Ahh, Sunday morning. I inexplicably popped out of bed at 7:30 this morning and went to work cleaning up after our wine tasting dinner last night. We had a really great evening with 10 of our friends, new and old, who all gathered at our place to taste Gewurztraminers from around the world out on the patio on a beautiful summer night. Yesterday was a busy day getting ready: Melissa spent the whole day preparing Indian dishes to complement the wines, while I scoured the bottle stores of Boston for a good selection of Gewurztraminers.
Gewurtz is not the most popular wine, so finding bottles from more than one or two regions at any given store wasn't easy. In the end, however, we got a great selection representing pretty much every part of the world that manages to do something respectable with this difficult grape. Alsacian winemakers certainly set the bar for Gewurz, but other areas with moderate growing conditions are also doing quite well with it: the northwest coast of the United States (OR, WA) and a few areas in California; South America (primarily Chile), South Africa, and New Zealand. We also had one from northern Italy, but that was way past its prime and a huge disappointment (see tasting notes below).
1. Cave de Turckheim, 2006, Alsace, France
2. Chateau Ste. Michelle, 2006, Columbia Valley, WA
3. Huia, 2004, Marlborough, New Zealand
4. Cono Sur, 2006, Casablanca Valley, Chile
5. Columbia Crest, 2006, Columbia Valley, WA
6. Fetzer, 2006, Mendocino County, CA
7. Paul Cluver, 2007, Elgin, South Africa
8. Kellerei Cantina "Lunare," 2000, Terlano, Italy
To our delight, many enthusiastic tasters had done some research and already had some idea what to expect of Gewurz from different areas, so we tasted everything blind (except the Alsacian wine) to avoid being influenced by our preconceptions about particular regions. After we had tasted all of the wines and made our notes, Melissa unveiled the Indian feast she had spent all day preparing: aloo gobi (cauliflower and potatoes), saag paneer (spinach and cheese curd curry), butter chicken and coconut-rolled bananas (possibly more Kiwi than Indian). Served up with hot naan (see recipes and notes below for our naan secret) and raita (cilantro and yogurt); we all but forgot about the wines as we dove into the food.
We were too busy in the course of the evening to get food photos last night, but here's a shot of the plate of leftovers we just finished for our early lunch today. Many tasters noted how much the wines changed when re-sampled with food. The strong, spicy dishes that would overpower most other wines really bring out the fruit in Gewurztraminers and Rieslings, and can suppress some of the less desirable characteristics in the tail end of these wines (see tasting notes below).
We knew we had to top off the dinner with Ramon's spicy creme brulee (habanero, serrano and red fresno chiles this time; the recipe was posted in May when we did it for
Amanda's birthday dinner), and we really wanted a nice dessert wine made from Gewurztraminer to bring the evening full circle. Just when I was beginning to despair of finding one in time, I came across this late harvest Gewurz from Vista Verde Vineyard in San Benito County, CA. The wine manager at the store even reduced the price from $22 to $16 for me on the spot, so I bought two bottles and we were all set. It did pair beautifully with the spicy creme brulee and had deep, rich apricot and raisin flavors that lingered long on the tongue...
So here's the summary of our tasting. For those who were here and are looking back at this post to compare notes, the listing above is the order in which we tasted. The comments below are our best recollection of the consensus impressions of the wines, although they are largely reconstructed from the notes Melissa and I made.
1. Alsacian Gewurtz is a very distinctive wine: it's a dry style with a floral and perfumy nose and a minerally finish. The Turckheim hit the mark here. While it was not as spicy as some we've had, the pear and apple quickly gave way to pronounced mineral flavors and a strong hint of petrol that went on and on (and on) in the long finish. These attributes are normal (even prized) in Alsacian aromatics, but being true to form didn't necessarily earn this wine a spot in the top half of everyone's ranking.
