Salt Koji

When I make Miso, I make small amount of salt-koji with left over rice koji.

Rice koji is the rice with inoculated koji mold which converts starch in rice into sugar. This sugar eventually encourages fermentation for production of Miso or Sake.

To make salt-koji, I simply mix rice koji with warm salt water (hot water would kill koji). I never measured and tend to have lower salt, but haven't encountered disaster, at least, not yet.
Leave it under room temperature and mix once a day for a week.
It's ready when it starts to show a little sliminess, and you can keep this in a fridge for a while.
Salt-koji can be used to marinate fish or meat, or for pickled vegetable.

I had carrot which was fresh from farmers market, so I cut them into bite-size sticks and marinated with salt koji over night.
The salt-koji I made was a little low in salt, and the pickled carrot had more sweetness of its own than saltiness.

I liked it but wanted to make more pickles-like pickles, so got cucumber, cut them and sprinkled salt on them, squeezed out water, then marinated them with salt koji over night.
This one tasted more like pickled vegetable (and easy to make)!
 

Chateau Musar is back!

It was two years ago I first tasted Chateau Musar.
If there was something called epiphany in my life, that must have been it.
They are back to San Francisco again, and this time, I tried their wine flight at Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant.

Chateau Musar is one of the leading producers in Lebanon.
Most of their vineyards are in Bekaa Valley, which has Mediterranean climate and gravelly soils. Grapes are sent to winery located in the north of Beirut with minimum application of SO2. The sorting process is not strict to reflect the character of the vintage in wine.

Chateau Musar Rouge Bekaa Valley 2009
Fresh and ripe red fruit, cherry, herb, lavender flower. Minerality of iron.
Tannin is firm but powdery.

Chateau Musar Rouge Bekaa Valley 2001
Fresh flower, strawberry, raspberry, cherry, mocha.
Sweetness of ripe fruit. Silky tannin.

Chateau Musar Rouge Bekaa Valley 2000
Ripe red fruit, herb, oregano, medicinal, coffee.
Gripping tannin but not aggressive.

Chateau Musar Rouge Bekaa Valley 1998
Cherry, sour cherry, lavender, incense, coffee beans and fresh tobacco.
Silky texture. It's 20 years old but there is still freshness.

Chateau Musar Blanc Bekaa Valley 2007
Pear, very ripe, almost decayed tropical fruit, herb.
Cream flavor and creamy texture.

I also had a chance to try some other wines next day.
2003 Blanc was concentrated and savory. There was umami and would be good with Japanese food.
Rose was beautiful. Just beautiful.
2010 Rouge was big yet delicate and round. Very likable.
Like, masculine guy with tender heart.


Since showing the individual character of the year is one of their winemaking policies, each vintage shows different characteristics but there is one thing in common: their wine can be strong and delicate at the same time.
If you find the wine too strong, stay with it for a while and it'll start to show different sides. There might be something you feel it's a flaw, soon you will realize it is a part of charm. 
Wine you, or at least I can't resist.

I still clearly remember the day I first tasted Chateau Musar.
I remember the room, the sunlight, the white jacket I wore, and the street in Financial District. I was walking down the street between buildings, wanting to grab somebody to tell about the wine I just tasted. I remembered all of these and things happened since that day as I tasted the wine.
Chateau Musar is my madeleine dipped in tea.

Two Champagne

Happy encounter with two great Champagne at North Berkeley Imports Tasting.

I was mostly looking forward to tasting still wines at this event and there were many of them which were very good, but at the end of the day, these two stood out.

Domaine Egly-Ouriet Grand Cru Brut Millesime 2007
Domaine Egly-Ouriet owns Grand Cru vineyards in Ambonnay, Verzenay and Bouzy (all in Montagne de Reims), and harvests grapes when they are very ripe unlike many other Champagne producers who harvest grapes while those retain enough acidity.

