AnuvaBlog

HOM Espumante is a sparkling wine produced by Cava La Carmela. To this date it is Anuva’s top seller. We call it “the crowd pleaser”, a great wine to bring to a party and is easy to pair with many dishes.

The wine is a blend of Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc. It has a fresh greenish hue indicating young fruit. A steady stream of bubbles and a light green apple, toasty, nutty bouquet draw you in. The mouth is crisp, and delicate fruit which lingers without being sweet

.At the Anuva Tastings we pair this sparking wine with whole-wheat water crackers topped with mascarpone, roquefort and green apple.Why? This pairing works because the creaminess of the cheese provides a base for the acidity of the wine to cut through. While the green apple mimics the tartness and crisp texture of the Hom.At home I would suggest pairing this wine with light appetizers (Melted brie topped with your favorite jam.) Or for this time of year a Fall Harvest Salad:

FALL HARVEST SALAD

Mix of spicy greens, blue cheese, dried fruits, apples, walnuts and roasted squash.The texture and light sweetness of the salad will play perfectly with the freshness and elegance of the wine.

•    Arugula large pack

•    Cranberries 1/8 cup

•    Raisins- Golden 1/8 cup

•    Toasted Walnuts or Hazelnuts 1/8 cup

•    Blue Cheese- crumbled 2 oz.

•    Green Apple- cut into wafer thin slices

•    ½ Acorn Squash, roasted with a pad of butter and brown sugar , skinned and cut into long strips

•    Salt and Pepper•    ½ lemon

1.    Prep Greens by soaking in a bath of cool water, strain and shake dry.

2.    Place greens in Large bowl sprinkle with salt and pepper and a bit of lemon juice

3.    Top with other ingredients and enjoy! Serve with fresh French bread or croissants.

Try this recipie and give us feed back! Or share your favorite wine pairing ideas!

Eventually after staying a in city long enough the question arises “Who has the best pizza?”

Hungry for the answer we gathered up a group of friends to go on a pizza tour. Av. Corrientes is famous for theaters, old cafes, book stores and pizza. Many of the city’s first and most famous pizzerias are tucked away in this bustling street.

We started in Micro center and worked our way past the Obelisk to 4 or 5 pizza joints.

In a traditional set up you can sit or stand. I prefer to belly up with a big slice and a cold beer. (Unfortunately the wine selections tend to be quite limited). During the weekdays you can see all the business men rush in for a quick bite, with plates pilled high of cheesy deliciousness.

1^st stop, Palacio de la Pizza. 751 Corrientes. I had been here before. The dough is thick…almost as thick as the cheese. I gave a high score, other members of the panel felt we could do better. I submitted only account on our poor beverage selection. Bruce the sommelier swears by the classic combination of Muscato and pie.  Taking his professional recommendation we committed to an entire bottle: 8 people, $15 pesos, 45 minutes lost attempting to down the sweet viscous fortified wine. 3 stars total (of 5).

2^nd Las Cuartetas, Corrientes 838. Had less selection of pizza by the slice than #1. Greasy crust, overly salty cheese and bad service left me leaving a lower score. The group had mixed reviews, in part because the pizza did have a thinner crust than Palacio. I think the ice cold Quilmes helped as well. 2.5 stars total

3^rd. Banchero, a classic in the city. Av Corrientes 1300.- I attempted to split a big slice of spinach and white sauce pizza which I liked a lot and wound up not sharing. Other in our posse went for traditional cheese and were not impressed. Once again cold icy beer. 2.5 stars total

4^th Guerrin Corrientes 1368- Now there is a reason why Guerrin makes every guide book. It is the best; great pie, great service and environment. We huddled in around the center island and worked to finish our final slices. Full and happy we gave Guerrin 4.5 stars.

We opted to quit while we were ahead.  #5 or Los Immortales- Corrientes 1369 is still on the list (and I hear it’s fantastic). Next time I plan to get my pizza to go or “ a llevar”. As a wine lover and a pizza lover I find the wine lists at each of these dinosaurs limited and I wind up getting beer, or in some unfortunate cases cheap Muscato.

But for me a good pie deserves a good bottle of wine. Pizza can be a difficult match; I tend to go by the toppings. A pizza with sausage or pepperoni goes great with a fuller body Malbec https://www.anuvawines.com/wine/malbec/naiara-malbec-2007/ or Sangiovese https://www.anuvawines.com/wine/sangiovese/callejon-del-crimen-sangiovese-2006/.  Another great combo is cheese, pineapple and ham (Hawaiian (sans tomato sauce!) with Torrontes.

