La Sommelierre

Pair Up with La Sommelierre - May 2012

Festival Foods

Festivals are a great way to celebrate the best our country has to offer whether it is produce, seafood or just old-fashioned caramel popcorn.

The California Strawberry Festival is held each year in Oxnard, California on the third weekend in May. Strawberries add a great burst of acid and beautiful color to a salad. Paired with brie cheese and fresh pears, then topped with tangy sour cream dressing, this salad needs a wine with bubbles to cut through the creamy dressing and a bit of sugar to balance the sweetness of the berries. Prosecco or an Asti Spumanti from Italy are both great options.

Closer to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Asparagus Festival takes place in Stockton, California. This year it was held the last weekend in April. As a second course, try Asparagus Ceviche. It is a substantial salad that blends cooked shrimp and crab with raw asparagus. In most ceviche, the citrus juices cook the fish; in this case, the juices cook the asparagus! Asparagus has a tendency to make wines taste vegetal and calls for a wine with intense fruit flavor like Riesling. Furthermore, the salad has jalapeño, garlic and onion, so the spicier you like it, the more sugar your wine needs to balance the heat. German Rieslings offer both dry and off-dry wines with excellent acid to stand up to the citrus juices. If you prefer American wines, look for Riesling from Mendocino County or Washington State. These regions are cooler, from a higher latitude and, therefore, usually produce wines with higher levels of acidity.

Vidalia Onion BBQ’d Ham utilizes the super sweet onions from the state of Georgia’s Vidalia Onion Festival. Simply sauté the onions with garlic and add them to your favorite vinegar-based, store-bought sauce. Gewürztraminer wine has a sweet spiciness that will work well with the ham and Caramel Corn Sweet Potatoes on the side. You can’t go to a festival without finding caramel popcorn, and you won’t even miss dessert if you finish your evening with these two recipes.

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - April 2012

Spring Celebration

Salad, pasta and dessert can be their own celebration. Prepare this meal of spring lamb with fresh ricotta cheese and a hint of mint, and you will agree that spring has sprung.

Spring is a good time to try a new white wine. Look for the Insolia or Inzolia grape made into its eponymous wine from Sicily. The Insolia grape is classically used to make Marsala from Sicily (along with Grillo and Catarratto), but it is also made into a delicate, drier wine. Insolia wine is both floral and tropical with red pear and white grapefruit notes (combine phrases) and, like most Italian whites, it has zesty acidity that will stand up to a salad like the Misticanza Salad dressed with white balsamic vinaigrette. Can’t find Insolia? A Sauvignon Blanc will substitute. Add a slice of crusty bread with a spread of cheese and chives, and you have another bridge to pairing greatness.

For the pasta, simmer-up a pot of hearty Lamb Ragu. I love this recipe with its topping of fresh ricotta and mint. Less expected than basil and parmesan, this garnish screams, “It’s spring!” Pair the ragu with an Italian Barolo made from the Nebbiolo grape. So very earthy and bright, Italian reds also have slightly higher acidity than Californian. And, they also have a rich gaminess that is perfect with lamb. However, if your cellar is low on Italian reds, try a Pinot Noir; it will fit the acid, earth profile.

Finish your meal with Tiramisu, a classic Italian dessert that is light and decadent at the same time. I prefer serving it with bitter black coffee to provide contrast to the sweetness of Tiramisu. Plus, the heat from the coffee will cleanse any lingering fat from the cream. Consider choosing a Kona Coffee. Island coffees are more typically spicy, with nutty/chocolaty undertones that will sing with the delicate chocolate notes in this dish.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - March 2012

Seasonal Eating

Even though winter is barely over, many of us are starting to plan for summer by planting gardens, scheduling the kids’ activities and making reservations to visit exotic locations. While preparing for the summer, enjoy this light meal that uses the last of the winter foods and matches them with wines that bring out their best qualities.

Oysters are truly a delicious treat and must be cooked or eaten from a live state. Live oysters are tightly closed and will snap shut if tapped. If the shell is open, the oyster is dead and it cannot be eaten safely. Some say oysters are only safe to eat in months with the letter ‘r’ in their names. This rule is based on a variety of possibilities: oysters in the northern hemisphere oysters are much more likely to spoil in warmer months, warmer temperatures trigger spawning in some oysters (resulting in an unpleasant texture), and warmer temperatures increase the concentration of phytoplankton contaminated with arsenic that oysters could possibly ingest. Luckily, technology is on our side and commercially collected oysters are generally safe as long as they are alive.

