The Basignani Piazza

Well, the outdoor wining and dining area we long dreamed about is finally a reality.  For years we here at Basignani have wanted a more permanent and substantial place for our customers to enjoy our wine al fresco, and our beautiful new patio area is now ready for the summer season.  If you have visited Basignani Winery in the past, you may remember the sloping grass space - which was often covered by a tent - between the tasting room and the brick pizza oven.  That area has been leveled out, covered in crushed blue stone, and highlighted with steps of granite and natural stone walls.  The green circus-striped relic that shaded the grassy area for years (and was beloved by our founder), has been replaced by a crisp and clean white tent. This new tent covers and shades the larger lower portion of our new two level patio area.  After much discussion and planning, we are very pleased with the final result.

You might be surprised to learn, that even with a small family owned business like Basignani Winery, it is often difficult to agree on what needs to be done and what changes should be made. Even though we aren't a large corporation, and don't have to answer to shareholders or a board of directors, the involved family members often have differing opinions on what changes the winery should make, as well as how and when to make them. We needed to consider how we were going to level the area - cut into the uphill side, elevate the downhill side, or some combination of the two.  We had to decide how large the area would be, how it would integrate with our current traffic flow, and what materials we would use.  We had to find a professional to help us with the engineering and design, as well as a stone mason to handle the foundation and block work.  Thankfully, we had Ben Mentzer and Bert Basignani.  Ben is Elena Basignani's husband, and is responsible for most of the physical operations of the winery.  Ben has a background in both contracting and landscaping, so he was the perfect man for the job.  Of course 'the boss' Bert Basignani has over 40 years of construction experience, so that was also advantageous.  While the two of them sorted out the structural details, the rest of us chipped in with ideas and opinions about the aesthetics.  Ben and Bert eventually found landscape architect Jack Leonard from JGL Design Associates to survey the ground and draw up a plan, and then decided on Vachino Masonry to handle the foundation, block and stone work.  We were ready to begin.

We considered using concrete block for the walls, as the cost would have been significantly less, but 'the boss' insisted we use stone.  Some decisions at Basignani aren't democratic, this was one of those decisions.  As is often the case, there is no substitute for experience.  Even those of us skeptical about the increased cost now realize that Bert's edict was absolutely correct.  We used a combination of Butler stone salvaged from past construction projects and Black Rock stone sourced from the property.  On seeing the finished product, we all realize it couldn't have been done any other way.  The granite steps were also salvaged and sourced from left-over material already on the property, Ben jokingly said they were 'a joy to work with'.  Another decision we faced was whether or not to put a railing around the raised lower level.  Our initial feeling was that it wasn't necessary, but as the project developed and we were able to better envision the finished product, we realized it would be a nice addition.  We think the wrought iron railing provides a comfortable feeling of enclosure and is aesthetically pleasing as well.  As we neared completion, a last cosmetic question remained - what type of tent should we use? On this point, Bert acquiesced to the democratic process.  He would have preferred another striped tent, but allowed us to go with the simpler covering the majority of us favored.

All in all we couldn't be more pleased with how the area turned out and are looking forward to introducing it to our customers this season.  We hope that for years to come, our guests make memories and enjoy good times and good wines on the Basignani patio.  Our intention is to make the area available not just for our winery events and during the hours the tasting room is open, but also to offer it by hourly reservation for parties and events.  We want to make it possible for others to celebrate their special events and enjoy our beautiful natural surroundings.  Which brings us to the last decision we faced and the last issue related to our new outdoor patio area.  What do we call it?  We debated "The Courtyard" and "The Piazza", or maybe just "The Patio" at Basignani.  I wouldn't say the debate was heated, but it certainly generated some spirited discussion.  Eventually, in light of our Italian heritage and memorable times spent in small Tuscan towns, we settled on "The Piazza".  Webster's Dictionary defines a piazza as - 'an open square especially in an Italian town' and 'an arcaded and roofed gallery'.  We consider the winery our little town, and we hope "The Piazza" will make visiting us even more memorable.  By whatever name, the goal at Basignani remains the same, to provide the best possible experience and the best possible wine. We hope you will be out to enjoy it with us soon.

