for $36.99.
The 6 O’clock lineup includes canned Gin & Tonics. (Courtesy 6 O’clock Gin)
6 O’clock also makes a Damson Gin, using Damson plums (or Damsons, as they are called in England), which, like the sloe, are too tart for most palates to be consumed raw. But let them mingle with gin for a while and the outcome is delicious: spicy, warm, and that great sweet and tart combination. Drink this with tonic, add it to ginger beer, or use it as a cocktail base. ($36.99 at Binny’s)
If you want a tried-and-true London Dry Gin, try 6 O’clock’s version, which hews to the juniper-dominant standard known and loved the world over. I used it to make a Negroni — one of my favorite cocktails — and was more than pleased. ($36.99 at Binny’s)
Finally, and if you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary, try 6 O’clock’s Brunel, a London Dry gin inspired by the mind and creations of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It clocks in at 50 percent ABV, and is made with an extra dosage of juniper, plus green cardamom, nutmeg, cumin, cassia bark, cubeb pepper, and lemon. Mix it with tonic water and a slice of lemon, over ice, or try it in a French 75. It’s available for around $40.
We’ll go to California now, for D. George Benham’s Sonoma Dry Gin ($37 at Total Wine). It’s 45 percent alcohol by volume, and is aromatized with juniper, Meyer lemon, peppermint, coriander, star anise, cardamom, Buddha’s hand, angelica, grains of paradise, galangal, chamomile, and orris root. Yes, that’s 12 aromatics, but the resultant gin is deftly balanced and makes a great Gin & Tonic.
An American gin (Courtesy Benham’s Spirits)
Our final gin comes from Drumshanbo, Ireland, a small town located in County Leitrim. Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, whose maker describes it as created from “Oriental botanicals, gunpowder tea, and Irish curiosity,” was the base of a cocktail I made recently called The Davy Mac. I found the recipe on the Drumshanbo site, and if you like elderflower, go for this one. It’s made of 40ml of gin and 140ml of elderflower tonic, and is garnished with grapefruit and raspberries.
Here’s what’s in this gin, and it’s a fascinating amalgam: juniper berries, angelica root, orris root, caraway seed, coriander seed, meadowsweet (mead wort), cardamom, star anise, Chinese lemon, oriental grapefruit, kaffir lime, and gunpowder tea. I love to sip this gin — a 1-ounce pour goes a long and pleasurable way — and when I mix it with the elderflower tonic … well, I have a cocktail worthy of a most perfect day.
A gin from Ireland that mixes very well with elderflower tonic. (Courtesy Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin)
Bernard Mandeville, an Anglo-Dutch philosopher, satirist, and political economist (1670-1733), wrote something on gin that I urge you to read; it’s a brief and concise piece that should amuse while you enjoy your afternoon cocktail. I’ll leave you with an excerpt:
NOTHING is more destructive, either in regard to the health, or the vigilance and industry of the poor, than the infamous liquor, the name of which, derived from Juniper in Dutch, is now by frequent use and the laconic spirit of the nation, from a word of middling length shrunk into a monosyllable, intoxicating gin, that charms the inactive, the desperate and crazy of either sex, and makes the starving sot behold his rags and nakedness with stupid indolence, or banter both in senseless laughter, and more insipid jests; it is a fiery lake that sets the brain in flame, burns up the entrails, and scorches every part within; and at the same time a Lethe of oblivion, in which the wretch immersed drowns his most pinching cares, and, with his reason, all anxious reflection on brats that cry for food, hard winter’s frosts, and horrid empty home.
I like to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink and we learn a lot.
In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well.
Dusty Nabor’s journey into winemaking began with a carboy in his Ventura County, California, kitchen. A business associate with a passion for cult Napa wines had introduced Nabor to that rarified sector of the wine world, and he began frequenting events as a consumer. But this son of SoCal wanted to do more than drink wine. He wanted to make it as well.
“I got interested in wine right around when I became legal, back in the late 1990s, but I didn’t really learn much about it until around 2005 or so,” Nabor says, referring to that business associate’s influence on him. “I was always really drawn to the production personnel of the winery rather than the hospitality staff or ownership, and I wanted to know what they did. I wanted to make wine commercially.”
In 2014, Nabor made his way to a custom crush facility near his home, and laid the plans for his first vintage, two barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon harvested in 2015. “After a couple of years at the custom crush I decided to venture out on my own and opened my winery, in Camarillo, in time for the 2020 vintage,” he says. Dusty Nabor Wines was born.
Nabor’s stated focus is on Syrah, Grenache, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, and he and his partner Karin Langer source fruit from vineyards in Santa Barbara County, from the AVAs of Sta. Rita Hills, Ballard Canyon and Los Olivos District. (His production last year was around 1,500 cases, and he is anticipating 2,000 cases this year. The wines are sold mainly through the Dusty Nabor Wines mailing list — click here to add your name.)
Nabor is a self-taught winemaker, though he is quick to credit a few mentors, including Matt Dees, Nile Zacherle and Paul Frankel. And he taught himself (an ongoing process, as always) while working at his family’s business, 101 Pipe & Casing. The company was founded by Nabor’s father, Fidel, and the winemaker is the firm’s executive vice president. He’s worked there for 28 years.
In addition to Dusty Nabor Wines, he and Langer are behind Bolt to Wines and NSO Wines.
Another thing to know about Nabor is that he has raced cars, competed as a triathlete (he and Langer still do), played competitive poker and golf, and. . . well, the point is that he loves adventure and accomplishment.
Let’s see what Nabor has to say in Wine Talk.
James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?
Dusty Nabor: COVID for us (Karin and me) has been extremely easy. It definitely was a tale of two pandemics. Those who were affected greatly and those who simply were not. For me personally, I didn’t know anyone whom I am close with that was affected adversely by the virus. We were also able to get vaccinated very early on due to our affiliation with the food and service industry.