2/5. We ended up with two wines from the pacific northwest by accident, but since we had them both, why not include them both? It turned out well that we did, because of the two wines the Chateau Ste. Michelle was better hands down. It came right after our Alsacian choice in the tasting order (not by design), and provided a good contrast. Much more fruit-driven than the Turckheim, it was also sweeter and retained little of that floral bouquet that Gewurz drinkers like. Tasters noted hints of lychee, key lime and orange rind in the mouth and a long-ish finish that featured citrus instead of petrol. The Columbia Crest, on the other hand, was sweeter and much less complex. Some stone fruits (apricot, peach) came through in the mouth but fell flat with the very low acidity of this wine. While it vanished from the palate with almost no finish at all, the lack of bitter aftertaste won them both a few points with some tasters...
3. The Huia from New Zealand was a paler color than most of the others, with a very nice floral and perfumy nose. Many tasters detected oak in this wine, which is certainly unusual for Gewurz. Grass and ripe pear were noted on the nose and in the mouth, and the low acidity and long mineral finish were reminiscent of the Alsacian style. While the oak didn't seem to do good things for this wine, it was relatively well balanced and ended up in the top half for many of us.
4. The Cono Sur was striking in how different it was from all of the other wines we tasted last night. Ramon brought us a bottle on one of his recent visits to Boston, and while Melissa and I have been enjoying this wine for some time now, neither of us picked it out in our blind tasting. It's dry and intensely fruity, with some perfume on the nose and refreshingly tart citrus and peach in the mouth. The finish was not as long as some, but featured citrus and grassy notes with a little undercurrent of mineral and no petrol to be found. I doubt that many of us would have picked this as a Gewurztraminer blind, but it was very popular among our crowd and one of the more enjoyable wines for sipping by itself.
6. The Fetzer from California was sweet, but more complex than the Columbia Crest we tasted right before it, and it probably benefited from this tasting order. It was one of the less floral selections, but had a nice crisp acidity with a bit of spritz, and a little toffee on the nose. Some felt that this was one of the better balanced wines of the night, but its middle-of-the-road qualities may have left it somewhat less memorable than the other wines in this tasting, for better or for worse...
7. The South African Gewurz was interesting. Lightly perfumy on the nose with floral notes that also came through in the mouth; spicy and fruity with relatively low acidity. Some tasters detected a pungent character in this wine that we had a hard time pinpointing: grapefruit peel was suggested, but there was also an earthy element. It came highly recommended from the wine guy at Marty's Liquors, which surprisingly had the best selection of Gewurz of all the stores we went to. It flew a little under the radar for me (perhaps coming seventh out of eight wines did not do it justice), but Melissa quite liked it and ranked it third under the Alsacian and Chilean wines.
8. As I stated above, the Italian Gewurz was a huge disappointment. I should have known better than to buy such an old bottle (Gewurz is not generally considered a robust wine for aging), but I wasn't looking at the vintage when the wine guy at Blanchard's was extolling its virtues and enthusiastically encouraging its inclusion in our tasting. Terlano is apparently very well known for its high-quality wines, and for the original price tag of about $45 on this bottle, it better have been good. I reiterate that the drastically slashed sale price along with the age really should have put me off buying this one regardless of what the wine manager said about it -- entirely my mistake. At any rate, it was golden brown and all vinegar. What a shame...
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Melissa's Recipes and Notes
Indian Feast
To accompany our Gewürztraminer wine tasting I kicked around a few spicy options. Should we try Thai… Vietnamese… TexMex… Indian… or a tasting platter of all? In the end I settled on Indian (despite the warm weather) because my three favourite dishes make a nice well rounded meal and I thought it would be relatively easy to keep it warm while we did the tasting. It’s also self service which makes it perfect to share among 12.
What I didn’t count on was how long it took to prepare. I’ll often whip up a curry in the evening, but this was the first time I’ve attempted 3 dishes at once. I started at around 12pm and was just finishing the last of the cooking at around 6:30pm. Admittedly there was a lot of marinating time and Matt swooped in a few times to “reset” the kitchen. I tend to cook like a tornado pulling things out here and there and never quite get round to putting anything back. Think Petroza on Hell’s Kitchen.
