Zester Daily

4.29.13 -

I’ve long been a fan of the “other” Cabernet, but most of the ones I prize are French. This spicy, delicious 2011 Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc, with fresh, plummy fruit and savory accents, is, surprisingly, from warm Paso Robles in California. It’s a light, layered, easy red, with hints of olives and the kind of sappy acidity that makes a wine wonderfully food-friendly.

Last week, a West Coast wine colleague brought a bottle of this gulpable wine to a lunch at Le Philosophe, a tiny French bistro on Bond Street in New York. Since one wall of the restaurant has large black-and-white photos of famous philosophers, the wine seemed an especially appropriate choice: Broc Cellars’ owner and winemaker Chris Brockway obtained a degree in philosophy before eventually turning to wine. With the restaurant’s creamy blanquette de veau, this Cabernet Franc, his second vintage of the variety, was perfect.

One of the several interesting urban winemakers in the Bay Area, Brockway works out of a 1,400 square foot facility in Berkeley. Committed to a thoughtful wine philosophy of minimal intervention in the cellar, he’s part of the new wave of winemakers who are changing the taste of California wine. He dumps whole clusters of grapes into fermenting vats, relies on indigenous yeasts for fermentation, uses an old fashioned basket press and a tiny percentage of new oak barrels for aging, and adds only a small amount of sulfur for stability. The result is a wine with a pure, transparent, mineral character that speaks of the grapes’ terroir.

Cabernet Franc one part of the experiment

Brockway started making his own wines back in 2004. An experimenter, he offers a dozen or so bottlings, many from varietals popular in southern France such as Counoise and Picpoul. In the way of so many winery startups, he searches out organic vineyards with great terroir and buys the grapes.

On May 11, he’ll be pouring some of them at Bergamot Alley wine bar in Healdsburg, alongside 16 other vintners who make wines from little-known grape varieties. The tasting is billed as the “Seven % Solution,” which refers to the fact that 93% of the vineyard acreage in Northern California are planted to just eight varieties.

Well, Cabernet Franc is hardly an unusual varietal,  but the 2011 Broc Cellars version is an unusual example from California, one that I can hardly wait to try again.

Top photo composite:

Broc Cellars Cabernet Franc label and bottle. Credit: Courtesy of Broc Cellars

4.22.13 -

OK, maybe it’s because I’m a little under the weather as I write this but, dagnabbit I am more than a little bent right now.

What can it take, for the love of Mike, to get a decent, well-priced glass of wine at a restaurant? Time after time, meal after meal, I bring a bottle of wine with me to dinner, seeing as I am in the business. But I always take a look at the list, just in case there is a cool, reasonably-priced by-the-glass option to kick-start the evening. Alas, more often than not, I’m rippin’ out my bottle straight away and gladly paying the $25 corkage fee, realizing I might have to pay that twice knowing the crew I run around with.

How hard can it be? Why do restaurants consistently charge $10 (or more) a glass for a bottle that costs $6 (or less) wholesale? I understand the concept of getting your cost back on the first pour, but c’mon, this is getting silly.

Since I am a wine seller, life for me will go on. I have enough wine street smarts to navigate lists and find something decent or bust out my own bottle if it’s not happening. My concern, however, is for that group of wine drinkers that we fine wine merchants (and, we hope, progressive restaurateurs), are trying to transition over from Two (and a half) Buck Chuck and Yellowtail to another level of wine, one that, while not much more expensive ($10 to $12 a bottle retail instead of $2.49 or $8) delivers another dimension of flavor and styles.

Short-sighted proposition

If restaurants are going to be content with trying to squeeze as many dollars as they can out of a bottle, we will soon lose touch with this new wave of wine drinkers. We won’t be able to bridge the gap and continue to nurture their palates if these people are forced to pay $12 for a glass of mediocre “coastal” Cabernet, when they could be paying $6 for a fabulous Old Vine Grenache from Spain, or Picpoul from the Languedoc. At $12 for an OK glass of Cabernet, I would be reaching for beer provided I didn’t have that wine in my bag.

