Whiting fish is a cheap ingredient, no way around it. But that doesn't make it any less exciting to work with. It's not difficult to be impressive when you cook something like tuna or bass, but when you're working with ingredients that don't have the reputation of other more highly-prized fishes, it's time to be creative.
Inspired by the cuisine I experienced in New York's Casa Mono, I got to work.
Score, season, and fry off in olive oil - I made sure to continuously baste the top facing side of the fish as I fried, to make sure that the skin would be crispy. Salad of zucchini ribbons, and the freshest lemon juice vinaigrette you can manage with grocery store lemons in Toronto, this time of year. Thick slice of lemon for the fish.
Humble ingredients, but the fish is delicate, tender, and absolutely delicious. This is the kind of food I want to cook more often.
DF
Oysters are becoming boring and clichéd starts to meals. So you think of ways to freshen your approach to beginning a long dinner. Kumamoto oysters, at their best, have this incredible creamy richness. Not as briny, but if they are fresh, they are absolutely delicious. Instead of slicing lemon, you make a salad of diced zucchini and lemon juice.
In one bite: creamy and rich, acidic and fresh.
DF
2006 Domaine des Baumard Clos de Saint Yves, AC Savennières
The sort of estate level bottling for this producer, I didn't want to let my general apathy about chenin blanc to prevent me from tasting a Savennières - we see so little of this region in Ontario that any poor buying decisions most likely won't be repeated.
Not a bad wine again - but is it a crime for being boring? At these prices, I think there's a strong case that it is. Maybe I'm not giving these wines a fair chance, maybe they show better with more bottle age, whatever . . . or maybe they're just boring wines that only wine hipsters enjoy (because they're just sooo much cooler than anyone else).
DF
NV Roederer Estate Brut Sparkling Wine, Anderson Valley
A Californian sparkling wine made by the famed Champagne house Roederer - very promising. Served blind, certainly conjures the spirit of Champagne, if but with a little more forward fruit. Very nice indeed, although I don't want to be paying nearly $30 for it, when a very satisfying crémant or Cava can be found hovering around $20.
Am I being picky? I adore sparkling wines, and if I had the budget, I'd be drinking a lot more Champagne. A lot, lot, lot more. Other sparkling wines are becoming more ambitious, and with that ambition, beginning to charge more, but this is the problem. Sparkling wines can be good, but none compare to Champagne. None. So if they're priced higher, and the inevitable comparisons are being made, they always disappoint. Now, an $18 Cava is an entirely different story, especially the wines that offer a very high level of quality at very reasonable prices. Different pleasure points in the brain, perhaps, but producers who charge high prices for their sparkling wines have to be careful and make sure that the wines offer something distinct. Poorly-imitated Champagne is no fun, doubly so when you need to pay $30+ for it.
DF
2007 Domaine de Vaugondy Ph. Perdriaux, AC Vouvray
Chenin blanc is strange. A bit overrated, no? Everyone who fancies themself a wine drinker talks about how great it is, how versatile (look, it's as good as a dry wine as it is a sweet wine as it is sparkling!), how you cannot possibly have any taste if you don't appreciate it. I don't share the same enthusiasm. At least it's inexpensive. Dry vouvray under $25 is pretty much interchangeable with Muscadet, Alsace, pretty much any other nondescript, acidic French white. On par with riesling? You're out of your pea-sized mind.
Not a bad wine, certainly. But thin, acidic, lacking in character. Makes a beautiful cooking wine though.
DF
So, another tasting trip to Niagara recorded in the tasting notebook. A very educational trip this time, expanding my understanding of the 2009 vintage, getting a glimpse of 2010, and gaining more insight into what works or not in Niagara. Highlights: the 2009 rieslings are stunning. Precise, austere, and aggressive, needing a long time in bottle. Syrah is going to be an important varietal in Niagara, as long as more producers are courageous enough to commit to it. The ones who make it are showing that intense, complex, and varietally-true syrahs can be made in Niagara that rival any cool-climate examples from the rest of the world . . . if only there was more courage. Until there is, we have to celebrate and support the few producers who are working hard for these wines. My dream is to see every single cabernet vine ripped out of Niagara, and replaced with syrah. One can dream, no?
Tasting at Thirty Bench Wine Makers
Tasting at Flat Rock Cellars
Tasting at Fielding Estate Winery
Finished the day off with a mad dash to Upper Canada Cheese, to pick up a hunk of their sublime Niagara Gold Guernsey Cow's milk cheese. Then, a 30 km sprint to Niagara on the Lake, to pick up raspberry jam at Greaves. Not for me - I'm pretty sure my mother would not let me back in her house if she knew I was in Niagara and didn't pick up her favourite jam. Early dinner at my favourite spot, Old Winery Restaurant. The spiced curry lentil soup was beautifully seasoned, although a bit gritty in texture. The Mediterranean pizza was so satisfying, with artichoke heart, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and feta cheese - crust perfectly thin and crispy. After a long day of tasting dozens of wines, the only thing suitable for dinner was a pint of Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale. The perfect pick-me-up for the long, congested drive back to Toronto.