Muscadet (moosk-a-day) is my favorite wine to pair with oysters. Made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, it is crisp and dry with mineral and citrus zest flavors. Muscadet is made exclusively on the west coast of France in the Nantes region. Its proximity to the sea has made it a longtime companion to oysters. If you can’t find Muscadet, a Sauvignon Blanc or Chablis will provide the necessary acidity. And, for an extra sharp bite, top your oysters with the Mignonette sauce listed on the website.

To end the meal, a delicate terrine of seasonal citrus can be paired with the Orange Muscat used to make it. The Muscat grape is very different from the Melon de Bourgogne grape. Muscats are incredibly floral wines and often made quite sweet. There are multiple varieties of Muscat and they are grown all over the world. Wines like Moscato and Muscat de Rivesaltes are both made from Muscat grapes. Orange Muscat is used for dessert wines in California and Australia and has a very definite orange aroma.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - February 2012

Warming Syrah

Syrah is one of those dense red wines that make you feel warm just by looking at it. A robust wine, Syrah has black fruit flavors of berry and dried plum as well as notes of tobacco and dark soil. Also, Syrah is most often aged in toasted oak barrels, which impart the flavor of bacon. Here is a meal that pairs each course with a different version of Syrah wine.

New World Syrah from California, Oregon and Washington tends to be more fruit forward and lower in acid than French Syrah. Potato Leek Soup with Sausage Lardon is a great starter on a cold winter night. This soup is rich and creamy and accented with pork flavors; it is perfect for Syrah. The fat balances the high alcohol and pork flavors are echoed in the wine.

In the Old World (read: Europe), Syrah is celebrated in southern France. The most elegant Syrah wines come from the Northern Rhone and have fine-grained tannins. Slightly more rustic versions are found in the Southern Rhone and the vast Languedoc-Roussillon. I have chosen Alton Brown’s Pot Roast recipe to pair with a French Syrah as the main course. I like Alton’s recipe because it uses balsamic vinegar (to balance the higher acid found in French wines), cocktail olives (which have a briny, earthy characteristic) and raisins (to echo the dark fruit in the wine). Add your favorite starch to catch the juices and something green to make your mother happy and you have a complete plate.

To end the meal with a touch of sweetness, head back to the states where Syrah is often made into a delicious port-style wine. The deep flavors of the Syrah grape intensify as the grapes hang on the vine and the high alcohol is perfectly balanced by the extra sugar. The classic pairing with port-style wines is Stilton, however, if you prefer less stinky cheese, try Gruyere. The tiny, crunchy crystals in Gruyere are a nice contrast to the silky texture of the wine. And, the fruit in the wine is intensified by the sharp, nutty flavors in Gruyere.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - January 2012

January 2012 – Winter Fresh

After the indulgence of the holidays, it is nice to have a meal that is both appetizing and good for you. Take advantage of the abundance of tempting produce available in Northern California to create a meal that will shake off those mid-winter blues.

Start with a salad of fennel, arugula and aged jack cheese. This lightly dressed salad is unique and pairs nicely with sparkling water jazzed up with fresh cut cucumber slices. While citrus, berries, and mint are all also delicious added to water, I find the green flavor of cucumber particularly refreshing. Water is essential to good health and changes dramatically with these additions. Whether you prefer sparking or still, lightly flavored water is the perfect partner for your salad.

For the main course, open up a winter white wine like Chenin Blanc. It is a welcome reprieve from the red wines often served in cooler winter months. Chenin Blanc’s herbal notes will pick up on the ranch spices found in Original Ranch Roasted Potatoes. Add some grilled boneless breasts of chicken that have been marinating in your favorite citrus juices, olive oil, rosemary and salt. Cook it over an indoor grill pan and you can stay inside where it is nice and warm. Complete the meal by coating some asparagus with olive oil and salt and throwing it into the oven with the potatoes. Let them roast together for the last 7-10 minutes.

