I was in an elegant financial core restaurant a few days ago. At a corner table sat a some businessmen. Not any kind of businessmen. Expense account gladiators. A slowly dying breed. Some deal had been reached. Some return on investment coupe or other tax sheltered conquest. Their hands smacked down on the reclaimed wood table. When the check was dropped, a wrestling contest with corporate credit cards ensued. None of them would back down. Each insisted that their company's shareholders would be taking care of the bill. Ordering another bottle diffused the conflict and ended the questionable groping session. I did like what they were drinking. They were on their third bottle of the 2006 Grand Vin from Osoyoos Larose. It was being decanted and I caught the deep toasted chocolate and sunny black fruit curling over me in muscular waves. I decided that I had every right to try this wine. I didn't order it and swallow the 200 percent markup. There's no need to be foolhardy while getting into imaginary entitlement contests with white collar workers. Pick your battles, is my philosophy. I found the Grand Vin at the LCBO. At $45.00 CAN, Osoyoos Larose isn't the cheapest option, but it is a flagship Canadian wine - one that should be tried whether you're from Kamloops or Bordeaux or Napa.
Osoyoos is a joint Canada-France partnership. The Larose in Osoyoos Larose comes from a 2nd Growth Grand Cru class chateaux from the Medoc, Gruaud-Larose. The Osoyoos comes from a lake in the South of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. It's a classic Bordeaux blend of five grapes: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot. Merlot is the heavy hitter in this blend, accounting for 69 percent of the juice. So Pomerol on the right bank would be the classic benchmark. Osoyoos-Larose winemaker Pascal Madevon is French, worked at Chateau Laffite Carcassett in Saint Estephe and Chateau La Tour Blanche in Medoc before coming to British Columbia. He talks about the wine and the terroir in the following clip. Please excuse the easy-listening music.
This is a merlot-dominant wine, so I expect some plum and fruit-cake, but also grippy tannic backbone from the Cab and Cab Franc components. I also expect some pretty sharp acid given the wine's youth. I've decided to match it with something that braves acid well.
Veal Scaloppini with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
(Adapted from the main by Anthony Sedlak)
Ingredients for 4:
Veal Component...
- 4 thinly sliced veal cutlets
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup of flour
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan
- olive oil
Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce...
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 shallot or small onion, finely diced
- 2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup of julienned sun-dried tomatoes
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced.
- 1/3 cup of white wine
- 1 cup of chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon butter
- juice of half a lemon
- salt and pepper
1) Season veal cutlets with salt and pepper. Place 3 bowls on work surface. In Bowl 1, put flour. Bowl 2: eggs. Bowl 3: breadcrumbs and Parmesan mixed together. Heat olive oil in pan. Dip each cutlet in flour, then eggs, then Parmesan breadcrumbs. Sear until golden brown and cooked through. Roughly 3 to 4 minutes. Place directly in oven heated to 200 degrees F so that they remain crispy.
2) Once all the cutlets are seared, wipe excess oil from the pan with paper towel. Add 2 tablespoons of clean olive oil and bring to medium heat. Gently fry shallot and anchovies, stirring until the anchovies break down. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic. Once sauteed, deglaze with white wine and simmer to reduce slightly. Add chicken stock and bring back to simmer. Lower heat. Gently swirl in butter. Remove from heat and finish with lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Pairing Notes for the 2006 Osoyoos Larose Le Grand Vin...
Complex wine. At least for this particular taster. Multiple layers. On the nose, I identified vanilla, cedar, deep black fruit and the slightest vegetal quality. On the palate: grainy tannins, minerals. Something savoury yet astringent, like black olive. My first impression of the wine? A bit green. A bit young. That there is huge cellaring potential, but that it is presently tight. The truth is I don't think my food pairing was a good one. Miscalculation #1 was the wine. My initial reasoning was that acidic wines work well with acidic food. The wine was more tannic than acidic. Miscalculation #2: the sauce. Sun-dried tomatoes are not enormously acidic - there is sweetness and they are preserved in oil. Another ingredient problem: anchovies. More salt. More oil. Tannins in combination with oil and salt, particular oily salty fish, can result in an unpleasant metallic taste. While I'm not sure I could identify metal, I do feel the food actually intensified the wine's tannins. Look, this attempt wasn't a complete failure. Osoyoos-Larose is an exquisite wine, but should probably be matched with rare red meat until it's edges soften. The Veal Scaloppini with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce is also a great recipe, but I would match it with something less youthful and tannic - I'm thinking a Valpolicella would work well. Live and learn.
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