Thinking-Drinking is a website about beverages, and I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't report to you that Snoop Dogg/Lion has a new song out about.... Fruit Juice! It's not often that a superstar will rap about the health benefits of fruit juice, but here are some of my favorite lyrics that echo my own sentiments:

They sing about the stress-relieving aspects of drinking fruit juice:

Fruit juice in my glass you know me can’t lose
Take away my worry, my stress, and my blues

They touch on the health benefits of berries:

Natural berries are so very good for the system
Some tart, some sweet, you just can’t resist them

Beet juice gives you a 'good vibe':

She sip the beet juice, said she really love the medicine
Drink it down slow feel the good vibe settling
The way the flavors going down
She ordered up another round

Drink juice instead of soda:

Juice cause too much soda make ya big, fat, and loose
Blend up the sour sop, the carrot, and the root

Corkscrews are essential, and I'm sure you've worked with several different kinds, as I have. I work with this instrument so often, that I often overlook it and take it for granted. Once in a while though, I'll come in contact with some incredible corkscrews that make me realize how this simple tool is so important for our daily lives (or... at least the daily lives of sommeliers!). 

Two of the most extensive corkscrew collections I've ever seen are in Spain and Germany. In Spain, Dinastia Vivanco's wine museum has an entire exhibit room dedicated to corkscrews. In Germany, Von Hovel's tasting room is encrusted with them from floor to ceiling. 

Artifacts at Pompeii and other sites confirm that corks were used to plug the holes in amphorae in Ancient Greece. Using cork stoppers to plug bottles evolved along with the glass-blowing industry. Dom Perignon experimented with stopping bottles with cork, and this practice became more popular starting in the 1790s, but this was still about 150 years before estate bottling became the "normal" way to sell wine. Nevertheless, ever since there have been corks, people have needed tools to get them out of the bottle. 

In 1892 the crown cap became widely available. This closure never took off with wine, but it became the status quo for beers by the early 1900s. But corks were once a popular beer closure, and if you find old corkscrews from the mid-late 1800s, or even the early 1900s, they may have brewery advertisements on them. The idea was to create a high-quality corkscrew that people would use again and again, and each time they used it, they'd see the brand logo. In fact, Adolphus Busch (of Budweiser/Anheuser-Busch) practically used these corkscrews as business cards for decades. 

While the crown cap overtook the cork in the realm of beer, corks remained popular in wine, and only recently have they been challenged with the screw cap. 

Cork is made from the bark of the Quercus suber (cork tree), and corks are a renewable product. A cork tree can live up to 300 years, and the bark re-grows every ten years. I think it's interesting how the wine world has such direct ties to so many different species of oak. The tree genus Quercus (oak) has over 600 species. A little more than a century ago, you may have gone to any European dock and found a boat made from Quercus suber (cork oak)-- not the bark, but the hard wood trunk was used in ships because of its resistance to rot-- packed with barrels of Quercus robur (French oak) and Quercus petraea (Russian oak) filled with wine, and the barrels may have been stopped with corks made from the Quercus suber bark. Due to this complex inter-relationship between Quercus forestry and beverage production, an entire business of cork-extraction machines emerged over the last several centuries, and as a result, we have some inventive corkscrews in the world around us. 

Here are a few photos of some interesting corkscrews: 

Some are colorful. 

Some have tines for extracting a cork from the sides. 

Some act as spigots and have pour spouts. 

Some are complicated.

Some are really big! 

Some are funny.

Some are... even funnier! 

OK, this one is just obscene.

Some are practical. 

Others are utilitarian.

Some are advertisements. 

Some are... a little weird. 

And some are gold. 

For more, check out: 

The Virtual Corkscrew Museum
Bull, Donald A. (1999) The Ultimate Corkscrew Book. Pennsylvania: Schiffer. 
Bull, Donald A. (2009) Figural Corkscrews. Pennsylvania: Schiffer. 

When summer begins and the grapevines in my backyard start to sprawl over the pergolas, it is time to have friends over for dinner! 

Herb "Juleps"

To start things off, I took mint plouches and froze them in ice cubes. 

Then, I picked mixed herbs from the garden (peppermint, spearmint, orange mint, rosemary, oregano, sage) and soaked these in a simple syrup (half water, half sugar, dissolved) overnight. 

