Tag: 211209

Celebrate with some sparkling wine

As the song goes, it is “the most wonderful time of the year!” as we partake of seemingly endless gatherings, indulging in calorie-laden savories and sweets to bring on those well-intended New Year’s resolutions.

What is the perfect beverage to go with all sorts of food? Bubbles, or more specifically, my favorite — Champagne! There are other sparkling wines, cava from Spain, prosecco from Italy, but Champagne has a well-deserved cache. And thanks to Champagne houses like Mumm, Taittinger, and Moët et Chandon, we can savor sparkling blends made in America in Méthode Traditionnelle manner, that is by double fermentation, at a fraction of the price we pay for imported Champagne. So, when you buy a bottle of Mummthat is produced in Napa, California, the label cannot contain language referring to “Methode Champenoise” as it does on the imported bottle. However, the production is the same.

Champagne can be paired to appetizers, including caviar and moderately spicy Asian food. It is excellent with chicken, seafood (especially oysters or lobster), eggs, hollandaise sauce, foie gras, gravlax and smoked salmon. It is among the most versatile of wines, whether it is brut (dry), demi-sec (sweet) or doux (sweetest). It can be blanc de blanc, made with 100 percent chardonnay grapes, or blanc de noirs, made with 100 percent pinot noir grapes. When preparing carpaccio, very rare beef, ham, prosciutto or rare lamb, a rosé, made with pinot noir and/or pinot meunier grapes, is a tasting adventure not to be missed.

Our first wine is Champagne Pommery Brut Royal, regularly priced at $44.99, on sale at $36.99, at the New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets. Located in Reims, wool trader Alexandre Pommery’s widow, Louise, inaugurated the Champagne house in the mid-19th century. Per the website, she initiated the idea of storing wines in temperature-controlled caves carved from the chalk deposits of the region. An innovator, she created the first brut Champagne in 1874 — a dry version of the wine when Champagnes were largely much sweeter than they are today. A blend of grapes from 40 selected villages in the Côte des Blancs and Montagne de Reims and other areas in the Champagne region, this wine is produced from 35 percent chardonnay, 35 percent pinot noir and 30 percent pinot meunier. Its color is pale gold, with an abundance of tiny bubbles. Its nose is of yellow to green apple, some citrus and vanilla. Its taste is very “fruit-forward” with notes of apple, with a very soft creamy long finish. As a dry wine, it pairs well with appetizers, creamy dishes, seafood and shellfish.

Our second wine is Domaine Carneros Brut, by Taittinger,regularly priced at $29.99, on sale at $25.95, at the New Hampshire Wine & Liquor Outlets. Domaine Carneros was established in 1987 when Claude Taittinger selected a 138-acre parcel in the heart of Carneros, California, to grow and produce a sparkling wine made in the Méthode Traditionelle manner. The winery, pictured on the label, is modeled after the grand châteaux of France. All the wines produced at the winery hail from the Carneros appellation, with 100 percent of the fruit coming from the six estate vineyards of the chateau, now comprising 400 acres.

A blend of 53 percent pinot noir, 44 percent chardonnay and 3 percent pinot gris, this sparkler is aged nearly four years in the bottle. Fruity and balanced in acidity, it offers rich notes of pear, green apple and melon that contrast against notes of praline and toasted almonds.

This holiday season, celebrate with a wine that can traverse all your culinary delights, from appetizers to desserts. Explore this bubbling creation of that Benedictine monk, Dom Perignon. Legend has it that upon his discovery, he was quoted as saying, “Come quickly! I am drinking the stars!” Indeed, he was! And so can you!

Featured photo: Courtesy photo.

So you’re finally a full-blown grown-up. Congratulations.

One of the things that comes with that is learning how to give good, thoughtful presents to other full-blown grown-ups. For a lot of us, that leads in one of two directions: gift cards, or something homemade. Gift cards: on the plus side, they’re easy; the minus, they’re expensive and clearly lacking in effort. Something homemade: on the plus side, it’s thoughtful and offers a chance to show off; the minus, there is no chance you’ll be able to learn to knit in the next week.