Our lives have been set up in sort of an introverted way from the beginning. We do a lot of endurance sport training (triathlon, cycling, running and swimming) and those sports by their nature are very individual and solitary. We don’t need to be around large groups of people and usually are not.
Professionally, it was very similar. My day job was considered an essential business from the start of the pandemic, and the winery was as well. So income never stopped for us and the winery kept on going as usual. Also, the winery was started as if I knew the pandemic was coming.
We have no tasting room and the winery is not open to the public. All of our sales channels were done online or remotely. While others had to pivot to meet the demands of the pandemic, we just continued doing what we were already doing. Don’t get me wrong, all of this was by sheer luck. I had no idea this would be the case setting up the winery years ago.
JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?
DN: Yeesh, this is a tough one for me. I’m terrible at food pairings. Three wines doing well right now. . .
A Chardonnay for your consideration.
Well, our 2019 Chardonnay from Spear Vineyards is really starting to hit its stride. It’s a Wente clone of Chardonnay and just needed a little bit of bottle time to settle in. It suffered a little bit of bottle shock after we bottled it last year, and it’s regained it’s form nicely. I’d pair it with pretty much anything, but I’d really like to enjoy it with a pear salad with some candied walnuts.
Second wine would be our 2018 Bolt To Wines Syrah from Ballard Canyon. This is a serious dead ringer for a Côte-Rôtie Syrah. It has all the hallmarks that we strive for in Syrah. . . bloody meat, iodine, some forest mustiness, a little cigar box and beautiful blue and black fruit. I’d drink this wine with anything savory.
Third would be the 2017 Jaimee Motley 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from Peter Martin Ray Vineyard. What a wine. Just a gorgeous example of what Cabernet Sauvignon can be without any heavy-handed oak or mass extraction. Just flowers and tea and fresh berries. . . just lovely. I had this wine and paired it with a light pasta with red sauce and some “Beyond” meat sausage.
This Cabernet Sauvignon pairs well with red sauce and pasta, according to Dusty Nabor.
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why?
DN: I’d like to experience DRC. I don’t have the financial ability or enough friends who do to have been able to try it. I would like to because Pinot Noir is a joy of mine to make and I don’t feel like I’ve really experienced it without having some of the inaccessible grand crus of burgundy.
JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?
DN: Syrah. Always Syrah. I absolutely love Syrah because of all the magical expressions it has. I will die trying to create the perfect Syrah. . . I am a long, long way away.
JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day? Can be one of your wines, but need not be.
DN: Our 2019 Pinot Noir from Spear Vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills, which was done 100 percent whole cluster. I’m dying to fast-forward into the future and try this wine 10 years down the road. It has all the structure of a brilliant wine to cellar. It has so much nerve and tension in such a great way. Once it starts to relax and unwind, I think it will be a very good wine.
Dusty Nabor and Karin Langer are partners in life, endurance athletics, and wine.
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?
DN: Our local spot Boar Dough Tasting Room is our Cheers. Always great wines and fun people.
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
DN: If it’s an honest wine, made by a small producer, just keep in mind how much love, care and heartache went into that wine. Wine is a living thing and it goes through phases like any living thing. And they ain’t all great phases.
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
DN: A 2007 Hundred Acre Kayli Morgan Vineyard, which I opened at Karin’s birthday six or seven years ago. My tastes have changed since, but I had no idea wine could taste like that.
JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career thus far?
DN: Experiencing bottle shock of our first vintage, a 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon. A week after it was bottled it was absolutely terrible. I thought I totally messed everything up and it made me really doubt myself. A year later, the wine was very good. So now, we wait 18 months in bottle before releasing our flagship Cabernet.
JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?
DN: I’m a sucker for Sideways. I’m a SoCal kid, and that entire movie took place in my backyard and in the region I now work. I still think it’s a fantastic movie.
Every year, as Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, I am the recipient of requests for wine recommendations for the holidays. It’s a job I take seriously, as Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year, for several reasons, chief among them being the food. Whether I’m making Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish, Scooter’s Southwestern Dressing, brining and roasting a heritage turkey, ordering a smoked bird from Greenberg Turkey, or grilling lamb chops or a rib eye, what to drink with my feast is always on my mind. It’s not a small matter.
And then there’s Christmas (and New Year’s Eve and Day). Plenty of opportunities to try something new and to open and savor some of your tried-and-true favorites. It’s a wonderful time of the year …
My view on pairing wines with Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities is simple, and is aligned with what I often say: Drink what you find pleasurable. It really is that easy. You open a bottle of, say, Endless Crush Rosé of Pinot Noir, from Inman Family Wines — which is one of my recommendations this year — and snack on some cheese straws while drinking it. Perfect. The salty/spicy flavor profile of the delicious Southern staple (click here for a great recipe from Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock) marries well with the Rosé’s remarkable acidity, and all is well for you and your guests.
Now, you could as aptly open a bottle of Piquette from Noblemen Wines (another of my holiday selections this year) with those cheese straws, and I daresay your pleasure would in no way be diminished. Lively, low in alcohol, a great way to begin a day of celebration.
What I’m saying is this: Yes, there are a number of “rules” that most people are told they should (or must) follow when pairing wines with food, and some of them do have merit. There are wines that clash on the palate with salmon. I would not pair salmon with a boldly tannic California Cabernet Sauvignon (and here I am thinking of the 2018 Scattered Peaks Sage Ridge Vineyard Cabernet, which is also on this year’s holiday wine list). Neither would I drink an Auslese with a grilled rib eye or pasta with Bolognese sauce.
