Organic wine & food matching: Gemtree Shiraz & Korean style barbecued shortribs

left, Gemtree's Melissa Buttery and Mike Brown

While organic or biodynamic wines coming out of Australia have been far and between, the movement does exist Down Under; and certification agencies such as Australian Certified Organic (ACO), Demeter in Australia’s Bio-Dynamic Research Institute (BDRI), and National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA) have recently stepped up activities, with a number of leading producers (such as Henschke, Burge Family, Elderton, Noon, Wirra Wirra and M. Chapoutier Australia) making the transition to chemical-free, sustainable grape growing as we speak.

In the meantime, a perfectly delicious, biodynamically grown Australian red – the 2007 Gemtree Tadpole Shiraz (about $16) – has been popping up in markets across the U.S., and it has all the deep, black, bouncy, lush fruitiness Shiraz lovers look for in their reds; including an intense nose, suggesting raspberry liqueur, boysenberry jam and a veneer of vanillin oak, plus a soft medium-full body underlined by easy tannins, allowing the Shiraz fruit to gush forth and pleasure the palate.

The intensity of the Gemtree Shiraz is part and parcel of its McLaren Vale terroir; and indeed, for many years the stellar grapes from this 330 acre estate went into cuvées bottled by top brands like Rosemount. The transition from grower to producer started in 1994, when Melissa Buttery, daughter of founders Paul and Jill Buttery, joined the family business as a viticulturist, followed a few years later by Melissa’s boyfriend-turned-husband, Mike Brown, who happened to be an accomplished winemaker.

Always the keen environmentalist, it was Melissa who turned Gemtree towards organic and biodynamic viticulture. Not stopping there, in 1998 she initiated Gemtree Wetlands: taking twenty-five acres in the middle of the property and establishing it as a wetlands preserve in joint venture partnership with the nonprofit group, Greening Australia (South Australia). This arduous, long term project has involved the planting of some 20,000 native trees and shrubs, and the building of six interlinking dams to help regenerate the region and establish a haven for native frogs, birds and animals, while contributing to the self-sustaining aspects of the vineyard.

Korean Style Barbecued Shortribs (Kalbi)

The biggest plus about a good, sturdy, juicy Shiraz is that its dense fruitiness always lends itself to Asian style barbecued meats like no other wine can. A perfect match every time, for instance, is the Korean style of barbecued beef shortribs known as kalbi. In Hawai’i, where I grew up, no self-respecting hibachi homeboy or local take-out joint can make it without mastering the art of Korean barbecue. The good news is that it’s not that difficult, it can be done anywhere, and the fact that this toothsome cut of beef, in moderately sweetened, garlic and sesame seasoned, soy sauce based marinades, tastes absolutely delicious with a lusciously spiced Shiraz.

Everyone in the Islands has his/her own variation (or “secrets”) of kalbi, but here is a good, basic recipe to start with:

3 lbs. English cut (thick) beef shortribs, scored

Marinade:
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup sesame oil
¼ cup sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
3 stalks green onions, minced
2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Combine marinade ingredients and pour over shortribs in zip-lock plastic bag (or in shallow Pyrex sealed with plastic wrap); marinate overnight in refrigerator. Broil (or grill) 8-10 minutes on each side until desired doneness.

Organic wine match of the day: Maysara Jamsheed Pinot Noir & Szechuan baby back ribs

When Oregon’s “Papa Pinot,” the recently departed David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards, planted his first vineyard in 1965, he settled in the Dundee Hills just south, towards west, of Portland, where deep, red clay soils on bedrocks of basalt have yielded the type of gentle yet generous, red berryish, fruit driven red wines that have come epitomize Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.

During the past twenty-five years, a number of other little pockets of Willamette Valley have been successfully planted by winemakers, five of which have been identified as sufficiently unique to merit their own official AVA (American Viticultural Region) designation. Among those “other” regions: the McMinnville AVA, located a good twenty miles southwest of the Dundee Hills AVA; closer to the Pacific’s maritime influence, and tucked into coastal mountain hillsides where slightly dryer weather and brighter days are offset by cooler nights and significantly shallower soils than that of Dundee.

