Before I go on talking about the wine let me make a brief consideration about food/wine peer pressure. I don't find it a bad thing in itself, we're talking food after all. Most of those speaking about food through books, magazines and in a much humbler way food blogs just want to share experiences. Mostly. There are a few people out there who take this to the limit. Have you read or seen High Fidelity? Remember the part where Rob calls his two helpers, Barry and Dick, the Musical Moron Twins? Well sometimes I have the feeling some people out there are the Gastronomic Moron Twins. Few I have to admit, but still. People who won't think you fit to talk about food if you've never eaten some things (never tried ostera caviar?), never eaten in some restaurants (you haven't tried Thomas Keller's menu yet?) or drank certain wines (you never tasted a Chateau d'Yqem?). At the beginning I thought it was more a US/UK phenomenon (sorry for the prejudice), but boy was I wrong. After following a few Italian food/wine forums I discovered where the real food fundamentalists were. That's also one of the reasons that pushed me to write my blog in English. OK, sorry for the ravings but I just had to get this out. Luckily there are many out there with whom one can speak about food pleasantly.
To get back to the wine. Rich sweet white wines usually come from grapes that have in some way or another very concentrated juices. This can happen when the grapes are hit by Botrytis or noble rot (Sauternes), when they freeze (Eiswein) or when the plants suffer from a disease (genetic I believe) that causes only a few berries to form from each plant (as for the Picolit grape). I had two half bottles to choose from, a quite good Sauternes and an Italian wine made with a similar method, both therefore hit by noble rot. I chose the Italian deciding to keep the Sauternes for a more "special" occasion. So the wine was the following: 2000 Muffato della Sala from Umbria, winner of the prestigious Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri. It is made from Chardonnay and Grechetto (typical white grape of the Orvieto region) and a bit of Gewurztraminer, hit by noble rot and aged in barriques.
I cooled the wine and tried it with the two dishes mentioned before. First came some truffled foie gras with toasted brioche. I found the match not very nice, I was actually disappointed. The wine was too sweet and just covered the velvety foie gras. I was also not very happy about the foie gras, at least as far as the truffles go. I made the mistake of buying the truffled one forgetting how disappointing preserved truffles are: just no match for the fresh stuff. Not that I eat truffles so often, but my 3-4 times are enough to know how fragrant and seducing they can be.
Next came the creme brulee, flavoured just with vanilla. Here things were a bit better, the flavours matching nicely. Still I thought that the creme brulee tasted much better alone. I was starting to get the feeling that someone had pulled my leg: what's all the fuss with these sweet whites? But wait, how stupid, I hadn't tried the wine on its own right?
After I did I changed my mind completely: the wine has a very nice golden colour, maybe a bit paler than what I had expected. But what was really a surprise were the aromas I smelled: peaches and honey first, followed by other fruit, pear and pineapple, the typical notes of botrytis (hard to describe, sort of a pleasant mushroomy aroma) and vanilla (from the barriques), and at the end the typical aromas of Gewurztraminer, rose and spicy. I quite often am sceptical about wine aroma descriptions, I often don't understand were people recognise all that stuff: fruity, spicy, flowers sure, but the kind? But here every aroma was clear, strong and easily recognisable. A real surprise. As I drank it I had to admit that even the sweetens (which I usually detest) was pleasant and balanced by a very nice acidity. The flavour of the wine lasted forever after swallowing the last sip.
I was really stunned by the wine. One thing I don't understand: why should one match such a wine with food? A wine like this is a wine to drink in peace, concentrated on enjoying it without distractions. A real discovery. And the Sauternes is still in the cellar... ;-)))
I once visited the Canadian Inniskillin vineyards and tried their Icewine & I liked it. It's a sweet wine of the German Eiswein tradition. I would agree that it probably tastes better on its own then being paired with food.
Posted by: Renee | November 28, 2003 at 07:11 PM
Renee, I've had one or two "cheaper" (which is far from saying cheap) Eiswein here in Germany but was not very impressed. On the other hand I've heard from German wine experts that really good ones are to die for. I'll wait till someone offers me a glass :-)). About wine and food: I used to love matchings, after all I studied 2 years to be a Sommelier but I'm slowly changing my mind. Some wines deserve to be drank on their own.
Posted by: Alberto | December 01, 2003 at 10:37 AM