Bastille Review

Bastille gets a face-lift

On an unsuspecting street corner along the northern fringe of Alexandria, locals escape to provincial France…without the exorbitant price tags of airfare and hotel or the hassle of exchanging dollars for Euros.  Providing fine French cuisine in a casual atmosphere, Bastille meets my criteria for restaurant essentials: it not only showcases the talents of two award-winning chefs, Christophe and Michelle Poteaux, but also an interior renovation and the acquisition of a top sommelier from DC’s Old Guard, James Beard award-winning beverage director Mark Slater, formerly of Citronelle in Georgetown.  Boasting inspirational culinary feats at an affordable price, in an atmosphere where you can easily slip in among the regulars, Bastille is what I look for when I decide a restaurant is a true favorite.

Slater’s thirty-plus years of experience helps amplify the culinary power of the husband and wife chef team—an advantage that young sommeliers just can’t top regardless of how many corks they’ve popped. Mark spins yarns of many great vintages with depths of knowledge that enrich your mental journey to provincial France and pique your palate’s imagination. On my very first trip to Bastille, I was seriously pleased with my experience and the food journey.

I recently eased onto a bar stool before realizing my visit coincided with Alexandria’s Restaurant Week. My spirits were immediately dampened, as I don’t tend to like the frenzy surrounding this turbulent week for most restaurants, but my hopes were immediately elevated as the first dish was placed before me.

My meal began with three charcuterie selections, which arrived neatly aligned: pork rillette, house-made bresaola seasoned with marjoram and oregano, and a goose liver pâté topped with Concord grape aspic. The first course could have sufficed as a full meal for me on a casual Monday, but it was Saturday and I ate a light lunch in anticipation of the splurge. When Slater made a point to ask me what my wine preferences were, I demurred: “I trust your judgment.” My trust was rightly placed.  His spot-on judgment created a not-so-ordinary pairing of a Côtes de Provence rosé that shimmered salmon-colored hues in the glass. Most people would raise a brow when pink wine sloshes in their glass next to robust charcuterie; but the pair couldn’t have been more perfect.  My taste buds loved the way strawberry accents framed the savory flavors of the aperitif. The charcuterie itself was delicately aromatic and herbaceous while giving way to sweetness from the rich and fatty meat, just calling for an elegant, fresh, smooth and equally flavored rosé.

The journey through rural France continued with a seemingly-traditional cassoulet consisting of white bean stew, slow-baked pork belly, and duck sausage layered with slices of pan-roasted duck breast, topped with a crispy slab of pork belly that was out of this world due to texture and melt-in-your-mouth flavor. What really sent my mouth soaring was the combination of duck, cassoulet and a robust Bordeaux red wine known as the “bad boy” in French slang. Slater poured “Mauvais Garçon,” a blend of 95% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. The value of this wine speaks volumes of Slater’s talents to source true gems for less, as the pedigree on this regular Bordeaux AOC couldn’t be higher coming from the notorious garagiste, or small-batch wine maker, Jean-Luc Thunevin.

Ending in sweetness, I enjoyed Valrohna pot de crème with orange compote and candied cranberries, paired with Maydie ruby port. The dessert was balanced by citrus notes folded into chocolate decadence; therefore, it needed a wine laced with sweetness and aromatic persistence to stand up to the slight bitterness and aromas of high-quality chocolate. Not ready to end my culinary vacation, I dared to forge on and order a cheese board offering three artisanal selections of a bleu, a triple-crème, and a semi-hard cheese paired with a white burgundy (aka chardonnay). Wow! I was in bliss, because the cheeses were all so smooth and rich and in need of a wine that could contrast the decadence with acidic crispness and minerality while simultaneously presenting a smooth, full-bodied, rich wine.

I departed Bastille in high spirits (and, thankfully, not the designated driver), cloaked in warmth from a heart-warming evening made of the best ingredients, friendly staff, bistro-style dining, and delicious wine. Bastille, you’re an exception in a sea of mediocrity and over-priced indulgences. I’ll be back and ready to sample more of your exquisite offerings.

Heirloom Tomatoes beat the heat

Heirloom tomatoes beat the heat

Step into a world of ripening heirloom tomatoes and enter a realm of bourgeoning discovery and endless flavor possibilities. The science population has been exclaiming the importance of food diversity and warning of the consequences of genetic erosion for years now.  With this in mind, consider for a moment the tasty, colorful array of heirloom tomatoes found at the farmer’s market that are replaced by bins in the supermarket full of  tasteless tomatoes almost identical in size, shape and color. If you take the time to just consider the benefits of selecting heirloom tomatoes, I will provide you with a few wine pairing tips that will maximize your efforts and return you to that tantalizing memory of how tomatoes used to taste. Your efforts will be rewarded three-fold when you experience the first flavor explosion in your mouth followed by a refreshing wine chaser in this sweltering heat.  