And that’s the point. Merchants and restaurateurs have to work together to foster and educate this new generation of wine lovers. There are numerous studies showing that millennials are very curious about wine but, like many folks nowadays, do not have serious money burning a hole in their pockets. That said, these consumers are also curious about craft brews, so they often have a unique, artisan drinking experience for less — simply because there is some kind of archaic formula in place dictating the minimum price for a glass of wine.

What if restaurants charged $6 (the price of a 12-ounce beer, for the most part) for an interesting glass of wine? Not wicker basket Chianti, not corporate Cabernet, not private label Chardonnay sourced from Fresno, but a real, authentic, genuine bottle of wine that could open eyes. Would they lose money or sell more wine? Would they gain customers because they were offering cool wines at great prices? Granted, more restaurants have expanded their wine lists to include many offerings south of $50 a bottle. But let’s be honest, that was born out of necessity based on the economy, and was hardly a peace offering to those of us who couldn’t find a bottle less than $75 just a few short years ago. Why couldn’t restaurants apply that same philosophy to their by-the-glass programs?

Smaller dining establishment, more wine for a fair price

Trust me when I say the corporate wine world wants to keep everything just the way it is. There is a wealth of boring cheap wine tied into the spirits business. This wine is essentially sold for nothing to engage restaurants to purchase bar liquors from these large wine/spirits conglomerates. One thing I’ve noticed is that when the dining establishment is smaller, and has no spirits, the wine selection tends to be stronger. Coincidence? I think not. The “big boys” want the restaurants to do one-stop shopping since, to them, wine is merely a greaser to sell more gin. The problem is, more than a few restaurants are all too happy to comply.

I say to those restaurants, “fight the power!” and don’t let the man keep you down. Take a chance, engage your customers, and show them the world of wine is more than whatever the distributor is closing out that month. Find interesting, food-friendly wines and sell the wine for a fair price. I’ll help you out. Email me, or look at our list of sub-$10 wines on our website. Before you know it, I think your customers may be having a revelatory moment like Steve Martin’s character in “The Jerk”: “Well if this is out there just think how much more is out there!”

Top photo: Kyle Meyer. Credit: Mina Bahadarakhann

4.22.13 -

The 2009 vintage in Bordeaux was hyped as yet another “vintage of the century,” and the top chateaux released prices that were astronomical. Luckily, there are also some serious bargains to be had, like this dark, soft, plush 2009 Chateau Fourcas-Borie, a wine with a personality as silky and seductive as its sexy black lace on red label.

I sampled it recently in Bordeaux at a dinner with the chateau’s owner, Bruno Borie, who’s better known as the proprietor of the great second-growth Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou in Saint-Julien.

The Borie family bought Chateau Fourcas Dumont, in the Listrac-Médoc appellation of Bordeaux, at the end of 2008, and renamed the property Chateau Fourcas-Borie. Their first vintage was this 2009, which we sipped alongside a dish of white asparagus wrapped with salty bacon and topped with thin slices of parmesan cheese. This red was a surprisingly good match. The key to pairing wine with asparagus, says Borie, who also happens to be an excellent chef, is adding other, more wine-friendly ingredients, such as the bacon, to the preparation.

Listrac is one of the six appellations in Bordeaux’s Haut-Médoc region, and one of its least prestigious. The Borie family has a history there — Borie’s mother was born at  another estate, Chateau Ducluzeau, which has been in her family for generations.

The wines of Listrac, all red, have the reputation for being lean and dry. This area south and west of more famous Saint-Julien is fairly far from the temperature-moderating influence of the Gironde River and Borie says Listrac’s cooler climate makes it tough for Cabernet Sauvignon to ripen easily. Part of what makes this 2009 Fourcas-Borie red so appealing to drink is its high proportion of Merlot.

