Despite my wife Debbie and I agreeing that we would forgo the 3 day International Cool Chardonnay Celebration (#i4c2013) celebration (we were just in Niagara a few weeks earlier), when the social media folks from the made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, it was very hard to say “no”. Finding out that “my second home” in Niagara, “Among the Vines B&B” could accommodate me turned my “maybe” into a solid “yes”.
Leaving Ottawa early Saturday morning, I had just enough time to make a couple of #Chardnado T-shirt drops for friends before hitting the traffic on the QEW. Opting to take the back road in, evidence of the wicked storm the night before (many wineries lost power and/or had water issues) was literally all over the back roads. Coming down Mountainview Road by Fielding Estate Winery, the road was almost impassable.
Trees down on Mounatainview Road
After a quick visit and check-in at Among the Vines, I headed over to the Vineland Research and Innovation Center, site of both activities for the day. I quickly found a perfect spot for the Curry and Chardonnay Pairing.
Welcome Sign
Great setting on the grounds of Vineland Research & Innovation
Curry and…did you say Chardonnay?
Yes, I know. Riesling, or Gewurztraminer is the “perfect” match for Indian/Asian cuisine. That is exactly why I really wanted to attend this event. Peter Bodnar Road was going to pair different Chardonnays with Vikram Vij’s curries. I had never thought about Chardonnay with curry…would it work? Wouldn’t it miss the characteristic sweetness of the Riesling? Would it be as good as Riesling? All these thoughts occurred to me on the long drive to Niagara.
If you read my pre-event post, you know I have visited one of Vikram’s restaurants in Vancouver previously. The food was fantastic. I had high expectations, even though I had never met the man himself.
Anyone in attendance that afternoon will tell you that Vikram is a character. He’s funny, politically incorrect, and I think everyone that was there had a real blast with him. I’ll try to leave out the colourful parts, although I was tempted to call this post “Breast milk, getting laid, and pairing Chardonnay with Curry” because all of these topics (and more!) did come up in the demonstration.
Vikram Vij in Action
After a brief introduction, Vikram was off, explaining Indian cuisine is unique – every household, each restaurant, puts their own spin on things and makes it the way they like it and with the amount of spice they like. He truly believes that this is the beautiful part – because there is no exact way to do it, however you make it is your own style. He told stories of people visiting his restaurant and saying “Your’s didn’t taste like the
Colourful Spices!
All Indian cooking starts with onions, ginger, and garlic, and the three dishes served today all started from the same base. Different spices get added based on the dish, and Vikram explained that they would be using yogurt and cream in the dishes this day. Peter’s job then was to match these creamy nuances (hopefully) in the Chardonnay pairings.
The first wines were poured for the first course (curried prawns):
Curried Prawns
Wine 1 is from Niagara College Teaching Winery
Niagara College Teaching Winery 2011 Unoaked Chardonnay (Ontario): Fresh green apples, some tangy tropical fruit, citrus and a lemon pith finish all rode on a nice stream of acidity.The wine was crisp and so refreshing that I had to control myself as I still needed to try it with the curry!
Wine 2 is from Poplar Grove (BC)
Poplar Grove 2011 Reserve Chardonnay (British Columbia): Although only 20% of this wine saw oak, the nose gave off distinctly different aromas of baked apples and a thin vein of sweet butterscotch. Despite the creaminess of the nose and the rich palate, the wine maintained a fairly fresh edge. There was a sweet candy apple note on the finish before a lingering lemon pith bitterness kicked in to cleanse the palate.
Winner of Pairing 1: Poplar Grove by a hair – the creaminess worked just a little better as a textual match, complementing the light use of coconut milk in the dish. Veronique Rivest, who was also in attendance, mentioned that Chardonnay is a very textual wine, and we saw the different textures in these first two wines – one that complimented and the other that contrasted. Both worked.
The second course wines were going to be paired with the curried chicken. Vikram had told us that the dishes would get spicier as we went, and this one was going to use yogurt as it’s creamy component.
