Bodegas LAN, Crianza 2006, Rioja

The fact that I haven't yet featured a Spanish Rioja is amazing. I have a weakness for Rioja. A deep-seeded one. I'm always showing up with Rioja, buying Rioja, suggesting another one. I've been told it's repetitive and has a pigeon-holing impact on my persona, but I can't help it. It's really good. So it's pretty startling I haven't been pushing hard for wines from this part of Spain in this space. I've made strides. So yeah, lets drink one. Not so fast, trigger-happy. Instigator. Firebrand. There are a few formalities to take care of. First, a word about the grape. Tempranillo. It is only grown with success in Spain. It produces a wine of high acidity with medium body, more reminiscent of Chianti or a muscular Pinot Noir than anything else. At its best, a Tempranillo is tart, fresh, subtle, earthy - in other words, an excellent food pairing wine. Usually it is blended with a small amount of grenache, mazuelo or graciano. But tempranillo is the mainstay. The backbone.

A common knock against Spain is that its wines show little typicity - that is, a wine from Ribiera de Duero can taste and feel much like a full-bodied Rioja. This perturbs sommeliers. It's a fair point. Wine should echo the land. Two factors work against Spanish wines with respect to revealing terroir in the glass: First, Spanish winemakers (some more than others) have traditionally used American oak for maturation, oak which tends to mask the nuances of the wine. Dill. Coconut. This is the influence of American oak; not the terroir of Rioja Alta. Dill and coconut have, however, become synonymous with Rioja. Secondly, there's been a move towards new world techniques throughout Spain - stainless steel fermentation, French oak - which has resulted in great heft and fruit flavour to reds, pushing some of them into the range of Cabernet Sauvignons. This isn't exactly what you come to expect from Rioja either. What I've chosen tonight, however, is from a classic house. Bodegas LAN Crianza. Crianza means one year in oak; one year in the bottle. It should be fresh and light. I've spent a lot of time in Spain; and a lot of time drinking Riojas. It's an intimate relationship. I'm matching it with a dish from Pais Vasco.

Chicken Basquaise with Artichokes (adapted from Braise by Daniel Boulud)

***first step must be taken the night before.

Ingredients for 4:

- 1-1.5 kilograms chicken thighs, bone in
- 1 cup of dry sherry
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons of piment d'Espelette (this is a spicy chili pepper powder from the Basque region. I couldn't find any in Toronto. A substitute is a mixture of roughly 80% paprika and 20% Cayenne pepper. That's what I did.)
- freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
- 200 grams of fresh chorizo, cut into 1/4 inch slices
- extra-virgin olive oil as needed
- 2 small onions, peeled and cut into 6 wedges
- 2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into thick strips
- 1.5 cups of chicken stock
- 4 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
- 8 artichokes, trimmed and sliced lengthwise into 6 wedges
- salt and pepper

1) The night before you plan to serve the dish, season the chicken with salt and pepper and arrange in a shallow glass dish. In a small bowl, mix together sherry, garlic, piment d'Espelette or substitute spice blend and lemon juice. Pour this mixture over the chicken. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and marinate overnight in the refrigerator, turning the chicken at least once during this period.

2) Place a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees C.

3) Remove chicken from marinade, reserving the liquid. Pat chicken dry with paper towel. In a medium cast-iron pot or Dutch oven, sear chorizo on all sides until golden brown and fat has rendered (4-5 minutes) Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

4) If there is not enough fat in the pot, add olive oil; then add the chicken and sear on all sides until golden brown. 10 minutes. Transfer chicken to plate.

5) Add onions and peppers to the pot and saute until tender. 5 minutes. Pour the reserved marinade into the pot and, over high heat, reduce the liquid by half. Return the chicken and chorizo to the pot and stir the stock, tomatoes, and artichokes. (For artichoke trimming techniques, see the following. I was at a loss.)

6) Bring pot to a simmer, cover the pot and transfer to the oven.

7) Braise until the chicken thighs are tender. 45 minutes. Serve with crusty bread or fingerling potatoes.

Tasting Notes for the Bodegas LAN Crianza 2006...

One of the easiest pairing rules to master is that of geographic coincidence. For example, sauvignon blanc from Sancerre goes well with shellfish. I mean, the white soil of the Loire Valley is literally made up of fossilized shell remains from ancient oceans. It's elegant. There's something fundamental about this idea - how climate, terrain, and the animal and plant life that survive on a particular plot of land just mesh together. Darwinian even. Okay, I may need to stop drinking when I pull out the Darwin. But you get the idea. Slowly stepping away from the philosophical treatsies, the Bodega LAN Crianza is a great value wine. $15.00 Canadian. Exceptional wine for the money. Ranked #44 on the Wine Spectator's Top 100 List of 2010. The wine is 100% tempranillo, aged in French and American oak. Earthy cherry. Spice. Aniseed. It's a very bright, vibrant feeling wine, playing well with the chorizo, artichokes and and tender chicken. Matching, I've found, is all about the sauce. And this sauce - product of a marinade and long braise - has complexity, depth, heat, acidity, herbacousness, earth - very satisfying. I can't say enough about Daniel Boulud's Braise. Everything I've tried from the book absolutely sings.