For this week’s winesday, I picked up a bottle of Barnard Griffin 2005 Fumé Blanc. I’m always looking for new varietals to showcase on winesday so it seemed like the perfect choice. Well, it turns out that Fumé Blanc is just another name for Sauvignon Blanc. It’s all a marketing ploy (apparently designed to sucker in newbies like me.) Oh well, the point of winesday is to learn about wine; now I know Fumé Blanc is just a made up name. But, I love Sauvignon Blanc so I didn’t mind!
Barnard Griffin Winery is located in south-central Washington where the Yakima, Columbia, and Snake rivers all meet up. They have been producing award-winning wines since 1983; one of their most highly regarded wines, in fact, is the Fumé Blanc. The 2005 Fumé Blanc is said to have aromas of fresh flowers, herbs and vanilla. Complex melon and citrus flavors are backed by a hint of grassiness. The 2005 vintage shows good acidity and crispness.
For dinner, I made a recipe from my brand new cookbook: Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson. This is a really great cookbook for anyone interested in eating a bit healthier (but not too healthy, butter and cheese are certainly not taboo in this book!) Heidi provides great recipes and ideas for how to incorporate more whole grains, natural sweeteners and so-called “super foods” foods into your diet. I’ve had great success with the few recipes I’ve had a chance to try. Her Wild Rice Flour Pancakes proved to be deliciously rustic, perfect drizzled with warm maple syrup. The other night, I made Giant Crispy and Creamy White Beans using the jumbo Greek beans I got in my stocking this year. In this recipe, the beans are cooked until tender, sautéed with butter until crisp on the outside and then tossed with onions and greens. Be sure to check out Heidi’s wonderful blog, 101 Cookbooks, for more great recipes.
The recipe that I made for winesday this week was Heidi’s Clemenquat Salad, a crunchy winter salad made by combining clementine wedges, sliced celery, slivered kumquats and toasted walnuts in a lemon vinaigrette. I didn’t actually choose this recipe because I thought it would be a particularly good match with the wine (riesling might have been more appropriate) but because the recipe just looked so darn good (Heidi takes amazing food photos that will make your mouth water.) Plus, I had never actually eaten kumquats before. I always was drawn to kumquats as a child. Of course! They looked like oranges meant for small dolls, what child wouldn’t want to play with them? But, somehow I was never able to convince my mom to buy them for me. I think she thought I wouldn’t like them, and she was probably right. They are more of an adult flavor.
The salad was delicious. The bitter/sweet flavor of the kumquats and clementines paired nicely with the vegetables and walnuts. I threw in some baby spinach to make it more salad-like. I served the salad alongside smashed celery root & potatoes and red snapper with the lightest of all curry-cream sauces (I thought a bit of curry would add an exotic touch consistent with the unusual fruits in the Clemenquat Salad, but I kept it very light so as not to conflict with the wine.) The wine was great as well. It was a nice, not too overly crisp Sauvignon Blanc, falling more towards the tropical fruit end of the scale than the super grassy, super zippy Loire Valley style Sauvignon Blancs.