Orange wine west - starter notes

Not me, I'm not a believer in mass tasting in general.

I saw this as a group of 9 orange wines with a few other interesting bottles included. The rarity of these makes conducting a focused "peer" group a challenge to assemble but certainly do-able. A single flight of
6 or 7 seems ideal for these.

Previously, in my ignorance, I had viewed these with some suspicion, having been influenced by opinions forcefully delivered by naysayers disparaging these oxidative wines as being too strange, exotic and weird, which as I write this seems like it should have attracted me. I'm happy to have opened up to the idea and
learned that I LIKE strange, exotic, and weird.
 
Steve was out of town, alas.

I believe he described his plans as 'frying his ass off in Oregon', although I'm not sure he was speaking of the weather. (insert drumroll/cymbal crash)
 
We did have a winemaker present (in addition to FJim) who described our bottle of Ageno as a full-scale brettanomyces factory. I didn't hear his comments on the Cornelissen wine but I can't imagine they were pretty.

Oliver McCrum (local Italian wine importer) joined us as well. He kept fairly quiet in his assessments, but knowing how sensitive he is to brett & its friends, I suspect a number of the wines were not to his liking.
 
Slaton, your comment about how dramatic many of the wines change over the course of (at least) an evening making larger scale comparisons trickier stands out to me too....and reminds me again how orange wines may just be a different species altogether than red or white (at least as far as generalizations can be usefully made).

Some comments from the Orange fest East pointed to difficulties with the food pairings at least occasionally (but then again, it's not surprising..and there were 36 wines to deal with after all)......any more comment about pluses and/or minuses with food pairing vis-a-vis the West coast version? (I have not tried uni with an orange wine yet, but certainly will.)

PS - Thanks for the inclusion of winemaking stats....very interesting to read and then compare the notes.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
having been influenced by opinions forcefully delivered by naysayers disparaging these oxidative wines as being too strange, exotic and weird...
Click to expand...

Naysayers!

Where?
Click to expand...

Can you believe it? Typical wine blowhards...

Actually it was years ago in a few Bay Area wine shops when orange wines first started appearing.
 
Joel
I was thinking these wines might pair well with certain pork dishes, for instance guacinale in pasta.
I didn't have it but it seemed those that had the seared ahi thought it was not a good pairing.
 
The issue with the ahi was the spiciness of the tapenade and how liberally it was applied.

The ahi itself was fabulous, though. At first I was surprised how thickly-sliced it was, but after tasting it made sense. Just perfectly rare, with an incredibly melting, luscious texture.
 
originally posted by slaton:
The issue with the ahi was the spiciness of the tapenade and how liberally it was applied.

The ahi itself was fabulous, though. At first I was surprised how thickly-sliced it was, but after tasting it made sense. Just perfectly rare, with an incredibly melting, luscious texture.
Click to expand...

Not slaggin' the ahi, just passing on hearsay, vis--vis pairing.
 
originally posted by Ned Hoey:
Joel
I was thinking these wines might pair well with certain pork dishes, for instance guacinale in pasta.
I didn't have it but it seemed those that had the seared ahi thought it was not a good pairing.
Click to expand...

I agree. Fish pairings not so much. Braised rabbit would be another choice, but any sort of pork would do well, I think.
 
I agree. Fish pairings not so much. Braised rabbit would be another choice, but any sort of pork would do well, I think.

[/quote]
We should create the "Pork disorder" discussion board so you can express yourself a little more often...
 
Speaking of pork disorder, Bucatini all'Amatricana last night with homemade Guanciale was delicious. 1996 Vietti Castiglione was still a little hard, but softened a little with the food. Maybe not enough, but a little.
 
originally posted by mlawton:
Speaking of pork disorder, Bucatini all'Amatricana last night with homemade Guanciale was delicious. 1996 Vietti Castiglione was still a little hard, but softened a little with the food. Maybe not enough, but a little.
Click to expand...

Any guacianale tips? This is on my list of things to do when I buy a pig this winter. Mmmm, cheek.

cheers,

Kevin

Or do we need to take this discussion to the soon to be formed "pig" board?
 
originally posted by Kevin Roberts:
Any guacianale tips? This is on my list of things to do when I buy a pig this winter. Mmmm, cheek.
cheers,
Kevin
Click to expand...

My experience is limited, I bought some from a local pork producer last winter and made a few pasta dishes. The best was a guacianale, fresh tomato marjoram sauce. I also diced up the the last bit and pan fried it with green beans, that was a good side dish. I barely scratched the surface of possibilities.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
Salumeria Biellese has good guanciale.
Click to expand...

I had some of their stuff at Frasca in Boulder. What I had was top notch stuff, but I didn't have their guacianale.

Is this available retail around the country or just in restaurants?
 
originally posted by Kevin Roberts:

Any guacianale tips? This is on my list of things to do when I buy a pig this winter. Mmmm, cheek.
Click to expand...

I actually found it pretty simple. The hardest part was removing the skin and the saliva glands elegantly, while preserving the meat in some shape that looked like it was going to be useful - in other words an exercise in butchery 101. Once that was done, just a rub (brown sugar, cane sugar, salt *no pink salt*, thyme, black pepper, I think I put some juniper berries in there too), a bunch of times overhauling it nightly over 2 weeks in the fridge - then I hung it up for a couple of months (in the cellar). I hung mine a little too long, it seemed to be losing moisture until I took it down, but I might have preferred it a little less dried when it was done. Maybe hang it for a month? Other than that, I can report no issues, and no major lessons learned.

Even simpler still was the duck proscuitto - I might try that one first if you haven't cured meat before. It is very easy, takes a very short time and is just plain delicious when it's done.

Hope that helps, and that you enjoy it - it's really porky and delicious.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top