MRE Menu 8: Meatballs with Marinara Sauce

A wine of suitable structure to match these meatballs can be found in central Umbria, around Montefalco.  Here, the sagrantino grape reigns, and the larger wine world is just beginning to realize that exceptional reds with remarkably high polyphenol content and robust tannins come from this special place.  The disciplinare calls for aging in wood to soften those tannins and integrate them with the predominantly black fruits.

The marinara sauce compels me to remain in Italy for a suitable contrasting pairing with the robust yet humble meatball.  A white wine of sufficient body can be a tough bill to fill, but it is waiting for us farther to the north in the Soave area of the Veneto.  Whites in this area are made from garganega, and can be somewhat nondescript when they come from the open plains, but reach their pinnacle in the hills of the Classico zone.  For added body to match the richness of the meat and sauce, go with the Recioto version, which utilizes the appassimento method to dry and concentrate the grapes before vinification.  For an extra twist, find one of the elusive sparkling versions of this Recioto to cleanse your palate as you feast on this MRE.

Complementary Pairing:  Sagrantino di Montefalco, Umbria, Italy

Try:  Paolo Bea Montefalco Sagrantino Secco ‘Pagliare’

[www.paolobea.com]  Unlike other producers in Montefalco seeking international critical acclaim and high scores by using lots of new French oak barriques, this family-run winery ages their sagrantino first in steel and then in the traditional large Slavonian oak botte, before bottling it unfiltered.  The family uses meticulous care in the organically farmed vineyards and over 500 years of experience in Montefalco to allow the terroir to ably speak for itself without the need for interventionalist winemaking.

Contrasting Pairing:  Recioto di Soave spumante, Veneto, Italy

Try:  Coffele Recioto di Soave Spumante

[www.coffele.it]  The Recioto versions of Soave typically have some degree of sweetness, but here you won’t notice the residual sugar due to the balancing acidity and sparkling mouthfeel.  Expect a bouquet of cherry blossoms, with brioche on the mid-palate and an almond finish from this family winery with a vineyard on southwest facing slopes in Castelcerino in the Classico zone. 

MRE Menu 7: Beef Brisket

At the sight of brisket, perhaps your first inclination is to uncork a malbec from Argentina.  Hold that thought, and instead go back to the Old World and the traditional home of malbec in the southwest of France, in Cahors, where it is known as auxerrois.  Don’t be fooled by the black color—these wines still have freshness and just a bit of palate-cleansing acidity to balance the black currant and truffle flavors.

Since I suggested such an inky black wine for a red pairing, I won’t go quite all the way to a white wine for contrast with the food.  Instead I’ll stop short at a rosé, but not just any rosé.  Imagine, in the southern part of the Champagne region, chalky hills that resemble those leading to remarkable expressions of chardonnay just a little farther north in the Côte des Blancs, but with pinot noir planted on these slopes instead.  This is not a sparkler as you might expect from the Aube.  These still wines are considered to be some of the most age-worthy examples of rosé, and perfect for this MRE that may have been sitting on the shelf just as long.

Complementary Pairing:  Cahors, Sud-Ouest, France

Try:  Château du Cèdre Cahors Le Cèdre

[www.chateauducedre.com]  You might think the hints of smoke are coming from your brisket, but after realizing it is devoid of flavor and aroma, you appreciate that the smoky notes are coming from this wine, followed by dark cherries and blueberries with a bit of cocoa sprinkled on top.  These flavors and the dark color come from malbec macerated for over a month with an assertive daily punching down of the cap, followed by up to 24 months of aging in mostly new wood.

Contrasting Pairing:  Rosé des Riceys, Champagne, France

Try:  Olivier Horiot Rosé des Riceys ‘En Valingrain’

[www.horiot.fr]  The darker color compared to a typical rosé from other regions comes from 5 to 7 days of maceration instead of the usual less than 24 hours.  The mineral undertones come from those steep chalk slopes.  The sense of satisfaction you’ll feel comes from knowing that you’re drinking one of the world’s great rosé wines with your brisket MRE while your friends are drinking pink-tinged plonk.

MRE Menu 6: Beef Roast with Vegetables

For harmony with the beef roast, we can travel to the northwest of Italy, where nebbiolo reigns supreme amongst the reds.  Rather than stopping in the communes in and around Barolo and Barbaresco, we’ll continue even farther north, almost to the edge of the Valle d’Aosta.  On the slopes in the area of Carema, the local version of nebbiolo known as picountener, takes a lighter form compared to the Alba expressions, exhibiting an elegant and perfumed side to this noble grape.

