My current obsession: The garage door. Not mine — I don’t have a garage — but the generic garage door. This preoccupation is entirely the fault of COVID; in my former life (you know, pre-lockdown) I either walked the greenbelt (now too crowded for comfort) or set off on one of the two possible routes from North Davis to downtown, routes with only the occasional garage door.
On my new routes, garage doors loom large. Often they dwarf their house and detract from the neighborhood charm. They tend to be composed of beige or white plastic (colors that amplify their size) with busily ridged panels and sometimes weird windows architecturally at odds with the house itself.
But the strangest thing about them is that the house’s cars (usually at least two) are parked in front of said doors rather than behind them. (Garage: noun. a building or indoor area for parking or storing motor vehicles. When is a garage not a garage?)
Behind them lives a gigantic storage space. When said doors happen to be open, I see bicycles and tools, yes, but most often shelves and shelves of Stuff. Piles and piles of Stuff. Boxes and boxes of Stuff. (Although I like to imagine those boxes filled with good wine, I hope they’re not — a Davis summer would strip them of any vestige of drinkability). Floor-to-ceiling Stuff.
So I begin to think of us not only as a nation of cars but as a nation of Stuff. I belong to that nation. If I did have a garage, it would no doubt accumulate Stuff without my even noticing, much like what happens to my little storage closet and my tiny pantry and the out-of-the-way nooks and crannies in the kitchen cabinets.
The most frightening thing about Stuff is its persistence. Even when we get rid of it, we’re not really rid of it (or its packaging) — it lingers out there somewhere, most likely in a dump, aggravating our climate woes. It outlives us in all the worst ways.
One of the things I most appreciate about food and wine is their friendlier and more benign persistence. They nourish body and spirit and then move on, mostly of their own accord. Scraps and leftovers can be used to make other meals. Leftover leftovers can be composted and made into soil to grow more food. Wine bottles can be recycled.
And while at some times of the week, the fridge, pantry, and wine rack are filled to the brim, cooking and eating quickly empty them to make room, almost magically, for the next round. I’m sure there are folks whose supply of canned beans and stored wine will outlive them, but most of us go through our stock weekly or monthly. Out with the old! Room for the new!
This month’s favorite “new” (aside from enormous quantities of tomatoes, eggplant, corn, peaches, plums and other delights of the season) is a completely charming and irresistible sparkler, whose grape will probably surprise you — 100% lambrusco.
In the old days (think centuries ago), families and restaurateurs (like Cleto Chiarli, proprietor of Osteria dell-Artigliere) in the Modena area made their own wine with this local grape. If sparkling, they used the slow “ancestral” method, which created a dry, bubbly, cloudy wine since it continued to ferment in the bottle, a bottle that after its winter rest went directly to the table.
Later, though, Cleto’s descendants began to use the easier, faster, more predictable Charmat method — the wine fermented in vats, filtered and bottled most often with lots of residual sugar. Hence the lambrusco of my youth — alcoholic soda pop. Cheap, too. I gave it up after my first try, and it took some convincing for me to reconsider.
In the early part of the 21st century (which I think is the one we’re in now), Cierlo’s great-grandsons, Mauro and Anselmo Chiarli, decided to move away from mass market and back to a more artisanal product. Today they make lambruscos by various methods, but most interestingly have returned to the ancestral method with one of their wines — the Lambrusco di Sorbara del Fondatore. This 2018 is rose-colored rather than red and filled with cherry and berry flavors and a hint of lemon and orange peel. Nicely structured, it’s alive and food-friendly. And delicious.
I drank it with a wonderfully seasonal dish — creamy corn pasta with basil. (Easy to find recipe, which calls for no cream at all, online.) The contrast of the bright yellow sauce (I used the more deeply flavored yellow corn) with the lovely rose of the bubbles was as delightful as the pairing itself. At $20 (for what is essentially a pet nat) an excellent bargain.
A second recent addition to those self-emptying racks comes from the Savoie, one of my favorite regions for easy-going, affordable whites. It’s the 2018 Domaine Labbé “Abymes” ($15), made from the native jacquère grape. One critic said this Abymes “might just be the brightest, crispest, most refreshing white wine that you’ve ever tasted.” Maybe so. In any case, it’s pitch-perfect for summer, filled with citrus and apple and pear and characteristic Savoie minerality.
Like the lambrusco, this Abymes is just 11.5% alcohol and perfect as an accompaniment to simple summer suppers. Equally perfect as a simple summer patio sipper. Add a few crackers and some French cheese or charcuterie, and you’ve been transported to a little cafe in the French countryside (not a garage door in sight) in the safest, easiest way possible. The only way possible — France doesn’t want us right now.
Both wines are available from The Pip in Dixon, which you can easily visit; if, as I am, you’re sticking close to home right now, proprietor Amy Grabish will deliver them to your door. Visit her website; buy a case. After all, so much better to spend money in a struggling shop that supports struggling winemakers who support the struggling environment than spending it on yet another delivery of garage-destined Stuff from Amazon (which is definitely not struggling itself and is offering little support to either its struggling workers or our struggling planet).
— Susana Leonardi is a Davis resident; reach her at [email protected] Comment on this column at www.davisenterprise.com.
August 12, 2020 at 05:02AM
https://ift.tt/31GYE3e
Wineaux: Invest in wine for pleasure and planet - Davis Enterprise
https://ift.tt/31lUVcw
Wine
No comments:
Post a Comment