Introduction to Nomacorc Synthetic Corks

Catgut.

It is perhaps the least mellifluous word in the English language, and fares even worse once you know that the term designated the state of the art for guitar strings and surgical sutures for centuries. When you needed to stitch up a wound or play a stringed instrument, your best bet was to use part of the lower GI tract of a farm animal (not cats, but more cattle and sheep and whatnot) and hope for the best. Now there are synthetic substitutes for those products, and you rarely if ever hear someone in the E.R. requesting to be sewn up with traditional catgut.

In the wine industry, the accepted traditional packaging method comes from the 17th century: a glass bottle with a piece of tree bark shoved in it to keep the wine safe and let it breathe and mature over a few years. The problem with natural cork is that there is a high level of variability. Purchase a case of wine, let it rest for five years. Statistically, one bottle will be bad due to cork problems (TCA contamination or oxidation or leakage), and the remaining eleven bottles will vary somewhat depending on how much oxygen has reached the inner contents. Other enclosures have their own problems, as wines can suffer from too much or too little oxygen.

Nomacorc was founded by a Belgian wine lover named Gert Noël who found such a failure rate of 6-12% unacceptable, and given modern manufacturing standards, it's amazing that the wine business has gone this long with such numbers. He partnered with his son's North Carolina foam manufacturing company (Nomaco) that makes things like pool noodles, and thus Nomacorc was born. As with catgut, perhaps there is a better technology out there, even if it's not the traditional solution.

The product has evolved over the years and the company now controls 13% of the world cork market. (Not the synthetic cork market, all cork-shaped enclosures, since most of the other synthetic producers are now gone.) The company has operations in Belgium, Argentina, China, and of course, North Carolina. There are a few standard products, though custom synthetic corks can be produced, and all offer custom printing.

The photo at top depicts the current state of the art product: Select Bio, which is produced from polymers derived from Brazilian sugar cane production. Note the beveled edges, which prevent a "lipping" problem present in early versions of the synthetic cork. Note also that from across a room, you're probably not going to be able to tell that the cork isn't "natural" (even though it's derived from sugar cane).

While the company is the exclusive provider of corks used for Barefoot and Yellowtail still wines sold in the United States, the company is touting its expertise in oxygen transfer management to appeal to the higher end, even collectible market. While at the factory, we got to meet Ben Mayo, the winemaker at Paso Robles' Eberle Winery and an early adopter of the Nomacorc. He said that over the years, he's had no complaints from customers about the switch to synthetic, aside from one fan who had made a trivet from Nomacorcs and was surprised when they melted under a hot casserole dish.

Mayo brought along a bottle of his 2003 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, one of the first elite vintages to be enclosed with synthetic corks. This bottle (released at $70, now going for $250), smelled and tasted remarkably young. Full of deep black fruit aromas, touches of leather and cedar, and free of obvious flaws. Not too young, but impressively stable and yet apparent that it will continue to improve over the next 5-10 years. Additionally, the synthetic cork was in great shape. The current batches of Nomacorcs are designed to provide specific oxygenation: different grapes and styles of wine require different rates of oxygen transfer over specific periods of time, and there are tools that the company has developed to find the perfect synthetic cork style for each bottling.

The science behind this whole operation is fascinating, and I'll have more details in my future posts about the winery tour. Stay tuned!

Note: This trip was sponsored by Nomacorc. All opinions are my own.

This Weekend Rocked

I spent the past weekend in Manhattan as a guest of Snooth, a wine website that combines information, sales, pairing advice, and networking opportunities. I joined around twenty other wine bloggers for a series of instructional tastings and the big Public Voice Awards, which was open to public ticket buyers and featured some 300 wines. Great food was prepared for us, we got to speak directly to winemakers and industry representatives, and were surrounded by the iconic architecture of the Flatiron District.

So why I am I showing you a pair of rocks? It's not just an easy pun. Those rocks were handed over to us by Aldo Sohm, sommelier of Le Bernardin. Both of those chunks of limestone come from Austria, but one of them comes from the vineyard that makes his own wine. That's how I spent my Sunday morning, sitting three feet away from Aldo while he handed over his personal rock collection and we sipped some amazing Grüner Veltliner.

Not a bad way to spend a quiet SoHo morning. I will apologize in advance for a lot of these photos--I was using my small auxiliary camera, the pocket-sized Canon A480. Not as powerful as my preferred Nikon D40, but much easier to carry around while running around the city. When possible I'll link to some similar posts from my fellow wine bloggers to see the scenes from a different angle.

Having left my house in Memphis at 4:30 a.m. on Friday and returning Sunday night just before the stroke of midnight, I am exhausted. But I have many wonderful stories to share, and eighty-nine wine reviews to transcribe... Stay tuned!

Where's Benito?

This is the view outside my window here in scenic San Rafael, California... Halfway between San Francisco and Sonoma. Over the next two days I'll be visiting local wineries (Sonoma, Healdsburg, Windsor, etc.) that specialize in organic/green winemaking, and will report on these wineries over the next couple of months, taking a day each week to focus on a different producer.

It's interesting to be in an internationally recognized wine region... I've visited vineyards in other parts of the US (Arkansas and New Mexico come to mind), and I've glimpsed them from the train in Italy, but this will be my first, direct exposure to the glories of NoCal viticulture. Stay tuned!

