A Second Career: 15 Years in the Wine Business, Now What?
As Yogi Bera once
said, "When you meet a fork in the road, take it." That is
exactly what I am doing. The majority of my adult life has been in
the wine business. I can safely say, without checking, that I have
been legally over the blood-wine limit in four different continents.
I've sniffed, swirled, spit and swallowed more wine than I can
remember, literally. So, what do I do now to continue my passion for
wines as I enter middle age?
To quote the great Yogi again,
"Its like deja vu all over again." When I was 27 and about
to be married, I was confronted with a similar situation. I was
working in a restaurant at the time, enjoying long hours and being
denied my weekends. That didn't seem like a recipe for a good family
life. The hotel I was working in had recently held a trade wine
tasting. I was one of the poor guys removing empty glasses and full
spit buckets. It was then that I realized that I wanted to be seated
at those tables, tasting, learning and, dare I say, working. Yes,
this was my calling, and I got very excited about it.
15 years
later, and a collection of corks you could build a house with, I am
turning the page onto another chapter of my life. Still following
Yogi's advice of taking the fork, I decided to see what each tine had
to offer. Upon examination, I had the following: wine knowledge,
cultural knowledge, cooking knowledge and my ever charming
personality. I added these to my situation of working with my mother
in our produce store and bakery, where we also make our own
preserves, jellies, jams, sauces, salsas, chutneys and just about
anything that can be pickled. My brain started making noises similar
to that of an old lawn mower in the back yard choking to life. Some
smoke came out of my ears, and the end result was the harmonious hum
repeating the chorus line, "Wine Jellies"!
Wine
Jelly, of course, why didn't I think of this earlier? I did some
searching on the internet and discovered that there are people out
there making and selling wine jelly. What I didn't find were any
"interesting" wine jellies. This is where I thought I could
start making a difference in people's lives by giving them a better
selection of wine jellies.
My approach is the same as when I
was helping restaurateurs improve their wine lists. Sure, I still
need to offer the basic varietals of Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet
Sauvignon, etc. But as I used to do, I would always like to suggest
levels, or tiers, of choices. In doing this, I can offer not just
basic wine jellies, but more specific jellies. Jellies that showcase
an interesting or lesser known varietal. Jellies that have a story
behind them, be it of places I've been or winemakers I know. Most
importantly, as most people search for that perfect wine that strikes
a balance between budget and quality, I wanted to do this with our
jellies. The bottom line is that I want to offer jellies that dance
on the palate and sing their own song. I want jellies with soul!
That was my very first blog as The Fermented Gourmet. Since then, our selection of wine and beer jellies has been growing and evolving to include complimentary ingredients cooked into and/or added at the end to enhance the basic flavor profile of the main wine or beer. In some cases, fresh fruit is added to coincide with a basic nuance of a particular wine/beer. In other cases, savory flavors of spices and herbs are added for the same effect. As our selection grew, it occurred to me that a Carmenere-Cracked Black Pepper Wine Jelly might not be on someone’s wish list. However, if I provided a purpose, and the reason why I created such a jelly, then one might be more inclined to purchase it.
This landed me in front of my computer to craft a cookbook of sorts to educate our customers on the many uses of our creations. More than that, I wanted to empower people to be as creative as I have with their own favorite recipes. There are so many ways to tweak recipes, even the slightest bit, and come up with something so much more flavorful and enjoyable that one might not equate time in the kitchen with time in the laundry room . Not because these are time consuming endeavors, rather the shear joy of cooking will become more of a hobby rather than a necessary evil.
Doing this has turned out to be more of a challenge than I originally thought. While I’ve always been considered an excellent cook, I myself never use recipes. My method of making a dish comes more from a sense of feel and touch, not from following precise instructions and measurements in recipes. In fact, I am one of those “gifted” types that can enjoy a gourmet meal in a restaurant, go home, and two weeks later re-create the same dish from memory. As I’m eating, I break down what I think the chef has done, what spice and/or herbs were used, what cooking method was used, was there marinating involved, was there a long reduction time for a sauce, etc. I’ve always envied those gifted in music, who can hear something and immediately re-play it on a guitar or piano. I can’t do that. I also can’t drive a golf ball three hundred yards, break codes for the Defense Department or teach Mandarin Chinese. That’s why I’m not on the PGA Tour, working for the CIA or living in China. I’m just a simple guy who can make a killer dinner!
