Il Forno

WBW#22: 2004 Herzog von Auerstedt, Regent Saale Unstrut Qualitaetswein.

You would think that finding a red wine with less than 12.5% alcohol in Germany would be a piece of cake. I did too, when I read the theme that Tim, over at Winecast, picked for WBW#22: low alcohol reds. Think again: scanning the local stores, the lowest % alcohol German reds I managed to find are exactly on that limit. I only managed to come across one single bottle of red with 12% – from the sunny Italian island of Sardinia nonetheless – but having already decided for a German wine, I picked a local product of the Saale Unstrut wine region.

I never thought the alcohol percentage in a wine would make me feel old, yet it did. I was telling Daniela how 13-14% wines were considered alcohol bombs back when I started getting interested in wine-tasting and she just looked at me, smiled and told me I sounded like a pensioner rambling about the "good old times". Isn't she the loveliest wife? Nonetheless, I do miss having more low-alcohol every day wines at hand, especially to go with this season's cuisine and temperatures... even if I sound like a moaning old man when I say so!

The wine I picked for this edition of WBW is a 2004 Saale Unstrut Qualitaetswein made by the local Thüringer Weingut Bad Sulza from Regent grapes. I had never tried Regent before. This is hybrid grape variety with high resistance to fungal diseases, which is said to produce either warm wines from cold terroirs or products that resemble Rhone wines in their aroma. It is certainly becoming increasingly popular in Germany, and to some extent in England too. The wine itself is a special edition bottle released for the bicentenary German-French celebrations of the battles of Jena and Auerstedt between the Napoleonic troops and the Prussian-Saxon alliance.

The wine itself opens on fruity notes of damsons, blackberries and raspberries, with just a touch of cloves, leather and earth following, but it slightly lacks cleanness, closing on a weak chemical-waxy note. It is well balanced in taste, where the fruity notes return albeit less defined than in the bouquet; the finish is medium closing with a not too pleasing bitter note.Though not completely disappointing, it is another Saale Unstrut red that falls short of expectations, contrary to what I am discovering about the local whites.

Wine Tasting Notes: Naumburger Sonneneck 2004 Saale Unstrut Riesling trocken QbA, Weingut Pawis.

The recent Fabulous Favourites Festival has had one peculiar side-effect on me and this blog. I had not written about wine for ages, but after a little warm-up exercise and my event entry, I noticed I wanted to go on and have an excuse to write about wine again. Actually, why  should I need an excuse on my own blog? My tasting notes are not going to be as good as those of the dedicated wine bloggers out there, but having had the proper wine tasting training I think I could still manage to put together something that is not completely meaningless.

This is also the chance to launch a new category dedicated to Jena and surroundings. Although the area around here is not the centre of gastronomic life I would like it to be, it still has quite a bit to offer. I used to have the occasional local post some time ago, but that slowed to a halt way back. Time to pick up that thread again.

Back to wine for a little introduction on east German wine: after the fall of the Berlin Wall the eastern German wine industry has somewhat struggle to meet the standard of its western colleagues, catching up with modern oenological advances and marketing, yet things are changing. The best producers of the area are slowly being recognised nationally and local wine is finally earning some due respect. There are two protected Denominations of Origin areas (Anbaugebiete in German) in the east, Sachsen, located around Dresden, and the Saale Unstrut region, starting only a few kilometres north of Jena and centred around Naumburg and Freyburg.

Living so close to the latter, I have had quite a few chances to taste a number of the local wines, predominantly the dry ones produced as Qualitätswein or Kabinett according to the German wine classification. Many of these are perfectly fine wines, in a simple and immediate way, but none has ever particularly rocked my world. Talking to another wine-aficionado in a local shop a few months ago, I was told to try the wines made by Weingut Pawis, hinting that these might chance my opinion of the local tipple. Pawis is by far the producer with the best reputation around here, getting good press and prizes with every vintage. The winery itself is pretty young: it opened in 1990 with only half an hectare of vineyard and has since then slowly expanded: the cellar that is used today only became operative in 1999.