Course 2: Curried Chicken
Wine 3 is 13th Street Sandstone Reserve
2011 13th Street Sandstone Reserve Chardonnay (Ontario): Peter mentioned that this wine had spent 8 months in oak, with regular stirring of the lees. The lees was definitely noticeable on this one and reminded me of apples and cream. The palate had a similar creamy richness to it, and a fresh core of acidity. Creamy and fresh, a great contrast in the mouth. As the wine warmed further, the lees became more prominent but not enough to mask the fresh apple.
Wine 4 is Adelsheim Caitlin’s Reserve
2011 Adelsheim Caitlin’s Reserve (Oregon): 100% barrel fermented (17% new oak) with lees stirring for two months and sur lie aging in wood for 10 months gave this wine some different characteristics. The nose was sweet candied apples and what reminded me of a warm glass of vanilla milk. The palate remained quite fresh though and the oak influences moved to the background. A refreshing mouthfeel, the finish went long, with nutty notes and a slight buttery finale.
More Spices!
As the chicken was taking a while to cook through, Vikram took the opportunity again to remind us that we should “…celebrate the nuances of food and wine”, and that we all should be encouraging others to celebrate the difference we find in cooking – “Variety is great!”. He then explained that in Indian cuisine, black cardamon is the work horse, comparing it to Cab Franc in the wine world. It adds struture to the “hot spices” in garam masala. He passed around the black cardamon and those of us that sampled it found it hard to believe it was not a smoked spice – it is very smoky and even has some menthol hints.
Peter talked a bit about wine serving temperature – we typically find restaurants serve reds too warm and whites too cold. These wines were now out in 25?C temperatures for about an hour, and were just about perfect. “Cool, but not cold” is the best temperature for Chardonnay.
Winner of pairing 2: Strangely enough, the 13th Street worked a little better than the Adelsheim, which was the opposite of what I had expected. The 13th Street lees seemed more powerful (smoother) and the Adelsheim seemed to get a bit more acidic when paired with the curried chicken. I did prefeer the Adelsheim by a slight margin on its own though. Two fantastic wines!
Round 3 was the lamb curry and some of the onions and spices had been caramelizing since the start of the demonstration – Vikram showed us how brown they were now and explained that everything about this dish would be more intense. He also noted that while the French deglaze the pan with wine or some kind of stock, Indian cuisine uses tomatoes for deglazing.
Lamb Curry
Wine 5 is Malivoire Moira Chardonnay
2010 Malivoire Moira’s Chardonnay (Ontario): On the nose I detected sweet lemon drops, pear, light apricot & butterscotch, and evidence of lees with a buttery note. The palate refreshed with green apples, minerality, and lemon – leading into a beautiful and refreshing finish.
Wine 6 is Clos Du Prieure from France
2007 Domaine de la Vougeraie – Vougeot Clos du Prieure Monopole (Burgundy): Caramel popcorn was all I could think…I kept thinking that they must have gotten the wine mixed up as it was unlike anything I expected. This wine smelled like something right from Kernels, which made the fresh palate even more surprising – lemon line, all crisp citrus with great acidity and minerality. There was a certain spiciness to the wine that paired nicely with the spice in the lamb dish.
Winner of the final pairing: A tie? Both worked wonderfully. If you forced me into a decision I would give my preference to Malivoire by a hair, but I would suggest either wine as a great pairing match for curried lamb. Who knew Chardonnay would work with spicy lamb?
Vikram left everyone with a small bag of his spices, and came around and talked with all attendees at the end of the event. The girl sitting two seats away from me told Vikram that she had been vegetarian for 10 years and broke it just for his pairing. His passion and enthusiasm has just that kind of affect on people! So next time you are ordering or making curries, think about the components in the dish and see if you can find a pairing that worked as well as all 6 of these did.
It was a great event…and a first in terms of having a celebrity chef do one of these pairing events at the Cool Chardonnay celebration. Given the success of the event and the engagement of the audience, it won’t be the last!
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