Inside IWM

The Inside Story from Italian Wine Merchants

Truffles v. Truffle Oil

What’s the big deal?

The truffle is prized by foodies around the globe—and for good reason. Its earthy, ineffable flavor makes other fungi look like poor imposters. Truffles, however, are costly, and this cost does make some gourmands search for the deliciously dirty truffle taste without the sky-high truffle price tag.

In an effort to save money, some foodies turn to truffle oil. However, does truffle oil stand up to real, raw, whole pieces of truffle? Some would argue yes; others would say there’s no comparison at all to the “real thing.” Some gastronomes, and even some chefs, would even argue that truffle oil is the most cost-effective way to enhance a dish with the flavor of the indigenous truffles—white ones are found in northern Italy and black truffles in Perigord, France—to their dishes. It’s also worth pointing out that it can be difficult to find whole truffles in the US, so cooks, connoisseurs, and everyone else who wants a taste of truffle sometimes have little choice but to purchase truffle oil. This oil can cost as much as $30 for just over three ounces, and you can also find concentrated truffle oil made with cold-pressed oil pressed with actual truffle for as much as $70 for .33 ounces.

Chef Kevin Sippel of IWM’s Studio del Gusto takes the stand against truffle oil on the premise that it’s mostly artificial. “Truffle peelings and preserved truffles are garbage,” he says of the liquified version usually made of mushrooms, black olives and truffle oil. Instead, Sippel, who also dismisses other “imitation” truffles like those grown in Croatia, China, Poland or anywhere other than Italy or France, prefers using black winter truffles. Sippel observes that white truffles are great, but they’re far more delicate than the black and are therefore limited to specific dishes.  “I like the punch you in the mouth and versatility of the black truffle,” he says. “They hold up well to aggressive cooking. Good white truffles should smell like good white truffles, and if someone is selling you white truffles from Alba ask for the certificate of authenticity.”

The price tag is high for truffle oil and it’s even steeper for actual pieces of the fungi. The expense stems from the labor necessary to gathering the tasty delicacy during its yearly season of September to December. Grown underground among the roots of oak trees mostly in the Langhe region of Piemonte and Alba, white truffles (or trifola d’Alba, the white truffle of Alba) are first located by the keen noses of the trufulau, or truffle hunting dogs, and then they’re gathered by hand. It’s a labor-intensive process to procure this luxury item. For example, 1.6 pound piece of truffle sold for $150,000 at the White Truffle Festival in Piemonte last November.

Delicate white truffles have hints of garlic and can be eaten raw or thinly shaved over pasta, risotto, eggs, fondues or just about anything savory, while black truffles have a more pungent aroma that makes them more food specific. The French counterpart to our trifola d’Alba, black truffles are earthier and are often stored with eggs or added to sauces, bread and other foods to permeate their flavors with truffled goodness. Slightly less expensive than white truffles, black truffle is a better choice with heartier foods like meat or rich sauces.

Any Piemonte Barolo will pair well with a white truffle-infused dish, but when having such a posh treat, you might as well go with some of the best like Bartolo Mascarello, Luciano Sandrone, Aldo and Giacomo Conterno, or Bruno Giacosa. IWM’s Perry Porricelli has tried all of these Barolos with truffles but favors Aldo Conterno’s Barolo Granbussia. Only made in the best vintages, Perry says “Aldo seems to have a wine made for truffles.” But then any meal with Granbussia is bound to be good—truffle, truffle oil, or truffle free.

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Macaroni and Cheese

Feeding Hong Kong’s Wine Frenzy

Today I met Mark Bailey, the new Sommelier at Dakota Prime to introduce IWM while sharing one of my favorite food and wine pairings in Hong Kong with him—Dakota Prime’s Macaroni and Cheese with Truffles, a dish that is not your kid’s SpongeBob Mac and Cheese, and San Giuliano’s 2005 Barbaresco, a wine that a revelation for those of us who want to let our Giacosas age but want to drink a great Barbaresco now.   We talked about unique opportunities we have in the Hong Kong wine community, and our conversation reminded me of my first impressions of the Hong Kong wine market when I arrived twelve months ago.

The eyes of the wine world remain on Hong Kong because of the city’s staggering auction results, but that phenomenon is not quite an accurate picture of the wine scene on a day-to-day basis.   Upon my arrival, many clients here told me of how they saw many wine merchants open businesses in hopes of capitalizing on the spending frenzy frequently reported by Bloomberg and other major media, only to close their shops just as quickly as that frenzy ended.  The newspapers would have had me believe that a throng of local collectors would greet me at the airport with blank checks and ask me to fill their cellars unto bursting with Italy’s best wines.  What I’ve found is less a mania for collection and more a profound love of wine, and I like it.

Hong Kong’s passion for enjoying life’s finer things manifests itself in an obsession to understand wine, and not simply to bid wildly on Lafite at auction.  The wine lovers of Hong Kong move beyond first growths and Parker scores and search for the story in each bottle, and they appreciate the way a farmer can put his heart in a bottle, just as art lovers appreciate how Van Gogh put his heart onto a canvas. (Would Ales Kristancic cut off his ear?  Would you be surprised if he did?)  When you think about it, the deep appreciation felt by Hong Kong wine aficionados makes sense; a culture largely influenced by principles of Feng Shui is naturally adept at feeling what lies beyond plain sight.