My stay here is sponsored by the Four Points by Sheraton hotel here in San Rafael. As a good Southern boy my instinctual reaction to hospitality is to offer to mow the grass, cook dinner, or help with the laundry, but for a trip like this I'm willing to sit back and accept the generosity. It's convenient, far enough form San Francisco to avoid the traffic but close enough if you want to see the city, and of course it's a great jumping off point for the nearby wine regions. If you're going to be in the area, consider this hotel, and tell 'em Benito sent you.

The Wine Mummy

Apparently my traveling and shuttling wines back and forth to Ohio got noticed, because I received a Wine Mummy for review. The Wine Mummy is a sturdy plastic bag with a layer of bubble wrap (the large half inch bubbles, not the smaller quarter inch size), another interior layer of black plastic, and a zip top enclosure. Normally I wrap a bottle of wine in clothes or stick it in a box full of t-shirts inside my luggage, but there's always room for improvement.

My first test was to see what kind of bottles fit the bag. It's designed to hold a single 750mL bottle, but those come in assorted shapes and sizes. At home I tried out a few different bottles. In addition to the standard Bordeaux and Burgundy styles it also worked with a Rubenesque sparkling wine and a tall, slender Riesling.

My second test: put a bottle in it and fly somewhere. Fortunately I had a business trip to Cincinnati, so after judging the construction of the bag to be solid, I packed a red wine--the 2006 Strong Arms Shiraz imported by Grateful Palate from the McLaren Vale region of South Australia. $12, 15.5% abv. Obviously the wine survived baggage handling at MEM and CVG and the luggage hold of a Canadair CRJ-200, because I'm able to tell you that it's got a nose of strawberry jam and fig, with a little toast. The flavor is somewhat overwhelmed by the alcohol but ripe strawberries and stewed fruit flavors are definitely present. (While the label artwork looks like Edward Gorey, it's actually Mel Kadel.)

The Wine Mummy is available for purchase online and retails for $4.95. For the ecologically conscious, the bags are reusable. They're also able to customize bags with logos or text for special events. My suggestion? Use one of these as a stocking for Christmas. For the wine lover in your life, either put a bottle of wine in it and stick a bow on the front, or fill it with wine gadgets and other small gifts. Wrapping paper gets thrown away quickly; why not surround your gift with something useful?

Disclosure: I'm not receiving financial compensation for this review or for sales of this product. It's a genuinely good product that fits my wine needs, and I enjoy supporting companies that produce such wine/food accessories.

Cleveland: Bar Cento/McNulty's Bier Markt

While exploring the amazing culinary landscape of Cleveland, I made two trips to the Westside Market-area restaurant run by Chef Jonathan Sawyer. The establishment is divided into two sides that share a common kitchen but operate different bars, and I had to try both.


First up was the left hand side, Bar Cento: I sat at the bar near the kitchen, close enough that I could feel the heat off the ovens. I loosened my tie and settled in for dinner. It wasn't until I saw the tattoos that I realized Sawyer was right there in front of me making pizzas and running the kitchen. I had a wine flight of unnamed Barbera, Sangiovese, and Nebbiolo--all quite good for the $10 flight special. A warm biscuit was delivered in a brown paper bag with a dish of butter to whet the appetite. I gazed over the menu and finally decided on the Shiitake and Wild Boar Salumi pizza. Excellent crust, great combination of ingredients, and I got to watch the whole process, meaning I got to see Sawyer place full sprigs of thyme on the pizza and then carefully remove them after cooking. Full thyme flavor without having to pick the stems out of your teeth.

One great note about Bar Cento was the music. As I was sitting there on a weekday afternoon, I noticed that Genesis was on the music system. Geez, I haven't heard "Land of Confusion" in a while. After the second Collins song, I saw that the cover for the Invisible Touch LP was propped up nearby. And just to the left, a turntable spinning away. I realized that the record albums stacked above the bar weren't just for decoration, and even enjoyed the minutes-long pause between the A and B sides when the bartender remembered to flip the record.

Later that week I made my way over to the right side for McNulty's Bier Markt, known more for it's massive beer selection. If you love the well-crafted beers of Belgium you can waste a lot of time at McNulty's. I started with a glass of the St. Bernardus Abt 12 dark beer, and followed up with the lighter Delirium Tremens. Two seriously produced Belgian beers from the enormous and well-thought out beer menu. Sadly, the ladies next to me were drinking Corona and Michelob. Oughta be a law.

I had the burger (topped with Dutch cheese and peppery greens) and a side of frites. The burger was great enough to make you cry and call your Mom, but those frites... By far the best I've had in the US and damned close to those available in the Netherlands. They're served with sprigs of rosemary and roasted garlic, and a tiny ramekin of salt and a pepper grinder are provided for you to further season them. And you get a dish with a dollop each of ketchup and three homemade mayonnaise blends incorporating different flavor profiles.

I had greasy fingerprints all over my newspaper, but I was a happy lad. Along with Lola, Lolita, and the Flying Fig, this place is on the Must Visit list for anyone coming to Cleveland.

500th Post: Cleveland West Side Market

Earlier this year I celebrated the 3 year milestone, and this entry marks the 500th post here at Benito's Wine Reviews. At my current pace I ought to hit 1000 around January 2012. I've said this before, but if y'all weren't reading, I wouldn't be doing this, so thanks for your continued patronage and supportive/argumentative comments and e-mails.

Since I'm celebrating this event here in Cuyahoga County, I figured I'd use this opportunity to write about this weekend's food adventure...


August in Cleveland is a lot cooler than Memphis, though it's been nice to see that the temperature has fallen somewhat back home. This past weekend I got to visit the West Side Market in Cleveland, Ohio, a downtown food shopping square that's been in operation since the mid 1800s. Think of a Great Lakes version of the famous Les Halles in Paris. Meat, vegetables, fresh bread, and lots more... If it's edible, there's a good chance you can get it from one of the dozens of stalls.

