Vivant Fine Cheese

  By FromageBob | January 12, 2012 - 8:02 pm | Tasting/Pairing, Travel, US Cheese, Wine/Cheese Shops
Leave a comment

Vivant Fine Cheese

I was able to spend some quality time in Paso Robles this past July. Paso is the heart of San Luis Obispo (SLO) County’s wine region. It’s become the powerhouse behind California’s Central Coast Appellation, helping to raise the quality of the wines near the level of Napa/Sonoma. For wine lovers, it’s a great place to add to any wine tasting adventure; the area is more laid back than Napa, and the wineries not as crowded. There are more than two hundred wineries within about an hour of each other, located near the downtowns of Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo. These towns are divided by the Santa Helena Mountain Range; Paso is to the East, San Luis Obispo to the West.

I had not visited the region before, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the wines I found. Not a lot of variety; most of what I tasted was GMS, along with some killer Zins from Turley.

Planning for the trip, I did a pretty intensive search for cheese makers and shops, and was only able to come up with a couple; Dairy Goddess, Central Coast Creamery, and Vivant Fine Cheese. Central Coast sent samples, Dairy Goddess and I hooked up at the San Luis Obispo farmer’s market, and I hit Vivant one day during my tasting travels. It was worth the visit.

Market, Paso Robles City Park

Vivant is downtown, near what passes for a village green (City Park). My visit was on a Tuesday, when a market runs in the park. I am a big fan of local markets, and visit when I find them. Vivant is a pretty typical urban cheese shop, with displays of cheese in cold cases and on counters. They have tables and chairs inside and out on a shaded terrace, where you can have lunch or a glass of wine (or both). The shop carries about 150 cheeses, nicely weighted to local producers, with a good mix of other American and European Cheeses. Like many shops, they offer a selection of salads and sandwiches, and wine by the glass.

This type of operation, where the shop has gone beyond cheeses, is become almost critical for smaller shops to survive. It’s definitely a step up from the typical cut and wrap operation, because it not only gives customers more reason to stay in the store, but also to try new cheeses and pairing combos. It is a great place to have a light lunch (with cheese) and a glass of wine.

Vivant's Cheese Counter

The owner of the shop is Danika Reed, a veteran of the cheese business. She opened Vivant in 2006, using her degree in Dairy Science from Cal Poly and her experience as a cheese maker for them, as well as a strong background in sales and marketing with Hilmar (one of the country’s largest cheese producers for private labeling and food service). Between Vivant and Hilmar, she worked in a variety of other positions in the cheese business, giving her a very wide range of experience. Its been put to very good use.

Vivant’s first incarnation was as a mobile cheese tasting room, with Reed at the wheel. Her target customer were local restaurants; chef’s could come to the truck and taste her variety of cheeses, purchasing them on the spot. This gave local foodies a new dimension in cheese courses, beyond the typical Brie, Provolone, and Manchego, that make up most menu options. It also helped the restaurants to control  their costs by working with smaller quantities of cheese, something that large distributors are not able to do. After selling the truck in 2007, she continued to work with local chefs to provide exciting cheeses for their menus, gaining name recognition with diners; Vivant is branded on menus so that diners know where the cheese came from – and where to go if they want more. Reed took that model one step farther, creating similar relationships with wineries in the SLO area. If you’re tasting through SLO, and the winery offers a tasting or pairing menu, chances are Vivant’s cheeses are there.

I am a HUGE advocate of building relationships between local restaurants and cheese retailers, because there is such potential in moving away from the distribution model of buying cheese. When a restaurant has to buy 3 pounds of cheese (resulting in around 25 servings) the potential to lose 10%-20% of that purchase to spoilage is pretty high. If you figure that the wholesale cost of a good cheese is around $15 per pound, it can get pretty expensive. That’s why you mostly find Brie (factory brie…), Manchego, Provolone, Gruyère, Comte, and other mainstream (read boring) cheeses as the cheese course. If cheese shops would recognize the potential in cross-marketing with restaurants, and sell cheeses in small quantities in return for branding, everybody would win – especially the consumer, who would see a much bigger and better selection of cheeses on the menu.

Fingers crossed…

Related Articles

Landaff, a delicious cow cheese from New England

  By FromageBob | June 22, 2011 - 7:15 pm | Artisanal Cheese, Cheese, Cow cheese, US Cheese
Leave a comment

Landaff Cheese

Landaff cheese is a wonderful American “riff” on traditional Welsh cheeses. It is a raw milk, farmstead cheese, produced by Landaff Creamery in Landaff, New Hampshire. The owners of the Creamery, Doug and Deb Erb, own Springvale Farms, which supplies the milk from their herd of Holstein cows.

The cheese is produced using traditional rennet, and is aged by the Cellars at Jasper Hills, in nearby Greensboro, Vermont. Jasper Hills provides affinage for a number of local farmstead producers, in addition to making their own great line of cheeses. The farmers/cheese makers can focus on producing quality milk and unique cheese without having to make the substantial investment in aging facilities. It’s a great partnership.

The cheese has a rich, ivory paste with a matte surface. The paste is “breaky and flakey” with a few very small eyes. The cheese has a natural rind that develops in Jasper Hill’s caves. The paste turns darker brown near the rind, as is typical with this style cheese.

This is a semi-firm cheese with delicate, yet complex, aroma and flavor. On the nose, it has a light lemony fragrance, with creamy, lactic, and grassy notes. As the cheese warms, a hint of nutty notes creeps in. The flavor is citrusy, with some herbal notes, a hint of rosemary, and some nice nutty flavors near the rind. The mouthfeel is pleasant; the paste crumbles, then melts into a medium finish. As the flavor evolves, then fades, I detected a hint of brown butter, and even a bit of caramel. It’s a very nice cheese.

I tried this cheese with a couple of different wines; it’s suited for light reds – perhaps a Beaujolais or a Côtes du Rhône, or a fleshy white. It was nice with a Heron Hill Riesling, and I suspect other off-dry wines might work well also.

Landaff is available directly from the creamery, or from a number of cheese shops. I found it at Murrays, and it is also carried at some Whole Foods stores.

Related Articles

Celibrity Equinox kitchen tour

  By FromageBob | June 21, 2011 - 5:57 pm | Cruising, Fine dining, Food, Travel
Leave a comment
Photo by Bob Galivan

Dinner on the Equinox

Cruising is a real pleasure – like taking your hotel with you as you travel. One of the real pleasures (and dangers!) of a cruise is the food. There is so much and it is so very good. On our recent cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox Mediterranean cruise, I was able to go behind the scenes in the kitchen and find out just how the feed all those people!

It seems like food is available 24 hours a day, in amazing quantities, and of superior quality. It takes an army to manage that day in and day out. I was fortunate to get a behind-the-scene look at the main kitchen of the ship, through the kitchen tour and later by special invitation to watch the brigade prep for dinner.

Provisioning a ship requires serious advanced planning and some pretty incredible logistics. Because the base of Celebrity’s operations – the ships chandler, warehouses, etc. are based in Miami, much of what is used on board has to be available at the embarkation port. When the Equinox cruises out of Miami, that’s not a big deal because it’s local, but when they cruise out of Rome, containers of products flow across the sea on a continual basis. Perishables are purchased in port, but non-perishables, repair items, liquor, and wine, are all shipped over. According to wine chief Laslo Pinter, the wine is ordered 6 months in advance – and on a typical 10-day cruise, they will go through about 25,000 bottles of wine.

Other provisions for a 10-day cruise include:

  • 3,000 pounds of beef tenderloin
  • 4,500 pounds of whole chicken
  • 1,900 pounds of chicken breast
  • 2,740 pounds rack of lamb
  • 1,150 pounds of pork loin
  • 2,900 pounds of salmon
  • 2,000 liters (over 500 gallons) of heavy cream
  • 2,300 dozen fresh eggs (that’s 27,600 eggs)
  • 12,300 pounds of potatoes
  • 2,600 pounds of onions
  • 3,00o pounds of cookies
  • 1,000 gallons of ice cream
  • 75,000 pounds of fresh fruit (no, that’s not a typo…)

