Rosato!

I’m in Phoenix as I write this entry, and it was over a hundred degrees today. Yes, it’s dry heat, but well over a hundred is still hot by any standard! But, at least I got a little preparation over the weekend when summer finally arrived in Boston. We reached the upper 80s and my thoughts turned to summer wines and foods. It’s rosé time!

A couple of Wednesdays ago (flag day!), we attended a wine dinner at
Sel de la Terre in Boston titled "Rosé Colored Glasses," which of course, featured rosés. The restaurant throws regular “Wine Wednesdays” that match reasonably priced wines with a fixed price meal for $45. It’s one of the greatest dinner bargains in Boston. Erik Johnson, Wine Director for both Sel de La Terre and L’Espalier is the enthusiastic host. He explains the wines and the matches thoroughly and engagingly. It’s a great way to try a series of new wines matched with perfect food combinations.

The menu:

first course
Louis Bouillot, Rosé, Crémant de Bourgogne, Burgundy
Rosé poached shrimp and andouille terrine with grilled focaccia and pipérade

My favorite match of the night, the terrine was an unusual and successful combination of shrimp and sausage that really brought out the best in the wine. This wine is made in the Champagne style and in addition to the cranberry and floral notes of a good rosé, it had a honeyed richness in the finish.

second course
2005 Houchart, Rosé, Côtes de Provence
Duck rillette and confit beet with arugula pine nut pesto

Another successful match, the duck was the favorite dish for many of my fellow dinners and its richness combined well with the earthiness of the beets and pesto. The wine, a classic French Provencal rosé has earthy and herbal notes that match well with the flavors, but enough fruit and crisp acidity to provide contrast.

main course
2005 Crios de Susana Balbo, "Rosé of Malbec", Argentina
Roasted prime rib with twice baked fingerling potatoes and caramelized shallot jus

Perhaps the most surprising match of the night, this course proved that the right rosé can indeed stand up to, and complement a classic meat dish. The full red version of an Argentinean Malbec is a well-known match for roasted and barbequed beef, and the rosé version lightens its body and adds a dose of food enhancing acidity. A dark and deeply colored rosé, this wine offers intense red fruit flavors and is powerful enough to convert red wine zealots into rosé drinkers.

cheese course
2004 Château d'Aquéria, Rosé, Tavel, Rhône
Crater Lake Blue, Oregon

Tavel is the quintessential French rosé, and Château d'Aquéria is one of its best producers. Bone dry and salmon-pink in color, this wine has floral and fruit fragrances along with requisite acidity to contrast the richness and salty bite of the blue cheese.

special dessert à la carte
White chocolate crème caramel with port cherries and croquant 2004 Rosa Regale, Brachetto d’Acqui, Piedmont, Italy
The wine dinner does not include dessert, but a $7 supplement brings this special dessert and another $9 adds a glass of Brachetto d’Acqui. In this dish, the white chocolate adds a wonderful silkiness and mouth feel to the crème caramel (instead of the cloying sweetness that is all too common with white chocolate), the port cherries provide the flavor bridge to the
Brachetto d’Acqui.


A Rosé Recommendation
While the list above provides a good group of rosés for initial exploration, I’d like to close with a new find. It’s Bastianich 2005 Rosato from Friuli-Venezia-Giulia in Italy. This winery is owned by Joseph Bastianich who is the son of Lidia Bastianich (restaurateur and TV chef) and partner of Mario Batali (another restaurateur and TV chef). He also wrote the book “Vino Italiano,” which in my opinion is easily the best book on Italian wines on the market. I’ve been a fan of his wines since I first tried them and I especially like his “Vespa” super-Fruilian blend of white grapes. 2005 is the first vintage for his stellar Rosato. It’s made from Refosco, an obscure red grape found in northern Italy. The result is a medium-bodied, intensely colored rosé with a complex and extremely attractive nose of rose petals, violets and plums. On the palate, plumy red fruit flavors predominate in a long finish of surprising depth and complexity. It’s the perfect wine to match with an antipasti plate when sitting on the back deck!

I first found the wine at the Wine Bottega at 341 Hanover Street in Boston’s North End. The Wine Bottega is a great source for unusual Italian wines and its staff is very knowledgeable, friendly and informative. Closer to home,
Beverly Wine and Beer Company carries the Rosato for $14.99. Beverly Wine is run by Kurt and Sabrina Reming, and I highly recommend them as a source solid reasonably priced wine. (They also carry some wonderful high end bottles). Kurt and Sabrina host wine tastings every Saturday afternoon, and Sabrina writes a great weekly newsletter that has stories and recipes along with their weekly wine specials. You can find out more at their web site: www.beverlywine.com.

Cooking Smells
Over the past few months, I started walking to and from work a couple of times a week. My office is about two and a half miles from my house, long enough for good exercise, short enough to be reasonable. I try to vary my route so I can explore sections of Beverly where I might not otherwise go. It’s fascinating on many levels, and I walk through some areas that are densely populated and others that are almost rural. One night as I walked back around 6 PM, I smelled the distinct sweet and savory aroma of tomato sauce cooking. It made me hungry! But then it suddenly hit me – it was the first and only time I noticed cooking smells on any of my evening walks. Was I just unobservant or are people no longer cooking? Since then, I’ve paid special attention and I’ve varied my return times in case I was missing common dinner hours. The result? Outside of the downtown restaurants, cooking smells are virtually non-existent. I smelled outdoor grilling one night and hot dogs on a frying pan on another, but considering I walk past hundreds of houses, people must not cook often. Don’t say the windows must be closed, I can hear dozens of TVs every walk!

When I was young, I remember walking down my parent’s street and smelling all the different dinners on the stove. Our Italian neighbor’s house had scents of tomato sauce, sausages and garlic wafting in the air, but other houses had smells of macaroni and cheese, pan fried steaks and other common foods of the time. But, apparently no more. It’s fashionable to build houses with bigger and bigger kitchens and people spend megabucks on granite countertops and the fanciest equipment. Yet the extent of their cooking is heating pre-prepared foods in the microwave. The biggest irony is that kitchens have grown larger because people like to be around the warmth, smells and action of cooking!

On Lidia’s Kitchen (Lidia Bastianich’s cooking show on PBS), her son (and restaurateur) Joseph Bastianich remarked that when he was growing up, it was the poorer houses that smelled of cooking. To which Lidia pointed out, “Ah, but which houses did all your friends want to hang out in?”

Here’s a recipe that always smells great to me. If you make it, I guarantee it will perfume your neighborhood.

Grilled Sardines

• a dozen fresh sardines


• olive oil


• a couple of lemons


• Salt and pepper


• A few sprigs of chopped parsley

Rinse and clean the sardines. Slit the bellies and remove the entrails. You can leave on the heads and grill them whole, or remove the heads and butterfly the fillets (to get the result shown in the picture). Put the cleaned sardines in a dish, sprinkle with the olive oil, some fresh squeezed lemon juice and salt and pepper. Allow them to marinate while you start your grill. I prefer grilling over hardwood charcoal, but regular briquettes or a gas grill will work too.

When the fire is ready, throw on the sardines. I have a fish grilling basket (on sale at store that carry grills) that simplifies cooking fish. The fish is cooked in the basket, and when you are ready to flip, you just turn the basket over! Otherwise, just cook the carefully on the grill. The sardines cook quickly, no more than a couple of minutes per side if your fire is hot. The skin side will have some blistering and charring. But let the aroma be your guide!

Serve with lemon wedges and sprinkle with a little more olive oil and the chopped parsley. They are especially great with a crisp white wine such as a Sancerre, Pinot Grigio or Spanish Albariño.