The recipe for this herb "julep" is: 
2 oz whiskey (I used JWB)
1 oz Cocchi Americano
3/4 oz mixed-herb simple syrup
4 dashes Underberg bitters
orange zest on top

With the cocktails ready and a centerpiece of fresh peonies and grape vine cuttings from the backyard, we were ready to go. 

Radishes and Herb Butter

Radishes with creamy butter are a classic way to start a French meal. We chopped up fresh herbs from the garden, mixed them into the butter, and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Take out the butter about an hour before serving so it is nice and creamy when you dip the radishes in. 

Caprese 

Where I live in the Bronx, everyone makes fresh mozzarella-- there is nothing else quite like it. You simply go to any store with a decent deli, and someone has just made it. Sometimes it is still warm when they hand it to you. I picked up some at my favorite deli and served it with basil, heirloom tomatoes that I had sauteed on one panko-crusted side. 

This went great with a savory Ligurian white that I've been saving for the right occasion: 

Punta Crena "Reine" Mataossu, 2009 (Liguria, Italy)
Mataossu is the name of the grape variety, and it translates to "crazy grape" due to its high vigor. This is a local variety that has been family farmed by this winery for centuries. It's practically grown in the Mediterranean Sea (from a tiny peninsula that juts out into the water). The wine tastes saline, it smells like crunchy vegetables (tomatoes, jicama) and lime zest. It was the perfect wine for this salad. This was 2009, and the acidity and flavor was so intense, this could have aged much longer. 

"Crab on the Cob" 
Crab on Polenta-Corn Cake with Corn Pudding and Tarragon Oil

We made polenta cakes and lined the bottom of the pan with fresh corn kernels. When we cut out the polenta circles after it set, one side of the cake had fresh corn stuck to it. We sauteed these, along with some lump crab meat. The sauce is pureed corn that was passed through a fine mesh-- doesn't get much fresher than that. We made tarragon oil by blending high quality olive oil with tarragon leaves, and then straining this through cheese cloth. 

I paired this with a barrel-fermented, oak-aged chardonnay. 

Smoked Asparagus and Ramp Ravioli with Hollandaise  and Mezcal

We took a few woodchips that we used to smoke the asparagus and ramps and put them into a few ounces of Mezcal to soak overnight. We sprayed this smokey Mezcal on top of the dish tableside-- I saw this done to a cocktail a while back and was inspired to use it on a dish!

I paired this with a rich sparkling mauzak from France. The funkiness of the wine brought out the smokiness of the dish, and the acidity cut right through the hollandaise. 

Duck, Maitake and Yorkshire Pudding

You can probably tell by the picture-- I am bringing back the parsley garnish! We grow it like  crazy in the backyard, and it was the perfect herb to temper the meatiness of this dish. 

I paired this with an earthy red from Jura. 

Pear and Fennel Sorbet, with Pear and Fennel Chips

This sorbet was inspired by one of my favorite morning drinks-- fresh squeezed pear and fennel juice. Usually, I juice 2 heads of fennel and 5 pears together with a bit of ginger. The drink is delicious and it gives you so much energy. I took the juice that I normally drink, added a bit of simple syrup, and spun it into a sorbet. 

I added a few spinach leaves for green color, but to no avail-- the pear juice oxidizes almost instantly so it's difficult to avoid that brownish tint. 

I paired this with a sweet Alsacian pinot gris. 

Riesling Cake with Goat Cheese Ice Cream, Cherries, and Saba

When I went to make this cake, I didn't have any lemons or lemon juice and the recipe called for half a cup. So I substituted half a cup of dry riesling, which-- I figured-- is also very high acid, and I added several healthy splashes of orange bitters to add some citrus aromatics. It did the trick and this was one of the best cakes I have ever made! 








Here is my riesling-altered recipe: 

Riesling and Olive Oil Cake
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup high quality olive oil, plus 2 tbs 
1/2 cup very dry, high-acid riesling
1 tbs sherry vinegar
8 drops of orange bitters
2 eggs

Use 2 tbs of olive oil to grease two 8 inch cake pans. 
Blend dry ingredients, blend wet ingredients, then blend wet into dry ingredients. 
Pour into oil-greased pan & bake at 350F for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the sides start to brown. 