Cinco de Mayo...with a twist

Cinco de Mayo may be traditionally celebrated (in the US) with margaritas and Corona, but this year my friends and I have decided to try something a little different: Sangria.

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday commemorating the Mexican army’s victory against French forces at Puebla on 5 May 1862. It is not, despite common misconceptions, Mexican Independence Day (which is actually celebrated on 16 September). Many estadounidenses (literally translated as United Stateseans) think of Cinco de Mayo as a day to celebrate Americans with Mexican heritage, much along the lines of St. Patrick’s Day or the Chinese New Year.

Though Spain and Portugal are the two countries most commonly associated with sangria, this wine-based punch is also served in many South American countries (as well as Mexican restaurants in the States).

To celebrate the end of our final spring semester (which happens to coincide nicely with Cinco de Mayo) my roommates and I are resurrecting the Taco Thursdays that went by the wayside rather quickly as our schedules got busier and busier back in September.  

Taco Thursdays entail:

**Taco Filling:

1-2 red onions, diced

6-12 peppers, sliced  (depending on the number of RSVPs)

Other vegetables (squash, eggplant, etc) as desired

1-2 cans Chickpeas, boiled

Taco Seasoning (pick your favorite kind…mine is the Simply Organic Fajita Seasoning...and follow the directions on the packet)

(Sautéed ground beef or boiled, shredded chicken can also be added)

Sautee onion in a little olive oil until lightly browned, then add peppers and other vegetables. Add taco seasoning, water, and chickpeas (drained). Simmer until thick.

**Spanish Rice (I’ll admit, I use a packet)

**Refried Beans (microwave with salsa and cheese)

**Sour Cream

**Salsa

**Cheese

**Guacamole:

4-6 ripe avocados (slightly soft, but not squishy), mashed

Fresh tomato, diced

1 red onion, diced

Cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, and lime juice to taste

**LOTS of friends, food, wine and conversation (hopefully enough to spill onto the balcony!)

To this particular Taco Thursday, we are adding Basignani Sangria.

Traditionally, sangria is a young red wine blended with triple sec or brandy, orange juice, and fresh fruit (oranges, apples, lemons, pears, berries etc.). At Basignani Lynne makes two sangrias, a white and a red, with the Elena (a Seyval blend) and the Marisa (a blend of Foch, Chambourcin and Chancellor). I will be making both on Thursday to appease taste buds of the red and white wine drinkers. I can’t wait to find out which one tastes better with our tacos!

**Red Sangria

1 bottle Marisa

1 c. O.J.

1 c. Club Sprite

1/2 c. Sugar

1/4 c. Triple Sec and/or Brandy

Assorted sliced fruit (1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 orange)

Mix together and serve over ice.

**White Sangria

1 bottle Elena

1 c. White Grape Juice

1 c. Club Soda

1/2 c. Sugar

1/4 c. Triple Sec and/or Brandy

Assorted sliced fruit (1 lemon, 1 lime, 1 pear, 1 peach, strawberries)

Mix together and serve over ice. 

Bottling: A Lesson in Adversity

As I stood just outside the shade of the bottling truck, attempting to catch a little of Thursday’s beautiful 60-degree sun, I heard a grumbling mantra of “Murphy’s Law” coming from the direction of Joe, the bottling line technician. If it wasn’t one thing (the wet, humid weather on Tuesday) it was another (a mechanical problem with the labeler on Thursday).

Bottling was not off to an auspicious start.

There are lots of little things that can go wrong with a bottling, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky that both days the difficulties were more aesthetic than anything else. On Tuesday we couldn’t get the labels to stick to the bottles and on Thursday the sensor was malfunctioning and the labeler put too many labels (or none at all!) on the bottles.

