Wine Blogging Weds #68 Gets Its Gamay On
This week’s edition of Wine Wednesday coincides with Wine Blogging Wednesday, #68 where wine bloggers from around the world taste and blog on a common theme each month with thanks to Lenn Thompson of New York Cork Report who started it five years ago!
This month “Drink What You Like” hosts April’s Wine Blogging Wednesday 68 – Got Gamay? and points out that, “Gamay is unfortunately best know as the grape that produces Beaujolais Nouveau, popularized by George Duboeuf.”
With pork tenderloin on the menu, I checked around to see about this pairing and discovered this article on various chefs’ wine pairings with pork tenderloin.While each chef had a different wine to suggest depending on the presentation of the pork, I found one chef who appreciates beaujolais with the “other” white meat:
“When I think of pork, the word ‘delicate’ doesn’t often come to mind. Tenderloin is the one exception. When prepared with a gentle focus, pork tenderloin can be as supple and juicy as … well … a ripe grape. For me, there is nothing that pairs better with a pork tenderloin than the spicy, jammy, bramble fruit of Beaujolais. That’s right, I said it. Beaujolais! Not Nouveau, but Beaujolais Crus, specifically Fleurie. The appellation of Fleurie is in the north of the Beaujolais region and wines from here are made in the traditional style
– little if any carbonic maceration. The resulting wines exude elegant fruit, spice, and flowers – violets, roses, peaches, anise and black currants. At around $20, the Michel Chignard Moriers 2006 is one wine that should not be missed. – Ben Spencer, a diploma student with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and an IntoWine Featured Writer”
Since I’d probably have to drive a ways to find that wine, and since I couldn’t find any Beaujolais from Washington State (trying to earn my place on the WBC-or-Bust bus now thatI’ve won a scholarship to WBC!), I went for a 2008 Louis Jadot Beaujolais from my local grocery store where it and the tenderloin were conveniently on sale ($3.99 for the meat, $7.99 for the wine instead of $12.99).
As the web is overwhelmed with sites trying to sell wine and everything else, I went to trusty Wikipedia to learn:
Gamay is a very vigorous vine which tends not to root very deep on alkaline soils resulting in pronounced hydrological stress on the vines over the growing season with a correspondingly high level of acidity in the grapes. The acidity is softened through carbonic maceration, a process that also gives the wine tropical flavors and aromas, reminiscent of bananas.
Gamay-based wines are typically light bodied and fruity. Wines meant to be drunk after some modest aging tend to have more body and are produced by whole-berry maceration. The latter are produced mostly in the designated Crus areas of northern Beaujolais where the wines typically have the flavor of sour cherries, black pepper, dried berry and raisined blackcurrant.[6]
Back in the 80s, I used to drink California Gamay Beaujolais a lot (when I wasn’t drinking Ridge Zin because I worked there!) I liked it slightly chilled, and it went well with light meals, picnics, and basically my lifestyle at the time. I could bring it to family events like turkey and ham dinners and people liked it. And I liked that I liked this wine that most people didn’t even know what it was. (Actually, back then, most people didn’t know any wines at all!) But it really wasn’t gamay beaujolais! According to the link above to Wikipedia, what was produced up until 2007 in California is actually some clone of pinot noir!
And what about the oft-disparaged Beaujolais Nouveau? I like it too, especially the 2003 vintage. Nouveau is picked early and released right around Thanksgiving. It’s meant to be enjoyed right away. Although some people cellar it, it’s not expected to develop much with age and typically loses the fresh fruity aspects that this varietal and style is known for.
When I first opened Louis Jadot 2008, there was a nostalgic rush of memories from my early 20s: fresh, fruity, friendly grape or cherry juice. Lively, bright, and pretty in the glass, almost like a young girl. Not much to the finish, but it made me smile as it left my palate.
For dinner, I made a salad I hoped would pair well: arugula, goat cheese, cranberries, cashews, and portobella mushrooms sauteed in port served with a port and balsamic reduction sauce. Yummy! The wine was neutral with the salad, just fine–didn’t add, didn’t negate.
Our main course was the pork tenderloin prepared by my spouse (when he wasn’t making a paper rocket launcher for our son’s science fair project!) The pork tenderloin suffered a bit in the transaction; there just wasn’t time to mess with the plums and while it was cooked to sweet pink tender perfection, the intense rub he used was more of a salt/pepper/cumin/fresh rosemary/fresh sage that would have paired better with a mourvedre or GSM than the light weight fruity Gamay.
