Lasting memories often arise around food and wine. Once it was the smell of roasted chestnuts on the street corner that reminded me of my first date 15 years ago. It is as simple as that. Memories of food and wine take me to a visceral place that reveals a gourmand’s soul. These moments have helped shaped my palate and more. However, some of my favorite pairings, reflect not only food and wine, but also people or places.
At times I fall in love without knowing it. Wine was one of those moments. In upstate New York, around a dimly lit table covered with a once-white cloth, four men sat with a wine list. Shortly into the evening the sommelier arrived, beginning a ritual that many diners are all too familiar with.
As a spectator to this rumba, it was thrilling. There were casual questions exchanged in a tone equivalent to talking about the weather, but with a zetetic interest. Amidst the conversation, shoulders shrugged, feet tapped and fingers scratched chins. As this conversation continued, enlightened brows raised, while pages of the wine list flipped, first with confidence forward, then quickly backwards with uncertainty until finally, “A bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape” flew wildly into the air.
I have loved Château de Beaucastel to this day after this particular evening and always have two bottles at the restaurant for the right moment. Later as my knowledge grew, so did my respect for the estate and region. Châteauneuf-du-Pape, or "new home of the pope", is a region in the southern Rhône valley, named when the papacy abandoned Rome in the 14th century and relocated in Avignon. The region is hot, averaging 86°F during the day, and retaining it in the stone filled vineyards only to be released at night. It is no surprise how full bodied these wines become, but what is surprising is the balance.
Under appellation d’origine contrôlée laws, the wines can be a blend of up to 13 different grape varieties, allowing winemakers to become artists. In Beaucastel, the wines are rich, warm and at times spicy from syrah, but always seamlessly smooth from the velvety tannins of grenache to create perfect harmony. Composed of mainly grenache (30%) and mourvèdre (30%) the dark red musty fruit prevails over the spice of syrah (10%) and counoise’s (10%) floral character. The vines are roughly 50 years old and yields are kept low enough to promote the purity of each grape.
Shortly after the wine was decanted, our energy shifted towards anticipation. I will not soon forget the rich darkness of the wine. It seemed concentrated and bold, giving off a strong feel. We all handled this wine with excitement and serious intentions, very much like a first date. My first smell was filled with dense, ripe, dark red fruit with a raspberry brightness. The taste was similar, but a little stiff, like the end of a first date.
As the wine opened, so did our conversation. It shifted from class at The Culinary Institute of America to the pressures of perfection we held ourselves to, then slowly into our dreams of becoming restauranteurs. The wine continued to evolve. The fruit in the Beaucastel shifted from dense and ripe to dark and earthy, the mid palate of concentrated dark red fruit grew more complex, but so did our conversation. Now it was about Escoffier, then avant garde cuisine. Meanwhile the warm soft tannins tugged on my palate and everything about gastronomy began to make sense except for questioning why béarnaise sauce couldn’t be served more often. Our romantic ideas for the future carried on while the lust for another sip made way for more conversation to pour. Eventually the bottle was finished, and a second was not necessary. That evening we relished in our accomplishment and decided to love wine for the right reasons, which looking back was the one conversation that still holds true today.
