Celebrating The Underappreciated: Cabernet Franc Day 2016

A 100% Cabernet Franc wine from Chinon In The Loire Valley

Many wonderful things in life are often terribly underappreciated.  Take, for example, the red grape Cabernet Franc, which makes delicious, food-friendly wine.  It often takes a back seat to Cabernet Sauvignon which makes some of the most popular and... Read more here at the Grape Collective.

How To Drink "Flowers" - Nebbiolos from Valtellina

Most people, myself included, think of Piedmont in Northwestern Italy when they think about wines made from the Nebbiolo grape. The Langhe area in Southern Piedmont produces great, complex Barolos and Barbarescos, as well as simpler wines known as Langhe Nebbiolos. Barolos and Barbarescos are some of the most sought after and prestigious wines in all of Italy, commanding quite high prices. But there are also wonderful, more affordable Nebbiolo wines to be found in other areas of Northernwestern Italy, like those in Lombardy, the neighboring region just to the east of Piedmont.  This region of Italy is home to some of the most beautiful lakes of Northern Italy, such as Lake Como and Lake Garda.  There is an alpine valley in the far north of Lombardy called Valtellina which has been producing wine for over 2,000 years.  This mountainous area with very steep slopes produces red wine made mostly from Nebbiolo grapes, but they can also contain a small percentage of other locally grown grapes. These red wines, know locally as Chiavennasca, are lighter and less tannic than their counterparts in Piedmont due to cooler temperatures and higher elevations.  While young, these wines are bright crimson in color with aromatics of bright cherry, tar and rose water. As they age, they slowly transform into a crimson color with a brick orange rim and present more gamey, leather-like notes on the palate, but are still very floral and delicate.  

I recently had a Valtellina red wine at Republique, a fun, lively restaurant on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles.  The food there is modern French and the wine list has an interesting collection of off-the-beaten-path, mostly French and Italian wines.  The 2001 Balgera Valtellina Superiore from the village of Valgella was a perfect choice to accompany the wide variety of spices and flavors. To my delight, this wine went perfectly with every dish, from the hamachi crudo with a thai curry sauce to the hearty rotisserie chicken with mustard and chilis.  It never overpowered any of the more delicate flavors of the food, yet it stood up to some of the bolder ingredients.  Fifteen years in the bottle had mellowed the fruit somewhat, but what remained was still fresh and vibrant with enough lingering structure to compliment and support the fruit. Over the course of our meal the flavors kept blossoming. It felt like we were drinking flowers...delicious, delicate flowers!! 

The next time you're dining out I would suggest asking the sommelier if there are any Rosso di Valtellinas on the wine list.  For the best experience, try one from one of the following DOCG areas: Grumello, Inferno, Maroggia, Sassella or Valgella.  You can also go to www.wine-searcher.com to see if any of these wines can be found at a local wine shop. You won't be disappointed!

A FEW RECOMMENDED PRODUCERS OF ROSSO DI VALTELLINA:

Aldo Rainoldi, Nino Negri, Balgera

Two dishes which went well with the Valtellina wine:

Hamachi Crudo with a thai curry sauce

Casarecce Pasta with dungeness crab, sea urchin, tomatoes, basil and lemon.  Fantastic with the wine!

Banana Bread With Dessert Wine

A good banana bread recipe is something that will serve you and your loved ones well over the years.  When my youngest daughter was little she could hardly wait for me to miscalculate (sometimes on purpose) the amount of bananas that we would eat that week. That meant that there would be two or three overripe, mushy bananas, perfect for banana bread.  For breakfast, she loved a warm slice with a little butter or cream cheese melting on it. She still loves banana bread, and at any time of day.

The Late Harvest Grand Cru 2009 Pinot Gris from the Alsacian producer Francois Baur was the perfect accompaniment to a warm slice of Banana Bread heaven!

When a friend of mine was in college, his mother mother once sent him a loaf of banana bread to help get him through those long nights in the library.  Little did she know, on the way to the library, he ran into a buddy holding a full pitcher of beer (don’t ask!) and within a few minutes, the two of them were sitting in the warm autumn sun devouring banana bread with beer.

Most recently, I discovered the delights of drinking wine with banana bread, specifically a Vendange Tardive (which means late harvest) from Alsace in France.  The grapes used for this type of dessert wine are left to hang on the vine until they start to dehydrate and shrivel up. The grapes’ juice becomes very sweet and concentrated, and the flavors become more intense. Serving the banana bread with a late harvest pinot gris makes it more like an evening dessert, rather than a breakfast item or an afternoon snack.  You could even toast a slice and serve it with vanilla ice cream with any number of dessert wines: port, sauternes or cream sherry. 

No matter how you eat it, or what you drink with it (perhaps an ice cold glass of milk?), you will be left with a big smile on your face, along with a glow from the love that was put into it.

MY FAVORITE BANANA BREAD RECIPE

I discovered this recipe several years ago in Martha Stewart's Entertaining Cookbook.  Over the years, I have adapted it and made it my own.

Makes one loaf

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 medium sized bananas, mashed with a potato masher

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1) While preheating oven to 350 degrees, cream butter, sugar and eggs.

2) In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix together well with butter, sugar and egg mixture.  Stir in bananas, sour cream, vanilla and walnuts.  

3) Pour into a buttered 9x4x3 inch loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.  Test for doneness by inserting a bamboo skewer or wooden toothpick and checking that it comes out clean.  You may need to bake an additional 10-15 minutes.  The loaf should be lightly browned.  

4) Turn out onto a wire rack.

Wine Pairings:

In additon to the Francois Baur late harvest Pinot Gris, following are a few other suggestions for sweet wines to go with the banana bread:

Lustau "Solera Reserve" East India Sherry - $27

Fonseca 10 year tawny Port - $30

Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes - $75

Graham'sVintage Port 2000 - $125