E-vine
February 2011
In this issue: Flooded wine, Dental tucker, Stormy moussaka, Backsliding?, Tucker, Star drinking, the usual.
Flooded wine – trick or treat?
What do you do when floods have invaded your wine cellar? It’s a question many victims of the recent Australian inundations are asking. After his cellar was flooded, one Brisbane restaurateur is reported to have dumped 2000 bottles of top shelf wine as undrinkable.
Unsaleable maybe, but I wouldn’t agree that flood ravaged bottles are undrinkable. And no way would I dump them. (Unless the insurance people insisted, that is.)
The labels on immersed bottles may have floated off or become unreadable, scummy water may have soaked under wine bottle capsules, but mostly this will be cosmetic damage only.
The wine in bottles with undamaged screwcaps is going to be untainted, as the seal is virtually impregnable. Bottles with corks may be a problem, as mould and fungi can invade the organic matter of the cork bark.
My suggestion is to remove the capsules from cork-sealed bottles, then rinse all bottles in a weak antiseptic solution, rinse and dry.
Then, over the next few months, it’s trick or treat time. First bottles to open are the ones with corks, as they’re the ones most likely to have gone “off”. If there is any hint of taint or mustiness on the nose or palate of the wine, pour it straight down the sink. Don’t even dream of using it for cooking.
Drink anonymous screwcapped bottles at your leisure and for a bit of fun treat each bottle as a masked tasting session. Or you could sell off bargain-priced, mystery mixed dozens to friends and relos.
Top five foods loved by dentists
On a recent visit to my dentist I asked if he could institute a frequent filler program. He hadn’t thought about it but apparently his accountant’s computer answered in the negative.
As I tried unsuccessfully to whistle a happy tune through numbed lips, I decided that the following delicacies must be loved by the dental fraternity (and sorority).
Olives – the ones with the pits. Even pitted olives contain the odd tooth-cracker.
Toffee – a classic filling extractor. Not to mention boiled lollies, peanut brittle, seaside rock and gob-stoppers.
Animal bones – chewing on chops, chicken legs and t-bones is great for breaking canines. (Unless you’re a canine.)
Popcorn – unpopped kernels can bring a tear to anyone’s eyeteeth.
Rice and lentils – famous for crunchy stray bits of gravel.
Oh, and one drink – red wine. Wine lovers will know that regular squishing of red through the teeth will turn their white and pearlies a nasty shade of purplish grey. The acid in wine will then slowly eat tooth enamel away.
Only scientists can tell us what evil corrosives are created by wine acids in the mouth, especially when they react with mercury amalgam fillings. As I’m often stopped by airport metal detectors and asked to remove my metal-filled molars before I can board a plane, I daren’t ask.
Noshtalgia
A dark and stormy Moussaka
One evening, many decades ago, the good Greek ship Ellinis was under full sail (poetic ain’t I?), somewhere in the North Atlantic. Most of the souls aboard were young Australians, en route to England to gain a bit of kulcher.
The sea was angry that night my friends – as George Costanza might have said. Storms were creating massive waves, and as the ship had no stabilisers we were rocking and rolling as we sat down to late dinner in the dining saloon.
As guests moodily chewed on yet another plate of moussaka and sipped the odd retsina, a mighty wave struck the port side of the ship. Waiters stumbled, food and crockery crashed to the floor, and one old dear’s seat fell over. She slid on her back towards our table and lay there, apparently unconscious.
Concerned passengers gathered round and the head waiter asked if there were any doctors present. An elderly chap in a suit wandered over, he knelt down and closely examined the patient. Her distraught daughter asked, “Is she still alive?”
The doc replied, “Well, she’s still chewing her moussaka.”
Backsliding?
And talking of docs. A couple of (sceptical?) correspondents have asked whether my weight loss regime took a dive over the Christmas festivities. The answer, strangely, is no.
My weight has bottomed out at a loss of 13.5kg (two stone in the old currency) since late September 2010. That’s over 14% of my long time body weight. The doc says that blood pressure is now lowish rather than high, that blood tests are well within normal ranges and show that I am no longer pre diabetic.
Sweet stuff and sweet wine remain permanently off the menu – but that minor self-denial seems to have been worth it. Now I can buy my shirts and jeans from the M size selection at the local op-shop, rather than from the L and XL racks.
