The Empty Cellar

Archive for the ‘Wine’ Category

C-Ville Weekly (4/15/09)

The state’s grape harvest increased by 25 percent last year, according to news from the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. That brings total harvest to 7,000 tons, the seventh highest in the nation. Some 3,000 acres are devoted to grape production, with Chardonnay being the number one grape followed by Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Thirty years ago, according to VDACS, a mere 286 acres were devoted to grape production.

Tonight will be a meal if indeterminacy. The meat will be a pot roast I got on sale for twelve dollars. The vegetables will be grilled zucchini and yellow squash in a red pepper vinaigrette sauce. The pasta is a cheese risotto. The wines are…well…budget. The whole meal is budget. The pot roast just begs to be thrown into a fire by some primitive tribal chef.

The wines. The white will be a Sutter Home Moscato. My wife bought it at Wal-Mart. I have no idea what to expect. The red is a Mirassou Pinot Noir. I picked it up on a whim at Safeway because there was a man offering tastings in the wine department. It it wothwhile to note that Safeway has a rather considerable wine department that is well stocked – probably the best supermarket wine selection in the area. The flavor was good, with the usual fruityness but it was hot in the bad way, not hot in the good way that a Zinfindel is. I decided to take a chance, picked up a bottle, and put it straight in the decanter when I got home. It has been there for roughly 4 hours as I type this.

Owen will be handling the canine dining arrangements for the evening.

I am having a few glasses of Four Roses Kentucky Bourbon as I am cooking. I am concerned but hopeful that we will not have any accidents like the time I burned my upper forearm or the time the grill caught on fire and was billowing black smoke. Now is not the time for pessimism!

The results:my wife was very polite. She told me that I worked miracles with the cut of meat I bought. Seriously I know that a pot is an integral part of a pot roast but I was feeling bold. The meat was not as tough as I thought it was going to be, but it was tough. It was also fatty. Fatty can be good when it is marbled in the meat, but not so good when it is hanging off in great dripping globs. IT was passable. I used my workhorse rub – kosher salt, paprika, garlic powder, and fresh ground red pepper.

The wine was…well, mediocre. It was not a Pinot. It was sort of like a Merlot. I mean it wasn’t bad, it was a passable example of a Merlot. This would be great if it didn’t say Pinot Noir on the bottle.

If anyone has thoughts on my next random act of cooking, feel free to drop a comment.

Paid:$9.99

Nose:  Chocolate, Coffee, Cherry, Blackberry.

Taste: Berries, Dirt (in a good way).

Color: Really thick red/purple.

Went to the local wine store in search of a Malbec. The wife and I have become fans of Malbecs because they seem to combine the stalwart characteristic of most reds with the fruityness of the whites that she enjoys.

We paired this wine with one of my homemade pizzas. I restrained the spices on this one and made the crust with a biga and a double rise. When we first opened this it was really too laden with tannins to drink. After about an hour it relaxed quite a bit and started to give us a peek into it. The next day (after spending the night under vacu-vin) this wine seemed to let all its barriers down.

Pair this with red meat or Italian. Decant!