The livin's good in Bellingham - Beaujolaisorama

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BJ

BJ
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The Bellingham/Seattle gang gathered at Marc D's for a night of Beaujolais. Amid the lamb, cous cous, cheeses, and salad from Brian C's farm, we managed to put away a few glasses of Gamay, and one or two odd glasses of Pinot.

OK, boring, but I'm going to just focus on tasting notes. Yawn!

07 Foillard Py, nice, straight ahead, core Gamay sap.

09 Brun CdB. Interesting how many people independently commented on its goodness. Really a delightful wine, with a lot of depth. Elegant, and really should be at the top of folks 09 lists.

72 Chandon de Briailles PV Ile de V. Even with the cork dropping straight into the bottle at the attempted opening, this wine had great thrust and really nice energy in the acids. Aromatically complex and just a pleasure.

09 Dupueble. Game and fun. Perhaps the weakest player of the night, but still very good wine.

06-08 Chermette trad + 09 Chermette Primeur VV. I unfortunately left the 04 at home and couldn't find the 05. In the company, this wine showed itself with great class and purity - what a classy wine. Great color on the 09; the depth of fruit on this wine is great. The trad is ur gamay, if there is such a thing.

00 Lafarge Clos des Chateau des Ducs. Hints of meat and smoke balanced out beautiful pinot complexity.

00 Lapierre. Meaty, a bit monolithic.

00 Foillard Premiere. I guessed this as a brett free Thevenet VV, this was elegant and clean meaty Py aged to perfection. A very fine wine.

98 Jadot Chambolle something 1er. I loved it, gorgeous.

LB Terre de Vertus 02. Biscuity bready pure madness.

05 G Descombes Brouilly. This was too bretty for me, but beloved by all others.

01 Allemand sans soufre. Tasted blind. This is from the Reynard vineyard. I was insistent this was an 04 Burgundy, so what do I know.

Very, very fun night and day after. Marc and L and I looked for chantrelles this afternoon for a while; you can see how we did.

Great to meet Brian C, who is a super cool guy, and hang out with the northern tribe.
 
The 98 Jadot was Les Feusselottes, I think. Nice nose, burly tannin compared to the rest of the wines.

The 72 Chandon des Brailles was a really beautiful bottle of aged Burgundy, intense old bottle funk nose, but quite pure in the mouth, somehow alive but languid at the same time.

The other standout for me was the 2000 Foillard. All the Morgon spice you could want, beautiful structure.

The 2000 Lafarge Clos de Ducs was very stylish, maybe still too young?

I liked the 2005 Descombes Brouilly. It is a serious style of Beaujolais that is built to age. The brett was not distracting for me.

The mini vertical of Vissoux Cuvee Traditionnelle was great. The 06 was smoky and a little blocky, the 07 was very good and easy to drink, and the 08 one of the better 08 Beaujolais I've tried.

2001 Allemand was weird. A very good wine, but it had very little that identified it as Cornas, or even N Rhone.

The 09s for me seemed a little young and grapey. The Brun Brouilly was the nicest of the bunch.

I'm very glad we finally learned a good way to cook the Chanterelles.

Like Florida Jim said, its not about the wines, its the whole thing.
Thanks everyone for coming up.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Marc D:

I'm very glad we finally learned a good way to cook the Chanterelles.
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And that was...?
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Well, leave it to the French.

One of our dining companions had recently gone to a cooking school in Beaujolais. She said they would blanch the mushrooms very briefly, for 20 seconds in boiling water. After blanching, dry them for a few minutes on a towel.

Next pan fry on medium heat in butter with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Don't stir, let them caramelize on the bottom of the pan and then flip them once to get the other side browned. Serve hot.

In the past I've always put the mushrooms in the pan and dry fried them to remove the water. They would generate a ton of liquid, and I would have to pour out the juice from the pan several times. Even when doing this carefully, the mushrooms ended up steaming in the pan and came out mushy.

The blanching step seems to remove the water from the mushrooms. I can't quite figure out why this happens, but after blanching they don't generate all the pan liquid. They caramelize beautifully and you can even get a crisp outside like pan cooking a scallop, if you resist stirring them.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
Sounds like some fun wines. So did this become a vegan feast?
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No, I wimped out and made some meat and fish dishes also. We had plenty of veggie options.

Starters had grilled eggplant, hummus, olives, and a tasty pesto spread that Lee made.

There were vegetable couscous and a snow cap bean course.