Other interesting statistics:

  • 95% of the food served is fresh, and they keep tight control of production to reduce waste, as unused food must be disposed of.
  • It takes 1 hour and 15 minutes to serve 1,200 meals.
  • The server has 1 minute 30 seconds to take 12-14 plates out to the dining room
  • All of the ice cream consumed on board is made on board
  • All of the bread and all the food decorations are made on board

The galley is just off the main dining room, and the ship offers a tour at various times during the cruise, after breakfast is finished. It’s a large space, but you can’t imagine all the work to prepare the meals happening here; turns out that much of the prep is done below-decks in a separate area for all the kitchens, then the components are sent up to be cooked and assembled for the meals.

As you walk into the galley, the first area is for salads. it’s a cooled storage area that holds the salads that will be served for dinner, organized into sections. The waiter comes in, selects what is needed, and heads around to the main prep area.

Salad Station

 

Past the salad station is the special prep area, where special diets are made to deal with allergies, religious, or special requests that have been provided to the ship.

 

Celebrity Equinox special prep area

 

To the left of the specialty area is the main galley, where the bulk of the meals are prepared. It’s a huge area – the photo is deceiving. The counter runs almost the width of the galley, with numerous cooking areas behind. The counter itself is for the waiters to use as the put together a meal, moving down the line and pulling their various dishes. Most of the prep work for the dishes is done below-decks, then sent up by dumb-waiter for final cooking and assembly.

 

Celebrity Equinox main prep area

 

Past the prep area (to the starboard – right – side of the ship) is the dessert area. The ship makes everything from scratch on-board: The ice cream, breads, pastries, and so on, are all made fresh.

 

Celebrity Equinox dessert station

 

The door in the foreground is where the servers exit with the now-assembled meals for the guests. The area to the right is where the dishes are placed after clearing for later cleaning.

 

Celebrity Equinox final station

 

Celebrity Equinox dessert art

Related Articles

Appalachian cheese from Meadow Creek Dairy

  By FromageBob | May 27, 2011 - 8:24 pm | .Types and Styles, Appalachian, Artisanal Cheese, Cheese, Cow cheese, US Cheese
Leave a comment

Meadow Creek Dairy, in Southwest Virginia, is best known for their washed-rind Grayson cheese, but, as it turns out, Appalachian is their first cheese, and a nice example of their craft. Meadow Creek is a farmstead operation; the milk comes from their own herd of grass-fed Jersey cows, and the cheese is made on the farm. They’ve been in operation since 1980 and have accumulated a raft of awards for their cheeses.

A wheel of Appalachian cheese

Appalachian is a raw milk, semi-hard, tomme style cheese made using traditional rennet. “Tomme” is a generic term given to a variety of cheeses, mostly semi-soft to semi-firm, made in smaller formats. Some typical tomme style cheeses include French cheeses Tomme Savoie, Tomme de Crayeuse, or Capello del Mago from Italy.

The cheese is produced using raw milk from the dairy’s herd. The curds are lightly cooked, pressed, and then aged for 60 days in their cellars. The rind grows a coat of penicillium molds, helping to protect the curd and develop the flavor of the cheese. The cheese is rectangular in shape, with a dusting of white mold over a grayish rind. It looks a bit like a paving stone.

The paste is a nice ivory-yellow color with small eyes and some pink highlights. The aroma is earthy, lactic, fruity, with some vegetal notes. It’s quite pleasant – fresh and bright. I found the flavor to be creamy, buttery, with grassy notes and a little “bite” in the back of the throat. It has a nice mouthfeel – silky and smooth, with a nice melty texture. The finish is medium-long. It lingers on the roof of the mouth; it’s juicy, tending a bit towards acidic with some pepper and a little earth.

The cheese pairs well with lighter white wines; an un-oaked Chardonnay worked nicely, as did a Pinot Grigio (on the tart side), and even a Torrontes. The cheese also managed to hold up against a light Sangiovese. It serves well on a cheese plate, great on toast, or even used in a sandwich – I tried it on some Lebanon Bologna with a touch of brown mustard. Tasty!

