I fear that the short season for fresh snow crab is almost over, and so when I spied the telltale-red crab legs at the stand outside Atkins at the Jean-Talon market the other day, I couldn’t resist.

Buying them freshly cooked and chilled makes for a quick and easy Spring-time dinner. I should qualify that: quick and easy when it comes to preparation, but potentially lengthy when it comes to eating, depending on your level of dexterity with extracting that sweet, juicy white meat from the tough shells. But that extra work is what makes it fun, because the talking-around-the-table portion of the meal is drawn out.

When it comes to a long meal, I of course start thinking about a wine pairing. This time I settled on a white wine from the north east of Italy, a Soave made from the Garganega grape. I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but I was very pleased with the pairing.

Monte Tondo’s Foscarin Slavinus 2009 Soave Classico Superiore ($25.40 at SAQ) was lush, with citrus on the nose but a rich mouthfeel of peach and tropical fruit, with a bit of sweet almond and a slightly bitter finish. It was well balanced, and its reasonably full body was a good match for the rich, buttery crab, which tempered the lusciousness of the wine. They were of similar weight, and the sweetness of the crab brought out a mineral character to the wine.

I enjoyed the wine and the crab in equal measure, and it’s a meal I hope to repeat one last time before the crab disappears.

Thanks to La Fontaine Vins & Liqueurs for the review sample of this wine.

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3. A Conversation with Master Sommelier Bruce Wallner

Santorini, Greece

It’s getting to be that time of year when my wine drinking preferences skew white. And not just any white: when left to my own devices, I look for something with a good amount of acidity and freshness – bonus points for minerality.

Luckily for me, New Wines of Greece was in recently in town to host a tasting in Montreal. I say luckily because many Greek white wines have all those things I mentioned in spades: good acidity, freshness, and minerality. Plus, they pair well with the fresh seafood and lighter fare I love to eat in spring. Many of my favourites come from Santorini, where the unusual volcanic soil gives the wine a unique character.

Slowly but surely, more and more Greek wine seems to be making it across the ocean. Here in Montreal, we have a few importers who are working hard to make that happen, and we’re starting to see more Greek white on the shelves of the SAQ. To celebrate that, here are a few suggestions.

Argyros Assyrtiko 2011, Santorini ($20.95 at SAQ): Floral and fruity, this is a fresh and well-balanced take on Assyrtiko that some of the minerality that’s characteristic of Santorini’s volcanic soil.

Argyros Estate Assyrtiko 2011, Santorini ($22.95 at SAQ): For only a couple of extra dollars, it’s worth trying the estate Assyrtiko, made from 180 year-old vines, for its added complexity. 20% of the blend is aged in barrel, which lends a smoky character along with the citrus fruit and minerality.

Sigalas Assyrtiko 2012, Santorini ($21.70 at SAQ): Super fresh and lively, with lots of concentrated citrus fruit (lemon and pink grapefruit) and a good amount of acidity. Very refreshing. I asked Paris Sigalas, the producer, about the ageing potential of Assyrtiko, and he suggests a good example can age for 8-10 years. He was also pouring a 2008 (unfortunately not available at the SAQ), and it was quite fascinating to see how Assyrtiko can evolve with a few years of age. In this particular case, it gained complexity, spiciness, and tropical fruit.

Hatzidakis Assyrtiko 2011, Santorini ($21.95 at SAQ): The good stuff: fruit (citrus), minerals, and zippy acidity all in place. A very pure expression of Assyrtiko with some nice complexity and great value considering the price. As you may have noticed, I have a soft spot for the whites of Santorini, and Hatzidakis’ wines are consistently some of my favourites (and, I would say, some of the most unique on the island).

