2002 Kistler Vineyard Sonoma Valley Chardonnay

Years (decades) ago when my husband was acquiring wine for his cellar, he bought cases of Kistler wines, both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. One of the memorable wines from my husband's collection was this 2002 Kistler Occidental Vineyard Pinot Noir, which I blogged about, but I digress.
On the evening that we had this 2002 Kistler Vineyard Sonoma Valley Chardonnay, inspired by watching Jody Adams on Ming Tsai's cooking show, my husband made Vadouvan Curried Scallops with Cider Cream Hazelnuts and Cauliflower Rice. It took a while to acquire the ingredients which called for vadouvan, a spice that is a mixture of both southern Indian and French spices, and labneh, a Mideastern thick yogurt, with the consistency of soft cheese. Having the vadouvan and labneh, the rest of the ingredients were found at our local store. We invited our friend over for dinner and she brought an Ultramarine Rosé for the appetizer which was figs over goat cheese in a puff pastry cup with balsamic glaze drizzle. Yum!
We paired the dinner with this 2002 Kistler Vineyard Sonoma Valley Chardonnay. Although my husband makes fun of my math skills, or lack thereof, even I can subtract 2023 from 2002 and know that this wine is now 21 years old!
We have had many of the Kistler wines from this vintage and most of the wines were a little disappointing. What does one expect from a Chardonnay that is 21 years old? When the wine was poured, it looked yellow in the glass, which is a sign of oxidation. Upon tasting it however, the wine had evolved into a rich and complex liquid which tasted a lot like honeyed caramel with a backbone of acidity. It went perfectly with the curried scallops. We were amazed at the transformation!

How is Sake Made?---The Koji

The Koji
The process of turning rice starch into sugar is called saccharification. In order to turn the starch into sugar, sake brewers use a type of fungus called koji-fungus, specifically Aspergillus oryzae, which is a safe variety of mold. Not only does the koji-fungus turn starch into sugar, it also turns the proteins into amino acids.

• Koji refers to steamed rice that is treated with koji-fungus. This step is essential for the creation of sugars from the rice grains which are then fermented to yield sake.
• About 20% of the polished rice (mushi mai) is used to make koji.
• In the koji making process, the brewer begins by taking the steamed rice into the koji making room (koji muro) where it is spread out into a thin layer. The temperature of the koji muro is kept at approximately 30 ^oC and 50-80% humidity.
• When the steamed rice has cooled to 30 ^oC (86 ^oF), the koji-fungus is sprinkled on the rice and kneaded evenly into the rice grains. Careful control of the temperature is important because the koji-fungus grows best around 36 ^oC but becomes inactive above 45 ^oC.
• There are two types of koji fungus:

• The sohaze-style koji fungus grows all over the grain, producing lots of diastatic enzymes and vitamins. It is highly effective at breaking down rice and results in a robust fermentation, producing sake with a strong body.
• The tsukihaze-style koji fungus grows in spots on the grain. The enzymatic activity is moderate, but poor in vitamin and fatty acid content. The fermentation isn’t as active and produces light-flavored sake. Ginjo and daiginjo sake are producing tusing tsukihaze-style koji.
• The koji rice is kept warm by bundling it for a time, then spread out and mixed so that the grains do not stick together and finally put into trays (or a machine) which creates the uniform conditions of temperature and moisture needed for the koji kin to act upon the steamed rice
• This step is the most crucial part of making sake as the amount of fungal spores, water content of the rice and temperature greatly influence the final product.

The next step in the sake making process is the selection of yeast. Stay tuned and come on the sake making journey with me!
References:
1. Japanese Sake, How is Sake Made?
2. Harper, Philip, The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide, Kodansha International, 2006.
3. Sakaya, Sake Making Steps

2018 Barbera d’Asti Bricco dell’Uccellone

Happy first day of Spring! We are flat out in the vineyard with pruning duties and neither one of us has the energy to cook. We can do take out and open a bottle of wine, so recently my husband went out to get pizza and he opened up this Barbera. Barbera is a natural for anything red sauce like pizza and spaghetti. Truth be told, we have had this bottle of Barbera before and it didn't quite live up to our expectations because we thought that the entry level Braida Montebruna was just as good. We were wrong. This Bricco dell’Uccellone is rich, complex, fruity and well balanced.

I had to learn more about the makers of this Barbera and searched for Braida. I found their story at Braida. The vineyards owned by Braida is located in Rocchetta Tanaro, a small town in the Monferrato area. The soil of Rocchetta Tanrao is of medium consistency, with equal parts of sand and clay. Wines made from grapes grown here have a more intense aroma and taste spectrum. The Braida Montebruna and Bricco dell’Uccellone are made from grapes grown in this region. For the Bricco dell’Uccellone, the grapes are fermented for 20 days followed by 15 months in barriques from oak of various ages.
The original owner was grandfather Giuseppe, who left the land to his son Giacomo. The name "Braida" comes from the nickname given to grandfather Giuseppe. In 1969, Giacomo Bologna's Barbera del Monferrato, “La Monella” won the gold medal at the Douja d’Or National Wine Competition in Asti. In 1982 Giacomo began to experiment with his innovative idea of pairing Barbera with the barrique resulting in the Bricco dell’Uccellone. After Giacomo's passing in 1990, his sons Giuseppe and Raffaella Bologna took over the management of the company, continuing to pursue Giacomo’s great dream, innovating and investing at the same time.

