When most of us think of Italian desserts, what come to mind are multi-colored wedding cookies, or cannoli, or maybe ricotta pie, but zabaglione is a feather-light, wine-based custard that sophisticated — dare I say fancy — Italians have after dinner. Actual Italians would sneer at the idea of drinking espresso in the evening, but it has to be said that this goes really, really well with it.
4 room temperature egg yolks
2 Tablespoons sugar
¾ cup (170 g) Marsala or Amontillado wine
A pinch of ground cinnamon
Heat 2 inches or so of water to not-quite-boiling in a medium-sized saucepan. If you’re really into precision, you can use a thermometer and bring it to 200°F, or 95°C. Alternatively, you can bring the water to a boil, then turn down the heat until it just stops boiling. It’s a philosophical decision.
In a glass or metal bowl, beat the egg yolks with an electric hand mixer until they are pale and a little fluffy. If you own a stand mixer, your hand mixer has been biding his time at the back of the cabinet under your counter, waiting to be needed again.
While still beating the yolks, sprinkle the sugar in, a little at a time. The yolks will lighten in color and thicken slightly. Still beating, sprinkle the cinnamon into the mixture. If you want to do this with a flourish from a great height like a fancy chef, you absolutely should. You’ve earned it.
Still beating the mixture, gradually drizzle in the wine. When everything seems well-incorporated, turn off the mixer and set it down. Get a glass of water or some more of the Marsala; even if you’re not normally a sweet wine person, this is a perfect excuse to drink a little without threatening your self-image. You’re going to be stuck in place at the stove for the next 20 minutes or so, and it would be a shame to stand there thirsty.
Move your bowl of eggy wine to the stove, and place it on top of the pot of not-quite-boiling water. (You’d forgotten about that, hadn’t you?) If you’ve heard the term “double-boiler” and wondered what that was, congratulations, you just built one. This is a way to cook something very, very gently. Your bowl isn’t being heated directly on a burner; it’s being heated indirectly from below, by the steam from your not-quite-boiling water. This is a technique generally used to melt chocolate or thicken a custard. Or, if you’re fancy like us, a zabaglione.
Beat your proto-zabaglione with the hand mixer (who will be feeling positively smug by now) while heating it in your double-boiler. If the temperature of the water rises above the boiling point, the steam will make your bowl rattle, in which case, reduce the heat slightly, and move the pot halfway off the burner to regulate things until the temperature comes down.
At this point you should take the opportunity to sink into a deep meditative state or catch up on your favorite podcast, because the zabaglione is going to take a while to come together. Eventually, though, your patience will be rewarded and it will thicken to a texture a little lighter than whipped cream.
Remove your bowl of zabaglione from its steam bath, and turn the stove off. Use a silicone spatula to gently mix your foamy cream to incorporate any syrup that may have settled in the bottom of the bowl. Gently fill several cocktail or coupé glasses with the finished custard, and serve immediately.
There are some dishes that will be as patient as a hand-mixer, that will wait for your dinner guests to linger over dinner, or will travel well to a potluck dinner, but zabaglione isn’t one of them. It is a light, almost ephemeral dessert. It dances across your palate as you eat it, waving coyly to your cup of espresso. It is surprisingly, almost assertively, sweet, but at the same time, as light as a sigh that leaves you with a quickly fading memory of the taste of wine on your lips, prompting the next spoonful, then the next.
Emma Stetson followed a winding path to wine. “Actually I started out as a high school English teacher,” she said. “I took a Wine 101 course in college as an elective and really fell in love with it, but I was an English major, so my plan was always to stay in that field, and I got my start career-wise as a high school English teacher. But on the side I got kind of a fun freelance job writing about wine for a local food and wine publication in Connecticut. Also in college, while I was an English major, I double majored in Near Eastern Studies, like Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. A Boston-based chef was opening a restaurant in Kuwait and we got to talking and he asked for my help, like my language skills and my help to go out there and join their opening team and help them open the restaurant. So I left my teaching position because I thought that was such a cool opportunity, and went and did that with them. And then when I finished there and came back, I realized I didn’t want to go back into teaching.”