But around midday Joe and Hunter figured out what was tripping the sensor and we were off and bottling!

My first job was to take a paper towel and wipe any drips off the bottles as the came down the line, after they were corked but before they got to the labeler. Well, being a bottling/assembly line novice, I was convinced that the bottles had to stay distanced precisely as they came out of the corker…

But then Joe came over and, much to my horrified surprise, picked one up—right off the line—and disturbed the symmetry. Then he wiped the bottle clean and let me in on a little secret: you see that sensor there (about, ohh a foot to my right and definitely within my peripheral vision)? It stops them, so they don’t have to be a specific distance apart. And indeed, the bottles were backing up in front of the sensor, waiting patiently to be capped.

Needless to say, I felt observant.

It wasn’t long until they moved me from drip-duty to catching the bottles as they came off the line, inspecting the labels and caps for imperfections and placing them in cases. Griff assured me that he usually does this job by himself, but I’m not at all sure how he manages to put the bottles in the case, send the full case down to Bert to finish packaging and put an empty case on the table in time to catch the next bottle coming down the line.

Granted, bottling our sweet wines is a bit of an unusual situation. We bottle the Vidal and Riesling in the tall bottles traditionally used in the Rhine valley in Germany (where Riesling originated). Because of their shape and height, these bottles are more prone to tipping. On Thursday, they’d come off the line normally, but instead of milling patiently, gathering to the side of the conveyor belt, one or another of the bottles would tip just slightly and we’d have sticky glass dominoes (I am happy to report that there were no casualties in the bottling of Basignani wine). Emily and I had our hands full, and I for one am glad I had help!  

I left the winery Thursday evening tired, sticky and smelling of fermented grape. And I’ll admit that my lily-white, never-done-an-honest-day’s-labor-in-my-life hands spent the weekend slathered in cream, much to my family’s amusement, but it was worth it! 

The Mystery of the Cork

Until Lynne asked me to help with the bottling, I never gave more than a cursory thought to what is surely most people’s first question about wine-making: how do they get the cork in the bottle?? (It is, after all, such a damn nuisance to get out…)

Consequently, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about this over the weekend. And I’ve reached the conclusion that getting the cork in the bottle must be rather like the question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? (Ok, maybe not really, since you couldn’t possibly fire the glass around the cork and still get the wine inside (…or could you?). 

As I said, quite a bit of time.

The most entertaining of my imaginings involved a somehow shrunken cork that magically expands to fill the hole and seal the bottle when you touch it against the inside of the bottle neck with a pair of sterilized tongues (yes, Health and Safety regulations were even featured in my oh-so-thorough daydreams). In my imagination, corking was rather like...building a ship-in-a-bottle that displays full sail after you pull the string (assuming you’ve assembled the pieces correctly).

But while amusing, and with a distracting element of mystery (how does that cork know just when to expand?), this theory doesn’t make much—all right, not any—sense at all. First of all, the bottle in my theory was lying on its side. Given that it was supposedly full of wine at the time, well, it was quite the reality-defying cogitation as not a single drop of the ruby liquid was sacrificed. (It is also interesting that the wine in question was red, since we will be bottling the Riesling and Vidal…but that’s a puzzle for Mr. Freud).

After a while, I gave up these crazy theories and returned to my general state of twenty-first century disillusionment with the realization that there must be some nifty gadget invented specifically to cork wine bottles (there is: it’s called a <<gasp>> bottle corker). But since I wasn’t quite ready to return to the myriad papers that my professors misguidedly decided it would be a good idea to assign a second-semester senior, I began to wonder how the ancients corked wine before the advent of such useful technologies.

Of course, I forgot that we’re talking about a particularly innovative species with a decided taste for alcoholic beverages. The ancients had their ways…

Though the ancient Egyptians used corks as bottle stoppers thousands of years ago, it wasn’t until the 1600s that a French monk named Dom Pérignon first used cork to stop sparkling wine bottles. (He had noticed that the traditional wooden stoppers often popped out and that cork provided a much better seal).