As I write these recipes the hardest thing to remember is going to be the spice combinations as I tended to taste and adjust the dish as I went along. I’ll try and remember what I put in each dish, but it might be better just to list the spices I had in the kitchen and encourage anyone attempting to cook one of the recipes below to experiment with combinations to their liking.
Cumin – I think of cumin as the curry tasting spice. It’s not hot, but forms the base for every Indian curry powder I’ve come across
Paprika – Just because it’s red
Turmeric – Just because it’s yellow – often described as poor man’s Saffron, it doesn’t have the taste of saffron, but it certain has the colour
Chilli Flakes and Cayenne Pepper – to make things spicy
Nutmeg – an aromatic spice that seems to cross over well between sweet and savoury dishes. Try it next time you make a beef stew, just a smidgen mind you, and you’ll be surprised at how it brings out the flavours
Fennel Seed and Caraway seeds– licorice/anise flavour. Crush/grind and add a little at a time as this can quickly over power a dish
Cloves – anyone that’s spiced mulled wine knows what this tastes like. Again a little goes a long way. Often cloves will be added whole early in the cooking process and removed before serving
Coriander seeds – has a flavour like the leaves but is somewhat nuttier. Mix freshly ground coriander with cumin to add body to the cumin’s “curry” flavour.
Generic Curry Powder – a mixuture of many of the above spices and some more besides. I use it as a back up when I’m too lazy to mix my own, or want a starting point to which I add a little of this and that to balance it up.
Butter Chicken
6 Chicken Thighs – skinned and deboned
2 tbsp of plain unsweetened yogurt (I used FAGE 0% - Greek strained yogurt)
Paprika
Turmeric Powder (~1tbsp)
Cumin Powder
Ginger Powder (or fresh paste if you have it)
Cloves (ground) (~1/4 tsp)
Chilli Flakes
2 tbsp of lime juice
Combine above ingredients to make a thick marinade for the chicken and leave to marinate overnight (or as long as possible). I left mine for 5 hours. Grill or roast chicken until cooked though. I recommend grilling it on the BBQ on a wire rack rather than in a roasting pan in the oven. The yogurt based marinade fares better in the BBQ.
Olive oil (ghee is more traditional)
2 Onions – diced
6 cloves Garlic – finely chopped
Coriander Seeds – crushed
Fennel Seeds – crushed (little)
Cumin Powder (lot)
Nutmeg (little)
Cloves (very little)
Carraway seeds (little)
½ tins of chopped tomatoes – blended to puree in food processor
500ml of cream
¼ cup of ground almonds
handful of chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
Salt and cracked pepper to taste
Sauté onions in olive oil until soft, Add finely chopped garlic and continue to sauté until garlic is nicely caramelized. Add all spices and stir briefly until aroma is released being careful not to burn the spices. Add pureed tomatoes and reduce liquid by ~one ½ until tomatoes become a thick sauce. Add cream and ground almonds to finish the sauce. Chop grilled chicken into morsel size and add to the sauce and briefly heat. Add cilantro just before serving.
Aloo Gobi
1 onion – diced
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
1 tsp of fresh ginger paste
1 tsp coriander seeds – crushed
1 tbsp of Tumeric powder
1 tbsp of Cumin
½ tsp of cayenne pepper
1 tsp of salt
Water
2lbs Potatoes
1 head of cauliflower
The recipes I found online all cooked the Aloo Gobi in a pot on the stove, but in our small apartment we can’t afford to store lots of pots and pans, and the only appropriate sized pot I have for this dish was already being used for the Saag Paneer. I decided to cook the dish in a covered casserole dish in the oven instead which worked out just fine.
