OCTOBER 2021 FEATURED PREMIUM WINES
WINE ONE: FRANZ WENINGER FURMINT STEINER
About: Steiner Vineyard has been called western Hungary’s grand-cru since the 15th Century. This east facing site features primary mica schist, and gneiss dragged across Austria from the alps by glacial migrations. This site is warm and dry but low yielding due to extremely low levels of soil nutrients. The grapes were destemmed and pressed into large barrels. After several months on lees and malolactic conversion, the wine is racked, sulphured, and bottled. Only 75 cases were produced.
Taste: This wine is pale gold in the glass. The nose is capricious, swaying recklessly from ripe, honeyed fruit too tart saline minerality. You’ll find aromas of key lime, honeysuckle, gooseberry, passionfruit, Himalayan salt, lemon pith, and ginger. On the palate, it is precociously tart, finishing umami. It sheets off your tongue, leaving you feeling crisp—a dart-like linear wine. You’ll find additional flavours of ginseng, sesame, sea buckthorn, pear skins, and ume—such a wild ride.
Pairing: This region in Hungary is renowned for its delicious root vegetables and beans. Hegykői Petrezselyemgyökér, a type of parsley root, has been granted EU protection for its outstanding quality and unique favour profile. It looks like a parsnip but is snow-white and can be used in a myriad of dishes. Whether you roast, purée or French fry, root vegetables will go incredibly well with this wine.
WINE TWO: KINDELI LUNA NUEVA
About: This brand new cuvée from Alex is made from a field blend of Pinot Gris, Viognier, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes were pressed into amphora for both fermentation and ageing. As with the rest of their cuvées, this wine is bottled without fining, filtration or Sulphur.
Taste: This wine is pale gold in the glass. The nose is wholesome with warm aromas of honey crisp apple, lilac, nectarine, sweetgrass, sandalwood, nougat, dandelion pollen, almond, and yellow plums. The palate is broad yet fresh; a cozy wine, loving and tender. It puts the blanket around your shoulders while you nap on the corduroy couch. You’ll find additional flavours of coconut water, daisies, fresh linen, golden kiwi, acorns, and Korean melon.
Pairing: Slanted Door is one of my favourite restaurants in the world. They’ve moved locations a few times over the years but have always remained a San Francisco classic. In their cookbook, Charles Phan documents their family’s immigration to the US from Vietnam, highlighting the trials and tribulations but ultimately the success of an incredibly industrious and entrepreneurial family. So many dishes from that book would pair sensationally with this wine; here are a few standouts:
Spicy Squid Salad with Chinese Celery
Steamed Halibut with Ginger Lime Broth
Fried Red Snapper with Ginger Dipping Sauce
Cashew Chicken
Bo La Lot
Vegetarian Imperial Rolls
WINE THREE: RIGOUR & WHIMSY ORIENTEERING IN THE UNDERWORLD
About: This wine comes from an east-facing site just south of Oliver in the Okanagan Valley. The Syrah was picked on the morning of October 7th. Whole clusters were fermented in open-top bin, aided by lees from their Pinot Blanc sparkling wine. After a week of carbonic maceration, they performed gentle pigeage. They added a small amount of Viognier skins to add extra structure and aromatic complexity. Four weeks from the pick, the wine was pressed off into a puncheon and a barrique for élevage. Only 96 cases were produced. 5.8 g/L TA, pH 3.66, 21 ppm SO2
Taste: This wine is saturated purple. You can feel the rumble as you descend past the incisors, deep into the belly of the beast. You’re welcomed by a ghoulish medley of black plum, blackberry, violets, black pepper, gunpowder, dry-aged ribeye, caraway, and liquorice root. Bass-driven fruits balance lugubrious tannins. There’s a streak of acidity that runs down the centre, but it plays a supporting role. Sanguine, haunting, howling. You’ll find additional flavours of paprika, black figs, cassis, dried lavender, blood orange, clove, and balsam.
Pairing: As usual, it’s always best to ask the winemaker what they’d pair with a particular wine. Costa and Jody recommend lamb. Once again, I’m opting to outsource a recipe. This time, it’s from Le Pigeon, an infamous Portland restaurant I’ve visited more times than I’d care to admit. Their grilled lamb’s tongue with creamed peas and morels would be an absolute dream with this wine. Alternatively, their lamb shank and BBQ beans would be deadly.