Happy Spring to all our customers. It appears we are improving!
Darrell Corti
Our apologies for the delay in publishing our Spring Newsletter. Our container from Italy containing the Easter Colomba and Veneziana cakes experienced a 26 day delay due to severe west coast port congestion. They were scheduled to arrive at the beginning of March. It has finally arrived and they are now in stock.
LOISON and COCCHI COLOMBA
Just as panettone means Christmas in Italian culture, the COLOMBA means Easter. This is a baked cake, in a rather odd shape, that of a flying dove, seen from an angle. It is made with a mother sponge, raised dough, to which candied citrus fruit is added, and the top is decorated with either whole almonds from Sicily or hazelnuts from Piemonte. Beside being a festive cake, it also has myriad uses after Easter as the base for fresh fruit desserts, where the Colomba acts as the base for almost every kind of sliced and sugared fruit teamed with whipped cream, or whipped cream blended with some Mascarpone, a bit of sugar, and some vanilla. The Colomba, sliced horizontally acts as the pastry base in this case.
Here are our selections from that most genial baker, Dario Loison.
We have added this year a specialty from Loison bakery that was created in 1930s by Dario Loison’s grandfather: it is a type of FILONE, an elongated, baguette shaped loaf with candied fruit and raisins that is similar to, but not the same dough, as panettone. It is a soft, leavened cake with candied fruit and raisins glazed with a hazelnut glaze. It can be sliced and enjoyed or sliced and toasted. Either way, it is delicious and shows what deliciousness can come from thinking outside of the box. Four versions, all boxed, 450g
COLOMBA AL BRACHETTO d’ACQUI COCCHI: A new iteration of the classic
Similar to the COCCHI PANETTONE AL VERMOUTH, the geniuses at both Albertengo (the baker) and Cocchi (the winemaker) have created an Easter Colomba made with COCCHI BRACHETTO d’ ACQUI. Much like the very popular Panettone al Vermouth Cocchi, the Colomba is the Easter version of this marriage. The wine is used to macerate the fruit in the cake and then added to the dough.
BRACHETTO d’ACQUI is an “amabile” red wine made from grapes of the same variety. This is a very old variety in Piemonte, almost lost because it fell out of style. It is grown only a limited area in Piemonte in the area of ACQUI TERME and most always made as a frothy light red wine with the most fragrant of rose-like scents and light sweetness. Brachetto now is one of, if not the most expensive grape variety grown in Italy. The fresh fruit sells for more money than nebbiolo grapes for making Barolo. The grapes are bought by the kilo.
Brachetto is a variety that was very much sought after during the 18th and early 19th centuries, and with the rise of other varieties, and changing wine styles, it was relegated to a minor role in the area of the Monferrato and Alessandria. Acqui Terme is a very old “spa” town with famous water and its Brachetto. Brachetto is now back in vogue and rightly so. Normally, vinified like a moscato, it needs to be left fragrantly sweet and with a gentle mousse in the mouth. Its distinct rose-like scent makes it a splendid accompaniment to dessert or as a morning or afternoon bottle of wine that is surprisingly delicious and “more-ish.” It sings “Springtime” full force!
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
PETER DIPOLI VOGLAR AND IUGUM
Here are two wines from a friend and grower in the Alto Adige, the German speaking part of Italy. The Alto Adige and Trentino form a unit in the north-east central part of the Italian peninsula between Lombardy and the Veneto. This is the part of Italy that before WWI, was part of Austria. Renown for its white wines, the Alto Adige made Pinot Grigio famous in Italy and the world. It also has pockets where other varieties grow exceptionally well.
My friend, Peter Dipoli, both an apple grower and vineyardist (and importer) has made his own wines for more than a quarter of a century. It should be known that Peter’s company, Fine Wines, was the first in the Alto Adige to import California wines to the Alto Adige and then to friends in Austria and Germany. This was the result of several trips here, made in winter when Peter came to search for California wines that he liked and wanted to bring back to his private and restaurant customers, both Italian and German speaking.
