Twelve Nightcaps Before Christmas – The Re(night)cap with Afterword

The nightcaps we posted are good all year long

With any of these you will never go wrong

In case you missed one we’ve reposted them here

With one afterword, coming sometime next year…

imageEpilogue: Oktopusake Premium Junmai Sake, Connecticut

On the rare occasions I’m not drinking wine with sushi, I opt for sake instead. Sake is a perfect pairing with sushi and, since it is a rice wine, I can still call it research. I was very excited to learn that there is a local company working on perfecting their own sake. Oktopusake will soon be offering three varieties of their premium junmai sake to Connecticut consumers: Sun – a traditional dry sake; Moon – an unfiltered version (think milky white and slightly sweet); and Stars – a specialty reserve sake that will be as black as squid ink because it will be tinted with, well…squid ink! We will keep you posted on Oktopusake’s progress and are very much looking forward to seeing this new local product in Connecticut stores and restaurants in 2014.

 

 

Re(night)cap: One of the questions I encounter the most as a wine educator is “What’s your favorite wine?” I confess, it’s a question I’ve come to dread because I always feel like I’m disappointing the inquisitor. My answer usually goes something like this: “I don’t really have a favorite. It depends on the day, the time of year, the company in which I find myself, and any gustatory delights with which I may be pairing the wine.”  If really pushed, I’ll tell them that I am a Champagne girl. This seems to provide them with a little more satisfaction. But the truth is my favorite wine changes on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis. And I am always waiting to find my next favorite wine. The beauty of the wine world is that there is always more to explore. So, here I will present a list of my 12 favorite wines right now for drinking and gifting during the holidays, one day at a time for the next 12 days.

A Votre Santé!

For the full list of 12 nightcaps, click here: Nightcap Recap

 

 

 

 

 

Twelve Nightcaps Before Christmas

One of the questions I encounter the most as a wine educator is “What’s your favorite wine?” I confess, it’s a question I’ve come to dread because I always feel like I’m disappointing the inquisitor. My answer usually goes something like this: “I don’t really have a favorite. It depends on the day, the time of year, the company in which I find myself, and any gustatory delights with which I may be pairing the wine.”  If really pushed, I’ll tell them that I am a Champagne girl. This seems to provide them with a little more satisfaction. But the truth is my favorite wine changes on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis. And I am always waiting to find my next favorite wine. The beauty of the wine world is that there is always more to explore. So, here I will present a list of my 12 favorite wines right now for drinking and gifting during the holidays, one day at a time for the next 12 days.

A Votre Santé!

photo-141Nightcap 1: Domaine de Montbourgeau Crémant du Jura, Jura, France $25

Sparkling wine is appropriate any time of the year, but it's especially welcome during celebrations and holidays. Besides being festive, sparkling wines are made using grapes with high acidity. This acid, as well as the bubbles, helps these wines cut through a myriad of holiday foods, including those with higher salt and/or fat contents, making them excellent mates for varied holiday hors d'oeuvres. 

This delightful sparkling wine made with 100% chardonnay grapes from the L’Etoile region of Jura is made in the same method as Champagne. It shows citrus notes and lively acidity with a lingering touch of toastiness. And oh the bubbles! The icing on the yule log? Nicole Deriaux, granddaughter of the original winemaker and now full time vigneron, practices organic viticulture. L'Etoile means "the star" in French. Quite fitting for this star of a sparkler.

 

The Crémant of the Crop

I recently had to face the horrifying self-realization that I am a hoarder. I am not sure of the exact moment I made this realization. That slight tinge of recognition when I saw a few minutes of a reality TV show on the subject? When I started having to ban houseguests from opening certain closets or even bedroom doors? I don’t know. But I buy things I think are wonderful and beautiful and then decide they are so wonderful and beautiful that I can’t possibly sully them with use. And so they sit, in packages, with labels still intact. If I ever mention wanting something in the presence of my mother, she tells me to go shopping in my closet first. She is sure I will find it there, whatever it is. She is usually right.

This hoarding instinct tends to permeate my wine buying habits as well. I find a wine I am incredibly excited about and carefully store it away because I can’t possibly bring myself to drink it and then be faced with the harsh reality that I no longer have it. For a while, I tried purchasing two bottles of every wine that excited me – one for now, one for later – but that got to be expensive. I decided just recently that it was time to start enjoying some of these beautiful and wonderful things before I was no longer around to do so. After all, things happen. And so, this is how on a recent Sunday evening I came to be drinking a delightful wine that had been chilling in my wine refrigerator for longer than I could remember. What had I been waiting for?

The wine was Jean-François Ganevat Crémant du Jura “La Combe” Rotalier, a sparkling wine from the fascinating wine region of Jura in eastern France. Jura, from which the term Jurassic comes, has topography similar to that found millions of years ago with the key soil types being limestone and marlstone. I was incredibly pleased with the wine. Its lovely pale amber hue with delicate bubble ballet immediately belied any notion that this was going to be just another Champagne wannabe. The nose was abundant with fruit. Pears and stone fruits such as peach and apricot flooded my taste buds and then were quickly enveloped by a pronounced biscuitiness that lingered for several glorious moments. It was during one of these moments that I recalled why I had purchased this particular bottle of wine. It was produced using biodynamic agriculture. Jean-François Ganevat converted his family’s estate in Rotalier to biodynamics in 2006 after returning from Burgundy where he spent time in the company of natural wine enthusiasts. Ganevat’s methods include minimal intervention with nature while growing his grapes as well as minimizing intervention in the winemaking process. For example, he limits his use of sulfur to a bare minimum. I have yet to try a biodynamic wine I do not like. This wine was no exception. And that was the most wonderful and beautiful thing of all.