DF
Some of the finest people I've ever met, I've met during my tasting trips to Niagara. Always generous with their knowledge and wines, always welcoming and friendly. Gushing aside, onto the wines . . .
I'd been looking forward to visiting this producer for quite some time. Schedule never able to cooperate, but this Sunday was the perfect opportunity to visit Flat Rock Cellars, to taste through some of the 2009's (including some exciting new wines!) as well as the embryonic 2010's. A few things before I begin on the actual wines tasted. Not all the 2009's have been released yet - of the reds, I believe only the estate pinot noir is on the market. I know it's sexy for wine writers and bloggers to write about how they get to taste out of tank/barrel; it's certainly exciting for me as well to experience a wine in its developmental stages, but to write about them as if they were finished products is very misleading. In a sense, they aren't wines yet - not until they are bottled does one get a true sense of what they are, something to keep in mind the next time you read a tasting note from a barrel sample. And of course, with ego kept in check . . . it's all about the wines and the stories behind them, no?
A few exciting new wines being produced here, beginning with a new sparkling wine. There are actually two sparkling wines, the first being the one I tasted, the 2007 Riddled (with higher level of dosage), and the 2006 Brut. Both made from a traditional Champenoise blend of chardonnay and pinot noir, but in differing styles. The 2006 Brut, focused and bright, perhaps a bit more fruit and less of the autolysis character you find in Champagne, but nevertheless a very strong first effort. Both wines bottled under crown cap - this should be an interesting exercise to see how they age. A few new reserve wines also being released: a pinot noir as well as a 2008 Reserve Riesling, in which the winemaker's decided to do malolactic fermentation, an entirely unique process for riesling - unfortunately, I think he shouldn't have messed with a good thing. Changing the structure of the acidity completely robs the riesling of its character - a riesling without its racy acidity is like non-fat yogurt, and no fun for anyone. For a richer body, more weight, why not play with lees age, oak, something else . . . inducing malolactic was a mistake. Fortunately, the rest of the wines tasted were delicious, with lots of character. The 2009 Estate Riesling, bright with lots of energy and ripe fruit.
We headed downstairs to taste through some 2010 tank and barrel samples. As mentioned earlier, these tasting notes are of wines in its earliest stage, fledglings which have yet to truly resemble finished wines. Many of the wines tasted were barely finished (or still) fermenting. Therefore, I won't go into each specific sample tasted - rather, I'll attempt to frame the tasting notes in a broader sense, and give an indication of what to expect from this vintage. However, a few things are clear (or rather, unhazy). Beginning with . . .
The 2010 vintage is going to be an exciting one.
The wines are incredibly precise in varietal character. Chardonnays from all the various plots have beautiful ripe citrus flavours, showing creaminess but also a lovely acidity that picks up the dense minerality. Rieslings are in a more extracted style, with ripe fruit and electricity running through them all - instantly identifiable as wines coming from the Bench. Gewurztraminer, spicy with a lovely lychee element, textbook flavours for this varietal. The chardonnays that see oak will be interesting - this producer is playing with barrels sourced from various cooperages, the goal being to match the character of the wine with an appropriate cooper. A unique approach, which speaks to elevating a wine to the best of its inherent potential, instead of fashioning a wine to a specific taste profile. All the oak-aged chardonnays are showing good creaminess, texture, and balance, although these were harder to judge at this stage, the majority having just finished, or still undergoing, fermentation.
The pinot noirs are exciting as ever. Lovely ruby colours already, just luminous. Elegant, floral bouquets, complex and very fine indeed. Flat Rock always makes distinctive pinot noirs - looking forward very much to see these in bottle.
This producer has proven its ability to make consistent, charming wines in the past - these new wines are an exciting addition. Having spent some time here now, it's clear that something special is going on. Inspired winemaking is the key to success, regardless of where you're producing the wine. The winemaker here planted mustard and buckwheat in between the vines this past vintage, to introduce more nitrogen into the soil (alleviating the need for synthetic fertilizer), as well as to attract predatory insects (to combat pests). The team here is committed to using just screwcaps, hence the push to bottle one of the (very) few sparkling wines on the market under crown cap. And the idea is to tone back the use of new oak, using puncheons, and really matching the appropriate type of barrel to the kind of fruit each parcel is producing.
Inspired winemaking, all around.
DF