Pinot Noir 70%, Chardonnay 30%.
Fresh citrus and red fruit, herb and caramel.
Creamy texture with full body.
Interesting wine: there are freshness and oxidative quality at the same time.

Domaine Francis Orban NV Extra Brut
This producer seems to be very small. Even their distributor didn't have enough information about them yet.
They make interesting Champagne with 100% Pinot Meunier.
Freshness and ripeness of white and red fruit with round, powdery texture and pleasant finish.
This is not a simple wine, but very approachable.


I like sparkling wines in general. Why not?
They are refreshing and likable. It's good to drink by itself and with food.
However, I fail to find uniqueness in many of the sparkling wines (maybe bubbles distract me?); therefore, when I meet Champagne with distinctive characters, it feels like I found a treasure.

Austrian Wine Tasting at Austrian restaurant

There was a seminar/tasting of Austrian wine with winemakers at The Salzburg in North Beach, San Francisco.

The Salzburg is an Austrian restaurant with a modern mountain cottage feel.

First, tasting of four Gruner Veltliner.

Harm Gruner Veltliner Wacha 2016
Gardenia, lime, orange oil. Acid is high but mouth feel is soft.

Harm Gruner Veltliner Ried Kremser Wachtberg 2016
Jasmin, lemon, orange zest and incense. Approachable.

Jurtschisch Gruner Veltliner Loiserberg Erste Lage 2015
Honeysuckle, gardenia, lime and pickled lemon. Good freshness from acid.

Jurtschisch Gruner Veltliner Kaferberg Erste Lage 2016

Jasmin, fresh tobacco and note of honey. Rich texture.

Then tasting of three Riesling

Jurtschisch Riesling Zobinger Heiligenstein Erste Lage 2016
Sweet white flower, petrol. pear and peach.
Acid is there but not aggressive.

Harm Riesling Durnstiner Kellerberg 2015
Notes of floral and petrol. Soft, creamy texture.

Harm Riesling Viesslinger Bruck 2015
Citrus, honey with soft acid.
This is not a sweet wine, but there was a subtle sweetness from the ripe citrus fruit.

The trend of winemaking style had been big and heavy for a while in Austria; however, young winemakers are more into terroir-driven lighter wine, expressing its terroir and the characteristics of the variety.

Next tasting was wines from Eisenberg.
This DAC produces red wine from 100% Blaufrankisch.
Eisenberg is also a name of 415 m high mountain which provides gentle slopes and soils with high iron content.
This is the smallest appellation and relatively unknown comparing with other big names like Wachau. Production is also small and many of the winemakers are part-timers. I found this quite unique - sounds like these wines are from the time that wine production hadn't been dominated by large companies yet.

Blaufrankisch from Eisenberg has been considered to be "heavy" wine made with high extraction, but it is changing: more fresh and delicate wines with finesse are produced by careful winemaking.

Wachter-Wiesler Blaufrankisch 2015
Violet, cherry, strawberry. Straightforward, entry level Blaufrankisch.
There was distinct minerality of iron. I found it a little overwhelming, but JC loved it.

Wachter-Wiesler Blaufrankisch Eisenberg Bela Joska 2015
Aromas of rose, coffee beans and fresh herb.
Medium acidity and a little higher tannin.

Wachter-Wiesler Blaufrankisch Eisenberg Ried Weinberg 2014
It was a damp year but thick skin protected fruit.
Coffee, fresh red fruit and preserved strawberry. Tannin is soft.

Wachter-Wiesler Blaufrankisch Eisenberg Ried Weinberg 2011
Red fruit, decayed rose petal, medicinal and incense.
Complex and decent. Beautiful wine.

We enjoyed these wines in the cozy atmosphere of this small restaurant. We didn't have a chance to taste their food this day, but were saying that we would come back to try some food with wine.
However, it seems like the restaurant was damaged by fire just days after this tasting.
Hope the damage wasn't serious and they can recover soon.