Around 1770, corks began being used to stop cylindrical bottles, allowing for the first time the slow maturation of wine in a glass container. As bottles became mass-produced with uniform necks, the use of corks as stoppers spread. Today, Portugal is the world’s leading cork producer.

Well, that’s about all I know (and pretty much the extent of what the Internet can tell me), so I’ll have to wait until I finish my first experience with bottling on Wednesday to give you a full reckoning of the process. Until then…happy uncorking! 

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

…and what do May Flowers bring??

Up until a few weeks ago, I would have gleefully shouted PILGRIMS!! along with the large majority of elementary school-aged children plaguing their parents with this old-but-new-to-them riddle. What can I say? I enjoy a good (read: horrifically bad) pun as much as the next person.

But this year I have a new answer. May flowers bring…GRAPES!!

So much more exciting (and colorful…) than Pilgrims.

The other day I was sitting in the office, bemoaning the capricious weather that we’ve been having since, oh mid-February and wondering aloud when it would ever be spring. Then Griff said something interesting: Well, we certainly don’t want it to warm up too soon or too quickly.

Ohhhhhh riiight. The vines. Late frost. I tried to look knowledgeable, but my ignorance must have shone brightly because Griff took pity on me and tried to explain budbreak and the growth cycle of the vines and…well, I got lost pretty quickly.  

So, I decided to do a little research and figure out exactly where we are in the growth cycle (currently, somewhere between weeping and budbreak, which will happen to most of our grape varieties around mid-April).

Weeping, as Griff so eloquently explained to me, is the period of the vine’s yearly cycle in which the sap begins to warm and seep slowly through the vine, bringing it back to life. When the sap reaches the previously dormant buds, we have budbreak.

Shoots develop from these buds, and “even when the shoot is only a few inches long, developing flower clusters can be seen opposite the young leaves” (Hellman 15). “As the shoot grows, considerable development takes place….Of greatest interest is the [flower cluster initiation], since [the flower clusters] represent the fruiting potential of the vine for the following season” (Hellman 15). The flower cluster primordia will develop either into flower clusters (which will eventually bear fruit) or tendrils, “depending on environmental and growing conditions experienced by the specific bud and the shoot in general” (Hellman 15).

After the flower clusters are successfully pollinated, the berries begin to grow. “Flowers with unfertilized ovules soon shrivel and die, while those remaining begin growth into berries” (Hellman 16). This sounds a little dramatic, so it’s important to note that “commonly, only 20-30% of flowers on a cluster develop into mature berries. [Fortunately,] this is adequate to produce a full cluster of fruit” (Hellman 17).

There are three stages of berry growth: “rapid initial growth,” a “middle stage called the lag phase,” and another period of rapid growth” (Hellman 17). This last stage is called veraison, from the French for ripening, and “is discernable by the start of color development and softening of the berry” (Hellman 17).

In his report for Oregon Viticulture Hellman points out that “berries are considered to be fully ripe when they achieve the desired degree of development for their intended purpose” (Hellman 17). In my unschooled effort to determine when grapes are ready for harvest, I didn't find this vague generalization/statement of the obvious terribly helpful. But Hellerman does go on to later explain that the “ripeness factors typically considered when scheduling harvest are the sugar content, acid content, pH, color and flavor” (Hellman 17). A little clearer, but still dependent on some knowledge of how sweet or acidic or deeply colored the grape should be. Basically, the moral of this paragraph is: pick them when they taste right for making wine…if you’re not sure what that taste is (and I’m certainly not) experiment and/or ask an experienced vintner for his or her opinion.

Following the harvest, the vines go dormant for the winter months, a process in which they acclimate themselves to the cold and develop cold hardiness, then deacclimate in the spring, beginning the cycle over again.

