Tuesday September 20, 2005
Today I arrived in Paris, France and took a one-hour connecting flight to the world famous wine-growing region of Bordeaux. It doesn't take long to realize that Bordeaux is serious about wine. Where other airports decorate their grounds with flowerbeds, Bordeaux's terminal building proudly displays a small vineyard.
Christophe Chateau, who is the Director of the 5 Côtes of Bordeaux, picked me up at the airport. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Le Père Ouvard. The restaurant was very special. It was an old house that was turned into a restaurant. There were couches in the back dining room with a large art painting of a cow that covered the entire wall of the dining room, with very unique and stylistic furniture, including a huge oversized orange lamp. This lamp normally wouldn't seem like it belonged in a restaurant like this, but it had it's place here. The waitress brought the menu to us on a large slate board with the day's specials written in chalk on it. We had a wonderful meal. After the dinner, Christophe introduced me to the chef and he invited me back into the kitchen. He showed me the Cepe Mushrooms and Golden Chanterelle Mushrooms (Girolles) that he was cooking on the flat top in the kitchen….."a la Plancha". The menu was truly an experience!!
Dinner at Le Père Ouvard
1st Course
Veal Sweetbreads with Roasted Piquillo Sweet Peppers
and Black Olive Tapenade
2nd Course
Duck, Plum, Pink Potato and Hazelnut Salad
with Xeres Sherry Vinegar and Shaved Parmigiano- Reggiano
3rd Course
Roasted Pigeon with de puy Lentils
Entree
Lotte "a la plancha" with Brulèed Whipped Potatoes, Mediterranean Mussels
and a Sauce of White Wine, Garlic and Tomatoes
Dessert
Almond Tuilles filled with Orange Jam with Chocolate Dipping Sauce
This was an incredible meal!! These dishes were a sign that I was in for an exciting culinary journey through the wonderful wine region of Bordeaux, France! A refreshing feeling…"Life In The Wine Country" !!!!!
Before returning to Christophe's house for the night, we stopped by La Tupina to have a glass of Blanc Limè, which is an old beverage of Bordeaux, that Jean Pierre Xiradakis has brought back and started to produce. This drink is the one that I remember from my trip to Washington D.C. in July of this year, at the Jean-Louis Palladin Foundation luncheon. It is Bordeaux's "lemonade". It is a mixture of white wine and citrus juices, served cold over ice. Absolutely wonderful and refreshing!!
La Tupina is a landmark in Bordeaux. Everything here is cooked
and served as in bygone days: open hearth roasted meats,
bits of wood ash on your food, smokey potatoes and huge
hearty portions. Morsels of andouillette (pork sausage),
large cuts of spit-roasted lamb served on white beans,
terrines, and salami are quickly followed by foie gras,
racks of ribs of wild boar and the delicious potatoes
"salardaise" (cooked in duck fat).
Wednesday September 21, 2005
This morning we got up very early. Due to the fact that I had some jet lag, I awoke at about 5 a.m. eager to start my wonderful experience. Christophe and I left for our first day out to visit the 5 Côtes de Bordeaux. This morning, our plan was to travel and visit with winemakers in Châteaus in the "Premieres Côtes de Bordeaux", "Côtes de Castillon", and the "Côtes de Franc" along the Dordogne River, where the soils are predominately clay and limestone, which is mixed with some gravel. Merlot country!!!!
Our first destination was to visit Château de Plassan in the "Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux" with winemaker and proprietor Gilles Brianceau. When we arrived, Gilles had just stared to harvest and was in the process of passing grapes though a machine that was separating the grapes from the stems. Gilles then took Christophe and me on a tour of his property, which included the area where he was produces his wine. His cellar, which was over 200 years old and where he aged his wine, was at basement level under the winery and stretched under the whole length of the Chateau and his property that dated back to the 18th century. Château de Plassan is situated at about 20 km from Bordeaux, in Tabanac, near Langorian, on the right bank of the Garonne River and in the heart of the "Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux". The production at Château de Plassan is composed of 70% red wine and 30% white wine. The red wines are Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a small portion of Malbec. The white wines are Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. Gilles also produces a small plot in Cadillac, which is a wonderful sweet wine from the area that is close in flavor to Sauternes.
This is where I started to see the "Spirit" of the winemaker's in the 5 Cotes de Bordeaux. Gilles explained that all of the wine makers work is done in the vineyard and that if you have a wonderful product to start with, you won't need to adjust or alter the wine during vinification. You just have to rely on the natural product and allow it to show forth in the wine.
