The Wine Broad's Board

Breakfast (Wine) of Champions

"Kilgore Trout once wrote a short story which was a dialogue between two pieces of yeast. They were discussing the possible purposes of life as they ate sugar and suffocated in their own excrement. Because of their limited intelligence, they never came close to guessing that they were making Champagne."

--Kurt Vonnegut, "Breakfast of Champions"

I hate to break it to all you I-couldn't-possibly-live-without-my-morning-gallon-of-coffee freaks, but I just can't keep this to myself any longer: Coffee does not go with breakfast! OK, maybe it goes with donuts, but certainly not with anything egg- or bacon-related.

And just which beverage does go with breakfast, you ask? Wine does. (And I'm not talking about sissy mimosas either.) Just think about it for a minute before you dismiss the idea and go back to your precious cup-a-joe. Let's say it's lunch or dinner time and you're having a slice of goat cheese quiche with a simple green salad on the side. What are you going to drink with it? Coffee? I don't think so. No, I think you'd wisely choose a crisp white wine and save the java for dessert. So why should it be any different in the morning?

Mind you, I'm not recommending that you start slugging down Merlot at 7 a.m. before work; I'm suggesting this more as a weekend breakfast enhancement. (A Wine Broad public service announcement.)

So which wines go best with a.m. vittles like pancakes and scrambled eggs? To find the answer, I gathered my bravest friends and set out in search of the ultimate breakfast wine.

We tasted five different wines with a variety of breakfast treats, including: sausage & leek frittata, apple-oatmeal pancakes, biscuits n' gravy, eggs benedict, Toaster Scramble (a scary Pop-Tart-like "pastry" filled with scrambled egg and cheddar cheese), Trix cereal and bacon. Let's just say it was a mighty interesting morning.

But before I start handing over the results of our experiment, let's take a minute to learn a little about the wines that were vying for the "Breakfast Wine of Champions" title.

THE WINES*

* Canyon Road Chardonnay (California) - A medium-bodied wine with hints of Sweet Tarts and vanilla.

* Ladoucette Comte Lafond (Sancerre, France) - A crisp and grapefuit-y Sauvignon Blanc.

* Gundlach Bundschu Pinot Noir (Sonoma Valley, CA) - A fruity red with berries and vanilla. Smooth tannins.

* Roederer Estate Brut Rose (Anderson Valley, CA) -- Strawberry Fields Forever: fizzy and fruity, but not sweet.

* La Poussie Rose (Sancerre, France) -- Very dry with extremely subtle flavors.

THE RESULTS

Sausage & Leek Frittata: Both the still and bubbly pinks were great with this dish, while the Pinot Noir barely passed the test.

Toaster Scramble: Chardonnay was the only recommendable match for this one. (If only someone would make Chardonnay in Pop-Tart form - then you'd be all set for the a.m. bus ride to work!)

Apple & Oatmeal Pancakes (topped with maple syrup): The Sauvignon Blanc *rocked* with the pancakes, which surprised the be-Jesus out of us. The sparkling rose was a close and tasty second.

Bacon: As one taster proclaimed, "The sparkling rose brings out the grease in the bacon--and that's good!" The Sauvignon Blanc was also a pretty good match.

Biscuits & Gravy: The Pinot Noir was actually decent with this, thanks to the sausage hunks lurking within the gravy.

Trix Cereal: That cartoon rabbit would go off Trix forever if he ever tried mixing milk, wine and ultra-sugary fake-fruit-flavored cereal. The Chardonnay was the least disgusting option.

Eggs Benedict: The Chardonnay was a yummy match for the buttery hollandaise sauce and egg yolks. It also went well with the Sauvignon Blanc, which cut through some of the eggs' richness.

THE CHAMPION

And the Breakfast Wine of Champions Award goes to.... The Roederer Estate Brut Rose sparkling wine (or, as Kilgore Trout would have called it, sparkling "yeast excrement"). All tasters agreed that this pink sparkler deserved the prize for its sheer versatility: It was delicious with damn near every breakfast food we unleashed on it.

So before you mindlessly reach for that coffee mug next Sunday morning, consider grabbing a wine glass instead. (Do you think they charge a corkage fee at IHOP?)

Here's an easy, wine-friendly recipe to get you started:

Leek, Red Pepper & Goat Cheese Scramble (serves 2)

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon butter, divided

1 large or 2 small leeks (white part only), finely chopped

1 small red bell pepper, seeded and diced

4 large eggs

dash of milk

1 Tablespoon sour cream

1 ounce goat cheese, crumbled

salt and pepper

Melt 1/2 Tbsp. butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and red pepper and saute until softened. Remove veggies from pan and set aside; wipe pan clean with a paper towel. Beat eggs in a large bowl with a splash of milk until blended. Melt other 1/2 Tbsp. butter in skillet, add eggs and scramble. When eggs are almost set, stir in the cooked veggies, sour cream and goat cheese and cook a minute longer, until cheese melts. (Adding the veggies back in after the eggs are cooked keeps the mixture from turning gray and watery--trust me, it's worth the extra step!) Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with a glass of New Zealand-style Sauvignon Blanc.

