2003 Havens Syrah

The most difficult part of loving wine is finding the ever-elusive $15 bottle that kicks serious ass. Anyone can drop $50 on a bottle of wine, and be certain that it will be, at least, acceptable, but my friends and myself tend to be bargain hunters, to say the least.

To compound the problem, I've gotten into the habit of tasting phenomenal wine every day at work. Much more so than a year ago, I find that most of the modestly-priced bottles I pick up are disappointing in at least one way, if not many.

That's why I was seriously impressed by this 2003 Napa Valley Syrah, from Haven's Cellars ($15 at Spec's in Austin). This is rich, complex syrah, with a meatiness that fades as the wine opens up. On the nose, pepper rushes to the forefront, nearly masking the dried berries and toasted oak that lurk beneath. Over the course of about 2 hours, more complex aromas come to light, ranging from herbs, to musty earth and even cacao and coffee beans.

On the palate, Haven's Syrah is vibrant and long-lasting, with balanced acids that are bright, but never forceful enough to rough up the smooth edges of this easy-going California red. Six years in the bottle have been kind, resulting in a wine that is well-integrated and approachable, without the big, jammy fruit that typically dominates our low-end domestic Syrah production.

This stuff is great. Buy a bottle to bring to a dinner party and wow your friends, or just to enjoy at home. It's only $15, after all.

Naughty Syrah - Reynolds Family Vineyards

Every now and then, I like to blog a bit about a kick-ass wine that I get that's really hard to find. Being a professional has its benefits, namely in the form of free, hard to find vino.

So here she is, the 2003 Reynolds Family Vineyards "Naughty" Syrah, Napa Valley.

This is an intensely saturated syrah, with heavy, leathery fruit on the nose. Complex spices are present, but more apparent on the intense, long finish. The backbone of this Syrah is a firm, bright acidity that makes your mouth water.

I'm a sucker for Syrah. This one isn't from my favorite area, Washington, but has all of the characteristics that make Syrahs the great unsung wines of the west coast. Concentrated, complex, not too heavy or tannic on the palate with the ability to pair with tons of different foods. Naughty Syrah rocked with the soy-glazed tuna we made. 

The best part? Reynolds Family Vineyards only produces this for their wine maker buddies, and members of their wine club. 218 cases in '03, only 118 the year before. Luckily for me, one of my new suppliers has a wine club account. This would probably go for about $40-50 on the shelf, if you could find it, and $60-100 at a restaurant.  

Reynolds also makes a more widely distributed Napa wine, "Persistence" that is incredible.  

Don't let me mislead you, there's very little glamorous about being in the service industry, but this particular gig, like every gig, has its benefits. Juicy, delicious, rare benefits.

Don't trust their Glazed Tuna recipe

Seriously. I googled "glazed tuna steaks", hoping to find some help on whether I should grill, broil or bake my soy-glazed tuna.

The first 5 results are links to an oft-plagiarized recipe for glazed tuna. In the microwave. Microwaved tuna is not exactly what I had in mind, so I decided to whip together a simple glazed tuna recipe for either the grill or for broiling ('cause that's what the good sites said to do), so that you may not be led asunder by the evil culinary villains of the interwebs. 

Glazes are easy. Take one part sweet, one part salty/savory and one part acidic. Reduce. Coat. Cook. That's pretty much it, with lots of room for interpretation and add ons. Here's my brand new Citrus/Soy glaze. 

1/4 cup soy sauce (kikkoman is best)

Juice of one, large, juicy orange

4 tablespoons of brown sugar

3 cloves garlic

1 large shallot

one tablespoon siracha hot sauce (rooster sauce)

1/2 tablespoon sesame oil

splash of veggie oil

Mix everything together except the garlic, veggie oil and shallots. Set aside.

Finely chop your garlic and shallot. Heat veggie oil in a small pan, and fry garlic and shallots until aromatic and browning on the edges. 

Pour in your mixture and reduce over medium heat to about one half of the original volume.

Pour into a small dish and set aside in either the fridge or freezer.

Once this is cool, you can use it to glaze any piece of meat, though a nice sashimi-grade tuna steak would absolutely kill. You can marinate the fish in the glaze for a nice little bit if you like to improve the overall flavor. 

 3 minutes on each side grilling, or broiling. If underdone, add less than a minute to each side and reevaluate. It is easy to overcook tuna. There should still be a nice thick stripe or dark, warm pink or red in the center, like a medium rare steak. Baste constantly with extra glaze on both sides while cooking. Serve with fresh basil to garnish and whatever glaze found its way into the pan on top. 

I made mine with a side of jasmine rice and stir-fried snow peas with just a dash of soy sauce. Delicious!

Bagels

First of all, I apologize for the infrequent posts as of late. Along with finishing up a dissertation, an unfortunate camera incident has lost me about four blog worth of images.

Although I cannot tell you in pictures, I believe a good bagel lends itself better to description anyway. A good bagel should be very dense. When you toast it, you should be able to spread butter across the top without it collecting in little pockets in the bagel. The bagel should be so dense that very few of those pockets exist. The bagel should be chewy; even if toasted to crispness, the inside should remain chewy (unless you've had an unfortunate toaster accident). Finally, said bagel should not be over $4, even when dolled up with an egg and some breakfast meat.

Just to clear it up, there are no good bagel places in Austin. I'm sorry to inform the world of this, and in the event that I have missed something, become a follower and post a comment letting me know. Seriously folks, when Einstein's "bread shaped in an O" takes the "best bagel" on the Austin Chronicle Reader's Poll, there is just something wrong! And the runner up, Panera Bread, although a nice place to eat, to me has always lacked something in the bagel category. Now, when the grocery stores are being chosen behind these two places, that tells me that there ain't much is this lovely town for a bagel addict like myself.

Now, I know this is a long shot, but if you're ever in Bristol, Connecticut, and you would like to know what I mean by a good bagel, check out Fancy Bagels on Scott Swamp Road. Family-owned, and made in the traditional way, their bagels are worth the stop. Perhaps not the flight from Austin, but you never know...

And with these dreamy, dense bagels, you won't be famished by lunchtime. And if you are hungry, why not just have another!
Fancy Bagels doesn't have their own site, but they've been: Yelped