There's an L-shaped building that houses all of the fruits and vegetables seen in the top picture. Sort of your standard Farmers Market fare with odd twists like prickly pear cactus, green figs, and fresh juices squeezed on the spot. But the real magic can be found inside the square building, home to the fish, meat, and prepared foods. In the righthand picture, from left to right you've got a purveyor of hot sauces, a bakery (traditional breads and pastries), and a butcher selling assorted cuts of bison, lamb, and goat. Hell, you can pick up enough pig parts to build a complete Frankenhog. Elsewhere you've got every seasoned, cured, ground, and smoked meat known to mankind, including Mettwurst and some sort of Slovenian blood sausage.

There were stalls selling sandwiches and falafel and crepes and pasta and many other delicacies. I enjoyed a great Short Attention Span Lunch--"Ooh, that looks good, gotta try that..." While walking around you'll hear at least a dozen different languages spoken. A bit of haggling here, a discussion over preparation there. At the Scots-Irish counter I picked up a meat pie and slice of Guinness cake for dinner later. Humble fare, but despite my prior adventures with hotel cooking I really didn't have any way to properly cook all the organ meats and exotic rices and other treasures that I saw.

Lolita

The last time I was in Cleveland I had a spectacular meal at Michael Symon's Lola. This time I tried the sister restaurant Lolita.

Located in the historic Tremont neighborhood on the edge of downtown, Lolita is more casual and less expensive than Lola. For a martini, a glass of wine, two courses, and a tip I got out of there for under $50. And if you want to dine on the cheap, the happy hour menu has food and drinks for next to nothing.

I got there right at the 5:00 opening and discovered the bar was almost full and all tables had been reserved. I squeezed into a spot at the bar wedged behind the hostess and next to the wine rack. Got to talk to my fellow diners, who were grabbing a bite to eat before The Tribe faced Oakland. Lolita has a much more casual and neighborhood feel than Lola, which is more of a fine dining experience. Symon was in the restaurant that night and aside from a quick hello I didn't spend any time speaking to him. Lolita has a partially open kitchen and he was in and out of the prep area looking over things.

I started out with the aforementioned martini (Tanqueray and a twist) and the roasted dates. The dates were cooked in olive oil with pancetta and almonds. Really delicious without being overly sweet. Also, they managed to serve these just slightly below the temperature that burns your tongue. Amazing.

For the main course I had the hanger steak and ramps with a glass of 2006 Maggio Vini Nero D’Avola. I loved this Sicilian grape the last time I had it and was glad to see it offered by the glass. This was the first time I'd ever had ramps, the wild vegetable that's somewhere between a leek, a green onion, and garlic with edible greens on top. The ramps were sautéed with peas and assorted seasonings. Great combination of sweet and astringent onion flavors.

As for the hanger steak, it was my first time trying this cut of beef and I'm now officially in love. It hangs off the diaphragm of the cow and rests on the kidneys, which give it a deeper, earthier flavor that you normally find in organ meats, but with the texture and appearance of sirloin.

Tremont is an interesting neighborhood. You've got houses and churches and bars and schools and jammed cheek to jowl. In one direction you've got the tall buildings of downtown, and in the other a bunch of smokestacks from factories and mills. A couple of blocks away from Lolita is the St. Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church, with beautiful onion domes. It was built in 1911 and featured in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.

Cleveland's got a bunch of remarkable architecture, but you're rarely able to get a shot without a bunch of powerlines in the way. At least the minivan provides a sense of scale.

Images from Amish Country

I got to spend a little time looking around the Amish country of Northern Ohio, specifically around the towns of Millersburg and Berlin. If you're ever in the area I can highly recommend checking it out. There's good food, antiques, historical sites, and tons of farm fresh cheese. Just watch out for the horses and buggies.

As always, click any photo for a larger version.


This is what it looks like driving through most of the countryside. Quiet, pastoral, and lots of livestock. I saw horses, goats, cows, sheep, llamas, etc.


Speaking of livestock, this Highland bull was right next to my car when I parked at one of the local attractions, a winery called...


Breitenbach. Here I got to try a rhubarb wine (as refreshing as a slice of watermelon) and a pretty decent icewine made from Vidal Blanc in the Canadian style.


I don't care what Sherwood Anderson said, the folks of Winesburg were kind, friendly people. I suppose someone had to start the genre of "all small towns are full of dark, shameful secrets", but there's a lot of normal, everyday people between the works of Grandma Moses and Stephen King.


One strange sight outside of Sugarcreek was a McDonald's proudly flying the Swiss flag. I was tempted to walk in and say, "Ich möchte ein Big Mac, bitte." The immigrants in the area were a mix of Swiss and German, though English speakers' confusion over the word Deutsch meant that many were referred to as "Dutch". This leads to the odd conundrum of a restaurant called Dutch Valley that specializes in Swiss-German cuisine, and all outsiders regardless of nationality are referred to as the English.

Playing the Tourist

Salute to Cleveland Week finishes up with some touristy activities.

Perhaps the most popular attraction for out of town visitors is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum located down on the shore of Lake Erie. It's an odd assortment of tons of memorabilia from the entire history of rock music, with occasional side trips into country, hip hop, and various pop acts.

The biggest thrill for me was seeing the Ford Eliminator Coupe from ZZ Top that was featured in several videos. And it was a curious experience to stand mere inches from the stage costumes and guitars of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and the rest of Parliament Funkadelic (those guys have surprisingly conservative signatures). How about Madonna's slinky outfits and Run DMC's well-worn Adidas?

