Ca’ Del Lago 2021 Lugana

With our daughter, a very accomplished vegan chef, in town. Her creation needed a special bottle, so we reached for a white wine from Lugana in Italy. The Lugana region is in the northern part of the country, on the south shore of Lake Garda and near the Dolomite Mountains.

The grape is Turbiana, thought at one time to be Trebbiano or a clone of Verdicchio. Testing has since proven it is it’s own distinct variety (although closely related to Verdicchio). The cooling winds from the Dolomites and the moderating effect of the lake allow the grapes to develop wonderful structure. The mineral-rich soils, mixed with clay, help impart a unique flavor profile.

Chef Rachel whipped up a plant-based meal that featured Caldo Verde, a Portuguese potato soup with greens and (vegan) sausage. In addition o a salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing, we enjoyed Bolhinos de Arroz, which are herbed rice cakes.

The wine has a nice structure, so much so that it might appeal to those normally favoring red wine. Tropical notes of pineapple, mandarin orange, and stone fruit give a pleasing mouthful of flavor. The fruit and acid are in good balance – no jarring acidity here, just a smooth ride. A thread of minerality gives a refreshing lift to the finish.

Subtle flavors of the vegan cuisine were a nice match for the Lugana. The 2021 Ca’ del Lago Lugana was a steal for $12.99 at Lidl. In fact, we enjoyed this wine so much I went back and purchased a couple more.

Lugana is a wine not widely distributed in the US. When you see it, don’t hesitate. Buy several and you’ll be pleased you did.

Tasty Product Line Helps Everyone Love Their Veggies

Plant Junkie offers a line of vegan dressings, spreads and vinaigrettes.

By Rachel Nershi

A Twist On A Classic

As a long-time vegan, cook/baker, and certified Vegan Health Coach, I am always excited to see new plant-based products and companies popping up. One brand that I’ve recently discovered is Plant Junkie and their line of spreads, dressings, and vinaigrettes. Their playful packaging is eye-catching and clearly labels their products as 100% plant-based, gluten-free, and non-GMO. After checking out the ingredient list, I was sold and ready to dive in and give them a try.

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Turmeric Black Pepper Ranch is a fun twist on a classic. With the anti-inflammatory benefits of turmeric as a bonus, I knew it was going to be good. It has a creamy, pourable consistency and a pretty golden color. The unique flavor profile features turmeric, black pepper and a nicely balanced acidity level. I love it on spinach salad and as a dip for raw veggies. Now I find myself craving this non-traditional Ranch dressing all the time!

Vegan Love

Next, I put the Spread & Dressing to the test, which is their plant-based mayo-style spread made from avocado oil. I have come to love vegan mayo for its versatility in creating creamy sauces and dressings, so I had high hopes for this better-ingredient version. Right off the bat, I noticed the smooth and spreadable texture was perfect for sandwiches and burgers.

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I also used it in a dressing for coleslaw, which was a delicious success. Since traditional mayo is made from eggs and oil, it contains cholesterol and is high in calories and fat. This version is cholesterol-free and the avocado oil is a healthy fat that you don’t have to feel guilty about.

Tangy Plus Mellow Equals?

Plant Junkie also has a couple unique vinaigrettes in their line-up, and I tried them both. The Thai Peanut Vinaigrette has a smooth creamy consistency from peanuts and has a little zing and heat to it. The Chili Pomegranate Vinaigrette is equally tangy, with mellow heat from chilies and the slight sweetness of pomegranate. These interesting vinaigrettes will ensure that your salads are fun and flavorful.

After trying these new-to-me products, I can say that I’m proud to support this company that seems to genuinely care about providing items made with quality ingredients that are good for us. Many of Plant Junkie’s products feature avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, chia seeds, coconut aminos, and a few are lightly sweetened with coconut palm sugar. I can recognize every ingredient on the label, and can tell that they have not been highly processed. As a health coach, I would 100% recommend their products to my clients or anyone who wants to jazz up their salads, sandwiches, and more with the tasty products that Plant Junkie has to offer.

