View from the middle

Red wine is red, white wine is white, and rose is both.

December 8, 2009 at 1:33 am (View from the middle)

     One of the restaurants I worked in long ago did not serve a blush or rose style of wine. We got a lot of requests for it, but we never pulled the trigger on buying any. One night, one of the women who would constantly ask me for a blush wine came in. And once again, she asked me for the wine that we didn’t have. Being tired of saying “no”, I said, “of course we do”. I poured a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and added a dash of Cabernet. Viola! A blush is born. The woman loved it, and I was a hero. 

     Today we start the week-long ”top off” process at the winery. Every month, you have to top off the oak wine barrels as they lose up to a litre a month. There is an evaporation through the pores of the oak. This also serves to concentrate the flavors of the wine. You could just let it go except you get an increase in surface area inside the barrel which increases the opportunity for oxidation. Concentration good, oxidation bad. Oxidized wine is delicious on salads with olive oil, a little garlic, salt, pepper, a dash of Dijon mustard, and the secret ingredient, a smidge of orange juice or red grapefruit juice.

     Our process for refilling the barrels is a little unclear to me. We use one wine for most of the barrels. It is a high sugar content third pressing of Cabernet. It’s just called press wine. A grape is kind of like an egg except there are three parts to the inside. To get to the sweetest part of the grape you have to squeeze it really hard. If you do this too early, you will also press all the tannins from the skin and seeds into the wine. If you wait until most of the juice and tannin has leeched out of the grape, and then engage that final press at the end of the crush process, you end up with really sweet juice/wine. This is what we use to top off the barrels. We use the same wine regardless of the grape. 

     That is what has me confused. We use a Cabernet grape for Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet and Zinfandel. The year is always a match. This could be a common practice. I’ll find out and report back to you. 

     I worked out on the tennis court with the old guys this weekend. I learned not to call it “playing” tennis while I was mired in the destitute dregs of unemployment and my tennis game was getting really good. Proper choice of language is a huge key to getting along with people. After the work out, there is typically a bull session. 

     I can put myself completely outside a conversation that I am actually in.  The topics of conversation were  the medical care situation and the pending medical bill in congress, and the economy. The gentleman leading the medical care chat was about to travel to San Francisco for some sort of routine medical procedure. The gentleman leading the economy chat was an accountant who is having difficulties with some of his businesses and his clients businesses. One thing that has occurred with the down turn in the economy is that people are more focused on themselves and their own perspective on multi faceted topics.  I am engaged, asking questions, citing pertinent studies that I have read. The whole time I kind of checked out mentally and started thinking  to myself, “what happened to the days when we drank beer after sports, talked about girls, sports, and girls”? I miss that.

Good talk,          S