Creative French Dining

Nearing the end of our sojourn to France and Spain, I want to take time to reflect on the many great wine and food pairings we have enjoyed.  Particularly in Spain, we had a number of white and red varietals that I was not familiar with and had not tried before.  What most of these had in common was how well they paired with the local food.

Local Spanish Ingredients

I don’t think this was because I am great at pairing unfamiliar wine with food, but rather because the wine and food in these areas evolved together.  In much of Europe—and certainly France, Spain and Italy–wine is what you drink with an evening meal and has been for centuries.  When we went to local restaurants for dinner, I observed that it was the rare table that did not have a bottle of wine.  Hence the cooking and winemaking have evolved together on a local level, and the flavors, aromas, and “weight” tend to be in harmony.

It’s no coincidence that the food in Burgundy is complemented by Burgundian wines.  All of the winegrowing areas of France and Spain that I have visited have developed their own unique cuisines that fit with the wines produced there.  I can think of several examples in the past where I have been traveling in France and had a wonderful dinner with a great wine, and then bought that wine and took it home, but found it tasted different than I remembered it.  I now understand that the reason for this is that I cannot replicate the smells and the food tastes that were an integral part of that wine’s taste.

What to Pair?

Some interesting research at UC Davis basically says that up to half of what we taste in wine actually comes from aromas we are smelling in the glass.  It is not a great leap of faith to imagine that it is not just the aromas in that glass of wine, but also all of the other aromas and smells in the environment around us that are contributing to that taste.

So, I need to continue to experiment with a lot of wine and food pairings and see what tastes best in my own dining room in Corralitos!

DRC La Romanee Conti Vineyard

As I write this, I am in Burgundy on Windy Oaks annual trip to visit our barrelmakers.  I am struck by the sense of tradition and longevity that permeates the villages, the buildings, the wineries and even the grapevines.  At virtually all the wineries I have visited, you get the sense that the wine cannot be rushed—that it has its own sense of time and place.

Drawing from the food world, I would call this “slow wine” and it is largely at odds with the “new world” approach to winemaking.  In Burgundy, it is not at all unusual for pinot noir, particularly the grand crus, to be aged in barrel for two years.  With a few notable exceptions, this is unheard of in California, Oregon, New Zealand, or Australia.  Since all pinot noir vines around the world can be genetically traced to Burgundy, there seems to be something out-of-sync between the two different approaches.

Spring Flowers in Burgundy Village

I have to ascribe this difference to the economic imperative of the winemaking “business.”  We must make this wine and get it to market!  In Burgundy, there is much more a sense of tradition and not violating the “integrity” of the wine. Yes, in Burgundy wine is a business, but it is also a way of life that many like to think of as being in harmony with nature.  I think this is why virtually all of the well-known wineries in Burgundy are all-estate, i.e. they make wine only from grapes they grow themselves, and think of grape growing and winemaking as a single set of activities.

Burgundy Tasting Room

I suppose it’s obvious where I come down in all of this—I’m looking forward to lingering over a bottle of slow wine!

Early Clusters

Why am I starting this wine blog?  Anyone who has ever been to our winery can tell you that at Windy Oaks our vineyard is inseparable from our winery.  Like many vignerons in Burgundy [here I digress, but “vigneron” is a French word that does not have an exact English counterpart, but means someone who grows grapes and makes wine], I think of grape growing and winemaking as one integrated set of activities—not two separate things.  This “oneness” drives everything we do at Windy Oaks.

Since many of our wine group members and friends live in other parts of the country, we wanted to try, in a small way, to bring the winery and vineyards to them.  Hopefully, in the months and years ahead, we will succeed in making the Windy Oaks experience more tangible, especially to those who are unable to physically visit the winery.  To do this, I will use a variety of media to convey the many different facets of our annual winemaking and grape-growing cycle.

Spring is always very busy in the vineyard, but this month is particularly busy for me since we embark next week on our annual trip to Burgundy to visit our barrelmakers.  This year I will meet the owner of a new tonnellerie that was highly recommended to me when I visited last August with Francois Millet, the well-known winemaker at Domaine Compte Georges de Vogüé in Chambolle Musigny.  I may try a few of these barrels this year as an experiment.  Pictures to follow!!!

As always, I welcome your feedback and comments.  This always helps focus my thinking and writing.

À bientot,

Jim