WTN: Baudry Chinon & thoughts (not rant) on cookbooks/wine

Last night Betsy combined two Judy Rodgers recipes, the roast chicken with bread salad, and a recipe for chicken salad with arugula, olives, and yellow pepper. The suggested wine for the latter was a 1999 Joguet young vines Chinon*, I brought up a bottle of the 2004 Bernard Baudry "Les Granges" Chinon. Served cool, straight from cellar. Bright acidity, black raspberry fruit, light tannins, a little barnyard. As it warms and gets air it fills out a bit, more black plum fruit, the merde notes light and in background, a little note of green pepper. I'm surprised when Betsy says she likes a lot, as she tends to hate green pepper (in wine or otherwise), but she does- this is just a hint, not an overpowering greenness. Nice welterweight, very food friendly, tasty. B+

*so, wine suggestions in cookbooks. On the one hand, you have the books that give a recipe and then say "merlot." Which encompasses a whole slew of styles, to the point of being pointless. Then you have the Zuni Cafe cookbook, where they list things like 1999 Charles Joquet Jeunes Vignes Chinon (I assume this is what sommelier suggests at restaurant). But how much help is that? A specific wine, produced in small quantities, rather hard to find on release. And now that cookbook is 5 years old, certainly won't find that vintage lying around. Most of us geeks can extrapolate what they mean from a specific example, but 99% of the cookbook readers I'm sure have no clue what a Chinon is.

I'll give my "this is how it should be done" award to Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger cookbook. He gives specific descriptors of the type of wine he thinks works, and then a couple of examples:
Sparkling Chenin from Loire Valley (Foreau or Huet Petillant Brut)
Big rich oaky Merlot (Pride Mountain Merlot, Ch. Monbousquet)
Spicy Cabernet Franc from Loire Valley (Charles Joquet Chinon or Breton Bourgeuil)
etc (those are ones I just made up, don't have book with me, but you get idea).
If someone knows nothing about wine, they can at least take the general descriptor into a decent wine shop and come up with something.

edited for spelling (things for thinks)

[David M. Bueker]

Agree with you on the cookbook thing. Obviously magazines have a little more leeway to be "current" with their recommendations, but I do think they should explain the context of their specific recommendations as well. I like it when a magazine says: "This recipe worked well with a bottle of 2002 J. J. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Rieslign Spatlese, but any kabinett or spatlese from the Mosel will work equally well, as will many non-trocken kabinett or spatlese from other areas of Germany." (That's a slight twist on an actual recommendation for wine pairing from Cooking Light a few years ago.)

The Baudry Chinon sounds like my kind of a good food wine and worth a slight detour to the wine store to pick up a bottle on my walk home.

Dale and Ramon -

I've recently become a big fan of Baudry Chinon, enough to get me off my butt and post in the recent open mike on Cabernet Franc.

Here's what I wrote then, slightly paraphrased:

2003 Baudry Chinon "Les Grezeaux"
2005 Baudry Chinon "Les Granges"

"Two Cabernet Francs, both quite good, but the Les Grezeaux was the better of the two. This bottle had herbs and bell-pepper tastes, which I normally avoid, but here it created complexity and certainly did not overpower the ripe berry fruit hovering over it. Light frame (12.5%), elegant, a little clean dirt in there, all very nicely balanced. Excellent.

The “Les Granges” was also good, but everything a little bit less. Not quite the purity or concentration of fruit, not as complex or herbal underneath, a little heavier and less elegant on the tongue (13% alcohol). Still nice."

Your description, Dale, was better than mine on the "Les Granges."

Both wines were real eye-openers for me. I've since tasted several other Loire CFs, all good, but none as nice as the "Les Grezeaux," which was $20.00, and worth every cent. The "Les Granges" is $15.00 around here, also a good value. Good food wines. There are other Baudry Chinons that I look for every time I'm in a wine shop. They're on my "buy them if you see them" list.

Brian

"Two Cabernet Francs, both quite good, but the Les Grezeaux was the better of the two.

As you may know, Les Granges is the entry-level cuvee for Baudry. It often drinks better on release and is the one to guzzle young. Les Grezeaux is one of Baudry's top cuvees, for longer aging, etc.

Different animals.

I love em all.

OK, all you Baudry fans. This afternoon I tasted a delicious Rose from Chinon. Top notch, was only a rep sample but store is bringing in asap.