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Essence of Pecan: a Bottle of Living History for #WBW70

[Spoiler alert: do not scroll down if you don't want to know the plot of this story before it is time]

Tucked away in a corner of our wine storage cabinet till yesterday, was a very special bottle, bought in Barcelona in December 2008. We had found the bottle at the famous wine shop Vila Viniteca close to the Santa Maria del Mar, and bought it purely on it’s reputation and the recommendations of the founders of Catavino, Ryan and Gabriella. If memory serves me right, we paid approximately 70 euro for the bottle.
Safely back in Holland, the wine was allowed to rest, and was designated for a special occasion. Somehow, we kept postponing opening the bottle: the occassion was never special enough, it seemed. Until yesterday. Yesterday was one of those days that one plus one is three. First, it was my birthday; then Catavino send out an e-mail reminding us of Wine Blogging Wednesday #70. That, together with the warm wishes from Catavino’s Ryan and Gabriella Opaz for my birthday, did it: I knew with which bottle to celebrate my birthday ánd to take part in WBW #70, dedicated to Spanish wines.
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Onderwerp: Kunst & cultuur, Proeven, Rare druiven, Social media, Spanje, Wijngeschiedenis, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags: , ,
16 februari 2011 door Reageer

Wine Blogging Wednesday #53: Cava for breakfast

Oh, sh..t.. I just read that sparkling wines are excluded for this Wine Blogging Wednesday. Well, no time to change my posting or try another wine. So be it. Better luck next time and sorry to the people at El Bloggo Torcido, this month’s host to Wine Blogging Wednesday.

Wine for breakfast is the theme for the 53rd edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday. And I knew immediately which wine to choose: since our visit to Barcelona two weeks ago, I’m hooked on and fascinated by cava! I did not know there were so many different cava’s available. In the Netherlands, only Freixenet and Codorniú seem to be around. But in Barcelona, we have tasted five different kinds in three days, all NOT from the big two.

I learned that those two companies, together with five others, control 80% of the world cava market. But there are 263 other, smaller cava producing companies in Catalonia and other parts of Spain! For this WBW I was determined to find a good cava from one of the 268 companies we hardly see in my own country. This didn’t turn out as easy as it looked, alas; besides trying to find a cava other than Freixenet or Codorniú, I also wanted a semi-seco one!

Why? Because a few weeks ago, for the first time we had a wine for breakfast. I then chose a Crémant de Bourgogne, which turned out to be too dry, too yeasty for a combination with fresh fruits and sweet breakfast items. In a semi-seco, the dosage contains just a little more sugar, thereby giving the sparkling wine just that little more roundness and fruitiness that it needs to go with fresh fruit and a slice of sweet raisin bread with butter.

My search took me to several liquor stores and supermarkets in my vicinity, but all cava’s were Brut. I searched the websites of close-by wine speciality shops and found again only Bruts. I visited one wine speciality shop I hadn’t been to before and found an interested cava ‘Zeta Reserva’ which I bought, but which is a Brut also and will remain closed till another occasion arises.

In the end, I found one semi-seco, at my regular supermarket. Guess which one… Yes, Freixenet Carta Nevada. Well, alright then, this will by my breakfast wine for WBW 53. I was completely right about wanting to find a semi-seco: this wine combined very well with the fresh fruit (kiwi, grapes, apple, pear) and the sweet raisin bread.
The colour is pale yellow, the bubbles nice and tiny, with little strings of pearls in the glass. In the nose a hint of toast, but not to much, and much fresh fruit. I detected even some slight minerality and a touch of sweet-sour apples. This is a very agreeable breakfast wine, especially since it’s alcohol percentage is only 11%. I am satisfied with the results, but my search for cava’s in the Netherlands other then from the big two will continue. My readers on Wijnkronieken will hear more on Spain’s most famous sparkling wine this year!

More information on cava on the internet: check out Catavino and their special Newsletter.

Onderwerp: Social media, Spanje, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags: ,
14 januari 2009 door 2 Reacties

Boskoopbladeren en WBW #39

Slechts één trosje heeft de boskoop in onze tuin dit jaar geproduceerd. Maar de plant heeft het deze herfst goedgemaakt door prachtige herfstkleuren te ontwikkelen. De middagzon van vorige zondag maakte de kleuren nog mooier!
De wijngaarden in de Bourgogne in de herfst moeten ook erg mooi zijn, aldus een familielid van mij. Ik kreeg er vorig jaar een foto van toegezonden. Vooral de gamay schijnt prachtige kleuren te ontwikkelen.