A fabulous salad that Brian grew, with radicchio, castelfranco and escarole leaves.

For desert pears poached in Beaujolais with cardamon cream on the side, and a cake. Happy Birthday to BJ!

For the carnivores there was grilled Merguez sausage, salmon rillettes, rack of lamb, and a cheese plate.

Thanks for your suggestions.
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Marc D:

I'm very glad we finally learned a good way to cook the Chanterelles.
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And that was...?
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Blanch them in boiling water for about 20 seconds and then pat them dry on towels for a bit before sauteing. I tried it again last night and it worked like a charm. Retains the texture of the mushrooms brilliantly and doesn't deposit a whole bunch of water in the pan as they cook to mushify them. Boiling them somehow dries them out a bit? Go figure.

The LB was the 02 VV de Cramant not the Vertus and was wicked indeed.

I thought the 72 Brialles was dazzling for a 30 yo burg from a not very noteworthy vintage. Complete, delicate. and nuanced and in great shape.

The Brun 09 CdB was my first taste of the 09 cru's and was just so much fun. Swoon-worthy perfume on the nose.

The Chermette lineup confirmed my impressions about the past four vintages in that I am a huge fan of the 07's and am looking forward to digging into the 09's. All four showed plenty of class though.

Descombes seems like a departure from the style of many of the other producers there. Very savory and meaty. I love his wines.

The Allemand was great but strange and unrecognizable when served blind. Does he do semi carbonic? If so this would be a great example to support the argument of the method obscuring terroir.

Thanks again Marc and family, and a great night all around.
Brian
 
Whoops, too slow on the draw with the mushroom cooking instructions. I will say though that my 5yo was pleased with the results last night after complaining that his chantrelles were to mushy the other night.
 
originally posted by Marc D:
No, I wimped out and made some meat and fish dishes also. We had plenty of veggie options..
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Vegan or not, sounds like a tasty feast. And keen selection of wines. By which I mean that I would be happy to drink each one! Keep it up.
 
originally posted by Yixin:
Blanching in salted water for osmosis, perhaps? Although 20 seconds is perhaps too short?
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That was my thought too but it was not brine, plain water...?
 
That was my thought as well, and I admit I'm curious, but since this sometimes doubles as Chemistry Disorder, I'm sure a full explanation (or puzzled chemical brow) is imminent.
 
The blanching water was unsalted.

I suspect the 20 seconds in boiling water changes the water bonds in the mushrooms somehow.

I will wait for the chemistry professors to have a go at it.
 
Also, anyone know the story behind the Foillard Morgon "Premiere" bottle?
It has the same light gray label as the Courcelette bottle, but someone mentioned it wasn't made from grapes grown on the Courcelette vineyard.
 
Hey Marc, I'm actually not sure it's not Corcelette - just that Lee said it was more of a top tier cuvee. It tasted like Py to me though.
 
originally posted by Marc D:
originally posted by SFJoe:
originally posted by Marc D:

I'm very glad we finally learned a good way to cook the Chanterelles.
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And that was...?
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blanch the mushrooms
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I'm quite surprised. Never would have tried it, and haven't heard of such a thing. You blanch them after cutting or tearing them, i.e., in pieces?

I don't cook chanterelles so very often, but when I do I usually do them over very high heat into a very hot pan with rather few mushrooms, so that the water cannot overwhelm the heat and bring the pan's temp down to 100*C, where of course they can't brown. Once the water is evaporated, salt them and add some butter and brown them. But if you get a layer of water across the pan surface, you've overcrowded and you're sunk.

My wild-ass handwaving explanation for the efficacy of the parboiling would be something along the lines of the heating contracting the protein structure of the chanterelle so that it wrings out some of the water, something like an overcooked chicken breast.

It's for damn sure that cold water soaks into those things like nobody's business. I know chefs who wash them in water and put them on pastry racks in front of fans to dry.

Btw, it is a total sin to discard exuded water from chanterelles (or almost any other mushroom). If you must, fish out the chanterelles, reduce the liquid most of the way, and return the flesh to the pan with some fat.
 
We blanched them whole, drained the mushrooms in a strainer, dried them on towels, then tore/cut them into pieces prior to the frying pan.
 
originally posted by Marc D:
We blanched them whole, drained the mushrooms in a strainer, dried them on towels, then tore/cut them into pieces prior to the frying pan.
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OK, that's even crazier. Wouldn't think they'd heat through in 20 seconds.
 
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