Travelling the World in Lockdown

Why do you no longer make moussaka?

Primarily because I can no longer stand the smell of cooking the meat

Our Around the World in lockdown Food and Wine Tour continued last night with USA as Country No. 5.

Here there is one dish and one wine synonymous with the USA and we had them.

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2018 Once & Future Wine Zinfandel Oakley Road Vineyard (California, San Francisco Bay, Contra Costa County)

This was made by the King of Zin, Joel Peterson, late of Ravenswood. When Ravenswood got too big he sold it and started a small operation that would get no larger than he could personally make wine.

Oakley Road vineyard was planted with Zinfandel wines on their own roots 118 years ago. The deep sands of the vineyard were deposited by river flooding, washed down from gold-rush excavations, and give protection from phylloxera.

The wine is restrained and elegant, offering purity of fruit and great pleasure. It was aged in French oak barrels, 30% new.

It was a perfect accompaniment to

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The burger and chips were Deliveroo'd from Meating Room. Burger was fine, chips were tasty and plentiful, and it was good to get a bread roll (toasted) rather than the all too common brioche that just disintegrates in ones hand. Missing was what seems to be standard in US burgers, pickles.

We do enjoy South African Pinotage & Chenin Blanc. The country is a great source of wine values.

No argument from me there!

I can't see where you are based, but there's some excellent Pinotage being made in California and Virginia (other states too, but most choice from those two). I don't think they re easily obtainable but South African Pinotage isn't the beginning and the end of the variety.

Does Mrs. M know that Pinot Noir is one parent grape of Pinotage? Cross of PN & Cinsault done by early professor of viticulture within So Africa.

Pinotage seems to have mixed reviews among geeks, but we are indeed fans. Have tried no USA-based Pinotage. Might seek it out if the $ is right.

[Jenise]

She's in Southern California; Southern Hemisphere wines in Huntington Beach (owners are South African) would be a great resource if Pat would like to try some.

She's in Southern California; Southern Hemisphere wines in Huntington Beach (owners are South African) would be a great resource if Pat would like to try some.

Thanks for the reminder, Jenise. Have ordered from that store before, for friends who have then picked up their mystery gifts.

Does Mrs. M know that Pinot Noir is one parent grape of Pinotage? Cross of PN & Cinsault done by early professor of viticulture within So Africa.

I can assure you she knows more about Pinotage than she ever wanted to.

A I Perold was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture

Pinot is a parent of a great many varieties, including Chardonnay, Aligote, Riesling, Gamay, Melon (Muscadet), Savignan, Auxerrois and more, and related to many many more.

Such are the wonders of the web I've had a look at Southern Hemisphere's Pinotages, and I'd recommend
Kanonkop Estate Pinotage 2018 @$39.99 - masters of the variety
Simonsig Redhill Pinotage 2017 @$28.99 - from a red soil vineyard behind the winery
Beeslaar Pinotage 2018 @$49.99 - private venture of Kanonkop's winemaker Abrie Beeslaar
Painted Wolf Guillermo Pinotage 2018 or 2019 @$19.99 - dismiss the 'critter' label, this is a good 'tage by Jeremy Borg, sales support the African wild dog, aka Painted Wolf
Southern Right Pinotage 2019 @$24.99

My son in Wales and I have been drinking a lot of
Kanonkop Kadette Cape Blend 2018 (@ $14.99 - it's a blend of 37% 'tage with BDX varieties, really delightful.

Pinotage seems to have mixed reviews among geeks

That's true, but when one questions the self-proclaimed geeks it turns out they have very little experience of the variety and have not tasted it from any where else than South Africa.

Yup. Abraham Perrold. Read about him years ago in my geeky studies.

Thanks for your ideas, Peter. Will add to my when-I-buy (but won't be soon) list. We currently have 2 bottles of Tania & Vincent Careme 2018, Swartland, which I learned of at a trade event. Any non-So Africa Pinotage you would recommend?

Speaking of travel, I took some bottles out of my cooler to make room for incoming. Among them is a 2008 Monteti Toscana IGT. The bottle has only been upright 1 day; unfined, unfiltered. So I placed in 2nd in the queue. I think it could throw some sediment and needs more time to do so. We can wait.

We may not make it to Piedmont & Tuscany, but if it won't be safe, it won't be fun. Can still enjoy the wines....

. Any non-So Africa Pinotage you would recommend?

In CA Loma Prieta in Los Gatos makes top 'tage, really delicious. But I've not tasted any made since owner/winemaker Paul Kemp died.
https://lomaprietawinery.com/

Maybe nearer you - in Temecula - is Oak Mountain Winery
https://oakmountainwinery.com/
http://www.pinotage.org/search?q=temecula

I'm surprised there are that many wineries in Texas and Virginia. Even with those numbers, production's tiny. Whatever they do make is often suspect, and most of it is sold locally. None of their wines ever win awards. The wines aren't taken seriously in the wine world. They're like Temecula. They don't compete with the big boys from CA, OR and WA. That's a non-wine state.