Over de Bourgogne gesproken: Brooklynguy heeft een prachtige samenvatting gemaakt van Wine Blogging Wednesday 39 – over de wijnen van de Côte Chalonnaise en de Mâconnais. In totaal werden 52 wijnen door 36 mensen beschreven; 33 uit de Mâconnais, 18 uit de Côte Chalonnaise. Voor nog meer prachtige statistieken moet je Brooklynguy’s Wine and Food Blog zelf maar even bezoeken. Veel leesplezier.

Onderwerp: Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
22 november 2007 door Reageer

Wine Blogging Wednesday #39: Pouilly-Fuissé

Again, this month, I hardly had any time to take part in Wine Blogging Wednesday #39, where ‘silver’ Burgundies stand in the spotlight. Not that I have never tasted silver Burgundies, i.e., Burgundies not from the fabled Côte d’Or; on the contrary, we spent a holiday along the borders of the river Saone, in the Chalonnais, and have had in our wine cellar several bottles of Clos Salomon, from AOC Givry.

But I couldn’t find any tasting notes on the Clos Salomon, and had to find another wine to write about. At the annual Fall Tasting of our regular wine merchant, I found the solution to my problem. On the table was a Pouilly-Fuissé 2004 from Domaine de la Collonge, priced at € 15,95. Pouilly-Fuissé is a village in the Mâconnais, south of the more famous wine areas in Burgundy. Owner of Domaine de la Collonge is Gilles Noblet. I found a lot of information on this domaine on the website of the International Wine of the Month Club.
A Pouilly-Fuissé is allways white and made of 100% chardonnay; it must not be mistaken for a Pouilly-Fumé, which is a wine made from sauvignon blanc from the Loire area.

‘Our’ Pouilly-Fuissé is a soft fresh wine, with lots of fruit in the smell and the taste. It tastes ripe and full, with hints of melon, peach and hazelnuts. It will undoubtedly combine well with fish, poultry and green pasta salades.
The Domaine de la Collonge Puilly-Fuissé can also stand on its one, as an aperitif. In that, it differed enormously with the Bernardus Chardonnay 2005 from Monterey in California. More or less as a wild card, this wine was added to the table at the Fall Tasting; its maker, Ben Pon, is a Dutchman who has made his fortune in the automobile business.
The Californian wine is heavier, has lots of vanille flavours and I would recommend drinking it only with food. The French Chardonnay is much ‘lighter’, fresher and fruitier and can be drunk on its own.
For me, this Pouilly-Fuissé is a very fine example of how good a ‘silver’ burgundy can be. It gives maximum drinking pleasure for a very reasonable price!

Photo: Solutré Rock in Pouilly-Fuissé
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Onderwerp: Frankrijk, Proeven, Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
14 november 2007 door 1 Reactie

Silver Burgundy – Wine Blogging Wednesday#39

De pen is weer doorgegeven onder wijnbloggers: Brooklynguy mocht deze maand het 39ste thema voor Wine Blogging Wednesday kiezen. Het is bourgogne geworden, maar dan niet die van de Côte d’Or of Côte de Beaune, maar van de ‘zilveren’ – zoals Brooklynguy het noemt – gebieden daaronder, de Côte Chalonnaise en de Mâconnais. Uit deze gebieden komen wijnen die de kwaliteit van de ‘echte’ bourgognes kunnen evenaren, maar waar je stukken minder voor betaalt.
Opnieuw een thema naar mijn hart! Tijdens een vakantie met het gezin leerde ik het gebied kennen, en uiteraard brachten we er wijn uit mee. Via onze wijnhandelaar kennen we er ook een aantal goede producenten; Wijnkronieken doet dus weer mee. Rond 14 november a.s. zal ik verslag doen van een wijn uit een van de beide gebieden.