Hatzidakis Assyrtiko Cuvée 15 2011, Santorini ($28.95 at SAQ): For a splurge, try this. Made from old vines, the skins are left in contact with the juice for 12 hours, giving the wine added structure. The emphasis is less on freshness and more on complexity, with just a hint of tannin and some tension to it (I would age this one or give it some time to open up in a decanter). Very round and rich in the mouth, it has some salinity to it, with a touch of sweet spice on top of the fruit. It was my favourite discovery on the Greek wine salon. (Note: Quantities are very limited at the SAQ; it’s likely to sell out fast.)

Papagiannakos Savatiano 2012, Central Greece ($15.90 at SAQ): Much as I love Assyrtiko from Santorini, there is much more to Greek wine. This producer specializes in the Savatiano, the most widely-planted Greek grape you’ve never heard of (though you’ve perhaps heard of retsina, for which it is also often used). This dry white is more fruit-forward than the clean, mineral nose would have you guess; it’s clean, fresh, and tasty, with a bit less acidity than the typical (high acid) Assyrtiko.

Tselepos Classic 2012, Mantinia ($17.85 at SAQ): This is made from Moschofilero, another Greek white grape that’s typically very aromatic and can be very floral. This is the best example that I’ve tasted so far.  It is floral, yes, but also very lively and fresh, which gives it good balance.

Santorini, Greece

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1. My Big Fat Greek Date
2. Wine of Santorini
3. Coups de Coeur: Pulenta Estate and Sigalas

You can’t really call it cheese until it has at least six months of age, says Giuseppe Zoff. Yet he believes that the market has driven consumers to eat younger cheese, because it’s cheaper that way.

Does that sound familiar? As he spoke with passion about his dairy’s products, I was reminded of winemakers speaking about their wine. Although I have visited many wineries and have been to countless wine tastings by now, until recently, I had never visited a cheese maker for a proper cheese tasting. So I was excited to see a visit to Azienda Agricola Zoff on the agenda for our IWINETC media trip to Friuli organized by Strade del Vino e Sapori Friuli Venezia Giulia.

It was somewhat of a transcendental experience. You see, I like cheese, sure, but I’m not sure I looooovvve cheese the way some people do. I’m sometimes left feeling vaguely perplexed when people wax poetic about the stuff, stars in their eyes (when you can imagine the drool). But after trying the cheese and especially the yoghurt at Zoff, I could have written a poem too.

Azienda Agricola Zoff is a small, family-run dairy. They believe in natural, traditional methods to produce what they believe are the healthiest products. (They stressed that they aim to provide nutrition, not mere food.) All of their cheese is made from raw milk and they don’t pasteurize. Upon our arrival, they proudly took us to see the cows, and then the rest of the dairy.

We tried several types of incredibly fresh-tasting cheese, including Ricotta, Mozzarella, Latteria, and Caciotta (some plain and some crusted with herbs). Latteria is a hard cheese that’s traditional to the region, made in big wheels and aged. We tasted both a two-month and a four-month version, and it was amazing to see what a difference two months of age made in the taste.

As much as I liked the cheese, the yoghurt was my favorite. It was incredibly rich, thick, and creamy, and so flavorful that I was happy to eat the plain yoghurt all on its own. And of course the wine geek in me was interested to find out that their plain yoghurt is naturally a bit sweeter than most because, although they don’t add any sugar, they stop the fermentation before all the sugar is converted to acid.

Finally, something that Giuseppe Zoff introduced as “better than heaven”: a dulce de leche-flavoured yoghurt. A hush came over the room as we all licked those cute little yoghurt pots absolutely clean.

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My not-so-humble abode at La Subida

When you are handed a glass of bubbly and a piece of crispy Parmesan on a stick immediately upon entering an establishment (after a long bus ride from Croatia to northern Italy, in our case), well, let’s just say that it bodes well. Add in a piece of freshly-shaved prosciutto as you warm yourself by the fire in the rustic-chic reception area? Bonus.

Such was our introduction to one of my favourite venues from a trip to Italy’s Friuli region, part of the International Wine Tourism conference blogger and media post-trip that was generously organized and sponsored by Strade del Vino e Sapori Friuli Venezia Giulia.