Related Articles

Anatomy of a wine dinner: part 3

  By fromagebob | April 5, 2011 - 8:17 pm | California Wines, Tasting/Pairing, Wine
1 Comment

Peter Figge

On April 12th, Società Dante Alighieri of Miami  will present what should be a stellar evening of wine and food pairing at Por Fin Restaurant in Coral Gables. Stellar, because unlike many wine dinners, Steve Stein, the wine director of the Dante, along with several willing volunteers (including this writer) gathered at Por Fin to taste the wines with the planned menu. It was a worthy exercise that resulted in a number of excellent combinations.

The wine chosen for the evening is made by Peter Figge, of Figge Cellars, in Monterey, California. Figge makes five wines: two Chardonnay, two Pinot Noir, and one Syrah. The Chardonnay is closer is style to Burgundy than California, while the other two varietals are more true to their terroir.

In my favorite pairing guide, What to Eat with What You Drink, the following are suggested pairings for these wines:

For Chardonnay, the suggestions cover a rather broad range – as do Chardonnays. Some of the suggestions include chicken in any form (baked, grilled, etc.), crab, white fish, lobster, salmon, scallops, shrimp, veal, and vegetables. Rich dishes, such as those with cream sauce, or buttery sauces, fare better with typical oaky California chards. Dishes that are more flavorful, especially grilled foods like salmon, scallops, and chicken, do better with a Burgundian style.

Pinot Noir is more appropriate for protein-based dishes, such as cheeses, beef, chicken, duck, mushroom dishes, pork, salmon, lamb, and tuna.

Syrah (one of my favorite wines) is a robust wine, and needs robust dishes, like barbecue, aged cheeses, grilled meats, mushrooms, sausages, and so on.

For the wine dinner menu, Chef Quant suggested the following:

  • An appetizer course of Fried Quail Eggs with Serrano ham and Truffle Oil, to be paired with a Prosecco Valdiviano, and passed to diners as they arrive.
  • A second course of Grilled Octopus atop Squid ink, Arborio rice, sautéed squid, sofrito, and green pea puree, paired with a Chardonnay
  • The third course of Irish organic salmon, potato crisps, tomato confit, Kalamata olive drizzle and crispy leeks, paired with a Pinot Noir.
  • A fourth course of Braised Short Ribs with Mahon Cheese Crust and Red Wine Sauce, paired with the Syrah.
  • A dessert course of a simple tropical fruit sorbet.

We started by trying the wines. Figge’s Chardonnays come from two vineyards: one from the Peilo vineyard, the other from the La Reina vineyard. The Pelio shows pineapple, light mineral, a hint of petrol, some mango, and tropical fruits on the nose, and was citrusy, flinty, and bright on the palate. It had a medium-long finish that was juicy and pleasant. The La Reina had a nose of light talc, vanilla, flint, pineapple, with a light floral note; on the tongue, we found orange peel, grapefruit, flint, white peaches and pears in a medium-long finish. Both wines had a good balance with nice acidity. Of the two Chardonnays, our favorite was the Pelio. More and more, wines are being regarded for their “cocktail” potential as much as for their food pairing potential, and quite often, the decision as to which wine to use with food comes from the cocktail, not the pairing, perspective.

Then came our first course: the grilled octopus. We started with the Pelio; it did not work well with the octopus. The food took on a bitter, slightly metallic flavor that was not pleasant at all. It turned out that the La Reina didn’t work well, either, but it paired nicely with the rice/sofrito/pea puree. In fact, the green pea puree was very good on it’s own with the La Reina; with the dish, it acted as a catalyst, pulling the ingredients together and creating a great compliment for the wine. A suggestion was made to substitute a grilled scallop for the octopus. The chef complied, and a pairing was made. The result was that our favorite of the two wines – the Pelio – was great on its own, but did not work in the pairing. La Reina became our choice.

