Dry aged strips...cooked with love

I hope all you lushes (and non-lushes!) had a fabulous Valentine’s Day! I’ll get to what we had in a minute, but first let’s go on a trip down memory lane. In 2005 or 2006 Mr. Lush purchased a bottle of 2003 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon and we’ve been holding on to it since then. In October of 2011 we met Chuck Wagner (owner of Caymus) at a pairing dinner. We talked about the 2003 and how long we should hold it, (he said drink soon - the special selection is the one meant for 10+ yr aging) and how we were going to be in Napa for a wedding in January. He suggested we stop in for a private tasting; and we did. During that tasting Mr. Wagner surprised us with opening a 2003 – the same year we had been holding onto. It was fantastic and to his surprise, he thought it could another year or two. As you might have guessed, we not drink it when we got home and instead lovingly looked at it and promised we’d be together in one to two years. ;) We really lucked out, getting to taste it without having to open our own.

Here's us with Chuck, his daughter, and the wedding couple....by the way, if you should make it to Napa, I highly recommend a stop by Caymus, they make a lot more than the stuff that gets distributed outside Cali. (Zinfandel, bubbly, etc)

Ok, so on to our Valentine’s Day dinner – which we usually eat in vs doing the “cattle call going out to dinner” thing. In VDays past we’ve picked either elaborate recipes or simply more expensive items than we’d normally eat. This year we picked the latter.

We started the evening off with some gorgonzola stuffed bacon wrapped dates (I didn’t take a picture of that; my apologies!) with the 2009 Domaine Carneros (the California sparkling house by Tattinger) Brut Rose. (to which I also recommend stopping by - beatiful scenery and although expensive, an informative tour and tasting) It was a decent pairing; the wine was dry and cut through the bacon, a little bit fruity and tart so it went well with the date and gorgonzola- however not a slam dunk pairing, both were good and I do love some pink bubbly!!! (note, the bottle is empty in this pic...)

On to the main course… Dry aged strip steak, grilled fingerling potatoes and grilled broccoli. Referencing the trip down memory lane above; we tasted the dry aged rib eye at that Caymus pairing dinner and really loved it and since have tasted the strip steak and loved that as well. Here it is in it’s raw form – look at that gorgeous marbling….

We only seasoned with some fresh ground pepper; we didn’t want it to overpower the wine. Wait! The wine! How could I forget! ;) I’m sure by now you’ve guessed what the wine was….yes, the 2003 Caymus. We hemmed and hawed; drink now or wait? Drink Now or Wait? Oh the drama of a couple of lushes!! :) It was so good last year, but we’ve also had a few instances where we’ve held onto wine too long lately. (oh, so so sad to taste a wine too late!) So we opened it; it probably could’ve gone another year honestly, but we thought it was better than last year and was certainly in it’s prime drinking window. Mr. Lush knocked it out of the park with the strips; they were cooked perfectly and went amazingly with the wine!

Dessert…was less elaborate. Grilled peaches (with brown sugar) with cinnamon swirl pound cake, topped with a single serving (hence the odd shape) of Edy’s Slow Churned Caramel Delight ice cream. The wine…was considerably less impressive than the first two; a Hogue Reisling.  Medium sweet, hints of peaches with a bit of minerality. However, it went really well with the dessert and I’d recommend it as a cheaper pairing; a sauternes would probably pair better, but for the price ($8) it’s hard to beat.

Sushi Seminar - with sabering!

Earlier month I had the pleasure of joining (the future) Mr. and Mrs. V at the New York City Food & Wine Festival. We attended two seminars, sushi and cheese. I’ll tell you about the sushi seminar first; stay tuned later this week for the cheese seminar.


The sushi seminar starts off with a bang-literally! Mark Oldman attempts to saber a bottle of bubbly and before he gets a chance, the cork flys out and shoots across the room! HA! Now, I’ve been lucky enough to see a couple successful saberings in my day, but I was happy that he decided to chill another bottle and give it another whirl later in the seminar. Note: Sabering can be very dangerous. The bottle must be very cold and you must hit the bottle at the exact spot, otherwise it can shatter and explode in your hand; I’ve seen the aftermath of that and it’s NOT pretty. Also, the force of the bubbles shoots the top – and the freshly cut glass ring-out ward, so make sure to point it away from anyone or anything. Here’s the video of the successful sabering: (I apologize for the bad angle- he was pointing the bottle towards the brick wall.

Ok, back to the food and wine. Here’s a copy of the menu. The pairings were perfect, wonderful – of course, some of the wines I didn’t care for without the food, but they were really very well paired.

And, here’s a door hanger that sums up Mark’s thoughts on wine – drink bravely. (so try something new, forge ahead into unchartered territory, pair things together that may not work, etc) LOVE IT!!!!