To say that La Subida is a small hotel and restaurant doesn’t quite do it justice. Better to call it an agriturismo, as they say in Italian. It’s located in Cormòns, a town in the Collio countryside at the heart of the Friuli wine region. Run by Josko Sirk and his family, who also live on site, it’s a fantastic spot for a country-style getaway.

Front entry area at La Subida

Following our reception, we were ushered into a warm dining room for a memorable multi-course meal. We started with a small pear, cheese, and nut pastry, continued with a modern take on risotto that was served with pomegranate seeds in a small glass pot, and then ravioli with a meat cream sauce. In Italy, as I was to learn, it’s not unusual to have a risotto and a pasta dish – and that’s before the main course!

With each course came local wine. I particularly enjoyed Andrea Drius’ Friulano 2011 from Collio, which had lush peach and apricot fruit, mineral notes, and a hint of spicy creaminess. Friulano used to be called Tocai Friulano, but to avoid confusion with Tokaji or Tokay of Hungary, the name “Tocai” was recently banned by the EU. Whatever the name, it is a popular white grape of the region.

I’ve had palate-cleansing sorbet in between courses before, but none quite as unusual as the one we were served next: grape vinegar sorbet, using grape vinegar that’s made in-house. To make the grape vinegar, the Sirk family selects grapes that are put through an alcoholic fermentation, as is done for wine. It may sound odd, but it was very tasty.

After a main course of veal shank, a variety of to-die-for desserts to share among the table, and a final glass of wine, Anna Berra’s Ramandolo 2007, a dark orange-gold dessert wine that tasted like orange blossoms, I knew I would sleep well. It was time to find our accommodations for the evening.

Main building at La Subida

When I entered my two-level cabin (that’s right, not just a room, a whole cabin) I found a fireplace, rustic yet modern decor, a kitchen (stocked with a couple bottles of the wine we’d had for dinner, just in case), a huge bathroom, and a fox skin on a comfortable-looking bed. “Wow,” I said out loud. I only wish I could have spent more time there, made a fire and relaxed with another bottle of that delicious Friulano.

The next morning I woke up for a quick walk around the beautiful grounds that I hadn’t seen in the dark. With more time, I would have explored the hiking trails and other outdoor activities (they have a pool, tennis courts, and more on site) before filling up on their gourmet breakfast spread.

All I have to say to the staff of La Subida is “Grazie mille!”. I sincerely hope I’ll be back.

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When it comes to natural wine, sulfur can be a point of contention.

Even those who agree on a basic definition of natural wine – something along the lines of Alice Feiring‘s “nothing added, nothing taken away” – don’t always agree on the role that sulfur should play in a winemaking process considered to be natural. Sulfur is sometimes the one exception to the “nothing added” rule.

I’m not talking about sulfur used throughout the winemaking process, of course, but just about a minimal amount added at bottling, which many feel is necessary to preserve the wine for shipping. I think most would agree that you should use as little sulfur as possible in natural winemaking, but to use absolutely none at all is a definite risk, one that not everyone is willing to take.

The solution proposed by Domaine Marcel Lapierre? Let the customer decide.

Marcel Lapierre is well known for his role not only in spurring the natural wine movement, but also in reestablishing the reputation of Beaujolais wines in general. Following his untimely death in 2010, Marcel Lapierre’s son Mathieu took over the domaine in Villié-Morgon.

Mathieu Lapierre in the vineyard

Mathieu Lapierre is keeping up his father’s legacy by working as naturally as possible. “To be natural is to be unsystematic, to be very focused on the vintage and what it can be,” he said.

I met Mathieu Lapierre recently while on a trip to Beaujolais sponsored by Wines of France. Since I have long been a fan of Lapierre’s Morgon wines, it was an exciting moment. Mathieu took us on a brief tour of the 17-hectare vineyard and the cellar before we sat down in the courtyard to taste.