Here are some suggestions for easy, cocktail-centric, homemade gifts that will hint that you might have hidden depths:

Infused alcohols

This is where the gift-giving process gets budget-friendly. If you are flavoring alcohol with strong flavors, you don’t want to use expensive booze; any subtleties in the base liquor will be covered up. You probably don’t want to use the absolute cheapest stuff, though, because you might find some off flavors in your final product. I try to steer toward a respectable bottom-shelf vodka or white rum — Mr. Boston, for instance.

Method: The great thing about infusing alcohol is that, at its simplest level — which, let’s face it, is about all you can handle at this point in the year — it is pretty much foolproof. You add a flavorful ingredient to a clear spirit, shake it, then store it in a warm, dark place for a few days, shaking it twice per day. I use the laundry room. Strain and bottle it when it tastes right to you.

Ideas:

• Chocolate Vodka — ½ cup/60 grams cocoa nibs to a 750 ml bottle of vodka. Shake and age for four days.

• Graham Cracker Vodka — Blend 1 sleeve of graham crackers with three cups/710 ml of vodka. Shake and age for seven days.

(These two would make a great matched gift set for making s’mores martinis)

• Jalapeño Rum — 4 spicy jalapeños to one liter of white rum. Shake and age for four days, then taste each day until it is flavorful and spicy enough for your Auntie’s taste.

• Banana Rum — Muddle a very ripe banana, the type you find next to the cash register at a convenience store, with two cups/475 ml white rum. Shake and age for a week.

• Cardamom Vodka — ½ ounce/14 grams lightly crushed cardamom pods to 1½ cups/350 ml vodka. Shake and age for 12 hours. This is delicious but potent. Give in very small bottles with instructions to use judiciously.

•Basil/Fresno Vodka — 3 chopped Fresno chilies (~50 grams) and 20 grams of hand-torn basil leaves to 1¼ cups/300 ml vodka. Shake and age for four days. (Excellent for bloody marys.)

Fruit syrups

Method: Heat equal amounts of frozen fruit and white sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Use frozen fruit, because the freezing process produces jagged ice crystals that poke holes in the cell walls of the fruit and help this process along. As the fruit thaws, it will weep juice — far more than you are expecting. (You might want to help the process along with a potato masher.) Bring to a boil. Let the mixture boil for another 10 to 20 seconds to make sure that the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let everything steep for another half an hour. Strain and bottle. (You might want to put the leftover fruit glop as jam on an English muffin.)

Surprisingly good syrup fruits:

• Cherries, cranberries, rhubarb, cucumbers (yes, really), wild blueberries, honeydew melon, raspberries, strawberries.

Infused syrups

Method: Make a simple syrup (equal parts water and white sugar), and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add an aromatic ingredient, cover and steep for 30 minutes. Strain and bottle.

“Wait — Can I Put This On Pancakes?” (Yeah, probably.)

Dried hibiscus blossoms, dried jasmine blossoms, dried butterfly sweet pea blossoms (this is a deep blue color, which turns a fantastic shade of violet when combined with citrus juice), whole garam masala, cracked nutmeg, broken cinnamon sticks (steep overnight), lightly crushed coffee beans (steep for a couple of hours).

Also, not for nothin’, but this is the time of year when it’s easy to get down on yourself. Your anxiety will tell you that nobody loves you, your depression will add that you deserve it, and your guilt will tell you that you should be doing much more for other people than you are. My advice to you — and bear in mind that I have the emotional depth of a parking lot puddle — is that you might not be the best judge of your own worth.

You are special and magical and bring joy to people who will never tell you about it, but would miss you like oxygen if you weren’t around. (And if you need help remembering this, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255.) The fact that you are thinking about what you can give to others is a good hint that you do have hidden depths.

Featured photo: Cocktail-centric, homemade gifts. Photo by John Fladd.