Willinda and Peter McCrea of Stony Hill Vineyard, doing their best imitation of "American Gothic," at Pappas Bros. Steakhouse. His parents founded Stony Hill, one of Napa's first vineyards.
Suggesting white wine with dry-aged prime steak might be the height of heresy in some circles, but bear with me. ?These are steak whites?. This is one of only two U.S. gewurztraminers I drink,? remarked Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, master sommelier and head wine honcho Barbara Werley as she poured glasses of the gewurztraminer at a dinner last month at where I was privileged to be a guest.
With that introduction, we were treated to a rare evening with one of the most esteemed couples in the Napa wine biz. No one of Screaming Eagle or Silver Oak ilk, but producers specializing in white wines and one of the first families to grow grapes in the famed appellation. I hesitate to call this a cult wine, except that it is highly idiosyncratic, has extremely limited and sought-after production, and fines to the beat of drummer so out of step with mainstream Napa winemaking as to be eccentric.
I?m speaking, of course, of Peter and Willinda McCrea of Stony Hill Vineyard. But before I tell you the family?s story, I?ll tell you what the McCreas did at the dinner. After a prelim of awesome food matches with Stony Hill?s riesling, gerwurztramier and chardonnays (2005 and 2007 magnums), Pappas executive chef James Johnson presented entrees with two small portions of dry-aged prime strip loin. One was sauced with bernaise, the other with lime hollandaise (pictured).
The McCreas celebrated 60 years of winemaking this year with the production of their first cabernet sauvignon. ?What we wanted to make,? says McCrea, ?was a lower-alcohol wine that was a food wine.? They made exactly 250 cases of the 2009, 10 of which were allocated to Texas. Call this the anti-Cal cab: beautifully balanced fruit and acidity (13.5 percent alcohol), absent the screaming, alcohol-on-steroids jamminess more common to California cabs. We ate it with the bernaise ? and bingo! With the less acidic sauce, it was a wonderful match. But you knew it would be.
?
The steak on the left: sauced with bernaise. The steak on the right: sauced with lime hollandaise.
We ate the other strip sirloin, the one with the lime hollandaise, with three vintages of chardonnay (2005, 2007, 2008) ? and bingo! It was heavenly with every vintage. Note that the McCreas make a leaner, more European-style chardonnay using neutral oak. ?If you like buttery chardonnay,? quipped McCrea, ?you?ve come to the wrong dinner.?
As much as we were primed to be believers, the white wine-steak match was still surprising. ?We did it just to prove that you can drink white wine with meat,? McCrea said. Werley added: ?A hint of salt and a hint of acid, and you can drink any white with beef.? Point taken.
Now for Stoney Hill?s back story.
Peter?s parents, Fred and Eleanor, bought the property on Spring Mountain above Napa Valley in 1943. ?It was a goat ranch,? says McCrea. He was 5, and his sister was 1. There was no electricity, no one to work the place, no equipment ? World War II was on, after all ? and darn few gas coupons to make the round trip from San Francisco, where his father worked. ?No phone, either,? says McCrea.
In 1948, the McCreas started planting grapes with help from the University of California: chardonnay, riesling and pinot blanc. There were 10 other wineries in Napa at the time. In 1951, they built the winery from the lumber used to frame the swimming pool. Still used today, it looks like an old barn. (I got to visit one year at the Napa Valley Wine Writers Symposium, where I had my first glorious mouthful of the riesling.) In 1952, they released their first vintage: 50 cases of chardonnay.
?In 1962, my father retired and moved to St. Helena full-time and planted 30 acres. We started making riesling and gewurztraminer, and those have been our staple wines for the last 60 years.,? says McCrea. Over that 60 years, they?ve had two winemakers, including the current one, Mike Chelini, who joined the team in 1973.
So that?s a slice of the Stony Hill legend. My favorite story of the Pappas evening was listening to the McCreas reminisce with their guests about making a vodka-like spirit when they were working in the oil business, stationed in Saudi Arabia. They couldn?t buy alcohol, so they had to improvise. ?We called it ?white.?? It was basically better than anything coming out of Appalachia.?
As you might guess, Stony Hill wines are hard to come by in Texas. You can order them from the winery. A few places, such as Pappas, have part of the Texas allocation. If you go to Pappas, ask chef Johnson to prepare some of that lime hollandaise so you can taste for yourself and ask Werley pick the Stony Hill Chardonnay for you. The combination of steak and hollandaise just makes the wine pop with fruit and liveliness.
Source: http://eatsblog.dallasnews.com/2012/11/ill-have-a-white-wine-with-that-steak.html/
the talented mr ripley weather new orleans orcl the hartford illinois primary 2012 michael bay zsa zsa gabor
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন