Culination Wine+Recipe Blog

Calibrating Your Soul

Over the past two weeks I’ve been fortunate to do something every human should do to callibrate their soul: I got lost on the west coast exploring people and places off the beaten path throughout Oregon and California.

You see, the weekend of August 23rd was my bachelor party weekend.  Many guys would go down the path of predictability.  They’d have dinner at a steakhouse, then end up watching some stripper coked out of her mind “strip” even though mentally she’s elsewhere and could care less about the guys in the room.  Instead of wasting good money, I decided to really enjoy the company of friends and family.  We got a house at Black Butte Ranch near Bend, Oregon where the goal was to play golf, eat good food and drink good wine.  Oh yeah, there were cigars as well…Cubans.

If I were younger, maybe strippers would have been a goal to include, but since I’m older and a bit more sentimental, I decided I really wanted to reward the guys who spent money to fly out to Oregon and drive 3 hours to Bend.  Mission Accomplished!  We ate, we drank, we golfed, we recovered, then we ate some more and drank some more with a sprinkling of cigar smoking.  Nine guys realized there were other cool dudes in the world.

The point wasn’t so much to have a bachelor party weekend as much as the goal was to really “calibrate” my soul down to the deepest level.  Going into a marriage is a big deal, and on top of that, I unexpectedly came across a wonderful career opportunity doing something I love.  In order to bring the passion to this new position and bring a clear mind to my wedding, it was important to remind myself why I walk this earth.

Whatever your happy place is, it makes sense to you.  Chances are, you don’t visit that place enough.  I know I hadn’t.  The past two weeks were a completely selfish journey traveling up and down the west coast seeing and doing all the people and places that matter to me as a person.  It’s okay to remind oneself that you are your own best friend.  Seeing nine guys in Bend who were close to me was cool, really cool.  That was the appetizer.  The main course was a journey with no schedule, no plan, no course of action and no agenda.  In a way, it’s scary to take the training wheels off and leave it up to the universe.  I felt like I was using stumbleupon.com but in real life. The day after getting back from Bend and the bachelor party, I decided to get lost in Oregon’s wine country.

What a great choice!  Driving down an old country road with no idea what was out there was a bit odd, but it was a good reminder that sometimes you can plan too much in life.  I call it the “Sailboat Theory”.  Simply put, the sailboat theory looks like if you were on a sailboat and you set out to sail to Hawaii.  Along the way, the wind blows you off course and you end up at some island you had never planned to visit.  But when you get there, you realize what a wonderful place it is.  In life, you sometimes have a goal of where you want to get to, but it’s so important to “get blown off course” and end up somewhere you didn’t expect.  That was my soul calibration.  Getting lost in Oregon’s wine country led to meeting a handful of great Oregon winemakers who I would have never met in life with a plan.  The winemaker from ADEA and Hamina Biggio were cool.

After that I got lost in Portland.  Ironically I saw 3 different friends who I hadn’t seen in over 10 years.  What a great experience!  One of these friends received word that at 35 years old, they had a brain tumor.  Not just any, but one of the largest brain tumors the the U.S.  The doctor had to peel down the face and pull the eye out to remove the tumor.  Wow!

The day after that, I went crabbing in Garabaldi, Oregon.  Photos of this journey are posted at http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=6965&l=d941c&id=1032596069.

This journey went on to visit Drain, Oregon to Napa Valley to San Francisco where the Family Winemaker’s event happened to Berkeley where family lives.  From there the journey led north up 101 through the Redwoods and along the Southern Oregon coast.  If you were to read it, you’d probably tune out (if you haven’t already).  But the whole time I was doing what so many humans should do.  Go on an adventure with yourself and so something you love.  When you return from your journey, you’ll find you have a better balance internally which radiates out like ripples through your day to day life. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself.

All the clichés in life have a way of ringing true.  Seeing friends and family was worth more than anything.  No matter where a person is on their journey through life, it’s a good idea to make a conscious decision to visit the happy place.  Spouses, kids and friends will benefit from a happy person, especially when that happy person is you.

Writers throughout history have touched others by writing about their adventures.  Why? Because that’s a big reason why we were put on this earth.  It’s human nature to explore and expand out of our comfort zones.  Friends, I wish you could have been there when I drove through Alexander Valley or through the Redwoods on a Monday afternoon.  I wish you could have been there when I crossed the border from California to Oregon near Crecent City.  Or when I toured the Tillamook Cheese factory for no reason other than to do something random.  You would have been welcome.  I say disconnect from technology, and disconnect from the menutia of day to day life….go push yourself out of your comfort zone and see how you come back.  Chances are, it’ll be one of the best things you did all year.

Cheers,

Rick

Photo overlooking the Steamboat Wine and Food Festival. Plenty more photos, but this one sums it up: http://ping.fm/UF6Wn

Packing for a two week trip to the west coast.

New blog post about food and wine pairing: http://ping.fm/UF6Wn

What is the perfect wine and food pairing?

First off, let me say how much I love the fact Alice Feiring wrote a book with a subtitle that reads, “How I Saved the World from Parkerization.”  If you haven’t heard of Robert Parker, he has accomplished what Martha Steward and Oprah have, which is he has created an empire around individualization.  His name is synonomis with his chosen industry.  Martha did it for home stuff, and Oprah did it for book clubs and whatever else she does.

