So, the shoot is over and done with and so are my Wine Essentials classes. I was photographed yesterday by Phillip McClain, the best photographer I've ever had the pleasure of working with. He also photographed David for the magazine who is writing his usual Politics column.
The shoot was way more fun than I had anticipated--I got lots of practice in making a bottle of champagne really pop!
I'm really happy with the way my photo turned out. I love having someone else show me what's outside my own thinking box; both the look and the concept are not something I would have come up with myself, but nevertheless, I am completely satisfied...
Alas, our final Wine Essentials class was bittersweet. But I'm very happy to say that I came back with 4 favorite wines from the class. (I'm still thinking about that sparkling Shiraz...)
But first, I'd like to share some of my wine notes with you:
From the cuvée (the vat) comes five different kinds of wine.
1. NV - non vintage. Meaning they combine the wines from year to
year in order to come up with a very consistent-tasting product.
2. Vintage - from a particular year alone. (You may need to know
whether that year was a good year or a bad year.)
3. Tête de Cuvée - the best wine! (Dom Pérignon and Cristal are tête de cuvées.)
4. Rosé - rosé wine.
5. Sweetness
The last one is where they add the "dosage" (doe-sahzj). That's where they top off the bottle with wine and a certain amount of sugar (or none at all) after its final fermentation.
There are five different dosages.
1. Brut (dry) - a little sugar
2. Extra Brut (extra dry) - no sugar
3. Sec - sweeter than Brut
4. Demi Sec - sweeter than Sec
5. Doux - very sweet
Moving on, let's start with my first favorite wine, Champagne, Brut, Nicolas Feuillatte, NV. After my initial smell (yes, champagne can and should be smelled), I wrote in my notes: yum :). It had a smell of light fruit and light yeast; and you could taste the wood in it. Nicolas Feuillatte is a very standard champagne that you'll find in most fine restaurants--a very sturdy wine. Pair it with veal, pork, or lobster in a heavy cream sauce, or with a heavy fish. $29.
The second wine on my favorites list is Champagne, Brut, 'Special Cuvée', Bollinger NV. This was a very heavy smelling wine with a sweet, sticky smell--yet, a smoky taste. It went well with our aged goat cheese. --Smoke with smoke! A little steep though, at $50.
Another very nice wine we had was the Moscato d'Asti (asti means sparkling), Saracco 2008. --A very fruity dessert wine, but with acidity as well. Good with a salty cheese, or alone. And at just $17 a bottle, I'd definitely go for it.
And my last, yet most memorable wine is the Sparkling Shiraz, Paringa, 2008 - South Australia (also, $17). When it was first poured out for us I thought to myself, "Oh boy, a sparkling red." And after my initial smell I thought, "Ihck--Merlot..." But when I tasted it, I was pleasantly surprised!
In the 70's, sparkling red was actually quite en vogue, and they called it: Cold Duck.
--QUACK!!!!
Anyway.... Tastewise, it's a very heavy red--and after the
initial smell, surprisingly sweet! Yet, the tannins are present too.
Pair it with a chicken cooked in soy sauce or maybe even a sake chicken--I have a magnum of it that I've been trying to use up for 2 years.
So that, my friends, is my final entry for "Wine Essentials." Hopefully I'll have something to tell you about over the next few weeks until my next classes begin.
Things should be getting quite busy at the restaurant though with both restaurant and fashion week coming up. I love Fashion Week at my place! It really does get quite bustling, and upstairs, it turns into a hangout for the motley crew of celebrities in town for the shows.
Last year I met (enter confidentiality agreement) D.A. and he told me he loved my outfit and wanted to design a look based on it for his upcoming fashion line. Hopefully I'll run into him again this year and parlay an invitation for myself to his show...
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