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The Wine Generation |
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Express your opinion at Boomer Cafe's Table Cloth
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by Richard McKay Boomers have been struggling lately to get this economy going again.
“I’d really like a glass of wine ... but I’m not being responsible opening a $30 bottle of wine on a Tuesday just to have one glass. I’d like to retire someday.” Read on. With a few tricks and techniques you’ll have a glass in hand while you decide what to do about dinner. Study after study has demonstrated that a glass of wine a day contributes to our health by lowering cholesterol, alleviating stress and preventing certain diseases. Go ahead. You’re not being hedonistic, you’re being healthy. First things first: Do you have a good corkscrew? Drinking wine can be a hassle if you start the experience by fishing half the cork out of the bottle. A good corkscrew will have a helical screw as opposed to a threaded shaft. It will also have some device to leverage the cork out of the bottle. For the budget conscious, the Screwpull corkscrew is the way to go. I’ve had mine for fifteen years and it still works flawlessly. If I ever lose it, I’m getting the Metrokane Rabbit. Anyone can open a bottle with this great looking device. Glasses can make a big difference in the way wine is experienced. Riedel and Spiegelau both make excellent glasses. I encourage you to try them and see what you think. Less expensive glasses will work just fine. However, don’t use colored glasses. The wine’s color is a big part of the experience. Avoid plastic, which can absorb odors or give off its own. And don’t use those little jelly jar looking things you see at some Italian restaurants. Only jelly tastes good in those.
Most white wines are best chilled. Keep a bottle “on deck” in the fridge. But don’t store your wine there. Long term, it can damage the wine’s structure. Again, pour a glass and let it sit for a little while. As the wine opens up it also warms up. The ideal temperature for white wine is around 50 degrees. Your refrigerator is somewhere south of 40. As the wine warms up, more of the aroma and flavor compounds are activated. So what to do with the leftovers? That same oxygen that opens up the wine will eventually destroy it. My favorite product for saving wine is the Vacu Vin. It consists of a rubber stopper and a pump that draws air out of the bottle creating a vacuum. With very little air to expose the wine, it will last about a week. I also cook with my everyday wines. Wine is great for deglazing a sauté pan, adding depth to slow cooked stews or reducing sauces. Blended wines work best for cooking because they have so many flavor notes. I avoid overly oaky tasting wines for reductions. These oak flavors become astringent when they’re concentrated. As a last resort, you can freeze wine. Label a freezer bag and pour it right in. Surprisingly, very little damage is done during the freezing process. I don’t notice a difference when cooking with frozen wine. I wouldn’t drink it though!
On my last trip to the wine shop, I bought a 1999 Bonny Doon Ca’ del Solo, for $11.99, a 1999 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone for $9.99, a 2001 Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc California for $8.99, and a 2000 Columbia Crest Chardonnay for $12.99. Here are my notes -- I first tried Ca’ del Solo when a friend brought it to a dinner party. I was pretty impressed. It’s blended from several grapes to create a flavorful complex wine. It works very well in sauces and stews. This is a great example of a solid everyday red. Cote du Rhone for $9.99? Yep, and it’s pretty good. Again, it’s a blend of several grapes, primarily Grenache. This wine goes very well with winter comfort foods. It has a sort of barnyard and berry smell that suggests stews or sauces, especially those with mushrooms. The Sauvignon Blanc is a refreshing white for a summer evening or a salad lunch. It tastes of crisp apple with melon and mango flavors. However, these flavors flatten out once the wine comes to room temperature. That suggests trouble in the kitchen. Here’s a wine for the back deck this summer, just keep it chilled. Columbia Crest is my ‘go to’ Chardonnay. It has a buttery floral taste with light oak. There are a lot of inexpensive Chardonnays. I went through a period where I’d buy two each week and taste them side by side. Columbia Crest emerged as my ultimate winner. It works very well in risotto and in pan sauces for either chicken or fish. This is just a sample of what’s out there. For more everyday wine ideas, check out Wine Spectator’s Best Buys. For tasting tips, read Alan Young’s “Making Sense of Wine.” Have fun finding your favorite everyday wines.
Writer
and chef Richard McKay can be reached at
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voicemails, 135 emails and a fifty-minute commute in traffic at
the end of a hectic day.
Wine
benefits from exposure to air. Have you ever noticed that your
second glass of wine tastes better than the first? That’s not
because you’re intoxicated, it’s because the wine has had time
to open up. At home, I’ll open a bottle an hour or more before
serving it. For your everyday wine, just open the bottle when
you get home. Pour yourself a glass, give it a good swirl and
then go about doing what ever you do for a few minutes to allow
the wine time to breath. 
So
what makes a good everyday wine? For me, it has to taste good
and cost around $10. I’d also like to be able to cook with it.
I recommend you visit your local wine merchant and say the same
thing. The wine merchant can make the daunting search much easier.
With a little resourcefulness, you can enjoy good wines at beer
prices. 