Stetson moved from writing about wine to working in a wine shop, then eventually to working for a series of wine distributors. “Wine on Main did exist in Concord for a little bit, but [the owners] quietly let me know that they were looking to sell the store, and wondered if I would know somebody [to buy it]. I told my husband and told my parents that I was trying to think of people who might be interested. And they all kind of looked at me and were like, ‘What about you? Like maybe this is a great opportunity for you and a chance to have your own store.’ So I am now the owner of Wine on Main in Concord.”
What is the most essential piece of equipment for a wine enthusiast?
Definitely a corkscrew; I prefer a waiter corkscrew. [Also known as a ‘wine key,’ this is the type of opener that is hinged to apply leverage to remove a cork.] It’s portable. I have probably about five on me at any given time. There’s like one in my purse, one in my pocket, one in the car, tons at the store.
What would you have for your last glass of wine?
A Meursault from Burgundy. It is arguably the best chardonnay in the world. Nobody does chardonnay like they do in Burgundy and Meursault is my favorite wine region.
What celebrity would you like to drink a glass of wine with?
I would say Gail Simmons. She was a judge on Top Chef. She’s more food-centric, but she got her start working for Food & Wine magazine. I read her memoir probably once every two years. In a strange way, I strive to make my wine career the way she developed her food career. Her whole philosophy was kind of starting at the bottom and tackling the industry from every side, even the unglamorous ones.
What would be an interesting wine that you would recommend to someone who was enthusiastic but not really knowledgeable?
I would say anything French, because French wines are so complex and interesting. I feel like people who don’t know a lot about wine get intimidated by French wines, but I would say, like, no, try them. I would maybe suggest starting with a Gamay, just because they’re so delicious, but they’re fruit-forward and lighter-bodied and approachable.
What do you keep in your refrigerator or your wine rack at home to drink?
I really do love a good chardonnay, so I have various chardonnays on hand, French ones and buttery, oaky California ones. I love the oakiness and the butteriness and the high acid. And you can have it on its own, but since it has the weight, it goes so well with food.
What is your best piece of advice for a wine lover?
I would just say — especially if you’re someone who’s starting your wine collection — make sure that you store your wine properly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from customers that they’ve been so excited to go get a bottle only to find that it hadn’t been stored properly and had gone bad. So maybe it’s worth investing in a small wine fridge. Find a part of your house that’s cellar temperature and at a consistent temperature, especially here in New England, that doesn’t have intense temperature fluctuations. Don’t keep the wine by your wood stove.
How one baker focuses on the grains for better baking
Michael Williams is getting closer to baking his perfect loaf of bread.
Williams, co-owner and bread baker for Eden’s Table Farm in Dunbarton, has spent the past couple of years polishing his bread game.
“I got exposed to great bread when I went to Germany,” he said, “to flour that was local and freshly milled, and bread that was made with a natural starter. That was what was most easily available in the bakery in our tiny little 1,100-person village. I’ve been chasing that bread ever since; every refinement has been getting me closer to that experience.”
Williams and his wife, Addie Leader-Zavos, combine their passion for growing fresh, organic produce and locally made artisanal foods. While Leader-Zavos bakes virtually everything else, Williams is in charge of the bread.
The journey toward the very best bread takes the form of tiny, incremental steps, but he sees constant progress. “The best example I can give you is actually the Swedish rye. I made that for Addie on our second date. And I was using King Arthur flour, then I was using a sifted rice flour. I was using molasses instead of beet syrup, but now I’m using a Swedish baking syrup that’s beet-based. Over time, I’ve whittled it down to the essentials and getting the absolute best ingredients I can. The pursuit of that led me to constantly question, ‘Where is this coming from? How is it being processed?’ I ask that over and over and over again.”
Because his platonic ideal of a loaf of bread has very few ingredients — flour, salt, a natural sourdough starter, something to help feed that starter (that’s where the Swedish baking syrup comes in), and water — Williams has put more thought into the flour he uses than most people put into planning their retirement.
