Charbono - California’s least known “native” son
Zinfandel gets all the headlines - big scores, entire sections in wine shops, cleverly named tasting groups, and on and on. Even Petit Sirah has had its share of the spotlight with publications like the Pet Report and P.S., I love you. And them there’s poor little Charbono. No love. Sniff, sniff…
So let’s get to know Charbono. Charbono is a black-skinned variety that is found almost exclusively in Napa Valley, California. At present, there are only about 80 total acres of Charbono in all of California, and the number continues to slowly dwindle. Once upon a time (I’m talking about 1950s - 1960s here) even great, old California houses like Inglenook produced varietal Charbono bottlings. Sadly, now there are only a handful that do so.
The famous French Ampelographer Pierre Galet, upon inspecting some examples of Charbono in situ in Napa, was adamant that Charbono was none other than Dolcetto, one of Piedmont’s staple varieties. When the actual DNA profiling was completed, Mssr. Galet was proven to be incorrect. As it turns out, Charbono is identical with a nearly extinct Savoie (Alpine France) variety called Corbeau. Showing some measure of (erroneous) consistency, Galet had also believed that Corbeau was also identical with Dolcetto. The “Charbono” that grows in Piedmont, which is likely even rarer than “true” Charbono, has been proven to be another variety entirely, but one that was/is often cultivated side by side with actual Dolcetto vines, and with which it is often nearly indistinguishable - a fact that surely contributed to all of this intervarietal confusion…
In the glass, Charbono presents the drinker with a deep, saturated, purply wine. Charbono is most often said to possess aromas of blueberries and balck raspberries, violet and lilac, and brown spices, especially clove. Structurally, Charbono usually displays a good acid/tannin balance, though both elements are fairly elevated even if present in equal measure. The wines tend to be fairly dense texturally with flavors of new leather, tobacco, cocoa, and black currant. Charbono pairs well with flavorful, hearty foods like ragu’ sauces over egg pastas, grilled lamb chops, black beans, as well as dishes the contain mushrooms or olives.
Below is a link to the two Charbono wines we currently stock. As always, if you pick up one or both, please post your tasting notes here!
TOM CIOCCO
Burgers and Fries
It’s July 5th. If you are American, I hope that you all had a great holiday. If not, you were probably at work, and maybe didn’t get a chance to get that barbecue lit on the roof or out on the sidewalk near your job. I am, and I did, and in keeping with the slightly jingoistic nature of Indepenedence Day, my wife and I made perhaps the most American of meals, burgers and fries!
For as many variations as the hamburger has witnessed over its lifetime, I tend to cleave to a more “orthodox” interpretation of the unofficial American national dish. First, the meat. It’s GOTTA be beef (as if I had to say that). Second, the best burgs are made from COARSELY ground beef - usually an equal parts blend of chuck, sirloin, and round. Third, when forming the patties, keep them as loose as possible while still ensuring that the patty will not crumble. For me (and not just me by the way!) adding anything to the meat mixture (other than S&P, though I do this on each side of each burger before cooking) makes the thing something other than a humburger - no parsley, no cumin…even onion - adding these and a bevy of other things too can make for some good eatin’, but for me, packing ground beef with anything other than salt an pepper means that you have just read the roadside sign that says “You have just left Hamburgulania”.
The buns are a bit more controversial. Some folks will accept nothing other than the “traditional” soft, fluffy “hamburger buns”. Duly noted and understood, though it must be said that not all of these rolls are created equal, but the best of them are quite good for the application and certainly fit into the commodiously “comforting” column. Here in the eastern U.S. (and perhaps elsewhere) we have what we variously call “hard rolls” or “kaiser rolls” - they look like this. These also make excellent conveyances for a patty, though some find them too big, though its apologists just tell me to make a bigger burger…I’ve also tried what are essentially smallish, round “Italian bread” rolls, and though they are probably tastier than either the traditional hamburger bun or the kaiser roll, they’re just too tough and chewy, forcing one to literally tear each bite from the whole which inevitably causes severe garnish and condiment loss, and big mess to boot. Stick with one of the former breads say I…
Now we get into the REAL controversy…as I said above, if you like hot fudge and crushed peanuts on your burger, more power to you, but for me, there are only eleven (11) permissable garnishes and condiments for a hamburger. They are: ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, steak sauce, cheese, bacon (this one for me flirts with “unacceptable” - bacon RULES, but it’s just too strong to really play well with the rest of the guests in my opinion), cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions (fried or raw) and pickles (I guess that this includes relish as well, but for us purists, it’s a case of brown shoes with a tuxedo). Hidebound? Rigid? Maybe, but somebody’s got to defend tradition, so it might as well be me (and you too perhaps). But all kidding aside, when you modify this, expand on that, and improve on the other, you might wind up with a darned tasty sandwich, but at some point you no longer have a “hamburger”, no?
So just a few words about the fries. Crisco is my fat of choice - if you haven’t tried it yet, do. Crisco was designed as a baking shortening, so it is mild enough to not clash with delicate tarts, cakes, pastries, etc. When used to fry potatoes, it greatly reduces the “heavy” fried taste that can come from using vegetable or corn oils. The last matter of spud biz here is the question “To peel or not to peel”? For me, either is fine - unpeeled is healthier and with a deeper, earthier taste. Unpeeled is a bit more elegant. When I don’t peel, I cut the taters into “steak fries” and when I do, matchsticks…how about you?
