A Drink Perhaps?

Most things in life, even the supposed minutiae and extras like writing a blog, require discipline.  I could say that my various other life strands intervened, but this would negate the fact that I should have just made and set aside time to post and create material.

So at 11:09 in the morning I'll get the ball rolling once more with a wine review from the back catalogue.  Who knows, maybe it will roll through to something else.  The review is published as is; by way of context it was a response to a review of the wine by Cambell Mattinson on The WineFront.


2004 Longview Nebbiolo (tasted May 2009) Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

Well I read this review with interest as I acquired a case of this a while back. I tried a bottle or two but never got round to writing a comment, and thought I’d like to as Nebbiolo intrigues me. I mean when I poured a bit out you look at the wine and have a first whiff, c’mon you say, is that it!

Desperately light is generous when describing the colour and the nose wasn’t giving anything away. Sat it for a bit and things unfold. Is one of the problems with this grape the impact the colour has before tasting? Your thinking thin if your not careful before you start.  Anyway after breathing the wine thickens out; the nose is tarry, resinous and quite intense along with some more delicate herbs, “rose petals” lol. The palate is concentrated, but the fruit restrained, with darker flavours, cherry? as well as the raspberry, hint of grass and a bit of boiled lolly on the end. (I feel like an idiot when I write a tasting note) Tannins are dry, grippy and long, but I quite enjoy that and it pulls it all together balancing out the slight alcohol hit, but as you say I don’t think its a problem. I think I’ll pour another.

89

......

I was interested to read something like this from a while back as it's intriguing how ones writing evolves and stays the same.  I still have some of this wine so it should be educational to try it now or in the near future and see how the wine is travelling.  Nebbiolo is a variety I really like, it's pretty interesting and here in Aus and we are now making a few that are decent drops.  If you like it, worthwhile examples locally are coming from Pizzini and S.C Pannell amongst others.  Of course there are many others and I really urge everyone to give it ago, it's certainly something different.  A quirk perhaps, but the wine I drank that introduced me to Nebbiolo was a 2001 bottle from the Granite Belt in Queensland.  It was a most lovely wine and one of the best examples I can recall, even allowing for those heady days of first love!

The wine (generally) also benefits greatly from bottle age, possibly not on the scale of the benchmark Barolos, but it can be a little austere as a youngster.  I'm expecting this wine to be at a bit of a peak now.

I'm also left to ponder the relative value of stuff by this wine because I picked up a case of 04 and a case of 05 for less than $200.  From that perspective it's some of the best wine and value for money buys I've ever encountered.  In the negative I don't think the producer benefited greatly from my auction win.  Enough of that though, here's to good wine, winemaking and drinking! 

*Not the original label art for the vintage, but this 2007 example is exquisite.  Thankyou to Longview Vineyard for the image.

Ossobuco alla Sydney

Well this is definitely one of my favourite dishes for winter. It's rich, tasty and satisfying, with the best part being the ease of preparation. For this edition of the dish I had a collaborator, with my brother joining the fray. Full credit must go to him for the delicious mash we served with the meat and broth!

We improvised the recipe really, don't all the best rustic Italian farmhouse cooks? Anyhow the result is fairly faithful to the dish most of us know, with a few tweaks here and there. Interestingly there are really two main types of sauce you can go with: The modern version we know with a tomato base, onions, celery, carrots etc, and the much older Ossobuco bianco, which is primarily flavoured with bay leaf, cinnamon and gremolata. I always find it fascinating the extent to which we associate the tomato with Italian cooking, when in fact it is a rather recent addition, tomatoes arriving in Europe from South America in the late 1500's with the returning Spanish. Even from this point not being adopted into Italian cuisine on a large scale until the 17^th century.

In a nod to the older version of the dish, I started with a mix of spices including cumin, bay and cinnamon, I love the tomato richness as well so here's our take...

Ossobuco pieces, dusted in flour (as many as you need, 1 per serve)

2 onions

2-3 cloves of garlic

chilli flakes (few dashes to taste)

cracked black pepper ½ tsp

white pepper ½ tsp

mixed herbs 1-2 tsp

cumin ½ tsp

cinnamon ½ tsp

salt 1 tsp (to taste really)

sugar (again to get balance, to taste)

Rosemary 2 sprigs

Sundried tomatoes 150-200g

2-3 dried leaves, (use less if you have fresh, and of course these are always better!)

handful of chopped parsley

I also added about 75g of rendered sauce from a pork belly roast I made, and froze. It was a little like a stock base I guess, and you could use something similar or add some more stock to the mix of a type to your liking. The whole point is the depth of flavour in the finished dish.

red wine 250ml

water and/or stock (judge to cover the meat)

Tin of whole tomatoes 375g

2-3 carrots, roughly halved or chopped

Butter

Olive Oil

In a large, heavy pot, brown the meat in a little oil and butter, the more colour and caramelisation, all the better for the flavour later! When you are happy with this stage, throw in the chopped onions and garlic along with the herbs and spice (at this point I added my “Pork belly booster” and the sundried tomatoes).  Mix it all together and let the onion and garlic cook a little before adding the wine to deglaze the pan. At this point you can add the canned tomatoes, mix them through and then add the other liquid ingredients so everything is immersed. We simmered on a very low heat for about 5-6 hrs, obviously you can go shorter if time is tight, just simmer a bit faster. With the extra time you can go for a very low, barely bubbling simmer, everything cooks very slowly and is extremely tender. The carrots were added with about 2 hours to go and the lid removed for the last hour, to cook off a little liquid. Don't really reduce as your after a broth rather than a thickened sauce.

For the potatoes, quarter and boil in salted water until tender. We mashed with butter, salt, black and white pepper and a good handful of finely chopped parsley. If your adventurous a squeeze of lemon really lifts the mash, whipped through just before serving.

A flexible dish, my brother enjoyed this with a Guinness.  I on the other hand thought it sublime with a 2004 Adelaide Hills Nebbiolo, each to their own I guess but it worked nicely both ways. (I'd say try with the Piedmont expat though ;) ! )  There may have to be a review of this wine now...  

What else to say but a tasty, satisfying and glorious dish for the cool weather when something hearty is craved. I think it's so good you can do it anytime...