Gathering around a holiday table is one of life’s great pleasures, and wine plays a starring role. (Wikimedia Commons)
I could lay out a few more of these strictures, but you get the picture, and here is the main thing: Once you actually “taste” why a wine should not be be paired with a particular dish or type of food you can proceed to write your own set of rules. When that’s done, a certain sense of freedom opens and you are on your way to wine-pairing liberation. You will most likely not want to eat salmon and drink a Cabernet Sauvignon at the same time, but you will have the confidence to know which pairing rules apply to you.
So, on to my 2021 Holiday Wine Selections. As with previous years, this is a highly subjective and personal roster of wines, bottles that appeal to my palate and sensibilities. I am an eclectic consumer of wines — yes, Riesling is my true love, my passion, but you will find me drinking Albariño as often as Chenin Blanc; one day I crave Syrah, the next Cabernet Franc or a Barolo or Müller-Thurgau — and hope my approach appeals to you. (Of course, I would love to — and could easily — include many more bottles on this list, but space does not permit me that luxury.)
At the least, I urge you to never, ever paint yourself into a corner when it comes to what you drink. I’ve met too many people who profess to like Chardonnay only, or who tell me they drink wines only if they garnered “at least” 96 points from this or that critic. Such individuals are generally lackluster conversationalists whose culinary predilections mirror their wine dogmas. These people are best avoided.
To our list.
Sparkling and Rosé
I wrote above that a bottle of Piquette would be a great way to commence a holiday gathering, so that’s what we’ll do. I’ve chosen Noblemen Wines, a producer based in Kerrville, Texas, to supply our effervescent, low-alcohol (7 percent), refreshing, and thirst-quenching Piquette, and it’s a worthy and fun entry on the Sparkling and Rosé category. It will cost you $20 a bottle from Noblemen. Mourvedre and Teroldego skins, plus some added carbonation, are the ingredients behind this unfiltered offering.
I recently had the pleasure of tasting with Remi Cohen at Domaine Carneros, and the 2016 Ultra Brut ($48) from that California house is our next wine. Cohen, the CEO of Domaine Carneros, guided a small group through some excellent bottles on a rainy October afternoon, and I was not alone in picking the Ultra Brut as my favorite on the day (the 2014 Le Rêve Blanc de Blancs was no slouch, of course). Crisp and fresh, this Chardonnay (53 percent)/Pinot Noir (43 percent) bottling should stand beside your seafood tower, because it was made for raw oysters and butter-poached lobster.
Drink this sparkling wine with a bevy of oysters. (Courtesy Domaine Carneros)
A Champagne is next, the Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve ($70), a vintage beauty of a wine whose finish will (should) stun you. I think it represents a great value in the rarefied world of Champagne. You can spend more, much more, on a bottle (say, $350 for a 2013 Louis Roederer Cristal), but this Heidsieck selection will more than satisfy your needs. It’s a blend of 60 crus, and it’s full of superb white fruits.
We go back to California now, and to the 2016 Frank Family Vineyards Brut Rosé ($55). You and your guests will love to look at this bottle, because the wine possesses a seducing, tantalizing coral hue. Brioche and raspberries dominate the aroma, and you’ll appreciate the crispness and minerality here. I opened a bottle recently and paired it with a room-temperature round of Brie, and you might enjoy doing the same. (And for those interested in the business of wine, here’s some news about a recent transaction involving Frank Family.)
This sparkling wine will pair wonderfully with fried crustaceans.
To round out this section, the 2020 Endless Crush Rosé ($38) from Inman Family Wines. Estate fruit from the Olivet Grange Vineyard, low alcohol (12 percent), and luscious flavors of strawberries and white flowers. This wine is one of my go-to Rosés, and I recommend it on a regular basis. Kathleen Inman is the winemaker, and her story is a good one … you can learn more about her here.
White Wines
The thoughts of most people gravitate toward white wines when they think of pairings for turkey, and they are not wrong. As you’ll see in these selections, however, turkey is not the sole food on the menu during the holidays. Oysters, stuffing or dressing, lobster, mushrooms, and caviar (to name but a few items) are also in the mix, and white wines are great with all of these things. Again, taste and taste, and come up with your own rules.
Let’s begin with a Russian River Valley Chardonnay that is a perennial solid choice. It’s from Jordan Vineyard & Winery, and the 2019 vintage sells for $36; older vintages are also available, and this wine ages gracefully. (I profiled Maggie Kruse, Jordan’s head winemaker, in Wine Talk back in 2019, and she’s now firmly in control of the estate’s program.) I sampled this vintage several weeks ago and would gladly pair it with a roasted turkey at my table.
A Russian River Valley Chardonnay that pairs well with turkey and chicken, not to mention quail and pheasant.
Washington State is the source of our next wine, and I’m excited about this one. It’s the 2019 Öömrang Estate Siegerrebe ($75), a lovely, delicate expression of the German grape. (Siegerrebe can be translated to “Champion Vine” or “Victory Vine” and its name refers to its ability to produce high yields.) This wine is highly aromatic, with a supple mouthfeel … and it’s fun to drink. I enjoyed it with a mushroom risotto, and if you’ve never tasted a Siegerrebe, don’t skip this one. (I’ll have a profile of the producer in the coming weeks.)
This is one of my favorite wines of the year.
Chenin Blanc is never a bad idea, and the 2020 Domaine Huët Vouvray Le Mont Moelleux Première Trie is an excellent idea. I’ve seen it offered for between $69 and $75 recently, and to be frank, anything from this producer is worth your time, attention, and money. Your turkey and stuffing will both pair well with this wine, and your guests will envy your taste.
An Albariño hailing from Lodi is next, from Mettler Family Vineyards. The 2020 vintage was recently released, and you’ll likely find it and the 2019 for the grand price of $20. Buy them both if you can, and you’ll have no regrets. The Mettler family has been farming grapes in the Lodi AVA since the late 1880s, and have been selling their fruit to other producers for a long time. And, they make their own wine, obviously. I like their Old Vine Zinfandel as well, but this Albariño speaks to me in an eloquent and fun manner.