Over 10,000 varieties of tomatoes exist today, but commercial growers have chosen to grow just a couple of them in order to focus on physical traits that increase profitability; namely consistency, productivity and hardiness. Consistency lends to every tomato being the same size and shape with no physical blemishes, creases or any variant color spots. Also, commercial tomatoes need to yield large harvests and be able to endure mechanical picking, long distance traveling and exposure to pesticides. Since most American supermarket shoppers deem physical attributes more preferential to taste, commercialized versions of tomatoes barely resemble their heirloom counterparts. Heirloom tomatoes are not used in large-scale agriculture, but rather are popular among small-scale farmers and home gardeners.

In the wine world, tomatoes can be one of the most difficult foods to pair with wine due to their acidity. Introducing the wrong wine to a tomato-based dish usually ends in tragic, mouth-puckering, bitter reflections. Furthermore, commercialized tomatoes present even more challenges to the food-wine equilibrium because they are bland in flavor and acid-centric. When you introduce heirloom tomatoes to the wine pairing, however, other flavor components enter the equation, such as sweet tendency, succulence, tanginess, earthy undertones, citrus components, and smoky factors. Imagine the mouth-watering, warm-from-the-sun, old-time taste you remember from your youth (or may have never experienced). So, next time chose those beautiful tomatoes of all shapes and colors and try out any of these three recommendations listed below to test your heirloom selections:

• Classic Italian dishes made with tomato-based sauce and pasta like spaghetti, Bolognese, lasagna, manicotti, baked ziti, chicken parmesan. Just sub in a homemade marinara sauce made from heirloom tomatoes and go for Italian red wines, such as classic Chianti, Barbera, Dolcetto, Barolo, Brunello and the off-shore island reds like Cannonau and Nero d’Avola. My recommendation is a renowned chianti, Fattoria di Lucignano Chianti Colli Fiorentini, average price $13.99 found in local, specialty wine shops like Arrowines.

• Gazpacho made with garlic, red onion, vinegar and an assortment of other ingredients pairs best with sherry (fino or manzanilla) and lightly colored rosés from Spain, Provence and California. Sherry boasts the least amount of acidity of any wine and its savory, salty flavors mesh well with vibrant tomato flavors. In order to find the best sherry selections in the DC metropolitan area, venture to Jaleo restaurant in Crystal City and take a gander at their retail wine shop. Ask for Osborne Manzanilla from Andalucia Spain, average price $13.99.

•  Insalata Caprese salad is a simple dish of tomatoes, mozzarella and basil that can be dressed up with a fine-quality olive oil, balsamic vinegar and white wine vinegar. With the extreme aromatic characteristics of this recipe and sweet succulence of the tomatoes, try an Italian white wine such as verdicchio. Red, White & Bleu in Falls Church carries an elegant version, Stefan Antonucci Verdicchio Classico Riserva from the Marche region of Italy for approximately $18.99.

This time of year, tomatoes offer a simplistic answer to quick, easy and healthy dishes that do not weigh you down in heavy, meaty dinner affairs. Served at cooler temperatures, red and white wines can match beautifully with your tomato recipes and leave you with a satiated appetite that does not weigh you down in hot, humid weather.

Photo sourced from http://www.grampashoney.com/tag/cheese-pairings/

Honey, I Love You

Something sweet is coming this Valentine’s and it’s not wrapped in a heart-shaped box. Rather, its golden, slow-flowing and dripping of sweet sappiness—giving way to a moment of je ne sais quoi. Perhaps Winnie the Pooh describes it best: “Well," said Pooh, "what I like best -- " and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.
-- Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner

The Greek gods called it ambrosia, because it was the nectar to restore youth, heal the body of its ailments, and provide pure ecstasy upon its touch to the lips. With all this considered, I will court a new romance this Valentine’s with a new cheese class at Red, White & Bleu wine shop in Falls Church. I will pair a multitude of honeys with cheese and wine. Honey represents the new food fad sweeping the nation, but its beauty is recalled by Pooh bear. We will revel in the moment of anticipation right before actual indulgence—that fleeting second when your mouth salivates, your heart flutters, and your mind soars on surges of euphoria. This reaction reminds me a bit of love, but in reality, it’s simply HONEY—artisan and varietal—and true to your heart. If you’ve never had this “Winnie the Pooh” moment, I insist you must discover the magic between honey, wine, and cheese—truly a meal for the gods.

These days, honeys are just as sophisticated as wines; and like wines made from different grapes grown in varying climates and soils, honeys are uniquely distinct and express the facets of a bee’s life, mainly its diet. Two classifications exist in the honey world: varietal and artisan. To define it in lay terms, a varietal honey comes from a single source, like raspberry honey or clover honey, or sumac honey or tupelo honey. On the opposite spectrum, an artisan honey is a blend of honeys sourced from different plants depending on the year and climate at hand. In other words, artisan honeys are more a melding of Mother Nature’s discretion.

