Eric Ripert prefers that his fridge is empty.

Gourmet Live is quickly becoming one of my favorite websites when it comes to food. Here is an interview with Eric Ripert, the acclaimed chef of Le Bernardin, who recently celebrated a couple of rare events: earning 3 Michelin stars and 29 from Zagat.

Gourmet Live: What 10 ingredients are always in your fridge?

Eric Ripert: Honestly I don’t think I have 10 ingredients in my fridge, but I always have butter, yogurt and marmalade. We buy for the day and almost nothing goes into the fridge. I like to buy the right amount of food so there’s no waste. I just bought an apartment and it came with a very big fridge, but I gave it back to the building and asked for a smaller one because I don’t want to store a lot of things. I want to eat fresh, so really, the fridge is empty.

Gourmet Live: What 5 ingredients are always on your shopping list?

Eric Ripert: Shopping or not, I make sure that I always have salt, pepper, olive oil, butter and Herbes de Provence.

Gourmet Live: How would you describe the perfect dinner party?

Eric Ripert: When the host and guests are equally having fun. When the food and wines are delicious and ultimately at the end of the night everyone has a smile on their face. I think it’s always important to have a mix of things you can share. And very often when I throw a party, I break the ice by having drinks and intermezzos to share. Or I mix guacamole and everyone is dipping, so everyone’s sharing. And when we sit down, I plate individually.

1995 Château Léoville-Poyferré

Unfortunately I tasted this only after it had been decanted. That being said, it was very aromatic upon opening and still held a deep reddish-purple core with only mild signs of age at the edges. A smooth, well-balanced, and mature wine. As for pedigree, In Frank Schoonmaker's eyes, Poyferré is the best vineyard in St. Julien and "perhaps a little fuller-bodied than the other Léovilles, and generally brings a slightly higher price" (1976). If you want something more like Pauillac, go for Léoville Las Cases which is near Château Latour on the border of St. Julien and Pauillac. This leads me to some words of wisdom I picked up along the way, if you like a particular winery and don't want to pay out of the nose for it, it'll pay to find one of their neighbors. Perfect example: Provenance of Rutherford gets a significant amount of their grapes from Beckstoffer's Georges III vineyard, which happens to be adjacent to Caymus. Try out the Provenance if you like Caymus and tell me I'm wrong. I have to credit this snippet of advice to the man who also recently shared his opinion about the 1995 vintage in Bordeaux. Frankly, the point was that 1995--while a notable vintage--is perfect with food due to their unique structure and notable acidity. So, if you're dining out and want to splurge on Bordeaux, 1995 Bordeaux is definitely a good choice.

P.S. I thank the accidental billionaires for making it possible for me to taste this wine.

Jancis Robinson rediscovers Savennières

I caught her link on Twitter (@JancisRobinson) this morning. The article can be found here and has a few suggestions for you to try. Sadly, she does not note the prices for the wines; one particular wine, Joly's Coulée de Serrant (apparently meaning, "Casting of Tightening"), was recently listed in Wine Spectator's advanced newsletter as retailing for $100 (2007). To put that into perspective, a particularly renowned French restaurant in Boston's Back Bay (@LEspalier) carries the 2005 vintage (reviews) for that price! By the way, it's currently my favorite white wine and it has retained its #1 ranking for well over a year now.

Value hunting does pay off; foodies and their friends can enjoy a bottle at Silvertone, and also if you frequent this seafood giant at any of their Massachusetts locations, you'll find it there for a even better bargain. If you find it retail, try it out with a Margherita pizza (I recommend Regina's, medium basil, with a crisp crust).

I once purchased a bottle of the 2005 Nicolas Joly Coulée de Serrant at an undisclosed location of the aforementioned seafood giant and after having a glass with a good friend, I took the remainder of the bottle home. It lasted me over the course of 7 days and was stored at room temperature throughout the entire time. I tasted the wine every day at approximately the same time on each day and recorked it immediately after pouring; by the 7th day, the wine was still showing nicely. Additionally, I had another enlightening experience tasting the 2005 Coulèe de Serrant with a group of French winemakers and Erik Johnson, a person I consider as one of my many mentors in the industry and the one who first introduced me to the term Cork Dork. The wide range of opinions that emanated from that group amazed me, some went so far as to say that the wine was oxidized. Ultimately, that moment demonstrated the beautiful, completely subjective nature of wine in general. After all, subjectivity is fundamentally based on one's taste and I always try to stress the subjectivity of tasting notes and emphasize the use of them as a supplemental guide in developing your own palette. Think of it this way, if wine professionals can adamantly disagree over the characteristics of a wine and how one could realistically achieve such results via the winemaking process, this proves subjectivity because it ultimately relies on the winemaker's taste. This is one of the many reasons why everyone can and should enjoy what merely amounts to fermented grape juice.

