Page 34 - Dr Pamela Peeke

The Wine Connoisseur The Aromatics and White Wine

By Deborah Damery Lazear, CSW

The nose knows… aromatics, those wonderful smells that titillate tone down the sugar syrup in the peach cobbler and that did the
the senses and can leave you dreaming of far off places and exotic trick.
locations.
Another delightful dessert wine that is having a big revival in dinner
Well, it’s about that time of year when the flowers are blooming and party circles is Sauternes. Sometimes prohibitively expensive, good
the jasmine reaches out values can be found
and grabs my heart as from the southern
I walk by. I moved to Bordeaux region of
San Diego in 1997 to Graves. Any fruit tart,
marry the man of my pastry, or foie gras (not
dreams. He had a jas- a dessert!) will be en-
mine vine growing on hanced with Sauternes,
the garden wall. Every made from the Semil-
time I smell that scent, lon and Sauvignon
I am taken back to that Blanc grapes. In the
location and those emo- original Bordeaux clas-
tions. sification of 1855, the
chateaux of Sauternes
Scent can conjure up and Barsac were
all kinds of memo- included. The best of
ries. I remember my the lot was Château
first stay in a famous d’Yquem. I have a
hotel in Bangkok over bottle in our cellar, a
25 years ago, it was 1965, and no fruit tart
the soap! Whenever I in the world could get
smell sandalwood, I am me to open it. It has
34 transported to the Ori- grown deep golden,
ental Hotel and my first almost amber in color,
sight of a real orchid. I over the years. And
practically swoon! who says white wines
Doesn’t sound like have no aging power!
any wine you have
consumed recently? My first experience with
Well, maybe it is time to a dessert wine was
reexamine the world of from Hungary. Tokay
aromatic wines. (pronounced tok eye),
is made from the fur-
A couple of weeks ago I mint grape. Its appella-
was teaching an all day tion is the oldest in the
Wine & Food Pairing wine world, dating back
Advanced Level class to 1737. The region
for SDSU, College is near the Ukrainian
of Extended Stud- and Slovenian borders
ies. The host winery and its sweetness is
provided most of the measured in puttonyos
wines and my job was (aka baskets). The
to find foods that went more baskets of shriv-
with them as part of eled grapes needed
the classroom experi- to produce a bottle of
ence. One of the wines Tokay, the sweeter the
was Muscat Canelli. wine. 6 puttonyos is
The aroma of peaches the sweetest.
danced under my nose
so I followed the trail What Sauternes and
to Peach Cobbler. Remember that one can match the aroma (or Tokay have in common is the incredible balance of sweet and acid.
taste) of a wine or contrast it for a bold expression. In this case, I This is no sugar bomb. Think stone fruit like apricots touched by
chose to match - and match it did. I can’t take credit for making the the wings of an angel and you get the idea. Ice wines from Canada
cobbler; my partner and sous chef Sue did that piece of magic. and Germany also fall into the heavenly category in my opinion. As
do the Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA) dessert wines made from the
Recall that if the wine is a dessert wine, I always recommend the Riesling grape in Germany.
wine be sweeter than the dessert. Sue used a little lemon juice to
Issue 2, 2009