After Château de Plassan, we visited Vieux Champ de Mars, in "Cotes de Castillon", with wine maker Regis Moro. He showed us his cellar and we tasted some of his award winning wines. Regis was to begin harvest the next morning, so we only stayed a short while, we were then invited to spend lunch with his family in their home. Regis' wife served Lamproie, which is an ancient fish (eel-like) from the Gironde River, and a traditional Bordelaise dish. The fish was braised in red wine from the family vineyards with leeks and other vegetables and served atop toasted baguette. It was absolutely delicious! We then had grilled duck breast that was cooked over grape vines, which gave it an incredible smokey flavor, served with stewed vegetables from the garden, that included eggplant, bell peppers, tomatoes and fennel. We finished with cheese (a bloomy rinded Camembert, a semi-hard Spanish sheep's milk cheese Idiazabal, a goats milk cheese and the famous Roquefort) and we weren't allowed to leave his home unless we finished all of his grandmother's cherry clafoutis. Our lunch lasted around three hours, which also included tasting some of Regis' old vintages, including a 1989 that was absolutely incredible, well balanced, with great fruit flavor.
We then drove to "Cotes de Franc" and visited with winemaker Joseph Arbo, from Château Bellevue. The area of Francs has a population of only 180. It has origins that date back to the 6th Century. We walked though his vineyards and toured his wine production area. Joseph grows and produces Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillion and a small portion of a wonderful sweet wine called Moelleux, which has 18% alcohol and a sweetness level of that of Sauternes. Great with chocolate!!!
On our way back to the city of Bordeaux to Christophe's office, we toured though the famous town of St. Emilion and also passed the world famous Château Petrus!!
For dinner this evening we went to La Tupina, the restaurant of Jean-Pierre Xiradakis. Christophe, his wife Sophie and I met up at the restaurant with Christophe's parents and Jean-Pierre. We enjoyed small plates that included pork pate with toasted baguette and fresh sardines on top of a beautifully textured potato drizzled with olive oil. We then enjoyed grilled Spanish Beef that Christophe's father had brought back from Spain and had aged for 4 months. It had an incredible flavor. It was grilled rare, which allowed you to taste the real essence of the meat, and sprinkled with sea salt. We also enjoyed potato wedges fried perfectly in duck fat and sprinkled with sea salt, wonderful cheeses and a great selection of pastries. Tonight we also drank some great wines. We had a magnum of 1988 Daumas Gassac, from Languiduc, a 1998 Gevery Chambertin "premiere grand cru" and finished off the night with a tasting of Jean-Pierre's collection of Armagnac's that included vintages of 1982', 1961' and 1945', along with Montecristo Cuban cigars'. Truly a night to remember!
Thursday September 22, 2005
This morning we made our way to visit Côtes de Blaye, The Côtes de Blaye is on the right bank of the Gironde River north of Bordeaux, a city whose stateliness is illustrated by its fine 18th century architecture. Across the estuary are the famous châteaux's of the Médoc and slightly further west, the golden, windswept beaches of the Atlantic.
Not far from the 17th century Citadel of Blaye, is Plassac, a small wine-producing commune whose land has been renowned for vine growing since Roman times - long before vines were planted in the Médoc.
Citadel in Blaye
Today we first visited the Côtes de Blaye. We toured around the Citadel, an ancient fortress that Napoleon's army built to guard the French from the German army. Truly an unbelievable site! It is incredible how precise the architecture was at that time in history.
We went to the "Maison de Côtes de Blaye", the house of wine for the Cotes de Blaye.
We then visited, picked grapes, tasted the recent harvest and had lunch at Château Monconseil-Gazin.
The Château was built around 1500 and since 1894 five generations of the Baudet family have produced quality wines here. Jean-Michel Baudet is one of an elite group of winemakers who have been working hard for many years to realize their dream of creating a new Appellation - AOC Blaye. Their hard work paid off, and the 2000 vintage was the first to bear the name of the new Appellation.
Jean-Michel Baudet and his wife Françoise both speak very good English and we had enjoyed a wonderful lunch prepared by the chef of the Citadel.
After lunch we then went to visit Côtes de Bourge with Didier Gontier: went to the point along the coast of the Gironde River where the Garonne and Dordogne rivers meet. The Bordeaux industrial region extends along the Gironde's southern coast. Located between the Médoc and the Côtes vineyards, the Gironde is the great artery of the Bordeaux wine region.