Less well known but more enjoyable for me was visiting the house featured in the classic holiday film A Christmas Story. The house was used for the exterior shots and some interior scenes (others were done on a sound stage--the house is very tiny). The website devoted to the house will provide you with additional information and directions.

Across the street are two houses purchased by the owner: one serves as a gift shop (where you can purchase leg lamps in many different sizes), and a museum that is accumulating material related to the movie, including the non-flexible snow suit worn by the little brother. They've got the car from the Christmas tree/flat tire scene and lots of other fun stuff.

The Kitchen

Leg Lamps in Many Sizes

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The Girlfriend and I went on a road trip to Texas last weekend. We drove ten straight hours from Memphis to Houston. The following morning, we went to The Houston Museum of Natural Science in order to see the 3.2 million year old bones of the Australopithecus afarensis Lucy. While the majority of the exhibit focused on Ethiopian history and culture, the last portion was dedicated to Lucy. In a small glass case you get to see a partial skeleton the size of a seven year old child. It's a humbling experience.

Ed. note: in reference to the first comment on this post, I picked up a couple of awesome "I Love Lucy" refrigerator magnets in the gift shop. A perfect mix of history and kitsch, which is what fun weekend getaways are all about.

Then it was off to Dallas. The hotel offered a complimentary glass of wine to be delivered later, and I just checked off the box for the sparkler. I wasn't expecting much, maybe a dull Korbel that flattened en route from the bar. Much to my surprise, I received two 187 mL bottles of NV Chandon Brut Classic in an ice bucket. A bit of toast on the nose, with crisp Chardonnay flavors and just a touch of lemon.

No hotel cooking on this trip... Instead we had a lovely dinner at The Oceanaire. The lady enjoyed the pan-fried trout in brown butter, while I had goat cheese crusted corvina with beet risotto. Simply amazing. I enjoyed mine with a glass of a Sancerre from Mollet: nice hints of apple and pear, solid structure and balanced acidity.

At right, the Old Red Museum of Texas history in downtown Dallas.

The most interesting part of the meal had to be the oysters. Out of the dozen varieties on the menu I told the waiter to pick six for me. I had Beau Soleil, Blue Point, Hurricane, Indian Point, Malpaque, and Tatamagouche. I really loved the smaller ones, some of which had a buttery flavor (such as the Indian Point). The Beau Soleil had an incredible, fresh from the ocean saltiness. The largest was the Blue Point, though even it was dainty compared to the big mud rocks we get in Memphis.

The next morning we were off to Dealy Plaza to visit the site of the JFK assassination. The photo at left was taken looking across the road where the event occurred. (If you click for the larger version, you might get to see little white crosses painted in the road to denote where the shots impacted.) It was surprising to see how small the entire area was; the plaza is split by a pair of roads that lead to and from the interstate, and the infamous Book Depository is a rather nondescript seven-story building on the corner. All of this is on the west side of Downtown Dallas.

I can highly recommend the museum in the Book Depository building. The displays and artifacts are tasteful and comprehensive, filling up the sixth floor where Oswald was perched. For instance, one display includes a sample of every kind of camera that was present at the event, and a future exhibit about photography is planned for the top floor.

Afterwards we made an appearance at a wedding reception then it was back home. A short but fun-filled trip: 1200 miles, two major historical exhibits, one fabulous seafood dinner, and gorgeous weather all the way.

Benito vs. the Hotel Room: Mediterranean Delight

When it comes to hotel cookery, there are certain things that you have to cross off the list. Large roasts of meat, for example. (Now, if I'm staying in a hotel with a fireplace this winter, that's a different story.) Most sauces are out of the question, and I have no desire to use dried packets of instant au jus. But there is a great sauce that is delicious and only requires a refrigerator: Greek tzatziki. I made mine out of strained Greek yogurt, shredded mint, chopped cucumber and tomato. I don't have pictures of this process, but it's dead simple. The magic comes from letting it sit overnight--the flavors marry together beautifully. Around this one concept I built an entire meal.

Rather than whine about what you can't do, focus on your strengths. With only a microwave and a refrigerator, you're pretty limited in the cooking department but you can boil liquids and heat up certain items pretty well. So I decided to go with a pan-Mediterranean dish incorporating the cuisines of Spain, Italy, Greece, and North Africa. Aside from the tzatziki, I have a tub of items from the olive bar, a box of instant couscous, a fantastic one cup box of organic chicken broth, a bag of unsalted trail mix, fresh mint, a jar of roasted red peppers, and some pitas. This project begged for some lamb, but as I didn't have any good way to cook it nor could I find any merguez lamb sausage, I lucked upon some Niman Ranch chorizo.

I took the raisins out of the trail mix and soaked them in white wine for a few hours beforehand, saving the sunflower and pumpkin seeds for later. I tore up some kalamata olives and added them to the couscous in the coffee pot along with the "drunken" raisins and seeds, plus a spoonful of residual oil from the olive tub. I heated the cup of broth to boiling, added it to the couscous mixture and then put a lid over the pot to let it steam and cook.

You know, when I get home I'm going to miss that little coffee pot.

I sliced the chorizo and heated it up in the microwave until just sizzling. I was able to use a little bowl (swiped from the breakfast buffet in the lobby) to make a perfect timbale of couscous, surrounded by roasted red peppers and topped with a mint leaf. Rounding out the plate were some dolmas and a stuffed pepper from the olive bar, a healthy dollop of my tzatziki and warmed pitas. The meal was precisely what I was craving and while I doubt that you'll see anything quite like it on a menu any time soon, it was a wonderful combination.