“I wanted flour that was what I refer to as ‘live flour.’ It has never been separated, and it has never been irradiated. Industrial flour is almost always separated. It is sifted hot, or it is milled hot, separated into its component parts and the germ is irradiated to denature volatile oils. When they oxidize, they become rancid. It’s a very distinct odor and it’s very unpleasant. It totally makes sense why they would not want that in their product going out into the world but unfortunately most of the nutrition is in those oils, because the best nutrition in the grain is fat-soluble. So not only that, but that’s where all the flavor is. That’s where all those aromatic esters and aldehydes are, and they get destroyed by the same process that denatures those easily oxidized oils.”
Once Williams had defined what he was looking for in a bread flour, he started using flour that was shipped from a regional mill in South Carolina. Eventually he found a mill closer to home. “We found a couple of different options, and the one that really struck us was this place in Cambridge [Massachusetts] called Elmendorf Baking Supplies. They have a mill, and they mill for themselves and for some other people. And so we started ordering from them. They source their grain regionally from small regenerative farms. They work with private grains. They work with farms in New York and Maine and Massachusetts. The step we took here, we were getting bread flour from a variety of wheat called Glenthat is 15 and a half percent protein, which is astronomically high.”
(As a point of reference, King Arthur’s bread flour, which has an excellent reputation, has a protein content of 12.7 percent. The amount of protein in a flour determines how well a baker can develop gluten, the elastic material that gives a loaf of bread a chewy texture and traps carbon dioxide to make it puff up as it bakes.)
Williams uses a mixture of the Glen flour and rye flour to make his Swedish rye bread. “One of the tricky things about baking with rye flour is that rye notoriously destroys gluten structures,” he said. “So rye has almost no protein in it. This rye bread is only like 31 percent rye. It’s not a high rye, but the blend really does a great job of holding up with that rye in it.”
But for Williams, this flour is just one more step toward a truly great bread. Eventually, he said, he and his wife would like to mill their own flour. “It’s a process of evolution,” he summed up, “First the flour, then the mill, then a wood-fired oven, because I would much rather bake bread on a wood fire.”
Bread The farm stand at Eden’s Table Farm (240 Stark Highway North, Dunbarton, 774-1811, edenstablefarm.square.site) is closed until Feb 5. Hours when it reopens will be Wedensday-Friday 1-7pm and Saturdays from 9am-5pm.
New international cuisine in Nashua: A new restaurant with a menu inspired by world street food has opened in Nashua. Local Street Eats (112 W. Pearl St., Nashua, 402-4435, local-streeteats.com) offers small bites, salads and more substantial fare including Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Indian, Central American and regional American classics.
Bottomless kolsch: Thirsty Thursdays at To Share Brewing (720 Union St., Manchester, 836-6947, tosharebrewing.com) in January will celebrate the brewery’s Krone Kolsch “via traditional service in the taproom, every Thursday until the Krone is gone,” according to a post on To Share’s Facebook page. “A server will bring around a tray (traditionally referred to as a kranz) of fresh Krone. If yours is empty, we’ll deliver a new one and mark a notch on your coaster. We will keep the fresh pours coming each time you have an empty glass. Place your coaster on top of your glass to let us know you’re done.”
Zero-proof wines:Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828, wineonmainnh.com) will host a free tasting of non-alcoholic wines with Emily from Vinilandia, Saturday, Jan. 11, from 1 to 4 p.m. Anyone observing Dry January or just “sober-curious” is invited to taste some of the new wave of alcohol-free wines. “Technology and winemaking has come a long way and these are not the non-alcoholic options of years past. These are actual wines by established winemakers that then have the alcohol naturally removed at the end,” Wine on Main writes on its website.
Wine fun:Vine 32 Wine & Graze Bar (25 S. River Road, Unit 107, in Bedford; vinethirtytwo.com) has a few Valentine’s related events on their schedule. On Thursday, Feb. 13, from 6 to 8 p.m. it’s a Galentines Charcuterie Workshop. On Friday, Feb. 14, Partners In Wine will offer seatings for wine, charcuterie and a dessert to share at 4, 6:15 and 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, Feb. 15, it’s Galentines Barre at the Wine Bar at 1 p.m. with Barre Life. See the website for details.