Joly actually disputes the oxidation claim:

Chenin gets its complexity only when it is fully ripe – deep yellow. And only healthy, sustainable farming can guarantee this without grey rot.

For this reason, all our grapes are picked in four or five passes as each parcel begins to raisin and form botrytis - thereby allowing the mineral flavors of Chenin to achieve their fullest intensity.

Once opened, wines made in this way continue to improve – and are in no way oxydized.
To be sure that the color is not oxydation you can make the test yourself by tasting each day a glass over several days without putting the bottle in the fridge just recork. You will see the wine improving the first days even sometimes over more than a week. If the wine would be oxydized it would be undrinkable.

Snooth.com provides this bit of information on chenin blanc:

Classic descriptors for the flavors of Chenin Blanc include peach, honey, lanolin, marzipan, and quince jelly though the dry style from South Africa, where the wines are known as Steen, often exhibits more tropical fruit notes that recall pineapple and guava.

1997 Giacomo Borgogno & Figli Barolo Classico Riserva

This wine is drinking beautifully on day 3. A stellar vintage makes this effort quite the success as it is deftly aromatic, with scents of flowers, spice, and dark fruits. The back label actually provides you with this little gem about where the grapes come from:

Judicious blend of Nebbiolo grapes from the finest hillside sites in the commune of Barolo (Liste, San Pietro, Cannubi, Cannubi Boscis and Brunate. It has great substance and is intended to age for many years to arrive at the ultimate goal of balance and harmony. Alcohol, acid and tannin fuse together to form a ful-bodied (sic) structure and the bouquet shows great complexity. An elegant Barolo with true presence: an important wine for important occasions.

Upon opening the bottle a couple days ago, it showed brilliantly with a meal of monster-sized steaks; specifically a porterhouse and a bone-in New York strip, accompanied by sauteed broccoli, a medley of sauteed mushrooms and onions, and some onion rolls. I added some 2005 Barolo to the medley and used the rest of the juices to make into a sauce with more wine and butter to serve on top of the steaks and also added some to the broccoli. A nice little trick I learned from years in the industry is to add some of the wine (same varietal, ideally from the region) you plan on drinking to your sauce.

This is so well-balanced and food-friendly it's making me hungry just tasting the wine, a lovely dance between acidity, fruit, and tannins. A steal at $60. Wine Spectator ($) gave it 94 points in 2007 at a 1997 retrospective tasting:

Ruby-garnet. Aromas of strawberry, lilies and plum. Opens up beautifully. Full-bodied, with very soft and round tannins. Viscous and tannic. Still needs time to polish the tannins. Very concentrated.--1997 Italian blind retrospective. Best after 2010. –JS

Dom des Terres Falmet Cinsault 2007

Are you on Twitter? You should be so you can follow me @sigwang along with other people like @JancisRobinson, and Gary Vaynerchuk. I found Jancis because I was curious as to who owned the name @CorkDork, so a hat tip to a fellow CorkDork.

Her entry on Cinsault is a delight inspired this post, plus I know where you can enjoy her recommended wine, Dom des Terres Falmet Cinsault in Boston, all thanks to this man. The floral and red fruit aromas are followed by a caressing softness on the palate and a decent amount of acidity leaves your mouth longing for another bite of food.

Yves Falmet majored in biochemistry, but when it comes to wine, he is self-taught. He established the domaine himself after having spent time in New Zealand. The vines are over 40 years old and the wine is unfined, unfiltered, and unoaked.

As for Cinsault, Robinson cleverly explains a bit about its history, like the fact that its progeny include Pinotage, of South Africa fame:

Cinsault is most commonly encountered in South Africa. In fact, having been known there originally as Hermitage, it is one of the parents, along with Pinot Noir, of the Cape’s signature grape Pinotage (geddit?). In South Africa it is often dismissed as a suitable ingredient for rosé, but it can yield lovely, early maturing reds too. (Remember the time when winemakers thought Grenache was good for nothing other than pink wines?)

Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé Brut MV

Acclaimed as the "world's best selling rosé Champagne", this is a delicious piece of work made from 100% Pinot Noir. I'm enjoying this with a plate of pork potstickers and steamed dumplings.

1987 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon

The noticeably clear edge transitioned into the classic brick color of a mature red, yet the color of core remained dark red. A lovely, mature Cabernet with 13.2% ABV that, upon opening, displayed rich amounts of black fruits (dried black currants or cassis come to mind), earth, and a distinct herbaceous character. On the palate it was smooth, caressing the taste buds with a slight touch of acidity and well-integrated tannins. I thought it could last for a couple more years, but Maitre'd Scott Crain felt it displayed some classic characteristics of aged Bordeaux, and should be drank soon.

The second day proved Crain correct in deeming that this wine is indeed peaking. Fruit flavors have faded drastically, but they linger before the flavors sweep to a sort of leather-like earthiness, dried herbs, and a touch of eucalyptus.