Each Friday we turn to the wine community for news, tips and recipes for great food and wine pairings . . .
Executive Chef James DeLong, of Cabana, shows us how to create a warm beet salad with a bacon vinaigrette to pair with Red Rooster’s Pinot Blanc:
Did someone say bacon?
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The key difference in white Burgundy’s taste
I love when people who are avowed California chardonnay drinkers say, “Wow, that’s really good!” when they’ve tried a white wine from Burgundy. Better yet are those who scoff at the mere mention of the word chardonnay, but are mystified when white Burgundy passes their lips. What gives, people? Get over your preconceptions, will ya?
White Burgundy is not just chardonnay (sometimes it is not even made with chardonnay) but ideally an expression of terroir. Burgundy has five subregions: Chablis, the Cotes de Nuits, the Cotes de Beaune, Cote Chalonnais and the Maconnais. There is quite a bit of variation, even within the appellations, but the one thing that binds them together is that fruit does not bully the wine. Rather, it is one part of an equation that includes minerality, sometimes oak, and the magic of the parts coming together and creating a greater sum.