New Hampshire’s biggest wine event, New Hampshire Wine Week, will take place from Jan. 17 through Jan. 23, culminating in the New England Wine Spectacular, a wine expo featuring more than 1,700 different wines from around the world. According to Justin Gunter, a wine specialist with the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, New Hampshire’s influence in the wine industry has grown continually over the past 20 years.
“The first Winter Wine Spectacular took place with a few winemakers sitting around a kitchen table and some dining,” Gunter said. “And it’s grown to be one of the largest wine events in New England. We’ve got an amazing array of winemakers that are coming here to New Hampshire. What the [Liquor] Commission has done over the course of the past 20 years has not only strengthened its wine offerings for consumers but, you know, really caught the attention of the entire wine industry.”
According to Gunter, over the course of New Hampshire Wine Week, wine representatives will make appearances throughout the state, building to two central events.
“We have winemakers coming from all over the world — winemakers, wine personalities, owners, people from all aspects of winery coming to our state to visit for Wine Week. They’ll be crisscrossing the state that week for wine dinners and bottle signings and two really great signature events: the Viva la France event as well as the Winter Wine Spectacular. So this is really a story about the evolution of not only this event and the growth of the event but also the state of New Hampshire’s prominence in the world of wine and the offerings that we’re able to provide to consumers.”
One of the goals of Wine Week is to expose wine enthusiasts to as large a variety of wines as possible. There will be offerings from huge, well-established producers and from small family-owned vineyards. “For instance,” Gunter said, “Randy Ullom of Jackson Family Wines will be at our event. He’s an icon in the industry, the head winemaker for Kendall-Jackson Wines, a very big name in the industry. He’ll be working directly with his table, which will have the Jackson family wines along with a couple of side projects that the Jackson family wines are doing that he’s heading as well. So you’ve got somebody like that who is taking time out of his schedule, probably with worldwide demands. And then you’ve got folks like Maria Helm Sinskey from Robert Sinskey Vineyards, who’s been coming here for decades. And they’ve got a much smaller winery but a really high-quality product. The thing to note is that they’re head winemakers. They’re involved in the industry; they’re involved in their wineries. These people have their hands in the dirt. They’re farmers. They’re heavily involved in every aspect of wine. Everybody who comes to this event will have an opportunity to get to speak with them and talk to them about their wine specifically and really pick their brains and celebrate wine.”
Despite the level of expertise on tap at the Wine Week events, Gunter said they are for wine enthusiasts of all levels of experience.
“These events are perfect for someone just getting to know wines all the way up to an aficionado,” he said. “These winemakers are so passionate about what they do, and the products that they make, they’re more than happy to guide you and ask you [about] the types you know and the flavor profiles you like. It really offers something for anybody at any end of the spectrum.”
The Wine Spectacular will fill a lot of floor space. “There’s actually two rooms that we’ve used for the past few years,” Gunter said. “There’s one room that is the primary expo that will have the vast majority of the tables. There are more than 200 tables of wines to choose from with up to 12 wines per table. That’s how we can get so many wines available for people to try. We also have the Bellman Cellar Select Room, which is for some more refined, more higher-end offerings. And there’s about 40 tables in that room as well. Along with that, we have food that will be prepared by local restaurants. And ultimately it all comes back to this, it’s really all garnered in passion. Every one of these people that you will meet, it’s not about explaining nuances of wine; it’s a passion for the product.”
Richard Jacob is an account manager with Vinilandia NH, a wine import company in Portsmouth focusing on niche, organic, family-owned and generational vineyards around the world. In his view, New Hampshire Wine Week is a way for wine professionals and enthusiasts to keep up with what is available in a constantly changing wine landscape.
“It’s a chance for distributors in the area that work with the Liquor Commission to get an opportunity to showcase some of their products,” Jacob said. “It’s really exciting because the wine in people’s portfolios are constantly changing, so it’s important that these events happen so people can get a fresh taste of the new vintages or the newest wines that have been added to the state. It’s a good opportunity for people to learn and see the types of wines that are around the corner.”