Vanilla Meringues

Whenever we make fresh pasta (like the ravioli course above) we always have a meringue dessert of some sort-- those extra egg whites have to end up somewhere! These are simple meringue petit four crisps, and they went great with coffee. 

It was drizzling along the drive to Von Hövel along the Saar River. We caught glimpses of the nearby vineyards through a web of trees that had just begun to leaf. I was very excited to visit this extremely old cellar and taste these wines, but I was in a daze. We were driving directly from a trip to the Zilliken cellar and my brain reeled from the 1980 Kabinett Icewine that I swear was still lingering on my palate. 

We arrived. Out front, mustard pushed up and brought some life to the vineyard. The vines had recently come out of dormancy and buds that would become the fruit of the 2013 vintage had just emerged. In the cellar, some of the 2012s were ready to be bottled, and you could hear the clinking of glass as bottles made their way through the bottling line. 

We were greeted by thousands of corkscrews from the last couple of centuries-- one of the most incredible collections I have ever seen! (Rivaling only the display at Dinastia Vivanco's museum  in Rioja). 

A lunch of pickles, bread and cheese washed away any trace of the 1980 Zilliken and I was ready to move on. 

Max von Kunow arrived to take us through a tasting. He recently took over production from his father, Eberhard von Kunow, in 2010, and the direction of the estate has changed with Max's ideas. Eberhard made classic Prädikat wines, fruity and ripe. Max makes some of these too, but he has also spent the last few years making dry rieslings-- mostly later-harvest dry rieslings that he ferments through to dryness. These dry Grosse Lagen have caught the world's attention. 

Max is the 7th generation winemaker here, and when we met in May 2013 he was about to have his 34th birthday. He laughed and said, "I am a twin of the stars" (a.k.a. he is a Gemini). His ancestors purchased the estate in 1806 from the church. The property had originally been a retreat for the monks at St. Maximin in Trier. 

The St. Maximin monks had this cellar built in the 1100s. It has burned down twice since then, but the cellar foundation has remained the same. 

The Von Hövel estate has four main vineyard holdings that total 12.9 hectares and the vines have an average age of 35-40 years. The four vineyard sites are: 

Rosenkamm- Rosenkamm is not an official vineyard recognized by the government. It is a parcel of the larger Rosenberg Einzellage in Wiltingen. Rosenkamm was once a recognized site on the par of "grand cru" and considered to be one of the best sub-sites of the Rosenberg, but the wine laws of 1971 condensed many vineyards and during this assimilation the Rosenkamm was absorbed into the Rosenberg on political maps. Families like Max's, however, have farmed these special sites for generations, and it's not always easy or appropriate to simply forget the nuances of a certain place. Many producers I spoke to would reference special pre-1971 vineyard sites, and they have come up with interesting ways to notate these on labels by using fantasy names. Max calls his wine from Rosenkamm "R." The Rosenkamm geology is a mix of riverstone and fine slate. One part of the site has 34 year old vines, another part has 42 year old vines. 

Scharzhofberg- Scharzhofberg is a world-famous vineyard made up of slabs of slate with a bit of quartzite. It has a forrest behind it, and the ground retains a lot of water. The best years for this site are the dry years (1959, 1969, 2003, 2005). Max's part of the Scharzhofberg has vines that are four different ages: 20, 25, 45, and 55 years old. 

Hütte (monopole)- The Hütte is a monopole in Konz, composed of small, fine slate that Max thinks is best for Kabinett/Spatlese/Auslese. He owns the entire vineyard, and has three sections of vines that are 15, 30, and 45 years old. Max talked about how roots grow in this kind of slate: "They grow to be about 25 meters long and they ride under the surface of the rock like a carpet."

Hörecker (monopole)- Located in Kanzem, this site is about the size of an acre and is composed of rocky slate with iron. The slate is green in some areas and red in others. The vines here are quite special-- the site is 75% 100 year old vines, and the dying vines are replaced in 20 year intervals (so far, they have been replaced in 1993 and again this year in 2013). The vineyard is so steep that you need to have spikes on your shoes as you walk it.  

We were here to try the 2012 vintage-- Max's third vintage as head winemaker, and he had this to say about it: "2012, it was a good year for quality, but not so much for quantity." To give an example of  what this means: In 2011 Max made 3000L from the Hörecker site. In 2012 he made just 750L from the same site. 

