Merrimack Valley Magazine

Wine Notes – Gifts for Wine Lovers

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When was the last time you saw people drinking wine with frowns on their faces? I would venture to say almost never. Drinking wine tends to be very social. Once you pop that cork, you’ll often pour someone else a glass of happiness first, and then, of course, one for yourself.

Wine is so special that we are ceremonial about how we open the bottle, decant before serving, and test to be certain your guests are not subjected to the nasty smell of a corked bottle. We are fussy about the container it’s delivered in. No one really wants a box of wine, do they? We even fuss about the size and shape of the glass we pour our wine into, and the industry even tells us that wine tastes better from large and fancy stemware than from a red Solo cup. Seems unscientific, but I have to agree. 

Choosing a wine that is appropriate to bring to a dinner party can be intimidating. I enjoy the adventure of sorting through the jungle of wine choices at New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet stores, but don’t expect expert advice there, or at my local “packy.” If you find yourself in one of these stores, focus on geography and price. If possible, ask in advance what is being served for dinner so you can pair the appropriate wine with the meal. Often, however, you just don’t know. If that’s the case, look at selections from the Burgundy region of France and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. These locations grow some of the best pinot noir grapes. However, they are not cheap. Quality wines from these regions cost from $30 to $40 a bottle.

 

If you know that lamb or beef is the main course, look for wines that come from Napa Valley, California, the Bordeaux region of France, or the areas of Barolo, Barbaresco or Brunello in Italy. This is standard advice, but you’ll be in great shape when you are in the jungle and willing to spend $20-$30. Of course, it’s best to shop at a quality wine store where you can count on exceptional advice. 

Shopping with an expert by your side will make a difference. Describe the meal or the type of gift and they will offer many more choices than the basics I have outlined. In Andover, I suggest shopping at Andover Classic Wines and asking for Andrea Lewis, the wine manager. She has introduced me to many great white wines. Over the border in Salem, N.H., visit the Tuscan Market and ask to speak with Joe Comforti, their wine director. He buys all of the wine for the Tuscan Kitchen restaurants and has chosen a great selection to offer at retail. In North Andover, seek out the Wine Connextion and ask for their wine director, Sam Messina. He selects all of the wine on the shelves and will be quick to recommend the best choices. 

I recently visited the WineNot Boutique in downtown Nashua. Store owner Svetlana Yanushkevich has a Ph.D. in agriculture, a master’s degree in viticulture, and is a professional sommelier and wine educator. Shopping with Yanushkevich is a fun experience, and you’ll undoubtedly get an education along the way. She has assembled a great selection of wine and cheese, as well as some practical boutique wine gifts. I found artisan wine bottle holders in the shapes of crabs and lizards, wine glasses that somehow have a rock stuck through the stem, a big piece of granite that is a wine dispenser, a collection of quality glassware by Spiegelau, and a vast assortment of signs, wine charms and corkscrews.

One gift worthy of serious consideration for any wine lover is a decanter. I decant most of my red wine before serving and have three decanters in the house. When the last glass is poured, some wine inevitably dribbles down the side of the glass and onto the table, making me look like the amateur that I am. Because my pouring skills are so challenged, I had been looking for a wide decanter with a handle. Yanushkevich had exactly what I was looking for — a wide-bottom decanter with an angled spout and a handle. Now, even I can pour wine without spilling. 

Make someone happy this season. Whether they are wine challenged or a connoisseur, they’ll enjoy a thoughtful wine gift. Trust me — they almost never get returned. Salute!   