Jacob clarified the term “portfolio.” “The portfolio is pretty much our book,” he explained. “It’s the list of the wines that we sell. Our portfolio at Vinilandia, just as an example, has about 480 wines.” That can make keeping track of wines in New Hampshire easy to lose sight of, he said. And that makes events like NH Wine Week important to industry professionals and consumers alike, he said. Although wine sales in general have fallen recently, “companies that sell more independent winemaker products, family-run wineries, wines that have a story and that are sustainable …[those] are doing much better. I feel like there is a shift in the culture because people are realizing that these sustainably produced wines can compete with the pricing of mass-produced wines.” And events that bring story-worthy wines to the public’s attention benefit everyone.
Emma Round, owner of Unwined Wine Bar in Milford, says those wines-with-stories help her give value to her customers.
Previous Wine Week. Photo by Timothy Courtemanche
“I think frequently people see what there is in the liquor store,” Round said, “and their imagination can be limited by that.” They see the prices that restaurants have to charge for a bottle of wine, and wonder why they should pay so much more for a bottle that they could buy much less expensively on their own, she said. “But many of the wineries that are well-recognized have smaller portfolios of restaurant-only wines. These events give you the opportunity to see those, which is really important and it’s really good. I highly encourage the public to go to these things to kind of broaden their horizons. I know some of the restaurants try to do that ourselves, but I think when [wine producers] do that on their own back is awesome, too.”
Genevieve Wolfe is the Wine Director for Vine 32 Wine and Graze Bar in Bedford. She said New Hampshire Wine Week’s timing is auspicious.
“It’s fun for the restaurant side of things to have Wine Week [now],” Wolfe said, “because, obviously, with dry January, typically [wine sales] slow down a little bit. So Wine Week being in January is always great for us. It’s just a little bit of a push. We love serving new people and especially ones who want to explore. Those who are attending any of the Wine Week events that usually are the ones who are willing to kind of go outside the box from what they know. Having 32 taps [at Vine 32] allows us to really help them out of their comfort zone and to try something new. So we always look forward to Wine Week.”
19th Annual New England Winter Wine Spectacular When: Thursday, Jan. 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Where: Doubletree Expo Center, 700 Elm St., Manchester, 625-1000 Tickets: There are three tiers of tickets available for the event: Bellman’s Cellar Select, which includes access to a VIP room, product samples, gourmet food pairings and early access to the main expo area, for $135; Grand Ballroom Advanced Entrance, which allows ticket holders early access to the main expo area, for $95 per person; and Grand Ballroom General Admission for $75.
Visit nhwineweek.com. Proceeds from the event go to support the New Hampshire Food Bank.
Sponsored by Pine State Beverage New Hampshire, the organizers of the Wine Spectacular will arrange for a safe ride home within 20 miles for any guest, free of charge.
French wine in the spotlight
The “Viva la France” wine tasting and panel discussion on Wednesday, Jan. 22, at the Manchester Country Club in Bedford will focus on French wines.
Three major importers and distributors of French wines will be on hand to lead guests through the breadth and subtleties of some of their favorite wines: Marnie Old, Director of Vinlightenment of Boisset Collections, Serge Doré, Wine Importer of Serge Doré Collections, and Dominique Giovine, SVP of iconic Moët Hennessy.
According to Justin Gunter, a Wine Specialist with the New Hampshire Liquor Commission, this event will be a special opportunity for wine enthusiasts to learn from experts.
“There’s going to be a cocktail hour,” Gunter said, “where we’ll be pouring two wines from each of these representatives and we’ll be able to mingle with and speak to the representatives and talk to them about these wines that they’ve brought. And then after that first hour at about 6:30 … they’ll be sitting at the front in a panel type of presentation and we’ll have hors d’oeuvres and some food pairings to go along with the different wines. These panelists will walk all of our guests through these expressions of these specific regions in France. And I’ve got to tell you they are pouring some powerhouse wines. In fact …I’ve received word that vintage Dom Perignon will be poured.”
