Vino from Sicilia

Americans love Italian wine -- in fact, many things Italian. So I was excited to venture for a week to Sicily, where I am writing from now.  My first day, I attended a wine tasting in the capital, Palermo, with dozens of Sicilian wine producers gathered under one roof. I did not know this until I arrived here, but Sicily is the largest wine-producing region in the largest wine-producing country in the world (virtually every inch of Italy is a wine region) so I shouldn’t have been surprised at the number of wineries (more than 200) in Sicily alone or the quality I was tasting. From luscious whites to deeply-colored and intensely-flavored reds, especially made from the predominant red grape here, Nero D’Avola, the wines were interesting, enjoyable, and in many cases exceptional. Some are in the United States, but hopefully, many more will come.

The best whites I tasted were made from three indigenous grape varieties: Grillo (pronounced Gree-low, and my personal favorite), Insolia (In-so-lee-ah) and Cattarato. But I also tasted Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Viognier, so-called “international” grape varieties that Sicilians sometimes like to blend with their local grapes. Some even make stand-alone Chardonnays, with mixed results. All of the Grillos listed below are bright and fresh, with sensuous mouthfeels, medium-weights and because of their palate-cleansing acidity are excellent with shellfish, fried foods and light fish dishes.

The pink wines (rosato in Italian) below are dry, with bright strawberry and cherry flavors, lovely salmon colors and would match well with almost any fish dish, plus chicken and pork.

The star among red grapes here is Nero D’Avola (pronounced Nero Dav-o-lah), a fruity, juicy, somewhat spicy wine reminiscent of Australian Shiraz, but more toned down. Many local Sicilian producers bottle a fresher version that’s not aged in oak (I tended to prefer those) as well as ones that are oak-aged and often these bottling are blended with Syrah, Merlot and/or Cabernet Sauvignon.

Among my favorites, here are some recommendations of wines available in the United States, most under 13% alcohol and under $15:

Feudo Montoni Grillo 2010 and Nero D’Avola 2009

Firriato Alta Villa Grillo 2010

Rizzuto Piconello Bianco 2010 (100% Grillo)

Castel Venus Rosé di Nero D’Avola

Fondo Antico Nero D’Avola 2010

Lombardo Salvatore Nero D’Avola Rosado 2010

Lombardo Salvatore il Nero D’Avola 2010

Caravaglio Salina Bianco 2010 (organic)

Donnafugata Tancredi 2007 (Nero D’Avola and Cabernet Sauvignon)

Caruso & Minini Marsala Superiore (dry)

Curto Eloro Nero D’Avola 2010

Ottoventi Passito 2007 (sweet dessert wine made from raisined grapes)

Donnafugata Ben Ryé Passito 2008

For Your Liquor Library

Did you know that the cocktail is an American invention? Or that the phrase "D and D" (for drunk and disorderly) dates back to the 1600s? 

The newly revised Everything Bartender's Book teaches you this and more, and if you're looking for an inexpensive, compact guide to drinks and bartending, the book may be for you. A $10.95 paperback, it's the perfect book for keeping on your bar and consulting frequently -- you won't care if you accidentally splash the pages with Maraschino cherry juice or Scotch.  Author Cheryl Charming (I am not making that name up!) gives us the usual cocktail recipes, bartending terms, and information about bar supplies and tools, but the best things about this guide are the offbeat offerings, such as the first chapter, "A History of Alcohol and Bartending," and an appendix of "Drinking Words Through Time."  A nice gift for a novice or yourself.

Also just out is the Everything Guide to Wine by Peter Alig, the wine educator at the Robert Mondavi Winery. This is an up-to-date, well-organized primer on wine with some informative chapters on topics that don't usually get covered in wine guides, such as "The Cost of Wine: What Goes into the Bottle,"  "The Power of Packaging" and "Strategies for Buying Wine."  The book is $16.95 and both "Everthing" guides are available from Adams Media, http://www.everything.com/.

Bartending For Dummies

The chapter on wine in this recent release of the "Dummies" series is lame -- 7 pages long and containing nothing interesting or terribly instructive. A sample of its wisdom: "Winemaking dates back roughly to 3000 BC and it's here to stay." Well, that's comforting!
But wine lovers will like this guide for all the other things it has that we may not be so informed about, like how to conjure cocktails, from classic to contemporary, and how to set up a basic bar at home. Plus, there are over 200 pages of cocktail recipes, all in a handy, inexpensive paperback. $16.99 from Wiley.

