Off The Vine

John Noakes & Chef David Repp

It’s been a while since we’ve been in the VW Bus together as we tour the wine regions of the world.  The bus is tuned up and the weird smell from the back has been found and dealt with so sit back and fill up your wine glass because we’ve just crossed into the Rhone Valley—more specifically the Northern Rhone or as the French call it (Septentrionale) where expensive red wine (Syrah) is king and the terrain is steep and terraced. The soil is mostly granite. Let’s not get too bogged down in details. That’s what books are for. What Chef Dave Repp and I want to show you is a taste of the region both in your glass and on your plate—a mere peak inside the sub-regions of Cote-Rotie, Crozes-Hermitage, and Cornas that will spur you on to learn more…or maybe not. Either way it’s ok we won’t judge.

Beyond that in the next column we will drive into the much more expansive wine region of the southern Rhone where 90 percent of the wine from the Rhone as a whole is produced.

At the end of the German occupation of France a group of American and French soldiers were moving north from the Mediterranean, when they got close to the Southern Rhone Valley the French and Americans split up the region to search and explore for enemy remnants and artillery. Oddly enough the French took the east side of the Rhone River and the Americans took the western part of the Rhone. Seems like a simple random decision at first but as you dig deeper into the setup of some of the greatest vineyards France has to offer they were right on the path that the French would be patrolling. The French would never have left the Americans to trample through the best vineyards of the Rhone Valley all the while recklessly consuming some of the most expensive wines like so much beer. The French were simply protecting their national treasure that had almost been stolen away to Germany. What was the French protecting?

It was the varietal that is Syrah with its big lush fruit, and spice that is dark ruby to purple in color, tannic and at times unruly in its youth can range from simple solid red to almost purple-black having wild depth and concentration which is then capable of being tamed by Father Time into a harmonious lengthy wine that can stand up to any Bordeaux. Wow that was a long sentence but vitally necessary.

As we drive into Cote-Rotie you will notice the dangerously steep western slopes of the valley of Ampuis where the grapes must be carefully hand-picked by sure-footed workers…no wine drinking until after the day is done here. This wine sub-region which most likely pre-dates the Romans and until Marcel Guigal in the 1980’s brought this region and its magical wines to forefront of the wine world it remained a closely guarded secret of the wine elite. The wine is expensive and terrain is brutal yet beautiful. Onward my wine friends.

Now that we have gone through Cotes-Rotie with all of its glory and super-expensive red wine it’s time to roll into Crozes-Hermitage which produces fabulous Syrah in the shadow of the more opulent and expensive wines of Hermitage. Think of Crozes-Hermitage as Michael Jordan’s son who plays basketball and how his father played the game…now you get it.

Outside of the white wine made from the aromatic Marsanne and Roussanne grapes the majority of wine coming from Crozes is Red and Syrah. Relatively young to the world in terms of notoriety the 1990’s really saw the quality and quantity improve and be made more available to the wine-drinking world.  Wines from Crozes that can be drunk young will exhibit rich black fruit and go down nice and easy. Whereas the bigger more serious Syrah from the region which can age for 10 years can stand up to its big-brother syrah from Hermitage.

Another small growing region that deserves a quick mention and also produces wine in the shadow of Hermitage is the Cornas region just to the south. This little known region which can offer some better value for the dollar while still not inexpensive can really give you that big French Syrah experience with the lush black fruit, tannins and structure syrah drinkers crave in the cold winter months.

Everyone grab their glass and get back into the bus as we hit the old roads and beat a path to the Southern Rhone. It is there where Chateauneuf du Pape will be among the stops that we make throughout the region.

Of course you know Chef Repp wouldn’t come up with some mamby-pamby recipe. No sir, a big burly wine like French Syrah deserves a game animal and boy does the Chef have a doozy for you this week…definitely not for the faint of heart or stomach. Venison my friends…Venison, with bacon!

Suggested Wines:

Cote-Rotie, Domaine Clusel-Roch 2006, $62.99

Crozes-Hermitage, La Rollande 2005, $23.99

Cornas, Stephane Robert 2006, $39.99

Roasted Rack of Venison

3lb rack of venison

1/4 cup canola oil

4 cloves of garlic chopped

¼ cup fresh chopped rosemary

4 tbls Dijon mustard or enough to cover the rack

5 slices of bacon

1-1/2  cups red wine (Syrah)

4 cups beef or veal stock

1 cup of each: Celery, Carrots, Onion

Method:

1. Marinate the venison with the canola oil, chopped garlic, and rosemary 4 hours or overnight before cooking.
2. Preheat the oven to 425.
3. Heat a large sauté pan to very hot. Season the venison liberally with kosher salt and pepper.
4.  Add 1 tbls canola oil to the pan and sear the venison rack to create a nice brown crust, about  two minutes a side.
5. Remove the venison and smother the top with the Dijon mustard. Place the bacon lengthwise over the mustard.
6.  Add the carrots, onion, and celery to the pan. Place the venison over them and pour in the red wine
7. Roast the venison for 30 minutes at 425 then raise the temperature to 500 degrees and roast for 15 minutes more remove from the oven and let rest for at least 10 minutes.
8. Deglaze the pan with ¼ cup of red wine and then add 2 cups of low sodium beef broth to the pan reduce by half on high heat and strain. (For thicker sauce whisk in 1-2 tbls of wonder flour (super fine flour)

Off The Vine

John Noakes & Chef David Repp

Yes folks my favorite holiday is here—the one that requires no gifts to be given or received, no cards to mail, and no ugly ties to be returned. Thanksgiving is about as pure as a holiday can get. Food, wine and family

It brings families closer (at least for one day) and this includes, but is not limited to (feel free to fill in), significant others, in-laws, outlaws, siblings, parents, grandparents, and any combination of family that may or may not create indigestion, drunkenness and the silent treatment. Read more

Let’s face it—we all want wine that tastes great and doesn’t break the bank. I don’t care if you work at UBS or UPS, everyone wants more wine for their dollar.

Good news: In this economic downturn that has spread throughout the world the wine drinker wins…imagine that. There has never been a better time than right now to experience wine under $15. I can never write enough columns about all of the value wine that is out there in the marketplace. The only thing that you need is an adventurous spirit and a wine store that is constantly tasting and sifting through the mediocrity to find the coolest, tastiest wines under $15.

The table is set for some great wine. I’ve done my homework so feel free to look over my shoulder and cheat off my test. Of course all of these wines will go superbly with this week’s recipe which is my very own creation. I love Riesling because it is so versatile and fits so well with so many different food flavors. The high acidity cleanses the palate of spice and gets you ready for another bite.

Pacific Rim Riesling $14.99 from Columbia Valley Washington is made in the off-dry style from organically grown grapes which means that it has some light sweetness which I think shows this varietal off best. Don’t let a little sweetness scare you away, this wine is very refreshing especially on a hot day, make sure you open the bottle as to assure you get the biggest pour, because it will be empty within minutes.

For the next wine I would suggest the Culley Pinot Noir from Marlborough New Zealand, and at $13.99 it actually tastes like a Pinot Noir with notes of raspberry along with good acid.  It isn’t some slopped together Pinot Noir imposter that you usually find at this price point. Ok class, keep your heads up and pay attention the recipe is just around the corner.

One more wine that is under $15 by just one penny but worth every one of them is red Zinfandel from the Peachy Canyon Winery in Paso Robles. This wine is so food friendly with medium acid and bright fruit with a touch of spice that it should always be present at the barbecue, unless you want to greedily horde it in the house so you can sneak inside to fill up your glass while your friends drink Yellowtail. That’s ok too. There are too many great value wines to talk about in this column so feel free to stop by my store and take a look around and talk to me about them. I’m constantly bringing new under $15 wines in every week.

Now my friends you shall be rewarded for your patience with this weeks rockin’ recipe that was created in the space between my ears over many years. Although I have to give credit to my long-time friend Rob Ardigo for sharing his secret on how to cook a crispy-skinned baked potato. Thanks bro.

Thai Peanut Teriyaki Marinade Flank Steak with Baked Potato
Serves: 4

• 1.5lb-2lb Flank Steak
• 4 Idaho Potatoes

Marinade

• 12 Tbl–Soy Sauce
• 1 ½  Tsp–Thai Fish Sauce
• 3Tbl–Teriyaki Sauce
• 2 ½ Tsp–Red Curry Paste
• 2Tbl–Chili Paste
• 3Tsp–Fresh Grated Ginger
• 3Tbl–Thai Fruit/Vegetable Concentrate
• 2 ¼  Tsp–Crushed Chopped Garlic
• 2 ½ –Lime’s Juiced
• 4 Tbl–Peanut Butter  (Chunky)

Put ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. All the ingredients can be bought at the any Asian market.

Place flank steak and marinade in a ziplock bag and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Pre heat oven to 500 degrees

Poke holes in the potatoes unless you want an explosion in the oven. The potatoes should cook for 1 hour 10 minutes. If it stays in a few minutes longer it’s no big deal.

Now this is important part for getting and maintaining maximum crispiness. Take the potatoes out right before you are ready to sit down and eat. Cut them in half immediately this will assure a crispy potato. When the potato sits uncut out of the oven it steams itself soft. Hopefully that makes sense.