If you visit Buenos Aires be sure to try the pizza. Keep in mind this city oozes Italian heritage and cellars some of the best wine in the world.

 Dearest Anuva Fans,

The following email recently came our way:

“I was watching an episode of Wine Library TV. Gary, the host mentioned that he thought one of the featured wines would go well with guacamole.

 Obviously this would depend on what type of guacamole you are using, but I think a wine pairing with guacamole would be very interesting, especially on salty corn chips , and if the guacamole has to heat to it. Avocado to me offers an interesting pairing opportunity because it does not have the taste nor toughness of meat, but shares the fat content. Do you think I should be thinking of pairing Avocado as I would pair a creamy vegetable dish?”

First off I am a fan of WLTV as well. Vaynerchuck offers some great unconventional descriptions and features wines from all over the world and from every price range. He has done several shows featuring wines from Argentina; including a shows on Torrontes and Bonarda. I particularly loved the recent episode “Pairing Wine with Bacon”.

Second I agree that the pairing would depend greatly on how the avocado is prepared. However I think the avocado has a creamy smooth mellow taste, but can be very different from creamed vegetables. (The expression “creamed vegetables” always conjures an image, for me, of Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam attempting to “cream” a vegetable and the obvious physical jokes that can be played there).

 For a zesty guacamole I would imagine either a nice crisp white like Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris. However for simply an avocado puree on toasted French bread I would select a fuller bodied Semillion. I think the honey floral notes and round mouth feel would only enhance the mellow creaminess of the fruit.

At the same time one of Argentina’s favorite avocado salad’s (ensalada de palta) is just tomato, avocado with lots of lemon juice and salt. This I could see going well with Torrontés even as it has a floral and citric quality to it that would compliment.

If I had to go red I would pick a Pinot Noir for simple lightly salted avocado. I think the soft earthy qualities of the avocado and the wine would compliment each other well. For something with a little more kick I imagine a big Syrah or Tempranillo; a fruity wine that could stand up to heavy seasoning and maybe a little acidity for the avocado to tame.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. At the risk of clichés, what kind of a wine blog would this be if we didn’t embrace the romance factor inherent in wine ? Valentine’s Day without wine is a tragedy of the gravest degree. Viticulture can be incorporated into February the 14^th in a litany of ways: wine as a gift, wine tasting as a date, wine as the ingredient of a romantic, home-cooked meal. A popular route seems to be giving a gift of wine and chocolate, which appears more simple than most would probably think. One must approached the task of pairing wine with chocolate with precision and care. The importance of finding a wine that can match up to the sweetness profile of different types of chocolate cannot be underestimated, otherwise the experience will be like playing Two Live Crew when taking one’s wedding vows. Most experts recommend a sweet desert wine to be paired with milk chocolate. Duh. The downside, of course, is that many wine drinkers prefer dry to sweet.

Let us make a bold suggestion: Las Perdices Don Juan Reserve with a high quality dark chocolate. The hints of unsweetened cocoa powder and smoky tobacco flavor found in the dry Don Juan deserve no detriment: use a nice 65-75% dark chocolate. This will compliment the primary flavors and aromas, creating a positive indulgent experience. An added benefit to opening a bottle of Las Perdices Don Juan Reserve on Valentine’s Day is that the more it breathes, the more evolved the flavors become, allowing two people to sit back, relax, and enjoy an entire evening of chocolate, romance, and Don Juan.

Did we mention that consuming large quantities of chocolate have the same hormonal effect as falling in love? Yet another reason to try this out.

In recent weeks, I have been astounded by the impact that food has on wine and that wine has on food. On the airplane ride back to Buenos Aires, I was lucky enough to sit in business class where there were 6 wines on the menu, none of which I had tried. Port never tasted so good as when I had it with a simple scoop of chocolate ice cream. The Pinot Noir complimented the salmon quite well, but nothing really burst. The Chablis, while really remarkable on its own, didn’t really go well with the green bean and tomato salad.

And so while the general theme of food combining is like with like, one never really knows what exact food will make a wine pop, or what exact wine will make a food pop. Looking for the pop is a new found passion of mine because not only do I find it extremely pleasurable to experience citrus burst when combining a celery-fennel-grapefruit confiture salad with Anecon Torrontés, I find the hunt for and discussion about the possibilities fascinating.

