Chateau de Santenay Mercurey Blanc Chardonnay

I had the chance on Saturday to spend some time with my Auntie, indulging in the things we love to indulge in - shopping, gossip, Indian cuisine, and wine.  Serendipitously, a "mystery case" had arrived from Laithwaites, and she was more than happy to help me both unpack and give one a try.

Although my preference runs strongly to big, bold reds, I do enjoy a complex white as well, and the 2005 Chateau de Santenay Mercurey Blanc Chardonnay we found in the second layer of packing was precisely that!

The bottle was still a little bit too chilled from its sojourn in the FedEx truck, so I decanted the wine and we left it alone for about half an hour, to give it time to adjust to a more reasonable temperature and shake off any temperamentality it might have picked up from being over-chilled.

I loved the rich, golden color of this wine, deep and nearly honey-colored.  At 13% alcohol - with spindly legs - I was expecting this to have a crisp and dry quality, and I was not disappointed.  The warm, fruity nose gave way to a crisp and citrusy flood across my palate, with hints of vanilla and butter.  As the wine warmed in our glasses, the bouquet grew ever more complex, with peaches and vanilla stepping forward to tempt us into another sip and another and another.

The slightly mineral-y finish was a terrific complement to this complex and flavorful wine.  Although we sipped it on its own, it would be a terrific addition to the Summer dinner table, pairing nicely with grilled fish and vegetables, or pasta with a cream sauce.

This has definitely been added to my "will drink again" list!

Taste and Tweet Michigan!

Many thanks to the lovely peeps at Michigan By The Bottle, for hosting the very first Tweet and Taste Michigan event.  Tonight's featured wines were from Black Star Farms, on the Old Mission Peninsula, just outside of Traverse City, MI.

Wanna know what we tweeted about?  Log in to Twitter and search on #ttmi.  It was a terrific, well attended event, and we all had a great time.

I had fun wearing my @pentawine hat, tasting and tweeting as a happy winery volunteer.  I freely admit that I've been spoilt by the lovely Michigan wines so easily accessible to me, and I'm glad to be a part of the Michigan wine community. 

Even if I do live in Ohio!

Capon and Sauvignon Blanc!

We've had a busy, busy week at our house, capped off by our Elder Monster receiving a job offer - finally! His first! - from Cedar Point. He'll spend the summer working in one of the hotel kitchens, honing his skills and earning the 250 hours of paid employment he needs to complete his ProStart certificate.

He has been hunting for a job for two years - in this economy, no one wants to deal with the minor labor laws when they can have their pick of desperate, laid off auto workers who will work any hours at any job so they can put food on the table.  He had been told that more than a few times, and was getting pretty frustrated by the whole thing.  A job offer from one of the best known roller coaster parks in the US has made him feel 42 kinds of happy, and we decided that we would celebrate this milestone with a terrific dinner and a bottle of wine.

We opted to roast a capon for dinner last night.  If you're not up on your chicken terminology, a capon is a castrated rooster, who is then coddled and pampered with the finest grains until he is fat enough for the dinner plate.  Your typical capon weighs in at about 8 pounds (and sometimes more!), and will feed 6 to 8 people generously, unless any of your dining companions are teenagers.  Figure those creatures to eat enough for two!

My favorite way to roast a capon is to stuff him first.  To that end, we melted a stick of unsalted butter in a heavy pan, added half a cup each of finely chopped celery and onions, then eight slices of 12 grain bread, cut into cubes, and fried it all until the bread was crispy.  We dumped the whole mess into a bowl, added a generous dump of herbs d' Provence and two eggs, mixed well, and stuffed it into the rinsed, dried and salted cavity of our gigantic capon.

We rubbed his skin down with butter, then covered him in more herbs d' Provence, and popped him into the oven, uncovered, to roast at 425°F until he reached 170°F in the thickest part of the breast.  He was such a gorgeous golden color when we pulled him out, and the pan drippings, combined with the finely minced giblets and broth that had been simmering on the stove, made for a sinfully rich gravy to cover the stuffing with.

