WINE CHAT: Exploring the Rhone without Leaving Boston

A trip to France sounds appealing as my interest in food and wine grows.  But with my son ready to turn two this month, my immediate traveling future is more likely to involve Disney World rather than Paris.  So I eagerly accepted an invitation to attend an Epicurean Evening featuring "Pape Stars" at Boston's Aujourd'hui restaurant, a mainstay on the Boston fine dining scene.  It promised a chance to explore the Rhone from afar and learn more about this French region that I knew as a source of great value red wines.

On a balmy July evening, Jodi and I strolled through Boston's Public Garden on the way to the Four Seasons Hotel, home of Aujourd'hui.  Settling into our comfy chairs we took in the casual elegance of the bar area with its deep mahogany wood and stately works of art.  We had arrived a bit earlier than the other guests, so were easily tempted into starting with a glass of champagne.  The Louis Roederer champagn offered was dry and well-balanced, with a hint of pears.  Very high quality champagne.

We had a chance to chat with Sommelier Brick Loomis as we sipped our champagne.  Brick dispelled my notion that one would need to be able to recite weather conditions in Bordeuax for the past 30 years to carry on a conversation with a sommelier.  He's about my age, and is very down to earth and approachable, along with being passionate and deeply knowledgable about wine.

When the other seats in the bar area had been filled in, including an engaging pair of fellow wine enthusiasts who joined our table, the fun was really ready to begin.  The weekly Epicurean Evenings provide Brick and Chef William Kovel a chance to experiment with food and wine pairings and keep their offerings fresh.  And at $50 per person for the food and wine, it's a very reasonable way for average folk to sample some excellent food and wine for a fraction of what a full meal there would cost.

Brick set the stage for the tasting by conjuring up an image of a dinner in Lyon at legendary chef Fernand Point's La Pyramide.  Lyon is the northern most city in the Cotes du Rhone region, which stretches on both sides of the Rhone Valley from Lyon down to the Mediterranean.  The northern portion of the region features primarily syrah grapes from Cote-Rotie and Hermitage, and often costs around $100 per bottle due to the very limited production.  Hence I'm more familiar with the southern part of the region where the reds are based primarily on grenache, and have much to offer in my price range.

When buying Rhones, I almost exclusively go for reds, having not cared too much for the white Rhones I've tried.  Brick may have changed my mind about Rhone whites with his first selection of the evening, a 2005 Chateau Pesquie Quintessence, made from roussanne and clairette grapes. This blend was delicate and smooth, with a welcomed refreshing taste on this warm summer night.

This first wine selection was paired some interesting charcuterie.  These little treats had earthy flavors offset by a sweet date compote and a zesty whole grain mustard.  A great start to the evening! 

For the second tasting, we moved from a white that was a pleasant surprise to one I had been anticipating as we headed to to the tasting.  It was time to try that rising star of the southern Rhone, a Chateauneuf du Pape.    There are 13 grape varietals allowed in a Chateaneuf blend, including 5 white grapes, with Grenache being the primary contributor. The 2003 Chateau La Nerthe we tasted utilzed all 13 allowable varietals, and it showed in the complex flavors of the wine.  With its heady bouquet of fresh violets, I could have just sniffed this wine all night (OK, not true, it needed to be drunk too).  I generally use some type of fruit to describe a wine from California; a Rhone red like this requires a broader vocabulary.  I tasted a bit of leather and bark, along with a dark blackberry flavor.  This wine got better as it breathed, opening up with more fruitiness.

The Chateauneuf du Pape was served with a grilled tri-tip of beef along with roasted carrots, turnips and baby potatoes.  The beef was very tasty and the root vegetables gave the dish a hearty quality.  The pairing conjured up an image of eating in a casual countryside restaurant outside of Lyon.

The final wine of the evening was a 2005 Domaine la Garrigue Vacqueyras, from a villiage about 15 miles northeast of Chateauneuf du Pape.  This wine has great depth, with tastes of currant, herbs and cherries.  Made from a blend of grenache, syrah, mourvedre, and cinsault, this was another great wine. 

The final dish was a savory rather than sweet finish to the night, which was fine by me.  A piece of rich, nutty Tomme Berger sheep's milk cheese was served alongisde farro cooked with bacon and yellow tomatoes.  Farro is a hearty whole grain that really satisfies.  The two elements of this course combined wonderfully with the earthy Vacqueyras wine.

The three courses were small plates, but together they were enough to satisfy my appetite for the evening.  But the meal very much did leave me wanting more...more trips to these Epicurean evenings and more good Rhone wine! 

Info to use:  The Epicurean Evenings take place nearly every Tuesday evening at 7 p.m.  Call  (617) 351-2037 for reservations and more information.  If you want to find some good Rhones yourself, note bottles such as the ones here from a village like Chateauneuf du Pape or Vacqueyras might set you back a bit (the former retails for about $40).  But there are a lot of quite enjoyable reds with the general Cote du Rhone appelation on the label in the $12-$15 range.  For instance, we enjoyed the 2004 Andezon Cotes du Rhone ($12) last night with our grilled lamb.

David Crowley, Gather Food Correspondent

David enjoys sharing good food and wine with family and friends.  David writes about his wine explorations and discoveries in his column, "Wine Chat", a twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials:  Food.  He also blogs about food and wine at Cooking Chat.  By day, David is the President and Founder of Social Capital Inc.