For pictures of the various stages of growth, visit: http://www.grapes.msu.edu/pdf/Growthstages.pdf

Bibliography

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/hellman_structure.pdf

Not So Much a Taste as a Feeling

“Why would you ever want to ruin a good cup of tea with cream or sugar?” It’s a question I’ve asked many a Southern friend who just can’t get over his or her Sweet Tea. Almost invariably meant as a rhetorical question, I never expect to get a rationally coherent answer that has to do with anything beyond personal preference.

But then I started drinking wine (and working here at Basignani), and I discovered tannins.

From tea to wine? Yes, my thought patterns are notoriously quite random (just ask my family and friends…keeping abreast of conversations with me must feel like watching a really bad tennis game with no out-of-bounds—serves lobbed without direction and returned unexpectedly hours later), but I promise that these two subjects are, for once, not at all unrelated.

You see, both wine and tea express tannins on the palate. What this means in terms of wine I’ll get to a bit later, but for now it is enough to note that talking about tea in a wine blog is not nearly as crazy as it sounds.

The word tannin, as you may have already surmised, is related to an old process for curing animal hides using plant compounds that cross-link proteins—tanning. Tannins are found in the bark, leaves and immature fruits of many plants and are often associated with a bitter taste. In nature, this bitterness helps the plants to survive long enough to reproduce (young grapes are bitter, for example, until the seeds are ready to be ingested by birds and dispersed…well, you get the picture.)

To get an idea of what tannins taste like, brew a really really REALLY strong cup of tea (Caution: Mug Contains Hot Liquid…please, let it cool before you taste it). ‘Betcha the contents of your mug are more than just slightly bitter—those are the tannins. 

Since tasting is so subjective, especially when it comes to wine, tea is a good way to develop a mouth-feel for tannins. As Jamie Goode explains in his article on the subject, “tannins contribute two characteristics to red wine…astringency (most significantly) and bitterness—these are sensations that are sometimes confused by tasters.” The “bitter perception is quite well understood, since it is one of the five primary tastes and is sensed by a specific receptor found in taste buds on the tongue and soft palate.” It’s astringency that gets the inexperienced taster.

According to Goode, “the common understanding [of astringency] is that it is actually mediated by the sense of touch rather than by taste. Tannins are thought to taste astringent because they bind with salivary proline-rich proteins and precipitate them out. This leads to increased friction between mouth surfaces, and a sense of dryness or roughness.”

Tea is much better for gaining a basic understanding of both these properties (bitterness and astringency) than wine, if simply because good wines are so complex that distinguishing specific aspects of the palate takes years and years of practice. But we all know that a strong cup of tea is bitter (hence why my Southern friends simply must dilute it with sugar). Tea is also an even better example of the astringency associated with tannins—even herbal teas (caffeine-free, and therefore not in the least dehydrating) leave your mouth feeling dry. That feeling? That wooliness between your tongue and hard palate? That’s the tannin. (If you’re not a tea drinker and cannot readily call this sensation to mind, try it out sometime! I promise that finally fully understanding tannins is worth it!)

Now that you’ve developed a sensory memory of what tannin tastes and feels like using the tea, it will be much easier to discern the tannin in the wine you drink beyond the basic: this is bitter or this is dry. You will be able to start observing differences in tannin level and how this affects the wine. Even the same vintage will change over time, becoming softer as it ages (hence why wines with low tannin levels should be drunk young while others should sit on the shelf for a bit).  

Tannins, though they may be found in all wine (more from barrel ageing in white wines, than anything else), are most noticeable in the flavor profiles of red wines. The tannin in red wine comes from the exposure of the juice to the grape skin (and I finally get down to the main difference between reds and whites…after the grapes for white wine are crushed, they are pressed immediately to separate the juice from the pulp and skins that would give it a deeper, red or purple color). When tasting red wine, tannin is identifiable (as earlier with the tea) in the bitter aftertaste or feeling of dryness in the mouth. A wine is tannic if the tannins overpower the other three components of balance (sweetness, acidity, and alcohol), and this overly tannic or bitter finish is considered a shortcoming.

