Wednesday, June 30 2010
Honouring an Old and Faithful Friend
A noble companion
Hobbes has finally reached the end of his natural lifespan, and I'm going to give him a send-off I think would please him no end: I'm going to pull him to pieces, build a fire to his bones, and grill on his glowing coals.
Lest you think me a candidate for the dangerous ward, Hobbes is one of my four wine barrels. While I avoid anthropomorphising inanimate objects (they don't like it) I have a penchant for naming things. Thus my barrels are Calvin, Susie, Hobbes and Moe. Calvin and Hobbes are from Gibbs Cooperage, Moe came from Yugoslavia (he's the biggest one, and kind of mean) and Susie is a recent arrival from my friend Anna at Barrel Imports. I've got Susie running barrel-fermented batches of Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris right now, all for Sur Lie and some ageing time.
I was racking the other three to get them ready for some Okanagan Meritage and Sonoma Pinot Noir, but the wine I took from Hobbes had an unfortunate dull odour: he's gone on me. Not surprising, considering that Hobbes is a decade old, a very advanced age for a barrel. It's usually in less than three years that a barrel loses its oaky character, but neutral barrels still improve the quality of the wine stored in them, and while you can add all the oak you want from chips, cubes and powders, structural elevage, a magical change in intensity and smoothness, can only come from time in a barrel.
Hobbes started out like all my barrels, with batches of white wine, both barrel fermented and post-fermentation and graduated to reds. His last batch was Zinfandel/Shiraz, now sadly consigned to the sewer. I can't blame him, however: I neglected poor Hobbes for several years, in a back corner of a cooler and between excessive time and failure to top up regularly the wine spoiled. Completely my fault and yet another of winemaking's endless lessons.
But waste not, want not: fine, dense-grained oak is perfect for grilling, and oak that's soaked in wine for years is even better. The little bit of stinkiness will come out, as I've cleaned him well and I'll be air-drying him for a month or so. Come August 1st he'll be well seasoned and ready to grill. I'm thinking of a mixed grill of sardines, vegetables, maybe some lamb. If you've never had wood-grilled sardines . . . oh my, it's one of life's great pleasures.
If you're on East Beach in White Rock August 1st and you smell the nicest grilling-smells ever, drop by and I'll let you have a bite. Hobbes always liked a party.
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