The bubbly process

My wine club’s theme this month is Celebrate! Bubbly and Chards! While I was looking up information for my selected wine (to be discussed tomorrow) and that it was produced using the traditional method of making Champagne, I realized that I really didn’t know what the other methods were. I knew the traditional method (called either Méthode Champenoise / Méthode Traditionnelle) was the “best way” to make sparkling wine, but I didn’t know what the difference actually was.  Now I do (and so will you):

 

There are 3 (ok 4, if you count directly injecting carbon dioxide into the wine) methods of making sparkling wine.

• Méthode Champenoise / Méthode Traditionnelle
• Transfer method
• Metodo Italiano (Charmat process)

All sparkling wines are made from still wine, so they go through harvest, pressing the grapes, first fermentation, and blending steps, which are nearly identical if its going to be still wine or sparkling wine. At the triage step, the process differs from still wine: After blending, the winemaker adds the Liqueur of Tirage, a blend of sugar, wine and live yeast that will begin the wine's second fermentation.

 

The second fermentation is where the methods differ. In the Méthode Champenoise the bottle is topped with a top like a beer cap and the wine is aged while it undergoes the second fermentation process (at least one year for non-vintage and three years for a vintage sparkling wine.) After fermentation, the next step is riddling, where the wine is slowly (over the course of 6-8 weeks) rotated and turned from a horizontal state until totally upside down and the sediment is in the neck of the bottle. The bottle neck is dipped into a brine solution to freeze the liquid, the pressure in the unfrozen part of the bottle forces the frozen sediment out and a dosage (sugar and sometimes brandy) is added to adjust to the final dryness. The bottle is then topped with the cork and wire cage.

 

In the Transfer method, the wine is transferred from the bottles to a pressurized tank where the sediment is filtered out and the wine is rebottled.

In the Charmat process, the entire second fermentation process is done in a large pressurized tank. The result in this process is that the carbon dioxide has less time to integrate with the wines so there are larger bubbles that dissipate faster. Usually prosecco is made using this process (hence the name).

 

Aging NV

As you might have read in previous posts, we like both sake and sparkling with sushi, but typically when we get sushi at home we have bubbly with it. One of our go-to's is Roederer Estate NV Brut. Its a cuvee, with the current notes citing a 60% Chardonnay / 40% Pinot blend. Typically it can be found at Sams Club for around $16, although you can also find it at most wine shops for around $21-23. I happened to luck out and run across 4 bottles on a closeout deal at Sams Club for $9.91, so that was choice last night. Its really a great deal for $16; crisp, a bit fruity, but nothing close to sweet, not too yeasty, overall a nice pairing with sushi.

A few months ago I happen to run across that deal, as well as some Veuve Clicquot for under $30 (normally $45+), I found myself wondering how long NV (non vintage**) bubbly should be kept, particularly ones from California. Typically NV Champagne (from France) can be kept for many years, although do be careful, since its non vintage you might forget which NV bottle you bought in 2005 and which you bought in 2010. So, should you be wondering as well, I'll share my results with you.

After a bit of research, which of course included a ton of caveats that aging potential is based on quality (duh), I found a safe estimate is a California NV sparkling should be drank within 2-3 yrs from the release date and Franch NV Champagne could be 5-10 yrs (or longer). I'm assuming my Sams Club was clearancing out stuff they got last year, so being extra careful, lets say the bottle we drank yesterday was officially released in late 2008. I'll need to drink my Cali bubbly by the end of this year to mid next year and the VC by 2015.

Now, the Lush Wine Cellar isn't big enough to store so much that I would worry about being able to drink our stock of bubbly within a year, muchless 5 years, however, it does relax my mind that I don't need to unload (or drink) the good bubbly deals. Because really, who doesn't LOVE a good deal and who doesn't HATE opening a bottle that's past its prime??

**Non-vintage: typically wineries show the year in which most of the grapes were grown on the bottle; ie a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon means the grapes were grown during the 2005 growing season.  A "non-vintage" wine is one where the grapes might be from 2 or more years; often sparkling wine makers will blend aging wine with newer wine to have a consistent-tasting product.

Mumm's the word for sushi

Last night we had completed laying the tile for the bathroom. To celebrate the fact we now can get rid of a set of tools (and thus work on clearing out our toolshed of a living room) I got some sushi to go and we had a bottle of Mumm Napa Brut while we watched Monday's season premiere of House. (love that show....but he better resume jerk-ness soon!)

I digress....it was good, a little less yeasty than one of our normal standby’s, the Gloria Ferrer. It was fairly light, a bit fruity, and good with most of the sushi rolls we had. I don't recall ever having it before and was glad I picked it up, as we both preferred it to Gloria F because of its versatility with our variety of rolls- which we always get a spicy roll or two which usually has some sort of combo of crab or tuna or salmon, and some shrimp tempura oriented roll. Those are the standby's, and its nice to have a bubbly that goes with most everything.

We got it for a bit under $20 at Friar Tucks, a reasonable deal for a nice bottle of bubbly! Next time I see it I'll have to pick up a couple bottles to put in the regular sushi rotation!

