Lush Valentine's Day Dinner at home

Mr. Lush and I avoid restaurants on Valentine's Day weekend, and enjoy making a nice meal at home instead. We celebrated last night since our meal required a little bit of prep. It was really good, and a couple tweaks here and there, it could've been fabulous, so I thought I'd share our menu (including recommended modifications), which was Filet mignon with brandy peppercorn cream sauce, grilled lobster tails, and smokey mayo encrusted asparagus. For dessert we had grilled peaches and poundcake with ice cream. Of course, most recipies are geared towards 4+ portions, so they require a bit of modification, so here's our menu for two (with prep steps at the bottom), along with pairing recommendations.

Filet Mignon with Brandy Peppercorn Cream Sauce

• Rub 2 4oz filets with coursely cracked pepper an hour before hand.
• Finely mince 1 clove shallot and add 1 tsp cracked peppercorns
• 1/2 c low sodium beef stock/broth
• Combine and reduce by half (about 10-15 minutes)
• Strain sauce if desired
• Mix in 2 tbs brandy
• 1 tbs peppercorns
• 1/4 c cream
• Reduce on medium heat to desired thickness (about 10-15 minutes)

Top filet with sauce or serve on the side for dipping. Pair with a big red wine - we had the 2002 Beringer's Private Reserve Cabernet, which was really good, but not as big as we needed, it kinda got lost with the peppercorn. I'd recommend something a bit younger, maybe 3-5 years old, aged in American Oak.

Grilled Lobster Tails:

• Thaw 2 6-7oz Lobster Tails (weight in shell)
• Using kitchen scissors, cut off bottom of lobster, cut in half and skewer each half
• Mix in food processor:
• 1/8c butter
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 clove shallot
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• dash cayenne pepper

Brush mixture on tails about 30 minutes before grilling, reserving 2 tbs for grilling. On medium high heat, grill tails shell down for 4 minutes, brush remaining mixture on lobster, turn, grill for 2-3 minutes. Serve with clarified butter and lemon wedges, if desired. Pair with buttery chardonnay - we had the Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve.

Smokey Mayo Crusted Aparagus

• 1/4 c mayonnaise
• 1/8 c olive oil
• 1 tbs lemon juice
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 1 tsp smoked sea salt
• 1 tbs paprika

(note, you can also use regular salt and smoked paprika)
Mix together ingredients, toss 1 bunch asparagus, and let sit for 30 minutes in fridge. Prior to putting on grill, put in freezer for 5 minutes. Grill until desired doneness.

Grilled Peaches and Poundcake:
This doesn't really even call for a recipie - cut 1 large peach into 6 wedges, cut 4 1+ inch thick slices of poundcake. Grill until slightly charred. Top with ice cream - we had both creme brulee ice cream (my favorite pairing) and caramel ice cream (Mr. Lush's favorite). Pair with a late harvest riesling - we had the Chateau Ste. Michelle Harvest Select Riesling.

Now, I'm not gonna lie, this meal requires some prep. Here's the order in which we prepped things:

• Rub filets with peppercorns.
• Mix sauce for asaparagus, set aside.
• Mix sauce for lobster, set aside.
• Start the Brandy peppercorn sauce (to reducing by half). Mix remaining sauce ingredients, set aside.
• Cut peaches and poundcake, set aside.
• Prep lobster tails on skewers.
• Take a kissing break! Have a glass of wine, some apps, relax. 
• Brush lobster tails with sauce, set aside.
• Toss asaparagus in sauce, set aside.
• Light grill.
• 10-15 minutes before your food is done, re-start the Brandy Peppercorn sauce.

Enjoy your dinner, and don't forget to laugh with each other, Cheers!

PS-for dinners that need multiple wines for pairing, use a wine saver like vacu-vin or use half bottles - a good website for half bottles is Half Wit Wines.

Mirassou pairing dinner

Last week I was invited to an event hosted by Mirassou winery, which has been around for 150+ years. The event was at Mia Rosa, a restaurant north of The Hill. They traveled around the country, visiting 5 different restaurants to come up with a wine pairing cookbook (some recipes posted online here) and invited various media/bloggers to the events. Evidently my blog and “association” with the St. Louis Wine Club made me a good candidate for an invite; luckily Mr. Lush was able to come as well. The attendance was smaller than I anticipated-only 8 plus the winemaker and marketing person. What else surprised me was that the other attendees were more “foodies” than “winos”. However, I was totally ok with this, because it allowed me to sit directly across from the winemaker, David Mirassou, and I pretty much had him all to myself to ask questions about the wine!