Rachel Nershi is a professional cook and baker and certified Vegan Health Coach. You can learn more about her and plant-based lifestyle coaching at: https://earth-n-oven.com/

Full disclosure: These products were received as marketing samples.

Môreson 2013 “The Widow Maker” Pinotage, Franschhoek

South Africa’s signature red grape is Pinotage. We broke into our special stash to pair a prized bottle with a vegan meal.

What Pairs With Eggplant?

When our daughter popped into town for Memorial Day, she started cooking up a storm. She’s a vegan chef and baker and takes over the kitchen when visiting. I was told all I had to do was pick the wine. That’s easier said than done when the main dish is moussaka.

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Moussaka is a Mediterranean dish made with eggplant, potatoes, tomatoes and white sauce. Often it includes ground meat – but not in this vegan version. A white wine might work and a Pinot Noir would be an obvious choice. But when others zig, I zag.

I surveyed the bottles in the cellar and grabbed The Môreson 2013 Pinotage from South Africa, dubbed “The Widow Maker.”

We Still Have Wine From South Africa?

When I brought the wine to the dinner table, Green Dragon promptly queried, “we still have wine from South Africa?” Indeed we do – although there might only be one other bottle left. We brought back 11 bottles in our luggage from our trip in 2015.

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South Africa is a wonderful country with amazing scenery, food, wine and people. One of our favorite locales is Franschhoek, a small town in wine country founded by French Huguenots fleeing persecution in Europe. They brought their love of food and skill in winemaking.

Not only is the wine spectacular – but it was inexpensive due to a favorable exchange rate. The pricing allowed us to buy premium bottles for pocket change. Our visit to Môreson was particularly nice as we enjoyed a bottle of sparkling Cap Classique wine and lunch there.

Pinotage Perfection

My memories of South Africa were chased away by the arrival of our first course, a fattoush salad with toasted pita croutons. With that came the first sip of our Pinotage.

Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsaut (which the South Africans call Hermitage). The grape was developed in the 1920s, but didn’t garner much attention until it won several awards in the late 1950s.

While it can be a uniquely satisfying drinking experience, I don’t care for much of the Pinotage out there. It has too much barnyard funk and not enough fruit.

With the Môreson, that is no issue. The Widow Maker is made from the oldest – and original – Pinotage vines in South Africa. It is consistently rated in the top 10 of Pinotage in South Africa – which is similar to having a top 10 cheese in Wisconsin.

Our entrée was served with Middle Eastern green beans and rice and lentil pilaf. The moussaka had a creamy texture thanks to a silky Béchamel sauce. The Widow Maker has a smooth  and rich body – moussaka, you’ve met your match!

There are earth notes in the wine, but the leading flavor is that of juicy black cherry and plum. There are also graphite notes. It’s really a sipping delight. Without a doubt, it is the best Pinotage we’ve had.

The current vintage (2016) is listed on the Môreson website with an R 250 price, which is about $17 US. That’s an outlandishly good price for this wine which would be a $40 to $50 bottle if produced in the US.

A French Food And Wine Pairing: Châteauneuf-Du-Pape And Ratatouille

Looking for a wine to pair with your “meatless Monday” dish? Here’s the perfect bottle we selected for our vegan Ratatouille.

Ratatouille: Flavorful French Country Dish

Honestly, I eat a lot more tuna fish and hot dogs than I do Ratatouille. But when our daughter Rachel, the vegan baker and chef behind Earth N Oven, was in town it was a different story.
After a few months backpacking in Southeast Asia, she was interested in creating amazing plant-based dishes in a big, American-style kitchen. I was standing by to pair her work with the best wines I could find.

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Ratatouille is a hearty dish from the Provence region of France. It’s a vegetable dish, with eggplant, zucchini and tomato. With olive oil, herbs and garlic, it is a sumptuous dish. Rachel created a flavorful layered ratatouille served with a warm white bean salad and loaf of sourdough bread.