From this emerging AVA, McMinnville’s 2006 Maysara Jamsheed Pinot Noir (about $27) stands out as a slightly “different” style of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir: more aggressive, slightly steelier in acid, and more structured in terms of tannin and glycerol than the pretty, fruit driven Dundee Hills wines of old. Yet this is still a cold climate Oregonian, and so the Maysara shares the plump, juicy, wild berry traits of the finest Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs. The meager soils, however, also yield a more pronounced anise and clove-like spiciness in the nose; in the '06, becoming more pepperminty and green leafy/herbal on the palate, intertwined with muscular tannins and almost sweet, marionberry jam-like flavors.

While the Maysara’s intensity is a direct reflection of McMinnville’s terroir, another major factor is the low-impact winemaking and biodynamic viticulture practiced with great devotion by Maysara proprietor, Moe Momtazi (Moe's daughter, winemaker Tahmiene Momtazi, pictured right). It was, in fact, the attraction of staking out a somewhat remote, 532 acre, abandoned wheat farm, free from chemicals for at least seven years, that first attracted Momtazi to the Maysara site in 1997. Explaining why he opted for the holistic approach of biodynamics on the Maysara Web site, Momtazi says that “while organics share the biological agriculture background and methods, it stops short of the dynamic processes, or life force of the farm… biodynamics recognizes and responds to the life force of the living farm, considering the farm a living organism.” Hence, the increased sense of place you can’t help but taste in a Maysara.

Maybe it goes back to when I was a kid and loved to crash my O-gauge Lionel train through redwood Lincoln Log walls, but what I like to do with Pinot Noirs like the Maysara, with its collision of wild, zesty flavors, is match it with Asian or fusion styles of dishes with their own collisions of sensations; like the following reworking of Chef Roy Yamaguchi’s Szechuan style baby back ribs. Don’t sweat the hoisin and chili paste – the hot, vinegary, sweet spices actually accentuate the fruit and star anise-like spiciness of the Maysara, and there is plenty enough tannin in the wine to absorb the fattiness of the ribs and the char from the grill. Have fun…

4½ lbs. baby back ribs (3 slabs)
2 cups hoisin sauce
2 tbsp. minced garlic
3 tbsp. minced ginger
2 tbsp. Sriracha (Thai chili sauce; available in all Asian grocers)
½ cup honey

Cut rib slabs in half and place in a large pot of boiling water. Slow boil 90 minutes, or until tender (meat will shrink down from top of bone to at least half inch). Remove from water and let stand 10 minutes.

To make marinade, combine remaining ingredients and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 450 degress. Brush ribs on both sides with marinade. Place on a rack on top of a cookie sheet in the oven. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until shiny. Remove and cool. Cut into pieces and brush with more marinade. Grill on a hibachi or charcoal grill until hot. Serves six, and is particularly great with fresh, steaming white rice!

Organic wine match of the day: Pircas Negras Torrontes

So let me get this straight, you put de lime in de coconut, you drank ‘em bot’ up…

At least that’s what goes on in my mind when I pop a bottle of Argentina’s 2008 Pircas Negras Torrontés (about $10); a luscious white wine made from a grape originally indigenous to Galicia in Spain, but which has evolved as Argentina’s signature, and most popular, white.

¿Por qué no para ti? The nice thing about the Pircas Negras is that it starts off amazingly tropical – suggestions of exotic flowers, ripe papaya and, for all the world, avocado and cream – in the nose, and off-dry (just whispers of sweetness) on the palate. Once past the first sip, slightly lemony, zesty qualities balance out the fruitiness, and the wine finishes pretty much dry, the crisp acidity lightening the easy, tropical sensations. If this weren’t a wine, I’d be tempted to top it with a wedge of pineapple, plastic monkey or umbrella.

Besides being certified organically grown, this wine is also vegan (unlike most wines, not filtered or fined with the use of egg whites, casein, gelatin or isinglass), and is selling quite well in specialty stores in the Colorado Front Range (for online shoppers, re Organic Vintners).

