GOT STEAK?
What’s ta not to like about Tannat tonight?
Wines one step over the horizon brought to you by Cambiata
and the dog named Surge.
Big red wines originate in cultures that put an emphasis on rich meats. Grapes that produce lighter reds inappropriate for the regional cuisine are replaced over generations with more suitable and tannic grapes. Basque, Gascony or Argentine cuisines require tannic wines like Tannat that help release and accentuate the brawny flavors of a prime roast. As the matching wine, Tannat benefits from tannin softening proteins that free the wine’s fruit to mingle with the spices and savory flavors in the cooking. So if it’s aged salami, sausage with extra spice or a block of beef that has been on the rotisserie since before the morning fog rolled back to the sea, Tannat should be an excellent choice. If the recipe calls for you to leave in the bone, use a more garlic or to continually reapply the rosemary drippings, then Tannat would be a fine choice for the evening's wine. If the goose you’re roasting is perfectly plump and fattened, you may require a Tannat to fine tune your meal. If you somewhat regularly cook a cassoulet, then you already know about Tannat however we would be most pleased if you would try our Cambiata Tannat.
I have found Tannat to be an extraordinary vinifera with many fascinating
and eye-opening attributes. For instance last weekend I had dinner at the Moroccan restaurant Aziza in San Francisco and brought
a bottle of the 2005 Cambiata Tannat. The wine was decanted prior to the arrival of my main course lamb shank, a slam dunk pairing,
but for the sake of experimentation, I thought I would try the wine with an anchovy appetizer. The wine paired extremely well.
Perhaps when dealing with this most highly opinionated fish the full bodied Tannat performs well not only because it has the tannin
to permeate the oily meat but also enough palate cleansing acidity to work like a dry rose. The dish was fresh anchovies, rhubarb,
lemon and spiced with marash pepper. (Because Tannat achieves worthy tannin and flavor at sound sugar levels, the moderate alcohol
may have prevented the spice from igniting.)
In the spirit of discovery, I would also like to share with you from a winemaker’s point
of view, my insight and trials with Tannat and what I see as my immediate challenges.
For at least the next several vintages, releasing
a new Tannat will probably make me a bit anxious. The wine matures stubbornly slow so it needs a lot of barrel work and winemaker
patience. Though I won’t put the wine in the bottle unless I consider it an exceptional quaff, I never know if I’m indulging
my winemaker’s palate and targeting the wine’s piquant qualities rather than the marketable good. Regardless, with my relative lack
of experience making Tannat (I’ve made 4 vintages of Tannat but 25 vintages of Chardonnay) and the wine’s unusual endurance and ability
to regress, (qualities that point to its heart healthy, anti-oxidant effects,) there is reason to fear that the wine will pull out
one last bout of closed up, backwards nosed indifference or a brutal show of razor sharp tannins. Last summer with bottles and labels
ready to go, I had to return the wine to barrel for a necessary six months of additional barrel therapy. My plan is that the wine
will arrive in the glass as an ambassador of lush, vivacious tannin. How others will perceive the wine will depend on their point
of view but because my Tannat has an imperative, reactive layer that remains unresolved without proper food pairing, I can see how
for some the wine’s exuberance will seem too high-pitched. Those without thoughts towards an accompanying duck confit, aged salami
or other Basque or Gascony specialty, might perceive the wine as more provocative than praiseworthy.
One of my motivations for growing
Tannat was because of its reputation for being a difficult grape to make drinkable. (Clearly this was not a well thought out business
decision.) Intriguing then was the Basque infatuation with the grape and the seeming contradiction between what we (those
of us dominated by the Francophile favorites of Chardonnay, Cabernet, Syrah, etc) considered drinkably refined and what the Basque
drank with delight. Insight came when I began pairing the wine with traditional Basque food. Their culture of rich meats requires
a red wine with working tannins that can pull flavors from a savory roast or fattened goose. Tannat is renowned for being tannic and
my analysis shows Cambiata tannin levels at about three times that of a typical Alexander Valley Cabernet. However I feel the sensory
qualities of the Tannat tannins are more tart and bright and I’ll cautiously say they have more of a food-worthy bitter zing than
the more familiar drying tannins of a big Cabernet Sauvignon or Petite Sirah. Cambiata Tannat quickly turns your mouth and tongue
purple and while this is a nice party trick, I now think it may play a role in the wine’s ability to match some of the world’s richest
cuisine. The enduring tannins coating your palate should attract and attach to proteins causing flavors to linger and separate from
the fats. In counterpoint the wine seems fruitier and sweeter as it’s refined within your mouth. I equate this to a morning cup of
extracted black coffee matching well with a spicy and fatty chorizo sausage. These suppositions aside, when making the Tannat
I am increasingly giving added consideration to how the final wine will stand up to bone influenced savory meats, daubes and cassoulets.
The Basque made Tannat their supreme red wine because it went well with what they were having for dinner. The Cambiata Tannat’s seemingly
deft interactions with these types of food is more and more becoming cause for what I see as a proper Tannat paradigm within the cool
Monterey terrior.
It is common knowledge that our food culture has greatly moved towards more sophisticated and complex flavors. Today
we have fusions of fusion cooking, fresh ingredients as if there was an endless summer harvest and a mob of Food Network schooled
chefs cooking in extraordinarily well equipped home kitchens. To keep up with this eclectic culinary explosion, we need better access
to diverse wine flavors and textures. My goal with Cambiata wines has always been to add dimension to our wine community. By choosing
two varietals that for centuries played a significant cultural and utilitarian role within their indigenous cuisines, where the local
wines had to be tuned specifically to support the locally grown food, leads me to the unintended consequence of culinary specificity.
For example, many white wines go great with seafood basted in lemon and butter but start adding toppings like poblano peppers, mangos
and cilantro or shakes of paprika, cumin and red pepper and now you’re in the realm where the Cambiata Albariño really shines (Also
note how an Albariño so much more loves a lime than the sycophantic lemon.) Conversely, depending on what you are cooking, this may
mean my varietals are much less versatile than the more tried and true global varieties. This then also leads me to a greater understanding
of how a food wine should perform as well as the art behind food and wine pairing. Taking the leap that my wines perform well, they
then should offer chefs and sommeliers more tools to challenge their creativity and deliver thought provoking fare to their involved
diners. (On the other hand, possibly I am only making the case for needing more distinctive wines and my call to arms is a personal
reaction to the unfortunate homogenization of wine and global wine styles – either way the Cambiata wines are meant to fit the need.)
When you taste the 2005 Cambiata Tannat keep in mind I am pushing for the essence of Tannat - the part that is all about working with
rich food. I am picturing two hundred years ago, a Basque cook before the stove pulling an aged duck from the jar of fat and then
reaching into the pantry for the bottle of wine that will be Tannat because the village only grew what went best with what was on
the dinner table.
(The history of Basque cuisine is remarkable; the rich food draws lineage from the region’s ancient chestnut forests
and the pigs, ducks and geese that loved to eat the carbohydrate rich chestnuts.)
Eric Laumann
Owner & Winemaker