We tried a sampling of some of the single vineyard fruitier wines. (You see handwritten labels in the photo because these had not been bottled quite yet). 

Von Hövel, Hütte, Saar Riesling Kabinett 2012 (Mosel, Germany)
57g RS, 8.5g/L acid

Von Hövel, Hütte, Saar Riesling Spätlese 2012 (Mosel, Germany)
110 Oeschle, 9.5 g/L acid, no botrytis, some grapes were frozen at harvest

Von Hövel, Scharzhofberg, Saar Riesling Spätlese 2012 (Mosel, Germany)

note: These are the 2012 vintage, so the new VDP rules apply for labeling. If Prädikat terms (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese) are used, the wine must have a certain amount of discernable residual sugar unless the term "trocken" is used. If the new Grosse Lage vineyard classification system is used, then the Prädikat terms must not be used, the vineyard must be named, and the wine must be dry. 

This first flight was the fruity Prädikat-style wines with some RS. 

Next we moved on to the dry Grosse Lagen. Though these may have been picked at Spätlese must weight, the Prädikat term "Spätlese" must not be used if the wine is dry and if the winemaker wants to distinguish the wine as a Grosse Lage. Starting in 2012, because we see the vineyard site, a lack of Prädikat terms (like Kabinett or Spätlese), and the term "Grosse Lage" or "GL," we know that this wine will be dry. 

Click here for more about labeling among VDP members. 

"R"
The fruit from "R" comes from Rosenkamm, but as mentioned above, this is no longer an official vineyard site, so the fantasy name "R" helps distinguish its origin while not breaking any rules. 

Von Hovel "R" Saar Riesling Spatlese trocken 2o11 (Mosel, Germany)
earthy and meaty, fine white pear, slate minerality

Von Hovel "R" Saar Riesling Spatlese trocken 2o12 (Mosel, Germany)
fruitier-- pineapple, banana, and tropical fruits

<-- Von Hovel, Scharzhofberg, Saar Riesling Kabinett 2012 (Mosel, Germany)
105 Oeschle, 8.5 g/L acid, 15% botrytis 

Scharzhofberg needs little introduction. It's one of the most famous vineyards in the Saar with incredibly steep slopes of slate, and a micro climate that has one of the largest diurnal temperature swings in all of Germany. Egon Muller has helped to make this vineyard so famous; his Scharzhofberg TBA fetched record prices. 

<-- the Von Hövel Estate Riesling, 2011. This wasn't produced in 2012 because there wasn't enough fruit harvested to make this bottling. 

Crossmosel LMEAAX Saar Riesling 2012 (Mosel, Germany) 

Max has a fun project called Crossmosel. Under this brand label, he makes wine with his friend, the Luxembourg chef, Lea Linster. You can see in the label photo to the left that this cuvee "LMEAAX" gets the name by weaving together the names "Lea" and "Max." L M E A A X

"Crossmosel" refers to their juxtaposition of the two friends across the Mosel River: Lea is in Luxemburg at one end of the Mosel while Max is in Germany on the other side of the Mosel. Their collaboration is "Crossmosel" wine. 

Chef Lea carries this at her restaurants. 

Then we descended to the cellar that was built in the 1100s! The architecture felt sacred-- I imagined what it was first filled with by the monks who built it. No doubt it held barrels of wine, like today, but probably also ale, staples like butter, salt- or sugar-cured meats, root vegetable harvests that may have lasted partway through the winter, maybe spices brought back from the Crusades, perhaps some dried herbs or fish. With no windows, this cellar saw nothing but candlelight for almost 8 centuries. Down here, there air was thicker, the silence was louder; as you walked you cut through humidity as thick as the history. 

<-- The rieslings are aged in large, neutral barrels. 

We headed upstairs again. 





<-- Back in the daylight, we noticed some demijohns in the corner-- oh, that was just some TBA, still fermenting... In fact, Max has collected some grapes with record-breaking must weight and has made a wine with 350g RS and 193 g/L acid. 

He reminds us on the way out that "one hundred years ago the wines from the Saar were the most famous wines on the Earth." If Max continues with the same success of his first three years, perhaps he will slingshot them to the global forefront once again.