Robert Parker, bless his heart, has created a problem for the wine industry.  His palate, or better yet, opinions, have become the standard.  Wineries have stopped making wines that express their “terroir” and have leaned towards making wines to get that magical “Parker Score” because that’s what sells their wines.  Alice was right to call attention to this.  You see, Robert Parker has  great palate and a photographic memory, but he likes a certain style of wine.  Usually it’s an overly extracted fruit bomb that technically is out of balance.  He likes big wines.

Generally speaking, you want a red wine to be around 13-14% alcohol.  More often than not, these wines have great balance and finesse.  Robert Parker tends to like wines that are more like 15% alchol and above.  People are under the illusion they like these big monsters, but the problem is they overpower most foods.  You have a food pairing problem.  Take for example the Molly Dooker phenomenom.  Molly Dooker wines are from Australia and feature a few different offerings.  All of the red wines are 16% alcohol.  To me they taste like Robitussen and Vodka, but some people fall over one another to pay $150 for them because Robert Parker gave it 96 points.  What I’m about to tell you demonstrates what I’m talking about.  The only bottle of wine that I haven’t finished off with a friend in the last 10 years was the Molly Dooker Blue-Eyed Boy.  We got halfway through and just couldn’t choke it down.  It burned too much.  It was better suited to clean engine parts with.

Pairing wine with food is what Culination is all about.  Sharing with others how to find the right combination of flavor and balance is a hunt.  I’ve found pretty much 99% of the red wines that pair well with food are under 14.5% alcohol.  When I explain to people how we test pairing recipes, it boils down to where the flavors register on the 4 taste regions on your tongue, and how intense the flavors are.  Next time you sit down to taste some wine, really visualize where you taste it on your tongue.  Is it on the front?  Is it everywhere BUT the front of your tongue?  Same with food.  Where do you sense sweet, salt, bitter and sour?

Chances are, if you’re enjoying a 99-point Parker wine, you won’t have any taste buds left to taste anything  The more in tune you become with your palate, the more you start to appreciate and understand the nuances of wine and food pairing.

Cheers.

Props to Tom Higley for the rec’o of Eumir Deodato. Great Brazilian musician.

Blog post about Chateau Musar from Lebanon: http://ping.fm/UF6Wn

Chateau Musar

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a few things in particular: Bacon, my future wife and Chateau Musar.  If you have not discovered Ch. Musar, I suggest you seek it out.  I use the word, “discovered” because it really is that kind of wine.  Chateau Musar is from Lebanon, more specifically, the Bekka Valley.  About 30 miles outside Beruit, you’ll find a winery high up in the mountains with head-pruned vines dating back to the 1930’s.

Chateau Musar is unique for a number of different reasons.  The first being the man behind Musar.  Serge Hochar is a one-in-a-million character.  He could talk to you about moss on a tree for 3 hours and you’d be sitting on the edge of your seats, completely fascinated by every word he said.

Serge was trained in Bordeaux.  In 1956, he took over the family wine making business, and immediately put his stamp on the winery.  First, he started what we’d refer to as a “sustainable” or “green” growing program.  Nowadays it’s so trendy to say a winery is “green” but Musar has been doing it for over 50 years!!  In fact, Musar just won an award for their sustainable winemaking pracitices.  Second, Musar is made with the idea that every bottle is unique, just like Serge.  In fact, each bottle is hand filled.  You might get a bottle filled up to the top under the capsule, or you might get a bottle filled to the shoulder.

Chateau Musar wines are fermented in cement vats.  That alone gives the wine interesting character, sometimes bordering on Brett.  I was fortunate enough to attend the Chateau Musar vertical tasting in Aspen June 13th.  It was one of the most complete nights of my life.  Serge was there speaking about each wine as we tasted two vintages from each decade going back to 1959.  If you were there, it would have changed your mind about wine, and about yourself.  These wines are in an entirely different category than any wine you’ll ever taste.  Serge will tell you that his biggest and best wines aren’t his red, but rather his whites.  They are legendary.  They challenge you as a wine drinker.  We were fortunate enough to have the 1967 Musar Blanc (white) and it was truly the finest white wine I’ver had in my life.  So good in fact that I didnt’ even finish drinking it.  I just kept smelling it.  It went from Tawny Port on the nose to nutmeg, to caramel, to asian spices to God knows what.  The nose was complex.  It’s a blend of Obideh and Merway, which are anscestors of Semellion and Chardonnay.

The Musar Rouge (Red) is made from Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Cinsault.  The 1972 and 1959 are stuff of lore.  Some people would peg it for Burgundy while others would swear it’s Rhone.  No matter what, Musar wines will challenge you as a drinker, while at the same time reward you like no other.

This evening, for my birthday, we had Filet wrapped in Bacon with Lobster Tails and lemon vinaigrette.  A 1990 Musar Blanc and 1972 Musar Rouge were picked to go with.  Already I was feeling good because Bacon, my future wife and Musar were involved.  But holy cow!  The Musar Blanc showed how beautiful an aged white can be with caramel, truffle, white chocolate and spice box filling the glass.  A bit restrained at first on the palate, but opened up nicely.  The 1972 was so good I had to step outside for a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke.  Silky, refined, complex, dynamic, otherwordly and totally unrepresentative of any particular grape.  It was youthful without being too oxidized.  Wow!  This is why we drink wine..

If you aren’t ready to drop $45+ on Ch. Musar, try stepping up to the Cuvee line, which sells for around $17 retail.  It’ll give you a good idea about a winery that has been kept secret for far too long.  Enjoy a glass with a friend.

Cheers!

My buddy just got back from an amazing journey through Asia. Check out his stunning photo blog: www.seth-andrea.travellerspoint.com