Eat your vegetables and drink your wine

You know the routine: the guilt trip you grew up with when it came to eating your vegetables. “There are starving children all over the world who would be thankful to trade places with you, young lady.” And then later being sent to your room when you suggested that the parental units pack up those vegetables and send them to someone who cared.

In my youth, there seemed to be limited ways to prepare and present vegetables — often boiled to a mush in quarts of water and a large cup of “bland” was the only seasoning used. Or cans of condensed soup were added to disguise those rascally little vegetables in a casserole.

Remember the aluminum cans containing vegetables in our basements in preparation of surviving the 1960′s threat of nuclear annihilation? When it came to pairing wine with these ill-prepared vegetables, it wasn’t about the types of wine, but more about the quantity to wash it all down with.

Thank goodness vegetable malpractice is behind us and we have evolved with techniques to bring out the flavors in vegetables and especially making them compatible with wine.

This season, when planting our victory gardens and supporting our local Farmers Market, pay attention to fresh vegetables and think about their wine pairings. Wine pairs best when the vegetables are cooked rather than raw. However, with raw vegetables, the additions of salt, lemon juice, oil and dairy-based dips and dressings makes pairing with wine much easier.

Roasting and grilling makes vegetables more compatible with wine, especially wines that have been aged in oak. The smoky and caramelized flavors of grilled vegetables pair well with full-bodied reds. But when pairing red wines with vegetables choose wines that have some bottle age on them, as often younger wines with more tannins can overwhelm and compete with the dish.

There used to be a time when wine lovers were at wits end about what wine to pair with green vegetables such as artichokes, asparagus, green beans and broccoli. Sauvignon blanc is an excellent pairing as it has the acidity to refresh your palate and compliment the flavors, especially if these green vegetables are accented with butter. A lightly oaked chardonnay will be a match made in “dairy heaven” with a rich creamy baked vegetable gratin. And don’t forget to add a touch of chardonnay when adding the liquid to the gratin’s creamy sauce base.

Are you thinking about stir-frying with a spicy Asian flair? “Wok and roll” with an off-dry riesling. And don’t forget Walla Walla Sweet Onions! A classic-style rose is the perfect candidate for a grilled, caramelized sweet onion.

Toward the end of summer, I “collect” tomatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic and herbs to make sofrito. This well-chopped and condensed sauce can be used several ways from spreading it on slices of toasted baguettes to topping a plate of pasta. Low-acid red wines, such as a pinot noir, pair with tomatoes. Also, look for aged merlots or an Italian- inspired dolcetto to pair with tomato-based dishes and the summer’s spicy barbecue sauce.

Maybe Mom knew what she was talking about. Eat your vegetables, they’re good for you! But don’t forget the wine.

Who’s your daddy Cab Sauv?

Who’s your daddy? Who, indeed

Like Syrah, we regard the Cabernet Sauvignon wine grape as also being ancient, noble and aristocratic. Its world-wide ubiquity is a testament to its success as the grape variety, attracting devotees who kneel and genuflect before its holy altar. With nearly endless potential for aging, with its high degree of adaptability, and with its attractive black currant complexion, Cabernet Sauvignon, grape and wine, is celebrated the world over, winning favor in every wine circle. Our affection for the variety often compels us to refer to it with great familiarity, even giving it an abbreviated name, all despite the fact that before the year 1690, no single grape of this variety ever existed.

What?

Our beloved, ancient and noble Cab Sauv has not always been a mainstay of Bordeaux, that bastion of French aristocracy and home of the many well-storied chateaux? Put quite simply, no.

Cabernet Sauvignon, as the French once surmised then soon forgot, is in fact the prodigy of two genuinely ancient grape varieties, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. The airborne pollen of the former did fertilize a bloom of the latter, in a natural cross-pollination. Alas, until the early twentieth century, Cabernet-Sauvignon (complete with hyphen) was the preferred spelling to convey the suspicion of its status as a botanical hybrid, an inter-species cross, a viticultural love-child.

Truly amazing is the fact that one seed in one Sauvignon Blanc grape was the Genesis of the first Cabernet Sauvignon plant from which all others have sprung. All of which was due to the neighboring Cabernet Franc vineyard, a favorable wind and an opportune moment to cross the property line. The chances of the hybridized seed making it to a fruiting plant without being tilled out of the vineyard row are astounding, let alone the chances of anyone analyzing the fruit for its enological aptitudes to reveal its superior qualities. The tell-tale evidence was that the errant vine yielded red grapes in a vineyard that otherwise bore white grapes. By 1720, it was a leading grape variety in all of Bordeaux and its surrounding wine estates, and was certainly well-established there by the end of the 18th century!

With the advent of DNA “fingerprinting” technology, a veritable grapevine paternity test was ordered in 1997, with Drs Meredith and Bowers of UC-Davis conducting the investigation. They proved conclusively what was always suspected but had never before been proven: Cabernet Franc, together with Sauvignon Blanc, was a parent of Cabernet Sauvignon.

So, Cab Sauv, who is your Daddy?

The male Cab Franc pollen crossed the fence to pollinate the Sauv Blanc flower, so he is the father. Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon, father and son, are reunited in the 2004 Cave B Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve to commemorate and celebrate the creation of a world-renowned prodigy.