In Virginia alone, over 2,000 hobbyists and professionals alike keep bees. If you visit the Loudon Bee Association http://www.loudounbee.org/honey_varieties.html, you will see over 50 varietal honey sources listed. Each spoonful of honey displays its own taste based on the weather during the season, the moisture in the soil, pest pressure, and the craftsmanship of the beekeeper himself/herself. If you can’t make this Valentine’s event, I encourage you to experiment at home. Visit the local farmer’s market, buy a varietal or artisan honey, seek out different cheese styles, and drizzle some amber ambrosia on your cheese concoction, followed by a sip of wine….visions of Aphrodite may appear.

For your Valentine, may I suggest some delectable pairings? Slice a green apple into slivers, cut a wedge of aged parmesan cheese, and drizzle a tad of truffle honey over the two and sip a nice Chianti, Rosso di Montalcino, or anything red from Tuscany, Italy—truly divine! Or purchase a blue cheese, hard, soft, gooey, you name-it, any blue will do, and top smatterings of a mild-flavored, lightly-colored honey, such as clover or lavender honey and pair with a sweet Riesling or white dessert wine from Sauternes, France or from or Virginia wineries. Don’t be afraid to add some red grapes with your blue cheese and honey bites and pair with a bold California Cabernet Sauvignon. I promise this odd combo will blow your mind!

This Valentine’s join us at Red, White & Blue wine shop Sunday, February 12^th for an instructional tasting of honey, cheese, and wine. Phone for details, and remember to say this year “Honey, I Love You!”

Christianna Sargent
Certified Sommelier
Advanced Certificate--
Wine & Spirits Education Trust
Association of Italian Sommeliers
French Wine Scholartalesofasommelier.blogspot.com



Better Your Batter with Wine & Beer

Better Your Batter With Wine

Batter, in bakery terms, comes in liquid form, pours easily, and generally results in sugary goodness. The words beer and wine do not usually appear in the same sentence as batter—a tragedy requiring immediate remedy.

Infinite pairings exist between food and wine. The trick is how to discover the moments of gustatory bliss when the perfect wine meets its synergistic match. Culinary experts and sommeliers provide elaborate guidelines to demystify the bonds a specific flavor shares with its wine mate. Most people know culinary aficionados, whether they be chefs, food critics, mom or pop, or your spouse. On the flip side, the term sommelier proves a bit more elusive. Who or what is a sommelier? What role do they play in food and wine pairings? In this case, a sommelier betters your batter; a sweetened cupcake batter, that is.

Sommeliers work in and around restaurant settings as wine connoisseurs. Besides managing the beverage program, a sommelier’s job description entails suggesting appropriate wines with your dish selections. Sommeliers spout many rules with which you are familiar. Meats pair with reds, white wines pair with chicken, pork or fish; while sparkling wines generally pair well with anything. Robust wines with rich food. Acidic wines with greasy fare. Exotic, off-dry wines with spicy cuisine. Lastly, the unquestionable rule for food and wine pairings states desserts match best with sweet wines.

With the cupcake craze in mind, why not question the traditional rules? Can dry, higher alcohol wines, red and white, and hoppy beers to boot, couple with cupcakes? In fact, batters in general have no accepted rules in the wine pairing arena. So, how do batter-made goods pair with wine or beer? Imaginative pairings require taste testers, whom I intend enlisting Sunday, March 27^th. A toast to basketball mania, March Madness Cupcake Face-Off judges between batter, wine, and beer. Anticipate tasting dry wines with sweet bliss, rather than sampling ultra sweet wines.

In the professional field of wine connoisseurs, eggs, flour and butter translate into definitive pairing terms on a flavor sensation wheel. Close your eyes. Bite into a cupcake. Consider the aromas and flavors you perceive. Instantaneously, your teeth encounter sweet, sugary, buttery frosting matched on the underlining with cake stodginess, mouthwatering succulence, sweet tendency, and aromatic persistence.  Now, describe the cupcake effect on your tongue in layman’s terms: sugary rapture, buttery, fluffy, cake batter baked warm and fresh. Smells good going in and while chewing; upon swallow, you crave another bite.

After such a description, what pairs with this unique form of sweetness, since the flour and eggs add savory and stodgy sensations against the sweet? First, the actual cupcake flavors must be considered. Kristy Hofkens of Capital Cakepops--a hobby company she runs in Washington, D.C. when she breaks from government contract consulting—intends to supply Red, White & Bleu Wine Shop in Falls Church with five fun flavors: coconut with cream cheese frosting, Guinness chocolate with peanut butter frosting, vanilla with strawberry butter cream, banana cream with honey flavored frosting, and the last remains to be unveiled. The recipes are no bore, so the wines and beers will be equally fantastic. I anticipate sampling a high quality California white blend, an Oregon Pinot Noir, an Argentinian Torrontes, an Alsatian Gewurztraminer, and a California Petite Syrah.  All five wines face off against a different beer in each cupcake pairing, such as Heffeweizen, Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, Belgian Blonde, Abita seasonal, and Southern Tier’s Choklat Stout. Tasters vote on the winner of the pairs. Which team will win, Team Vino or Team Brew? Don’t have a clue, but I know it will be irresistible fun. Cupcakes? Wine? Beer? What could be more palate pleasing?