Onderwerp: Frankrijk, Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
27 oktober 2007 door Reageer

Too late: Wine Blogging Wednesday#38

Alas, Wine Blogging Wednesday # 38 was last week! We had the dates wrong and now are too late for Catavino to include our posting in the round-up. But we did try two Portuguese table wines last Sunday, and we don’t want to withhold you the results.
My husband cooked a nice Jamie Oliver stew, the one for Andy the gasfitter (from Jamie’s Dinners), to go with a wine from the Alentejo and a wine from the Douro. The Alentejo wine, Dignitas Reserva 2001 is made by a Dutchman who lives in Portugal, Herman van Beuningen. The Douro one is one of our favourites: Meio Queijo 2004 from Johnny Graham’s Churchill Graham Company.

Both wines combined rather well with the stew (veal, carrots, chick peas, tomatoes, potatos), but the Meio Queijo was the more lively one. The wine livened up the stew very well. A short tasting note for the Meio Queijo 2004: ruby red colour, young and creamy in the nose, vanilla, lots of red fruit, a simple but pleasant wine for stews and other rustic cooking.
The Dignitas 2001 was a more ‘dignified’ wine. The age difference was also noticeable. This wine did not combine as well as the first one with the simple stew; it is more a good wine for sipping by the fire.

Johnny Graham’s red Douro table wines have a special meaning to us. A couple of years ago, in May 2003, our family of four spent a spring holiday in the Douro region. Since our regular wine merchant is the exclusive importer in the Netherlands for Churchill port wines, and since those are our favorite and we met Johnny Graham at a tasting, we very much wanted to pay a visit to the Churchill lodge in Villa Nova da Gaia. We had an invitation from Johnny Graham to call him when we were in the neighbourhood, so that is what we did.
Arriving at the lodge, the kids were parked in the office of a secretary with comic books, paper and crayons, and we received the grand tour. The highlight of the tour was a tasting in the blending room, with magnificent views over the river Douro and the city of Oporto. We tasted single quinta ports that were not yet on the market and a table wine that was going to be released later that year! It was not the first year Churchill made table wines, but we still thought of it as a great privilege. We have cherished the memory of that visit ever since and have drunk the Churchill Estates red table wines several times after.

At that time the Meio Queijo was not yet in existence. A year or so later, at a tasting, our wine merchant introduced a second table wine from the company, called Vinha do Meio Queijo. It was developed especially for the Dutch market. Since Johnny Graham is a great lover of Dutch cheese, he had given the new wine an appropriate name: meio queijo translates as half a cheese! The Meio Queijo is a simpler wine than the Churchill Estates, but also very good and very much a wine for every day. And compared to the price of a lot of non-European red wines, the Meio Queijo with its € 5,75 holds up very well. We prefer this one to wines from further afield (Australia, South Africa). Furthermore, they have that extra meaning to us that makes wine so special: they have a history with the maker ánd in our family now!

Onderwerp: Portugal, Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
17 oktober 2007 door 4 Reacties

Portugese tafelwijnen voor Wine Blogging Wednesday #38

Wine Blogging Wednesday is al weer aangekondigd. De 38ste editie vindt plaats op 17 oktober a.s. en zal gewijd zijn aan Portugese tafelwijnen. Het thema werd bedacht en gepresenteerd door Catavino, een Engelstalig blog dat vanuit Spanje onderhouden wordt door Gabriella en Ryan Opaz. Gabriella en Ryan houden zich alleen bezig met Iberische wijnen, wijnen uit Portugal en Spanje dus (en misschien ook wel uit Andorra en Gibraltar….)

Lees alvast een stukje van de inleiding van Wine Blogging Wednesday #38:

“So head out and find a Portuguese table wine, write a little blurb on your blog about it in whatever language fits your fancy, and send it to ….@catavino.net. If you don’t have a blog, but want to share your tasty treat with us, than just email us your notes at the same address. Then, once we’ve collected all the tasting notes, we will still do the traditional round up and link backs, but you’ll also be in for an additional surprise. We don’t want to give away our secret yet, so you’ll have to stay tuned!
Now the bonus points! We will also offer up ‘bonus points’ (no monetary value other than a possible happy dance) for people who:
• Choose a wine outside of Vinho Verde and the Douro.
• Taste more than one region and compare the two.
• Seek out a varietal that you’ve never heard of (it shouldn’t be hard with 200+ to choose from).
• Cook up a Portuguese dish to pair with your wine.”