Merlot works well

for Chateau Fourcas-Borie

The estate’s 30-hectare (74-acre) vineyards are divided between clay and limestone soil, where Merlot does well, and gravelly soil, where Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot are planted. The wine spends 12 months in barrels, less than one-third of them new and Borie makes it in a deliberately juicy, round, approachable style, aiming for a mix of sturdiness and elegance.

No, this 2009 Chateau Fourcas-Borie doesn’t have the grandeur of Borie’s 2009 Ducru-Beaucaillou, which sells for 12 times more. But it does have lovely richness and real Bordeaux character at a more than reasonable price.

Top photo: Chateau Fourcas-Borie owner Bruno Borie. Credit: Elin McCoy

4.19.13 -

At Zester Daily, we scour the world for interesting food and drink stories to share with our fans.  As luck would have it, we only had to drive an hour south to Orange County, California, to find our latest discovery: Best Wines Online, a new wine e-tailer we know you will enjoy.

We have trusted the talents of founders Kyle Meyer and Tristen Beamon since their years managing another wine store. Their well-earned reputations as wine sleuths able to sniff out values in the obscure corners of wine’s ever expanding universe are complemented by an encyclopedic knowledge of Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Their picks reflect a preference for balanced wines that shine on the dinner table. Kyle and Tris take the time to learn the backstories of the wines they sell.  With their guidance, wine shopping is more treat than chore.

When we learned this dynamic duo was opening a store of their own, we jumped at the chance to introduce the venture to Zester fans.

Discounts for hand-selected wines

Today, we are proud to announce that Zester Daily and Best Wines Online have launched a marketing partnership. Each week, Kyle and Tris will hand-select a wine they will make available to Zester subscribers at an exclusive 10% discount below the store’s already competitive prices.

Zester newsletter subscribers will find a Best Wines Online promotion detailing the weekly wine offer in our new Weekender newsletter sent out toward the end of the workweek.

On bestwinesonline.com, you’ll find detailed wine descriptions and a growing library of videos both from Kyle and Tris’ travels as well as interviews with winemakers who visit their shop.  Their personal touch extends to customer service.  When you call their store during California office hours, you’ll get a living, breathing human being on the phone.

They are limiting their stock to 1,000 labels — enough variety to represent the wide world of top-shelf wines along with stacks of tantalizing under $20 treats. Rare among boutique e-tailers, the pair also feature hard-to-get older vintages straight from the wineries.

We know you will enjoy getting to know Kyle and Tris and their particularly delicious take on fine wine at bestwinesonline.com. Sign up now for Zester’s newsletter so you won’t miss out on any of these delicious deals.

Top photo: Kyle Meyer and Tristen Beamon of Best Wines Online. Photo and video credits: Matthieu Silberstein

4.18.13 -

There are many opinions about what to drink when eating a dish laced with vinegar, from Lambrusco with Balsamic to Muscadet with a cider vinegar mignonette to accentuate raw oysters. But using vinegar in a drink is all the rage right now, as the fermentation craze extends to mixology.

Chefs and bartenders are increasingly turning to vinegar, even making their own, to add another level of flavor to their drinks. They might barrel-age certain cocktails, essentially fermenting them twice.

“Vinegar is another flavor dimension to play with,” said Liz Grossman, the managing editor of Plate magazine, which devoted its entire winter issue to the subject of fermentation, including cocktails. “It adds a creaminess.”

Drinking vinegar spans styles

Cleveland-based chef Jonathon Sawyer of Greenhouse Tavern makes his own vinegar to go into barrel-aged cocktails; Andy Ricker in Portland, Ore., founder of the popular Pok Pok restaurant, came back from a trip to Thailand a few years ago inspired to mix tartly sweet vinegars with club soda, which he considers an ideal pairing for spicy Asian food.