This Albariño, from Lodi, should be on your holiday wine lineup.
The Riesling on my 2021 list is from New Zealand, the 2019 Eden Valley Dry Riesling ($18) from Pewsey Vale. Previous vintages of this wine have been mainstays in my inventory, and for the price it is something I recommend by the caseful. Some of the fruit in this wine comes from vines planted in 1961, and the people behind Pewsey Vale run an exacting program. I will be drinking this wine for years to come, happily. If you are serving a piquant green bean casserole this holiday season pair this wine with it.
Red Wines
On to the reds, and a few bottles that will appeal to those seeking wines to pair with turkey, steak, lamb, ham, and other festive foods. As with wine rules, no one should feel fenced in when it comes to holiday menus. If you want to cook a leg of lamb for Thanksgiving, do so. Some of these reds display lively acidity, others are suited for heavier dishes, but they are all quality bottles that you won’t regret opening.
William Allen’s approach to winemaking is to my liking.
First up, the 2019 Two Shepherds Pinot Meunier ($40). This wine, made by William Allen, the founder of Two Shepherds, is on my list this year because it’s a wine that will pair well with turkey, ham, and roasted vegetables. If you drink Pinot Noir, try this wine. We’re talking 13.5 percent alcohol and layers of complexity, an easy-to-drink, well-made bottle. Allen is an iconoclastic crafter of wines, and if you find yourself in Healdsburg, be sure to visit his warehouse winery in nearby Windsor. You’ll enjoy conversing with him, trust me.
Joel Aiken is the man behind our next wine. In 1985, he was named lead winemaker at Beaulieu Vineyards, becoming the youngest person to hold that position at the historic estate. He was winemaker at Amici Cellars from 2009 to 2015, and founded Aiken Wine Consulting in 2009. He has also held positions with Provenance, Acacia, and Glen Ellen in California, and Navarro Correas in Argentina. His 2018 Scattered Peaks Sage Ridge Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ($125) is a serious wine that I’ll serve with a grilled rib eye this holiday season. It spends 22 months in French oak, possesses a richness that I love, and will, of course, age with aplomb.
Seavey makes stellar Merlot.
We’ll stay in California for one more wine, and that is the 2014 Seavey Merlot ($85), a beautiful expression of this grape. If you are planning to prepare a pork roast this holiday season, drink this wine with it. The tannins will amaze, as will the lush mouthfeel. Seavey Merlots are among my favorite Napa wines, and I advise you to take possession of several bottles and age at least two of them for a decade or so. Jim Duane and Philippe Melka made this.
On to Italy. I chose this wine after sampling the 2018 vintage recently, and, at $15 a bottle, there’s no reason to not buy La Valentina Montepulciano d’Abruzzo DOC by the case. I also added it to my 2021 Holiday list for those who will be grilling or smoking meats between now and the end of the year, say, lamb chops, pork butt, or brisket. Uncork this wine and enjoy an uncomplicated yet satisfying pairing for your meat dishes.
Let’s close the red section with, yes, a Pinot Noir, one with elegance, great acidity, and wonderful depth. The 2018 ROAR Rosella’s Vineyard Pinot ($70) is a worthy companion for your turkey, and will also pair wonderfully with game birds (pheasant, duck) and wild boar. The Franscioni family knows from wine, and this bottle demonstrates that well. Give it 20 minutes to breathe after you pull the cork.
That’s a wrap. The wines on this list represent diverse styles of winemaking, and everyone should find at least one bottle on it to their liking. I’ve forgone the normal “stick to wines with just the right amount of acidity” holiday advice here, not because I disagree with that statement, but because I want to recommend wines that pair well with more than turkey. We are a diverse nation, and our holiday tables hold more than poultry, something about which we should be proud and grateful.
Ask for these wines at your favorite merchant, and order directly from the producer if possible.
And one final note: At the end of your Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, toast yourself, your great taste, and your guests with Amaro Averna.
Ilike to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.
In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well.
The wines were intriguing, pleasurable. I opened the bottles — a 2018 Barbera, a 2017 Sangiovese and an Aglianico — over the course of several weeks, and tasted their contents alone and with food. First impressions: The quality of the winemaking was evident, clear and profound. Restrained yet confident these wines are. In addition, the fruit is of a high calibre.
I knew nothing about the winemaker, Pietro Buttitta. A public relations consultant had reached out to me about him and his Prima Materia label after reading a Wine Talk piece, and a few weeks later I was tasting the wines. My future drinking will include more selections from the producer, because his offerings are worth revisiting.
What I’ve learned about Buttitta (without having met him in person — yet) is that he is, in addition to being a fine maker of wine, an opinionated writer with a style I find engaging and honest. He grew up on a vineyard in the Russian River Valley AVA and fell in love with food early on, the latter of which I certainly identify with. He is not a “foodie”. . . he is a perfectionist. He worked in restaurants, struggled with the low pay and slovenly (or worse) colleagues, and, in 2009, found himself back in California and in the family vineyard.
You’ll find lots of Italy in these vineyards.
That vineyard encompasses 12 acres in the Kelsey Bench AVA, in Lake County, and includes (among others) vines of Sagrantino, Nebbiolo, Negroamaro, Sangiovese, Aglianico, Primitivo and Dolcetto. Buttitta makes his wine in small batches (two to 10 barrels of each). He eschews herbicides and pesticides, and his wines are unfined and unfiltered. You taste the place, you taste the fruit, and you taste the winemaking. That’s a bountiful trifecta.