Since Lapierre makes a version of each vintage both with and without sulfur, we were able to do a unique tasting: two wines with the same vintage, the same winemaker, and the same grapes – the only different being that a very small amount of sulfur was added to one of the cuvées at bottling.

If customers are going to drink the wine quickly or have a good cellar, they can take the version without sulfur, Mathieu explained. But if they aren’t sure, he prefers that they take the version with sulfur. We tried both versions of several vintages.

First of all, I was surprised by what a noticeable difference that tiny amount of sulfur made in each vintage. What surprised me the most, however, was that there was no conclusion to be made in terms of which version I personally preferred.

The effects of sulfur seemed to really depend on the vintage: in some vintages (2011, 2007), I preferred the version without sulfur because it was more expressive, complex, and alive, while in one vintage (2009), I preferred the version with sulfur because it seems fresher, while the one without had gone a little flat and one dimensional.

I leave you with a few tasting notes in an attempt to let the wines speak for themselves:

Morgon 2012: 2012 was a small, complicated vintage in Beaujolais, with many problems with diseases in the vineyards. Yet, Mathieu Lapierre still managed to produce a beautiful wine. It had only been bottled three weeks before my visit, so it was of course extremely fresh and fruity (cherries!), with a dash of pepper. In comparison to the version without sulfur, the sulfured version was more restrained, the fruit less exuberant.

Morgon 2011: The version without sulfur was extremely juicy and fresh, with concentrated flavours of cranberry, raspberry, and pomegranate, and underlying dusty pepper flavours. The sulfured version tasted a bit cleaner, more mineral and straightforward. At the time I tasted, the version without sulfur felt more complex and smoky, more aromatic.

Morgon 2009: The version with sulfur was very fresh, with an emphasis on blackberries, cherries, and raspberries. Without sulfur, it tasted less rich and a bit thinner, with high acid showing through more clearly. This was the vintage where I preferred the version with sulfur for its fruit and freshness.

Morgon 2007: The difference in colour due to a bit more age was immediately apparent; it had developed more orange and brown highlights. Yet the sulfured version was still fresh, with strawberry fruit and a more developed, complex taste that had less emphasis on fresh fruit and more emphasis on savory notes of spice, pepper, and earth. The version without sulfur was similar, but with a bit more of everything: more savoriness, more spice, more darkness and complexity.  A fine example of the way Gamay can start to taste like Pinot Noir as it ages. I only wish I had a few bottles in my cellar.

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Going from Beaujolais down through the Rhône (on a trip sponsored by Wines of France), we went from gnarly-looking,  gobelet-trained Gamay vines (some quite old) in Beaujolais, through the impressively steep vistas of Hermitage in the northern Rhone, and finally past the intensely rocky soils of Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the southern Rhône.

While I collect my thoughts about all the wine I’ve tasted in the last week, here are a few shots from some beautiful vineyards.

View at Domaine Pascal Aufranc in Chénas

Gamay Vines in Beaujolais

M. Chapoutier’s Hermitage vineyard

Ermitage vineyard at M. Chapoutier

Vineyard in Châteauneuf-du-Pape

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1. On the Road Again: Beaujolais + Rhône
2. Beaujolais Pas Nouveau from Cru Morgon
3. Wine of the Week: Terres Dorées Beaujolais L’Ancien

After an afternoon to ease away from the fatigue of jetlag, Monday morning saw us up early to hit the market in Villefranche, a town not far from Lyon. At the market we met Frédéric Valette, who arrived with a straw basket slung over his shoulder to help us shop for the fresh ingredients that would become our lunch.

Once his basket was full, we drove to Fred’s atelier, La Cuisine de Fred in Le Perreon. And then the cooking lesson began. As you can perhaps see from the photo, Fred was lots of fun.

First on the menu: quenelles de brochet. A typical dish from Lyon, quenelle is a type of paste, sort of an oval-shaped dumpling, with fish or meat (ours was fish). Normally it’s baked and served with a tomato sauce, but Fred chose to slice it up and pan-fry it with butter and truffle oil, which made it even more delicious.