Chocolate Walnut Meringues are a heavenly way to end this meal. Plan to make them well in advance because, while they start in a pre-heated oven, they need to cook with the oven off for at least two hours to obtain their crisp crunch. Since these cookies are too sweet for wine, pair them with some slightly nutty chai tea to complement the chocolate and echo the toasty flavor of the walnuts.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - December 2011

All Port Dinner

The holiday season is the time to splurge. We buy expensive gifts, eat decadent food and drink special wines. This dinner features port-style wines paired with rich foods like roast duck and Chocolate Lava Pudding Cups. It will make any occasion special.

Port-style wines are named for their birthplace, Portugal. The style was created when Portuguese producers needed to prevent the spoilage of their wine on the long journey by ship from Portugal to England. The solution was to add alcohol to the wine before just before the sugar had all fermented out. Now, port-style wines are made all over the world and California creates some of the most delicious.

St. Barthelemy Cellars, located in the Vaca Mountains, produce only port-style wines, and they make it out of almost every red grape grown in California. I had never tasted pinot noir or barbera grapes made into port wine until I had St. Barthelemy wines. It is truly a winery to seek out and visit.

The best port wine to pair with a starter salad is barbera port because barbera is a high acid grape. As a port, it is the perfect balance of sweet and sour. But if you can’t find a barbera port, try a traditional Portuguese ruby port. Use arugula as the base of your salad and add morello cherries, a tangy blue cheese and dress the salad with the Sweet Walnut Dressing. The wine’s acid will stand up to the vinegar in the dressing, and the bitterness of the walnuts and arugula will be balanced by the sugar in the wine.

The tannins and alcohol in port are tamed by the fat and salt found in Roast Duck with Port-Cherry Sauce. Port-style wines made with syrah, cabernet or merlot are all good pairing partners. The cherry-port reduction will complement the sweetness and echo the fruit found in a port-style wine.

Rarely do I recommend chocolate desserts and wine, but port-style wines are the exception and zinfandel port is exceptional with dark chocolate. Try these Chocolate Lava Pudding Cups for just the right texture and flavor.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - November 2011

Holiday Tapas

Spanish tapas are perfect for holiday entertaining because they are small plates of foods that can often be consumed without the use of forks. Here are a few of my favorite recipes and wine pairings that will make them sing.

Look to Spain for wines to pair with tapas. An intense white grape known as garnacha blanca in Spain and grenache blanc in the south of France is truly worth seeking out. To me it tastes like a cross between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. It has rich notes of apple and pear like chardonnay although it is usually made without oak barrel influence. On the palate it carries a hint of citrus and the same fresh acidity found in sauvignon blanc. Enjoy Red Potatoes with Smoked Salmon, with a garnacha blanca or even a sauvignon blanc. Delicate smoked salmon with a creamy garlic mayonnaise, known as aioli in France and alioli in Spain, and will bring out the fruity flavors in the wine.

For the red wine pairing, chose a Rioja, the quintessential Spanish wine. Rioja is made from the tempranillo grape and has three levels of quality, crianza, reserva and gran reserva. The reserva and gran reserva levels are aged for at least three to five years respectively. I recommend the crianza level for crispy Jamon & Manchego Pinwheels. Rioja crianza is fruitier and less oaky than its older siblings so it tends to be a less serious wine.

For something sweet, try a Pedro Jimenez, a sherry-style wine that comes from the southern portion of Spain. Its dried fig, coffee and nut flavors will be delicious with the fig-based dessert found on my website. The rich mascarpone cheese gives the dish a creaminess that will balance the alcohol in the wine. And the cinnamon, cardamom and allspice give the honey drizzle an exotic kick that will echo the spice notes that come from the barrel aging.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - October 2011

Soup Time!

October in northern California is often warm during the day and chilly at night. This menu addresses that dichotomy by starting with a cool white wine and finishing with a warm soup. This year, I am featuring a soup from the Dominican Republic, a country that shares the same island as Haiti in the waters between Florida and South America.

Start with an easy to find, aromatic white wine like torrontes, a hybrid of muscat of Alexandria and the mission grape. Argentina produces torrontes at great prices. Lush aromas and flavors such as peach, apricot and lychee are typical, and the moderate alcohol levels which will allow it to work with the Aleppo pepper in the Sautéed Shrimp and Mozzarella appetizer.