Buttitta is, as I wrote, opinionated, and I find myself in agreement with much of what he says and writes, including his takes on cooking and the importance of listening to what a grape has to say to one. I also share with him a passion for Sagrantino. He’s a serious person who is familiar with Nietzsche, and he’s a self-taught winemaker who never fails to credit and thank those who helped him learn. I hope to meet Buttitta as soon as I can, and would, I think, enjoy spending time with him in the vineyard and kitchen.
If you want to taste his wines, and I recommend that you do so, they are available here. Now, let’s see what Buttitta has to say in Wine Talk.
James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?
Pietro Buttitta: Beyond obvious illness paranoia, and the ethical dimension of trying to keep one’s self safe while simultaneously having a responsibility to protect other people and a part-time employee, it made life challenging. I was very lucky to have the grounding element of the vineyard in 2020, and even through the 2020 fire insanity it had a touchstone effect. I really missed eating in restaurants, though, and face-to-face meetings are still awkward. I sorely miss professional/industry tastings – even the bad ones as my cellar palate gets worse and worse.
It really threw the wine industry for a loop. In 2020, grocery store wine went bonkers, I became a delivery service, then the public drank too much and slowed down, then we opened, then we closed, and then we reopened and the tasting room was insane for two months with cabin-fever escapees, then it nosedived, and now we are stuck in a lame plateau where people just don’t seem to be interested in wine in the same way. They want to drink and be out, in a wine-bar way, but it seems like residual exhaustion and overly on-demand commodification and delivery has left people disinterested.
Ninety percent of customers roll their eyes when I talk grape cultivars at the tasting room now. Hopefully this is just temporary, but I think about the business and how to safeguard and grow it in a different way. We took smoke-free grapes for granted, like bottles and label paper, or packing people into a tiny tasting room, and all of a sudden it all changed. Suddenly nothing is permanent, and how a tiny business can operate without any safety net in that scenario is very stressful.
We also watched tech-platform wine retailers, who went crazy last year and wrote themselves big paychecks, and are now cutting staff and downsizing. That tired old myth of building wine brands in restaurants (this DOES NOT work for small brands) took a serious beating. The industry went from 30 million surplus gallons of wine 3-1-2020 to facing a serious shortage today. And we are still wearing masks, and thinking about every surface that we touch.
If there is a positive when thinking about all of the challenges in the hospitality industry and agriculture, one is how we think about our responsibility to employees, and also what reasonable expectations and mutual respect should look like for longevity. In 2021 Covid drags on, but now record heat in our area, supply-chain issues, and the smallest crop in 20 years just sent us a whole new curveball. Last year’s adaptation and pivoting was only the beginning, so plan for impermanence, and be ready to reassess everything every day is my lesson.
Pietro Buttitta is the man behind Prima Materia wines.
JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?
PB: I’ll start with one of mine – our 2016 Sangiovese. It was the last mellow and boring vintage, not too hot, the initial 25 percent stem inclusion was a little too much. Five years down the road it has integrated beautifully with full spice and touch of tannin mellowing allowing New World fruit with Old World structure and earthiness to really show, and an innate whiff of pine. Time is magical with wine. Braised beef – maybe a mole?
This wine? I’d pair it with wild boar.
2). Giacosa 2002 Barbaresco – Aged Nebbiolo is an easy win, but sometimes the fruit desiccates too much and parches out while waiting for the tannin to round off. This bottle had that magical balance of all things being in harmony, and the aromatics grew and grew the longer it was open. Simple pasta and cheese or risotto with mushrooms.
3). Always drinking well – Sercial Madeira. Before dinner, after dinner, even drinking nicely with food like vegetable stir fry or something cheesy. Acid plus caramel!
Nothing wrong with these at all. Nothing.
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.
PB: I haven’t had this one, but Mastroberardino – Villa dei Misteri. Not the most expensive bottle, and their best wines are always oak-free and get pretty mixed reviews otherwise, but I love the concept and historicity of it all.
JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?
PB: Sangiovese. It fills the pinot void (our vineyard is far too hot for pinot) while also touching on spice elements of cool-climate syrah. Sangiovese is also very finicky about texture, riding a knife edge of tannic astringency, fruit and acid without having a cluttering mid-palate texture. I am definitely a texture person, and I will never use the term “perfume” in reference to wine like some aromatically focused winemakers do. It also ages very well, and clonal variances are as pronounced as with Pinot.
JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day?
PB: While vintage Champagne is tempting – and it is very predictable with aging – another safe bet is above-mentioned Madeira, especially on the drier end of the spectrum. But in keeping with the big Italian red theme of Prima Materia, I will go with a Taurasi (Aglianico from Campania) or Sagrantino from Umbria on the bigger end of the spectrum.
Though Antonelli can be very nice and pure, and I love Bea, but here I say big, wild-boar-like stinky and shape-shifting Milziade Riserva Sagrantino. Just be prepared to have your face ripped off and spend an evening trying to figure what is going on exactly. Magic for $75.
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?
PB: A nice summer evening outdoor with a few friends sounds very appealing, with the sun going down, sliding into the Dionysian darkness so vision becomes secondary. I like really simple food if focusing on a wine, and a simple environment.
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
PB: LET IT BREATH! White wines, too. They are living things. You know how that soft cheese smells stinky and dank suffocating in plastic wrap? Or how raw chicken gets sulfury-smelling in plastic? Let it breath and enjoy how it changes. Of course, commodity wines may not need this, but you don’t treat meatloaf like Beef Wellington, or fish sticks like fresh sablefish, do you?
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
PB: One of my early professional tastings in 2008, with Marchesi di Grésy, going through all of the wines and then the single-vineyard Nebbioli. That was the mind-expanding moment of a novice suddenly getting it, flavor and texture unfolding in 20 dimensions, hurting so good.
JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career thus far?
PB: A few:
1). The many times I’m pouring wine at a consumer tasting and two people try the same wine and one says, “It is so smooth” and the other says, “It is so dry and harsh”. . . and then they look at each other, and I at them.
