Wednesday, July 8 2009

Wined Up

Norton, the Pinnacle of Wit?

It's been a slow drinking season lately, what with . . . gee, I dunno. I cannot for the life of me think why I'm not drinking as much as I should. Maybe I should ask my doctor if I need to get some help staying on my strict wine regimen.

In any case, we had a very impressive bottle of Argentinian Meritage blend last week. I was looking for something to go with lamb, my favorite animal to nosh on. I know many people view fluffy little lambs as cute little innocents that it's a sin to eat, but those people have never worked with sheep. As animals go, they're bred so as to be docile, which renders them stupefyingly dumb. I worked as a shepherd for a very short time (three days) but that was long enough for me to develop both an antipathy towards live sheep, and a craving for nicely roasted ones. It probably didn't help that I was such a nincompoop as as shepherd that I got fired by a dog. Long story.

Cute enough to eat!

Rack of lamb and lamb chops are all well and good, but for my money a leg of lamb is where all the flavour is. I prefer Saltspring Island or Fraser Valley lambs when I can get them, and I know some purveyors of organic, 100% grass fed lamb that taste fantastic, but imported New Zealand lamb is just dandy as well. I bone out the leg, cutting it so as to flatten it to achieve a uniform thickness and score it in a diamond pattern, cutting through the fascia and 1/4-1/2 inch deep, leaving the leg with a checkerboard on both sides. Then I rub it with salt, pepper, crushed garlic (lots and lots) Dijon mustard, thyme, rosemary and oregano from my herb patch and grill it over high heat until it's just on the rarer side of medium-rare. Glarrgh, now I'm drooling into my keyboard, great.

Privada is Bodega Norton's flagship wine, a blend of Malbec, Cabernet and Merlot. I'm iffy on a lot of Argentino wines, finding them either heavy and clumsy, or extremely generic in an over-processed way. Unlike Chile, Argentina has a large domestic market for their wines and has tended to flavour power and extraction over delicacy and balance. But this wine is very, very good--good enough that I went right out and bought a half-case to tuck away based on the one we drank. Showing a very dense, deep ruby colour, starting with smoky, meaty aromas and hints of earthy, leathery Malbec leading to flavors of blackberry clove, spice, dry cacao and espresso, all to a surprisingly silky finish. It's still pretty tightly knit and will last at least ten years, but it was pure heaven with the lamb.

Next up is Granville Island Brewing's limited release beer, Belgian Wit. (Full disclosure: Andrew Peller Limited, my boss, owns Granville Island Brewing. I don't let that cloud my judgement however, as I'm very fussy about beer and don't usually drink GIB products--they're not bad, per se, just not usually to my taste) Belgians make this particular sort of wheat beer to the tune of their own drummer: it contains wheat, barley and curiously, oats, whcih give it a silky texture (think of how gooey oatmeal is: thin that down just right and it really adds a lovely body) along with coriander and orange peel. It's cloudy, tart and highly carbonated, and utterly delicious. I'm a fiend for Witbier, and I've tried dozens: Hoegaarden, Celis, Boreale, Blue Moon, New Belgium, Blanche de Chambly, Lost Coast, L'Abbaye Des Rocs, Keiths . . . so many delicious beers. I'm happy to say this particular beer can stand in the company of its peers proudly, but not for long because I'll drink it all up, preferably with steamed mussels.

On the far right is quite the curiosity: Domaine Pinnacle Sparkling Ice Cider. Made in Quebec, it's a regular cider that has been freeze distilled to increase sweetness and alcohol content. In essence when the cider is finished fermenting and has cleared, they haul it outside in the freezing cold, wait till it goes solid, and drag it back inside, dump it into a strainer and catch the rich, dense, alcohol laden fluid that runs off, discarding the frozen water with a sneer. It's lightly carbonated and bottled.

I really wanted to like this, but wound up not. The problem may have been that the high proportion of malic acid from the apples seemed harsh, yet didn't fend off the intense sweetness very well. I tried some salty cheese with it (aged fontina) and some smoked almonds, but it didn't help much. Perhaps a dab in the bottom of a glass of sparkling wine would have been good, or perhaps as part of a sauce with pork roast and applesauce, but not for sitting and sipping--at least not for me.

Hey, I remembered why I haven't been drinking a lot of wine: Granville Island Brewing's new Brockton IPA

Hey, do I get free beer for this? Please?

As I said above, GI brewing, quality house that it is, doesn't usually suit my palate: I like very strongly flavoured, very hoppy, very bitter beers. Most people would choke on what I consider a truly perfect beer (120 Minute IPA from Dogfish Head--tastes like pine-tar!) so Granville Island makes beer for people-not-like-me. Until now. Their regular pale ale has never had enough hops to attract me, but this baby has pronounced bitterness and very good balance. I still think it needs at least 300% more hops, but that would certainly hurt its sales everywhere else but my house. I've gone through a dozen six-packs lately (no, I haven't spent the last month lying in a gutter: I've taken most to friend's houses and parties) and everyone who tries it is impressed. Good job, guys.

Hmm. Maybe I'll pick up some pizza on the way home--goes great with IPA. Or should I grill lamb . . . decisions, decisions.

Posted by Tim AT 6:10PM

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