Fabulous Favourites Festival Roundup, part 1

Hosting a blogging event is always been fun for me. Co-Hosting two events at once, together with Lenn, even more so. Yet the creation of a theme, makeing adjustments and putting the announcement up are all foreplay. The real action comes, in this case, on the event's day in an explosion of cooking and wine drinking. Going through the blogsphere searching for the single entries can be a bit of a pain though and so here is the first part of the event's entries round-up: our highlights of the match, if you wish.

I hope you will have fun reading the round-up below. I sure enjoyed going through all the entries, reading about the appetizing dishes and mouthwatering wines. Now though, I feel the terrible urge to pour myself a glass of wine ;-).

Visit Lenn's blog for the other half of this roundup.

Ape Wine

I doubt dear ol' Chaucer had this in mind when he wrote about wyn ape:

Zoo apes have taste for red wine� From Reuters.com

... I just wonder if the apes would have submitted an entry for our Fabulous Favourites Festival if they had a blog. Personally I don't think Hungarian reds pair that well with bananas, but maybe our simian friend would disagree.

Fabulous Favourites Festival (IMBB? 26 and WBW 21): Pizza and Wine?

For ages I had been reading and hearing about how it is impossible to find a real wine-food pairing that works with pizza. Not every expert agrees with that, some even coming up with extensive pizza-wine pairing lists,but could it really be true? Does my favourite food taste better without wine than with, an heresy for any food-loving Italian?  The joint WBW/IMBB Fabulous Favourites Festival was just screaming for me to pick up the chance and do some food-wine pairing experimenting.

Want to know what came out? Continue below!

Wine Tasting Notes: Sassoalloro 2000

Given the upcoming Fabulous Favourites Festival Lenn and me are hosting, I though I better exercise my somewhat rusty wine writing skills. No better occasion than that of opening a good bottle, in this case one of 2000 Sassoalloro from Jacopo Biondi Santi.

To anyone even remotely interested in Tuscan wine the name Biondi Santi evokes immediately Brunello di Montalcino. It was Ferruccio Biondi Santi, grandson of the founder of the original winery, who isolated and produced wines from a particular clone of Sangiovese grapes in 1880: the famous Brunello, also called Sangiovese Grosso. This clone is now used throughout the Montalcino area to produce the famous local red wine and the less expensive, simpler and younger Rosso di Montalcino. The Brunello di Montalcino wines produced by Biondi Santi in the estate called il Greppo have always been known for their impressive structure and rich tannins which give them an exceptional longevity. A couple of 1891 vintage Riserva bottles are still out there and the a few lucky people who have had a chance to taste this wine describe it not only as still drinkable but as fascinating and still vigourous. Biondi Santi's wine also stand out among its fellow Brunelli for its very conservative in style (long maceration times, big barrels, etc.) that can disappoint some, especially when the wines are still young and the tannins too exuberant. I have always had the curiosity to taste one of Biondi Santi's Riservas, but, given the price of the bottles and my limited knowledge of Montalcino wines, I always end up waiting a bit more, at least till I know Brunello better.

Fabulous Favourites Festival: WBW 21 + IMBB? 26

I have to admit that when the let's just give this a try idea for Is My Blog Burning appeared on my blog over two years ago I hardly suspected that so many would follow suit, in an explosion of gastronomic blogging events for all tastes. To be honest with you, I was almost surprised to see those first brave bloggers join me on the first edition of IMBB? One of the first events to follow suit was Wine Blogging Wednesday, born from the mind of Lenn over at Lenndevours; WBW has gone a long way from its first baby steps, becoming the best virtual wine blogging event out there. I love to peek at the bottles the various blogger choose for each edition, often discovering wines unknown on this side of the pond.

This month Is My Blog Burning and Wine Blogging Wednesday have decided to join efforts: Lenn and me are bringing you the Fabulous Favorites Festival taking place on Friday May 19.