2). Watching fire eat into the hillsides so many times now, and wondering what will happen next.
3). Selling lots of wine in New York and having the distributor cancel all of the sales because he didn’t like me and I wasn’t impressed by his self-absorbed bicep-flexing reflection in the subway.
4). Picking at 10 pm at night, still 90 degrees, and the tractor breaking down in the middle of the worst vintage ever, and just carrying picking tubs all night long.
5). Winery owners who don’t know anything about making wine calling themselves “winemakers” right in front of me. That doesn’t fly in restaurants, or any other industry except this one, somehow.
6). The hauntingly quiet winery during harvest with no electricity.
7). Napa Valley at 4:20 am last year with hot winds and the Glass Fire swirling at St. Helena crossroad. I kept thinking the sun was coming up but it was too early …
8). Watching some celebrated “natural wine” producers bottle, and thinking, oh my god, they really don’t care about the product, or watching them make natural wine using $500,000 worth of equipment at a custom crush facility. And then having transcendental ones that make me take all of that grumbling back.
9). Conversely, how my 100 percent whole-cluster fermentations come out undrinkable while those of others come out beautifully. They can taste my fear.
” … lust is only a sweet poison for the weakling, but for those who will with a lion’s heart it is the reverently reserved wine of wines.”
JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?
PB: Can’t really think of one. Usually they conflate ethanol intoxication with the aesthetic nature of wine, and though these things overlap, they are not the same, but they are somehow inseparable. I guess “Mondovino,” for all of the misrepresentations, is pretty fun. Some of the movies about sommeliers are so gross and precious that they are unwatchable, but I haven’t seen Somm II yet. I am waiting for the film that takes on the “natural wine” or tackles class in the wine industry.
Oh, though not a literary wine reference per se but more of a heuristic tool, I do use the Apollonian/Dionysian spectrum pretty regularly. Light, structure, symmetry for the first, the rationality of daytime, think technical but soulless production wine, which has its place. The Dionysian is all that swirling dank darkness, emotion over rationality, feral qualities, the fear and thrill of darkness. This is an oversimplification, but music and wine fit well within these two poles, though we need a third dimension, thank you, Birth of Tragedy.
Nick Goldschmidt, who hails from New Zealand, has made wines in myriad regions around the globe. He and his family have called Healdsburg home since 1990. (Courtesy Goldschmidt Vineyards)
Ilike to talk about wine with people who share my passion for it. We open bottles, we trade stories about travel and soil types, terroir and residual sugar, and we talk of taste and food and restaurants. We recommend wines to one another, we drink, and we learn a lot.
In Wine Talk, I introduce you to friends, acquaintances, and people I meet as I make my way around the world, individuals who love wine as much as I do, who live to taste, who farm and make wine. You’ll appreciate their insight, and I hope you’ll learn something from them as well.
Nick Goldschmidt has a way with wine, and with words. The native New Zealander is gregarious and he’s passionate about his craft. The man is a walking, breathing repository of viticultural knowledge, lore and history.
Goldschmidt’s career officially began in 1982, when he took a research position at New Zealand’s Lincoln University. He graduated from that institution with a degree in horticulture, and did postgraduate work in viticulture and oenology at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Stuart University, also in his homeland, and then at Adelaide University, in South Australia, where he was enrolled in the Hickinbotham Roseworthy Wine Science program.
I’ve long known of Goldschmidt, and have enjoyed his wines over the years. When I was contacted recently about Merlot Month and saw that he was one of the participating winemakers this year, I knew I wanted to feature him in Wine Talk. (October is Merlot Month, and PaperCity’s The Pour series will have more about that, so stay tuned, and in the meanwhile, drink more Merlot.)
A family of wine. (Courtesy Goldschmidt Vineyards)
Goldschmidt and his wife and business partner, Yolyn, have called Healdsburg, California home since 1990, and his passion is now a family affair. In fact, one of the wines I tasted in preparation for Merlot Month was the 2019 Chelsea Goldschmidt Guidestone Rise Merlot (Alexander Valley AVSA). There are five Goldschmidt children, and Chelsea is one of them (the names Hilary and Katherine also grace Goldschmidt labels).
Let’s see what the winemaker has to say.
James Brock: How has COVID-19 changed your work and life?
Nick Goldschmidt: I have a theory that the average white guy lives to 85 and I am 59, so I have 25 years left to live. Twenty five by 365 days is 9,125 bottles of wine to drink. If I drink one bad bottle of wine, that is like throwing a good one against the wall.
I had a dream COVID, as four of our five children moved home. What other time in my life would I have adult children living with me? It was truly an amazing experience.
As a result of the additional people in the house, my wine cellar has been severely depleted and I’ll be closer to 10,000 bottles by the time I pass. The second thing I learned was that my children were asking, “OK, if we are drinking five bottles of wine tonight, which ones are they? We need to start drinking them in reverse order.” This also made sense, so we drank the best wines first. Great idea to finish the evening with a white. Fresh and with good acidity like we now do at wine judgings.
From a professional aspect, I was actually in Chile when COVID hit so I saw the implications of trying to harvest and make wine with all these severe restrictions in place. This meant I knew how hard it would be when I was scheduled to do this in California six months later. I’ve also seen today countries on a slower route to recovery and some that are much faster in terms of vaccinations. This means each country has its own set of rules, not only in terms of getting in, but how it is to work.
For instance, without foreign workers it has been very hard to pick grapes in New Zealand, which I think has been the hardest hit. Getting around Chile takes many special passes each day, which requires getting online before I head off each morning. Then Argentina has been impossible to get into. Canada has also been difficult, but is opening up now. So yes, consulting has been a challenge.