Jenise, While I agree with you generally, the wines from Afton Mountain in Virginia are serious wines and worth searching out. On the recommendation of my son-in-law, we stopped at their winery during an extended road trip last summer and wound up buying a mixed case to see how the wines evolve. They do a very nice Albarino and several excellent reds. Nice balanced wines that should age gracefully. Regards

Hi Robert, it's nice to see you around here again. How are things going?

Country Six in our Lock Down Tour is Ukraine.

The food was Chicken Kiev. The last time we had this dish was in Kiev in 2019 when Viking Sineus moored there at the end of a cruise from the Black Sea port of Odessa and up the Dnieper River.

I brought this wine home with me, bought in Odessa and it’s a varietal Odessky Cherny which translates to Odessa Black, so both start and end points of the cruise are referenced in this meal.

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Chicken Kiev (breaded chicken breast stuffed with garlic & herb butter) was accompanied by sautéed new potatoes with onion, broad beans and cauliflower florets.

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Odessky Cherny (Odessa Black) is a successful 20th Century Ukrainian crossing of the red fleshed Alicante Bouschet and Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine was opaque black red and had thrown a lot of deposits along the bottle where I’d kept it on its side for the past 18 months. It had the structure of Cabernet together with the intensity of Alicante. Very enjoyable, but unfortunately my only bottle.

Country seven in our Lockdown Tour is New Zealand.

We’ve enjoyed visiting NZ in real life and hope to return, but a virtual trip is much quicker and less stressful since NZ is 24 hours flying from London. I’ve done it in one burst, arriving at about 1am, disorientated, badly jet-lagged, and determined to never do it in one go again. Spending a few days in Singapore one suffers from jet-lag and then get jet-lag again when arriving in NZ. Breaking the journey in Sydney seems best as from there it’s less than 5 hours to NZ and there’s no second jet-lag.

But there’s no jet-lag at all in travelling virtually. As it was Sunday we started with a glass of fizz.

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N.V. Cloudy Bay Pelorus Brut (New Zealand, Marlborough)

Cloudy Bay is probably the most famous name in NZ wine, and their traditional method sparkling wine is terrific. Predominantly Chardonnay with some Pinot Noir it’s aged on lees for two years before disgorgement.

There’s said to be more sheep than people in New Zealand, so we chose New Zealand lamb for our representative dish, roasted with parsnip and potatoes and steamed cabbage, carrots and broad beans. In NZ we’d have had roasted Kumara (a variety of sweet potato) but since that wasn’t available we had parsnip.

And to accompany, we had a red Bordeaux blend from NZs oldest winery, Te Mata.

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2018 Te Mata Estate (New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay)

The 2018 is a blend of 47% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc, aged in a new and seasoned French oak barrels for 11 months. Delicious wine.

[Jenise]

I'm surprised there are that many wineries in Texas and Virginia. Even with those numbers, production's tiny. Whatever they do make is often suspect, and most of it is sold locally. None of their wines ever win awards. The wines aren't taken seriously in the wine world. They're like Temecula. They don't compete with the big boys from CA, OR and WA. That's a non-wine state.

Jenise, While I agree with you generally, the wines from Afton Mountain in Virginia are serious wines and worth searching out. On the recommendation of my son-in-law, we stopped at their winery during an extended road trip last summer and wound up buying a mixed case to see how the wines evolve. They do a very nice Albarino and several excellent reds. Nice balanced wines that should age gracefully. Regards

Robert, I'm sorry for not responding but I didn't see this note until this morning. I appreciate hearing about this winery; I'll admit I've had a very few surprisingly good wines from Virginia and Maryland--I am that person who will buy anything different--but the dogs have been far greater. I'll look into Afton.

[Jenise]

Robert again: just looked into Afton, planning to buy a three-pack sampler. They don't ship to Washington, so it will be awhile before I get to try their wines.

Btw, Savannah now? Last I think we knew you were moving from London to Florence!

Our Lockdown Tour of The World continues with Country 9 being India. It's a huge country with many cuisines, but the dish I chose was curry and rice - in particular a mixed vegetable curry in a sauce combining Jalfrezi heat and the tomato richness of Rogan Josh.

The curry had a base of sautéed onions and spices, with cubed sweet potato and butternut providing the bulk, accompanied with quartered button mushrooms, halved baby sweetcorn, cauliflower florets, French beans and peas.

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With it, we had an Indian wine:

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2018 Sula Vineyards Shiraz Dindori Reserve (India, Nashik)

Estate bottled, from grapes grown in the Dindori Vineyard in Nashik, Maharashtra State and aged in French and American oak barrels for more than a year.

The wine was excellent, with a deep colour, silky smooth taste, and soft tannins.

(later edit: I don't know why the winepic is not showing - it does if one clicks on it .The stick on seal boasting of 92 points from Wine Enthusiast was unlikely to be for this wine unless Wine Enthusiast has at time machine, as it dated December 2015 and this wine is the 2018 vintage)

[Jenise]

That seal's hilarious. But it sounds like the wine was more than decent, in spite of the subterfuge.