Ricker sells a line of drinking vinegars in apple, honey, tamarind, pineapple and other flavors called Som Drinking Vinegar (pokpoksom.com). Only organic cane sugar and natural flavoring are added to the natural vinegar; he recommends a 4:1 ratio of soda water to vinegar to help cut the acidity of the honey and apple varieties in particular, which tend to taste less sweet than some of the others.

The notion is not that far off from the idea of shrubs, drinking vinegars made by macerating fruit in vinegar, then cooking it with sugar or honey.

Bartender Carlo Splendorini, who heads the Michael Mina Group of restaurants, prefers to work with balsamic vinegar, finding that the warm flavors of these vinegars from Modena bring depth, nuance and a hint of sweetness to his cocktails. Here is one of his spring-inspired creations.

Spring Sparkle

Created by Carlo Splendorini, Mina Group

Serves 1

Ingredients

1 sugar cube soaked in good quality balsamic vinegar

½ ounce rum

Champagne

Orange peel for garnish

Directions

1. Place the sugar cube at the bottom of a Champagne flute.

2. Add the rum and slowly top with Champagne.

3. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Top photo: Spring Sparkle cocktail. Credit: Courtesy of Mina Group

4.16.13 -

Where do chefs eat? As culinary professionals have become celebrities, their favorite haunts have attracted more attention. Want to know where Ludo Lefebvre gets his favorite pancakes?  Or where to find the best sushi, according to Danny Bowein (of Mission Chinese fame)? ChefsFeed has the answers, and a bit more. With thousands of high-end to hole-in-the-wall restaurant recommendations straight from the mouths of the country’s best chefs, you’ll learn where they love to go, and most important, what they like to order. There are currently 20 different cities on the app, with at least 20 chefs per city. The app is very user-friendly, with a little smiling face (usually) of the chef and photos of his or her recommended dishes. You can click on the dish and get details about the restaurant and also why the chef likes it. This has got to be one of the best ways to hunt down a meal. The icon is pretty cool, too.

Available for free on iTunes

Split the bill without pain

No, Splitsville is not an app that will supply you with text-message breakup lines. Rather, it is an app that will help you split a restaurant bill.  Sure, when there’s just two of you it’s easy —  excuse yourself to the restroom and hope the other person pays. But what to do if you have an odd number of people dining? Simply open up this little bad boy, enter the total amount (plus tip, of course) then enter the number of diners, and the app will do the rest. Of course, so will a calculator. Here’s the difference: If you arrived only in time for dessert whilst your friends feasted on steak and lobster, you will not have to pay for their surf and turf gluttony. Specify that your crème brûlée only cost you $15 and the app will adjust accordingly, charging your friends for their share while you pay for what you had. Never again will you feel cheated by a tab because your buddy ordered one more beer than you. It will be accounted for, and it will be fair — Splitsville will make sure of it.

Available for free on iTunes

Find sustainable fish choices

Seafood Watch has changed the way I buy fish. I refer to it for “ocean-friendly” advice every time I go out to buy seafood, especially at stores where I don’t have a friendly fishmonger to chat with. A bit of an admission as well: I sometimes purchase frozen seafood at Costco, and this app has kept me from many a fish-buying mistake. Made by the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the app brings you the most current recommendations for sustainable seafood and sushi, along with complete information about how each species should be fished or farmed. It is very simple to use and categorizes seafood as “best choice,” “good alternative” or “avoid,” with alternative options in the “avoid” section. When you delve into the app, you’ll notice the wealth of information available — everything from farming practices to where you can find a particular type of fish nearby. The sushi guide goes a bit further by providing the Japanese name as well as the English. This is an app worth downloading. All the information provided can also be found at www.seafoodwatch.org.