We have also seen difficulty with shipping and trucking. Of course, containers from New Zealand are taking months just to book. But also getting rebar for a planting job I am doing on the Staircase Vineyard has been ridiculous. We ordered in November and finally got it in June.
The Staircase Vineyard: A study of soil.
As a result I think in some strange way that COVID has been good for me in terms of both my personal and professional life. I am much closer to all clients I’ve been in touch with during this time.
JB: Tell us about three wines you think are drinking well at the moment. What makes them worthwhile? How about a food pairing for each one?
NG: I have started drinking what I preach. By that I mean I often talk about wines holding up over time primarily focusing on color and no “crusty deposit on the shoulder of the bottle”. As wines age, they move from purple to red to brown to orange, and I’ve always explained how I get my wines to only go purple and eventually to red. I learned many years ago how to slow the ageing beyond that.
This wine has a special place in the heart of Nick Goldschmidt.
So I started drinking older wines. For example, Goldschmidt Yoeman, which is the first wine that we made, in 1999. I have been drinking the 2001, marking 20 years for this particular wine. Remarkably, it has remained in a purple color with great liveliness, and it still has a fine freshness. No crust. Tannins are of course integrated and possess far more silky complexity than when released.
The second one I’ve been drinking a lot of is Singing Tree Chardonnay. We have been making this wine for a while now. It is from a field selection (no clone) and has a more lively mouthfeel on release and so really helps with its ageing. I have been drinking the 2014 and 2016, which really stayed alive. Both good vintages, of course. I think we have achieved what we set out to do, which is to make a wine with tension and liveliness without the high alcohol.
The reason for tasting is as I look back I wondered if I should add more weight to this wine like we did at Simi. I am carefully analyzing people around me and what their perception of the wine is. Do I make a change, or do I stay the course? So far, stay the course, but I do like analyzing over time. Thinking to how we farmed then and now and how our palates also change.
I don’t often drink wines from wineries for whom I consult, but as of late, based on amazing reviews, I’ve been trying Chadwick Cabernet in the Maipo Valley Chile. This wine has had two 100-point scores and I’ve really focused on those and the vintages around them. To me, it is not about the wine itself but a memory of the vintage. With the memory of the vintage comes my memory of the people who lead the winery and make the wine. I spend three months per year in Chile and have done so for almost 30 years now, so I know the area and the vineyard well. Chadwick 2017 is so far my favorite.
The Chadwick Cabernet Sauvignon was the first Chilean wine to receive 100 points from a wine writer (James Suckling, for the 2014 vintage). Image courtesy jackyblisson.com
JB: If cost was no consideration, tell us the one bottle you would add to your personal collection, and why.
NG: If cost was no consideration and it was something I could do each day, I would probably choose Vega Sicilia Unico, because it was one of the first great wines that, when I drink it, I drink with the memory of whom I was with, where and when. Even better would be that I would drink it in Spain in the DO of Ribera del Duero (Denominación de Origen).
I worked in the area when I was consulting with Tarsus. This was when I was the chief winemaker at Allied Domecq and so have many great memories of the region and the winemakers as well.
Vega Sicilia: When Nick Goldschmidt drinks this wine, the memories come flooding back.
JB: What is your favorite grape variety, and why?
NG: Cabernet, of course. It is so specific to its surroundings. I’m originally from New Zealand, and it is very hard to make there, so having lived in Napa and Sonoma for the past 30 years, I have learned a lot about it. I also see it in Maipo, Mendoza and Okanagan, all places I work. It comes in so many shapes and sizes. The future for me, though, is making these wines under 14 percent alcohol. We are doing it already in some appellations, but will it have respect if it is done in Napa?
It has the power and the weight, but it is a spicy variety, and too often at high alcohol they finish sweet. I really do not like the term “Napa Style,” which is used around the world. We need to get away from that.
JB: How about one bottle that our readers should buy now to cellar for 10 years, to celebrate a birth, anniversary, or other red-letter day?
NG: I always find these questions very difficult to answer. I always wondered why we sell wine by the individual bottle and in 12 packs. Is it because we are supposed to drink one bottle per year, or 12 bottles per year? I’m never quite sure. Let’s say it’s 12 bottles per year. Drink one a month and then you choose the best month of your memory when the wine tasted best.
I think the wine that will taste best is always the one that was drunk in one of the happiest moments. Therefore, choosing a wine for an anniversary or another great celebration in your life has to come with some extra effort. I would choose Goldschmidt Game Ranch Oakville. It is a fairly rare wine of limited release, and a bottle can add to the special occasion and hopefully the happy memories that will go with it.
JB: Where is your go-to place when you want to have a glass or bottle (outside of your home and workplace)?
NG: My children will tell you my happy place is down on the Dry Creek river with a bottle of Boulder Bank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. I built a table down there many, many years ago and each Sunday night the family gathers at it. We cook over an open fire away from the Internet but with many bottles of wine and lots of great food. We are very fortunate to live in the Dry Creek Valley, and in particular on the Dry Creek River itself.
JB: If there was one thing you wish everyone would keep in mind when buying and drinking wine, what is it?
NG: I always wish people would keep in mind that wine is a living, breathing, evolving product, and it is of the earth. It is not like making beer or spirits where the goal is to make an amazing product but make it the same every day.
Wine is completely different because the vintage itself tells a story about the weather, the people, the soil and the culture, which is one part. You need to travel to the wine regions, getting to know the places. Doing so gives one great reference for when you are back home and assessing and enjoying the wines.
The second part is where you choose to drink the wine. When I go to a restaurant I always choose something that I cannot pronounce on the menu and the wine generally that I’ve never heard of before. Going out for dinner drinking wine with food is a memory and an experience. Don’t drink badge brands. This is the time to try something different, take a risk.
JB: What is your “wine eureka moment,” the incident/taste/encounter that put you and wine on an intimate plane forever?
