on wine(8): what the grower drinks

On a Sunday afternoon (6-17-12) one of my gourmet friends took me to an exhibit of ptgs from the Uffizi in Florence. Most were the stuff that national musea have in their storage rooms, but several paintings, incl. the Botticelli Madonna and Child (of course) were worth the trip, as, for that matter was the museum itself with its landscaping and architecture (an example of how excess private funds should be spent). One of the larger works that drew my attention was a "Mannerist" Last Supper that showed a number of place settings, with something that looked like grilled meat on plates that each had also a brioche shaped bread and a glass of wine whose color was golden rather than red. This may have been the result of the effect of time, though other reds in the ptng had retained their hues and the North-eastern Italian painter may actually have used a locally dominant wine.

This painting brought to mind 2 articles in recent NYTs on drinking red wine in the summer (when sophisticates drink white or pink) and on red wine with cheese. In this article Eric Asimov, the Times wine writer, referred to the rural usage of the past when one ate bread and hard cheese and drank red:"You consumed them together because that's what you had." Indeed, except when the farmer grew white wine as I experienced when working as a "gardener, goatherd, etc." in the French Alps above Chambery in the Savoie. This included maintenance of 1/2 acre of white wine grapes and the litre of wine I was entitled to (with fresh baquette and goat cheese) was a rather yellowish white (not unlike that in the paining). If I felt like a better wine, I'd take a bottle to be filled at the vintner on the other side of the village whose wines, all white, were served in regional restaurants. Red had to be "imported" from Chambery. But today, when vintners drive their Mercedes and have homes with all the modern conveniences even when they don't have Bordeaux-size estates, they have also the "wine culture." Even so, the uncle of one of our French teaching assitents who had several parcels in the Cote d'Or, one of which in a 1st growth Nuits St. Georges, drank one of his commune wines when he had wine with his meals (they often drank bottled water). And "consuming what one had" or the subsistence farming of my teens has become rare in countries like France. Asimov's article was focused on the expert knowledge of two people professionally involved in promoting mostly artisanal cheeses and the pairing them with wine was promotional. Apparently he had a great time trying out various combinations and if his article opens the world of cheese to more of his readers, so much the better. Whether restaurants will make room for a cheese course, I have my doubts, for when I check tables in fancy restaurants, few even have a bottle of wine.

During our '91 sabbatical we spent several months in Tuscany, a short distance towards the south-west from Siena, in a farmhouse belonging to a large estate. The wine they grew and sold to us was unblended sangiovese, it was also the wine the native owner ordinarily drank (though his Americanized daughters and their family also had commercial bottles bought in the small town, all of them chianti classico or modern blends); they were mostly cocktail and mineral water drinkers. The caretaker, who lived in town, drank the estate's wine that was grown on about 2 or 3 acres. An old farmer who came in every morning sort of pooh-poohed the wine and said his own was better, which, though a dollar less per liter, was indeed the case. Did he ever drink white wine? Yes, when he visited his daughter who had married a farmer near Orvieto, where that is the common wine.

When Colette and I eat out, she usually has seafood and when good wine by the glass is available she'll have a pinot grigio and I have my red. But if there are good bottles I'll drink white with my meat dish or she drinks red with her fish, depending which is the best affordable bottle. At home the same rule applies though on hot summer days we may pick a white simply because it is colder than a red. Colette grew up in Marseille and red wine was the household staple. When I joined her for summer visits after 1980 it was in the villa built by her grandmother in a small town about 100km north-east of Marseille in the foothills of the Alps. Her American father preferred red and all the bottles on his shelves were red, all of them local, i.e. from the Luberon or the Vaucluse. As he grew older and needed several strong medicines, Colette's mother tried to keep his alcohol intake in check. She did that by having almost un-french small glasses, and as he liked his seafood (she was a very good cook) she often suggested a white. In the summer she compromised with rose which like whites used to be lighter by 1 or2% in alcohol than the reds at 12.5%. She maintained that her husband really preferred rose. Thus when he came for his obviously last visit to his American family and he stayed with us for several weeks, Colette suggested that I buy several roses and I actually found one from the Luberon. When Colette drew his attention to the label, he remarked: "They make a good red too." It turned out his so-called preference for rose in the summer was actually a simple going along with his wife. With us, he drank red with everything. This brings to mind an inadvertent faux pas I made one day when the four of us went to the beach at Bandol and had a late lunch on the terrace of a much frequented restaurant in one of the narrow streets. Without thinking I ordered a rose Bandol for Colette and her parents, who all had seafood and half a red for me. I noticed her father stealing a glance at the red and her mother saying the rose was very good on a summer day and with the seafood. I still wonder whether he would have joined me if only I had asked whether, etc.

