Just got my new August KermitLynch Newsletter. They feature the new Prunents from Cantine Garrone. These are very good expressions of Alpine Nebbiolo.
From time-to-time Kermit writes a brief article for the Newsletter. I thought his musings this month were particularly interesting. Tom
# Memories, Wines, And Reflections
## Salmon Season
*by Kermit Lynch*
One fine day a couple of years ago, I walked over to the Monterey Fish Market to check out their fresh fish display. I am a fan, because they sell nothing but seafood from sustainable fisheries. I entered and there, brightly shining out from the rest of the catch, was their first-of-the-season, line-caught local king salmon. O happy day, as the song goes.
Back home I saw that the first lettuces in my backyard garden were ready, so I made a green salad and a shallot vinaigrette, because a light touch of red wine vinegar and raw shallots tastes so good with salmon—I learned that from Alice Waters, who happens to live halfway between my house and the fish market. Someday I’m going to steal one of the yellow zucchinis she has growing in her front yard. Of course, out of the zillions of zucchinis born daily, hers are the loveliest. But no, Kermit, thou shalt not steal! Not even one measly zucchini?
In my kitchen, in a little butter and olive oil, I slowly sautéed a small salmon filet and placed it atop the salad. Vinegar clashes with most wines, so I had to be careful. My mood said cold wine, please, and two whites came to mind: a fresh, young Friulano from Vignai da Duline in Friuli and a 2010 Sauvignon from Kante, also a Friulian wine, but from grapes grown not far from Trieste. Both had good flesh and the necessary crisp, stand-up structure to go with the vinaigrette. Younger seemed appropriate, so I uncorked the 2021 Friulano, a wine previously known as Tocai, which had nothing at all to do with Tokay. The wine authorities, however, decided that many of us are idiots not sharp enough to distinguish Tocai from Tokay.
I am far from being a fanatical creator of wine and food marriages, which does not mean that I don’t love one when it happens. However, I hit the jackpot with Duline’s Friulano. Mulling it over, I cannot imagine a better wine with that salmon salad. Next time, I’ll check out the 2010 Sauvignon—a fourteen-year-old Sauvignon Blanc but in its prime and brimming with flavor and personality. It is a great bottle, and I’m eager to see what it does with the vinaigrette.
For dinner, we went for simplicity: salmon steaks grilled over vine cuttings. Boiled new potatoes, crushed and topped with freshly chopped chives and olive oil. Plus a platter of new green peas with green garlic.
I thought of my old wine-drinking pal, California winemaker extraordinaire Joseph Swan, who loved drinking red Bordeaux with grilled salmon. That was back in the seventies and eighties, when Bordeaux weighed in at about twelve to thirteen degrees alcohol. These days, we’re seeing weightier wines on the palate—reds too heavy, too thickly textured for salmon. Maybe a good cooled-down Beaujolais instead?
Hey, Joe! What’s it like up there in the vigneron Hall of Fame? I’ll bet they gave you the key to the cellar. And hey, Joe, damnit, I miss ya.
We palled around a lot. I was in my thirties; Joe was a retired airline pilot in his sixties. His first Swan Vineyards wine was a 1968 Zinfandel, one of the greatest red wines of my life—still alive and kickin’ today. If I had a bottle left, I’d open it and wipe away a tear or two, because Joe died too soon due to a missed biopsy diagnosis. He’d been in great shape with a big shock of white hair.
I still cannot explain how he and I managed to drink such vast quantities of wine. I do, however, know why. We loved wine right down to its dregs. “The dregs are the best part,” Joe claimed, but that might have been the wine talking. No, Joe would indeed finish an old bottle’s last glass, dregs and all. He didn’t decant, and he bottled his own creations unfiltered—one reason his 1968 Zin is still alive half a century later. Joe was the first to make me aware of the evils of filtration. “Jee-zuz Christ! You’re gonna go to all that trouble to make a good wine and then rip the heart and soul out of it?”
I had one other wine-drinking friend with whom I managed to down unfathomable quantities of good wine, and that was Richard Olney. (By the way, you could call Joseph Joe, but you knew right away not to call Richard Dick.) He unintentionally, I like to think, almost killed me with alcohol, but we’ll get to that story another day. Richard had a strong personality and strong opinions. Like garlic, he drove some people away.
It is a strange coincidence, but both Joe and Richard were wine virtuosi who as young lads considered themselves painters and attended the University of Iowa School of Art. Joe took to Richard, but Richard never really warmed up to Joe, who probably retained a bit too much Midwest in him to suit Richard.
But I digress. I might have titled these pages *Digressions*. Anyway, back to my king salmon. Choosing a wine for grilled salmon is almost as easy as choosing one for roast chicken, which provides a perfect backdrop to practically any lovely bottle, no matter the age or color. With roast chicken, a wine’s characteristics are usually vividly evident.
I do not keep a written inventory of what is aging in bins downstairs—wooden bins tilted down in back in case of earthquake. My memory is pretty good, but not photographic, so bottles get lost and found. (When one day my son and daughter divide the contents of my cellar, they’ll surely find some well-aged surprises.) As I searched through my mind, I remembered an excep tional 2005 Puligny-Montrachet from Coche-Dury: “Les Enseignères.” A *premier cru*, the vineyard is located between Bâtard and Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet, two of only six *grand cru* vineyards in the Côte de Beaune. A narrow road separates the *premier cru* from the *grand cru*, and a bunch of bucks separate them, too. I remembered the 2005 as generous with oodles of charm, and the second time around the first sip going down confirmed it. So yes to the question, are white Burgundies good with salmon? Try a Saint-Aubin, Pernand-Vergelesses, Meursault, or Pouilly-Fuissé, for example.
And perhaps another lesson learned might interest you. I purchased salmon filet, but in addition a salmon steak with the bone-in, because with beef, lamb, chicken, or pork, I am a bone-in fan. Even quickly grilled, a good steak has better flavor with the bone left in. I was surprised comparing the two cuts side by side when it turned out to be true with grilled salmon, too. When I next spoke with Kara at the fish store, she agreed: more depth, more interesting with the bone-in, so with my wife’s vote, that makes it 3–0 for the steak.
