On 21...

The day arrives.

This post and the following thoughts are a long time coming..

The law of 21 has haunted my life for the past three years, and the experiences missed unable to be repeated.

The tasting of 100's of beers, wines, liquors, in the various restaurants that I have worked and traveled to throughout the United States. This is my profession, the food and beverage industry, and pairing thereof, and for the past three years the tastes and pairing I have missed have been detrimental to the furthering of my palate and education.

To say that I harvest and produced wine in France, and travel back to the United States and cannot purchase or have an ounce of that wine, is mind blowing.

What happens when midnight strikes this evening, is a switch changing physically inside of me, a maturity suddenly found? In my various travels throughout Europe, not once was I carded in the six plus countries I visited. What does that say of our society, where with one ounce of alcohol in my system or possession I could be thrown in jail?

I can agree with consumption comes maturity and responsibility. I can agree that alcohol is best left out of high schools and the hands thereof.

I'm not asking for 16, 17, or 18. I can agree that European societies are quite different than ours. But why not 19? Or 20?

What are we doing with the blind eye to the act of binge drinking throughout college campuses across the country? To the kids thrown in jail for possession or consumption responsibly of alcohol, who may not be 21 yet, but are acting responsibly.

This all comes from a soon to be 21 year old whom on my birthday tomorrow and the following days, will choose to consume 1991 wines drank with delicious foods: Riesling, Gran Reserva Tempranillo and Alsacian Muscat. Not shots, upon shots.

Just some thoughts to think about.

Meddle Menu

And here you have it, the menu, in ingredient form....

Meddle Menu

1. Oyster, salsify, sea beans, oyster leaf, seaweed

2. The chicken or the egg?

 3. Goat, baharat, juniper, carrot, dates, goat curds

4. Beet root, malted barley, coffee, dark chocolate, sorrel

Tickets go on sale tomorrow!

Tickets for Meddle go on sale tomorrow. !!!

Tim has outlined the process on his Tumblr, http://timbereika.tumblr.com/ . Please reference there before purchasing to make it a smooth process with no confusion!

Stay tuned on Monday for the release of the menu !

And so was born: Meddle

With the strong desire to cook creative food, cook once more with my friend and mentor Chef Tim Bereika from Secco, and the thought of bringing Richmond a popup that was exciting and new, Meddle was born.

We began to throw the idea around quite a few months ago, and solidified both of our desires to see our dream become reality. The difficult part from the beginning was figuring out where to start..where it would be, how we could do it, when, what we would cook, how we would create the menu.

Through back and forth emails, tweets, meetings, Facetimes(21st century cooks!), ongoing google documents, we finally released information and the confirmation of our endeavor.

Thus far it has been an incredible growth and beautiful thing to watch, and the excitement both Tim and myself feel is overwhelming. Perhaps we should film our next creative session-it is truly remarkable our relationship and ping-ing of ideas. The collaboration is brilliant-ideas, techniques, and ingredients that we will display momentous. The realization that it will all be coming to fruition in a few weeks is mind blowing.

And I can't wait to show you all what Tim and I can do in the kitchen.

I hope to see you there!

Meddle

This should be fun. Be prepared for creative food set in a lovely environment. Tim and I are very excited about this and have been planning for months. Be there on Sunday or Monday, or miss out! Stay tuned to Tim and I's blogs and twitters for more information, and I hope to see you there! 

Meddle, a Richmond pop-up restaurant from chef Tim Bereika of Secco and Collin Wagner, runs 2 days only February 19-20, 6:30-9:30PM in the Roosevelt space on 25th Street.

Meddle will be a limited-run, two-day restaurant that will “pop-up” in the Roosevelt while that restaurant is closed on Sunday and Monday night.

* 45 seats are available each night
* Four courses for $65, tax and tip for food included
* Beverages are available a la cart for an additional cost
* Menu available by 1/16
* Tickets can be purchased at Secco Wine Bar
* Seating times are staggered and available by request on a first come, first serve basis
* Cash only
* All ticket sales are final
* Please no special dietary requests.

Follow Tim and Collin on Twitter for updates on the event.

Hope

I hope that you, too, in these days of the holiday will have your thoughts and prayers with those protecting our daily freedoms abroad. I cannot imagine spending the day apart from family and friends, in a less than ideal "home" in the middle of the dessert. A day marked so much with tradition, family, and friends, my heart goes to those abroad.

Below I have included a video from my brother Nathan's platoon, Cold Steel, that they made to wish their family and friends Happy Holidays from.

Happy Holidays to you, Cold Steel, and thank you for service. Thank you does not do justice to what you all do daily, and I hope to show my admiration and respect for your work in the future.

When I asked my brother today if they will be having any sort of special meal for Christmas, he said yes they will, and he hoped it would be something a bit better than what they normally had. 

Thanks for your support, 

-Collin

The Process

Today my writing drifts away from food and into the realm of wine, and the process thereof.

As many of you know, I spent two weeks in the south of France close to Avignon at the end of September and into October working on the harvest team at Domaine Rouge Bleu. A long time dream of my own to work a harvest and learn the process of wine, the importance of terroir, work needed to produce a bottle or vintage of wine, and generally be surrounded by vineyards for a few weeks. With the networking help of Julia Battaglini, my former boss at Secco Wine Bar, and now mentor-friend, and the contact of Nicolas Mestre at Williams Corner wine distributors, my dream was made reality.