For contrast, attempting to pair a white wine with this rich beef dish is a challenge, so fortify yourself and explore the possibilities brought by Madeira.  For ready availability, you can’t beat a 5 to 15 year old Madeira from the white varietal boal (or bual in English).  Despite a bit of residual sugar, the balancing acidity turns that sugar into a perceived richness of the wine rather than a cloying sweetness.  For an even more unique experience, try terrantez, widely planted and much revered before phylloxera, but little replanted since.  Expect richness with a slightly bitter finish, to reflect your bitterness at eating beef from a foil pouch.

Complementary Pairing:  Nebbiolo, Piemonte, Italy

Try:  Ferrando Carema Etichetta Nera

[www.ferrandovini.it]  From steep hillside vineyards, this wine offers ripe red fruits with a bit of spice.  It is only produced in the best vintages, and represents the pinnacle of the tiny amount of production from this northwest corner of the Piemonte.

Contrasting Pairing:  Madeira, Portugal

Try:  Blandy Madeira Terrantez

[www.blandys.com]  This now rare grape is more likely only available by vintage year rather than in a blend.  Remember that the late 1970s Madeira you drink next year may still not be bottled yet!

Not the preparation for sniffing the bouquet of fine wines I would have hoped for.  Seen to the author’s left is the ‘poo pond,’ a common feature in and around many bases in Afghanistan.  This continuous olfactory assault may well render me incapable of someday passing the aromatic portion of the Master of Wine practical test.  I can only hope the government will consider that a war-related injury.

MRE Menu 5: Mediterranean Chicken

The name of the dish implies perhaps a more robust array of flavors and seasonings than is actually present in this poor piece of poultry, so the door to effective pairings is fairly wide open.  Why not add the faintest hint of citrus to your chicken with an aligoté from Burgundy?  While on the decline in acres planted due to a perceived lack of quality when yields aren’t properly managed, a few dedicated producers soldier on and attempt to return this once widespread varietal in the Côte d’Or to its former pre-phylloxera status.

For those of the school that a medium to full-bodied red is the perfect companion for any food short of lemon pound cake, consider a tinto from the Dão in Portugal.  Using similar varietals as their more famous neighbors in the Duoro who make both Porto and dry table wines, these reds offer broad possibilities for pairing with food, due to a diversity of mono-varietals and blends as well as fermentation and aging regimes.

Complementary Pairing:  Bourgogne Aligoté, France

Try:  Domaine Ponsot Morey-St-Denis Premier Cru Clos des Monts Luisants

[www.domaine-ponsot.com]  Formerly blended with some chardonnay, this is now 100% aligoté since the 2007 vintage, from vines planted almost a century ago.  You can be assured of quality not only from this domaine’s fine reputation, but also because this is the only Côte d’Or producer and appellation permitted to use aligoté in a 1er Cru blanc.

Contrasting Pairing:  Tinto, Dão, Portugal

Try:  Quinta dos Carvalhais Reserva Tinto

[www.quintadoscarvalhais.eu]  This blend is carefully selected and aged for a year in an almost even split of new and used French barriques.  Anticipate violet and balsamic aromas coupled with dark plum fruits and balancing acidity on the long finish.

MRE Menu 4: Pork Sausage with Gravy

As one of the few MREs containing a pseudo-breakfast, this meal practically demands being treated like brunch, complete with outdoor dining and a flute of your favorite sparkling wine.  I will ride the wave of enthusiasm from the London Olympics and jump on the bandwagon with the professional wine press to recommend an English sparkler here.  Made with the same varietals and traditional methods as the areas across the Channel surrounding Reims and Epernay, these sparkling wines are often bottled by individual vintage year in lieu of attempting to create a consistent multi-vintage “house style.”

For a contrast, go to Spain and head to the west of Rioja toward Galicia, and find yourself in Bierzo.  Quality production of fine wines may be a recent trend here, but fortunately the mencía vines themselves are decades old, with some having passed the century mark.  An undercurrent of minerality supports powerful red fruits with balanced acidity and a hint of balsamic.

Complementary Pairing:  English Sparkling Wine, UK

Try:  Gusbourne Brut Reserve, Kent, UK

[www.gusbourne.com]  This cuvée blends the three traditional varieties of chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier, a small portion of which is vinified in oak.  Contact with the lees for almost two years or more adds complexity and body to the presentation of stone fruits and precise acidity.