So where do we begin? With the basics, of course. Basically, when cooking with quality ingredients, the result is a quality finished product. Let me equate this to something with which I am very familiar….Wine. Why are some wines so much more expensive than others? Well, the simplest answer is that they start with better grapes. Better grapes generally come from better sites with optimum growing conditions. Those conditions vary from country to country and region to region. Old world countries like France and Italy have the benefit of centuries of viticulture history that have determined the best sites for certain grapes. New world countries like the US, South America and Australia are still learning this. However, the learning curve in the New world is very high., especially when combined with the lessons learned in the Old world. In a nut shell, suffice it to say, low yielding, older vines in higher elevations with good drainage generally produce the best fruit. Compare this to over cropped, high yielding vineyards where quantity is stressed, and you see the difference. There is no magic wand a winemaker uses to turn bad grapes into good wine. Only the press has the power to inflate the price of a wine, but I’ll save my opinion of “The Wine Gods” for another time.
Do you know why your dinning experience at a top restaurant is so extraordinary? The best chefs know that they need the best ingredients, and so do you. Best in this case doesn’t necessarily mean most expensive. It means going to local farmer’s markets to find the freshest produce. Using good, old-fashioned butchers and fish mongers for your main ingredients. It is said that these practices are considered old-fashioned. Perhaps the hustle and bustle of modern life has changed our lifestyles so much that the “quick and easy” is accepted as norm. Well, “quick and easy” doesn’t have to mean giving up on quality. This all brings me back to the purpose of this book. I would like to empower you with the ability to create tasty, savory meals. Flavor shouldn’t be a casualty of modern life. Let’s bring flavor back!
THE BASICS
Now we are at a pivotal moment. I’ve aroused your curiosity, but you don’t have any wine jelly. You are a bit concerned about taking that next step of ordering some. Then comes the question of which one to start with. There is a simple remedy for that, it is very easy to make, and I’ll show you how.
I’ve heard this myth somewhere that people sometimes have “left over” wine. For reasons unknown to me, a half bottle of wine is sitting somewhere in someone’s kitchen. It was opened to spread its pleasure around the dinner table, but some cataclysmic event prevented the bottle from completing it’s purpose. Now, forgotten and lonely, it sits and waits. Thinking to itself, “will these people ever pick me up again? Will the let me empty my contents into a glass and do my job?”
This is a myth to me, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a half bottle of wine on my kitchen counter. When people used to ask me, probably referring to vintages, when is the best time to drink a certain wine. My reply was, “when you open it.” This didn’t seem like it needed the opinion of a wine professional. But when you’re in the business, you get these questions.
Anyway, lets just say that you happen to be one of those that happens to have some left over wine. Let me guide you through the process of turning it into jelly so that you can start experimenting with my suggestions. You’ll need a sauce pan, sugar, gelatin or pectin, and the wine, of course. There are other choices besides gelatin or pectin, but lets keep things simple for now. Bring the wine to a slow boil. Once you’ve reached the boiling point add the sugar in equal amounts to the wine. For example, if you have approximately a half a bottle of wine, you’ll need 2 cups of sugar. Dissolve the sugar and then finish with the gelatin. Turn off the heat and go watch some TV or read a book. Times will vary, but eventually it will set and your jelly is done. Most often wine jellies are a “soft set”. This means that it is thick and spread able, but doesn’t have that thick, jelly-like consistency of regular fruit jellies.
That was simple, right? Now you can put the jelly in a jar or Tupperware and keep it in the refrigerator indefinitely. You’ll probably use it up quickly, as a jar in my refrigerator doesn’t usually last a week!
Depending on the what wine you used to make your jelly, will determine your next step. But I’m going to lay out a few things you can do to jazz up your meals with a few basic concepts. I call them concepts because there are so many ways to craft these, that knowing the “concept” is the most important part. I’m talking about vinaigrettes, sauces, glazes, salsas and chutneys. The common denominator in all these this is “balance”. In other words, there is some kind of balance of sweetness and acidity, sweetness with heat, sweetness with savory flavors, etc. That “sweetness” is going to come in the form of your wine jelly, the balancing part is where we get creative.