NG: For me it was a combination of processes. When I worked in the vineyards at Lincoln College in New Zealand I pruned the vines without actually knowing what wine was about. Then during the summer we picked the grapes and made the wine and then I drank the wine. For me, growing crops is fascinating, but to have it turn into something even cooler is amazing. This particular crop turns into a food product that is unique and different and truly represents where it comes from. There’s absolutely nothing like wine.
JB: What has been the strangest moment or incident involving wine that you have experienced in your career thus far?
NG: I don’t really have any strange moments, but I do have situations in which I suddenly had an “aha” moment.
One of the first ones was when I was making wine in Portugal for LVMH. The company owned Roses, a Port house, at the time. When you’re in Portugal with winemakers you pretty much have three ports — for lunch, breakfast and dinner — so after being there for three days I asked a winemaker if I could have a glass of white wine. He said, we don’t make white wine in Portugal.
Drinking Vinho Verde for the first time was an epiphany for Nick Goldschmidt.
But the young lady in the restaurant said, don’t worry I’ll bring you a glass. She filled the glass up to the rim. It was 120 Fahrenheit outside and we were eating barnacles, of which you need three for a mouthful. The condensation was flowing off the glass of wine and it looked so tasty. I took a deep gulp. But when I drank it my whole mouth puckered. It had so much CO2 and acidity in it, and my immediate reaction was, what the heck was that?
The enamel on my teeth was gone, the roof of my mouth was gone, and I had this whole unctuous acidic taste. I asked what it was and the winemaker said it was a Vinho Verde. Well, I didn’t know what Vinho Verde was. I didn’t even know it was a region. I also thought it was CO2, but actually it was minerality. But I always remember that experience. This wine either making me hungry or thirsty and I couldn’t quite work it out. That is sensation I’ve always remembered.
Try this at home.
JB: Your favorite wine reference in a work of literature?
NG: I have many, but they are all about winemaking, specifically production. This is one of my favorites: “Drinking a bad bottle of wine is like throwing a good one against the wall”.
A recent staycation in Malibu presented me with the opportunity to assemble a selection of wines I had been meaning to sample for review purposes, and in the mix I threw a few canned cocktails.
We were hosting friends from Texas, a couple we had not seen since late in 2019, and while Todd is an expert and gifted creator of cocktails, and we counted Aperol and bourbon and vodka in our staycation bar, I wanted to taste these canned libations again, so that my palate and mind could be refreshed about them.
Beautiful Drinks Co. is the name of the brand behind these portable cocktails, and my overall impression is favorable. Regarding the company’s grapefruit and rosemary gin and tonic, well, I’m a loyal customer now. It is my favorite of the three cocktails (more on that later).
Canned alcoholic beverages, including wine, are a growing market in the United States, and I’ve written about them from time to time (click here for one example). And while I do not anticipate that the canned format will ever be my first choice when it comes to wine or cocktails, these easy-to-serve drinks have their place in one’s beverage lineup.
As noted above, the ready-to-drink (RTD) category is exploding in popularity on these shores, so you’ll likely find these libations in ample supply at your favorite retailer. One indicator of this: Between April 2019 and April 2020, the overall category (hard seltzers, canned cocktails, etc) grew by more than 80 percent, according to Nielsen. The COVID-19 pandemic has further increased consumer demand for RTD products — people unable to order their favorites drinks at bars and restaurants turned to the ease of use canned drinks offer.
“We know that the RTD market is booming, and specifically the spirit-based cocktail category, which many believe could grow tenfold in the next five years” says Robert T. Chin, CEO of Aquilini Beverage Group, which owns the brand. “Beautiful Drinks Co. speaks directly to the consumer who recognizes the value of being in nature and wishes to sustain all that it offers – our pollinator on each package serves as a reminder of the importance of these winged dynamos, each providing a service to the natural world.”
I recently participated in a Zoom-conducted tasting of the Beautiful Drinks Co. products, and was fascinated by the contributions of Kim Eierman, an environmental horticulturalist and ecological landscape designer. She’s the founder and owner of EcoBeneficial, a horticultural communications and consulting company, and if you are passionate about plants and the environment and pollinators, you must get to know her.
I mention Eierman here, however, because the Beautiful Drinks Co. offerings are all about the botanicals, and she explained during the tasting how each pollinator featured on the cans — the bumble bee, the ruby-throated hummingbird, and the Monarch butterfly — contribute to both our ecology and the cocktails.
Here’s the rundown on each drink (MSRP of $14.99 per 4-pack):
It might not replace your favorite homemade margarita, but this rendition of the classic drink is a worthy addition to your refrigerator (and glass).
Lime & Ginger Sparkling Margarita
The ginger here is delicate, and does not overpower the lime. Extract blend includes lime, agave verde, oak and orange blossom. This cocktail is not overly sweet.
Cucumber & Lemon Sparkling Vodka Collins
I am a big fan of cucumbers and their freshness in cocktails, and this one scores high in that regard. There are also lemon and lemongrass. The extract blend features cucumber, juniper berry, quassia, coriander and lemongrass.
Cucumber and vodka fans, you’ve got to try this canned cocktail.
The Grapefruit & Rosemary Sparkling Gin & Tonic
My favorite. First, I love gin and tonics, and while rosemary is often overdone in drinks, the people behind this libation got it right. The herb never dominates, down to the final sip, and marries oh so well with the grapefruit.
There’s a beguiling bergamot note here, and it’s joined by extracts of elderflower, juniper berry, rosemary, and quassia. Perfect for outdoor lunches and balcony relaxation.
Grapefruit and Rosemary star in this refreshing gin and tonic.
If you’ve not entered the RTD world, these three canned cocktails are a good place to start. I like serving the gin and tonic in a wine stem, the vodka collins in Collins glass, and the margarita in Champagne coupe.
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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