This dish not only satisfied the appetite, but had an amazing presentation. The veggies were layers and spiraled around the circular pan. It looked so wonderful, it was almost a shame to eat it. Almost!

Southern Rhone Wine To The Rescue

In thinking about the wine pairing, I decided that a light-bodied red would be in order. I actually had an excellent Spanish Rioja Crianza teed up for the meal. The chef had other ideas. She demanded that her French dish be served with French wine.

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Rhone is one of my favorite French regions, because we go gaga over Syrah and Grenache, two of the regions main red grapes. The cooler climate of the North Rhone is more suited to Syrah, while Grenache thrives in the warmer south. For this dish, the lighter Grenache grape would be the way to go.

My cellar was appallingly low on French wine, with most clearly not suited for this dish. Lingering in the shadows and waiting to step into the spotlight was the 2009 Vignobles Mayard Châteauneuf-du-Pape La Crau de ma Mère.

Some of France’s best wines come from Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Maynard’s “Crau” parcel contains Grenache vines 105-years-old. The blend is 80% Grenache, 10% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre. The wine is aged 18 months in “foudres” – a large wooden vat significantly larger than a typical oak barrel.

We decanted the wine for about a half hour before dinner. The wine is still quite lively nine years after vintage. It is drinking in its prime now, but could probably age for up to three more years. The tannins are soft and the wine was jammy with a nice acidity. Just as there were layers in the Ratatouille, there were delicate layers of complexity in the wine, with cherry, blackberry notes.

A good rule of thumb when pairing food and wine is to opt for wine from the country of the cuisine. Ratatouille and Southern Rhone equaled an evening of French elegance. Viva la France!

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Carlin de Paolo 2015 Estate Arneis, Terre Alfieri, Italy

The Italian grape Arneis is called “Little Rascal.” We paired the rascally grape with a hearty vegan meal.

Plant-Based Pairings

Vegan meals can provide a delightful wine pairing challenge. I discovered this when our daughter Rachel, a vegan baker and chef, visited for a couple months.

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Normally I focus on the main entree, which is usually meat or fish. From there, the wine selection process can be narrowed to a few key decisions down the pathway to the perfect wine.

Taking meat and seafood out of the equation means I’ve had to power up my wine pairing skills to find the right picks for Rachel’s plant-based dishes.

Northern Italian Flavor

A recent meal was centered on Quinoa topped with garlic sautéed asparagus and mushrooms with a side of citrus-maple glazed root vegetables. Vegan cooking done right is loaded with flavors. This meal highlighted a unique ensemble of roasted beets, carrots and potatoes coated with a delicious glaze that had sweetness as well as a citrus zing.

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I needed something that would accentuate the flavors but not overwhelm them. Scanning over my inventory of wine, I locked on the 2015 Carlin de Paolo Arneis. We’re big fans of Arneis, first tasting this unique white grape a half dozen years ago with a superb Italian meal in San Diego.

The bottle comes from the Terre Alfieri DOC in the Piemont region of Northern Italy where Arneis is the primary white grape. The Carlin de Paolo is 100% Arneis and is straw yellow with green highlights in the glass.

Aromas are those of tropical fruit. On the palate there are soft fruit flavors of citrus and white flowers. The tannins are strong enough to stand up to the robust root veggies. The finish of the wine is crisp and dry.

Our Arneis was a smashing pairing with the vegan dish, but it can also be enjoyed as an aperitif. It also pairs well with fish and white meat – just don’t tell Rachel! For more information Rachel’s cooking, visit Earth N Oven.

Technorati Tags: Arneis,Italian wine,Piemont,White wine,wine tasting

Southeast Asian Vegan Feast A Tasty Test For Wine Pairing

Sweet, sour, salty and spicy – Southeast Asian cuisine can be all that in one bite. So when we hosted a vegan dinner with dishes from that region, the challenge was on to find just the right wines.

Asian Adventure On A Hot Plate

Hiking through the rainforests of Southeast Asia, driving a motorbike on the jungle roads of Vietnam, splashing in the waters of a pristine beach. It all sounds idyllic. Of course it does – unless you are the somewhat nervous parent of the young lady doing it all!