VOGLAR was his first wine production in 1990. A Sauvignon Blanc made to be a unique style, fermented and aged in acacia wood foudres, this is Sauvignon Blanc as Peter conceives it. It is not the sharp, highly scented style as in New Zealand nor the smokey style as in Sancerre. Definitely not the California style, but something that uses all of the permutations of the variety to make a wine that ages well and is definitely Sauvignon. Actually it is an amalgam of recognized flavors this variety is capable of. A novel take on the variety is that it grows at high altitude, giving both flavor and acid, which allows the wine to age very well. It is never sold as a young wine. It is given both wood age and then the all important bottle age of at least a year before release to round out the wine’s flavor and to give it its special character. This is a “sui generis” Sauvignon Blanc that truly merits your attention!
IUGUM (pronounced “you-gum”) is a red blend of the two Bordeaux varieties Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. These are “yoked” together, (iugum means yoke) so that they each play a part in the wine’s “whole.” The label shows a pair of oxen yoked together. This is also not your normal Merlot/Cab blend. The vineyard is planted to 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet. The wines are vinified separately and then blended, further aged in wood, and then aged for another definite period in bottle before release, so that when you taste the wine, it has been given a minimum of 2 years bottle age that makes the wine a very special “Bordeaux” blend, made in Italy. The first vintage was 1995.
Both soil types and concept lend special character to Merlot and Cabernet in the altitude and climate of the hills that make up the Alto Adige area of Magrè. With perpetual snow at the mountain tops, the Adige River at the bottom, this area can ripen Merlot and Cabernet extremely well, if at very different times. Iugum is not a red wine for the faint of heart. However, it does amply repay all the efforts put into growing, making, and aging it.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, spirits, books will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
SCHIAVA, THE SPRINGTIME AND WARM WEATHER RED WINE
There are few red grape varieties that make a wine that is so quaffable and delicious as SCHIAVA a variety tried in California in the 1890s and never looked at again. It has another name, VERNATSCH, which leads researchers in these matters to opine that it comes from the east, outside of Italy, since schiava means “slave.”
The vernatsch part may mean that it comes from “vernacular” meaning that it was a local variety. Another meaning is that it was a variety that needed a support, a “slave” like a pole to hold it up. It is not just one variety, but a family. (Should you want the real story, please see pp 970-975 in Wine Grapes, by Robinson, Vouillamoz, Hardin.)
However, this is a very versatile variety that is extremely satisfying, especially in warmer weather, since it doesn’t mind being chilled in order to be appreciated when it is warm and you really want a red wine.
The best of this variety is Grauervernatsch or Schiava Grigia. The vineyard site is SONNTALER. The variety is now getting to be rare in the Alto Adige area which made it famous. We still have a small amount of the 2017 Schiava Grigia from the exceptional producer in Cortaccia, the cooperative cellar of Kurtatsch.
Distinctively red in color, scented with berries and loamy soil, flavory and fruity, yet not excessively so, this is a red wine that pleases and refreshes at the same time. Tannin is there, just not so noticeable and makes the wine more-ishly drinkable. This is the last production from the cellar since the vineyard is now gone.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
LOCK CHA BEERS: BREWED IN HONG KONG WITH LOCK CHA TEA
In January of 2020, our tea merchant from Hong Kong, Wing-chi IP from Lock Cha Tea Company, came to California for the Global Tea Symposium at UC Davis and brought me a sample of his latest project which was Lock Cha BEER, a PALE ALE, brewed with an infusion of PHOENIX OOLONG tea, or in Chinese Dan Cong, the production of which I had visited in 2019. As a pale ale it is fragrant with the scent of light malt and Phoenix Oolong. It is a new and fresh brew of Hong Kong–a perfect marriage between tea and beer, the two most popular drinks of the world. The match is remarkably tasty with the aromatic flavor and scent of the Phoenix Oolong which lends an appropriate harmonious scent and flavor to this pale ale. Alcohol is 5%.IBU 17
The fullest bodied, tea influenced beer is the PU-ER ENGLISH STYLE STRONG ALE at 6.3% alcohol. Pu-er is the other name for the typical Cantonese tea also called BOLEI, which imparts a distinct mellow character and a bittersweet aftertaste to the earthy notes of the English hops used and the toffee-like, complex malt structure. This is more of a food beer–compared to the sessionable pale ale. IBU 43
JASMINE GREEN TEA WHEAT BEER is made in the “Hoegaarden style” with a high proportion of wheat in the brewing. Summer jasmine scented green tea substitutes for the flavorings in the “Wit” formula. The wheat gives a silky texture and the tea a refreshing, floral component. Delicious in warm weather. 4.5% IBU 10
Curiously, these beers are not at all out of character from the Chinese point of view. Some of the earliest “wine” found in China has been beer type products flavored with fruits, aromatic leaves and yes, sometimes tea. LOCK CHA is merely resurrecting some of China’s potable history. Shipped refrigerated, please store refrigerated.