We started off with the Pinot Grigio. Normally I’m not a big fan of Pinot Grigio (or Sauv Blancs), but it wasn’t as acidic as others might be. Then we had the Sauv Blanc, paired with a garlic tomato flatbread. The Sauv Blanc was perfect with the flatbread, but I didn’t love it (or the Pinot Grigio) as much on their own. The wines were fine – although neither were the highly grassy acidic profile I expected, they just aren’t my preferred style of wine. Then we moved on to the Chardonnay with gorgonzola polenta fries. Oh, lovely Chard, it was so welcome after the other two! Now, for my non Chard lovers out there, only about 5-7% of the wine sees oak- the rest is all stainless steel fermented. This leaves a crisper, but still round in body Chardonnay. Its not a butter oak bomb, but it has a nice round mouthfeel. I didn’t love the polenta fries, nor did I love the pairing as much as the other, but I liked the wine a lot.

Then we had probably our favorite course of the evening – a smoked scallop Carpaccio drizzled with basil oil paired with the Pinot Noir. Oh….my…gosh. The dish was so good, the smoked fish went perfect with the Pinot.

We also had a warm beet spinach salad with goat cheese with a Merlot and veal madallions on garlic mash with the Cabernet, finishing off with a chocolate puff with the Reisling. It was a lot of food and a lot of wine!

I’ll leave it up to the “foodies” to really evaluate the food – almost everything paired wonderfully with the wine, but honestly other than the scallops I wasn’t crazy about anything I had and I won’t be rushing back to the restaurant. What about the wine you ask? Well, Mirassou makes their wine to be consistent year after year, so the grapes come from all over the state. The good news is that if you liked it last year, you can feel confident you’ll like this year’s vintage as well. The bad news is while there’s no bad year, there’s no great year either. But, in the spectrum of the wine world, I like to have some stable choices in addition to those stellar vintages, and its not like I have one winery I drink from exclusively, so I think that’s ok. I prefer a bit more oak and body in my Cabernets and Merlots, and the Mirassou ones are a bit soft – he uses almost exclusively not new oak. However, that’s just personal taste – once again the good news is you can buy it today and drink it tonight and not have to lay it down. Mr. Lush and I really liked the Chardonnay and liked the Pinot as well – we were lucky enough to each get a signed bottle of Pinot in our “media kits” and we’ll certainly have to have it with something smoky because it was pretty fruit forward. I also liked the Riesling, and will probably pick that up to pair with something spicy.

All in all, it was a great time and it was wonderful meeting the winemaker:

Peirano Estate Chardonnay and shrimp scampi

Last night Ms. G came over and we had shrimp scampi, blackened scallops, and a vegetable medley of asparagus, squash and zucchini. I recently discovered that shrimp scampi is really, really, ridiculously easy to make and wondered what the heck took me so long to make it. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow. Anyway, since scampi sauce is basically white wine and butter, what better wine to use and drink with it than a chardonnay? Often I’ll use a cheaper (but still good) chardonnay to cook with and have a slightly nicer with it and end up drinking the rest of the “cooking bottle” later. The wine I use is still drinkable, I just don’t like to use great wine to cook with, so I use something I would rate maybe an 87-88 to cook with and drink a 90+ wine with it.

I used the Simi Chardonnay for the scampi sauce, which I picked up at Sams Club for $12. It was fine but when we opened Ms. G’s Peirano Estate Chardonnay…..there was a noticeable difference. It had a bit more complexity and a bit more buttery creaminess. Now, I’ve had the Peirano Estate Chardonnay in December of 2007 and I didn’t care for it. Clearly this was a different vintage and it was way better. It was just the right amount of buttery and a bit oakey, but not overpowering since they use French oak. I’m glad I got a chance to try it again and it reminded me not to write off wineries - everybody can have a bad year.

And, of course, it went perfect with the scampi and scallops. Really what could go better with a buttery wine sauce than a buttery wine?? Yum!

Food friendly chardonnay - no, really I mean it!!!

