French Hill Confusion 2005 – California

This is a “meritage” red blend. Both of us liked this wine, but we described it totally differently. I guess Confusion is an apt name.
Francesca said the nose was of prunes and boysenberry. Ken thought it had violets, bing cherries, and weirdly maybe some roasted red chilies.
As for taste, Francesca noted spice, licorice, almonds, and anise. Ken found smoke, earth, and lots of California fruit. It’s almost like a big Zin in fruitiness, but balanced and mellow. There’s definitely some spice involved. Like a French red blend but with California fruitiness. The blend is Malbec, Tempranillo, and Petite Sirah. A House/Yes wine, and we’re generally not huge fans of “generic” red blends. Very well done.

Ridge Petite Sirah Dynamite Hill 2002 – California

After seemingly years of campaigning, the election’s finally over. Whether your choice won or lost; now, the day after, when it’s finally sunk in; tonight will be a night for a comfort wine. Our suggestion:

Ridge Petite Sirah 2002
This opens with a powerful nose of dried blackberries, cherries, and peat – almost like a single-malt scotch (in a very good way). The tastes are deep and rich of dried blackberries and black cherries, as well as some nice spice. It has some sharp tannins, and the label suggests bottle aging for up to 15 years. We believe it. Yes. About $35 (only available from Ridge’s mailing list program).

Curl up by a fireplace, grab a good book, turn off the TV, savor the wine. The world will be different in the days ahead, but they will come and go as they always have. Enjoy your wines and meals with friends and family every day.

French Presidential Burgers

The BBC is showing a video of a French take on burgers, based on the two U.S. presidential candidates. Our question, what wines go best with each burger?

“US presidential burgers are on the menu at an upmarket Parisian hotel named after the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought alongside George Washington in the American Revolution.

While Americans are fans of French Fries, the French can now chose between the two presidential candidates.

Barack Obama fans go for the O'Burger, a Hawaiian-style sandwich - with shrimps, pineapples, curry and herbs. It pays tribute to the island state where the Democratic candidate spent most of his youth.

But fans of red-meat Republican candidate John McCain opt for the Elephant Burger. It featuring southwest-style ingredients popular in his home state of Arizona, including guacamole, mildly spicy salsa and grilled lamb.”

Our wine choice would be a Beaujolais Nouveau to accompany the McCain burger, and a Loire Chenin Blanc to go with the Obama burger – French wines with French food. But since the candidates are American, how about these two American wines instead: McCain - Bogel Petite Sirah; Obama - Grgich Hills Sauvignon Blanc.

No vegetarian onion burgers for these candidates.

Chipotle Mayonnaise Recipe & Bogle Petite Sirah

RECIPE
Carvers Restaurant in Durango, Colorado, is a wonderful casual restaurant and brew pub that serves (among other dishes) great sandwiches and burgers with a signature Chipotle Mayonnaise. Chipotles are smoked Jalapeño peppers, and usually sold in cans in a tomato-like Adobo sauce. (On a totally unrelated note, a friend of ours in Durango always gets strange looks from the Carvers waitresses when he orders a veggie burger with bacon.) Being friends with the owners, we were able to coax from them the Chipotle Mayonnaise recipe. Despite the fact that recipes can’t be copyrighted, we wouldn’t want to give away the exact Carvers recipe, so here’s our slightly modified version. (Besides, the original recipe calls for ingredients to make gallons of the stuff.)

• Chipotles in adobo sauce chopped very fine (2-3 chiles from a 6-oz can – the rest can be successfully frozen for later use)
• Tablespoon fresh crushed Garlic
• Tablespoon chopped fresh Cilantro
• 1/4 cup Olive Oil
• Tablespoon Honey
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• (Alternately, all ingredients can be added to a food processor to make this Chipotle base mix.)
• Mix Chipotle mix with your favorite Mayonnaise – start with maybe a cup of Mayonnaise for the above amount of Chipotle base mix.
• Add more or less Mayo depending on your heat tolerance and the strength of the Chipotles.

This is wonderful with any kind of sandwiches, burgers, nachos, other Mexican dishes, and even seafood cocktails. If you’re ever in Durango, stop by Carvers and try the original. The restaurant also has the best craft-brewed beers in the region. (Carvers was the second micro brewery in the state, opening just a few months after New Belgium, of Fat Tire fame.)

WINE
The most recent time we used Chipotle Mayonnaise was with some veggie/mushroom/cheese burgers. We accompanied it with....
Bogle Petite Sirah 2005 – California
We’d forgotten how much we liked this wine, and we hadn’t re-tasted it since we started writing these wine notes. Nose of dark cherry and pepper. Smooth, integrated tastes of boysenberry and spice. Just enough tannins to give the wine some weight. Very much along the stylistic lines of the Concannon we reviewed (and especially liked) previously. This, too, has that almost Zinfandel tone to it. House. $12

French Hill Petite Sirah 2005 – California

We discovered French Hill – in the Sierra Foothills of California – several years ago on a winter trip to Yosemite. We had a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and a wonderful Zinfandel Port which are no longer made. Yet the wines we found on this trip were still great. This opens with a full, deep nose of mixed berries and black pepper. Tastes are of a mixed bowl of berries, black pepper, smoke, and boysenberry. It’s rich and chewy, and with very dry tannins. This would be a great pizza wine. Yes. $28

Concannon Petite Sirah 2005 – California

Concannon was one of the early California pioneers, and while it’s now owned by one of the big wine conglomerates, the company is still making nice wine, if this bottle is any indication. Petite Sirah isn’t very well known, but by now you probably know our general enjoyment of less-known variatels. Sometimes, Petite Sirah can be, as a winemaker once said to us, “wine that stains your teeth black.” Those monster wines have their place, but this Concannon is easy enough for everyday drinking. It has some pepper/spice on the nose, and tastes of boysenberry and pepper. Not to belittle it, but it’s sort of halfway between a Zinfandel and a Syrah, showing Zin’s fruitiness and Syrah’s spicyness. Francesca said it’s sort of “regal” or “proud,” with a character that she called almost old-fashioned. House. $14 (we got it for $12 on sale).

Parducci Petite Sirah 2004 – California

Tastes of plum, dark cherry. Nice and dark – as a winemaker once said to us, “wine that stains your teeth black.” Petite Sirah is a related grape to Syrah/Shiraz, but individual nonetheless – almost Zinfandel-ish at times. A Yes/Maybe wine for us. $11.