Sancocho de Frijoles is a bold soup that incorporates savory pork and slightly sweet, sweet potatoes and requires a wine with plenty of big flavors. A hearty Livermore Valley merlot, like the estate wine from the Wood Family Vineyards, will have just the right complementary peppery notes as well as a zippy acidity to stand up to the lime, vinegar and fresh herbs.

As usual, I make the trek through the Caldecott Tunnel to Kermit Lynch in Berkeley or DuVin Wines in Alameda to buy Vin du Bugey-Cerdon. It’s sweet, pink, bubbly nature makes it the only wine I pair with the super sweet chocolates of Halloween. This year try it with a Butterfinger. The salty, crunchy center creates a perfect harmony with the wine in both texture and flavor.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - September 2011

Beginnings and Endings

September represents the start of a new school year and is almost the end of the calendar year. Both are something to celebrate.

Madeira is the delicious wine from the Portuguese island of Madeira. Like most European wines, it is a regional style that is made from different local grapes, individually or as a blend. And, it is the composition of the blend that influences exactly how the final wine will look and taste. From lighter to darker, drier to sweeter, the four grapes are sercial, verdelho, bual and malmsey. All Madeiras have a bright acidity and flavors of fig, citrus, and nuts. It is these unusual flavors, slight sweetness and higher acidity that make it perfect for the beginning or end of a meal.

Start this fall menu with one of my favorite late summer/fall fruits - figs. Serve a lovely starter plate composed of sweet, earthy figs and salty serrano ham topped with fresh basil and drizzled with Leslie Styles’ balsamic glaze (Pair Up, Feb 2010 www.LaSommelierre.com). The figs and balsamic reduction go well with fig flavors in the wine, and the salty ham is a perfect counterpoint to the wines sweetness.

Next, take a break from the sweet quality of the Madeira and pick up one of its mainland cousins, a dry red from either the Douro or the Dão. Both regions make wonderful, earthy red wines that will pair well with the Osso Bucco and Mascarpone Polenta. If you can’t find anything from Portugal, a classic California syrah will give the depth and body needed for this big, bold dish.

Return to Madeira at the end of the meal and try pistachio ice cream with Anna’s Orange Flavored Thins (a sweet citrus biscuit that can often be found locally at Safeway). Pistachio nuts bring out the richness of the wine, and the subtle spark of citrus in the cookie brings out its brightness. And don’t worry if you don’t finish the bottle tonight; Madeira will keep for months in your fridge.

So, go on. Pair Up!

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Pair Up with La Sommelierre - August 2011

Summer Celebration

Sparkling wine makes any event a celebration. In fact, I start almost all my parties with something bubbly. This menu takes it one step further and makes the sparkling wine the star of the evening. Choose sparkling wines from cooler regions where the grapes maintain a fresh quality. And remember, even if it is grown in France, it isn’t Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region of France.

Sparkling wine is great with the salad course because it is naturally high in acid and will pair well with salad dressing. Choose a dry Brut style sparkling wine for this course because it will have very little residual sugar. A sparkling wine vinaigrette will echo the flavors found in the wine and can be used to dress a salad of mixed greens, green onion, dried cherry, and edamame topped with crumbled blue cheese. It will be the perfect blend of sweet, bitter, savory and salty.

Blanc de Blancs sparkling wines are made exclusively from chardonnay grapes and would be an excellent choice for an entrée of barbequed Dungeness crab. The sweet, buttery flavor of the crab along with melted butter for dipping will complement the butter, apple and pear flavors commonly found in chardonnay grapes. To barbeque Dungeness crab, break each cooked, cleaned crab down the middle, leaving ½ the body and five “legs” attached. Coat each half in olive oil and sprinkle with chopped garlic and lots of kosher salt. Wrap each half individually in foil, place on a hot grill for 10 minutes and serve with crusty bread.

End the evening with some good quality pound cake from your favorite bakery and make it your own with the delicious tropical fruit compote you can find on my website. Because the dessert is a little sweet, choose a sparkling wine that has sugar added back in at bottling. Look for the words “Extra-Dry, Demi-Sec or Doux” on the label.

So, go on. Pair Up!

Find recipes online at www.lasommelierre.com