Muckin’ abaht in the kitchen
Smokin’ tomatoes
The local deli had smoked semi-dried tomatoes on tasting. Mmm, delicious. I decided I could make some in E-vine’s R&D kitchen.
Not being one to re-invent the button-up boot, I googled and found online a green tea smoked duck recipe, that I’d seen on SBS TV's Luke Nguyen's Vietnam. I adapted it for the tomatoes.
Line the bottom of your wok with a double layer of foil. Place on this a mixture of, 1/2 cup uncooked rice, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup black or green tea leaves.
Buy a jar of semi-dried or dried tomatoes in oil. Remove a cup or so of the tomatoes and drain most of the oil from them. Place them evenly on a wire cake rack or trivet, leaving space between each piece for the smoke to circulate.
Heat the wok until the tea mix starts to smoke and place the cake rack above the smoke. Then put a lid on the wok - you can seal the lid with damp paper towel if need be. Allow to smoke for no more than five minutes and leave to cool for 10 to 15 minutes with the lid on. This procedure can get smoky, so cook outside if possible.
Store the tomatoes in some of the oil you bought them in. Use in entrée platters, they go well with unwooded chardonnay.
Pimientos
Lovely to see Pimientos de Padron again on sale at the Noosa Farmers Market recently. It must be over a year since I last saw them there.
Due to shortages caused by the Queensland floods they were one of the few greens still available on the day we shopped.
So we had a pimiento feast for lunch – lightly sautéed them in EVOO and sprinkled with salt crystals. They went superbly with fresh-baked bread and butter and a glass of white. And yes, as the slogan truly states “some are hot, some are not.” When you do get a hot P de P it’ll make your ears go red.
Star drinking
Écusson Grande Cidre de Normandie Brut 750ml - $10 - Well, I wouldn’t call it brut – medium-dry maybe. Colour of weak black tea. Softly fizzy in the mouth with a winey appley nose. Ripe autumnal flavours. A soft and rich style of cider – moreish.
King Valley, Victoria. A light nose of pears and peaches. The palate is clean, flavoursome and mid-dry with a hint of citrus at the finish.
Clover Hill Méthode Traditionnelle 2006 – up to $47 - Pipers River, Tasmania. Chardonnay 57%, pinot noir 36%, pinot meunier 7%. Aged on lees three years. Lemon tart, porcini mushrooms and bread oven nose. Light and crisp in the mouth, multi-layered with brioche, citrus zest and new season apricots on the palate. A mouth-watering aperitif style.
Margaret River, Western Australia. Translucent pale gold. Ripe stone fruits, marmalade, and biscuity oak bouquet. Dry, full flavours of limes, nectarines, and savoury oakiness over an infrastructure of forward citric acid.
Rarely do you see Coonawarra Cabernet in a cask. For a cask red this is a generous style, showing lots of blackberry type fruit and a warmth of (14.5%) alcohol. Very good value for everyday drinking. Add a bit of ice if the weather is hot.
Penfolds Rawson’s Retreat Merlot 2010 - $6.20 - Mid-crimson in colour. Light oaky nose, with hints of summer berries and mocha. Smooth medium-weighted palate with lots of fruitiness. Good dinner wine.
Paul Mas Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 – under $10 - Pays d’Oc, France. Bright crimson, hint of purple. Warm nose of summer berries and restrained wood. Medium-weighted, dryish style with pleasing tannic astringency and more of the red berry fruit. Very good value dinner wine. I should add that sometimes these inexpensive French imports just don’t coupe le moutarde,* as the French like to say. This one definitely does. *Trans.: “trim the moustache.”
Angove Nine Vines Shiraz Viognier 2009 – up to $14 - Medium ruby hues. Blackberries and some floral notes on the nose. Full-flavoured red shows blackberry conserve aspects in the mouth and soft tannins leading to a firm food-suiting finish.
Ratings
- outstanding
- classy
- first-rate
- good stuff
- commercial
Second pressings
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About E-vine
E-vine first appeared in 2001 and is edited and published and written every now and then (mostly then) by wine educator and freelance wine and food writer, Martin Field. Infrequent typos in the text are deliberate and are designed to foil net censors. See a Loade of Really Olde Stuffe in the archives. Copyright © Martin Field 2011. Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.