|
Upcoming events
Put it on your calendar! Here is a list of what is coming up at Savour Wine and Cheese in the next few weeks |
| Come See the New Savour Wine and Cheese! |
76 Prospect St., Gloucester, MA 01930
978 282-1455
Come and visit us at the corner of Pleasant and Prospect St., across from St. Ann's church.
Parking located behind our store!
--------------------------------------------------
Holiday Hours
Saturday - 10 - 7 pm
Sunday - noon - 4 pm
Monday (December 23) - noon - 6 pm
Tuesday - 11 am - 7 pm
Wednesday - 11 - 7 pm
Friday - 11 am - 7 pm
(Special Hours Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve)
Open 10 am - 5 pm
------------------------------------------
|
---------------------------------------------------------
Now for the Thanksgiving picks!
This was the Thanksgiving feast I made the last time we did the "group style" where I cooked while a friend hosted. We are doing the group style again this year and serving the classic Thanksgiving foods, but with a slight twist with a brisket cooked sous vide for 3 days (medium rare), then charred on the Green Egg ceramic grill and the famous Blue Mesa corn pudding. Here is my recipe for the corn pudding if you are looking for something everyone will love!
Corn Pudding
2.5 lbs. of cooked corn kernels
1 pt. half and half
8 oz. of butter, softened
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 t. cracked black pepper
1/2 t. salt
8 eggs (separated)
Puree butter and sugar together in food processor. Add corn and half and half and continue processing until smooth. Set aside. Whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Place corn mixture in mixing bowl - add flour, salt, pepper, and egg yolks. Mix. Fold in egg whites. Place in greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center of soufflé is set. Serve warm, garnished with chopped scallions and sour cream.
At Savour Wine and Cheese, we specialize in pairing great food with interesting, unique wines from around the world. This time of year, everyone is wondering what wines are best to serve with their Thanksgiving feast. Whether a traditional turkey with all the trimmings or a more unconventional choice such as pheasant or quail, the flavors so loved in the fall season present unique challenges for the wine connoisseur.
Most poultry, particularly turkey and chicken, have a rather light taste and should be treated as "blank canvases." The wine choices therefore are based on the flavors in the sauces and the side dishes that make Thanksgiving so inviting and comforting. We call those "extras" the bridge ingredients as they help form a unified taste between the main dish and the wine. Herbal notes of sage, thyme, and rosemary in the vegetables and gravy require herbaceous wines while sweet flavors of corn, butternut squash, sweet potatoes and cranberries require fruit-forward wines to enhance their caramel notes.
You may choose sparkling and still wines as well as red and white, as long as the wines have good acid structure and low tannins. Shimmering Rieslings and velvety Pinot Noirs come to mind. These are classics, but there are many other interesting choices too.
Here are some of my favorites:
(But this is only the beginning. Please ask for personal sugggestions when you come in!)
Kir-Yianni Akakies Sparkling Rose 2018, $22.99
"The 2018 Akakies Sparkling Rosé, tasted about two months after bottling, is a 100% Xinomavro bottled January 31, 2019. It is made with the Charmat method. Showing a bit of that Xinomavro earthiness, this surrounds the fruit with lush texture, but this is pretty laid-back this year. It tastes great, though, and it is certainly in a crowd-pleasing style. The Xinomavro nuances allow it to be a little interesting too." (Wine Advocate) Deep bright rose color. Overabundant bubbles pointing out the wonderful smells of Xinomavro. Rich mousse, explosive aromatic character, refreshing and balanced. A stylish dry sparkling rosé. This is a great addition to your Thanksgiving celebration. It serves well as an aperitif, as your hungry guests arrive, served with appetizers and soft cheeses, works well with the turkey and cranberry during the meal and has enough fruit to go along with dessert. The Market restaurant in Annisquam featured it throughout the summer to rave reviews. This is a fun wine to enjoy with cherished friends and family throughout the new year.
Horst Sauer Silvaner Escherndorfer Trocken Franken, 2015 - $18.99
Weingut Horst Sauer is famous in Franken and around the world for its exceptional dry, minerally wines, crafted by Horst Sauer alongside his daughter, Sandra. Horst is particularly devoted to his noble sweet wines, like his sublime, creamy Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese. Sandra Sauer joined the family business in 2004, bringing energy and momentum to the wine making process, as well as expertise in marketing. In 2006, their winemaking facilities were completely modernized in order to streamline their production. Today, they continue to produce internationally honored wines that are vastly enjoyable to drink. 100% silvaner from the Escherndorfer Lump Vineyards, this wine shines with the characteristic dry minerality of the grape, hand-harvested at high-altitude steep vineyards. Escherndorf am Lumpen: These plots are located on the steepest slopes of the Escherndorfer Lump-they are so steep, in fact, that they would be ideal for ski jumping! The soil is pure and planted with vines over 30 years old. If you are looking for a dry, flinty white with enough aromatics to meld with your New England Thanksgiving flavors, this is a great one to try - at an exceptional price too!
