I hope you all had a good Monday! I hate the Monday morning blues, that feeling of oh my god, look at that week ahead, hoooooooooooow am I going to get through it? This morning, that feeling translated into, although I had tons of work to do, me having a hard time concentrating through it. I find the best way to get through Mondays of this nature, you HAVE to have something to look forward to. Well this morning, I had two things to look forward to, granted, I had already ran, so that was checked off the list -- but I did have a lunch with my mother at En Japanese Brasserie (if you don't know it, check it out, it is on Hudson and Leroy Streets and is certainly the cleanest most simple Japanese food in NYC. Just as a note to you tofu-haters out there, this might not necessarily be the place for you, although they do have non-tofu centric dishes, their best dishes are tofu based!) and then I had my assisting in an Astor Wine class investigating Organic, Biodynamic, and Natural wines to look forward to. Ok, so with that on the agenda, I could handle, the disaster that was my Monday morning.
After my delish tofu based lunch at En Japanese brasserie where we certainly felt as though we weren't in NYC, we almost felt as though we were in London...why I am not sure, maybe it was the relaxed atmosphere of the restaurant or maybe it was just the laid back vibe of the canonically Japanese accented space, who knows, all I know is that it was certainly a special restaurant to be able to transport us out of the hussle and bussle of New York City. After our late lunch, I headed over to Astor Center to assist in my natural wine course. In tonight's course, there was no food paired with the wines Andy Fisher (the president of Astor wines and a regular teacher at the center) had chosen to serve. Therefore, I got to thinking, why don't I create what I think would be excellent pairings for the wines we tasted.
To give you a basic, ok really really basic overview on natural, biodynamic and organic wines before we get into our pairings, here you go:
1. Organic wines, just like organic foods, avoid the usage of chemicals and pesticides in their production.
2. Biodynamic wines and viticulture follows in the viewpoints of Rudolf Steiner, just like Biodynamic agriculture does. Those viewpoints are based on Steiner's specific philosophy, entitled anthroposophy which includes an inherent understanding of the roles of the ecological, the energetic, and the spiritual in nature. Apart from the obvious qualities of being ecologically conscious and composting and recycling any viticultural bi-products back into the soil by combining them into sprays and the such. There are eight different spiritual preparations that are the tenets of biodynamic wine making, but I feel like if I go into these they might disgust you and not make you interested in the idea of ever trying a biodynamic wine, they certainly have some of the most unique, clean, and dynamic flavors! So if you feel like googling them in full, go ahead, but I will provide you with the example that was utilized in class -- Preparation 500 - Cow manure is buried in cow horns in the soil. The manure is then spread over the fields. Spark your interest? Feel free to investigate Preparations 501-508 as well!
3, Natural wines, basically utilize everything that had been spoken about but also in this case we tend to see small independent producers who do not want to add sugars or well pretty much anything to the wine, these producers are about doing the least to their wines so it can speak to their audience for the longest period of time.
Rudolf Steiner and his contemporaries would probably have a heart attack with the short overview I provided you all with, but at least it gives you a significant amount of key points so you can understand the difference between the processes.
Lets move on to our pairings:
1. Blanquette de Limoux rut, Espirit du Sud NV, Languedoc-Roussillon, France AND Le Chevrot
The Blanquette reminded me somewhat of a more delicate and fruity cousin to the Blanc des Blancs. It is a biodynamic wine and the cool thing about it is that many believe it have been around before Champagne! Isn't that crazy. Now this delicate but delish sparkling would go very nicely with the delicate, chalky, extra special goat tang of a Chevrot. Chevrot is a bloomy rind pasteurized goat cheese from the Loire Valley that when perfect, melts in your mouth and leaves this amazing residual goat mouth feel! The light dance-y qualities of the Blanquette I thought would pair really nicely with the delicate and smooth flavors of this cheese.
2. Gruner Veltlliner "Hefeabzug," Nikolaihof, 2008, Wachau, Austria AND Pyrennes Brebis
This biodynamic Gruner is probably unlike an Gruner you have ever had and more like the body and feel of a Muscadet. Who know a Gruner could resemble its fuller bodied counterpart?!? Whenever I think of Gruners, I think of light, mineraly, acidic wines, not so here....and due to that fact, I did not pair it with the typical cheese pairings for a Gruner, instead I choose Pyrenees Brebis which is a pressed, uncooked, pasteurized sheep's milk cheese from the Pyrenees region in France. This youngester has some of the chalkyness typically assoicated with goat milk cheese but has the sweet nuttyness of a nice aged sheep cheese. Typically you can pair this cheese with sweet dessert wines or even some red wines but I thought because the Gruner had more body and sweetness than normal that it would be a perfect combo.