Andover Classic Wines
Andover, Mass.
(978) 470-0500
AndoverClassicWines.com

Tuscan Kitchen
Salem, N.H.
(603) 952-4875
TuscanBrands.com

Wine Connextion
North Andover, Mass.
(866) 857-3347
WineConnextion.com

WineNot Boutique
Nashua, N.H.
(603) 204-5569
WineNotBoutique.com

Wine Notes – Suave in September

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Growing up, I wanted to be like James Bond — well-dressed, tough and a hit with the ladies. The word was suave, which was considered a positive quality at the time. So when a friend mentioned to me that I should check out an Italian white wine called Soave (swah-vey), I thought to myself, “That wine is calling my name!” The last time I went wine shopping with my wife, she insisted on picking out a bottle because of the pretty label — admittedly not a very scientific way to choose a wine. It was the 2020 A to Z Rose, and it turned out to be a great choice — also making an attractive centerpiece on our table after we placed a flower in it. If that worked, I figured that I could be suave and learn to drink Soave.

The first step in a wine journey is tasting, so I had to find some selections. I prefer to shop at smaller wine stores with knowledgeable staff available to assist me — but my favorite places didn’t have Soave in stock. I had no choice but to search the online inventory at two big box stores. Each had several selections at various locations, so I traveled to Rochester, Nashua and Salem, N.H., along with Burlington, Mass., to collect my samples. 

Soave DOC (controlled designation of origin) is a region in northeast Italy near the city of Verona where the primary cultivar of white grape is garganega, the sixth most cultivated grape in Italy and popular in the U.S. in the post-World War II era. Those were the times when huge amounts of cheap bulk wine were being imported from Italy in fancy bottles wrapped like wicker baskets. This must have appealed to folks who needed table decorations. As time passed, people began to realize that the fancy bottles were the best part, and Soave’s popularity died on the vine. Wineries had to change production from high-yield farming to cultivation methods that produced the highest quality grape. With help from the Soave Consortium, the region is now producing a world-class product that is aggressively marketed in Europe but still suffers in the U.S. from its sordid reputation. 

Suave Wine bottles

Despite Soave’s lack of popularity here, it is worth the effort to locate. We tasted six different bottles, and even the cheap stuff was acceptable. In fact, the least expensive bottle I found, Inama Soave ($12.50) was a favorite at our neighborhood tasting. This bargain Soave is made with 100% garganega grapes even though the DOC allows up to a 30% blend of trebbiano and chardonnay. This is the key to its appeal. The quality Soave wines that would normally be available in the area are produced by the Pieropan winemaking family. Getting containers of wine shipped from Italy, or anywhere else right now, is a serious challenge. I spoke to Sabrina Reming, who manages the connoisseur division at Martignetti Companies, the leading distributor of wines and spirits in New England, and she explained that the best Italian wine choices are coming from Gallo’s Lux portfolio. The portfolio includes the best wines from each region and, because Gallo is such a huge wine conglomerate, they have plenty of inventory stateside. Gallo has exclusive distribution rights in the U.S. for Pieropan.

The easiest one to find is the Pieropan Soave Classico at about $20. Made with 85% garganega and 15% trebbiano, the flowery nose, bright acidity and ample finish make this a great food wine at a price everyone can afford. The other standouts in their portfolio are the single vineyard selections Calvarino and La Rocca. Pieropan Calvarino is only 70% garganega and 30% trebbiano. This surprised me, but the quality of this wine speaks for itself regardless of the blend. My favorite, though, was the Pieropan La Rocca made with 100% garganega. The nose has an elegant blossom perfume with a hint of almond. Exotic fruit flavors follow with a hint of vanilla and a light mineral finish. La Rocca is aged in 130-gallon to 500-gallon oak barrels, which helps amplifies the vanilla notes. I generally prefer white wine that is aged in a neutral containers like the glass-lined cement tanks used for their other selections, but in this case, the treatment is not overpowering. Unfortunately, La Rocca is difficult to find. I purchased a few bottles in Rochester from the clearance section. At $31, this is an excellent choice to bring to your next dinner party. As Soave goes well with seafood and vegetable dishes, I paired the La Rocca with a salad of arugula, beets, roasted peppers, blue cheese and blueberry vinaigrette. It also complemented the chicken cordon bleu that followed.

If you don’t find Soave on the shelf, ask your favorite wine store to order some. Your friends will think you are suave for serving this Italian favorite.

Salute!   