I don't know that I could have landed at a better vineyard, with such a hospitable and great group of people. Two weeks of hard work, but an incredible time was had with much learned about wine and the processing required. I hadn't any idea when arriving what to expect. How do we pick the grapes? Are there bad grapes? What does a vine look like? What will they taste like? What happens after picking? Millions of thoughts racing through my brain, I arrived and learned bushels upon bushels of knowledge, furthering my deep passion for fine wine.

The man himself! Picking Lunatique.

Jean-Marc Espinasse, Vigneron of Rouge Bleu, produces wines that are made in the fields and not in the cave. What does that mean? He produces wines with the littlest human interaction possible. No herbicides sprayed in the fields, little to no sulfur in the tanks, and with wild herbs and weeds growing amongst the 80+ year old vines. Perhaps one of the most incredible experiences of the weeks was tasting his top wine, Lunatique 2009, and in the aroma finding layer upon layer of eucalyptus, mint, thyme, and wild arugula. Then whilst picking the 13 rows of vines in the old river bed in one afternoon to produce the whole production of 120 cases of the wine, in the mistral or breeze of the Rhone valley comes distinct aromas identical to that found in the wine earlier the in the week. Time and place, the truest expression of the land, is omnipresent in his wines. Brilliant, remarkable, mind blowing, beautiful. 

So picking from the vines, what do we take? Everything. From the snails found on the clusters in Chateaunuef-du-Pape, to the Botrytis-ridden raisins aka gold as Jean Marc calls them. Even the raisins on the ground, and if someone were to miss them and Chief Grape saw, he would become very irritated. The raisins don't bring any juice to the wine, but bring great concentrated sugars and aromas. Not wanted in coop wines, but gold to a small all natural producer. Perhaps what sets him apart? The only grapes that were left behind were the clusters that were reminiscent of vinegar, indicating spoilage(found in tiny minuscule amounts in my experience).

Our best friends for two weeks,
Secatateurs

How do we pick? Simple, really, with our Secateurs, or clippers. Clipping as close to the cluster as possible, and putting into our handy buckets that need to be dumped often to the tractor. With smaller clusters or the Carignan grapes, we could forgo the Secateurs and easily pick with our hands, pulling directly from the vine with little harm to the clusters or vines.

The day is done, the grapes have been picked and transported back to the Cuvée. At the cave, with the help of multiple people, the grapes are gently transported from the trailer to the cement fermentation tank via a rotating screw and hose connecting the trailer to tank. The screw in the bottom of the hopper is powered by the tractor. No de-stemming, no washing, minimal crushing, au natural. Chief Grape believes deeply in the stems providing body and tannins that help the wine age and provide structure at years later. A belief that newer generation Bordeaux wines lack in age-ability due to the de-stemming and desire from producer for their wines to be drinkable at a young age. The cement tanks being also unique, provide pores and a bit more aeration occurring during primary and secondary fermentations. (This process of transferring the grapes is viewable in the below video.)

Before pumping the grapes into the tank, an all-natural "filter" is put just in front of the valve that is used to release the juice from the tanks. What did we use? Rocks, and bundles of asparagus ferns found all around the vineyard.

From that point juice is pumped over the must daily in order to have fermentation happen throughout. The juice is tasted daily, with the *Brix or percent of sugar content in the juice is taken. From the percent sugar of the juice, the likely final alcohol content can be calculated. Primary fermentation before filtering and pressing is decided by taste and *Brix, but normally is between two and three weeks.

The Press

When Mr. Espinasse decides he is happy with primary fermentation, the juice is filtered and immediately pumped into a second tank. Then, the marc, or remaining grape solids are pumped to a press. Not an easy task in the least, with the eventual person being in the fermentation tank shoveling alcohol fuming marc into the pump to be pumped the press. Grape stained clothes, hands, and legs occur here! The press could be described as a cylinder with closing sides on each end, with trough, hose, and pump connecting it to the tank with the already filtered juices. A majority of the tannin, flavor, and colour comes from these pressings. If I am not mistaken, Chief Grape presses the marc twice before refusing of the now dry stems and skins.

Oak Barrels

Depending on the wine, but most likely six more months in the cement fermentation tanks, and the wine is then transferred to oak barrels to undergo six more months of aging and fermentation. A process known as racking is undergone during both transfers, leaving the bottom portion of the tank behind undisturbed as it contains sediment that has dropped off from the liquid over time.

Bottling. Over a year after the grapes have been picked and processed, the now wine is ready to be bottled. Done in one or two days, a sort of mobile bottling truck as I understand comes to the cave, and it is all corked and set on its side. Officially unfiltered, drinking the wine you can expect to find

Storage of unlabeled bottles, Domaine du Banneret,
Chateauneuf-du-Pape

 a bit of sediment in the bottom of the bottles. Bottled, but unlabeled, for if it were labeled the taxes are due at that point. Hand labeled as it is sold, and sent to the United States, all across Europe, Australia, and perhaps a future in Japan.

Domaine Rouge Bleu

The first day, tragedy struck.

Full buckets.

80 year old vines.

Fermentation

Hopper with screw

Hatch on cement fermentation tanks.

Old school press used at Domaine du Banneret. 

Morning dew covers grapes.

The field of Lunatique, one afternoons work. 

On the final day we picked in the morning hours of 6-9,
and that evening from 6-9. Here is the sunrise, with
a beautiful cluster of Grenache.

From vine to bottle, Jean Marc shows ingenuity, passion for natural wines, and the process thereof. I urge you to search out a shop or distributor close to you and drink something that I am certainly proud to have been a part of, and Jean Marc surely is as well. Information on his wines, vineyard, and places to purchase is all located on his website, http://www.rouge-bleu.com/. A perfect wine to pair with your holiday meals, that is for sure!