We are going to be doing several internal food and wine combining tastings to determine what exactly will work with our foods best. And I mean exactly. Not “red meat” or “aged cheese”. I want to be able to say “braised pork belly with 78% dark chocolate mole over cornmeal spaeztle” (we served this with the Cavagnaro Malbec at one of our internal tastings and I nearly fainted it was so good). That is what makes me excited about what I do these days, the search for perfection. And the oohs and ahhs and empty plates at the end of the correct combination.

Stay tuned, dear readers, for more on this subject in the coming months.

Pork bellies are not the most commonly eaten food in America. Mostly because we are not used to eating such a large quantity of fat–obvious fat–on our cuts of meat. We are trained to cut off the fat.

The luscious and aggressive tannins in the Cavagnaro Malbec, though, make it the perfect wine to go with such a fatty meat. The grease of the pork belly, coating your mouth with a succulent swine flavor, washes completely away with the tannin of this Malbec leaving  a slightly smokey aftertaste.

I personally had never been a fat of such fatty cuts of meat before trying this, but it certainly worked for me. I hope that you are all out there experimenting with new food and wine combinations and get lucky like I did. Learn by doing!

As Thanksgiving approaches later this week, everyone seems to be putting out their must-drink wine list. However, it was really refreshing to see a post on Vinography (one of the more well read wine blogs around) today about how there is no such thing as the perfect wine for Thanksgiving. It may just be the case that all these lists are products of editorial calendar requirements and may actually have very little to do with there being really approrpriate Thanksgiving wines. Alder writes:

“Most people’s Thanksgiving meals, even the most modest of them, are a vast cornucopia of flavors so diverse, contrary, and strong, and people eat them in such different combinations at different times that the idea of finding ‘a’ wine to match with the meal is a ridiculous proposition. “

I have always said that good goes with good well. So as long as you’re sitting down to a good meal with good company (even if that does include cousin Bobby…), then it doesn’t matter if you open something rich, full and oaky like the 2004 Don Juan Reserve Blend or something much more fruit forward and puckering like the 2007 Naiara Malbec as you long as you enjoy it. Or you could open both and decide for yourself which goes better with your turkey and stuffing…

Happy TDay from Anuva Vinos!

We cracked open a bottle of the Mudai Pinot Noir, just to spite all of my home grown Oregon Pinot lovers. Earthy and red fruit rich, the Mudai is quite a treat. What really impressed me though, was the pairing of the Mudai with last night’s dinner. I cooked shrimp in a red onion with butter sauce as an appetizer which we ate with a lemon and garlic butter. We then followed this with a grilled salmon filet, which I did in olive oil with lemon and lime juice, and red onion as well. Washing down the seafood with the pinot was just delightful. Not too strong but not too soft either. A nice balance of body, fruit and acidity.

We chatted about it during dinner because the quality of the combination was so apparent. We didn’t notice only the wine, nor did we notice only the food, a great balance had been found. We decided that the Anecon Torrontés would also go well with the meal we made, the other parts of which were a mixed green salad and red potatoes. We thought about how a malbec or syrah would do with this meal and agreed that it would just be too much. Those wines, for me at least, would just overpower the natural flavors of the seafood.

That said, I still encourage you to find what works for you. A seafood pasta with a cream base may stand up better to fuller wines and conversely, a seafood salad may not go too nicely with a Pinot Noir requiring a lighter white. But this is what makes it fun, the searching and sampling…. Que disfruten!

Last week we had several upstanding citizens of the English speaking Expat community over to sample Anuva’s wines. What a hit it was! We had a total of 9 Americans and Brits here and while our discussion began about wine, winemaking, wine tasting and drinking, and the malbecs, bonardas and blends we were drinking, we ended up talking about politics, travel and business ideas.

The biggest hit, not surprisingly, was the Don Juan from Las Perdices which was the reserve wine served that night. It’s a complicated mouthful of 14 months of oak aged malbec blended with syrah, bonarda and merlot. Full, velvety and luscious.

A great treat for the tasting was a spicy sausage brought by one of our British members. Caked with pepper, this is one of the few foods I have found in Argentina that actually makes my body temperature rise. And what a combination with the Malbecs and the Bonarda. The pepper of the sausage really brought out different characteristics in all of these wines. Just goes to show there is always something new to learn about wine, food and their combinations. Especially with good company.