Vinaigrettes - This is how I make a vinaigrette. Equal parts “sweetness”, Dijon Mustard and “acidity”. The acid part would be either vinegar or citrus juice, or a combination of both. This all gets whisked together or blended in a food processor. At this point, you might want to add your favorite herbs and/or spices. A little salt and pepper is also needed. Next comes the oil. The oil will be three times the amount of acidity. For example, if you used 1 Tablespoon each of the sweetness, mustard and vinegar/citrus juice, then you’ll need 3 Tablespoons of oil. Your choice of oil, I love Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Here again, though, you might want to choose an oil that accents the flavor profile of the wine jelly and/or herbs and spices. An example of this would be using Walnut oil to compliment nutty flavors inherent in a wine. But this is something we can get into later.
Sauces/Glazes - These can get really interesting and fun! Again, balance is the key thought to keep in the back of your mind. Another thing to note is that these sauces have multiple uses. Once made, they might go well on top of chicken, veal, pork, beef, etc. The point is the balance. Some meats like duck and lamb stand up well by themselves to sweet, fruity flavors. Pork does too, it just depends on personal taste whether or not you want to “cut” the sweetness with some acidity. A basic barbecue sauce will have some “fruit” component. We are all familiar with tomato based barbecue sauces. Tomato is a fruit for all those who didn’t know. Anyway, the fruit is reduced at first. Meaning, you bring it up to a slow boil on the stove, and then start adding the balancing components. This is the point where I get in trouble for not measuring. There have been times when I set out to make a sauce for my nightly meal and ended up with a week’s worth. Why? Because I didn’t measure, and as I was tasting during cooking, I kept having to “add” something to get the flavor I was looking for. The good thing is that you can always add, the flip side is that you can’t “take away” once you’ve added. I guess you see where I’m going with this. Picture an old fashioned scale with two sides. On one side is sweetness, on the other side is acidity. Well, as I added, I tipped the scale in one direction. When I tried to balance it, I tipped the scale back in the other direction. When I finally got the scale balanced, I had A LOT of sauce. I assure you in the recipes to come that I’ve tested and tasted them for balance. At least, balance to my tastes. That in itself can be a caveat, because I’m partial to spicy foods. The good is, you can reduce or eliminate the spices you don’t like. It really is that simple.
Salsas/Chutneys - The main difference between a salsa and a chutney is that chutneys are cooked down to bring the flavors together. Salsas, for the most part, are made with fresh ingredients and not cooked. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, balance again is key here. As far as salsas are concerned, most people are familiar with tomato based salsas. Let me break the news to you, tomato salsas get boring. Yeah, they are good and nice with tortilla chip, but when it comes to a condiment for meats, you’ll want to experiment with a multitude of fruit combinations. Chutneys are probably the least used condiment, but one of the funest to make, and one of the most versatile with meats. As I mentioned, chutneys are cooked. The longer they are cooked, the more the flavors marry and the better the end result. My only side note to salsas and chutneys is that when making a salsa, you don’t have to be that exact with your proportions. Since it is not cooked, it doesn’t get the same opportunity as a chutney to reduce and bring flavors together. Therefore, more careful measuring is needed when making a chutney. Otherwise any imbalance of flavor will be magnified by the cooking. Here again, I assure you that these recipes are tried and true. At least to my taste.
Marinating vs. Brining - Most marinades are actually the same thing as vinaigrettes. How many times have you had grilled chicken marinated in Italian Dressing? I’m yawning. No offense, it is a quick and easy marinade, but I’d much prefer my own marinade. Not to mention the fact the first ingredient in most store bought dressings is high fructose corn syrup. Followed by some things you can’t even pronounce, not the best oil, salt and more things you can’t pronounce. But I digress, and we’ll get into these later. Brining, however, is a longer process based on a salt solution. The idea is to tenderize the meat by giving it a long, cold bath in brine. Patting it dry and letting it rest for about half an hour to distribute the salt is important before grilling or roasting. Herbs and spices can be added to brines just like marinades. The difference here is the acidity in a marinade renders it more useful in quickly tenderizing and imparting flavor than a brine. Therefore, one could easily come home from work, whip up a marinade, have a glass of wine and then throw the meat on the grill. Brining, however, would require an all day or overnight process.
Customizing your own recipes
Now that you have the basics, you can see how wine and beer jellies can easily fit into recipes that you already work with. Basically, whenever a recipe suggests honey, molassas, brown sugar, fruit or anything sweet, one of these jellies can be substituted. The end result will be sufficiently having the desired sweetness the recipe asks for, plus the flavor profile of the particular wine or beer used to make the jelly. Bon Appetite!