While the flank steak is cooking pour the marinade into a pot and reduce by ¼ over medium high heat and reserve for the table. This tastes great over the potato.

When slicing the flank steak remember to slice across the grain of the meat and on a slight angle. Don’t slice thick pieces.

Walking through my wine store, I’ve noticed that one particular style of wine doesn’t seem to move quite as briskly as Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. Yet it is quite possibly one of the finest wines out there. I’m talking about Meritage/Bordeaux.

You may be asking yourself, “What!?” Quite simply when you read or hear Meritage/Bordeaux what you want to be thinking is a red blend. To get more technical (which I hate) classically a Bordeaux blend hails from the left bank of the Gironde River in the Bordeaux region of France. Such famously expensive first-growth Chateaux like Margaux and Lafite Rothschild hail from this region and when we talk Bordeaux blend we are talking about five main grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc that are blended in different percentages to create these expensive wines.

Alas, they don’t always have to be expensive, and the rich aren’t the only part of society that gets to enjoy these magnificent blends because there are Bordeaux in every price range. I hope you are all taking notes—there will be a test. However, France doesn’t have the monopoly on expensive Bordeaux blends.

Tuscany is another region that has famously expensive, almost out-of reach for us regular folk wine. In that region is a beautiful town located in the province of Livorno on the western coast of Italy called Bolgheri. It’s most famously known for the crazy-expensive Sassicaia, which is a Bordeaux style blend; and the town is lesser known for bird-watching, which I guess is fun as long as you have a glass of wine in your hands.

So we’re all experts on the five grapes that get blended to create Bordeaux for left bank first-growth Chateaux. Excellent, let’s move on to Meritage, America’s version of the Bordeaux blend without getting into a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbo including cease and desist letters from Bordeaux and a possible international wine incident for infringing on their legal right to the term “Bordeaux blend”. Anyway, Meritage being an American blend is not relegated to only five grapes to blend with no wiggle room. No sir—we have the wine freedom to interpret and be creative with the Meritage blend. Quite simply it can be any blend of red grapes as long as it totally rocks taste wise. Doesn’t that sound like a wine you want to drink? There are too many taste profiles to explain. So I’ll leave you with the invite to come taste some great Meritage wines this Friday and Saturday from noon-8pm at my wine store Off the Vine in Norwalk.

Of course I have three great Meritage recommendations to pair with Westport-based Splash Restaurant Executive Chef Dave Repp’s recipe below.

Whitman Cellars 2003 Narcissa Red blend Washington State, $12.99 two for $22.99, 2004 Buzzard Tree Meritage Paso Robles California, $15.99, and 2005 Spann Vineyards Mo Zin red blend, $21.99.

WILD MUSHROOM RISOTTO
serves 4 as a side or 2 as an entree

• 2 cups mixed sliced mushrooms
• ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms roughly chopped
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 2 cups Arborio rice
• 1 medium yellow onion diced
• ¼ lb unsalted butter
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 1 cup parmesan cheese

METHOD
1)in a medium sauce pan add the dried porcini mushrooms to  the chicken stock and bring to a quick boil turn of the burner and let sit

2) in a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and sauté and season the onions and mixed fresh mushrooms

3) using a wooden spoon stir in the Arborio rice and add the wine and season with kosher salt , keep stirring

4) When the wine is ¾ absorbed stir in 1 cup of the hot mushroom stock. When the stock is almost fully absorbed, stir in another cup of hot mushroom stock. Repeat the process until the chicken stock is gone then stir in the parmesan cheese and season with kosher salt and pepper. If the risotto is too thick you can thin it down with hot water.

Risotto tips:

Use a wooden spoon. It won’t cut or mash up the rice

Constantly stirring the risotto pulls out the starch that gives risotto its creaminess.

The high-Irish Holiday, as I like to call St Patrick’s Day, is almost upon us. It’s a special time where drinking in the morning is perfectly acceptable and sitting in a bar for 12 hours is not frowned upon (even in the middle of the week!)

However, St. Patrick’s Day for me conjures up memories of making Irish Soda Bread with my Nana and helping my mother make corned beef and cabbage with boiled potatoes. Real comfort food made simply with the best, freshest ingredients. As the years passed by, St. Patrick’s Day became more about a guilt-free excuse to drink as much as possible from the moment I awoke from bed to the moment I passed out, than cooking for friends and family. I find myself returning to the comfort food of this Irish holiday. As I own a wine store I would be remiss if I didn’t pair a wine with this most glorious meal.

