Wine & Spirits - April 2012 - (Page 6)

fined & filtered Liquid & Nitrogen by Patrick Comiskey OT LONG AGO, Derek Brown—a Washington, D.C.-based sommelier and mixologist (and a W&S Best New Sommelier 2007)—was asked to help out with wine pairings for a meal at Rogue 24, prepared by guest chef Rubén Garcia, head of research and development for José Andrés’s ThinkFoodGroup. At nearby Minibar and his other restaurants, Andrés is renowned for his ultra-modernist approach. The menu didn’t disappoint. The meal started with three bites: an interpretation of baba ganoush with yogurt, sumac oil and eggplant; a riff on the fruit rollup, composed of ovulato paper and dehydrated raspberries; and finally “dragon’s breath kettlecorn.” That’s popcorn caramelized with curry powder, compressed into discs and dropped into liquid nitrogen, the eating of which somehow results in a “smoke” that exits your mouth by way of your nose. Brown, who has successfully faced down such fantasia as kimchi cracklings and pizza paper—not to mention the standard molecular repertoire of gelées, airs, ices, soils, gravels and foams—was initially daunted. “How is one drink supposed to cover these three bites?” he wondered. Such are the daily challenges that sommeliers face in modernist kitchens. Chefs like Andrés, Ferran Adrià, Wylie Dufresne and Grant Achatz, and tomes like Nathan Myrhvold’s Modernist Cuisine, have upended tradition in ways that are both thrilling and disruptive, with flavors reconstituted, textures reinterpreted, meals broken down into unrecognizable forms. Such practices can wreak havoc on the basic tenets of wine pairing. “It can be kind of maddening,” says Brown. It can also be liberating. “Usually it pushes me,” says Dewey Dufresne, who directs the wine program at wd-50 in New York for It’s like phrasing, the his son Wylie. “I mean, if he’s way a jazz musician going to challenge people’s taste buds, I figure I have to come up will work a musical with something just as playful.” phrase from one song Sommeliers who work with into another. these unconventional dishes often No one would say it belongs speak with admiration of Canathere, but it opens up dian François Chartier. His book other possibilities. Taste Buds and Molecules, to be reDEREK BROWN leased in the US this spring, breaks down food and wine pairing to the molecular level. But most admit that the only one who comes close to Chartier’s heretical rigor is Chartier himself. For the rest, versatility is the operative word: They seek out wines that circumnavigate several elements of a dish, even the farflung ones, assembling an arsenal of Champagnes, Sherries, rieslings and pinot noirs. N Chefs Diego Caro and Rubén García And some go-to wines are more ambidextrous than others. At Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, William Brajnikoff likes to employ Cornas or Côte Rôtie because their aromatic range—whether smoke, meat, garrigue or cassis—offers more opportunities to intersect with components on the plate. At Hugo’s in Portland, Maine, Janet Webber addresses a savory sea urchin ice cream with the 2009 Fondo Antico I Versi Bianco, a Sicilian blend of grecanico and insolia, because of the wine’s uncanny ability to feel rich and broad in the attack but lean and angular in the finish. In molecular cuisine, the most useful wines are the most elastic. Of course, some compositions are so precariously balanced that it takes an extremely deft wine choice not to clash with the interplay of flavors and textures. “As a rule, you definitely want to go lighter than the food itself,” says Lucas Paya of Andrés’s Think Food Group, which includes Spanish-themed The Bazaar at SLS in Beverly Hills. “It helps with managing complex textures.” At The Bazaar, Paya often uses lighter Sherries, not only because they’re Spanish, but because with a complex dish they’re positively chameleonic. Champagne comes close to serving the same function, he says; when he worked at El Bulli, he’d often pour the same Champagne at different points in the meal. Older vintages of Bollinger RD, for example, became changelings with air, growing deeper and more vinous as they spent time in a decanter, allowing them to play different roles throughout the meal. Champagne crossed the mind of Derek Brown as he wrestled with his pairing conundrum at Rogue 24, but he thought it a bit of a cop-out: “I mean, soda water pairs with everything, too.” And anyway, striking the exact foil in this instance might be beside the point. In pairing with modernist dishes, he says, it’s just as important not to disrupt the “mood” on the plate, to maintain the whimsy and sense of play built into it. “A lot of the time I have to find a way to get around a literal pairing,” he says, “and make a connection from another direction. It’s like phrasing, the way a jazz musician will work a musical phrase from one song into another. No one would say it belongs there, but it opens up other possibilities. The impact isn’t about flavors, it’s more nostalgic, or emotional.” That’s how Brown got around his quandary. Inspired by the baba ganoush, he devised a cocktail with Middle Eastern overtones involving lemon and rosewater, firmed up with liquid nitrogen and shaded with hibiscus. “Was it a perfect pairing? Probably not,” he concedes. But the cocktail managed to mirror the mood of the dish itself. I 6 W I N E & S P I R I T S A P R I L 2 0 1 2 Chefs by Dan Swartz

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2012

Wine & Spirits - April 2012
Editor's Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered: Patrick Comiskey on pairing wine with molecular gastronomy
Extreme Values
Spirits: Lou Bustamante on cocktail bitters
Wine Superheros
Port without Serra
The Class of ’72
Brightliners in the Deep End
The Restoration of Austria’s Noble Red
New & Notable New York City Restaurants
23rd Annual Restaurant Poll
Tastings Overview
American Pinot Noir
Austrian Wines
White Burgundy
Loire Wines
Portugal Reds
Tuscan Wines
American Wines
Imported Wines
Lost Commandments Howard G. Goldberg rewrites Exodus

Wine & Spirits - April 2012

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2024spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2023winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2023fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2023summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2023spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2022winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2022fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2022summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2022spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2021winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202110
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202108
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202106
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202104
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2020winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202010
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202008
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202006
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202004
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/202002
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201912
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201911
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201908
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201906
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201904
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201902
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201812
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2018_winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201810
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201809
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201808
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201806
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201804
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201802
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201712
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2017winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201710
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201709
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201706
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201704
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201702
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201612
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2016winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201610
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2016fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201608
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201606
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201604
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201602
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201512
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2015winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201510
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2015fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201508
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201504
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201502
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201412
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2014winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201410
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2014fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201408
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201406
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201404
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201402
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201312
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2013winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201310
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2013fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201308
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201306
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201302
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201212
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/2012winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201210
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/fall2012
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201208
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201206
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201204
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201202
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/drm_test
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/winespirits/201110
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com