Fri 3 Apr 2009
Some Nights You Have to Punt
Posted by Fredric Koeppel under Cheap Wine , Cooking at Home[5] Comments
On the plate: a couple of pork sausages from the certified organic, free-range Westwind Farms in East Tennessee (we keep these in the freezer for just such nights) and potato salad and green beans from Whole Foods. A few sliced cherry tomatoes. Some whole-grain mustard. It was Wednesday, that day when the week already feels 18 days long, and LL said, “No cooking, no recipes, no magic tonight.” It was simply a matter of frying the sausages and spooning up the potato salad and green beans. Yay, that was easy! And delicious, too. We especially liked the potato salad, which had dried cranberries in it.
Now I could have opened some big California petite sirah or an Australian shiraz, but the best of those wines are getting costlier by the day, so I thought, No, let’s stay in the spirit of a simple meal, and I opened a bottle of the Petraio Nero d’Avola 2007, from 
Sicily. If you’ve ever had a wine made from the nero d’avola grape, you know that subtlety and finesse should not be high on your list of expectations. True to form, this deep purple-black wine was hearty, boisterous and rustic, yet filled with delicious flavor. The bouquet alone is almost worth the price, offering delirious scents of lilacs and violets, dried spice and potpourri, macerated black and red currents and a profound element of dusty minerals. In the mouth, well, in the mouth the wine flaunts its chewy, gritty tannins and its earthy, minerally nature with the aplomb of a wrestler flinging a chair at his opponent’s head, yet that dense character does not mask ravishing flavors of spicy black currants, blackberries and plums edged with tar and leather. Whoa! Lots of personality, for drinking through 2011 or ’12. Very Good+. The price? About $9.50, a Freakin’ Bargain, if you live in the right state. Otherwise, mark this wicked wine Worth a Search.
Scoperta Importing Co., Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
My linkedin profile.
April 3rd, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Love the Nero d’Avola. For me, it’s been a hit almost every time at $12 and below, but I’m curious what happens when you push the price up to $30 or $40? Is it still a good value?
April 4th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Robert,
It’s all in the merits of the individual product. At $30 and $40 it better be stellar, but what is stellar to some is too much of something for someone else.
Anyway, I could imagine it pairing with the sausage. With Nero D’Avola, I tend to go for game or calves liver in balsamic.
April 4th, 2009 at 9:44 am
Robert, I agree with Thomas. Nero d’avola produces full-bodied, rustic flavorful wines that fit comfortably into the $10-$15 niche because of their directness and uncomplicated nature. When the price gets pushed up to $30 and $40, it means that the wines are being manipulated with new oak, and the customer is paying for the barrels. Not all grapes are destined for greatness; they just don’t have the capacity. But there’s no reason why we shouldn’t enjoy their frank and straightforward qualities. And someday, Thomas, I want to try your calves liver!
April 4th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Fredric,
You have the recipe–go to it. The trick is in balancing the balsamic with the Marsala or Madeira, and of course in not overcooking the liver.
My mother could most southern Italian dishes, but when it came to red meat and liver, she was better at tanning than at cooking.
I’m–slowly–cutting down on meat, unless I know from where it came. Michael Pollan has me scared…
April 5th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Love the Nero d’Avola. I wrote about it once and the number of e-mails I get is huge. It’s a lot of fun at the proper price, as you say.
I haven’t really paid attention here in Memphis, but last year in Cleveland I saw a variety of Nero d’Avolas on wine lists. Waiters frequently told me that it wasn’t asked for a lot (sometimes people are embarrassed about pronunciation and will go with something better known or easier to say), but that it was a staff favorite for after-hours meals. My glass tended to get filled a bit more than normal, and I usually got it from a fresh bottle, ensuring more potential leftovers for the servers.