Visited Château Falfas:
Famous and very old chateau owned by American John Cochran and his French wife, Véronique, who is from Languedoc, as it has been run on bio-dynamic principles since 1988. The bio-dynamic production methods are organic and follow the cycle of the moon. The chateau is located near Bayon in the Côtes de Bourg appellation to the northeast of Bordeaux on the Right Bank. of the Gironde, just five kilometres across the Gironde from Château Margaux. This area isn't known for great quality and hence its wines don't command high prices, but that doesn't do justice to certain individual estates who are reaching to applaud-worthy heights. Château Falfas is one of them and almost unique in Bordeaux, The Château - originally dating from the 14th Century but architecturally is pure regal 17th - is surrounded by fifteen hectares of vines with another seven across the road facing the Gironde.
The vineyards are composed of 55% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec (an unfashionably high proportion) and 5% Cabernet Franc - more of the latter is being planted - and are well sited to catch the morning sun. Training is mostly double guyot (the two cane pruning and training system common in this region and St. Emilion for example) and plant density is below average for the area (6500 - 7000 vines per hectare) at about 5500. If any denser, John believes he'd "get more juice from these rich soils" - clay and loam on a limestone base - perhaps the opposite of what you might expect.
He showed us some rows of cherished 45-year-old vines; the oldest are 85-year-old Cabernets and the average is about 32 years old. The young vineyard plots are trained to single guyot with an alternate spur on each side to control vigour. John tells me that "You could easily produce 80 to 90 hectolitres per hectare, but here we get only half that. It's not difficult to produce this bio-dynamically," he explained followed by a characteristic friendly cackle. John tries not to do green harvesting (removal of berries in the summer to reduce yields and concentrate those that remain) as he feels yields can increase the next year in compensation. "I prefer to control by short pruning to three buds. We also go for better aeration of the (leaf) canopy against botrytis and oidium for example." The vineyard is prone to some risk of frost, but this is also combated by good natural air drainage conferred by proximity to the river.
So what are the essential differences between organic and biodynamic? "Our approach to the soil is different," Véronique enlightened us, "with organic you use no synthetic chemicals but can still fertilise. Here the soil is richness, we access a living produce to achieve balance between vine and soil." Nothing too mysterious there then. She continued, inspired by her beliefs: "To keep the vitality of the soil, a natural dynamism." This ideology was first defined on paper by Rudolf Steiner in 1924.
The special handmade preparations and how they are created form the core of the practices, but the quantity and timing of their use are just as crucial. After the harvest the first preparation of horn silica (quartz and cow horn) is applied to help the production of sap. Then comes ploughing, or rather tilling, enhanced by a judicious spray of 'MT' mixture on the soil: cow manure, basalt and eggshells. This helps to support the soil against erosion too by maintaining the clay / humus structure, where a great variety of bacteria are found.
Bio-dynamists believe in "respecting the movement of the sap" and so only begin pruning after the tenth of February; doing this in November when the sap is descending "can pull in spores and diseases." Véronique applies whey and bentonite (a type of processed clay) to the vines painted onto the pruning scars and the head as a precaution against wood disease. The theory is that you're preventing harmful bacteria from "filling a space."
Visited Château Martinat - Stefano
Visited, had dinner, and stayed the night in Château Rouselle (Vincent Lamaitre)
Friday September 23, 2005
Christophe and Sophie asked if I would like to cook dinner for them and a few of their close friends at their home, to show them a little California Wine Country cooking, using the abundant and gorgeous ingredients indigenous to this area! So Christophe and I headed to the town square with a vision of a great night with close friends, great food and delicious wine to find all the goodies for Saturday night's dinner! He asked me if I wanted to write a menu before we went shopping, but I told him that it would be more exciting for me to see what the farmers and artisans brought to the market on this day and feel the unspoken energy of an open air market in France! So as we gathered all of the incredible things we would put together for Saturdays night feast, the vision was starting to come together!
The menu will be:
Aperitif
Serrano Ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano
with Fresh Black Truffles and Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1st Course
Pan Seared Daurade with Mediterranean Black Mussels,
Pearl Onions, French Pink Potatoes and Fennel Saffron Nage
Entrée
Oven Roasted Veal Loin with Girolle Mushrooms, Cepes,
Red Kuri Squash and Black Mission Fig Essence
Visited the Bordeaux Museum and Downtown Bordeaux with the Bordeaux Tourism Office.
Dinner in the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce with 80 winners of country wide contest for sales of the 5 Cotes of Bordeaux wine.
Stayed the night at Quality Suites near Bordeaux Airport.
Saturday September 25, 2005
Today I walked around the City of Bordeaux, visited the Farmers Market and bought some more things for the dinner tonight.