Provence is well known for producing good roses and it's only recently that many other regions and countries jumped on the rose bandwagon after the wine writers promoted the drinking of the stuff. Actually it can be nice as a cooling drink and if I am not really thirsty I prefer it over beer, but without food I usually have a mix of half orange juice and half San Pellegrino, for at my age even one beer puts me to sleep.

At the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, Colette's parents gave a large 4-course  banquet in one of the better local restaurants. All three colors, of good regional growths, were available and I noticed that some drank only white (and rose with the meat) or only rose, or only red, and by the time the cheeses were served they poured whatever color was closest to hand. All of the guests were well to do and were used to eating well, but the wines American wine magazines give most space too, they drank rarely. They bought their "Sunday" wines at the local supermarket. The one Colette's parents used had a wine department that was almost as large as their meat or vegetable departments. The prices for a bottle of Cotes du Rhone Villages of which there was a wide selection, were  lower than  the meat one might buy for a good meal. There were more reds than whites or roses even though roses are produced throughout the Provence.There was also a good selection of Bordeaux and Burgundies, including the more expensive "first growths."

In spite of the "wine and food writers" hyping starred French restaurants and the treasures in their cellar, their "house" wines tend to be those of their region. Elizabeth David, the much celebrated
English food writer, reports (1980) on a lunch she had at the even more celebrated La Mere Brazier, outside Lyon and adds: "The Mere Brazier's wines were the young Chiroubles and Brouillys of the Beaujolais region, and their whites the equivalents from Macon and Pouilly Fuisse." Colette and I have eaten many a meal in Burgundy, some in starred restaurants. Among them one of our favorites was Greuze in Tournus which was then run by Jean Ducloux and had two stars. The Michelin guide which listed the specialties of the house also noted the "house" wine simply as Beaujolais. At one lunch Ducloux was sitting at a table next to us with some growers from Julienas and St. Amour (which we were drinking) and a German importer. When they left the St. Amour grower stopped at our table: he had been supplying Ducloux ever since he inherited his property several decades ago.  At Lameloise (thee stars) the standard wines included "Rully blanc, Chassagne-Monrachet rouge," a 1/2 bottle of each was served when we asked what was recommended, no mention of their of their great winelist having been made. Apparently the French go to such places to eat well; the availability of starred equivalents in wine, for. ex. a 1969 Cambolle Musigny "Les Amoureuses" that we had to celebrate something at L'Esperance (3 stars) near Vezelay (at the prize of Colette's more modest meal) is taken for granted but are not the reason to eat out. Such bottles are there for the clients who follow the Guide's "worth a detour." In fact, perusing the Guide for 1987, I found that, especially in non-wine regions, many restaurants do not list wines at all, and those in wine regions might list some local wine that would be mostly consumed only locally, many I had never heard of and some that are usually dismissed by the wine writers. I suspect that these wines, if not from personal acquaintances, are listed at the request of the local chamber of commerce or the like. Loiseau, the late chef and owner of the Cote d'Or in Saulieu, was known for seeking out the best wines and his cellar was well stocked, but the 1995 Guide has: "Vins: Sauvignon de Saint-Bris, Cote de Nuits Villages," both modestly priced considering that the prix fixe lunch menu was about $50 and a three course meal a la carte perhaps $100. The Sauvignon, the basic white grape of the Loire region, but in St. Bris grown close to Chablis,  is evidence of Loiseau's search for good wines, for when it was "discovered" by American wine writers about a decade later it became an immediate bestseller at about 7 bucks; it doubled in price within 5 or six years.

Among the good recent wines we drank in the last few months, "Sunday wines," there was the last bottle 2004 Puligny-Monrachet "Les Grands Champs" from Bachelet with Colette's always fine blanquette de veau of which I noted: "light golden, slow robe, an elixir." With a steak we had an '05 Beaume de Venise "Le Paradou" from Jaboulet: "full bodied yet giving an impression of being light as there was more red fruit than marc" even though it was a surprising 14.5%. With a lunch of organic lamb chops in a morel sauce we had a '05 Santenay 1er cru "La Maladiere" from Girardin, unfilterd, 13.5%  that was "dark, lots of aroma, fine robe, little tar." And at a lunch for a friend of duck leg confit in a chanterelle sauce we had a '02 Volnay 1er cru "Clos des Chenes" from Monnier "which I bought because 2002 burgundies were highly praised and Monnier received a big write up. The expectations for 2002 were subsequently lowered but now it is said to "show class." This we found "actually true, tho it's a light and pleasant wine, smooth with hints of cassis. Very likable."