We next tried the two pinots, one from Paraiso vineyard, the other from the Pelio vineyard. The Paraiso  showed cherry, smoke, a little earth, and some cardamom. On the palate, it gave cherries, tobacco, menthol, dark fruits, and some dried cherries. It had a medium finish, good acidity, and mild tannins. The Pelio was more towards the earthy side: smoke, forest floor, chocolate, and faintly herbal on the nose, with dried cherries, pepper, strawberries, and a hint of licorice in a medium-long finish.

Of the two we liked the Pelio best, and it turned out to pair best with the Salmon. The Paraiso went very well with the Potato Crisps, but the winner of the pairing was the Pelio. We expected there to be some clash with the olive drizzle, but that addition turned out to add a very nice note to the flavor profile of the pairing. Grilled salmon is a classic Pinot Noir pairing, and it certainly lived up to that billing in this combination.

Our final dish was the short ribs. Our task was slightly easier, given that there was only one Syrah, but we forged ahead: The Syrah is from the Sycamore Flat vineyard, and showed chocolate, dark berries, a hint of tobacco, and some slight herbal notes on the nose, with black raspberries, cherries, and plums on the palate. The body was light, with a good mouthfeel. Syrahs can have a fairly wide flavor profile, and an equally varied body. I felt that this body of this wine was on the lighter side.

The short ribs were delicious, but the initial presentation of a manchego cheese crust did not really compliment the wine; the suggestion was made to try a Cabrales blue cheese sauce, but that turned out to be a bit strong. The final combination that won us over was when the chef altered the sauce a bit, combining honey with the Cabrales; that toned down the sharpness of the cheese, and brought the dish into harmony with the wine.

It turned out that the fact that the Syrah had a ligher body fit in well with the fattiness of the short ribs, and the richness of the sauce. Blue cheese is one of the recommended pairings for Syrahs, and the combination of the honey and the cabrales (which tends to be a fairly strong blue) worked quite well.

The final menu became:

  • Tataki de Atun: Seared tuna, charred scallion, romesco sauce, paired with a Prosecco Valdiviano
  • Arroz Negro con Vieras: Squid ink, Arborio rice, sautéed squid, sofrito, and green pea puree served with a seared scallop, paired with 2009 La Reina Chardonnay
  • Salmon con patatas, tomate y kalamata: Irish organic salmon, potato crisps, tomato confit, Kalamata olive drizzle and crispy leeks, paired with 2009 Pelio Vineyard Pinot Noir
  • Costillas De Res: Por Fin’s famous short ribs served with carrot puree, sweet potato crisps, honey cabrales and red wine sauces, paired with 2006 Sycamore Flat Syrah
  • Sorbet de Coco con Espuma de Maracuya: Coconut sorbet served with passion fruit foam and mint granita

The next step will be the dinner! On April 12th, at Por Fin in Coral Gables. If you’re in town and you’d like to render your own opinion about our pairing prowess, please contact the restaurant at 305.441.0107, and join us! Otherwise, check back here later that week for what our diners thought of our efforts.

Read part 1…..

Read part 2…

Related Articles

Anatomy of a wine dinner, part 2

  By fromagebob | March 28, 2011 - 3:18 pm | California Wines, Tasting/Pairing
2 Comments

Wine dinners are usually focused on a particular winery or winemaker’s wines. The idea is to showcase the food of a chef or restaurant in conjunction with the wine in a series of pairings that join a course with a wine. As with any pairing endeavor, the goal is to bring these two elements together, and create an experience that either transcends the original, or takes one of the components to new heights.

The basis for the pairings of wine and food often grow from a conceptual foundation; there are “rules” of pairings that guide the decision as to the foods to prepare, that – when combined with the specifics of a particular wine – present a probable dish that can be created to achieve the desired results.

In many wine dinners, though, the chef doesn’t have access to the wine itself, but only to the winemaker or the winemaker’s notes, or (at the very least) the pairings that are usual for the wine. The logistics and costs involved in supplying wines are often difficult to overcome, and the chefs often lack the time (or inclination) to go through the exercise of deciding how to modify their dish to match the wine. Ultimately, it’s the dish that has to give in, and that’s not always an achievable result.

