AnuvaBlog

Last Monday Anuva has its first class at Murray’s in NYC, given by Nicole Vest (me) and Taylor Cocalis.  If you live in NYC, or plan to visit and have not been to Murray’s Cheese Shop, you must go! Located at 254 Bleecker St in the West Village, this cheese shop has been around since 1940, and has expert cheese mongers to help you select the perfect blue, goat, soft, aged, you name it. They also have “virtual cheese mongers” online

What makes Murray’s so special is not only do they offer the best cheese in NYC, but they also place a large emphasis on educating their customer.  On the second floor there is a classroom that seats 24, which holds classes like Cheese 101, Cheese U Boot Camp, Honey and Cheese, and so much more.  It was at Cheese 101, where I met Taylor and we decided to join forces and teach a class on Argentine wines and their perfect cheese pairings.

We offered six wines including the Hom Espumante, Anecon Torrontes, Sin Fin Malbec, Finca La Luz Petit Verdot, Familia Mayol Cuatro Primos, and the Domados Zaino Reserve Malbec.  We paired each wine with a cheese that would compliment each other–including the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company Couple, La Tur, Jasper Hill Farm Winnemere, Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, Pecorino Foglia de Noce, and finished with the Columbus Salame Company Felino to incorporate a meat.  It seems that the Winnemere and the Sin Fin Malbec was the favorite pairing.  The Winnemere has a soft, velvety texture, with a woodsy, sweet cream flavor, that balanced perfectly with the earth hints and black fruit flavors of the Sin Fin Malbec.  The combination really made both the wine and cheese excel.  I myself loved the pairing of the Torrontes and the La Tur.  La Tur is a dense, creamy blend of cow and sheep milk, that is mild, but has an earthy, full flavor, with a lingering lactic tang.  The Torrontes, with its mild sweetness and clean finish, paired beautifully with the La Tur.  While I am writing this, my mouth is literally salivating over this pairing.

It is no question that the Hom Espumante and the Zaino Reserve Malbec were the class favorites for stand alone wine.  This was of course no suprise to me.  These wines were the perfect start and finsh to the class–light and bubbly to start, and a full well developed finish.  It was a pleasure working with Taylor, and I look forward to working with her again in the future!

 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.

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!

We go through so much headache shipping wines to the US and EU that it is quite satisfying when new shipments of new wines finally go out to our members. We have quite a collection this May, all stuff that will keep your palates enthralled and your glasses filled.

If I had to pick a favorite in this collection, it would be very hard, because each has its appeal–that is the beauty of wine–so much variety. And since I spend the better part of my life sifting through all the bad wine that is made out there to bring you guys the best, its hard for me to choose from six greats (since I already chose those from about 300 others). Santos Beck Torrontés is delicate and easy. Great on a hot summer day. Naiara Reserve Malbec is super velvety and rich. Durigutti Malbec Reserve: black and red fruits, bold, complex. Finca La Luz Petit Verdot: mint, chocolate, tobacco. Beviam Syrah: gorgeous just to look at and even better in the mouth. Occhioverde Merlot (my favorite name for a wine–it means “Green Eye” in Italian and is named that way because it is organic): great body, great herbs and spices.

I think I’m ready to go open a bottle for myself. Lourdes is cooking basil spaghetti with Salsa Bolognesa (tomato and herb based meat sauce). Hmm… I think Occhio Verde or maybe Naiara…

…Or maybe both.