For the evening's wine, I selected the 2006 Saint Clair Vicar's Choice Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region of New Zealand. Great bitter grapefruit peel aroma, with tart, dry, full-bodied flavors that include hints of grass and licorice. A decent wine on sale for $10, and with a screwcap enclosure it makes it even more suited to the hotel room--for those who don't travel with at least two corkscrews at all times.

Blog notes, plus the 2002 Kunde Syrah

No, I'm not cooking endangered species. That's a shot of a chimpanzee I snapped this weekend at the Little Rock Zoo, where I've been for the past week and a half. Little Rock, that is, not the zoo. (Click the photo for an enlarged version if you want to see the occipital crest, hair patterns, and wrinkles between the phalanges of Simia troglodytes.)

I also had a great time this weekend visiting the Arkansas Arts Center which was hosting a traveling Smithsonian exhibit featuring the art of Jim Henson. Not only did I get to see Henson's paintings and sketches from all periods of his life, but I also got to see real life Muppets used on TV, including Kermit, Bert, and Ernie. Cool to see them in person, but as a child of the late 70s, there's a slight disconcerting feeling as if you'd seen Mr. Rogers in a glass case staring ahead with a smile on his face.

Thanks for all of the positive feedback on the previous "hotel room cooking" article, and I'll have another one up later this week. To answer a few questions:

• No vlogs, video podcasts, or other motion-picture technology anytime in the near future. I did video production in high school and to do it right requires decent lighting and a knowledgeable cameraman. I'm by myself and I'm sure it would look great if I advertised on Craigslist for "video services, paid hourly, working in hotel room". I'd get lots of entertaining responses. And while I bear a slight resemblance to a short Mario Batali, I have no desire to become a star of the small screen.
  
• I do this not out of starvation or poverty, but just because it's fun. If you're in one place for two weeks (like me), you have to find ways to keep busy. If you're on a romantic weekend getaway with a young woman, I don't know if it will impress her when you blanch veggies in the coffee pot. "Room service would have charged $5 for this!"
  
• Proper hotel cooking is helped a lot by access to a Whole Foods, Wild Oats (recently purchased by Whole Foods), Fresh Market, or other gourmet/organic grocery store. Good base ingredients and a selection of prepared or semi-prepared ingredients go a long way.
  
• In the future I'll write a more extensive guide on hotel cooking, perhaps with such exotic techniques as using the iron to make grilled cheese sandwiches.

A couple of weeks ago, I sipped the 2002 Kunde Syrah, a $20 bottle from Sonoma. I served it alongside a pair of steaks, broccolini, and later some Scharffen Berger 82% cacao chocolate from Berkeley. Dark, bitter, savory, not sweet, and utterly delicious. (These new dark, artisanal chocolates are to Hershey bars what fine espresso is to Folger's instant coffee.)

The wine has classic blackberry and cracked pepper aromas and flavors, along with a fruity but not overpowering profile. After breathing for a while it picks up a darker, duskier aroma, but is still quite enjoyable.

And a note on broccolini: this is one of my new favorite vegetables. It's more expensive than broccoli, but is more tender and flavorful. Plus you get a great textural combo--the broccoli-like feel of the florets combined with an asparagus-like feel of the stalk. And it takes to sauces like a fish to water.

Benito vs. the Hotel Room: Salade Niçoise

I'm on the road again, and found myself spending most of a Sunday afternoon engrossed in a Survivorman marathon on the Discovery Channel. For those of you not familiar with the premise, the production team drop a Canadian guy into some uninhabited environment and he lives off the land for a week. The attempts to get food and water are quite entertaining, such as trapping a packrat in the desert and eating it bones and all.

I did some survival training back in Scouts. I spent a few nights in handmade shelters of branches and leaves, have built fires using flint and steel, and have eaten a handful of live black ants (which taste like lemon drops and have a pleasing crunch). But based on my success with the hotel room osso buco, I decided to try another classic dish. This time: no stove or proper cooking utensils. My goal: Salade Niçoise.

If you're unfamiliar with the dish it's a fancy tuna salad from Nice on the southeastern tip of France. I loosely followed Anthony Bourdain's recipe from the Les Halles Cookbook, obviously reducing the quantities to feed one person. Definitely a step up from your eggs, mayo, pickles, and celery mash spread on white bread and cut into triangles. (Though when I want that at home, I tend to combine canned tuna with hot dog relish, Dijon mustard, and loads of hot sauce. Tangy, spicy, and sour rather than savory and creamy.)

In the above photo, you can see what I had at my disposal: fresh green beans, a coffee pot, some clear glass coffee cups, a new potato, tiny Niçoise olives from the deli, an egg, a bunch of green leaf lettuce, a can of tuna and a tin of anchovies, and a fork, butter knife, and corkscrew (with a small foil cutter blade--thanks again Fredric). For heat I only had a microwave.

For the eggs that are normally boiled, I found a handy microwave tip online. I used a few drops of olive oil from the can of tuna to coat the interior of the coffee cup before breaking the egg into it. Puncturing the yolk is very important. I was amazed that I was able to quickly get an egg that was perfect for the dish if somewhat oddly shaped. I was even able to do a few short bursts to create a slightly runny yolk. Heaven!

