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TN: Another Loire red

Wednesday Betsy was making tacos, and she said she wanted red wine, I thought the 2001 Jean Maurice Raffault "Les Galuches " Chinon might be a good choice (for the acidity). Indeed, there was plenty of acidity, a good food wine for my tastes. But Betsy didn't care for it. To me the nose had some tea (?!), blackcurrant, and earth notes; once I actually tasted the flavors ran more along a slightly bitter black cherry fruit line, with lots of (pleasant to me) herbal tones. Some mineral in the finish. I found it distinctive, with a zippy acidity that was quite food-friendly. She (not especially wine knowledgable, but actually usually quite extraordinary at picking out flavors) just said she didn't like it. I have to say that Loire reds (especially the cab franc based wines) and Chenin Blancs probably produce more vinuous disagreement in our house than any other types of wines. I have no idea of relation between JM and Olga, whose wines I like even more. Dale PS Interesting (to me) aside- Betsy made a beef filling for the tacos, along with gaucamole, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce,etc. But she discovered the sour cream was bad, and put out creme fraiche instead. Afterwards, I requested all tacos henceforth be served with creme fraiche. Dale

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Dale Williams
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Salut/Hi Dale Williams,

le/on 19 Sep 2003 02:18:48 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

yum.

oops.

I'd have been very suspicious about such a match, though all depends upon what is in the Tacos and how they're made.

Blancs probably produce more vinuous

I'm not surprised. They're very idiosyncratic wines. I find them good with veal and pork, by the way.

Hmm, with that' I've have looked to beer, but with swmbo saying "red wine", an Oz shiraz.

Afterwards, I requested all

For me, all sour cream is bad. I agree 100% that if you must use a soured cream (and I accept that it's pretty well de rigeur with tacos) then creme fraiche is definitely the way to go. I have a particular horror of US and Brit style "soured cream". Unspeakable (for me).

Reply to
Ian Hoare

knowledgable,

Interesting observation. My husband has a much stronger preference for Chinons than I do.

Creme fraiche is a lot more similar in taste and consistency to Mexican crema than is our US sour cream. I interchange the two in a pinch. I think the only thing I really use sour cream for is noodle kugel.

-Amalia

Reply to
amalia

To be fair, she wasn't really thinking of a match. She asked for the wine well before dinner, and was just in the mood for red. Knowing I had a board meeting the following night, and she was playing, I didn't really want to open 2 bottles. So I decided to stretch the red. Normally when she makes tacos (a complicated melange of flavors) I take the easy way out with an off-dry Riesling if she feels like wine (or I have a cerveza and she has a glass of whatever's open)

I can see the idea, spice to spice. Just due to my limited cellar, I'd have been more likely to go Zin or Cotes du Rhone than Shiraz. Bit in this case, the Chinon was a default as I haven't restocked my home racks (cellar is elsewhere) lately, choices for reds were quite a few Bordeaux, good Burgs, the Chinon, a Cot, and a couple of Spanish cheapies (nice wines, but I'm a little tired of Vina Alarba and Borsao- I just felt like something different). The Chinon seemed to offer the best shot of the under$15 bottles (no way I was opening 1er Cru Gevrey with tacos!). I thought the match was ok (I servd the Chinon slightly chilled), Betsy's objection to wine predated the combo.

Interestingly, I just looked at an Oz Clark match- he suggests Beaujolais with the tacos. My guess he was just thinking (a)light and (b) cheap.

I'll confess to sometimes loading up on sour cream on potatoes, and Betsy does use in stroganoff.

Cheers!

Dale

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Dale Williams

were the tacos soft or crisp?

The ground beef was spicy, but more cumin-y than hot (I'm a bit of a chile-head, but David doesn't care for real heat). With really hot food I just go for beer, or in a pinch bubbly or off-dry. We had soft wheat tortillas (local grocery just stopped carrying corn, we used to have both when we had tacos), that got a quick dip in oil.

I think he was using Beaujolais (or Valpo) just because his point was this is not a food for a fine wine you care about- if you're going to have wine, make it inexpensive. Of course, if I was drinking a Brun Beaujolais or a good cru like Roilette Fleurie I'd care about my wine. :)

Best, Dale

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