Serge Doré will be one of the featured panelists. He is the owner of Serge Doré Collections, which specializes in importing boutique French wines. He is excited about this all-French event. “Well, ‘Vive la France,’ first of all, it’s a big statement,” he said, “because it is an expression that is very important. It’s a commitment. ‘Vive la France’ is like when we say over here in the U.S., ‘God bless America.’ It’s exactly the same thing, but Vive la France goes back to the revolution, and this goes to the best … of French wine.”
“The event on Thursday night is absolutely spectacular for the consumers,” Doré said, “because, when you prepare a dish, what do you do while you’re cooking it or baking it? You taste and you taste and you taste. There’s no other way to understand a product. It is the same thing with wine, but now with wine, you have to open a bottle to have a sip. So how many bottles can you open at night? There’s a limit to what we can do. But now when you go to an event like on Thursday, a public event, that’s the perfect time to come and understand or discover or confirm things that you know or things that you want to know. You go from table to table and you focus on something and you walk out of there and say, oh my God, I’ve tasted 62 different wines tonight and now I understand why I like this or why I don’t like that. Because at the end it becomes very personal. It’s a matter of taste.”
For Doré, French wines capture a celebratory approach to life, and this event is for people who have that same sort of outlook.
“As long as you have people that do enjoy wines, that’s all that matters,” he said. “People who enjoy life, that’s all that matters. People that enjoy time with family and friends at the table, that’s what we want to have. That’s what I want to see in front of me. Life is about being at the table, technically three times a day at the table. You don’t spend more time in your life anywhere else but on the table. When you sit down normally, you have guests at home, people are nice, they talk not too loud, but after a few sips of wine the sound goes up, down, the conversation is all over the place, one cuts the other one and it’s joy to joy of the moment. It is created by the wine, not by the food. You say cheers with a glass, not with a fork.”
Viva la France wine tasting and panel discussion When: Thursday, Jan.22, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Where: Manchester Country Club, 180 S. River Road, Bedford, 624-4096, manchestercountryclub.com Tickets: $65 at eventbrite.com
New Hampshire Wine Week events
Here are some of the events slated for NH Wine Week. See nhwineweek.com/events for updates.
Saturday, Jan. 18
Wine Dinner with Brian Pruett, Dry Creek Vineyards Winemaker from 6 to 9 p.m. at Wentworth By the Sea (588 Wentworth Road, New Castle, 422-7322, opalcollection.com/wentworth)
Wednesday, Jan. 22
Wine Tasting with Brian Pruett, Winemaker of Dry Creek Vineyards, noon to 2 p.m., NH Liquor and Wine Outlet, Portsmouth Store #38 (500 Woodbury Ave, Portsmouth Traffic Circle, Portsmouth, 436-4806, liquorandwineoutlets.com)
Wine Dinner with Brian Pruett, Dry Creek Vineyards Winemaker, 5 to 8 p.m., Martingale Wharf Restaurant (99 Bow St., Portsmouth, 431-0901, martingalewharf.com)
“Viva la France” Wine Tasting and Panel Discussion, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Manchester Country Club (180 S. River Road, Bedford, 624-4096, manchestercountryclub.com). See page 13.
Truchard Vineyards wine dinner at Prime at 6 p.m. Sky Meadow Country Club (6 Mountain Laurels Drive, Nashua, 888-9000, skymeadow.com)
Wine Tasting with Nicole Hitchcock, Winemaker of J Vineyards, 6 to 7 p.m., NH Liquor & Wine Outlet, Store #50 (Willow Spring Plaza, 294 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-0271, liquorandwineoutlets.com)
Wine Tasting with Battle Creek Winemaker Sarah Cabot, Winderlea Vineyard owners Bill Sweat and Donna Morris, and Peter Paul Wines Winemaker Mike Tracy, 6 to 7 p.m., NH Liquor & Wine Outlet,Store #69 (25 Coliseum Ave., Nashua, 882-4670, liquorandwineoutlets.com).