The wine then went through a dull period, and then, several hours later when I tasted it again, it was more complex, with some earth, some violets even, and it was much more engaging.
Louis Jadot Beaujolais has a real cork closure, a reasonable 12.5 alcohol, and the label looks fancy and French. You can’t ask for much more for an $8 wine on sale that’s going to please most people and go reasonably well with a lot of different kinds of foods.
AP Wins Scholarship to 2010 WBC in WA!
Yes, I did! I won a scholarship to attend this year’s Wine Blogger’s Conference in Walla Walla Washington!
Which of course calls for a celebration and what’s more festive to drink than a sparkling wine?
A sparkling wine from Washington State!
Because nothing says congratulations and celebrations like sparkling wine, and this one by Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut is really festive! It’s pleasing to the palate with notes of crisp Washington apples, nice balance of sweet to acid, and it’s easy to find here in California. At only $10 on sale at the local grocery store, I thought nothing of icing it down and opening it–actua
lly, the cork popped itself when I left it alone for a few minutes! At that price, and with a real cork cork, it compares very favorably with the California sparklers I know in its price range.
According to Rick Casqueiro, Winemaker, “Sparkling wine is a wonderful yet often overlooked accompaniment to food. Bright acidity and effervescence cleanses the palate, while the delicate flavors compliment a wide array of dishes. Cuvée Brut pairs very well with Japanese cuisine, my favorite is with sashimi. Sip with bagels and lox for a relaxing weekend brunch.” –Rick Casqueiro, Winemaker
Yay!! I’m going to Washington! I’m going to taste hundreds of fabulous wines I’d never even heard of! I’m going to learn all about Washington terroir and walk vineyards and meet winemakers! I’m going to hang with all the important wine blogging movers and shakers!
Please, if you can, send along a little more cash to the Scholarship Fund so other deserving wine bloggers will be able to attend this year’s Wine Blogger’s Conference in Walla Walla Washington!
Now on to my next target–getting a place on the WBC-or Bust bus since I know I’ll be attending the conference!! More Washington wine, please! I wonder what else I’ll be able to find around here from Washington?
Saturday is Record Store Day! Lotsa loot!
Jack White says, “I think it’s high time the mentors, big brothers, big sisters, parents, Guardians, and neighborhood ne’er do wells, start taking younger people that look up to them to a real record store and show them what an important part of life music really is. I trust no one who hasn’t time for music. What a shame to leave a child, or worse, a generation orphaned from one of life’s great beauties. And to the record stores, artists, labels, dj’s, and journalists; we’re all in this together. Show respect for the tangible music that you’ve dedicated your careers and lives to, and help It from becoming nothing more than disposable digital data.”
Neko Case says, “I love the smell of them. I love that people actually care for and know about the music they are selling.” Read more…
Meet My New Steampunk Laptop!
According to the article “What is Steampunk,”
Steampunk parties like it’s 1899, literally. Steampunk, as a subgenre of speculative fiction, may use alternate worlds, a dystopian future, alternate history, and so on, but always has at least one thing in common—the technology. In steampunk, the level of technology, regardless of how advanced it might seem, is always based on spring-propelled or steam propelled gadgetry, ergo the word “steampunk”.
I have really been getting into the whole Steampunk scene–so much so that I’m trading in my MacBook Pro for this Steampunk Laptop by DataMancer that I read about in this 2007 Wired Article about Steampunk gadgetry.
Not really. Unless it came with one of the cool Steampunk flying contraptions!
And as much as I love some of the Steampunk bikes I’ve seen, I’m sticking with my bikergo.
But we are having fun with the clothes! The children in the Bell Arts workshops during the past few weeks have come up with some fantastic creations! And just wait until you see my grommeted deconstructed reconstructed corset and skirt!
Please join us on Sunday, April 18! Dress up yourself and meet us at the Artists Union Gallery at 130pm for the ArtRide or join us at Bell Arts at 4pm for a talk from a Time Traveler from Ventura circa 1910 and for the Steampunk Couture Fashion Show!
Bring Your Mug To Starbucks: Free Coffee!
Nope, it’s not because we Americans need some caffeine to get our taxes done and in the mail before midnight tonight!