While he rested, we steamed some fresh broccoli and prepared some pasta with a simple dress of butter, light cream, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and served it with a wine we had picked up at the grocery store because the label amused us.

We often choose wine this way, when we are not in a tasting room.  Is it a varietal we like?  How old is it?  Who makes it?  Where is it from?  What does the label say about it?

The Night Harvest 2008 Sauvignon Blanc tickled us with both its front label depiction of reaching for the ever unreachable moon, and the slightly pretentious back label blurb emphasizing that they harvest their grapes in the middle of the night to "concentrate the fresh flavors and crisp acidity" of the grape.

For $10 and a cute label, why not, right?

As it happened, the wine was a gorgeous complement to our happily roasted capon.  Light, crisp, with a nose redolent of peaches and citrus flowers, and bright, grassy flavors on the palate made the capon sit up and take notice.  I really loved the way the wine blended with the flavors of the herbs d' Provence, lending them just the tiniest little kick, intensifying the lavender and marjoram, making an already fragrant dish a total knockout.

It also worked extremely well with the pasta, neatly cutting through the fats in the sauce and gently cleansing the palate.  We found the Night Harvest to be a tasty addition to our dinner last night, and would definitely buy this one again.  I would also be inclined to try some of Night Harvest's other varietals, having had a positive experience with this one.

It is difficult, here in the Midwest, with our stupid and arcane liquor laws, to get decent (read: not mass produced and mass marketed) California wines without some serious gymnastics and wallet emptying, leaving us with a very (unfair, admittedly) poor opinion of California wines.  Thankfully, we've had wonderful California wines from 4 Seasons Wine Club and Wine.com, which has made us more open to trying some of the less expensive brands available here.

The Night Harvest Sauvignon Blanc is a lovely table wine, suitable for a meal of poultry or fish, and I daresay it would also complement our Tuesday Night Cheese Board equally well.  This is one we'll definitely be purchasing again.

And now, a word about chocolate.

[Originally posted at LJ, 2/26/10]

February's Chocolate of the Month selection arrived last Wednesday, a ridiculously tasty assortment from Chicago's Chocolate Potpourri.







They called this the Truffles, Toffee and Dunkers Assortment. They should have called it "Put down the box before you eat yourself sick, you crackhead." I couldn't wait to dive into it, and I had to force myself to put the lid back on!

In the center of the top layer, four unbelievably rich chocolate covered Oreos - the "dunkers". I did, of course, dip one in my cup of coffee, which had the effect of softening both chocolate and Oreo, making a lovely warm treat that had me melting into a little puddle of happy.

Around the dunkers, 16 truffles, each a different flavor! The kicker? Chocolate Potpourri makes 18 flavors of truffle, and they don't tell you which two you didn't get. It's apparently different in every box! Thus far, I have found the champagne, maple walnut, espresso, vanilla bourbon, and the raspberry. NOM NOM NOM.

The coverture is a little stiffer than I was expecting. At first, I thought it was because the chocolate had been hanging out in a freezing FedEx truck, but even after the truffles came to room temperature, the chocolate was a bit toothy. Not that this is an issue, it was just something different, a departure from the usual Belgian style truffles one finds in my house.

The slightly stiff coverture gives way to a velvety and rich ganache that completely steals your attention from whatever else you're doing. It's soft and melts quickly, covering your palate with rich and perfectly sweet flavors. It took me a few minutes to remember that I was supposed to be working, and was only truly reminded with a window popped up in my work interface to essentially ask if I was still there.

Ooops.

Beneath the layer of truffles, ten ounces of chocolate covered toffee that would make a stone cry tears of joy. Seriously, I love me some toffee, but

this

toffee is enough to make me commit murder for more. The rich, buttery, salty toffee, paired with a gorgeous milk chocolate coverture and topped with ground nuts is heavenly...and compelling. I'm having a hard time staying out of it, and have taken a hammer to it so the pieces are very small and easy to nab here and there throughout the day.

I originally thought that I didn't know this company. It turns out, they also make Veritas chocolate, which I've been buying for years at Erika's - it's meant to be had with wine, and is packaged such that you can hang a package of Veritas on a bottle of complementary wine. It's well made and the folks who suggest the chocolate and wine pairings clearly have a firm grasp of both.

Their actual store is in Glenview, about a 25 minute cab ride from Kenneth's from the looks of things. I may need to visit them, to explore the rest of their wares.

And the Lord Kenneth said "Let there be chocolate!"

[Originally posted at LJ, 1/26/10]


And lo, there was, and it was good.

Is good. I'm being very, very careful so this box gets me through to the next one!

A few days before Yuletide, I was greeting with this missive in the Inbox:

Congratulations!

You've been given a Gift Membership to the Gourmet Chocolate of the Month Club. In each shipment you will discover handmade chocolate confections from around the world, reminiscent of age-old traditions and presented with savoir faire! Read our newsletters and learn first hand about each featured Chocolatier, and how they craft their signature creations. You will learn how cacao beans are transformed into chocolate, secret ingredients and techniques used by the masters, and so much more...

Your membership will begin in January and will continue for 12 months, shipping consecutive months. You should look for your shipments to arrive between the third Tuesday and Thursday of each month shipped.

Kenneth had decided to spoil the HELL out of me.

I'm sure you can imagine the happy squeeing that commenced, and then continued for some minutes. Chocolate delivered right to the door is a delight, particularly from the companies this service contracts with.

My first shipment arrived last week - Nirvana Chocolates, out of Wellesley, MA. OK, not quite. The company lives in MA. The actual chocolatiere is in Bruges, Belgium, and that's where the chocolates are shipped from! What arrived? A 32 piece box of classic Belgian truffles, 4 each of 8 varieties: Amaretto Creme, Praline Chocolate, Soft Mocha, Raspberry Cream, Smooth Caramel, Classic Praline, Champagne, and Cointreau.

The presentation was so gorgeous, and the fuschia ribbon is long enough to tie my hair up with! (Actually, I have a whole bunch of ribbons that are from Kenneth's prior rounds of spoiling!):

Also included in the well padded shipping box was a newsletter - In Pursuit of Chocolate - detailing the history and methods of the featured company, an overview of the ingredients in this particular box, and a comparison of chocolate tasting to wine tasting, with instructions for proper enjoyment of these handmade delights.

Chocolate: Srs Bznz!

Nirvana uses coverture from Callebaut, one of the smoothest chocolates in existence, and fills their truffles with ganache made from the freshest organic butter and cream around. No artificial flavors or preservatives, either - that Amaretto Cream is more than a little laced with fine Amaretto! NOM.

Keeping myself to just one a day is proving difficult. I had a Cointreau truffle today, and the scent drifting out of the box was enough to make me want to sit down and shovel down the whole box! Instead, I behaved, and enjoyed the smoothness of the truffle I had selected. The crisp citrus of the Cointreau is so beautifully complemented by the lightly sweet milk chocolate coverture. I so very much appreciate European milk chocolates - they're not sweetened so much that you lose the flavor of the actual chocolate.

The lingering taste of that glorious truffle is making my work day so much better.

Who am I, and why should you care?

Hello, World!

I'm Missy.  You're reading this because I've taken it into my head to put my food and wine musings out where the general public can read them, rather than locking them down to just my friends.

I like food.  A lot.  I like wine.  A lot.  I like to write about them both, often, at length, and in detail.  Sometimes I give recipes.  Sometimes I just try to get the idea across before I short out my keyboard from drooling all over it.

For a little while, I'll be reposting some things from my personal journal that I've written about food and such.  Don't expect that to last too long, though.  I've always got something new to say about what I'm eating or cooking or drinking.

Be welcome.