By The Glass
Chuck Furuya
Wednesday, February 6, 2002
Wines that age gracefully
can pair perfectly with foodsA friend of mine (who happens to be a chef) is planning a big dinner for some visiting VIPs next week that finishes with his rendition of osso buco. The question of the conversation was what wine would I pair with his recipe?
Big, hearty, rustic ... red ...
I then called a fellow master sommelier in San Francisco to get his thoughts.
Hearty, rustic ... red ... aged ...
Aged? Yes, aged. "Something more harmonious ... much more balanced ... much more refined ... innately complex ..."
Lately, I have been so intrigued with pairing exuberant wines with youthful fruit to food, that I hadn't even considered aged wines as an option.
This definitely made me rethink things.
My travels recently took me to Lanai. At a special event on a Saturday night, I had the opportunity to re-taste the 1997 Edmeades Chardonnay.
Where most wineries are now nearing the end of their 1999 offerings or just releasing their 2000s, here was a cool-climate California Chardonnay with a little age to it.
The wine is fabulous! I love what a couple of years of bottle age did for this wine. I love its harmony. How it flows on the palate. Its seamlessness. And its food-friendliness.
It made me reflect on my last wine trip to California. The best meal of the 10-day trek was undoubtedly at Edmeades' winemaker Van Williamson's house. He knew we were coming, so he had gone out and picked some fresh abalone the day before. The next morning he went out early to catch some salmon. In the afternoon, he harvested some fresh sea urchin.
The ensuing meal consisted of pan-fried pounded abalone, grilled salmon steak, an uni beurre blanc sauce (whipped up spontaneously by one of our accompanying friends, along with abalone poke and ponzu sauce), a fresh mesculin salad and steamed white rice.
Van served three of his Chardonnays -- 1999, 1998 and 1997 -- with the meal. The 1997 was incredibly more textured than the younger vintages. The harmonious roundness on the palate from the additional bottle age effortlessly melted in with the foods to create a much more seamless pairing.
What a revelation!
I am not suggesting that all wines can or should be aged. That is not the case. But I think you can have some fun comparing an interesting, slightly aged wine with a newly released rendition. Taste them by themselves, then with food. See the difference for yourself. I think you will be impressed.
Chuck Furuya is president of Fine Wine Imports and Hawaii's only master sommelier.
This column is a weekly lesson in wine
pairing written by a rotating panel of wine professionals.
Write to features@starbulletin.com