When cooking Indian food I always start by sautéing the onions, followed by adding the garlic until golden brown and then adding the spices to release the aromas, and the Aloo Gobi recipe is no different. I spooned the onion/spice mixture over peeled and quartered potatoes placed in the casserole dish and added a little water to cook the potatoes. In the covered dish the water should steam the potatoes rather than boil them, so don’t try and cover the potatoes with water or you’ll come out with a stew and dilute all the yummy spices. Place the dish in a 400oF oven and cook until the potatoes are just starting to soften (~20-30 mins). Remove from the oven and add the cauliflower cut into large florets. Spoon remaining liquid over cauliflower so they get covered and turn a nice golden colour from the tumeric and return to the oven for a further 20-30 minutes. The stalks of the cauliflower should lose their bright white colour and start to turn translucent when done. Don’t over cook, as the florets will start to disintegrate when served. Upon serving top with a sprinkle of roughly chopped cilantro to garnish.
Saag Paneer
Paneer is a type of cheese that you don’t see round much. I didn’t have much faith that our local Shaws or even Whole Foods would stock it so did a little research into making my own. Apparently how it’s done is to take a gallon of milk, bring almost to the boil and add lemon juice until all the milk proteins crash out of solution to form cheese curds, which you then remove from the whey and weigh down in cheese cloth to press out all the liquid. My first attempt was a failure. I think I didn’t add enough lemon juice to get all the protein to curdle, stirred it too much once the curds formed and also didn’t have enough of a plan to press the cheese. So instead of paneer I think I ended up with something more like ricotta. Not a bad ricotta, I have to say, but not a firm enough cheese to hold up to cooking in a frying pan. So while I’m sure I’ll perfect making paneer one day, I had no more time to experiment, so it was time for plan B…. Halloumi. Halloumi is a cheese used in Greek and middle Eastern cooking made from goat’s or sheep’s milk. It’s made essentially the same way as Paneer but is much saltier and stored in brine. Because it’s mostly protein (rather than fat as in most cheeses) you can fry it without it melting. In order to Paneer-ify it I cubed the cheese and soaked it in water for to try and extract some of the salt. This worked pretty well, and I was quite happy with the results. It’s also a lot easier to get halloumi because it keeps in the supermarket cheese chiller, whereas Paneer should be used within a few days of manufacture.
1 Onion
Few cloves of Garlic
Cumin
Coriander Seeds – freshly ground
Curry powder
Nutmeg
½ can of pureed tomatoes
1 lb of Spinach
¼ tsp of hickory smoke
¼ cup of cream
1 cube of butter
1 lb of halloumi – cubed and soaked in water for ~3 hrs
You guessed it, sauté the onions, add the garlic till golden, toast the spices and add the pureed tomatoes. Reduce the liquid by as much as possible till you get something resembling tomato paste. Add back water and spinach. Simmer for around 30 minutes to let the flavours combine. Add a little hickory smoke , cream and butter. Puree mixture using a hand blender or food processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Let Saag sauce stand until ready to serve. Just before serving, fry halloumi cubes until golden brown and add to Saag sauce. Briefly heat and serve with cilantro garnish.
Raita
½ cup of plain unsweetened yogurt
Cucumber (2 inch long slice)
Chopped cilantro
Curry Powder
Salt
Julienne the cucumber lengthwise to make thin long slices. Combine all ingredients together to form a yogurt sauce to serve as a side dish. Raita is an excellent cooling agent for guests who aren’t used to spicy food.
Another side dish I like to serve is banana slices coated in toasted unsweetened coconut. Not a traditional Indian dish, but I think it complements curry quite well. If like me you can’t figure out how to get unsweetened coconut in the USA, I soaked the sugar right out of it by putting it in a colander and letting it sit in a bowl of water. Keep changing the water until the sweetness has gone away.
All of the above was served with Jasmine rice (made according to the package instructions) and Naan breads bought from the supermarket and reheated on the BBQ to give them that straight out of the hot oven taste. The brand is “Fabulous Flats” and they’re the closest thing you’ll get to the real thing without a Tandoor oven.