Wine Dinner with Joseph Spellman, Justin Vineyards and Winery Master Sommelier, 6 to 9 p.m., Coyote Grill (98 Valley Road, Waterville Valley, 236-4919, wildcoyotegrill.com)
Thursday, Jan. 22
19th Annual New England Winter Wine Spectacular. 6 to 8:30 p.m., Doubletree Expo Center (700 Elm St., Manchester, 625-1000), nhwineweek.com
Other wine happenings
Here are some other wine related events in January.
Wine on Main (9 N. Main St. in Concord; wineonmainnh.com) has several wine events on its January schedule. A Wine of the Isles class will be offered Tuesday, Jan. 14, and Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 6:30 to 8 p.m. and focus on wines of the islands off the coast of Italy, Croatia, France and more ($35 per person). A free wine tasting will be held during Winterfest on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. There will also be a Cupcake and Wine Pairing on with sessions Wednesday, Jan. 29, and Thursday, Jan. 30, 6:30 to 8 p.m. ($35 per person).
Global Flights & Bites Series at The Grazing Room at Colby Hill Inn in Henniker, colbyhillinn.com, running Fridays, Jan. 17 through Feb. 7, 4 to 8 p.m. For $59 per person, enjoy a flight of three wines presented with four appetizers. Each week will feature a region: Jan. 17 is Portugal, Jan. 24 is the Mediterranean, Jan. 31 is West Coast and Feb. 7 is Japan.
Cakebread Cellars Wine Dinner a five-course wine dinner with speaker Niki Williams at Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way in Bedford; bedfordvillageinn.com) on Wednesday, Jan. 22, starting at 6 p.m. Price is $125 per person (plus tax and gratuity). Find the menu and the listings of wines to be paired online.
Savor the Season: Big Reds and Bold Flavors, a tasting of seven reds, at WineNot Boutique (25 Main St. in Nashua; winenotboutique.com) on Thursday, Jan. 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. Admission costs $45.
The 21st Annual Winter Wine Festival at Wentworth by the Sea (588 Wentworth Road in New Castle; opalcollection.com/wentworth, 422-7322) runs Friday, Jan. 17, through Sunday, Feb. 9. Happenings include a Big Tasting with MS Walker and Pine State on Friday, Jan. 17, 6 to 8:30 p.m. ($69.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Dry Creek Vineyards on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 7 p.m. ($99.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Jackson Family Wines on Saturday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m. ($159.95 per person); a Vintner’s Dinner with Banfi Wines on Friday, Jan. 31, at 7 p.m. ($149.95 per person); Vintner’s Dinner with Orin Swift Cellars & Winery on Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. ($149.94 per person); and a Bubbles and Jazz Brunch on Sunday, Feb. 9, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. ($69.95).
Wines to look for at NH Wine Week events this year
Here are some wines that the experts will be keeping their eyes on during this year’s New Hampshire Wine Week.
Justin Gunter, New Hampshire Liquor Commission “We definitely have some smaller vineyards represented. We have Donna Morris and Bill Sweat; they’re the owners of Winderlea Vineyards in Oregon, and they make some beautiful, beautiful pinot noirs. It’s a smaller operation. They’re not one of the giant conglomerates.” Another producer Gunter is excited about is “Christof Höpler and the Höpler Winery. It’s not a massive operation, but it is worldwide and we do import a fair amount and they concentrate on more of the Zweigelt and rieslings and a lot of the German varietals.”
Richard Jacob, Vinilandia NH “Recently we’ve had some wines that are from the northern part of Italy that we just brought on to our portfolio that are from this wonderful family with a fantastic [passion for] their culture and their history and their winemaking philosophy. Those kinds of connections are the things that help make a bottle of wine more special and not just, you know, a glass of alcohol. It just makes it good for conversation.”
Emma Round, Unwined Wine Bar “I favor a lot of South African wines. The flagship grape of South Africa is a pinotage. So many people have never tried a pinotage because they don’t know what it is. It’s a fantastic grape. It’s delicious and it pairs well with so much food. So I try and lead people down paths like that. It’s the same for a plavac mali from Croatia, which is very similar to a pinot noir but with just a little bit more, a little bit more flavor. It’s far and above been one of my most popular cider glass wines. And most people have never heard of it before, but you give them a taste and they’re like, ‘Oh! It’s fun; it’s exciting.’ And wine should be like that. Life should be fun and exciting. It should be about trying new things.”