I blanched the green beans in the coffee pot by heating up water in the microwave and pouring it over the beans. I let them steep until just barely cooked and then dunked them in an ice bath to preserve the green color and crispness. (Hotels have ample quantities of ice!) The single new potato (and I wasn't embarrassed to buy just one) was pricked with the fork and roasted on top of the paper lid of a hotel water glass in the microwave until cooked. The little heirloom tomato was sliced using the foil knife on the corkscrew.

Here's the finished product after assembling the various components. I was really quite surprised at how delicious it turned out The individual components maintained their flavors, and the beans were amazing--a sweet and crisp counterpoint to the rich texture of the tuna. The egg was great and this is a quick and easy technique I might use in the future when I just need a single boiled egg for something.

And if you don't like anchovies, I say give 'em a chance. They're salty and rich and impart an amazing quality to the dishes that include them. Plus the little bones are a good source of calcium, though I added a bit through the wedge of Manchego that I nibbled on along with the salad.

For the wine, I picked up a bottle of the 2006 Toad Hollow Chardonnay from Mendocino County, California. Unoaked, fruity, and full-bodied, but still dry and easy drinking. I've enjoyed the other selections from Toad Hollow and this one didn't let me down.

Overall I rate this a success. It was delicious, nutritious, and fun to put together.

Benito vs. the Hotel Room: Osso Buco

First off, a view outside my hotel room at sunset, looking westward towards the Rockies. Now on to the food!

I've always wanted to cook osso buco ("bone with a hole"), the succulent shank cut of beef or veal, typically served in a savory sauce alongside a starch like beans or chickpeas. But I haven't seen it often in Memphis grocery stores, and the one or two times I did it was more expensive than ribeye. This is a tough cut (from the equivalent of the shin or forearm on a cow) that requires long braising time. I'm not paying $15 a pound for it.

However, while here in Denver I got to stop by a Whole Foods for the first time. When you walk in and see everything that's available, you just about want to cry. Four different kinds of beets? A sushi bar where you can either get takeout or sit on a stool and have a meal? A farmer's market with fresh local produce on the front steps on the weekend? A butcher counter where there's not only five different cuts of buffalo but everything is fresh--no steaks slowly graying in plastic packages on a shelf? Amazing. And while some wonks have referred to it as "Whole Paycheck", I found the prices to be quite reasonable, even for some of the seafood that had to be flown in.

My hotel suite has a two-burner stove and some basic cooking supplies. I spied the thick $5/lb beef shanks in the butcher case and determined that it was my best chance to make some osso buco. It's not exactly roughing it, but I don't have access to my enameled cast iron Dutch oven, nor my herbs, nor any actual utensils. My only seasonings are salt and pepper packets swiped from the lobby. In this picture you see everything that I had: an aluminum pot as thin as a Coke can, a vegetable peeler, and some assorted ingredients. Hell, I've had cauliflower soup cooked on the engine manifold of a Ford van. I've cooked breakfast using an old coffee can and a candle. Give me a heat source and a piece of metal, and I can fix dinner.

It's a virtue to be resourceful, and it often makes for good stories. Whether you're talking about fixing a leaky head gasket with a half dozen raw eggs in the radiator or the chick I saw eat a salad with two pencils held like chopsticks, such innvoative thinking drives the human race forward.

I'd like to point out the tomatoes: those are locally grown Cherokee Purples, dark heirloom varieties that were ripe to the point of bursting. I peeled them and had to hand crush them for the dish. The onions are sweet little cipollini since I didn't have a knife to dice bigger ones for a mirepoix. Or aromatici since we're talking Italian.

About four hours of low-heat braising later, here's the finished product with cannellini beans (warmed in the microwave), served alongside a spinach salad with dried cranberries, walnuts, and mandarin oranges from the salad bar. Oh, and a sunflower seed-studded roll for good measure. The beef shank turned out luscious and tender--this is the epitome of "falling off the bone". And the marrow was sinfully delicious. I'm surprised that it hasn't been condensed and offered in tub form at $20 a pop as a gourmet spread for toast.

This is peasant food: it's not supposed to be beautiful. Cooks in Europe struggled for centuries to find the best way to prepare the leftover scraps after the wealthy had helped themselves to the most rare, most tender cuts. Some of these scraps like shanks require a bit of extra time or extra care, but often the flavor is well worth it.

For the wine, I decided to "drink local" and try a Colorado bottle: the 2003 Plum Creek Cabernet Franc from the Grand Valley AVA. About a third of it was used for the osso buco, but the rest was enjoyed along with the meal. Blueberry and cherry aromas, tannic but not bitter. Full fruit profile with a touch of vegetal flavors.

* * *

So if I've got a craving for some beef marrow, why not just go to a restaurant? If you do a lot of traveling, eating out gets old. At least a mini-fridge and microwave will let you enjoy a few meals in the room. And if you enjoy cooking and have the facilities, it's a nice way to relax. I cooked this meal barefooted in shorts and a Guinness Beer T-shirt, while watching mindless stuff on TV and catching up on e-mail with friends. I'm better rested now than if I'd gone out for a meal in a restaurant.

And the best part? The hotel room now smells like home.

Coors Brewery Tour

I'm not a Coors drinker at heart (I favor microbrews and the strong, dark beers out of Europe), but when I had the opportunity to visit the largest single-facility brewery in the entire world, I couldn't pass up the chance. Think about it: 1.8 million gallons of beer a day. And not just the Silver Bullet: they also produce Killian's Irish Red and Blue Moon, which have some great flavor.