Although this is also a wine that you don’t have to think too deeply about – drink it with anything, or nothing at all – it does make a nice match for a Tahitian style of lime marinated tuna called Poisson Cru (in Tahitian, E’ia Ota). If you’re not totally familiar with South Pacific style raw fish, go a little easy on the lime and coconut milk your first time around. Needless to say, the higher the quality of tuna, the lusher the poisson cru. Otherwise, think of this match – particularly the sun kissed fruitiness, balancing acidity and silken textures in both the wine and the dish – as being as effortless as a dip in a clear, heated, indoor pool (not a bad idea, here in the dead of winter).

Doctor!

Organic Wine Match of the Day: Thévenet Morgon

Ah, 2009… I’m already feelin’ it. Maybe it’s because of the wine and meal I had yesterday, when I was still feeling the previous day’s bloated repasts, nevertheless in need of sustenance, physically and spiritually: a Beaujolais with eggs in balsamic vinegar and butter.

Then again, the 2006 Jean-Paul Thévenet Vieilles Vignes Morgon is a wine that would make any jaded wine dude feel that way. This is real wine, and I’m not just blowing smoke. First, it’s red, which is a good start. Second, it tastes the way it’s supposed to; meaning:

1. Morgon is a Beaujolais grand cru, a village producing richer, broader, denser styles of reds than “regular” Beaujolais (which are usually light, limp, almost watery).

2. Yet it’s still a Beaujolais, made from the Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc grape, which will give a softer, rounder tannin feel than, say, most Pinot Noir based reds, even in the higher ranked Beaujolais crus.

3. It’s a vieilles vignes – from “old vines” (averaging 70 years, as it were) – giving this particular Morgon a deep, succulent, lip smacking raspberry and cassis-like aroma and flavor backed by earthy, organic notes of rustique, almost belying the wine’s flowing, fluid, youthful qualities.

4. The overall sensation is of a wine that doesn’t hold back… everything, from the natural taste of the grape to the sticking sensations of terroir, plopped right on the table for you to savor (preferably from big, balloon shaped Burgundy glasses).

As a winemaker, Jean-Paul Thévenet is among Beaujolais’ now-legendary “Gang of Five” – a group of defiant vignerons who believe wine should always be produced in the “old” ways, long before Beaujolais became a jillion dollar industry. Essentially: fermented on natural yeasts (none of the “super” yeasts that mainstream Beaujolais vintners utilize to exaggerate the Gamay grape’s blue-purple color and grapey, strawberry fruitiness); and then bottled unfiltered, unfined (so this wine is technically vegan – all grape!), and completely without the use of sulfites (so it tastes pretty much the way it would taste right out of the barrel).

As a grower, Thévenet practices la lutte raisonnée ("the reasoned struggle"): basically, sustainable grape growing, shunning the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides in as much homage to the past as for preserving the health of vineyards for future generations.Like good Pinot Noir, the soft tannins of grand cru Beaujolais make them ideal reds for fish (especially salmon and tuna). Me, I prefer the gastronomic ideas learned long ago from the legendary Berkeley importer, Kermit Lynch. I still keep one of his newsletters from back in 1990 (now bound together in a book, Inspiring Thirst), prescribing, in Lynch’s words:

These eggs take no more than a few minutes to prepare, and you need not be a genius to succeed. THIS IS NOT BREAKFAST! First, you pour yourself a glass of Beaujolais… then you fry fresh eggs slowly in butter, covered, until the whites are firm and the yolks remain runny. Salt and pepper, then slide them onto a warm plate.

Deglaze the pan with two tablespoons red wine vinegar. Reduce by half, thicken with a slice of butter, and pour over the eggs. You will want bread or toast for sopping up the sauce… you will also want another glass of Beaujolais!

Although Lynch says this is fast, you can’t rush it: slow frying sunny-side-up (no one will see if you scramble it) over low heat with the lid is key; both the butter and cracked peppercorn keep the balsamic eggs in balance with the wine’s mild tannin and full-ish body; and being from Hawai’i, my eggs go right over a generous mound of steaming white rice, which tastes luscious when it absorbs the winey sauce.