LOCK CHA TEA BEER Phoenix Oolong Pale Ale $4.99 330ml can +CRV (#5227) $19.00– 4 pack +CRV (#5227C) Pu-er English Style Strong Ale $5.29 330ml can +CRV (#5228) $21.00– 4 pack +CRV (#5228C) Jasmine Green Tea Wheat Beer $4.99 330ml can +CRV (#5229) $19.00– 4 pack +CRV (#5229C)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
MASTROCESARE PIEMONTESE GRISSINI (Breadsticks to us.)
GRISSINI, or in Piemontese dialect, “grìssín” or what Napoleon called “ Les petits bâtonnes de Turin” are probably THE elemental item on the Piemontese table. You get them wrapped in a napkin everywhere in the Region when you sit down at table. They can be very thin or finger thick. The important thing is that they be well baked and crispy. MASTROCESARE GRISSINI are from a bakery tied to the Piemonte Eccelenza Artigiana group which accepts producers with only an exceptional artisanal quality product reputation.
This typical artisanal grissino (the singular) maker is a bakery in Piemonte called MASTROCESARE. This bakery founded in the early 1900s in Borgomanero, in the province of Novara, now supplies us with its grissini. Grissini are indispensable for just nibbling at table and necessary to accompany cold meats, wrap prosciutto around, accompany cheese as an antipasto, with salads, and I enjoy them for dipping into Greek taramasalta. There are two which I particularly enjoy and in order: the plain one, called RUSTIC, and then the SESAME seeded one. But the RUSTIC is possibly the best I have tasted in this country. Both come in 7.05 oz bags and will keep over some time and you should not buy just one bag! They are enticingly delicious and one is always regretting not having more when a bag is opened and finished.
I wrote about this rice in our Fall 2020 newsletter and it sold out. A new shipment has just arrived, and it is ready to supply all those customers who have been clamoring for it since last Fall. Not only has the Covid pandemic made life difficult, it has made international shipping a nightmare. But we have finally received a new shipment of KHAZANA SMOKED BASMATI. We have also bought the KHAZANA ULTRA BASMATI, which is just natural rice and which is one of the longest elongating Basmati on the market. Since 2016 Basmati has a G.I., or Geographical Indication. The word “Basmati” is from a Sanskrit word, through Hindi, meaning “Queen of Fragrance.”
KHAZANA SMOKED BASMATI elongates, but does not widen. It is astoundingly pleasant in the mouth when cooked-fluffy and savory, with an impressive texture due to its elongation. Some grains elongate to 3/4 of an inch or more.
The KHAZANA ULTRA, which is not smoked, but is a selection of Basmati, has the distinct scented quality of the rice which is a compound known as 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, but elongates even further than the smoked version, about 5/8ths of an inch.
The easiest method of preparing both of these Basmati rices is to measure the amount you want to use, washing in a strainer until the water runs clear, and then soaking with cold water for about an hour. Drain the rice from its soaking water and put into the cooking pot. Add enough clean water to come to about the level of your index finger’s first joint. Add some salt and a pat of butter. Bring to a boil and let cook until tiny craters form on the surface of the rice. Turn heat off and place the pot lid, covered with a clean cloth, to absorb the steam. Let rest for about fifteen minutes. Do not uncover! Then fluff with a fork and serve.
QUINTA da FONTE SOUTO Branco 2017 or 2018: The Symington Family’s newest winery in Portugal. This winery is in the highest section of the vast middle part of Portugal, its ALENTEJO. The Quinta is in the Alto Alentejo, roughly much like California’s Sierra Foothills: warm during the day and cool at night. Quinta da Fonte Souto (the chestnut grove spring farm) produces both red and white wines, but it is the white wine that interests me particularly. Why? Because it is made with two Portuguese white grape varieties which we have in California, and this wine could be a model for a new California production. It is a blend of ARINTO 75% and VERDELHO 25%, both varieties now grown in California. Arinto, grown in Amador County, is the variety producing BUCELAS, known as Lisbon “Hock,” in London in the 19th century due to its high acidity. VERDELHO is grown in the Clarksburg, Lodi, and Sierra Foothills areas. With the Fonte Souto white, you can taste what the blend can produce. It has a very distinct style without any wood overlay and is something eminently doable in California. Why would we do it? Just look at what France taught us about Chardonnay and where it got us!