Couly Dutheil's Les Chanteaux 2018, $27.99
rare Chenin Blanc from Chinon Couly-Dutheil's Les Chanteaux has become a cult favorite. This 100% Chenin Blanc from Chinon is a wonderful and unique expression of the grape. The wine is dry, round and vibrant with floral aromas - a little melon, white pear and pineapple on the palate. It's tough to keep this one in stock. Once again yields in the Loire were low in 2017, but the vintage holds an beautiful aromatic purity to this already expressive white wine.
Couly-Dutheil's Les Chanteaux has such a huge fan club that it's tough to keep this in stock. Couly-Dutheil makes fewer than 1,500 cases of Les Chanteaux each year, the vast majority of which is scooped up by France's finest restaurants. We buy all we can, and our allocation has grown over time, but this wine always runs out.
Les Chanteaux is 100% Chenin Blanc, grown in two different vineyards in Chinon: Les Goupillieres and Les Molieres, both known for their chalky soil and sunny exposures. The chalk in the soil is an essential aspect of the terroir - the Chenin Blanc grape requires that chalkiness to develop it's pronounced acidity. In white wines acidity is what makes the difference and between refreshing, crisp vibrancy and just OK. It also magnifies the fruit.
Couly-Dutheil's Chanteaux is the wine that continually steals the show at tastings and it has stolen the heart of the French and American press. We were thrilled to see the 2015 vintage was awarded 93 points and landed in the Top 5 "Highly Recommended" dry Loire Chinon white wines in a Decanter panel tasting.
There are others in Chinon who attempt to grow the Chenin Blanc grape on inferior soil, with inferior results. Couly-Dutheil's Les Chanteaux is sans doute the best white wine made in Chinon, and there's a line of three-star chefs out the door to prove it. To be awarded a Michelin star is every chef's dream and to be awarded three, is exceedingly rare. There are only 26 three-Michelin star restaurants in all of France. You will find Domaine Couly-Dutheil's Les Chanteaux on 21 of the 26 three-Michelin star restaurant's wine lists in France. Les Chanteaux is a dry, round, vibrant wine with flowery aromas and a little melon, white pear and pineapple on the palate. This wine is similar to its Loire cousin Vouvray but it has more weight and depth; it is a wonderful and unique expression of pure Chenin Blanc, which as most of you know, is my favorite! We will be drinking Chenin at Thanksgiving this year!
Domaine Couly-Dutheil Chinon Rose, 2018, MAGNUM - $39.99
This 100% Cabernet Franc rosé from Couly-Dutheil is dry with bright berry fruit and knock-you-over aromatics. The Chinon terroir where it is grown puts it's unique stamp on the wine with its characteristic structure that makes this Rosé perfect for pairing with foods on the grill. Arnaud's Rosé brings beautiful warm spring and summer days right to your lips. You can taste the powerful red berry fruit (Rosé should never just taste like pink white wine - in fact, you can think of this Rosé as a red wine meant to be drunk chilled) and there is that fresh appealing perfect acidity in your mouth. The color is pure Caribbean sunset.
Domaine Couly-Dutheil has been making some of the Loire's best wines for 90 years now. This Rosé is produced on gravel and sandy soils. What sets the Couly-Dutheil Rosé apart from so many others is that, from vine to bottle, it is crafted to be the best Rosé it can be. The grapes are picked by hand and the yields are low. The grapes for this Rosé come from a dedicated vineyard and harvested earlier than grapes bound for red wines to maximize the bright red fruit flavors.
Vinifying the best Rosé begins with pressing the grapes the way you normally would for any red wine. The juice is then allowed to sit with the grape skins briefly (usually just a few hours) picking up color, but also tannins, pectins and proteins, which give the wine structure. Then the juice is drained off, put into another vat without the skins and the fermentation proceeds.
Couly-Dutheil's Rosé is intense flavor, beautiful, seductive color and structure to please even the "red-only" kinda crowd. We have just 2 bottles of this exquisite wine - both magnums. An incredible value and so impressive on the table! If none of you take them, I surely will!