My great grandmother Anna Dalton, who emigrated from Dungarvan, County Waterford at the turn of the 20th century must be spinning in her grave at the notion that her great grandson will not be drinking beer and downing shots of Irish whiskey on this holiday. Alas she can rest soundly in knowing that the Irish whiskey bottle will be sitting on the dinner table, and not that stuff made by the Protestants either! The only difference will be wine with dinner instead of beer.

Now I know that when the topic of Irish cooking is broached there will invariably be snickers and clichéd jokes that have been handed down from generation to generation like “when in doubt boil it,” or “what is an Irish seven course meal? A bag of potatoes and a six pack of beer.” That thinking couldn’t be further from the truth these days with Irish fine cuisine exploding in the mother country. Alas, this meal is old school and we will be boiling potatoes and yes, we will be boiling a big hunk of beef for many hours until it is fork tender. No laughing in the back of the class. After a long day of drinking, you want to cook a meal that is pretty much fool-proof, and that my friends are why we boil. You will receive no recipe for corned beef because the directions are on the packaging and it is impossible to screw them up. I will however tell you to go see my good friend and local butcher Bob at Atlantic Meat Market 110 Wall Street in Norwalk CT., he’ll take good care to make sure your corned beef boils perfectly.

Alright, we need bottles of wine for this dinner and lots of them. A good bottle of Irish whiskey for the table will also be needed. As far as wine goes, I tend to lean toward a California Chardonnay for this meal. You can go the route of a Pinot Noir which is completely acceptable but the buttery-toastiness of a chardonnay will work more in unison with the easy flavor profiles of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. I would not go with high-acid varietals like Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc because the acid will get in the way of the soft flavors of the food and overpower the palate. Riesling with its petrol like flavors and minerality and Sauvignon Blanc with its notes of grapefruit and citrus will provide too much contrast to the food. Two chardonnays that I would recommend for this meal are Robin K from Napa Valley for $16.99 and Double T  from Napa Valley for $17.99. robin K has a bit more buttery-toastiness and has a more weight in the mouth than does the Double T, which show’s more balance and restraint with the butterry/toasty flavors, opting more for a Crème Brule taste mixed with some lime-oil and oak. Both are winners.

Now on to the Irish whiskey, a real favorite of mine is Feckin, $19.99 which we will be tasting at the store on St. Patrick’s Day. For a single malt Irish whiskey you can’t go wrong with Michael Collins Single Malt $35.99, a nice strong peaty whiskey that will keep you warm on a cold winter’s night, also great for teething babies. Look how well adjusted I turned out!

We have wine, we have whiskey…ah yes we need a recipe. I have two closely guarded recipes that have been perfected by three generations of Irish women in my family. It took a great deal of convincing to get my mother to give permission to disseminate this recipe to the general public. Enjoy, and don’t skimp on the ingredients.

Corned Beef hint:
Don’t forget to skim off the fat that floats to the top of the pot while the corned beef is cooking, use a spoon. Also make sure to cut one inch slices into the meat on the fatty side and stuff with slivers of garlic. Add as little or as much as you like.

Cabbage:
Believe it or not the most important part of the corned beef meal is cooking the cabbage, almost everyone over-cooks the cabbage, there is no excuse for this and I am providing my Nana’s tried and true cabbage recipe as interpreted and perfected by me own sweet Irish mum. I’m not a cabbage lover and I love this recipe. The secret as with many recipes is that wondrous flavor enhancer bacon fat, do not skimp on it for fear of heart failure. This recipe and this holiday are not for the faint of heart. Using soy bacon fat or tofu bacon just ain’t gonna cut it.

Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil and then turn down to Medium High

Cut and core one head of cabbage and soak in cold water

Place cabbage and 3 slices of thick bacon into the pot of water and cook until tender crisp. (That’s what my mom said, she does it by feel) just keep an eye on it. I imagine around 5 minutes.

Drain cabbage and return to the pot with bacon and chop the cabbage and bacon with a wooden spoon.

Add 1Tblsp of BACON FAT and sauté over medium high heat until everything is incorporated and smells great. 2-4 minutes

Add some fresh pepper and serve.

Irish Soda Bread:
3 ½ Cups of flour

1/3 Cup of sugar

1 ½ tsp of salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 Tblsp caraway seeds

1 Cup raisins

3 Tbsp Butter or Shortening

2 Cups Buttermilk

2 Eggs

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

Sift all dry ingredients together. Rub in butter until like cornmeal. Add raisins and caraway seeds. Gradually add buttermilk and eggs which have been beaten together. The dough should be fairly moist. Turn out on floured board and knead 1 minute. Sprinkle flour in an ungreased 8 inch cast iron frying pan and place dough in pan. Dip knife in flour and make the sign of the cross in the dough (optional). Sprinkle a little bit of flour all over bread.

Bake in 425 degree oven for 35-40 minutes.