Via Catavino kun je ook informatie vinden over Spaanse en Portugese wijnen. Let wel op: het gaat om Portugese tafelwijnen, dus NIET om port of madera.

Wat is Wine Blogging Wednesday? Dit bloggersevenement is opgezet door Lenn van Lenndevours in 2004. Het is de bedoeling dat één wijnblogger een thema kiest, bijvoorbeeld pinot noir uit de Nieuwe Wereld of zoals nu Portugese tafelwijnen, en dat dat thema gepresenteerd wordt op zijn of haar blog. Andere (wijn)bloggers wordt gevraagd wijn rondom dat thema te gaan proeven en een beschrijving te publiceren op hun eigen blog. Die beschrijving moet op of vlak voor een bepaalde woensdag gepubliceerd worden. Daarbij wil de organisator van die maand natuurlijk graag even op de hoogte gesteld worden van het feit dat je meedoet en dat je iets gepubliceerd hebt. Die organisator schrijft dan een samenvatting van alle geproefde wijnen en doet daarbij verslag op zijn blog. En daarna wordt het stokje doorgegeven aan een volgende blogger.
Dus aan alle Nederlandse en Vlaamse bloggers de oproep: doe mee. We zijn al met zijn tweeën, want Maarten van ChateauBrys is ook een trouwe deelnemer. Ik publiceer wel in het Engels over Wine Blogging Wednesday; zo krijg je ook nog eens wat internationale bezoekers.

De prachtige foto hierboven is afkomstig van de Flickr-pagina die Catavino heeft ingericht, speciaal voor foto’s rondom Spaanse en Portugese wijn(bouw). Geplaatst met toestemming.

Onderwerp: Portugal, Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
20 september 2007 door Reageer

WBW en Dag 2

Eigenlijk zou ik nu heel enthousiast moeten vertellen over dag 2 van de vinologenopleiding. Ik zal echter de pret voor de cursisten van groep B niet bederven; een verslag volgt dan ook volgende week maandag.

Maar ik kan vanavond wel enigszins trots melden dat Wijnkronieken gesignaleerd is in Amerika. Dr. Vino publiceerde vandaag de ’round up’ van Wine Blogging Wednesday 37, waarin inheemse druiven centraal stonden. Wijnkronieken wordt als volgt genoemd: Mariëlla Beukers from Holland blogs (in English!) about visiting Thierry Navarre in the Languedoc who makes a wine from ribeyrenc–wow, off-the-beaten-path! (and called a ‘Cépage oublié du Languedoc’). En ik kreeg nog bonuspunten ook, omdat ik de wijn geproefd had op de plek waar hij gemaakt werd.
Er zijn deze keer 52 deelnemers geweest, waaronder een aantal zeer lezenswaardige. Zelf heb ik heel erg genoten van het verslag van Bob Gregg, over de inheemse druiven van Quebec. Maar er zijn ook verhalen over tannat, barbera, langrein, touriga nacional etc…

Het is mijn bedoeling maandelijks mee te gaan doen aan de originele Wine Blogging Wednesday. Ik zal hier ook het thema van de volgende WBW doorgeven zodra dat bekend is, samen met een korte toelichting op de bedoelingen van de originele Wine Blogging Wednesday.

Onderwerp: Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
17 september 2007 door 2 Reacties

Going native – Wine Blogging Wednesday #37

For the 37th edition of the original Wine Blogging Wednesday, Dr. Vino picked the theme ‘Going native’. Winelovers and bloggers all over the world are asked to taste wine of a grape variety that is native to the region it is grown in. Of course the big six – Riesling, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Pinot Noir – are excluded, even if you want to taste and discuss a wine from France.

Picking a native grape in Europe is a piece of cake, I am sorry to say. My first idea was to choose an Austrian Grüner Veltliner or an Italian Tocai Friulano. Or maybe a Spanish Monastrell, Portuguese Albariño or German Silvaner. In the end, we (my husband and I) came back to France. In the summer of 2006, we had a very nice wine experience. Dick Veerman, well known Dutch food blogger, took us to visit winemaker Thierry Navarre, who makes wine in the little town of Roquebrun, in the Languedoc (south of France). There we tasted an amazing array of wines; one of those wines was called Ribeyrenc.