Tour information is available on the company website. It's free and available Monday through Saturday. The brewery is located in scenic Golden, Colorado, which is on the west side of Denver and nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. One such foothill is visible in the picture to the right, marked with a big white M for the Colorado School of Mines. And in that picture you can see one of the paragliders riding thermals. There were about five of them, lazily drifting around the peak for about half an hour.

Here's a shot of some of the brew kettles where the initial fermentation happens. One interesting aspect of the tour is that each stage of the brewing process involves a different temperature and has a different accompanying aroma. At times it smells like a box of cereal, at other times like a bakery, and then sometimes like beer.

At some point in the fermenting/malting phase of the tour, you get a tiny sample of either classic Coors or Coors Light. Fresh and cold, right off the line. At 10:30 in the morning it wasn't what I was craving, but one doesn't look a gift beer in the plastic cup.

After viewing the packaging line (did you know that Bill Coors invented the aluminum can in the late 1950s and purposefully didn't patent it because it wanted it to become an industry standard?), you get to the tasting room, where you get to have up to 3 samples of any of the various brews bottled at the facility (soft drinks are provided for the kids). While enjoying your sample you can look at various photographs and exhibits around the tasting room to learn more about the history of the company. I was especially interested in what they did during Prohibition: they made a malted milk and a non-alcoholic beer called Manna, as well as diversifying into porcelain production. Though they were a regional brewer before Prohibition, after the repeal they were able to become one of the stronger producers in the country, and sold half of their output to the military during WWII in order to help keep up morale.

Memphis readers should know about the big Coors facility in Memphis, where Zima, Killian's, and Blue Moon are produced for this part of the country. There's another big facility in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that produces Coors and Coors Light for the East Coast.

Denver Restaurant Review: The Tuscany

I'm in Denver this week and next, so pictures might be a bit thin on this otherwise colorful blog. But I do have to give high marks to The Tuscany, located in the luxurious Loews Hotel (I'm not staying there). Had a light dinner at The Tuscany tonight, and although I did bring my camera with me on this trip, I think I'd feel the hand of my mother smack me if I took pictures during a meal in a restaurant. I'm not slamming those bloggers that do this--I love the photos from The French Laundry and other great establishments, and Lord knows I've taken pictures of all the dishes at various private dinner parties--but something in my upbringing prevents me from whipping out the camera in a nice restaurant. It's one of those activities on the same level as giggling in church.

I wasn't starving, so I had a simple dinner of white wine and fish... First came the amuse bouche of a razor-thin slice of cucumber wrapped around mango salsa and drizzled with a pomegranate-balsamic vinegar sauce. For the wine, I had a glass of the 2004 Coppola Diamond Chardonnay, an old favorite. And for the main course, a slab of grilled halibut on top of lobster pancakes (a heretofore unknown treat) layered with spinach, all topped with spring onions and seated in a shallow pool of a light-tasting yet dark brown sauce. Savory, sweet, and bitter all in glorious harmony.

Excellent service, and I've got to give the host tops for directing this solitary diner with a book to a table with excellent lighting.

Chateau Aux Arc

Chateaux Aux Arc in Altus, Arkansas is run by Audrey House, who started making wine at the age of 13 and founded a winery sometime in her early 20s. In a nation where a parent can be arrested for letting a teenage kid take a sip of beer at a party, this is a remarkable achievement. The name comes from the original French explorers' name for the region "Aux Arcs", meaning with curves or with hills. (Alas, I don't think there's a dirty reference in there in the vein of Les Grande Tetons.) Over time this got bastardized into Ozarks.

Work took me to Little Rock for two weeks, and I'd heard good things about the winery. Given the opportunity to try one I picked the 2004 American Petite Sirah ($15, only available in Arkansas). It's got a black cherry aroma, with medium tannins and a flavor that trends towards blackberry. It's honestly one of the better American red wines I've had that didn't come from the west coast, as well as being one of the smoothest Petite Sirahs that I've tried.

The following weekend, I got curious and decided to visit the winery and sample some of the other offerings. The winery is easy to find and is the first that you encounter on Highway 186 running south from I-40.

The tasting room is set mere yards from the vineyards. I strolled over to a patch of Cynthiana (also known as Norton). Took some photos, but obeyed the warnings about pesticides. Besides, it's too early in the season to be plundering grapes. Kudos to the hosts at the tasting room: the menu is presented with dry wines on one side and sweet wines on the other. Sweet wines are far more popular in this part of the country (and often made using Vitis labrusca native varietals or hybrids), but the host passed me the menu with the dry side showing. Good man. There's maybe 20 wines on offer for tasting, and I tried six wines that were full of surprises.

2005 Chateau Aux Arc Chardonnay. This unoaked Chard throws a lot of fruit, lots of peach and apples. Tart yet creamy, just a touch of toast. Full bodied but well balanced.

2003 Chateau Aux Arc Syrah. Black pepper and black cherry aromas, another creamy feel on the tongue. Medium tannins with a touch of tartness.

2004 Chateau Aux Arc Cabernet Sauvignon. An interesting Bordeaux-style blend that goes off the rails somewhat and includes Pinot Meunier and Syrah in addition to the standard Merlot and Petite Verdot. Spicy with a touch of bitterness, though somewhat closed. I'd love to try it again with some age on the bottle.

2005 Chateau Aux Arc Dragonfly. The wine that most appealed to my sense of adventure but was the only disappointment of the tasting. This wine is a blend of some 50 different grape varieties, most experimental hybrids made by House. Apparently any and all grapes were used in these pairings. It's impossible to pull out any individual grape characteristics from this wine. Off-putting aroma and a harsh flavor, but I'm still glad I tried it.