Half Bottle Heaven

Recently, I’ve been on a half bottle kick. It started because I purchased a few half bottles of sparkling, for my friend Lucy’s birthday. Why half bottles?? Well, Lucy likes sparkling but Mr. Luce doesn’t share her passion so this way she could have a few glasses by herself without feeling wasteful.

I found a website, Half Wit Wines, that sells only half bottles, offers free shipping and frequently has specials. Regularly priced, two half bottles are a bit more than one bottle, of course, but that’s ok, because if you keep an eye out for specials you can get a steal. (Stores do carry half bottles, but maybe 5-15, and this website has 1300+ bottles, so the selection is extraordinary.) I ordered on Christmas Eve and got them on New Year’s Eve, which isn’t bad for free shipping over the holidays. They package in Styrofoam, which is great for secure bottles, not to great for environment, but shhh, I still prefer solidly packed bottles.

Since I purchased something from them, I received an email notification of their sparkling and Champagne special toward the end of the year. I purchased 7 bottles- 2 each of 3 different kinds of sparkling and one 2002 Chateau Rieussec Grand Cru Sauternes. Overall, the specials made two half bottles about 20-40% cheaper than a full bottle, regular price. We had the Sauternes on New Years Day with some peach cobber with the Luce’s, and it was lovely. Since Sauternes is so sweet and rich, a half bottle is plenty for a party of 4, so I certainly recommend picking a half bottle up.

Then last night, Mr. Lush surprised me with some takeout sushi- to pair we had one of our other half bottles, the Moet & Chandon White Star, along with a Chateau Ste. Michelle Gewurztraminer, as we have a few spicy rolls that go best with something a bit fruiter. It was absolutely perfect-we were able to have 2 glasses of the M&C (remember sparkling glasses are smaller) and a glass of the Gewurztraminer with dinner and one+ after. It was just perfect, because sometimes we prefer sparkling, sometimes we prefer other things and this way we got to have two, without having to open two separate bottles or letting the sparkling go flat.


The M&C Champagne was great-very dry and not very "yeasty" so it went great with the sushi, especially the Shrimp Tempura Roll. The Chateau Ste. Michelle Gewurztraminer...well, it was ok. It was on sale, for maybe $7-8, so I'd say pick up a bottle for when you have something spicy, but its not very complex. (which is fine, for $8 a bottle)

I would certainly recommend checking out Half Wit Wines, whether to pick up some dessert wines or to enjoy something by yourself, either rbecause you’re drinking by yourself or as a way to have something your significant other doesn’t like.

Cheers!!

Sushi: the Sparkling vs Sake debate

Last night Mr. Lush and I had sushi with our good friend, Mrs. Luce at Tachibana's. Tachibana's, although they have sub-par service, has great sushi. Although, honestly, they are not my absolute favorite in the city, its really because of my love affair with The Spicy Roll, which Tachi's is not the best at. Although we did finally find one spicy roll we liked there-the Arrowhead. It happens to be $13, but its really good and the rest of the menu is on the cheaper side. (ie $3.50 for a salmon/avocado roll). The Arrowhead may not be as "authentic" as other rolls, but I always say I prefer Americanized versions of ethnicity anyway.

But I digress. Anyway, Mr. Lush and I typically have sake when we eat sushi by ourselves but much to our delight, Mrs. Luce rather enjoys sparkling with it and brings it to our sushi pairings. Much to our dis-light (is that a word? It should be) Mr. Luce is allergic to sushi, so our sparkling and sushi dinners with the Luce Family are rare and are only when Mr. Luce is out of town. But that makes them rather special and should be celebrated.

The question this begs to ask, is which do Mr. Lush and I prefer with sushi? Sake or sparkling? Sometimes when we are at home, and get sushi to go, if we happen to have a bottle of sparkling we will drink it, but we never bring it with us. The truth is Mr. Lush and I eat sushi about once a week, and Mr. Lush isn't a big of a fan of sparkling as I am, and although he indulges me now and again, sparkling once a week is a lot for someone who doesn't love it.

We have tried nicer sake quite a few times. Seki in The Loop has a decent sake menu in which they list things based on how sweet / dry /etc they are AND let you have a sampler with 3 of them. Of course, I know nicer sake exists in other places, but no one else gives you the handy dandy menu or lets you try 3. We played around with that for a bit and have tried other places as well. But, alas, we just don't like it that much more than hot sake. There's something nice, almost right, about hot sake and sushi to me. And, since its anywhere between 40-400% cheaper than nice cold sake, we'll stick with that. It almost justifies our once a week sushi habit-look at what we're saving by having cheap hot sake instead of nice cold sake???

I was fortunate enough to have Cristal once with sushi...now that I would force Mr. Lush to deal with once a week, should a gross dozen cases of Cristal land on our porch. Since I don't see that happening, I guess we'll continue to have sparkling with Mrs. Luce and sake by ourselves.

Thanks Mrs. Luce-for the company and the sparkling!