Available on iTunes and for Android for free

Drink wine by a biodynamic calendar

There is a growing opinion within the wine industry that wines taste better on certain days of the biodynamic calendar. Basically, with biodynamics, everything is dictated by the moon. The most common theory is, if the moon’s gravitational pull influences the ocean’s tide, it must also affect water in the soil and even sap within plants, which in turn can affect growth and flavor. There is a specific type of day depending on what phase the moon is in, they are: fruit, flower, leaf or root. For wine the best days to drink (and in fact transfer from tank to barrel) are said to be fruit and flower days. These days were originally used as guide for planting and sowing crops, but have more recently been extended into the wine world. Only a few blessed souls, however, have the ability to look at the moon and know what type of day it is. For the rest of us, there are two apps. BioGarden is a very cute biodynamic calendar app with little cartoon fruits and vegetables that tell you what type of day it is. You can scroll along from side to side quite easily and plan your biodynamic (drinking) calendar months in advance. When Wine Tastes Best is based off the biodynamic booklet of the same name. This is much more detailed, and actually tells you on the hour when the day type changes. It is set up a bit more seriously, and there is a free version that doesn’t allow you to look ahead in the week. Rest assured, neither app will ask you to bury your phone on the third full moon of the year.

Biogarden is $2.99 on iTunes

When Wine Taste Best is free or $2.99 on iTunes

Top image: BioGarden app. Courtesy of Summersun Corp

4.15.13 -

In recent years, Oregon Pinot Noirs have become awfully expensive, with some
topping $100 a bottle. So I was delighted to sample the more-affordable 2011 Ponzi
Tavola Pinot Noir, with its spicy cherry flavors, silky texture and bright savory notes on
the finish.

While this fruit-forward, juicy, recently released red isn’t layered or complex,
it is a gulpable everyday wine that wonderfully complemented a simple dinner of roast
chicken with tarragon, earthy mushroom ragout, and creamy polenta.

Dick and Nancy Ponzi founded the winery 40 years ago. Part of the wave of
pioneers on a quest to produce great Pinot Noir in the Willamette Valley, they helped
start one of the world’s best wine events, the International Pinot Noir Celebration,
founded a culinary center and wine bar showcasing top Oregon vintners in Dundee, and
even established the state’s first craft brewery.

The second generation is now running things. (Brother Michael bowed out this
year to pursue songwriting.) Luisa, who apprenticed at famed Domaine Roumier in
Burgundy, became winemaker in 1993. She’s always had a delicate touch with Pinot Noir
that some might deem “feminine.” Her aims are classic balance and elegant textures –
both evident even in this entry-level wine.

A Pinot Noir graced by a ‘miracle’ of sun

Ponzi makes half a dozen Pinot Noirs, including an impressive $100 single
vineyard bottling, and first introduced the Tavola in 2003. (“Tavola” means “table” in Italian.)
Vintage 2011 wasn’t a slam dunk. The season was late, and in the last part of August
Ponzi was still wondering whether the grapes would even ripen. As often seems to
happen in cooler wine regions, a “miracle” of sun in October saved the day. Picking was
the latest ever, into the middle of November! The result is wines with lovely intensity of
fruit, combined with very reasonable alcohol levels.

Though their 120 acres of vineyards aren’t farmed organically, the Ponzis are
serious about sustainable winemaking. The new winery, built in 2008, uses solar panels
to provide energy and a reflective metal roof to help maintain cool temperatures in the
cellar. The non-irrigated vineyards and winery are certified LIVE (low input viticulture
and enology), which means a commitment to using non-chemical approaches to weed and
insect control.

All this, and the wines are delicious, too. Drinking the Tavola Pinot Noir is a good
introduction.

Top photo composite:

2011 Ponzi Vineyards Tavola Pinot Noir label and bottle. Credit: Courtesy of Ponzi Vineyards

4.9.13 -

A bag of roasted coffee beans. Inhale, then inhale again. The smell delivers comfort, the anticipation of wakefulness and clarity. I first encountered freshly roasted coffee in 1995, when I lived among the Bedouins inside southern Israel. Nicknamed “taht al-nujuum,” I insisted on sleeping outside, under the stars, in the crisp night air securely cloaked under a heavy quilt. The gift? We awoke to the smell of the patriarch, Abu Yusuf, roasting and grinding coffee beans so we could imbibe a bracing, sweet thimble full of dark nectar before confronting the day, off the grid.

