Clar de Castanyer 2007

Yesterday I made little neck clam pizza from a recipe from the NYTimes about Franny's in Brooklyn. I just had the pizza a couple of weeks ago at Franny's and it was so good I had to stop myself from going back there every night since then. In fact I am still holding back and now have another reason: I can't make it nearly as well as they do. I will try again, but honestly it was like a different pie.

But we drank a wine that wasn't on the list there and probably won't be because it's Spanish. What a weird funky easy to love wine.

It was this wonderful white wine that I bought at Chambers St Wines (my favorite wine store. I am so lucky to live near by) under the recommendation of one of the guys there. Wonderful Clar de Castanyer, 2007. I don't know why I thought it would be good with the clams though, well, it is white wine afterall. I think I was lucky.

The color was a golden bright yellow. (The photo I took has the wine already taken out of the bottle. Sorry. But there are other pictures of it on Flicker that do the wine justice.)

I held it up to my nose: what the hell was that aroma so distinct and persistant without tiring you? It had a richness like something made with nutty butter but there wasn't any butter. It smelt like a spiced pear tart. Definitely this champagne-like aroma of fermentation and patisserie. And it had enough weight to it to match the briny seafull clams, cream and that little spark of hot pepper flakes. I guess that sounds like a weird combination pear tart and clams. But there it is.

Richard Olney

I love the writing of Richard Olney, especially when he writes of wine. This is one of my favorite passages. It is from "Ten Vineyard Lunches". Inside he presents menus from all the great wine regions of France. (Except Champagne—he does make a kind of excuse for this). This book is very interesting especially for pairing wines with food. And you can find it for very little used online.) This passage is from the Loire Valley lunch.

The Touraine red wines — Bourgueil and Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil on the right bank, Chinon across the river and, adjoining Chinon across the border in Anjou, Saumur-Champigny — are the friendliest of wines: jubilant, frank and open, mingling herbal, grassy scents and flavors with an intense wild berry fruit that some define as raspberry, others as blackcurrant or bramble, and that may simply be the fruit of Cabernet franc.

When drinking one of these wines, cool, on a hot day in the mottled shade of the grape arbor, I have only to close my eyes to recapture a child's summertime sensation of lying face-down in the grass and cutting out the whole world except for vegetal and earthy scents and the lonely plaint of mourning doves in the silent air.

A Walk in the Woods

We had meant to go river rafting but the weather was too rainy so instead of being cooped up all day we decided to go for a little hike in the Pisgah National Forest nearby.

It was raining off and on the whole way to the pulloff on the road to the spot but just when we arrived the rain eased off a bit and we clambered up the wooded hillside towards the waterfall.

There were two waterfalls. We had to cross the first one to get to the second larger. It was really beautiful all green forest. The leaves had not yet been out long and were still soft. You could put your face on it and feel the newness of them, hoping some would slide onto yours.

At the larger waterfall my father had to get under the cold water pounding down breaking and smoothing the rocks underneath. Quite a sight seeing my dad 72 years old completely naked wading out into the shower. He found a stick to steady him on the slippery rocks. He looked like some old saint with childlike wonder in his expression.

On the way back, maybe an hour and a half later tiny white mushrooms (I think there were Pinwheel Marasmius) had appeared out of dead leaves unnoticed before.  My little niece put forward her tiny white fingers to touch each one. She had to touch them. As she touched it the mushroom seemed as surprised and delighted as she did. Her tiny white pink finger and the tiny white head and stalk of the mushroom bouncing backwards in recognition and a kind of fright. 

Then she would see another.

"I've got to touch that one," she said.

Here's a video I made a long time ago but seems right here.

L'Arpent Rouge 2007 Clos Roche Blanche

I pull out a mushroom risotto I made last night and open a bottle of  Clos Roche Blanche L'Arpent Rouge 2007. Maybe not such a great match but this is what I have and they are both good.

The color of the wine is light light like a pinkish blueish red rose when the sun isn't quite all the way up, when it is still too dark and most of the colors aren't quite colors but tinted greys. Translucent dusky rose raspberries and refreshing. An almost and alternating transparent cotton patterned dress. The fruits and herbs dangle, caught in shifting patterns.

The nose is a rose filled with raspberries as you are picking them, some a little past, a little dried and concentrated by the sun. And it sounds strange but a whiff of dried orange rind. And it's on the palate too! 

But there is more more in there. I 'd love to drink it with some lovely chalky white chevre, no not completely fresh, something maybe with the fatty edging its way into the chalkiness, no bread. Just the cheese.

I started loving wine just 3 years ago. Before that, wine was as I assume it is for many, walking into a store as if blindfolded and then letting a label's design have its way with you. 

I am very much a beginner. I want to be a beginner though with experience and curiosity. I am afraid that will come out only too clearly in the entries that hopefully I will be persistent enough to do.

So, after a long day and I go to the fridge and pull out 2005 Puffeney Chardonnay. Minerally and absolutey dlelicious (I like this typo). All I have as an h'ors dœvre is a red pepper and anchovy kind of relish I made. It is delicious too but not so great with the chardonnay. But what can you do? I am only one person here and cannot really justify opening another bottle. So it isn't perfect but how delicious both are separately. They are kind of like two really good looking people at a party who have yet to be introduced to each, possibly never, and are suspicious and cold but you sort of want to meet them both.

Just getting started

I am rushing off to the studio.

Blog in transition.