Genevieve Wolfe, Vine 32 “We have all classic examples that people would normally come in and ask for. But then I also like wines from Croatia or Slovenia, something a little bit different. We’re changing over our menu again in January, so I’m always excited to bring in new stuff that’s a little bit different, a little bit off the beaten path, so I can bring in those who might be set in their ways and kind of show them something different.”
Emma Stetson, owner of Wine on Main “There is a wine importer called Massonais. They’re brand new to the state, and I’m looking forward to trying the new wines from them. They have a bunch of wines, but they specialize in eclectic, unique Italian wines. For example, they have a producer called Graci. They make Sicilian wines that are grown in volcanic soil, which is unique and fun. You can almost taste like that graphite, smoky character from the soil.”
One of the dangers of recipes for meatless, sugar-free or zero-proof recipes is the frequent assurance that the finished product will be “just as good as the real thing.” If it really were just as good, the more virtuous version would be the default. A vegan pot roast will never be as good as your grandmother’s.
The problem with working around a dietary restriction is that most of us come at it from the point of view of taking something away from an already delicious dish, instead of starting from the ground up and adding ingredients that work on their own merits.
In this case, let’s start with an acidic — read “sour” — base. That will make this drink bracing and not too sweet. We could work with any type of citrus, but this time let’s go with lime juice. Lime is friendly and gets along with everyone. Let’s cut a fresh lime in half and squeeze the juice into a mixing glass. Just for kicks, let’s throw in one of the spent halves of the lime to let everyone know you’re taking this seriously.
Because we probably won’t want to drink straight lime juice, let’s temper the sourness with another element. There are a couple of directions we could go — spicy heat, smoke or salt — but let’s add something sweet. “Sweet and Sour” is a classic combination, whether we’re talking about children’s candy or Chinese takeout. We’ll use simple syrup, which will go into solution easily and won’t leave any sugar crystals at the bottom of our glass.
We could just top this drink off with ice and soda water at this point and call it a day. We’d have a glass of ultra-fresh limeade, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it might be interesting to add another flavor to the mix — maybe something unexpected. The fact that this drink is alcohol-free doesn’t mean it can’t have some complexity. Because lime really does go with everything, we could muddle a jalapeño in the glass at the beginning of this operation, or maybe a sprig of rosemary. Those would both be excellent, but this time let’s go with cucumber. It’s an unexpected flavor, but also reasonably non-threatening. We’ll add it with the sweet element, in the form of cucumber syrup.
Now, all we need is a sparkling element. Tonic water is a classic companion for lime juice, but it might be a little too sweet on its own here, so let’s cut it 50/50 with seltzer.
We could add more ingredients at this point, but we’d run the risk of overcomplicating things and muddying the flavor. We’ve put together a solid (well, liquid, actually), adult drink that is very good on its own merits. We can build on this someday, but for now this will do nicely.
Cucumber Sparkle
Juice of 1 lime, reserving the spent carcass of one half
2 ounces cucumber syrup (see below)
3 ounces extra bubbly seltzer – I like Topo Chico
3 ounces tonic water
ice
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass, and stir slowly and with gratitude.
Carefully pour everything, including the ice and the lime carcass, into a chilled rocks glass.
Ask your digital assistant to play “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin, and sip your drink with a sense of gratification. If your mood slips into one of smug satisfaction, who could blame you?
Cucumber Syrup
Wash one or more cucumbers, but leave the skins on. Chop to a medium dice, then freeze for an hour or two, until completely solid. Add an equal amount of sugar by weight, and cook over medium-low heat. The cucumbers will release a startling amount of juice. Bring to a low boil, then remove from heat. Let the cucumbers steep for 20 minutes or so, then strain the syrup. This will last for a week or two in your refrigerator.