Wine Notes – Mastering Marsala

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Cooking With Wine This Summer? Better Get the Good Stuff.

Tasting wine is often more fun than drinking it. Before COVID-19, we would roam from station to station, stand shoulder to shoulder, and get educated by the person pouring the wine. Most importantly, we experienced the flavors from different regions side by side. We also got to determine if the person pouring was just trying to sell us something.

I received many emails this past year offering opportunities to participate in online tastings. I guess you watch someone open a bottle and describe its wonders. I didn’t fall for it since no one offered to send me wine in advance. They were obviously just selling. One high-end tasting we attended only offered wines that cost more than $60. Now this was a great educational experience, since I prefer to spend $20-$25 for most of my wine. One selection we tried was a $100 white Burgundy — one of the best expressions of chardonnay I’ve had. Then we were told that if we came back in a couple of hours, he was going to make a chicken stir-fry with it. The chef who was pouring insisted that you have to use the best wine if you want to create great dishes. 

Cooking with wine is one of my favorite experiences. Sometimes I even put it in the food. Still, you can’t expect to cook with a bad tasting wine and expect your dish to turn out great — don’t ever cook with something labeled “cooking wine.” The rule of thumb is if you can’t choke down a glass, it doesn’t belong in your cooking.

 

One of my favorite wine dishes to cook is chicken or veal Marsala. I love the nutty flavor and have been trying to recreate the “I’ll have what she’s having” experience my wife once had at Harry Caray’s in Chicago. I will admit that I used to go to the grocery store and buy the cheap stuff that says Marsala but doesn’t come from Italy. It never produced the right flavor, so my search began.

Vecchioflorio Marsala SuperioreMarsala is the westernmost town on the island of Sicily and was “discovered” as a wine world gem by English trader John Woodhouse after his ship was accidentally blown into the port in 1773. He was planning on loading the vessel with the industrial chemical sodium carbonate, but instead returned to England with a full cargo of wine from Marsala. Wine didn’t travel well at the time, so Woodhouse added alcohol to the barrels to reduce spoilage. His Marsala sold out in England and became the most popular wine in the British navy, where it was commonly used to toast the force’s many victories. Woodhouse returned to Marsala, purchasing the vineyards and creating a successful wine empire.

Today’s amber Marsala is made from a combination of grillo, catarratto and inzolia grapes. They are harvested late, increasing the sugar content of the grapes and creating its signature nutty raisin flavor. A neutral brandy distilled from wine grapes is added to the must (a mixture of fresh grape juice and solids), stopping the fermentation. Whatever amount of sugar not converted by the yeast at this point remains in the wine. This results in a sweeter wine fortified to 18% alcohol. Fortified wine will last much longer once opened and exposed to oxygen, making it the perfect bottle to sit in the kitchen ready to be added to your favorite creation.

I traveled the Merrimack Valley in search of the best Marsala wine available for drinking and for cooking. The selection of fine Marsala is rather slim. I purchased six different bottles, all under $15, and tasted and cooked with each. Nothing seems available in the area that’s a fine-drinking Marsala, but I did settle on Vecchioflorio Marsala Superiore as a very good choice. Vecchioflorio is aged in oak for 30 months, which is six months longer than the law requires and gives this wine a definitive edge. The Florio winery began when Vincenzo Florio purchased a wasteland adjacent to the winery that Woodhouse created, and it became one of the largest, most respected brands from the region. You won’t have much trouble finding Vecchioflorio. It is widely distributed in better wine stores in the Merrimack Valley. When I come across a Marsala exceptional enough for an aperitif, I’ll let you know. Meanwhile, this choice will remain in my kitchen as I continue to try to recreate Harry Caray’s chicken Marsala.

Salute!

Wine Notes – In the Shadows of Mount Etna

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The Bible tells us “there is nothing new under the sun.” But as I walk through the valley of trellised vineyards, I am pleased to be reminded that “ignorance is bliss” and that every place on Earth I look, I discover new wines.

