Sip Quips

Recently we had the pleasure of having an old college friend in town for the weekend. Concurrently, I have been speaking with both my mom and my mother-in-law about their respective trips to visit us and see their granddaughter. It’s not uncommon for folks to stress about house guests, myself included. After the arrival of our little one, I was quite sure that there weren’t going to be enough hours in the day to get everything done, much less prepare for and host company. That’s where I was wrong. I had a bit of an epiphany after our friend left – we planed ahead for meals, had everything on hand (okay, I admit it – there was an ‘emergency’ trip to the store, but I inevitably always forget at least one ingredient), and popped open a bottle of wine while we were cooking, and our friend couldn’t stop raving about our hospitality. Having been in the restaurant business for so long, I am inclined to think of hospitality mainly as a function of food and beverage, and it seems that with a bit of forethought in planing simple, delicious, easy-prep meals, a little wining and dining goes a long way in being a great host, especially since I never got around to vacuuming before our company arrived – oops! The first night I planed a simple pasta and prepped the few ingredients that required prep before our company arrived, so that I could toss dinner together whenever we were ready, and it would be on the table within fifteen minutes. Since travel plans are always subject to change, I thought a simple supper suited the evening best, that way there was absolutely no stress about timing.  Night two – pork chops, mashed cauliflower, sauteed chard – homey, comfortable food that everyone loves, and no the cauliflower was not because we are on some crazy Atkin’s diet, merely because we had cauliflower on hand, not potatoes. Again though, an easy meal to get from fridge to table quickly, and super satisfying. On night three, we changed it up a little and made my all-time favorite Chicken Enchilada recipe (thank you Tyler Florence). It’s not hard, but it does take a bit longer, but you can get everyone in the kitchen together and have a little cooking party to assemble everything and suddenly dinner becomes entertainment.  Night four, Memorial Day, it had to be burgers. The great part about this menu was that my husband, aka Grill Master, took care of most of the cooking, and there was minimal clean-up. Delicious and low maintenance - what could be better. I guess my epiphany boils down to this – your company is there because they want to see you. What better way to reconnect than around the dinner table. Good food, good wine, and good times. 

Leave it to the Italians to be resourseful enough to look at what you’d normally throw away after you make wine and instead think – hey, I bet that would make a delicious after dinner drink! Grappa, in a sense, picks up where wine leaves off. Once you have pressed the juice, or wine, away from the skins, you are left with stems, skins and seeds. To make grappa, you take all of the leftovers from winemaking, the skins, stems and seeds and distill them. Sounds delicious doesn’t it?

My first experience with grappa was at a celebratory dinner at Aureole, in Las Vegas, after passing my sommelier test. I was in Vegas with two of my friends and coworkers who were also there for the somm test, and since all three of us passed we decided to go out for a fabulous meal. We opted for the seven course celebration tasting menu, paired with wines naturally. After enjoying an absolutely perfect meal, one of my friends opted to order a grappa as a digestif.

Curious, I asked him what it tasted like to which he responded, ‘It’s like perfect grapes and gasoline, but in a good way.’ Naturally, after a description like that, I had to try it. To this day, I cannot think of a more succinct way to describe grappa than, ’It’s like perfect grapes and gasoline, but in a good way.’ Being a distilled spirit it has a burn similar to brandy, but the amount of fresh grape flavor that you get from the stems, et al, is remarkable.

Most grappa is clear, and fairly harsh (think moonshine, but with a distinct grape taste), although soma producers will age the grappa in oak casks, giving it a yellowish to amber color and mellower flavor (think bourbon). If you are interested in trying grappa I would strongly recommend paying restaurant prices and order it after a nice meal sometime, rather than going out and buying a bottle. It is a bit of an acquired taste, and you’d hate to be stuck finishing the whole bottle if you cannot find the ‘good way’ it tastes like gasoline and grapes. If you do decide to try it – lift a glass to grapes and gasoline, cin cin!