Recently in our wine clubs we’ve gotten some nice Chardonnays - $35-60 each. Well, we certainly don’t want to hold on to them for a long time, so I decided we needed to drink one so I bought a practically pre-prepared meal centered around what would be great with one of our Chardonnays. (I had a lazy “pamper myself” day – got a massage and got my hair done and didn’t really feel like cooking, but wanted a nicer meal at home) Since most nicer Chardonnays tend to be more food friendly and less butter bombs than their cheaper counterparts, I bought a ready made salad kit with a sweet Dijon vinaigrette, pre-made lobster ravioli and a jar of Alfredo sauce.

I glanced over tasting notes of the two $35-40 chards and picked the Michaud Chardonnay from Chalone, which tend to be more minerally and food friendly. In addition the notes said it went well with cream sauces, which some really buttery chards won’t.

It was pretty golden, but don’t let that fool you – it wasn’t a butter bomb at all. At first taste, neither Mr. Lush nor I were all too excited…it was a bit tart, not so much green apple, but more like a not-quite-ripe-stone fruit...but it went great with the salad and great with the pasta. (Probably a smidge better with the salad than the pasta, but it was really much better with food than without - it had just enough acid to cut through the cream sauce but not too much - it really complemented the lobster inside and it went great with the garlic bread)

We were overall excited with the wine, the food, and how well they paired together. We do love Chardonnays but often they aren’t food friendly, but this one certainly is. I wouldn't say this is a chard for Chardonnay haters, but its certainly a good complex, not buttery, food friendly Chardonnay that was delicious with the food.

By the way, I got the lobster ravioli at Sam’s Club, it was $9 or $10 and was really good – half of the package was enough for both of us and Mr. Lush’s lunch with the leftovers. It took about 6 minutes to boil and I just transferred it to the warmed up jar Alfredo sauce and gave it a quick sautee together. It was good and quite lobster-y for the price. All in all, a quick, easy, relatively cheap meal – which is good if you’re spending $40 on a chard to drink it with!!

Noteworthy reds- Cal Ital and Cab

Recently we had a couple of nice wines, courtesy of Gold Medal Wine Club shipments. One was available through their Plus program: Brutocao Cellars' 2005 Quadriga, a Cal-Ital.
“…..a triumph of four Italian wine varietals portraying a unique blend of aromas and flavors that have resonated throughout the Mediterranean for centuries. It's a wine that will remind you of authentic old-world Italian field blends, but with richer, brighter and more fruit-forward flavors making it a favorite among many top wine critics. Wine Enthusiast magazine rated the 2005 Quadriga 91 Points & Editor's Choice and says, "This Italian-inspired blend from Brutocao gets better every vintage." The fantastic blend also garnered 91 Points from the California State Fair Wine Competition, a Double Gold Medal from the Tasters Guild International Wine Competition, and 2 Gold Medals from state competitions - wow! With a rich earthy quality to the cherry-blackberry fruit, the 2005 Quadriga has a great balance that's championed with dark stone fruit flavors, soft pepper notes, and plush, velvety tannins that lead into a complex and lingering finish. Try pairing Brutocao's 2005 Quadriga with beef stroganoff and rich pasta dishes. 35% Sangiovese, 31% Primitivo, 18% Barbera, 16% Dolcetto. Enjoy now until 2012.”

We had it with some cheese and crackers and it was really good. I don’t know if it would hold up to too rich of dishes, its not that full bodied, but we really enjoyed it. I can re-order it for about $18 + shipping and we’re thinking about it.

Another was the Winsome 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, part of a regular shipment.
“….produced from the winery's Home Ranch Vineyard in the heart of the San Joaquin
Valley and styled to empha rich varietal character and body in a classic California style. A stunning first release from Winsome, this Cabernet Sauvignon received a Gold Medal from the Lodi International Wine Awards, an Honorable Mention from the California State Fair, a Silver Medal from the San Francisco International Wine Competition, and another Silver Medal from the Orange County Fair. Fragrant aromas of cassis and black fruit are complemented by hints of vanilla, all spice and coffee that carry into ripe and intense berry fruit flavors on the palate. The Cabernet's structure is firm and well balanced, with excellent depth and supple, generous tannins that lead into a lengthy finish with complex notes of dark fruit and oak. Try pairing the Winsome 2005 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon with lamb chops, beef, and rich marinara dishes. Aged 24 months in oak. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Merlot, 3% Petite Verdot, 3% Syrah. Enjoy now until 2015.”
I decanted it for about an hour, and it was really nice with a grilled filet. Very good deal for the price. The Winsome is available for right about $20/bottle, about half off the winery direct price, probably because they negotiated such a good deal with it being the first release. We're also thinking of getting some of this. So much wine, so little money.....