In the case of the Figge wine dinner, it was possible to sit with several tasters, try the proposed pairings, and make suggestions back to the kitchen as to what adjustments might “adjust” the food to the wine, without sacrificing the quality of the food or compromising the chef’s vision. We also had the option of several different iterations of the wines; same vintage, but different vineyards, to further tune the experience.

The proof, as they say, will be in the “pudding…”

Read the previous entry…

Read the next entry…

Click over to our wine dinner page to check out the menu, or (better yet) to make reservations to join us!

Related Articles

Anatomy of a wine dinner: part 1

  By fromagebob | March 21, 2011 - 7:46 pm | California Wines, Tasting/Pairing, Wine
2 Comments

Figge Cellars

Wine dinners are designed to give a winemaker the opportunity to showcase their wines paired with dishes prepared by a chef who wishes to showcase his or her talents. It’s not always an easy task; in many cases, the chef does not have the opportunity to try the wines in order to “tune” the dishes, relying instead on the particular style of the wine, the wine’s profile, and feedback from the winemaker as to the intended dishes.

The results are almost always interesting, sometimes with good results … and sometimes not.

The Societá Dante Alighieri of Miami, in conjunction with Por Fin restaurant and winemaker Peter Figge, are hosting a wine dinner at Por Fin restaurant on April 12th, 2011. I have had the unique opportunity to be one of the tasters, working with the wines and the chef to create pairings that really highlight the wine and the food. I’d like to share that experience with you!

Peter Figge is what I call an “accidental winemaker.” Trained as a viticulturist, Figge’s life was centered around helping growers in the Central Coast region of California grow great grapes. As with many sourcing vineyards, the families that Figge worked with had high hopes. But one of the difficulties of becoming a source for grapes is that without a track record, it’s hard to command attention, much less premium prices.

One of the vineyards asked Figge to make wines from their grapes, in order to “put them on the map” of premium vineyards. His first reaction was caution; his métier was growing the best grapes for others to use, but after some pressure from the family, he decided to give it a shot, and in 2004, using begged, borrowed, and rented equipment, started making wines. He’s still a grower at hard, but as you will see when you taste his wines, his artistry has encompassed a whole new dimension!

Read the 2nd part…

Click over to our wine dinner page to check out the menu, or (better yet) to make reservations to join us!

 

Métier

Related Articles

South Beach Wine & Food Rave

  By fromagebob | February 27, 2011 - 11:28 am | Wine, Wine & Cheese Fairs
Leave a comment

Crowd at the 2011 SoBe Wine & Food Fest

I went to my first South Beach Wine and Food Festival event (ever) this past Friday. It was the “trade tasting” event that is ostensibly a venue for wine makers to present their wares to the wine trade and media. Since one of the major sponsors of the event is Southern Wine, most of those in attendance have some presence in the local market; there’s nothing worse than finding a great wine, only to find it’s not available. Unfortunately, the crowds at the event precluded even a modicum of research. If I had to pick one word to describe the event, it might be “zoo,” but that doesn’t adequately describe the chaos. Rave, maybe? Wine mosh pit?

Speaking with some of the wine makers who attended, most expressed disappointment with the event, as there was no possible way that any kind of conversation about the wines could take place. The crowd was a mix of every age group, from those barely over drinking age, to a number of rather elderly participants. In addition to the wine tables, there were tables dispensing everything from food to liquor to mixed drinks to books. I managed to visit about 10 tables, far below what the norm would be in a real trade tasting.

Violet Grgich

I understand that blogging probably falls on the fringe of “wine media” but I like to think that I make a contribution (albeit a small one). That’s my justification for getting in to the trade/media portions of the events. The public portions often become something akin to an open bar, with only a passing resemblance to a wine tasting. That was illustrated most aptly when, during a conversation with Violet Grgich, I was shoved aside by a fellow who thrust his arm out – with two wine glasses clutched in his hand – and demanded “two cabs” (sans ‘please…’). Ms. Grgich accommodated with a pained smile.