These wines aren’t new, but they are new to me. I let my experiences guide my path and simply question things along the way, then obsess on a given subject. Recently, we had some guests over for dinner and I was assigned to make veal Marsala. Generally, I pick up Taylor Marsala at the grocery store because it’s cheap, but this time I decided that I would search for a “quality” bottle. I visited five wine stores and made a purchase at each. Most of the stores had only one inexpensive selection. Such was the case when I arrived at Andover Classic Wines, where store manager Andrea Lewis informed me that I wasn’t going to find any outstanding Marsala, but she did have some other wines from Sicily that were really hot, and, speaking of hot, were produced in the shadow of the second most active volcano on the planet: Mount Etna.

 

The volcano, located on the east coast of Sicily, has been displaying its fiery fury this year and depositing ash on the surrounding landscape. You’ve likely heard of the eruptions, but do you know about the explosive popularity of Etna DOC wines? The Etna DOC (“designation of controlled origin”) was established in 1968 as the first Sicilian wine region. For many years, high volume bulk wine was the region’s focus, but the past 10 to 15 years have brought a growing interest in higher quality production. The results are noteworthy. The high mineral content created by ash deposits and lava rocks, mountain elevation and favorable microclimates with hot days and cool nights make this region of Italy unique. 

Nerello mascalese is the dominant red grape in the region. By DNA comparison, it’s a cousin to sangiovese, but the qualities revealed from this wine grape are a combination of the tannic strength of nebbiolo and the fruitiness of pinot noir. I purchased a mixed case of wine from the Mount Etna region and blind-tasted each selection so the technical notes wouldn’t influence my findings. Initially, I noted a surprising consistency in Etna Rosso, which I later discovered was partially due to the DOC requirement that nerello mascalese must be at least 80% of the varietal. The wines were very structured, containing strong tannins and plenty of dark fruit flavors. The Etna Rosso to pair with lamb or spicy tomato sauce. My two favorites, which were both 100% nerello mascalese, were Etna Rosso Graci ($33.99) and Etna Rosso Alta Mora ($29.99).

Carricante is the premier white grape varietal in the Etna DOC, and each bottle must contain at least 60% in the blend. If the vines are in the commune of Milo, and are at least 80% carricante, the wine can be rated as “superiore.” I am always suspect when I read the English equivalents of words such as superiore and reserva on a U.S. wine label, but in Italy and other European countries the use of such terms is strictly regulated by law. I enjoyed the Vulka Etna Bianco, which was a standard 60% carricante, but my favorite Etna Bianco was from Barone di Villagrande vineyards. The blend is 90% carricante grown in Milo, but the label didn’t indicate it was designated superiore. Why not?

Alfonso Caltagirone of Barone di Villagrande explains: “The DOC of Mount Etna was born in [our] winery. Professor Carlo Nicolosi [Asmundo of the Nicolosi Asmundo family that has controlled the vineyards since the 18th century] is the man that wrote the DOC disciplinary, and so the superiore concept could be applied only to the carricante from Milo.” He continues: “The 2019 vintage showed a total acidity a couple of decimals higher than the standards dictated by the DOC disciplinary and thus we decided to maintain it with its acidity. … It was a decision to show that the vintage here still matters in terms of difference from year to year and that our wines show the signs of the year’s conditions.” 

I will continue my vicarious Sicilian journey to the Italian west coast, where Marsala is located, and search for quality wine from that region. Meanwhile, I was pleasantly distracted by the Etna Rosso and Etna Bianco. These wines can be challenging to locate, but you’ll find a great selection at Andover Classic Wines. Salute!

Andover Classic Wines
Andover, Mass.
(978) 470-0500
AndoverClassicWines.com

Wine Notes – It’s the Bomb!

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White Wine and the Unusual Pairing

Are you an adventurous wine drinker? Do you challenge yourself to try different styles and pair them with unusual bedfellows, or do you simply reach for the Blackstone merlot and call it a day? It’s really easy to grab a cab every time you have steak, or a chardonnay when chicken is served. Those pairings are tried and true, but to truly enjoy what the wine world has to offer and to enhance your wine journey it’s important to dive outside your comfort zone and experience the unknown.