And so what to drink? Beer is NEVER a bad choice with a burger and fries, and some might feel that it is the ONLY acceptable alcoholic beverage to pair with Wimpy’s favorite bite, but since this is fundamentally a wine blog, and we all like wine, let’s talk wine pairings…The hamburger is not an easy match: you’re dealing with fairly rich meat that is often charred to some degree, topped with raw veggies, and sauces with both sweet and sour aspects. Not easy at all. But whether by design or just dumb luck, there is a quintessentially American wine that for me does the best job of bringing all of these disparate elements into line, and that wine is PETIT SIRAH! P.S.’s dark, brooding side hooks up beautifully with the char on the meat, and its rustic, gutsy, spikey tannins AND acids have enough brawn to stand up to the cocktail of ketchup, pickles, and onions (and it quite deftly plays the role of the “paints” for the canvas that are fried potatoes). Really though - no wine I’ve found does as much justice to the American classic of hamburgers and fries than Petit Sirah, and lord knows it doesn’t have to be the fourth of July to get these two together for a little fireworks…Below are some P.S.’s for YOUR next burger-flip.
TOM CIOCCO
Is it worth it?
I attended a wedding this past weekend. I hate weddings. To me they’re fundamentally wasteful, phony, cold, boring, and generally outmoded. For me, in the name of marking what should be a happy event, bride, groom, families, and guests alike get fleeced by a wedding industry that preys upon harried people who may not be thinking as clearly as they might in a less stressful, often dramatically over-analyzed scenario. Not too different than undertakers and funeral homes if you think about it really…perhaps not quite as ghoulish, but in my opinion, just as exploitive…
And so along with the invitations, the band, “the dress”, the limos and the food, the WINE is inevitably swept up (ouch!). Wine at weddings is older than hard-boiled eggs, and rightly so: wine so beautifully symbolizes peace, prosperity, love, sharing - ideals that every best friend or sibling extolls in his or her homily to those gathered around to celibrate the formal ceremony. And we ALL know that serving good wine, well-considered, enhances ANY gathering, promoting comaraderie, friendship, conversation, etc. Very few people would argue any of these points.
So I guess that the crux of this matrimonial celebration situation is just how much do you love wine?…To me, the “logic” goes like this: Wine is de rigueur at weddings. Weddings are expensive. Therefore, wine at weddings is expensive. Further, GOOD (or at least decent) wine, served to a couple of hundred people, purchased through a caterer is REALLY expensive. So, if you accept these premises, I think that the thinking bride and groom arrive at the crossroad question of “Is it really worth it”? The way that folks answer this question doesn’t always jibe with the results. Now if your daddy or your spouse-to-be’s daddy owns Park Place AND Boardwalk, and has one of those little red hotels on both of them, the choice seems obvious - serve whatever your little hearts desire. Unfortunately, not everybody’s daddy is a Carnegie or a Rockefeller, and perhaps equally unfortunately, not everyone has the good sense to recognize that if you can’t do it right, you might consider not doing it at all.
For a wine lover, it’s all a bit perplexing. If you (the bride and groom) like wine, why would you want to reflect badly on yourself and surely displease many of your guests, and serve plonk? It’s a lose/lose situation for everyone, and it costs good money to boot! If on the other hand you really don’t give two cork pops about wine, or you even actively DISLIKE it, why choose to serve wine at all? I think the answer to this question can be traced back to the concept of the “big wedding” itself: it’s what you’re SUPPOSED to do, and at this sort of convention-governed event, serving wine is also what you’re SUPPOSED to do, whether you want to or not - just like spending $20,000 on the dress and $10,000 on the ring. Why not shave a few “G’s” off the price of that dress that you’ll never wear again, or the ring that you’ll harldy even notice on your finger in a year’s time, and put those funds toward better wine for the enjoyment of your friends and family on what is supposed to be “the biggest day of your life”?
Serving crap wine at a wedding is like getting that perennial bad gift from your mom’s old friend - the one that is so clearly a “contractual obbligation”, that you’d rather not get it at all. Now don’t take me wrong here, I’m not an ingrate, and yes, it is the thought that counts, but I’d argue that “thought” doesn’t enter into it - if it did, the giver would have given it some ACTUAL THOUGHT, or at least have tried to find out what might please his or her benficiary…If you get little Johnny a frisbee because you THINK that’s what little boys like these days, but find out later that it’s really all about X-BOX, then you’ve erred, but at least your intentions were good…No, I’m talking about the pink mittens you got at 16, or the remaindered book on kittens with the half-scratched-off red price tag still on it you got your sophmore year of college from the same person. To me it just says “I don’t really care about this person at all, but I HAVE TO make at least a token effort or I’ll be poorly judged”.
I don’t want to make a mountain out of molehill, but to me it comes down to being genuine, and putting your best foot forward. I’d rather “snub” a few “my brother’s father-in-law’s aunt’s plumber” sort of guest, and provide a truly memorable experience for the people that REALLY matter in my life, than to try to create the illusion of plenty that nobody actually buys into in the first place. It’s become a bit of cliche’ lately, but it’s apt: “Life’s Too Short to Drink Bad Wine”, but cliche’ or not, I think that it applies here in spades.
TOM CIOCCO