What is the Fabulous Favorites Festival exactly, you might ask? As my granddad liked to say, wine and food should always go together and so we are asking you to:

1. Pick a favorite bottle of wine from your cellar and create/cook a dish that goes with it.
2. Pick a favorite dish from your collection and seek out a wine that will pair with it.

and if you're feeling particularly brave, or maybe want to impress someone and blog about it at the same time you could always 3. create an entire wine-food pairing menu for the event. If you do you'll have us all in awe, I promise.

We hope that we'll encourage the cooks among you to have a go at the corkscrew and tasting glass and similarly to see a couple of you wine experts drop, lay aside, your precious Riedels and pick up a pan.

Join us on Friday May 19 for the biggest and wildest wine and food pairing seen on the blogsphere!

... and while you are at it don't forget to buy some extra bread for IMBB25: Give us this day yesterday's bread hosted by Derrick at An Obsession with Food this coming week-end.

Wine, no cheese?

Contrary to what some of you might believe from this blog I do have quite a few interests beyond food... promise! Strangely though, wherever I turn my head food seems to pop up.

Take science: it is my job and definitely one of my favourite subjects. Apart the many very specialised journals I have to read on the job, I'm an avid reader of NewScientist magazine, simply the coolest "generic" science magazine out there. Strangely it is stuffed with food news, like last week's interview with Harold McGee, that seem to catch my attention more than the pure science stuff. While browsing their news pages of their web-site, for example, I ran into an interesting column on wine-cheese pairing : essentially the juice of the story is that wine-cheese pairing just don't work. But is it true?

WBW: Sicilia Nero d'Avola 2003, Cusumano

Even if I'm swamped with things to do, I would not have missed this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesdays for anything. Ronald and Katia, this month's hosts, picked up a theme very close to my heart: Sicilian reds. Italy's South! Like a sip of home.

My original idea would have been to find something slightly more unusual than the popular Nero d'Avola wines that are becoming ubiquitous. A Cerasuolo di Vittoria, an Etna Rosso, or even better a rare quality Marsala Rubino would have made my day. Missing that I would have settled for one of the few wines that really moved me, Faro Palari (tasted on this blog some time ago. No chance. When I make these plans, I always tend to forget about the lack of well stocked wine shops around here. A casual visit to a local supermarket brought up a cheap Sicilian Nerello Mescalese wine, which disappointingly but probably not surprisingly (given the price) turned out to be fit for the sink. Therefore, it had to be Nero d'Avola.

I picked the entry level 2003 Nero d'Avola from Cusumano, a good wine, with a clear Mediterranean character and extremely drinkable (judging from the speed the bottle got emptied).  Quoting from my notes, it has a pleasant bouquet of red fruit followed by spices and nuts, and just a hint of Mediterranean herbs; a full, and only slightly unbalanced (towards alcohol) taste with very smooth tannin; and a surprisingly long finish for a wine in this price class (9 €). Definitely worth the price.

Ossobuco alla Milanese

The last two weeks have been terribly boring here in Jena, at least from the weather side: snow, snow and... guess what? More snow! I like snow, don't get me wrong. It awakens the child in me. It's just that after you've gone through the standard snowball fight, snowman building and sleigh riding it starts to get a bit on my nerves. Streets and sidewalks constantly covered with either sludge or smooth ice anyone?

At least cold wintery weather has a good side. It gives me the perfect excuse to stay at home cooking some nice hearty dish on the week-end and to open a nice bottle of full bodied red wine to go with that. Polenta is always nice when it snows, either served simply with cheeses or with a few different braised meats. Some nice rich German dish like Sauerbraten can also be a good warm-me-up. The best thing is to wrap yourself in enough clothing -till you look like the Michelin man possibly- and roll downhill to the market, see what's on sale and pick a dish. The pick of last week was a nice ossobuco, to be used for the classic ossobuco alla Milanese served with saffron risotto.