Even getting in was a bear. We stood in a huge line for over 1 hour. We got into the event at about 2pm, with an even larger line behind us. As we approached the main entry to the glass tent, there was a steady stream of line-cutters barging in with no control. The tent dispensing the glass and sample bags was understaffed and not equipped to handle the people passing through. And, once in the village, it became a wine rave. Not to mention far too many people wandering outside scalping tickets (to a free event). That really bothered me; the only way to get the tickets was to be in the trade – a wine shop or restaurant. That meant that some rather unscrupulous players got the tickets representing that they would attend, then turned around and tried to profit. Sleazy. I was hoping for the undercover squad to get them.

Despite all of the sweaty bodies, there were some real gems. I followed a strategy of looking for producer names I did not recognize and tables with no drinkers. Using that technique, I was able to try wines from the Biltmore Estate, in North Carolina. They produce a passable Chardonnay in North Carolina, along with wines from California bottled under their direction and label.

Brazin Lodi Zinfandel

Here are some of the other wines I found that are definitely worth a second look:

  • Muscadet Sèvre st Maine 2008, a Loire wine bottled by Remy Pannier
  • A 2009 Vouvray from Moreau & Fils, in Chablis
  • A Crémant de Loire Brut Rosé from Langlois
  • An interesting 2008 Chinon, from Marc Brédif
  • A red Sancerre of Pinot Noir, from Château de Sancerre
  • From Bernardus Winery, in Carmel California, a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, a 2008 Chardonnay, and a 2008 Pinot Noir, all from Monterrey County, and their Marinum red blend, from Carmel Valley
  • Brazin Wines, from Lodi, offered to nice Zinfandels: a 2008 Lodi Old Vines, and a 2007 Dry Creek Valley Old Vines.
  • Summerland Winery, from Santa Barbara, showed a 2009 Santa Barbara Chardonnay, a 2008 Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay, a 2008 Monterrey County Sauvignon Blanc, and a 2005 Santa Ynez Syrah.

In addition, I had the opportunity to try several delicious wines from Grgich Hills, including their Stellar 2008 Fumé Blanc, their 2007 Chardonnay, their 2007 Zinfandel, their 2006 Merlot, and their 2006 Cab (which made me almost want to stop drinking for the rest of the day, just to see how the wine evolved). I managed to spend a few minutes with Brian Loring (who I was able to speak at length with at Sunset Corner’s Pinot party the next day – more on that later).

All in all, it was a beautiful day on South Beach, great showcase for the city, moderately so for the winemakers. But it looked like the attendees had fun.

Related Articles

Eating History by Andrew F. Smith

  By fromagebob | January 7, 2011 - 7:40 pm | Resources/Reviews
2 Comments

I’ve been reading quite a bit of “food history” lately; it’s quite fascinating to dig in to the meat and potatoes of how and why we eat what we eat (sorry…). “Eating History”,by Andres F. Smith, focuses on American Cuisine, in a series of “30 Turning Points in the making of American Cuisine” according to the author. Some of the vignettes are very interesting, and provide some fascinating insight into the development of the American food scene.

Some of the things that I found fascinating included the impact the Erie canal had on the distribution of food in the US. It allows the midwest to become the chief producer and supplier of grains to the East coast; that is something that most people know. The other effect was to provide the basis for New York to become a financial center; the canal was the largest public work undertaken, and required the sale of bonds to finance it’s construction. Because most of those bonds were sold in New York, it really strengthened the city’s financial industry.

Another chapter dealt with the impact that Delmonico’s restaurant had on the eating habits of New Yorkers, and then on the rest of the country. Giovanni Del-Monico started by opening a wine shop in New York, in 1824. Unhappy with the business – American’s weren’t big wine drinkers at that time – he sold the shop, and opened a cafe and pastry shop late in 1827, under an americanized version of his name. He expanded the cafe into a French restaurant in 1830, which became the model for the American restaurant industry.The side effect was that because Delmonico’s created such a demand for French food, it was widely imitated, to the detriment of other styles of cuisine that were also becoming popular at the time.

The most fascinating chapter was that on Thanksgiving. Basically, everything we “know” about this holiday came not from the Pilgrim’s getting down with the Indians, but from a fictionalized portrayal of the event. The author was Sara Josepha Hale. In 1827, she wrote a story about the first Thanksgiving dinner that described the meal as an elaborate feast. That account became quite popular, and moved from being a story into the mainstream of american lore; in 1870, the fiction found its way into history books, where it remains today.

