Pairings for our Blackbean Sparerib Recipe
2006 Rex Hill Reserve Pinot Noir — New Release
2006 Rex Hill Jacob-Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir — New Release
Food Suggestions
The opening act to our Cellar Club appreciation event this month will be a tasting and tutorial on the fifth sense of taste, Umami (see below for details). To tease your taste buds we have paired up the 2006 Rex Hill Reserve Pinot Noir with a recipe loaded with savory goodness. The recipe we chose for the 2006 Jacob-Hart Vineyard Pinot Noir pays homage to the vineyard’s past life as a turkey farm. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we couldn’t resist the combination. One of the more vigorous blocks at this exceptional vineyard bears the name Turkey Shed, and I think you can guess why. Enjoy the sentimental deference as much as the pairing.
UMAMI
In this recipe, the Umami characteristic can be found in the black bean, which is a traditional Cantonese ingredient made from fermented, salted soybeans. This is intensified by the garlic and ginger and is a staple of Chinese cooking. The oyster sauce is another source of Umami and adds some of the depth to this recipe. The third source of Umami is the Shaoxing wine (or Sherry substitute) added to the chicken broth and water which also helps tenderize the pork ribs. Pinot Noir can handle Umani very well, which is why it is an excellent red wine choice for most Asian dishes.
Black Bean Spareribs
An Experiment in Umami
We are all familiar with the four basic tastes – Sweet, Salty, Sour and Bitter. From an early age, we were taught how our taste buds perceive these flavors and how they affect the perception of taste in the foods and beverages we enjoy. In recent years, another basic flavor is receiving recognition – the taste of Umami.
Although there is no direct translation for Umami, it has been described as a sense of savoriness or richness in the flavors of food. Asian cultures have known about this “fifth” taste dating back over a thousand years, but the concept has only been hinted at in western cooking in the last hundred years and officially recognized as a true basic sense of taste in the past few decades. Like our other four senses of tasting, Umami in food affects how we address our wine and food pairings. Pinot Noir with its nice balance of fruit, earthy characteristics and acidity is well-suited for pairings with foods, especially Asian dishes that are high in savoriness or Umami. Wine itself, especially red wine, brings its own Umami to the combination.
Recipe from Lynne Char Bennett from the San Francisco Chronicle that balances the characteristics of the Umami in both the food and wine into a terrific pairing.