Contrasting Pairing:  Mencía, Bierzo, Spain

Try:  Dominio de Tares Cepas Viejas

[www.dominiodetares.com]  As the name of the wine implies, these are old vines, more than 60 years old to be specific.  The mencía from these vineyards will experience a severe triage prior to fermentation and aging in both new and old barrels from various sources.  Expect concentrated red fruits and just enough acidity to nicely slice through the fat in the pork sausage.

Deployment Special Edition: Surf and Turf Night at the FOB

These poor plastic knives never stood a chance against the toughness of this steak.
Final score:  Steak—2, Knives—0

In a break from MREs, let’s explore a unique food and wine pairing conundrum in the deployed environment, assuming wine was available.  In an effort to provide a reward at the end of the week, the Friday night dinner menu at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) is “surf and turf,” or steak and some form of seafood such as crab legs, fried shrimp, crab cake, etc.  Let me caveat my remaining comments by saying that the contractors at the dining facility work long and hard hours, and they do their best with the raw materials that they are given to feed the masses every day.

Back to the meal, the texture and “doneness” of the steak are such that the only appropriate thing to pair it with would be a hockey stick.  Should one attempt to then pair against the formerly frozen fried shrimp, where a Belgian blonde ale might be the clear winner?  I think the answer is not to seek a harmonious pairing, but instead to choose a big wine, nay a giant wine, that would utterly overwhelm this dish.  For the epicenter of giant wines with robust alcohol content that might be better sipped and contemplated on their own rather than with a meal, I turn to Napa Valley and its eminently successful cabernet sauvignon.  In this instance, pick anything that has received 98 or more points from a highly influential US critic, and you’ll be all set.  For an Old World approach to this same problem, I turn to the appassimento wines of Valpolicella in the Veneto.  Anchored by corvina, corvinone, and rondinella which dry on racks for a period of months and become ever more concentrated, Amarone is the version fermented to dryness, with a potential alcohol of 15% or more thanks to all those grape sugars.  Although good expressions of this wine are well-suited for rich and substantial foods, it can also be enjoyed by itself as a vino da meditazione.

Pairing #1:  Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (98+ RP/WA), California, USA

Try:  Schrader ‘Old Sparky’ Cabernet Sauvignon

[www.schradercellars.com]  Given that your goal is to drink a sumptuous wine that will suppress or eliminate your memory of the faux-steak, this beauty that clocks in around an average of 14.5% or better in alcohol and is only available in magnum format will help.  Sourced from the famed Beckstoffer To-Kalon vineyard in Oakville and selected from the finest barrels of each vintage, enjoying this would be a singular experience for most of us, with the meal merely an annoyance along the way.

Pairing #2:  Amarone della Valpolicella, Veneto, Italy

Try:  Tommaso Bussola Amarone della Valpolicella TB ‘Vigneto Alto’

[www.bussolavini.com]  This masterpiece will serve you well in your desire to overwhelm the meat dish with its intensity of fruit, including maraschino cherry accents, and a never ending finish.  After a long fermentation, the corvina and company from this cru rest for more than two years in a mixture of new wood composed of large Slavonian oak casks and small French oak barrels.

MRE Menu 3: Chicken with Noodles

There are certainly no strong flavors to contend with in this dish, which opens a wide range of possibilities.  A harmonious match in vino bianco can be found in arneis grown in the Roero, across the Tanaro River from the Albese zones of Barolo and Barbaresco.  While this area is better known for its nebbiolo-based reds, a few conscientious producers have resumed vinification of this native varietal so that you may enjoy its floral and pear notes with your meal.

On the red side, a Beaujolais from one of the ten cru appellations in the northern part of the region makes a great match, offering a wide range of aromas and delicious fruits, with a pleasant palate-refreshing acidity.  Each cru will offer its own unique expression of gamay, with varying degrees of backbone, and often at great value for the quality they represent.  Don’t confuse these with the light and fruity nouveau releases in November—in the hands of conscientious producers, these are serious wines that deserve several years of bottle age to truly show their best.

Complementary Pairing:  Roero Arneis, Piemonte, Italy

Try:  Deltetto Roero Arneis ‘San Michele’

[www.deltetto.com]  Approximately one third of the blend for this single-vineyard wine is fermented and aged in barrique, with the balance in cement and steel so as not to overpower the elegant aromas.  While this wine will harmonize nicely with the chicken and noodles, don’t hesitate to enjoy it as an apéritif as the MRE chemical heater is sputtering and smoking to bring your main course to a nice lukewarm temperature.

Contrasting Pairing:  Fleurie, Beaujolais, France

Try:  Coudert Fleurie Clos de la Roilette Cuvée Tardive

On the border with and formerly part of the Moulin-à-Vent appellation, you can experience the violet perfumes of Fleurie together with the structure of Moulin-à-Vent offered by these 80 year-old vines.