To encourage Starbucks customers to use their own mugs to help reduce environmental impacts during Earth Month and every month,
Customers Who Bring a Reusable Tumbler into Starbucks Stores on Thursday April 15 Receive a Complimentary Brewed Coffee!
Since 1985, Starbucks has offered a small discount if you bring your own cup. They’ll even rinse it out for you and be nice about it; I know because I’ve done it plenty of times.
But the company recognizes the HUGE problem its cups create and wants more people to bring their own, even though it cuts down on all those advertising moments when you and I see our friends and neighbors toting that familiar logo around.
Ben Packard, Starbucks vice president of Global Responsibility, says “We’ve set aggressive goals to minimize cup waste through recycling and reusable options, and are collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders to drive meaningful change. In addition to working with cup manufacturers, municipalities and recyclers to make our cups more broadly recyclable, we’re encouraging customers to think about reusable cups the way they think about reusable grocery bags.”
Julie Blackwell, Director of Conservation International’s Team Earth, points out that
“People can make positive choices without making sacrifices – they can still enjoy their coffee ritual, but by using a reusable cup, they reduce energy, water and CO2 from the cup production process as well as keep waste out of landfills.”
For more about Starbuck’s movement to cut down on wasteful disposable cups, visit www.starbucks.com/thebigpicture
AP Up for Wine Blogger Scholarship!
And I’m not one of those wine bloggers swimming in samples either!
So without further ado, here’s my application about why I want to go to Walla Walla Washington and why the committee should select me for a Wine Bloggers Scholarship:
- Full Name:
Gwendolyn Alley - Contact information:
gwendolynalley AT yahoo DOT com - Blog addresses and what you’re all about: Read more…
Immortal Beloved & An Ode to Joy
In Immortal Beloved, the film about Ludwig van Beethoven, there is one scene of such power that it has haunted me since the day I saw it in 1994.
Now, many scholars dispute much, if not all, of the film’s contents, but that has nothing to do with the scene I’m about to relate. For in this one part of the film, there is such an artistic melding of music and film that it takes your breath away.
You never know what you’ll find around the internet…this quote arrived along with an email from one of the Burning Moms and I love it:
I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult. – E. B. White
I don’t know where this quote by master writer E.B. White came from but this site has it too. If I get a chance, I’ll track it down because I want to include it on the syllabus for the summer school classes I’m scheduled to teach!
Yuri’s Night April 9 & 10, 2010
We’ve achieved escape velocity!
It’s spring break and so the small boy and I are going to Yuri’s Night in Mountain View CA on Friday and maybe Saturday too.
We’ve never been before but we hear it’s fabulous. The small boy is beside himself with excitement about all the cool stuff going on. Now we just need to find a place to stay tonight!
What’s Yuri’s Night? Basically NASA in Mountain View is partnering up with a bunch of Burners to produce a really cool event combining NASA stuff with Burner stuff!
Friday is for school kids and Saturday is for everyone with music and exhibits and lectures and more from noon until midnight!
Here’s the official spiel:
Taking place each year in over 120 cities world-wide, Yuri’s Night commemorates mankind’s first venture into space, by Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961, and the launch of the first Space Shuttle by NASA exactly twenty years later. It is the largest annual celebration of space exploration – and of mankind’s curiosity, scientific and technical achievements.
Yuri’s Night was founded by members of the United Nations’ Space Generation Forum in September 2000. After seven months of planning, ultimately sixty Yuri’s Night events were held on April 12th, 2001. Every year, dozens of new Yuri’s Night events are added to the global space celebration.
Yuri’s Night Bay Area began in 2007 at NASA’s Ames Research Center and has grown into the world’s largest annual Yuri’s Night event – a diverse interactive celebration of science, sound and art.
For last year’s April ArtRide, we had a “Bunny Hop” from gallery to gallery. It was a simple outfit to execute: all people needed were a pair of Bunny Ears and I’d ordered a couple dozen of LED blinking ones to give out to people for a small donation to cover costs.
This was a our third ArtRide and I think we had about 20 people on it riding along Ventura Avenue and Main Street in our Bu
nny Ears. As you can see, we even figured out ways to attach them to bike helmets!
(Thanks to Jenessa Nye for the photos–that’s Jenessa in the pink satin headband! And thanks Jenessa for always getting so fabulously decked out for the ArtRides!)
art predator 