A lot of new wine drinkers aren’t particularly fond of red wine, and I would hazard a guess that this has to do with the bitterness and dryness caused by tannins (personally, I’ve always preferred red…but then I also drink my tea black). Of course, everyone’s taste preferences are different—a wine you consider tannic someone else might consider just perfectly bitter. But now we know what makes us describe a wine as bitter or dry, we can start to develop a more discerning vocabulary.  

The Divine Combo

Being both human and a female, you’d be hard pressed to get me to admit that there is something in this world more divine than the mouth-watering combination of milk, sugar and cocoa commonly known as chocolate. Whether it’s a Hershey’s bar or a gourmet confection, I show no prejudice, no favoritism, and absolutely no compunction in eating the world’s most beloved decadence…in its entirety.

But then I turned 21.

Ladies and gentlemen, enter: Wine.

Yes, that’s right. Chocolate can get better.

But not just any chocolate. And not just any wine. A certain weekend last September comes to mind, when my friend Jen brought back a one-pound Reese’s Cup from a day jaunt to Hershey Park. We settled in on the blue standard-issue dorm couch in her apartment to devour the chocolate/peanut buttery goodness, watch a movie and drink some wine (red for her, white for me…), the labels of which I can no longer remember. 8 oz of chocolate each (to put this in perspective, 8 oz is the equivalent of an entire bag of chocolate chips) and a little more than a glass of wine later…well, gluttony is its own punishment.

Yes, that evening was an example of several wine-chocolate do-nots. Do not over-eat the chocolate. Do not drink just any wine. And, for goodness’ sake, do not blame either the wine or the chocolate if you do (I still cannot eat even a mini-Reese’s).

Which chocolate and which wine is really all about personal preference, but there are some general guidelines to follow: the lighter the chocolate, the lighter-bodied the wine, deep reds go best with the velvety, dark chocolates (Kim Rigby at Parfections—more about that later—makes, for example, a dark chocolate and Port wine truffle that is absolutely to die for), etc. Basically, you try to match flavor-weight with flavor-weight. You wouldn’t want your chocolate to over-power the wine, or vice-versa.  

But as Cap’n Barbossa says…they’re more like guidelines anyway.

There is no cut and dry, this wine goes with this chocolate. Because, as we discussed previously in the post about terroir, no two Merlots or Sauvignon Blancs or Rieslings or (I could go on ad infinitum) taste the same. And as with wine, so with chocolate. There is also the added pitfall of personal taste: some wine and chocolate lovers pair sweet with sweet while others claim that a sweet wine makes the chocolate bitter. There’s really no way to find out but to taste for yourself (and what a deliciously trying ordeal that would be, no?).

My best suggestion is to find a wine you like and try different chocolates, or find a chocolate and try it with several different wines, then make a party of it! Buy several bottles of wine (or ask everyone to bring a favorite, making sure not to overlap grapes too much) and pair them with white, milk and dark chocolates (preferably from the same chocolatier) to see which combinations stand out.

But if you’re looking for a gift, or just don’t have time to taste all the hundreds of chocolate and wine combinations, stop by the winery April 30 and May 1 for Swing into Spring and the release of this year’s Vidal and Riesling. Kim from Parfections will be here with chocolates to pair with our wines and the answers to any of your lingering questions about which wine or which chocolate. Having spent one of my workdays here at the winery tasting Kim’s delectable chocolates (…don’t you just want to wrest my job out of my hands and into yours?), I do not hesitate in issuing the following imperative: you simply must come discover the magical combination of wine and chocolate for yourself. 

Parfections Handmade Gourmet Chocolates

10768 York Road

Cockeysville, MD  21030

Shop ph: 410-TRUFFLE

www.parfections.com

info@parfections.com