The Symingtons, famous for their Port properties, bought this estate in the spring of 2017. So their first vintage was 2017. We have a bit of this vintage and the next release, 2018. This is not a white wine that gets to market right away since it needs some age to develop flavor and character. I am very impressed with this blend and we will offer the 2018 vintage (5 bottles) and the 2017 (1 bottle) just so our customers can see the development trajectory. Fonte Souto Branco right now shows lovely wine making and a sensitive touch. It reminds me very much of some Hunter Valley Semillons or middle range white burgundy in flavor and character, with freshness, complexity, elegance, and the promise of great longevity. Enough said!
I think our customers should try Fonte Souto Branco, just to see the possibilities of an emerging new wine world from what was never a highly considered viticultural area. It just takes someone to lead the way.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
CORTI BROTHERS FIVE CITRUS MARMALADE: Marmellata ai Cinque Agrumi
THE GOOD STUFF with Janet McDonald has just finished making the Five Citrus Marmalade from fruit from my backyard. There is less than last year due to Mother Nature, so I would like to limit sales to 6 jars per customer to allow it to go to more fans of this marmalade. This year the blend is slightly different, being: Citron, Blood Orange, Bergamot, Meyer Lemon, and Chinotto. Slightly milder in flavor than last year, it will age very well and shows more the delicate flavor of citron. The bergamot is also a little lower in flavor and aroma than last year.
AWAITING RIESLING AND GOOD WEATHER: RIESLING IN MAGNUMS
“Riesling in magnums, you say.” Well, yes, why not. If probably the best size for maturing red wines is a magnum bottle, why not for riesling. I believe the first time I saw a riesling magnum was about ten years ago. Curiously, German winemakers never before had bottled magnums of their white wine. Half bottles, yes, but not 1.5 liter sizes. It would be an interesting question to pose to German producers. Now, even trockenbeerenauslese is bottled in magnums!
But since German riesling ages so beautifully, an aged magnum is probably what a party of four or definitely of six, needs to satisfy. Rather than two bottles, a magnum provides a finely matured wine that should delight anyone. Corti Brothers has a good selection of maturing German rieslings in magnums which both entice and satisfy that desire to enjoy riesling when the weather warms up. I can’t imagine a lunch or dinner with spring asparagus without one of these bottles. Plus a magnum shows that you really want your guests to try a wine at its optimum. As I write this, it seems that there are few comforts to be had at this time. Things will change. And is it not a comfortable thought to be able to sit at table with a delicious double bottle of mature riesling.
Corti Brothers can offer these magnum bottlings in the following wines:
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
For a printable version of our Newsletter, click the link below.
This is quite a wordy newsletter, filled with some new and very delicious things. I hope you find them as fine as I do. In this very trying period, I hope they will give you enjoyment to read about and to try. Keep up the fight, we’re not through it yet!
Darrell Corti
KHAZANA SMOKED BASMATI RICE
KHAZANA–The Treasure–is the name of a new brand for Corti Brothers of Smoked Rice. “Smoked rice,” you say? Yes, this is a traditional Persian staple which we have offered before and now again after finding a producer of this elegant, smoked Basmati rice. Smoked rice, long a staple in Persian cooking is novel to us in the West. Basmati rice is a scented, long grained, thin rice coming from India’s north-western Himalayan region comprising seven states and other districts. Pakistan’s Punjab also grows it. The rice was given a G.I. or Geographical Indication in 2016. What was understood to be a speciality product has now been given due recognition. “Basmati” is from a Sanskrit word, through Hindi, meaning “Queen of Fragrance.” The Farsi word for Smoked Rice is “Berenje Doodi.”