But where did coffee originate, how did it migrate and will future generations continue to enjoy the coveted cuppa? This three-part series looks at the African origins of coffee, its early migration around the world, coffee varieties today, simple coffee definitions and how to roast green coffee beans at home. Last, as coffee farmers experience greater vulnerability to climate and disease, the series explores how we might conserve coffee’s biocultural diversity in its place of origin to ensure its global survival for generations.

Costs of coffee

Coffee, the other black gold, is the world’s most widely traded tropical agricultural commodity, and second only to petroleum, the most traded commodity. Coffee accounts for global exports worth more than $15 billion. In 2009 and 2010 alone, 93.4 million bags of coffee shipped internationally. The biggest exporters are Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Colombia, Ethiopia and India, according to data collected by the International Coffee Organization in March 2013. The biggest importers are the United States, Germany, Italy, France and Japan, according to data collected in November 2012 by the International Coffee Organization. Seven countries rely heavily on coffee export sales (greater than 12% and up to 59%) for country earnings — Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Honduras, Uganda, Nicaragua and Guatemala, based on International Coffee Organization statistics. That’s the macrocosm. But what about the microcosm, what is happening in coffee’s (Coffea arabica) place of origin, Ethiopia?

Diversity a hallmark of African origins of coffee

The African continent is the center of origin and genetic diversity for all coffee species, reports Taye Kufa of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research in “Environmental Sustainability and Coffee Diversity in Africa.” Coffee, of the genus Coffea, resides in the larger Rubiaceae family. There are more than 100 species in the genus Coffea. Two species have the most commercial value in the global coffee industry: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora, commonly referred to as Arabica and Robusta coffee, respectively. Arabica is geographically isolated from other Coffea species. It only grows in isolated mountain forests of the Great Rift Valley in southern Ethiopia. Robusta coffees, with origins in the equatorial lowland forests of west and central Africa, make up the rest of global coffee production. Today, Robusta varieties thrive in tropical highland and lowland areas worldwide and make up about 30% of global coffee production. Arabica varieties dominate 70% of total coffee production and more than 90% of the market.

How did Ethiopians enjoy the coffee plant?

Ethiopians ate the raw coffee berries, chewed the leaves, brewed both into a light tea, ground the beans and mixed it with fat to create a dense energy bar, fermented the fresh fruit pulp, concocted a drink from roasted husks called qishr, and, at some point, roasted the green beans. They delivered to the world a highly addictive type of plant nectar: roasted and brewed coffee. Read about the contemporary Ethiopian coffee ceremony by fellow Zester Daily contributor, Elisabeth Luard.

What is a center of origin mean and why is it important?

All plants have a place of origin, a center or centers of biodiversity. If the wild species has not gone extinct, there may be few to many wild species.

A wild species grows without the aid of human intervention to plant, cultivate or harvest — as opposed to a domesticated one that requires the human hand to cultivate it like tomatoes or corn. In Ethiopia many wild Coffea species still exist, though the numbers are in decline.

Why is it advantageous to have many Coffea species? What if there is a drought, a pest or a disaster that wipes out a coffee harvest? Access to the same or another Coffea species that might have a drought- or pest-resistance exists. Multiple species ensures that if one dies off others, of different genetic variety and strength, endure. Global and local, large and small seed banks and repositories serve this conservation purpose (referred to as ex situ conservation). But why not maintain the dynamic environments where the species grow (in situ conservation)? Then you not only maintain the diversity of numerous species, but also give them the chance to co-mingle and reproduce newer, more vibrant species. Isn’t it better to keep the gene pool healthy and diverse and mix it up, just like in humans?

Coffea migration