If you’ve ever wondered how the microwave was invented, or how the vegetarian movement got started, or the backstory about Julia Child, this is the book for you.

Related Articles

Rennet

  By fromagebob | December 26, 2010 - 3:15 pm | Wine/Cheese Education
1 Comment

Rennet is the generic name for the family of enzymes used to coagulate milk in the cheesemaking process. Rennet is derived from one of three sources: Animal, microbial, or vegetable. All introduce similar action in the milk; the enzyme causes a chemical reaction that separates the milk proteins, separating the milk into curd and whey. Once the initial action of the enzyme is completed, the traces of the enzyme remaining in the milk play a role in the aging process, and the creation of various aromatic and flavor profiles.

Animal rennet is derived from the fourth stomach (abomasa) of an unweaned ruminant. The stomachs are dried and either powdered, or cut into pieces for later use. The enzymes found in animal rennet are chymosin (80%) and pepsin. The young animal uses the enzymes to coagulate the milk in the stomach for better digestion.

There is no clear indication of when cheesemaking started; the earliest evidence dates back about 5,000 years, but it is very likely that the use of milk as a nutritional component extends much farther back in time, to the period when man moved from a hunter-gatherer (nature-provided) form of food generation to an agricultural / pastoral form.  Evidence of herding dates back some 30,000 – 40,000 years, so it is likely that the use of milk in the diet extends back almost as far.

Milk, when left to sour, naturally separates into solid and liquid, as the acid level of the milk increases. Given that the origins of man place us in the Middle East, and that the climate there was quite arid, it is likely that the souring of milk, and the use of the liquid and solid was common. It is not much of a stretch to imagine man figuring out that draining the liquid extended the life of the solid material, and then to using some form of pressure to force more liquid out.

When rennet came to be used as a coagulant is not known. The popular “creation myth” for rennet is that of a nomad galloping across the desert, his milk ration hanging from the saddle in a stomach being used as a container. Although that has a nice, romantic “ah-ha!” feel, it is far more likely that the discovery of rennet’s coagulating properties was a mundane accident. Given that early man would have made use of all of the parts of the animal, cooking stomach (tripe) in milk is the more likely source of the discovery. It is likely that the realization that combining milk and stomach took some time, as it had to be the perfect storm of events: the correct stomach, in milk, at the (reasonably) correct temperature. Speculation would say that the use of rennet as a coagulant probably occurred over several thousand years. I checked on-line for recipes using tripe and milk, and found quite a few. Here’s one from Gordon Ramsey…

In addition to coagulating the milk, rennet also plays an important part in the development of the flavor of the cheese. The biggest difference in the impact of rennet on flavor is found in cheeses made from thistle, or Cardoon, rennet, especially those from Portugal. Thistle-rennet cheeses often have more pronounced vegetal aromas and flavors, and are not as prone to the “piquant” or peppery feel of animal or microbial rennet cheeses.

When looking at the ingredients list of cheese, it is sometimes difficult to discern which rennet was used in the making of the cheese. For vegetarians, this is an important consideration. The obvious labeling shows the cheese as being vegetarian, but if that is not included, you must look at the ingredients list. Clues are “microbial rennet”, “vegetable rennet”, and “thistle rennet.” If the labeling is “animal rennet or “traditional rennet” then animal rennet was used. The problem comes in when the labeling simply says “enzymes” with no reference to the type used. Some manufacturers will include “no animal rennet used” on the label, but for others, you would have to contact the cheesemaker directly.

Cheeses made in Europe use mainly animal rennet, while cheeses made in the US use mainly microbial. Most Portuguese cheeses are made with vegetable rennet.

Sources for information in this article: American Farmstead Cheese, by Paul Kindstedt, Brined Cheeses, by A.Y. Tamime, and The Wisconsin Center for  Dairy Research publication, Dairy Pipeline, October 2000, Volume 12, Number 3.

Related Articles