(Note: This is an edited version of an article I wrote some years ago (which, sadly, never saw print), so I omitted the vintages. The wines are pretty consistent in style from vintage to vintage, though, so the results shouldn't be affected.)

Wine with Balls

MEATballs, that is! Just when I thought I had the whole making-meatballs-thing down, I learned a new trick. When I went off to college, my dad taught me to make delicious Caputo family meatballs. He learned  from my mom, who learned from my Calabrese grandma. (Mom had to learn how to make my dad's favorites, don't you know.) I've never used a recipe to make them, and have always been happy with the results. That is, until recently. A couple weeks ago, I had some damn tasty Moroccan-spiced lamb meatballs at Central Market, in Petaluma, and chef Tony told me that the secret to making tender balls is to use lots of filler (as in milk-soaked fresh breadcrumbs) and to form them as gently as possible. I'd always gone easy on the breadcrumbs--and used dried ones, at that--and rolled the suckers into tight little orbs to keep them from falling apart during the pan-browning stage. Well, tonight I decided to try it Tony's way, and man was he right! Not only were my meatballs delicious, they were melt-in-your-mouth tender. I wanted to eat 10 of them!

Instead, I poured myself a glass of wine: Bonterra 2002 "The McNab," a blend of Merlot, Petite Syrah and Cabernet. (It's a restaurant-only brand made from 100% biodynamically grown grapes from Fetzer's estate.) While the wine was lush and ripe, with sweet black cherry fruit, it was a little overwhelming with my meatball dinner. In search of the perfect meatball wine, I opened a bottle of Fortitude 2005 Frediani Field Blend Red Wine ($24), an unconventional blend of Charbono, Carignane, Petite Sirah and Valdiguie. Now that was more like it: bright blackberry fruit, soft tannins and perky acidity--a much better meatball match. Grandpa Caputo would have approved. Salute!

Santa Barbara Sipping

I know, I know, a post about my Santa Barbara trip is way overdue. One of the best nights of the vacation was a winery dinner organized for me by Sao Anash of Muse Management. Sao originally proposed an intimate dinner with three or four local winemakers, but the resulting event was so much more: 20-plus vintners and their guests busted out their best wines for an evening of eating, socializing and bottle-swapping at Gypsy Canyon Winery near Lompoc, in the Santa Ynez Valley. The dinner was held in the winery's beautifully restored barn, which isn't open to the public. One of the liquid highlights was the Samsara 2005 Melville Vineyard Pinot Noir ($59). Samsara is an artisan label (as in, very small production, handcrafted wines) by Chad Melville, vineyard manager for Melville Winery. Aside from being a really nice guy (and young too: only in his 30s), Chad makes a hell of a tasty wine. The Samsara Pinot has a beautiful raspberry aroma with spicy red berry flavors. Fruity, but not at all overpowering. I also dug the Iris 2005 Grenache ($42), a new wine from Rideau Vineyards in Solvang. It has bright cherry fruit and a touch of spice. Very nice. (By the way, Rideau is a fun place to visit if you're in the area--the tasting room is in a beautiful historic house, with a wrap-around porch for relaxed sipping. They also make a really nice Sangiovese--much more elegant in style than some of the rustic versions I've tasted. (By the way, I've since learned that the wine weighs in at 16.8% alcohol! Yikes! Yes, it amazingly balanced.)

Here's Chad Melville with Nadia Wellisz, of Laetitia, who brought along her fabulous new namesake wine, "Nadia."

One of the best meals of our vacation was a lunch we cooked up in the backyard of our rental house: Grilled salmon BLT, with a nice bottle of local rose. Yum!

'Nutty Wine Pairing

  Don't question it, just try it: jammy red wine with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Actually, ruby port is the ultimate pairing for such salty-sweet candy goodness, but a sweet-ish Zinfandel, like this one from Dashe Cellars, will do just fine. (Dashe makes a Zin port that would be perfect. Too bad I didn't have any lying around the house.) Whoever decided that Cabernet and chocolate made a good match was clearly smoking crack.

A cool packaging aspect of the Dashe wines is a little peel-off tab on the back label that includes the name and vintage of the wine, along with the winery's website address. (A lot of you probably don't give a crap about the back label, but I'm a packaging geek. I love this kind of stuff!) This is a great feature for people like me, who can't seem to remember the name of a new wine for more than two hours after I taste it. (That's what notebooks are for, right?)