For me knowing the back story really makes me appreciate the wine that I am drinking.
References:
1. Link to the Braida Website: Braida

How is Sake Made?---The Water

In a previous blogpost, I wrote about How is Sake Made?---The Rice. I am learning and appreciating that Sake making is a very complicated procedure. It's easy to overlook the importance of clean water in sake making but it is an integral part of sake making and here are some of the reasons why:
The Water

• An abundance of clean water is key to sake making
• The process of washing and steaming the rice, brewing, and diluting all use water therefore, a good source of water is indispensible to sake brewing
• The sake brewing process requires approximately 10 times more water than rice
• The hardness of the water has a huge impact on the fermentation process. Soft water makes a light flavored sake, while slightly harder water brews a structured and full-bodied sake.
• Japanese people see the presence of a sake brewery as an indicator of excellent natural water in the area

Water, therefore is one of the key ingredients in sake making.
References:
1. How is Sake Made?
2. Harper, Philip, The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide, Kodansha International, 2006.

Vintage 2023: March Weather Roaring like a Lion

As farmers, the first thing we do in the morning and the last thing we do at night is to consult the weather and hope to plan our work based on the forecast. This week, beginning on Tuesday, March 14, the forecast was not a very good one. According to the weather forecasters, a nor'ester was headed our way and words such as "bombogenesis" was being included as well. This is what the forecasters predicted for the Connecticut shoreline.

As it turned out, we were very fortunate to have just a lot of rain. There was wind and strong gusts which continue into today but the sun is out!
One of us might even go to the vineyard to continue pruning duties!

How is Sake Made?---The Rice

Recently, I have been blogging about sake:

• The Sake Shop in Honolulu
• The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide
• 2020 Kamoshibito Kuheiji Eau du Desir Junmai Daiginjo

I wanted to learn more about the sake making process and found an excellent guide online: How is Sake Made? Not only is this site informative, it is beautifully illustrated.

Rice, water and koji are the three ingredients that are essential for making sake. It is like wine and beer in that it requires fermentation but the process of fermenting rice into sake is unique.
The Rice
As of 2020, there are approximately 900 strains of rice, out of which 126 are sake rice. Sake rice tends to be larger in grain size compared to table rice. It is suitable for sake brewing because of its digestibility and low protein content.

• The first step is polishing the rice. The outer brown part of the unpolished rice is high in fats, proteins and other nutrients. If the rice was not polished, these fats and proteins would lead to a sake with a musty aroma and maybe some unwanted flavors, Therefore, the outer portion of the rice is ground away leaving the starchy interior. The degree of polishing determines the quality of the sake. The further the rice is polished, the clearer and cleaner will be the resultant sake.
• The grinding of the outer surface of the rice creates heat that is retained by the polished rice so there is a cooling off period called the karashi. The karashi is also a time for the rice to absorb moisture from the air so that the grains will not crack when it is washed.
• After an appropriate cooling off period has elapsed, the rice is washed. For the highest grades of sake, the rice is hand washed, but the process is becoming increasingly mechanized.
• The rice is then soaked after washing. The soaking time depends on the temperature of the water, the quality of the rice, the grade of polish, and the water content of the polished rice. After soaking the water is drained and left overnight. This soaking period can be as short as minutes for highly polished rice and knowing when to stop the soaking is called gentei kyusui.
• The next step is the steaming of the rice grains in order to change the rigid grain into somethinng softer. The rice is steamed eight times.

The next step in the transformation of rice into sake involves koji which I will leave to another blogpost. Stay tuned!
References:
1. How is Sake Made?
2. Harper, Philip, The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide, Kodansha International, 2006.

1994 Dominique Laurent Chambertin-Clos de Beze Grand Cru

We were watching an episode of Jacques Pepin making a chicken ballotine recently and that inspired my husband. He watched many episodes of how to ballotine a chicken as well as the original Jacque Pepin episode to learn how to ballotine a chicken. Ballontining a chicken is to remove all of the bones from the chicken leaving just a little bit of the leg so that the chicken when stuffed can be tied into a roll. When Jacque Pepin did it, ballontining the chicken took only 5 minutes!
In most of the videos, the advice was to get your butcher to do it the first time. We know of a great butcher near us so we went there and assured that they knew how to ballotine a chicken, we ordered one. However, and this confused us, the butcher kept referring to the process as galantine. Since we are of that age where our hearing is not quite as good as it was, we just went with it. When we got the galantine chicken home, the butcher had totally removed the chicken skin from the chicken and the meat was totally in disarray. I stepped away from the kitchen and my husband put the chicken back together again, stuffed it and baked it and it was delicious.
This past weekend, my husband decided that enough time had elapsed since the first galantine chicken fiasco that he was going to try his hand at ballontining a chicken. He did it! To celebrate, he opened up this 1994 Dominique Laurent Chambertin-Clos de Beze Grand Cru to pair with the stuffed chicken. The aroma is one that I associate with Burgundy. The wine was still youthful tasting, crystal purple in the glass and was well balanced with black cherries and an acid backbone giving it a long finish.
Here is what the chicken ballontine looked like stuffed with wilted spinach, gruyere cheese and croutons:

For dessert, we made a French Silk pie.

It was the first time that we made this pie and it was smooth, silky and delicious!

Moon Drop Grapes

Recently, in my news feed, I saw this grape called Moon Drop and it reminded me of the blogpost I wrote about regarding the Ruby Roman grapes grown in Japan. This is what the Moon Drop grape looks like:

The grape is also known as Sweet Sapphire and IFG 6, IFG stands for International Fruit Genetics. The IFG in collaboration with the Grapery focus their work on developing grape varieties bred for both flavor and shape. For the Moon Drop grapes, the team developed a hand-pollinated cross between the Beita Mouni grape and a variety known only as C22-121, resulting in the Moon Drop, first created in 2004 and patented in 2013.
What does this unusually long looking grape taste like? They are very sweet and tangy, with a nearly-clear flesh and perceptible tannins that help balance the sweetness beautifully.
The grapes are a delicious snacking grape, but I liked this use of Moon Drops: try the grapes on a pizza, perhaps paired with crispy prosciutto and a little crumbled gorgonzola cheese.
Nutritionally, roughly 10 grapes, or 49 grams of Moon Drops contain 34 calories, almost no fat, no cholesterol, just 1 milligram of sodium, 8.9 grams of carbohydrates, .4 grams of fiber, 7.6 grams of sugar, and .4 grams of protein, along with a small amount of both iron and potassium, roughly 1-2% of the RDA for those nutrients.
If you see it at your grocery store, try them! I know I will.
References:
1. Tasting Table, The Unique Grape Variety That Took Nearly A Decade To Create Read More: https://www.tastingtable.com/1213260/the-unique-grape-variety-that-took-nearly-a-decade-to-create/.

2018 Stark-Condé Cabernet Sauvignon

Recently, we had this 2018 Stark-Condé Cabernet Sauvignon with our friends. My husband made his braised short ribs over mashed potatoes on Swiss chard and spinach. We all liked the wine and it already had 5 years of age on it. Our friends were surprised when my husband mentioned that the wine came from South Africa!
It was clear ruby in the glass and had a pleasing fruit flavor, red raspberries and bing cherries with a smooth finish. The wine is a blend of 85 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 10 percent Petit Verdot, and small amounts of Malbec, Petite Sirah, and Cabernet Franc. The wine comes from the Jonkershoek Valley of Stellenbosch, a famed wine region just east of Cape Town that is often described as the Napa Valley of South Africa. With a hot and dry climate and a moderating influence from the winds of False Bay this region is ideal for growing Cabernet Sauvignon. (Something tells me that I need to do a virtual exploration of this wine growing region.)
The best thing about this wine is that my husband purchased it for around $20.00 from our local package store.
References:
1. Edward Deitch, Stark-Condé Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, Stellenbosch, South Africa, Vinepair.

Vintage 2023: March --- Time for Pruning

We have just experienced a month of really wacky weather in February which saw temperatures that dipped into minus territory and then soared into the 70's. During the month of February, with help from our daugher and her family, we took in all of the branch locks (brand name Agfast) that we use to keep the growing shoots from crossing each other. We do this so that the growing grapes are separated and air flow through the canopy is optimal.
I keep a spreadsheet of all of the work we do in the vineyard and in 2022, we removed the last of Agfast from the vineyard on April 5. It's a puzzle to me why it took us so long to do that task.
This year, because all of the Agfast have been removed, we can focus on cutting the wire that holds last year's canes and cut all of the tendrils that hold last year's growth to the trellis wires. This year, our strategy is for my husband to begin the pruning and for me to cut the tendrils ahead of him.
Our vineyard layout looks like this:

We will begin pruning from the Auxerrois which is planted furthest west in the vineyard and work our way to the east. We have 5 rows of Auxerrois, followed by 17 rows of Chenin Blanc, 8 rows of Chardonnay, 2 rows of Cabernet Sauvignon, 2 rows of Cabernet Franc and 2 rows of Barbera.
In previous years, we assumed that our Chenin Blanc was the last variety to bud break so we left off pruning this variety to the end. However, it is really the Cabernet Sauvignon that is the last to enter budbreak so we will work from west to east this year and hope that pruning will be done before our estimated budbreak which typically occurs during the first week of May.
It's time for pruning!