Today I met a friend for lunch who has recently taken classes in Italian wine, Champagne and Burgundy, who is preparing to take her Level 3 WSET exam for fun, and who will travel to Piedmont and Bordeaux this year.  The joy she gets from the education in wine makes the journey itself a destination. This attitude is inspiring, and this attitude drives me and my peers in the Hong Kong wine community.

When I arrived in Hong Kong bearing the strange gifts of Italian wines—like Ales’ biodynamic beauties that call for you to open underwater and decant overhead—I wondered how both I and my wines would be received.  I was fully confident in IWM and our ability to contribute to the wine community’s thirst for the world’s very best wine, and I felt sure I could serve both the people and the wines properly.  But would anyone care to understand what was in these bottles? I was fortunate to meet some of the leaders in the HK restaurant scene early on, and on meeting them, I knew we had found the right place, and the right partners, to share our passion.

Mark’s designs for Dakota Prime’s enhanced wine program will offer HK foodies countless opportunities to discover what’s beautiful about wine—and not merely what’s most familiar. And his innovations are evocative of the Hong Kong restaurant scene in general. When Giovanni Perna at Domani recommends a new Italian wine to me, I don’t think twice about trying it, even if I experience only a fraction of the passion he feels for this wine.  When I dine at Tuscany by H, I don’t open the menu; Chef Harlan tells me what he thinks and I trust him completely.  (If you’re a fan of great service, watch him operate on any night and you’ll see how much he genuinely cares about every guest’s experience that night.)  At the new Otto e Mezzo, GM Danilo Nicoletti’s face lights up like a Roman candle when he talks about the art of Italian wine and his own culinary artist, Chef Bombana, and the collection of fine art in the restaurant itself is an ode to a time and place in Italian culture.  Make no mistake: Hong Kong is an awesome place to be a wine lover.

If you’re reading this with a glass of wine in hand, as I have been while writing this post (I’ve been drinking Movia 2006 Pinot Grigio—I usually don’t love Pinot Grigio, but this is art, my friends), I hope you’ll drink to Mark’s success in guiding us wine lovers to profound wine discoveries. May I suggest the San Guilano Barbaresco paired thoughtfully with Macaroni and Cheese and perhaps a side of Porterhouse?

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Please Allow Me to Introduce You to the Keyser Söze of Cheese

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

“That smells like wet, old broccoli.”

“Did someone forget to change Annabelle’s diaper?”

“Eww, why would you do that to me?”

We were off to another banner start for the Deas Christmas Eve dinner, and I was rewarding and/or torturing my family with wine and cheese finds from the field. Sitting captive, they were waiting for their safe, traditional homemade Gumbo to arrive. I surveyed all of them, my victims, my audience, my family, and my gerbils in my ongoing experiments in discovering the apotheosis of wine and cheese pairings.

vacherin

My family’s exaggerated reactions were in response to the well-prepped cheeses that had sat patiently for hours, just waiting to reveal their hidden nuances.  Included in the line-up was the Keyser Söze of cheeses, the Vacherin Mont d’Or that, like Alba’s prized white truffles, makes a brief appearance each year to intoxicate the senses with its earthy characteristics that range from mushrooms and truffles to pine wood and alpine flowers.  Powerful but understated, and much like the white truffle or a Barolo, the strength of this cheese lies in its complexity and layers.  Think Camembert but with more nuances and a signature woodsy note—and “foot” note as my wife puts it.  If you appreciate white truffles and are a fan of aged wines, especially the likes of a Beaucastel, Chateau Musar, Bodega y Cavas de Weinert, Bartolo Mascarello, or Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay, the Vacherin could be a worthy stop in your next culinary adventure.

What makes this cheese so unique?  The French and Swiss argue over its eighteenth-century origin; it’s only available from December to February; and it’s impossible to find (especially my preferred raw milk version—the benefits of getting to know your local cheese monger). While most cheeses obtain their flavor from the spring and summer milk of cows (or goats and sheep), the Vacherin is made from the richer fall and winter milk, and it is these same cows that go on to produce the Gruyere cheese through the warmer months of the year.

But outside the history, part of the attraction of Vacherin is the issue of finding some wine to complement it. Conventional wisdom say to employ the adage “what grows together, goes together” as a guide. I believe that is a great guiding principle; however, part of food and wine is about discovery, and I was interested in going beyond the Jura Mountains’ Arbois or Vin Jaune for this match. I knew from earlier tinkering that something magical happens when the mushroom notes of the cheese are touched by Champagne, and the Roger Coulon Brut Reserve echoed the flavor profile just fine. Likewise, an earthy Pinot Noir is an obvious candidate and the Bodega Chacra 2006 Cincuenta y Cinco did the job, although the wine picked up more of its mushroomy aspects 36 hours later when the wine had more aeration, which made for a better pairing on day two.  I was also pleased with Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay 2001 Rioja Gran Reserva Especial.  It wasn’t the obvious pick, but this Rioja is all about soft fruit, earthy notes, and aged wood, and it provided a complement to the cheese.

I’m a restless inventor, however, and next Christmas I am looking forward to trying some additional Champagnes with the prized Vacherin; the Egly-Ouriet Les Vignes de Vrigny due to its richness, or Selosse Brut Blanc de Blancs Initiale for its nutty complexity.  What would you pair with the funkiness and complexity of Vacherin Mont d’Or?  Or are you not intrepid enough to try?

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