The wine is good.
I've just been to Wine Enthusiast website and see that the 2014 & 2015 got 92 points, the 2011 got 93 points, and the vintage I had - 2018 - got 90 points and was 35 of 100 Best Buys for 2019.

I don't know about Wine Enthusiast or how credible its scores are, but the scores are good and the reviews positive; more importantly it seems the wines are available in the US for $11-$14 which seems inexpensive....

https://www.winemag.com/?s=sula&drink_t ... pe=reviews

A few years ago India had a stand at the London Wine Fair and there were half-a-dozen or more wineries exhibiting, wines being enthusiastically poured by women in saris in front of the stands. They were all good wines, but I don't see Indian wines on shelves.

When I searched, this was the only brand to some up, and I needed to buy a case and pay delivery from one of the few stockists, which I resisted.

Then I saw and got one bottle from Amazon.

[Jenise]

Wine Enthusiast is only as good as the coverage they hire for a given area. I happen to think highly of the guys who cover Washington and I understand their POV, so I'd listen. Other areas, I don't know.

I am curious to know more about this Indian vineyard, in particular its climatic conditions. It must be located at an altitude which brings cool enough conditions for Syrah/Shiraz? My only experience of the Indian sub-continent is from a handful of business visits to Karachi in Pakistan well to the north. I found the climate unbearably humid and hot except in December, which was like June in NW Europe (does that include the UK nowadays?) in fine weather.

I recall that in the days of the Raj the British moved wholesale from the hot plains to the cool of mountain towns like Poona.

I know nothing of this winery other than what is on its website, but the proof of the suitability of their vineyards for growing Shiraz was in the drinking.

In 1996, Rajeev Samant planted the first wine grapes in Nashik and today, this region is India's premier wine-growing and almost 80% of India's wine is produced here.

Situated in the Western Ghats, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, Nashik's soil is of volcanic origin, ranging from weathered basalt to red laterite to heavy clay. The heavier soils are closer to the Godavari river beds while the lighter crumbly weathered red soils are closer to the northern hilly part of the region.

Vineyards in proximity to hills or rivers have markedly different microclimates- the best example being Dindori, which further reflects in the quality of the wine produced here. The cool nights of Nashik ensure high levels of acid in the grapes, while warm days ensure optimum ripeness of the grapes, resulting in perfect growing conditions and terroirs for premium wine grapes.

https://sulavineyards.com/our-vineyards.php

We reached Country 10 on our Lockdown Tour of The World. Last night was the turn of Spain with Pollo al Ajillo (Garlic Chicken) a Diana Henry recipe* from the Telegraph’s Stella magazine.

This seemed right up our street as it involves the chicken being cooked in sherry and sherry vinegar. How much more Spanish could it be?

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Sherry Vinegar and, Sherry for cooking with wine to accompany

and this was the dish, two whole chicken thighs, with skin on, served with sautéed potatoes, broccoli and cabbage

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and the wine was

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2015 Torres Catalunya Gran Sangre de Toro Reserva (Spain, Catalunya)

Delicious and subtle.

*Recipe is here. Note the recipe photo doesn’t match instructions. Photo shows skin on, recipe says skin off, photo shows garlic cloves, recipe discards these at step 5.

Thanks, Peter. Always a plus of the recipe is posted.

That reminds me: very little if any Spanish wine in cellar. Too much wine, but do like Garnacha and Tempranillo. And others.

Hungary was the 14th country we virtually visited in our Lockdown World Tour.

The meal was Goulash (Gulyás), the most famous Hungarian dish, though none of the times we’ve been in Hungary have we seen it.

I searched the web for recipes; there are a great deal and none of them agree. Only certainty seems to be meat and paprika, the meat is usually beef but there’s pork or sausage versions. Paprika can be hot, mild, smoked, red wine, white wine or no wine, caraway seeds, caraway powder or no caraway…Some recipes insisted that the stew contained lots of root vegetables, others none. Most included bell pepper

So after reading several recipes, I steered my own course.

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Mine used diced beef braising steak, caraway seeds, sweet paprika powder, a tin of plum tomatoes, red wine, beef gravy and garlic. After an hour cooking I added large chunks of carrot and after another two hours in a low oven I added most of an orange pepper.

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The wine was

2013 St. Andrea Egri Bikaver Grand Superior Hangács (Hungary, Felső-Magyarország, Eger)

Egri Bikaver used to be sold as Bulls Blood and was the most famous Hungarian red wine. It’s a Kekfrankos (aka Blaufränkisch or Lemberger) blend with Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, Merlot & Kadarka . This one was very enjoyable, not at all like the rather rough Bull's Blood of my younger days.

At present we only have wines from France, Germany, South Africa. New Zealand (2014 Te Mata Awatea) and USA (CA and WA). In the past we have had wines from (in no particular order) Portugal, Spain, England, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Lebanon, Israel, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Canada (BC and ON), OR, ID and NY.

We have been in all of the above, as well as other countries and states and provinces, except for Lebanon and Israel. Richard L