Our daughter Rachel returned jet-lagged, but safe and sound from her recent trip halfway around the globe. She not only had loads of stories and photos from her trip with her boyfriend Jason, but returned with a taste for the savory flavors of the region.

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Rachel is a vegan baker and chef with baking and cooking experience around the US, especially in locations with ski boarding slopes. Now she’s launching her own enterprise called Earth N Oven. Following her return from abroad, she presented an evening of food, wine and conversation for our party of eight.

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Any chump can find the proper wine to pair with juicy steak (bold Cabernet Sauvignon). How about picking a wine to pair with a Spicy Lao Cucumber Salad and Green Mango Salad from Thailand? That was one of the challenges facing me as I looked over the plant-based menu developed by Rachel that featured dishes from Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.

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This was a creative enigma I was ready to unravel. Two things were in my favor. First, the Indonesian Tempeh Satay was going to be marinated and then cooked on the grill – giving it a hearty (dare I say) meat-like character. Second, I had ordered some white wine online and one of the bottles was a French Petit Manseng from Jurancon, a sweet wine that would pair well with our dessert.

Versatile Vegan Openers

T

he meal planning was orchestrated by Rachel and much of the work was done the evening before. As the appointed hour neared, the Green Dragon and her sister Janine were chopping, slicing, cleaning and providing support. Meanwhile, I was watching a very important basketball game… (NO, that’s a joke, I was assisting also.)

Our arrival wine was the 2016 Andreola Valdobbiadene
Prosecco Superiore Más de Fer. This is a “rive” wine, with the village name designated on the bottle. It paired with the Vietnamese Mushroom Pho which was garnished with peppers, bean sprouts and greens.

The crisp Prosecco had notes of honeysuckle and apple and provided the right contrast with the soup. This was a great pairing – to the extent that I soon needed to open a second bottle of Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore, this one from Grandi Mori.

The next dish – a pair of spicy Asian salads – was a treat for the eyes and mouth. From Laos and Cambodia, the two salads offered a delightful mix of textures, color and flavors including mango, cucumber,peanuts and grape tomatoes. My pairing choice was the standout 2016 Russian River Sauvignon Blanc from Hanna. It had just the right blend of acidity and bright flavors of melon and lime.

Cambodian and Indonesian Eats

The evening belonged to Rachel and her fantastic dishes. My small culinary role was to broil the tempeh outside on the grill. I did the job masterfully, if I do say so myself.

The grilling was done so well someone seeing a photo on Facebook thought that some meat sneaked in to the vegan-only happening. The Indonesian tempeh was skewered and served over absolutely delicious pineapple fried rice or, as I like to call it, Nasi Goreng Nanas.

This was the heartiest of the plant-based dishes on the program, so I dialed up a superlative red to go with it. The choice was the 2009 Lorenzi Estate Zinfandel Signature Series Reserve, from Temecula. When we visited Temecula a couple years ago, this was, hands-down, the best wine we tasted. It is an epic wine with majestic notes of raspberry and blackberry with waves of vanilla. This was decanted and enjoyed to the last drip.

Our group was loving the food and the vino. Tales of adventure from Southeast Asia were related by Rachel. The tapestry of varied foods, cultures and people were reflected well in beautifully prepared and presented dishes.

The Best Pisang Goreng Ever

For the closing act, we enjoyed a sweet treat. Fried Banana served with date caramel and whipped coconut cream was paired with the golden yellow 2015 Domaine Nigri Jurancon Toute une Histoire Petit Manseng.

I hadn’t realized this was a sweet wine when I purchased it online – but I was glad I had, because I had no other dessert type wines on hand. It turned out to be a blissful pairing. The bananas were incredibly delicious and the Petit Manseng had just the right sweetness level to work with the dessert.

Picking the wines for a plant-based meal is tricky, but very rewarding. Thanks to Rachel Nershi of Earth N Oven, her sous chefs, and all our guests for the event. The beauty, flavor and downright healthiness of the meal was amazing.

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