Next, a salad with a croustillant de chèvre, a piece of goat cheese wrapped with a piece of pork and date and baked in a thin layer of pastry.

We had the luck to be in France during the short season for fresh morels, which Fred pan fried (they are toxic when raw!) before adding them to our main course.

Our next feat was not for the queasy: we learned how to partially debone the chicken, a first for me. The chicken then went into a pan with butter, thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, onion, garlic, and, for the finale, the morels and some Beaujolais Blanc wine to be simmered and reduced. (Fred explained that when cooking with wine like this, you need to reduce the wine not only to evaporate the alcohol, but also to lessen the acidity. If you run out of liquid in the pan, you shouldn’t add more wine at a later stage, because the acidity will be too high.) For our side, we made a kind of cake of ground potatoes.

We were rewarded for all our hard work with a refreshing, aromatic, and apple-laced Beaujolais blanc from Terroir de Châtillon.

 And finally, dessert: a strawberry and mint salad macerated in a simple syrup of water, brown sugar, star anise, and cinnamon with a moelleux au chocolat (a chocolate fondant).

The food would have been delicious anyway, I’m sure, but it’s all the more satisfying when you’ve had a hand in preparing it!

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1. On the Road Again: Beaujolais + Rhône

That’s why I’m very excited to be headed to Beaujolais and (bonus!) Rhône on a trip generously sponsored by Wines of France. First stop: Domaine Lapierre in Morgon, one of my favourites. We’ll also be visiting an association of female winemakers in Fleurie called Etoiles en Beaujolais, Domaine Pascal Aufranc in Chénas, Charly Thévenet (son of Jean-Paul Thévenet, who was one of Beaujolais’ legendary ‘Gang of Four’), and several others. I hope to get a better handle on distinguishing the unique terroir (and taste) that makes up each of the  crus of Beaujolais (there are ten in all, so that may be a tall order).

Rhône is a region I’ve been meaning to explore more fully for some time, so I’m thrilled that I’ll get a chance to do so. (I had a lovely bottle of Mas de Libian at Chez Victoire last night in preparation.) First stop: Domaine Yann Chave in Crozes Hermitage. Then we’ll head to the famous M. Chapoutier estate and, from there, go south, ending our trip in Avignon.

Updates on the blog will come later, but in the meantime, I’ll be posting about my trip on my Twitter and Instagram feeds.

Related posts:

1. Wine of the Week: Terres Dorées Beaujolais L’Ancien
2. Beaujolais Pas Nouveau from Cru Morgon
3. Sometimes Even The Red Needs To Chill

Le Filet was already packed when I walked in on Tuesday night, and in stark contrast to the dreary, rainy night outside, the atmosphere was upbeat and festive. In fact, the room was positively buzzing. That may have had something to do with the presence of Véronique Rivest, fresh from her big win in Tokyo, who was one of several familiar faces from the Quebec wine scene in the crowd.

I had happily accepted an invitation to attend a dinner hosted by Burgundy Wines. The theme of the evening was L’Accord Parfait (the perfect pairing) and to honour this, each course included a flight of wines paired with two different dishes, served family style. We tried twelve different wines that had been selected with the goal of presenting all the various forms of Burgundy’s terroir, from regional to grand cru.

My favourite pairings of the night? All the food and wine put in front of us through the course of the highly enjoyable evening was stellar, but for me a couple stood out.

The first was a Chablis 1er Cru, Les Vaucopins 2010 made by Domaine Long-Depaquit ($36.00 at SAQ), paired with a salad of scallops, avocado, orange, and beets. The salad was beautifully presented, with such a wash of bright, saturated colors filling the white plate. The wine was not what I think of as a typical Chablis. I found it expressive and rather intense, lush and full with flavours of passion fruit and mango. In other words, as colorful as the salad. The citrus in the salad brought out a slight citrus aspect in the wine, and the avocado stood up to the creamy texture of the wine.

