WHINE # 29

Welcome Nancy Sullivan from Ontario to the Whine.

Sipping Wine:   Wine makes food taste better.  Food makes wine taste better.   Finding the right match between the food and the wine is one of those very pleasant challenges that we face almost daily.  In fact, food and wine are so united that in some cultures wine is not drunk without food.

The question is what does one drink prior to the arrival of the food.  In much of southern Europe the pre-dinner drink of choice is a bitter liqueur.  In Provence the preferred aperitif is Pastis, while in much of Italy the favourite apertivo is Campari.

Here in North America many have moved away from the pre-dinner cocktail or the single malt as the pre-dinner drink.  When the host asks “What can I get you to drink?” the response is frequently “red wine” or “white wine”.

What wine do you then serve pre-dinner, or any other time when the wine is to be sipped sans food?  Sparkling wine is always an excellent choice.  Starting the evening with a well-chilled Cava or a frigid Champagne is never a mistake.  Still whites are also a good choice.  Chablis would be my first choice in still whites.

All of this leads up to question “what is an appropriate red for the first wine, particularly prior to the arrival of any food?”  The answer should be easy to remember:  “Light and low in acidity”

A high acid wine such as a Tuscan Sangiovese may be wonderful when paired with a tomato-sauced pasta or with a perfect pizza.  By itself it will burn all the way down.   Similarly you should not start with a heavy tannic wine, such as an Australian or Californian Cabernet Sauvignon.  These wines will gradually taste better as you drink more.  Nonetheless, they are best kept for the meat course, when they will match perfectly with your medium-rare prime rib.

My choices for sipping wines are Merlot or Tempranillo.  Pinot Noir can also be a good choice, but before you offer a Pinot make certain it is a good one.  Cheap Pinot is rarely a hit, while an expensive Pinot is light and wonderfully complex.

They don’t drink wine in Yarmouth:   This item comes with a warning.  Although it is about ordering a bottle of wine, it is as much a political comment as it is a wine story.  Many of you readers don’t vote for the parties that I support, so you may not care about the way I tell this story.

Betty and I found ourselves in the Nova Scotian town of Yarmouth on a Monday evening.  We were staying in Meteghan River and we drove to Yarmouth looking for dinner.  In the past we had some great meals at an Austrian restaurant and more recently discovered a wonderful little bistro on the main drag.

As many of you know Yarmouth has recently fallen on hard times.  The final blow came when our newly elected provincial government cancelled the subsidy to the Yarmouth-Bar Harbour (Maine) ferry.  This ferry was the life blood of both the tourism and trucking industry.  This decision was made by the same politicians who dump millions into a foreign-owned railway that runs empty cars to Sydney on a daily basis.   Go figure!

Back to my story.  On arrival in Yarmouth we discovered that our Austrian restaurant is now closed on Mondays and Tuesday and that our Bistro has moved across the street and has become a pizza joint.

After travelling virtually every street looking for a restaurant that hadn’t gone out of business we ended down by the empty waterfront in a restaurant that is attached to a beautiful but closed hotel that went out of business when the ferry stopped.

Although the restaurant was soon to close we were greeted by a friendly waitress.  There was one other table occupied and a large group of men were in another room working on their hockey pool.

I asked if they had any house wine by the glass and our waitress said there was but she had no idea what it was.  Betty then asked if they had wine by the bottle and after responding positively the waitress went off to the bar to look.  After rooting around under the bar she said that she couldn’t find any red wine.  I noticed that there were three bottles above the bar mixed in with the hard liquors. 

I chose the dusty bottle of Merlot and returned to our table.  After struggling with the corkscrew the waitress apologized that she couldn’t get the cork out.   I offered to help and removed the foil and then extracted the cork.  The waitress was a tad embarrassed and commented that it must have been six months since anyone had ordered wine.  I guess the unemployed of Yarmouth simply can’t afford wine.

The Merlot was fine and it went well both with Betty’s hot lobster sandwich and with my Rappie Pie (Rapture in Acadian French).  By the way, Rappie Pie is a unique and wonderful dish that takes a few servings for one to learn to appreciate.  Try it the next time you are in an Acadian part of southern Nova Scotia.

We left Yarmouth feeling somewhat sad.  No wonder the government candidate ran a distant third in the last by-election.

Corkage Fee:  Now that Nova Scotian restaurants are obliged to allow customers to bring their own wine, the result has not been consumer friendly.  Many restaurants discourage the practice by establishing excessive fees ($25. or more).  Thus it was a pleasant surprise to find that the lovely Tulloch Inn on the banks of Lake Ainslee on Cape Breton Island charged no corkage fee at all.

Opimian Offering # 205:  This offering is exclusively from New Zealand and Australia.  As I find New Zealand reds to be astringent and as the whites here offered are a tad pricey, I have no recommendations.  As far as Australia goes my recommendations are all reds.  First the 6386 GMH Meritage is a wine that I have found to be well worth the price.  If you are unfamiliar with the term “Meritage” I suggest you scroll down to Whine # 17 and read the item there.

6306 96 Points should be an interesting wine for two reasons.  One it is claimed to be ready to drink and two, the often overly spicy Australian Shiraz has been softened with a small amount of Viognier.

Finally, I shall go out on a limb and recommend a wine I have not tried.  6319 Reserve Cabernet Sauvigon from Coonawarra should be a classic Cabernet.  Australian winemakers after all do know how to make Cabs.