3. Gravonia Rioja Blanco, Lopez de Heredia, 1999 AND Gorgonzola Torte with Marcona Almonds
Before we can discuss this wine, made fully of Viura grapes. We have to mention the amazingly unique qualities of the Lopez de Heredia vineyard in the Rioja region of Spain -- they have tried to keep the original wine making techniques in order. This wine is its youngest white available on shelves and was originally bottled in 1999, so you see, they age for a while! Smelling this wine is quite a trip, you get dried fruit, nutty, and I especially got sherry flavors. So I thought, hmmm, what would go nicely with this distinct wine -- Gorgonzola Torte paired with the saltyness of Marcona almonds, maybe some dried fruit as well (you don't have to though) on some crisp baguette. Gorgonzola Torte is basically a mixture of gorgonzola and mascarpone cheeses and what you get is a delicately faint blue cheese with a certain amount of sweetness but not overpowering, definite melt in your mouth capabilities here!
4. Moulin a Vent, Christopher Pacalet 2006, Burgundy, France AND Gabietou
A natural beaujolais made with the gamay grape. This is a wine that is pure, fruit forward and utterly delish. A very different sort of beaujolais than one might be used to. I find that natural wines tend to have very distinct scents when taking a smell, its because these wines do not try to remove that from them, they embrace it! Needless to say, it is worth a shot. I struggled with what to pair this cheese with but I landed on a cheese made by France's neighbor, Pecorino Oro Antico (Old gold). This sheep's milk cheese is aged for six months and during that time is coated with olive oil to deepen its flavors, what you arrive with open your ingesting of this beauty is a firm but flaky golden interior that has the canonical aged sheep flavors -- caramel, grassyness, and of course an animaly sort of feel.
5. Touraine Pinot Noir, Puzelat, 2008, Loire, France AND Patacabra
A beautiful example of a natural pinot noir from the Loire valley. I'd have to say that I immediately melt when it comes to Pinot Noirs, really across the board so I think that this pairing might be a little biased...I paired it with one of my favorite cheeses -- patacabra which is an aged goat's milk cheese from Spain. A fun fact: Patacabra means goat leg and specifically references the shape of the cheese but also, if you ask me is a play off of Pata de Mulo, sheep's leg, and is another Spanish cheese that has a smiliar shape. This cheese is perfect with young wines like our pinot here!
6. Grolleau "Le Cousin," Cousin-Leduc, NV, Loire France AND Cowgirl Creamery's St. Pat's
This wine was a new one for me and for the members of the class -- a small production and not really well known Loire Valley grape, Grolleau.The result is a light bodied red wine that whose scent certainly screamed, "I'm different, check me out!" Gamey, earthy, barnyardy presented itself on your nose but when you tasted the wine, you got a light red wine with an earthy but berrish sort of feel. Not sure I'd defintiely go back for more here, maybe the smell turned me off....so I thought I would pair this with a simple, classic, creamy cheese such as Cowgirl Creamery's Mt Tam - a triple cream cheese made out in Pt. Reyes Station, CA, this cheese is silky smooth and creamy - an awesome indulgence each bite!
7. Blonde, Andrea Calek NV, Ardeche, France AND Charollais Affine.
This was the biggest treat, something unlike anything I have ever experienced. Yes it is a sparkler but not by the normal definition! The mixture of Chardonnay and Viognier grapes here produces something completely different because the winemaker does not remove any of the sediment really from the wine, so you are left with a cloudy, heavier than normal sparkling with pear and quince flavors. This wine needs a goat cheese, so I thought why not pair it with the most elegant of the Loire valley goat cheeses - Charollais Affine, a raw goat cheese aged on straw mats for up to four months. The result is a mature, bright and grassy goat!
I hope you will try some of these wine and cheese pairings and if you don't feel like investing in the wines, at least do me the favor of experimenting with biodynamic and natural wines, it will open up your eyes.
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