2004 Chateau Aux Arc Zinfandel. The wine I liked so much I picked up a bottle for $15. And to give you an idea of some of the truth-in-labeling used by this winery, the wine is actually 99.68% Zinfandel, with the remainder comprised of .12% Petite Sirah, .11% Carignane, .05% Syrah, .03% Alicante Bouschet, and .01% Grenache. It had a touch of mint on the nose with full blackberry flavors. Only 15% alcohol, though the 2005 is 17%.

2000 Chateau Aux Arc Champagne. This is a blanc de blancs made in the méthod champenoise, and with the next bottling they're going to drop the Champagne name in honor of the AOC regulations. Light on the aroma but with pleasant flavors of pear and apple, just a hint of banana. Even though the bottle had been opened the previous day (typically they only sample sparklers on Saturday), it was still crisp with good bubble structure. This would be an awesome brunch sparkling wine. Not many bottles are left from their one vintage, so either get one now or wait for next year's batch.

Afterwards I drove down into Altus. Literally down--it's a long trip down to the water, with lots of tight curves and blind corners. I had horrible visions of senior citizens blitzed on Muscadine wine charging down the hills in their RVs, ready to smash my meager rental car without so much as a how-do-you-do. This did not occur, but upon running the main drag of Altus (one block, or less than a dozen buildings), I moved back up the hill. I passed the Post Familie and Mount Bethel wineries. I felt a stop at Wiederkehr was obligatory, but on a Sunday afternoon the place was packed to the gills and I have some bad memories of their sweet jug wines from ten years ago. (This is not meant to criticize their current offerings; I'm just not a sweet wine person anymore. Nor sweets in general, which is why desserts are never featured on this blog.)

Besides these four, there is a fifth winery in Arkansas called Cowie in nearby Paris. For detailed information on the Arkansan wineries, I'd suggest this lovely profile of the Altus AVA by the good folks at Appellation America. At some point I'll return to the area and hit all five for a proper evaluation. For this trip, it was mostly fun to zip through the scenic countryside seeing rows and rows of neat grape vines. In this part of the country we're used to seeing cotton, rice, corn, and soybeans, so grapes are a fascinating change of pace.

Gruet Winery

Business took me to New Mexico for two weeks. I'd been there four times over the course of my youth, and have fond memories of the state. Warm dry days, cool nights, much preferable to the steamy climate of Memphis. Oddly, this happens to be ideal for the growing of grapes for sparkling wine.

The Gruet Winery in Albuquerque, New Mexico was founded by French winemakers from the Champagne region. They make excellent sparkling wines in the traditional méthode champenoise, as well as a few still wines. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the primary grapes at the vineyards (Pinot Meunier is not grown; the owners feel that it doesn't contribute much to the sparklers). Recent experiments with Syrah for still wine have been highly successful, so much so that I didn't get a chance to try it either at the winery or at the restaurant.

Speaking of the restaurant, before I left the state I had dinner at the Gruet Steakhouse, located in Downtown Albuquerque. Over a glass of the 2005 Pinot Noir (much bolder and with stronger fruit than the 2004 Reserve below), I had the mixed grill: a duck breast with a cherry reduction, a portion of filet mignon with béarnaise sauce, and a perfectly cooked lamb chop with a chili-mustard seed sauce. A dish of creamed spinach and an orzo stuffed baked tomato rounded out the delicious meal.

I stopped by on a Saturday afternoon for a tasting and a tour of the facility. Thanks to Donald and to the young lady pouring samples for a warm and friendly reception at the winery. The tour and tasting are highly recommended. I got to see every phase of production for sparkling wines, and even got to stick my nose into a couple of barrels of still red wine. And I learned a great new Scrabble word. A gyropallet is a device that holds 504 standard wine bottles and over the course of eight days slowly turns the bottles and moves all of the yeast to the neck. This replaces the labor-intensive method of riddling the bottles, even though a good riddler could turn 30,000 bottles a day.

Note: while the wine is made and aged at the Albuquerque location, the grapes are grown further south in New Mexico.

The basic tasting is $6 and includes a regular wine glass; the $14 vintage tasting provides access to the higher end selections and comes with a lovely Riedel Champagne glass featuring the Gruet logo.

All wine information can be found on the Gruet website. I've seen some of the Gruet products available at Great Wines in Memphis. Other wine shops should be able to special order it if you ask nicely.

NV Blanc de Noirs. 75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay. $13.50. Lemony acidity, crisp and clean, with a touch of raspberries on the finish. Dry and well balanced. I liked this one enough to take a bottle back to the hotel for matching with some spicy Southwestern fare later on. Green chile and a cold crisp sparkler are a fantastic match.

2002 Blanc de Blancs. 100% Chardonnay. $24. Four years aging on yeast. Lighter nose, touch of vanilla, crisper and more tart than the Blanc de Noirs. Tangy finish.

2002 Grand Rosé. 92% Chardonnay, 8% Pinot Noir. $32. A touch of strawberry, a little bit of cream. Not as tart as the previous wines, smoother and well balanced. Faint hint of tannins. Really nice.

2000 Grand Reserve. 100% Chardonnay. $46. Aged in French oak and then on yeast for six years. Wow. Nice, lightly toasted aroma. Touch of tart acidity. Lovely long finish. Elegant.

2004 Pinot Noir Barrel Select. 100% Pinot Noir. $46. For some reason I was expecting a big, bold Pinot Noir, but instead I was greeted with a light and delicious wine that was more Burgundy than California. Wild strawberry aromas and flavors dominate. Smooth with excellent balance. Wonderful.