I prepared and served dinner for 9 people. The people that attended were….Guillaume Halley (a Château owner-Château La Dauphine)…..Louis Monnier (wine merchant) and his wife, Jose Kijas (newspaper journalist) and his wife, Christophe and Sophie…and Olivier Cadillon (Sophie's brother).
Dinner was wonderful…..they all enjoyed it very much!!!
The quote of the night, by Louis Monnier (the wine merchant) "Michael…I have tons of Air France frequent flier miles…how often can you come back and cook us dinner?" … a fantastic compliment!
We enjoyed some great wines, including a 100 pt. Magnum of 1989 "Château Lynch Bages", from Pauillac.
We also had Cuban cigars and wonderful champagne! Truly a memorable night…..I gave all the guys Napa Rose baseball caps and they wore them proudly……we took a ton of photos, sang French songs and partied the night away in "French-style". The words to a favorite song among friends….."if we were to die tomorrow….make sure we enjoy ourselves tonight!"
Sunday September 26, 2005
We attended the Bordalaise City 6k run that Christophe was sponsoring…. It rained this morning very hard until about noon. There was a brunch that was set up in the park, which included wines from the Les 5 Côtes of Bordeaux.
After the race Christophe, Pauline and I went to La Tupina for lunch…….We enjoyed some of La Tupina's traditional dishes. They included a dish made with Chicken Blood….Foie Gras with Red Wine Sauce and Green Grapes…Foie Gras and a Hen Egg served in a Cast Iron Croque, accompanied with Toasted Bread……Traditional Cassoulet with Pork Sausage, Chicken Livers, Duck Confit and White Beans.
Monday September 27, 2005
This morning we visited two of the 5 First Growths……wow!!
(Château Haut Brion and Château Margaux)
After visiting two of the world's most famous Chateau's, we headed to the west coast toward the Atlantic Ocean, cutting through the managed forests of the Médoc on our way to Cap Ferret.…. Unbelievable! It is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Arcachon Basin….a beautiful sea, protected by a dune bar and surrounded by forest that perfumes of pine. It empties partly and fills up twice daily to the rhythm of the tides, unveiling channels and oyster beds, while colorful boats float beautifully in the sea.
Christophe and I toured the old oyster-bed village of Gujan-Mestras where the fisherman bring in the oysters, ate lunch on the wharf and walked on the beach along the Aquiatine Coast and stood on the most south point area where the Atlantic Ocean enters the Arcachon Basin.
Tuesday September 28, 2005
So I boarded the plane set for Paris with a final destination of Orange County, California! I take with me many memories that I will hold close to my heart and invaluable knowledge that will aid me in my career as a chef.
I also take with me the "Spirit" of the Bordeaux winemaker and that of the late great Chef Jean-Louis Palladin! If you have a very good quality product to begin with, where you allow the product to be its self, to have it's own natural flavors show through and be the very best it can be without much manipulation, you have created something truly extraordinary!
This wonderful experience with the winemakers reflect my own personal cooking style of the SEASONAL MARKETPLACE - embracing the special bounty of each season, always using the best available farm-fresh products and cooking them to perfection.
I believe that "great cooking is made in the field"... in the same way that great wines are made in the vineyard. I believe in starting out each day with the freshest ingredients, beginning each dish from scratch with fresh produce. But what makes it more of a challenge -- and more fun -- is that each week the palette of seasonal produce changes: the flavors of fruits and vegetables vary with the intensity of the Sun, and they don't stay in season long, so we continually modify the quantity of the ingredients in a recipe to create the 'dynamic balance' we feel is indispensable for a successful dish.
If we want to eat in the healthiest way possible, it is important to follow the seasons -- never forcing it with chemical fertilizer or pesticide-- because I really do believe the old adage that we are what we eat.
The other very important component of my cooking style is staying current with cooking techniques and technologies, using familiar, innovative and creative ways to present a dish. This is the only way to make the best of our ingredients without losing any of their intrinsic qualities and integrity. And it leaves us free to be as creative with them as we want to be.
Real cuisine is born in our hearts - it is a forgotten memory of a gift we received as a child. It could be an endless perfume, a taste that has stayed on our taste buds for many years, or a sound that reminds us of special time with family.
Passion for these gifts in life such as fine wine and seasonal cuisine is a precious gift that emanates from within us. My memories of Bordeaux, France during Harvest, 2005 will always have an influence in the way approach my profession and will help me share the uncompromising determination to seek out the best products that Chef Palladin so enthusiastically envisioned.
The soul of a chef and that of a winemaker are truly kindled spirits and delight in the same vision! If you love what you do…you never work a day in your life!!!
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