Do You Know the Way to Beaujolais?

I had the pleasure of sampling some lovely wines from Beaujolais last week at a luncheon in San Francisco, and I was stunned by how good the wines were, and at $13 to $20, what great values they are. Having previously been acquainted with Beaujolais Nouveau as a sort of gimmick in my younger years when I was a casual wine drinker, this was close to revelatory. Not only did the quality and value of these wines stand out, but the different styles of wine impressed me, from light, fresh and floral to much more dense and age-able -- and they are all made from the same grape, Gamay. By the way, 2009 was an outstanding year for Beaujolais.
All of the wines were ripe with fruit (without being too intense) and boasted soft tannins. Some of my favorites from the luncheon:

2009 Domaine de Colette Beaujolais Villages $13
2009 Domaine Dupeuble Pere et Fils $13
2009 Christian Vergiers Tours de Tanay Morgon $17

2009 Chateau de Raousset Grille Midi Fleurie $20

Beaujolais producers are working to get the attention of American wine consumers, so these and other good examples of Beaujolais shouldn't be hard to find. Ask your favorite wine merchant.
  

New From Cognac

The other day, I was introduced to L’Esprit de June, the world’s first vine flower liqueur from Cognac, France. As per instructions, I added 1 oz. of the clear liquid to a chilled flute then topped with Prosecco (in this case, Valdo).  Instant champagne cocktail! It was so perfumed with flowers I wanted to dab some on myself, but I sipped it instead and it  was like aromatherapy. The June liqueur really brightened the taste of the Prosecco, adding fragrance and dimension.

L’Esprit de June would make a novel holiday gift for a wine and spirits lover or an unusual addition to your home bar for holiday parties. A tall, attractive bottle with a distinctive orange bottle cap is $29.99 and comes from Euro Wine Gate.

A Good Year for Chocolate?

From France’s Loire – the valley of kings and castles – come the only chocolates in the word with a vintage date, according to owner Pierre-Jean Sauvion of the Sauvion wine estate in Muscadet. It was there that his grandmother invented the candies, called "Les Genevieve" after their inventor, out of her desire to make sure that nothing would go to waste at her family winemaking estate. The hand-made chocolate candies, shaped like wine barrels, are filled with a mixture made from the dried-out grapes (raisins) in the vineyards that were not appropriate to use in winemaking because of their lack of juice.

The limited production candies are made each year but in varying amounts; production is limited by the size of the grape crop in any given year. The winery says the candies can sell out at any time, but customers can “reserve” an order at the beginning of the year. 

I tasted them and they are delicious. The cost is $16.50 for 20 chocolates or about $13 for 15 chocolates at the winery’s Chateau Cleray in Vallet. They are also available at CARLI, a pâtissier and chocolatier in the city of Nantes.

Pairing Wine and Food

For all you wine geniuses out there, there a new book to consult about matching food with wine, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Wine and Food Pairing. I asked Jeannette Hurt, one of the co-authors of the book (the other is Jaclyn Stuart) what she learned while researching the book that surprised her about wine and food pairing. "One of the best ways to pair is to try to match aromas of wine with flavors of food. Another thing I learned is that if you're not sure of a wine's aromas or if you are a newbie with aromas, one of the best ways to familiarize yourself with aromas is to head to a store like Trader Joe's and buy a bunch of foods that match wine aromas - dried cherries, fresh peaches, vanilla, herbs, etc. - and then to sniff the actual foods and then stick your nose in the wines. That's a much better way to gain sensory reference to aromas, and having that, it's much easier to pair wines. For example, some sauvignon blancs are known to have gooseberry aromas, but if you don't know what a gooseberry smells or tastes like, how can you pick out that aroma in a wine?"

Actually, the gooseberry comparison has always struck me as arcane -- how many people know what a gooseberry tastes like? Maybe they're more common in certain parts of the country, but I'd never seen or tasted a gooseberry until I purposely sought them out after reading descriptions by other wine writers (especially British ones) about the gooseberry component in Sauvignon Blanc.  I still think grapefruit and tart citrus such as lime describes most Sauvignon Blanc better because people are familiar with those tastes and smells.

Some of my favorite pairings: oysters and crab with Sancerre or Muscadet; Cabernet with steak; and Champagne or sparkling wine with French Fries or potato chips.