But the star of the evening, in my humble opinion, was a Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru, Bel Air 2008 by Maison Philippe Pacalet. Elegant and fresh, it had a lovely floral perfume to it, with an underlying complexity of something more animal in nature, not to mention cherries and spice. My tasting note reads “shiver-up-spine good!”, if that tells you anything. It was well paired with duck served with walnuts, dates, and oyster mushrooms. At $97 (available by private import), the Bel Air is certainly not inexpensive, but this is Burgundy we’re talking about, after all.

If the popularity of the soirée is any indication, I think the organizers proved one of their points: Burgundy isn’t going out of style any time soon.

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Giorgio and Vesna Clai

In visiting winemaker Giorgio Clai, I learned that you don’t necessarily need to speak a common language to communicate about wine. And I do mean that literally: he spoke Italian and Croatian, and I spoke a strange mash-up of French and Spanish that I thought might approximate Italian, yet it’s amazing how much we managed to communicate.

And this was fortunate, because his wine was some of the most unique and intriguing that I tasted while in Croatia. As he suggested, it’s the wine that is important, after all, and all the rest is just “blah, blah, blah.”

As far as I can tell, Giorgio Clai is revered as the “godfather” of Istrian wine and is well known for his passion. He doesn’t have a web presence and his winery wasn’t obviously marked, yet anyone who knows anything about Istrian (or even Croatian) wine seems to have heard of him.

The Clai winery is located just outside the town of Buje in Croatia’s Istria region. Giorgio Clai has a small domain of 6.5 hectares and lives on the estate with his wife, Vesna. They are following biodynamic principles in the vineyard, and working with natural and non-interventionist winemaking methods in the cellar, including the use of only indigenous yeasts.

Clai’s Sv. Jakob Malvazija 2011 was particularly stunning. It’s made from the white grape Istrian Malvazija. The juice is fermented with the grape skins for about two months and then aged for a year in big barrels, producing what could be called an orange wine. But Clai is not making “orange” wine to follow the trend: in Istria, Malvazija has been made with skin contact for generations. The wine had a salty, mineral quality to it, with flavours of apricot, orange blossom, figs, and sweet spices. It also had a bit of tannin and relatively high alcohol, but it’s all very well integrated. A wine for lovers of unusual whites.

Next we tried the Ottocento Bielo 2011, a white blend of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Malvazija, and Pinot Gris. This wine was also macerated with the grape skins, but for a much shorter amount of time, and  spent about a year in big barrels. It was full and rich, almost sherry-like, orange and salty, with a little touch of barrel influence.

Each time Giorgio and Vesna Clai’s daughter Martina achieves a special milestone in her life, there comes a special wine to match, in a limited production of about 1,000 bottles or so. In 2003, Clai made a Sauvignon Blanc when she received her sommelier diploma; in 2007, there was a late harvest Malvasia; and in 2011, Martina got married, and the wedding was celebrated with a special Pinot Gris, Dedicato a Martina. It was this Pinot Gris that we tried, which was pink, with a full mouthfeel and lush cherry and raspberry fruit. Really very lovely.

The Ottocento 2011, a red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Teran, and Refosco, had bright cherry fruit and a bit of smoke on the nose, and was very fruity and smooth on the palate. It had a nice structure and lots of character. Finally, to finish, a taste of something sweet: the Tasel 2011, a rich, full, and delicious dessert wine made from dried Moscato grapes.

About 60% of Clai’s production is exported, which is a relatively high percentage compared to what I heard at other Croatian wineries. So you stand a chance at being able to find it, and, if all goes well, we may even see it here in Quebec soon.

Despite the language barriers, the boy on wine and I had a wonderful visit with this warm and friendly couple, drinking these wines with such character. If you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend paying them a visit.

Related posts:

1. My Introduction to Croatian Wine