The grape variety ribeyrenc is also known under the name aspiran. It is a grape that all but disappeared after the great phylloxera disaster in the late 19th century. Small pockets of the variety survived until 1956, when a big frost destroyed the remaining hectares. Thierry Navarre’s father was able to hold on to his rows of ribeyrenc, though, and Thierry himself is now trying to save this delicate grape variety from oblivion. With the help of local growers Navarre is planning to expand the area of ribeyrenc planted.

When this grape receives the attention it deserves, you will find in the glass something that has a strong resemblance to good Pinot Noir. At the moment, Navarre has still so little ribeyrenc planted that the wine isn’t advertised anywhere, not even in his own tasting room! Only friends, acquaintances and lovers of good wine are allowed to buy a few bottles of wine. We were fortunate enough to buy three bottles of this delicious wine. Navarre hopes that in a few years he will have enough vines to be able to produce more bottles of ribeyrenc.

Last Sunday we opened our remaining bottle of Ribeyrenc 2005, ‘Cépage oublié du Languedoc’ (forgotten Languedoc varietal). We drank it with ‘coq au vin’ (chicken in wine), a dish that goes well with Pinot Noir from Burgundy. What a treat that was, again! The wine smelled of delicate wild strawberries, and tasted fresh and fruity, with balanced acids, little tannins and a medium finish. The alcohol percentage was only 11%, fitting in with a new European trend towards wines with lower alcohol percentages! What a pity we had only one bottle left …

Wijnkronieken (Wine Chronicles) has decided to participate in the original Wine Blogging Wednesday. Although we are the initiators of `Wine Blogging Wednesday goes Dutch’, we always liked the original American idea better. The Dutch version of WBW used a different concept: we tasted two wines easily available in The Netherlands and compared tasting notes. Several months ago we decided to pull the plug from the Dutch version of WBW, because the response was disappointing.

At the time we did not give enough credit to Lenn Thompson‘s original Wine Blogging Wednesday idea, although we rectified that later. By taking part in the original WBW, we hope to give real credit to Lenn’s highly original idea, still going strong after 37 editions.

Onderwerp: Frankrijk, Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
12 september 2007 door 1 Reactie

WBW tijdelijk in de ijskast

De afgelopen acht maanden hebben we met veel plezier Wine Blogging Wednesday georganiseerd. Samen met Ed van Wijnerij, Dick van (inmiddels) Winelog en Cuno van Wijnsuggestie maakten we een vrolijke start. Al gauw deed ook Drinkblog mee, gevolgd door het Ministerie van Eten en Drinken en Wijn.blog. Onlangs besloot Dining&Wining aan te haken, dat toen mooi Wijnsuggestie kon opvolgen, aangezien dat met deelname gestopt was.

Enthousiast deed ook Onno Kleyn mee, schreef over ons in de Volkskrant en zocht iedere keer een recept voor ons uit. Andere wijnschrijvers schreven over ons initiatief: zo ontdekte ik laatst dat Magda van der Rijst WBW noemde in het oktobernummer van het PGGM Magazine. En Wijninfo nam informatie over ons op op hun site.

Echter, ondanks een aantal zeer enthousiaste deelnemers is de respons toch achtergebleven bij wat we hadden gehoopt. Ailko Faber meldde het ook al in zijn eindoordeel van vorige maand.

Daarom hebben we besloten Wine Blogging Wednesday tijdelijk in de ijskast te zetten, om te kijken hoe we een en ander in een ander vat kunnen gieten. Uiteraard zijn jullie ideeën daarbij van harte welkom. Laat ons maar eens weten wat je er tot nu toe van vond, wat er goed was, wat er beter kan.
Wij hebben inmiddels wel een aantal nieuwe ideeën, we hebben alleen nog even tijd nodig ze uit te werken.

Al diegenen die hebben deelgenomen: bedankt mensen, het was leuk! We hopen dat jullie ervan genoten hebben. Al diegenen die niet hebben deelgenomen: jammer, jullie hebben iets gemist. Houdt Wijnkronieken en de andere blogs maar in de gaten, jullie horen nog van ons.

Onderwerp: Social media, Wine Blogging Wednesday Tags:
7 februari 2007 door 3 Reacties
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