MRE Menu 2: Chicken Fajita and Refried Beans

For complementary flavors here, consider the light citrus and minerals combined with elements of sweet and spicy herbs that can come from chardonnay grown on the rolling slopes of the Jura, nestled between its far more renowned neighbor, Burgundy, and the border of Switzerland.  Although white wines from this region are frequently made in a unique oxidative style, for this dish a more Burgundian approach to the élevage would offer a more pleasing pairing.

For the red wine lover seeking contrast for this dish, imagine dining on your chicken fajitas under a burning hot desert sun, and you’ll immediately see the appeal of a gently frothing Lambrusco from the area surrounding the export epicenter of balsamic vinegar, Modena.  These effervescent wines are vinified in a range from lightly sparkling (frizzante) all the way to the traditional method of a second fermentation in the bottle (metodo classico).  But behold, they are not the sweet and sticky versions so prevalent decades ago.  Quality producers in Emilia are creating wines of rich perfumes and robust structure that match wonderfully with a variety of dishes.

Complementary Pairing:  Côtes du Jura Chardonnay, Jura, France

Try:  Jean-François Ganevat Côtes du Jura ‘Les Grands Teppes Vieilles Vignes’

The winemaker combines his mastery of winemaking, acquired in Chassagne-Montrachet, with chardonnay from vines planted in the first part of the twentieth century to offer a splendid expression of both his varietal and his terroir.

Contrasting Pairing:  Lambrusco secco, Emilia, Italy

Try:  Cavicchioli U. & Figli Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro ‘Col Sassoso’ [www.cavicchioloi.it]  This sub-region within Lambrusco traditionally creates the most full-bodied versions, and this particular cru from a family firm amidst many large cooperatives near Modena is done in a rich and dry frizzante style.

MRE Menu 1: Chili with Beans, Cornbread, Jalapeño Cheese Spread

There is no shortage of capsaicin spice in this combination, particularly if the diner makes use of the accompanying red pepper packet.  This hearty, potentially fiery dish demands a wine of no small body to match.  In this case, a pleasing complementary choice might be a Primitivo di Manduria from the Salento region of Puglia in Italy’s heel.  The iron-rich clay soils over limestone give these wines fruit-forward plum notes on a background of spice and earth, but with enough tannic structure to handle the chili.

From the contrasting viewpoint, a white wine with a bit of residual sugar could counterbalance the heat.  A demi-sec chenin blanc from Montlouis-sur-Loire would fill the bill nicely.  Particularly with some bottle age, this should show a mixture of honey and floral notes together with golden apple and pear flavors.  The residual sugar will likely not be at the forefront thanks to balancing acidity around a core of minerality, continually refreshing the palate in the face of this spicy dish.

Complementary Pairing:  Primitivo di Manduria, Puglia, Italy

Try:  Morella Primitivo La Signora
[www.morellavini.it]  This single vineyard wine from vines averaging 55 years of age should offer an abundance of spicy notes to match this dish.

Contrasting Pairing:  Montlouis-sur-Loire demi-sec, Loire, France

Try:  Domaine de la Taille aux Loups Demi-Sec
[www.jackyblot.fr]  Jacky Blot’s rigorous fruit selection at all levels from his exceptional terroir ensure this will be a meal to remember, even if the main course is eminently forgettable.

In the Beginning...

As I embark on this blogging adventure, a little historical context seems appropriate.  I write these words from the Zabul Province in southeastern Afghanistan, a bit east of Kandahar.  Far closer and within view are the city of Qalat, and the fortress first built by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great over two thousand years ago during his push to India.  The remnants of this “castle” are visible in the distance over the author’s left shoulder, on the right bank of the river Tarnak near the road between Kabul and Kandahar.  Alexander was reputed to have died shortly after the consumption of a large quantity of wine for reasons still debated, but at least he died happy.  Given this propensity for wine in his life, it is doubtless that he consumed it at his nearby fortress. 

Fast forward to the mid-nineteenth century, when the wine-loving British Army occupied this same fortress, then known Kalat-i-Ghilzai.  In 1842, a British garrison was held under seige at the fort by the Ghilzais for six months, as seen in the painting by Lieutenant James Rattray, courtesy of the British Library.  I can only hope for the sake of my former military colleagues from the mother country that they had an ample supply of wine to carry them through those long months of siege. 

Sadly, I don’t have that same luxury of a nearby wine cellar as enjoyed by militaries past, but these musings on matching wine with MREs in the coming days will surely fill the void.  Cheers!