VANCOUVER, B.C. — By Anthony Gismondi
Is the wine cellar dead? The simple answer is yes for all but the most fortunate who have the room to store a few hundred bottles where they live.
For the city dweller, space is an issue, especially if you live in a condominium or old-time apartment building. So what are your options?
If you have resources, you could store your wine off-premises with a private company that will inventory, store your wine, and even deliver it to your door. Unless you have a lot of spare cash and you meticulously plan your life, this doesn’t work for most of us who just want to have a few bottles available for dinner or a drop-in guest.
Since I have been storing wine short term for decades as part of my work, I may have an economical solution that will work for you at home.
I use two small “wine fridges” with a modest footprint of roughly 17x18x33 inches; each unit holds between 35 and 40 bottles. Wine fridge technology has come a long way with quality units selling for less than $400, or $10 a bottle. If you are patient, you can acquire them on sale for a lot less.
They are light, quiet, reliable and highly portable, and two units will allow you to store some 75 to 80 bottles, the perfect size for a compact mobile cellar for all but the most serious collector.
A wine fridge solves a few issues. First, it keeps the wine at the proper temperature (most condominiums are way too warm to be aging wine in), and when you serve wine, it is always at the correct temperature.
It gives you a lot of flexibility if you like matching food and wine, and you can take advantage of last-minute sales and inevitably what you buy today will be more expensive down the road.
What can you do with 75 to 80 bottles of wine lying around your house? Well, let’s get started. Treat yourself to a bottle or two of Champagne and, to make sure you don’t drink them the first day, add a few bottles of local sparkling wine. After that, serve and replace as time goes by.
Some 15 to 20 white wines should satisfy most palates. The category allows for a lot of flexibility but should begin with Chardonnay, perhaps a French Chablis or two and something from Puligny Montrachet in Burgundy.
From the New World look to Australia’s Yarra Valley, and California’s Sonoma and Napa valleys. Closer home in British Columbia and Ontario there are myriad Chardonnay possibilities to help round out your picks. And speaking of British Columbia, toss in three Rieslings for your connoisseur friends.
Other white picks should be eclectic, and you can shuffle them in and out depending on the season. Think Picpoul, Gruner Veltliner, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Pinot Grigio and Semillon. Your rosé selection should highlight the south of France, so think Provence and Languedoc.
That leaves space for about 40 bottles of red wines. We are allotting five picks each to the big five varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz, Merlot, Pinot Noir.
Each grape has its ideal home turf: Pinot Noir from Oregon, Sonoma, Burgundy, New Zealand and British Columbia. Shiraz from the Rhone, the Languedoc, Australia, South Africa and B.C.; Merlot from Bordeaux, Bolgheri, Sonoma, New Zealand and British Columbia. The Cabernets, Franc and Sauvignon, take us to Argentina, Chile, California, France and British Columbia.
That leaves you room for a couple of bottles each of Rioja ( Spain), Barolo, Chianti, Brunello (Italy), plus bottles containing Grenache or Garnacha from France or Spain, Monastrell from Spain, Malbec from Argentina, Gamay form Beaujolais and B.C., and Zinfandel from California.
No need to rush, you can add one fridge at a time and slowly fill it. Remember, searching for the wines, and buying them is half the fun of collecting, sharing and drinking them.
Recipe
When you want to know how to treat seafood with the proper respect, you turn to an expert. This tartar of fresh albacore and smoked steelhead was devised by Pino Posteraro, chef and owner of Cioppino’s Mediterranean Grill and Enoteca. He was named a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy by the president of Italy, and that is every bit as big a deal as it sounds.
Tartare of tuna and smoked steelhead with apples
4 oz (120 g) cubed fresh albacore tuna
1 1/2 oz (45 g) cubed cold-smoked steelhead or salmon
1 tsp (5 mL) chopped chives
1 tsp (5 mL) chopped shallots
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled cored and cubed
1 splash soy sauce
1 splash ponzu vinegar
1 splash old balsamic vinegar
1 splash extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp (15 mL) mayonnaise
1 avocado, cubed
Juice of 1 lemon
4 handfuls mesclun mix
4 Roma tomatoes, seeded and cubed
Black olive tapanade
Mix tuna and steelhead in a bowl over ice with the chives, shallot, apples, soy, ponzu, balsamic, mayonnaise and olive oil. Dress the avocado with lemon juice and season with salt. Using a ring mold, alternate layers of the avocado mixture with the tuna mixture.
Decorate each plate with olive purée and dressed tomatoes. Finish the dish with the mesclun bouquet and olive oil. Serve with crostini on the side.
Makes 4 servings.
Wine match
Tartare et al is an adventurous dish, calling for a bold wine pick.
Mission Hill Terroir Collection Jagged Rock Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc Semillion 2018, Okanagan Valley,
Mineral, white fruits, honey, grapefruit, and a touch of Okanagan sagebrush gives this the heft to take on this dish.
Singletree Winery Grüner Veltliner 2017, Fraser Valley,
Citrusy, green/yellow apple, white peach flavours dusted in white pepper should stand up to this rustic fish dish.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