*Side note for my chard lovers - we’ve also had the Winsome chardonnay and love it as well.

Artesa Chardonnay

In light of our sad wine fridge, I made a case white wine purchase through a recently joined wine club as well as stopped by Sam’s Club and wine shops to pick a bottle up here and there. (its always easier to stock up when you buy a bit at a time. In the past few nights we’ve tried a few note worthy chards (well, note worthy for those who like or might like chards one day). The first was a 2006 Artesa Carneros Chardonnay. Green apples, but not tart….it had just enough cream finish to remind me of an apple crisp topped with vanilla ice cream. I liked it more than Mr. Lush did-I think he prefers a bit more of oak, and this has some stainless steel aging along with oak, to give it a slighter clean, but lingering finish, if that makes sense. Here’s the tasting notes from the winemaker:
Lemon blossoms, green apple and honeydew melon are front and center in this Chardonnay. This crisp fruitiness is combined with nuances of creme brule, vanilla, toasted macadamia and humidor cedar making this wine both easy to enjoy and seductively complex. Supple and silky yet crisp enough for food, a great accompaniment for food and friends.

More to come on our chardonnay love affair…..

Faun Chardonnay

Its summer and time for the Lush’s to resume their love affair with Chardonnay. Recently we had a bottle of Faun Vineyards Chardonnay. It was really well balanced. A little bit of cream, a little bit of oak (French, not American), little bit of crisp citrus. No mineral taste. We drank it by itself, but I think it could go well with a variety of seafood or chicken based dishes because of its balance.

Of course, its from Gold Medal Wine Club, so we’ll have to order it in order to get it, but it really was nice and so next time we order, we just might.

Chardonnay and salmon crustinis

We recently hosted a wine tasting meeting and my beloved Chardonnay was featured, along with Sparkling. Of course, being the host and loving Chardonnay I was tasked with finding the perfect dish...something that was finger food, but didn't need to stay hot. After pouring over articles and recipies, I improvised and mixed two receipies. One is for a grilled salmon and one is for smoked salmon crustinis. I didn't want to use smoked salmon, as I'm looking for complimentary flavors to the wine, not overwhelming.
I apologize for the non-specific measurements, I had to wing it and don't exactly remember:

Mix olive oil and Terragon in a bowl. Brush over salmon filet, with skin on it. (obviously don't brush the skin side) Grill. Flake off into very small pieces. Let cool, refrigerate. Meanwhile, get ital bread, brush with olive oil, bake. We baked at about 400 for about 12 minutes. Let toasts cool. Spread toasts with herbed goat cheese and brousin. (I personally used more boursin than goat cheese, because I didn't want it to be overwhelming with the wine.) Put on salmon. viola! It was really good and it was also good with the wines. We had varying levels of oakiness and buttery-ness- it went well with it all.

I also made asiago and mozz stuffed mushrooms, which were good with the crisper whites. The most expensive thing we tried tied for my favorite- it was the 2005 Netwon Unfiltered Chardonnay. Given a 96 by WS, it lived up the hype. Now, we just need to find better jobs or finally win that lottery we've been hoping for so I can afford the price tag- $55. Ouch.

But alas, that's what is great about the wine club-getting to try all those fun wines.

Peirano Estate Vineyards

We recently had 2 wines from Peirano Estate Vineyards Heritage Collection : the Chardonnay and the Six Clones Merlot. Sorry, just not crazy about them. But if you like what I like to call "french funk" in your wines, the aroma you find in a lot of bordeauxs and rhones, you might like merlot. (I think its also referred to as barnyard aroma, but whatever) We just didn't love either one. The Chardonnay had a wierd mineral buttery thing going on not really either but the presense of both, so I don't think my non-chard lovin friends would even like it. Sorry Peirano Estate.

How can I forget Merryvale?

Last night we had one of my favorite chardonnays-the Merryvale Chardonnay. They have a few the one we had last night is the Starmont, around $18, and their top of line, which is how I fell in love with Chardonnay, the Silouette, around $50. They are just a smidge buttery, with 100% malolactic fermentation and aged in French oak, so not too terribly oakey.

