The winter months of December, January and February are among the happiest for cooks in the Pacific Northwest as we head homeward for the holidays and hunker down around the hearth with family and friends. What better way to usher in the holidays and the new year than with an intriguing and little-known wine varietal called siegerrebe (zee-ger-ray-be)?
Siegerrebe, which translates as "winner vine," is a white table wine developed in Germany in 1916, according to John Schreiner, author of Chardonnay and Friends (Orca Book Publishers, 1998). This gewürtztraminer/Madeleine Angevine cross is grown in British Columbia and in Washington's Puget Sound appellation, where the Lopez Island 1999 siegerrebe I tested comes from. This organically grown wine is pale straw in color with intense aromas of pear and tropical fruit. Because of its slight sweetness, it serves as a pleasant aperitif for sipping on its own or pairs perfectly with simply prepared seafood or poultry dishes or spicy Asian cuisine.
But this time of year, when Northwest waters grow cold and seafood sparkles in its prime, the Lopez Island siegerrebe seems a natural with shellfish, such as oysters on the half-shell or cracked Dungeness crab. The best choice of all may be my Northwest take on a Southern shrimp boil, substituting lobster-like Alaskan spot prawns for the shrimp.
To prepare the spot prawns, simply boil a pot of water and flavor it with a couple of tablespoons of dried tarragon rubbed between your fingers to release the natural oils. Cut the spots along the back with kitchen shears (but leave them in the shell during cooking for added flavor), boil for three minutes (or until the tails curl slightly), drain the cooking liquid, and serve the spot prawns piping hot as an appetizer with wedges of corn bread.
I tend to think of Oregon chardonnays as less authoritative than those from Washington, but the King Estate 1997 reserve chardonnay quickly proved that generalization false. This viscous, golden-hued wine is rife with tropical fruit and honey flavors accented with spicy notes of nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Rich vanilla, oak and toast flavors ramp up the sipping experience even more, and the wine finishes oh-so-long, seeming to reverberate in the mouth long after it's swallowed.
Such a complex, well-balanced wine is a natural companion to many foods we eat this time of the year, including a simply roasted holiday turkey or ham, sage-rich oyster stuffing and mince or pumpkin pies. But for something different, I like to pair this reserve chardonnay with roasted winter squash soup. A simple purée thinned with vegetable stock and flavored with fresh ginger and mild curry powder brings out the slight spiciness of the wine, and the wine's slight sweetness mellows the soup's subtle burn.
Hyatt Vineyards' 1997 cabernet sauvignon from Washington's Yakima Valley is a blend of 90 percent cabernet and 10 percent merlot. Like many cabs, it's full of black cherry flavors along with a whiff of tobacco, but this cabernet is softer, less tannic, and therefore more versatile as a food wine than many others on the market.
The wine seemed to cry out for pairing with a spicy, tomato-based cioppino (Italian seafood stew) chunky full of Penn Cove mussels, Manila clams and fresh halibut cheeks. Lamb stew simmered with brown lentils and dried cherries (see Inside the Pike Place Market, page 48 for an example of what I'm talking about), or chicken breasts cooked in a fruity cabernet or merlot with dried rosemary and served over rice (see the Pike Place Market Cookbook, page 89) immediately come to mind as dynamic matches, too. For those who prefer their meat straight instead of stewed, this particular cabernet would partner well with thick slices of roasted prime rib or a crunchy pepper steak with a demi-glace sauce.
Many of us drink more sparkling and dessert wines around the holidays, and Idaho's Ste. Chapelle bottles several winners, including an American-style spumante. I think of this wine's Italian counterpart, asti spumante, as an inexpensive, cloyingly sweet white aperitif or dessert wine. But Ste. Chapelle's version changed my perceptions with its medium color, sweet but not-too-sweet taste and small, elegant bubbles, almost like a still wine with a bit of effervescence.
This is the perfect dessert wine for my palate, one that pairs proudly with wedges of fresh, ripe, buttery Comice or Bartlett pears, toasted hazelnuts (filberts), whole meal biscuits and an authoritative Northwest cheese such as Oregon Blue, Quillisascut goat's milk Manchego, or Sally Jackson's aged sheep's milk cheese for an elegant turn on the classic cheese-and-fruit plate. Whichever dessert you choose, don't forget to raise a glass of Ste. Chapelle's star-filled spumante to toast this food-rich season.
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