For me, getting out of the red wine zone is a chore. I generally think of wine in terms of the big reds of Napa, Tuscany, Barolo, Bordeaux and Burgundy, and I’m willing to try anything in the bold red spectrum. When it comes to white wine, I navigate to New Zealand for sauvignon blanc. As an exercise of adventure, I decided it was time to find some white wine excitement.

 

My journey began at my local state liquor outlet, a wine jungle with 6,300 different selections, or so they say. I figured I was bound to find something new and exciting there, but expected to be on my own when it came to shopping. Therefore, I chose the most scientific method and walked around the store looking for a white wine that wasn’t sauvignon blanc or chardonnay and was placed on a top shelf. No wonder I drink mostly red wine, I thought to myself. The selection of great whites on the top shelves was slim, and I wasn’t interested in any of the lesser quality options on the lower levels. One bottle, though, caught my eye. It was the tallest bottle on the shelf: a grand cru riesling from the Alsace region of France, produced by Domaine Specht. Grand cru implies the best in the region, and this selection was only $25. Often, rieslings are on the sweet side, which I don’t care for, but since it was coming from Alsace, I anticipated a quality dry wine. It turned out to be a fantastic selection with complex flavors of peach and citrus. I’ll surely buy more for my cellar.

I continued to walk, passing many familiar varietals before I found the 2019 Tenuta La Rocca Gavi. Cortese di Gavi is a grape variety that comes from the Piedmont wine region of northern Italy. This was a bright wine with notes of citrus and notable minerality. The next time oysters are on the menu, this would be a great complement. After finding only two suitable wines on my own out of such a large selection, it was obvious I needed some professional help. 

One of my favorite wine professionals is Andrea DiFiore at Andover Classic Wines. I’m never shy to seek her assistance, and she has given me lots of great advice. I asked for some lesser-known white wine varietals that would be high in acid and food friendly, and she was quick to point me in the right direction. I was committed to try each of her four choices with whatever I was having for supper that week. I enjoyed the 2019 viognier from Le Paradou vineyards in the Languedoc region of France paired with a Buffalo chicken salad and blue cheese dressing. We had a 2017 fernao pires by Quinta Varzea da Pedra from Sanguinhal, Portugal, with gravlax and Italian cold cuts. And we had the 2017 Raventos de Alella pansa blanca (a xarello clone) with broccoli and pasta. It was great, but the paring I found most appealing with that wine was my Friday night steak bomb. Normally, I would expect a red would be the only way to go with steak, cheese, salami, mushrooms and onions, but since I was flooded with creative white wines, I paired this meal with the 2018 Can Feixes blanc seleccio penedes. This wine is a blend of four different white grapes: 49% parellada, 28% macabeo, 17% chardonnay and 6% Malvasia de Sitges. It was fantastic. Moving forward, I’ll be reaching for a glass of white wine the next time I order a steak bomb.

Next, I visited Michelle Skotz, who is a certified wine educator at WineNot Boutique in Nashua. She introduced me to a Sicilian grillo made by Baglio delle Fate, and a vespaiola from the northern border of Italy that’s made by Le Vie Angarano. My favorite was the 2017 Tercos torrontes from Argentina. This torrontes had a beautiful aromatic bouquet with notes of apple, peaches and grapefruit — a sure hit for any lover of sauvignon blanc.

This was truly a taste bud-opening experience, and I increased my white wine grape vocabulary to include vespaiola, grillo, fernao pires, parellada, macabeo, Malvasia de Sitges, xarello, and Cortese. Step away from chardonnay and expand your horizons with some of these fantastic whites from around the world. Salute!

  

Andover Classic Wines
Andover, Mass.
(978) 470-0500
AndoverClassicWines.com

WineNot Boutique
Nashua, N.H.
(603) 204-5569
WineNotBoutique.com

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