Its been a while since I had it and I forgot how much I love it. Just enough butter to make it silky but not enough to taste like a spoonful of butter. It was a little crisp, more clean than minerally really, but really a great chardonnay for the price. I took a tour of Merryvale as well as a wine component tasting seminar back on 2002 and it was a great experience. Their top wine, the Profile (red blend) usually gets pretty good reviews. I was thinking that perhaps I would get another bottle to serve at nearly room temp (based on a recommendation from WineFriend) for my non-chard friends and see what they think. Then, if they didn’t like it, more for me. :)

Ferment me wildly, baby

Last night we had a 2006 Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay. I admit I bought it because the label, which looks handwritten, and I was intrigued by the “wild ferment” part. I sort of invisioned people with buckets of yeast dancing around (like in sort of a ritual circle style) and singing and tossing yeast into vats of grapes. Sounded fun and since I do adore chardonnay, I couldn't pass up this bottle for $13.

Its from Chile and it was really quite yummy, although I’m positive my non-chard loving friends would probably not like it, as it has butter and oak. Although its tastefully done and it’s pretty complex, there’s still butter and oak. Tasting notes:

Our 2006 Chardonnay Wild Ferment is a complex wine with a rich mineral and citric character. The mouth-feel is soft and persistent, displaying elegance and finesse. Malolactic fermentation contributes buttery notes and richness, with well integrated toast and vanilla from barrel ageing providing the backdrop.

Yum. Its not that I ONLY like buttery oakey chards, because I’ve had a few that aren’t oaked that I like as well as quite a few overly buttery ones, but I do tend to prefer wines like this. It was around $13 and its from Chile, where you can typically get more wine for your money, so it was for sure worth the price.

Anyway, about this whole wild fermenting thing:

Wild fermentation is a process carried out using native yeast. Since the yeast are not selected using technological criteria (SO2 resistance, alcohol resistance, etc), they experience higher stress during fermentation. This effect, coupled with the presence of more strains during wild fermentation, produces different concentrations and byproduct proportions, adding distinctive flavours –and therefore more complexity– to the wine.

Hmm. During my search, I found there are a decent amount of wild fermented chards out there and even a few reds. Who knew?

The Friend-Friendly Chardonnay Quest

As noted before, I love chardonnay. A little bit of oak, a little cream, (not so much it tastes like a dollop of butter though) maybe even a hint of hazelnut or nutmeg equals a yummy chardonnay. However, aside from Terry, I stand alone in this chardonnay love affair. (luckily he likes it as much as I do)

I've been experimenting with others whites, hoping there was something I liked as much. Alas, it is just not the case. I just don't like wimpy white wines or crisp tart make my cheeks tingle whites either. Or wines that taste like grass, with or without lemon-no thank you either way. As an add-on to my quest however, I have been trying to find chardonnays that my friends might like. Well, not like as in buy again, but like as in not dread it when I walk in the door with a bottle of chardonnay. (Its not an evil grape, I promise!) Some like the Kim Crawford Unoaked Chardonnay, so I'll focus my attention on finding some more oak-free chardonnays.

When I was researching the percentages for the previous post, I noted that St. Supery (which is coming up quite often in my posts, odd since I've only had their wines a few times) has un oakless chardonnay. It is described as:

Now, for something completely different. No barrels. No secondary fermentation. Chardonnay, pure, but oh so far from simple. Using gently pressed “free run” juice from just-ripe estate grapes, a chilled stainless steel fermentor and techniques adapted from our success with Sauvignon Blanc, as well as a sensibility inspired by our predecessors in Champagne and Chablis, we dare to strip Chardonnay down to its essence.

This wine is subtle, satisfyingly complex, complete, and hard to put down. It has delicate touches one finds in wine that has seen barrels, without the heavy hand of oak. Instead of wood, the grapes and yeast together supplied a whiff of nutmeg, sweet vanilla, and the savory smell of oven-fresh golden-crusted bread (without the butter.) The character of unadulterated Chardonnay, grapes or juice, is hard to describe, like the smell of fresh pippin apples and pears combined, plus something ineffable that one comes to recognize, after many tries, as “Chardonnay”. To taste this wine is to taste that.

Wow, "stripping" and "unadulterated" chardonnay grapes. How...naughty. With a description like that, how can I not try it, even if it fails to be the Friend Friendly Chardonnay?? One day I will find one, I know it. I'll be on the lookout for this one in the meantime, although on the website its listed as $22.