What is unique about the KHAZANA SMOKED BASMATI is that the already scented Basmati (with the compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline) is smoked over fragrant wood, to increase its fragrance. I find it absolutely perfect with grilled or broiled meats since it retains its slightly smoked aroma with the already scented character of basmati. If you thought that rice was only white, please think again, since this elegant, long grain, fluffy rice is wonderful just cooked simply with water, a bit of salt and a pat of butter. I like cooking it the Chinese way, after washing and soaking, with about one finger joint level of water above the rice, the salt and butter, brought to a boil, the heat turned down to low and waiting until little craters form in the rice surface. Then you simply turn off the heat, cover the pot with a cloth covered lid and let rest for about 15 minutes. No peeking! Then lift off the lid and fluff with a fork and serve. One cup of Khazana rice will make ample rice for 2-3 diners. But making more, for left overs will allow you to make an especially favorite dish of mine: Elizabeth David’s recipe for Rice with egg: Uovo al riso.
The recipe is simplicity itself. Take as many eggs as diners. Boil the eggs for 4 minutes, so the yolks remain liquid. Cool them in cold water and then shell carefully. Halfway fill individual ramekins or souffle dishes previously buttered and dusted with grated Parmigiano with leftover cold rice. Place the shelled egg on top of the rice. Drizzle a tablespoon of clarified butter and a sprinkle of Parmigiano on the egg and rice. Put into a shallow pan with enough boiling water to come up halfway to the dishes. Cover and steam for 5 minutes. Remove carefully and set before the diners. A grind of Red Kampot pepper or a light sprinkle of the salted green Kampot peppercorns will do harm.
KHAZANA SMOKED BASMATI elongates but does not widen. Its character is astoundingly pleasant in the mouth when cooked–fluffy and savory, with an impressive texture due to its elongation. Some grains actually elongate to almost a 3/4 inch or more.
BARIANI ACETO BALSAMICO 12 YEARS OLD, Made in California
This is a product that shouldn’t exist! Yet it does, and it is very good, but not much is produced. “Why should it not exist” you ask? Well, it is a Balsamic vinegar made as is Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale of both Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. It is made ONLY with boiled down grape must, that is then aged in the small, traditional casks made by the master cooper of Modena, Francesco Renzi. The other element to the equation is time. It represents 12 years of slow fermentation producing alcohol which is then oxidized by acetobacter to produce vinegar and time in these small casks of different woods to evaporate and condense, producing a product very similar to Aceto Balsamic Tradizionale–the true Balsamic Vinegar.
The Bariani family, 1990 arrivals from Italy, started in the Sacramento region by producing extra virgin olive oil from the trees on their property in south Sacramento, close to Elk Grove. This production has grown so that now the Bariani own a several hundred acre orchard with their oil production plant in Zamora. In the oil plant, the “acetaia” or vinegar cellar is where they produce their Aceto Balsamico. It is remarkable for its character and typicity of the Tradizionale model. While still young, it is delicious and can be used much like the imported style. Perhaps it is more useful than the Italian Tradizionale, since it is sharper and not quite so viscous, which allows it to dress salads or fresh produce or even cooked dishes where you want the sparkle of vinegar sharpness. Had Paul Bocuse known about the Bariani Balsamic when he concocted his famous Poulet au Vinaigre (chicken with vinegar sauté) he probably would have used it instead of Sherry vinegar. Complimenti alla famiglia Bariani!
We have now received our shipment of the new Vajra nebbiolo wine called CLARÉ J.C.. From the 2019 vintage, this nebbiolo wine has been made since the 2014 vintage. Aldo Vajra and his family make wine in Vergne, a suburb of the village of Barolo. They make Barolo and several other lovely wines, but this one is special and was made to be like it is.
It represents what the variety nebbiolo was like before the invention of the wine called Barolo in the mid 19th century. The focus of this wine has two purposes, its name reflects what these wines were called in the 18th century, the J. is for Jefferson; the C. for Corti. Let me explain: Thomas Jefferson, while ambassador in France just after our Independence Revolution and just before the French Revolution, traveled through Italy and kept a notebook. In his notebook, he recorded all the wines, both French and Italian that he enjoyed and made notes on what he drank. One wine called “nebieul” which is the dialectical pronunciation of nebbiolo. He liked the wine, calling it: “Very Singular, It is as sweet as the silky Madeira, as astringent on the palate as Bordeaux, and as brisk as Champagne. It is a pleasing wine.”
How did I get involved? I had suggested to the Vajra family that I would like a sparking nebbiolo to be made that I would buy. I have wonderful memories of the 1949 Gancia Nebbiolo Spumante we drank the night I graduated from high school and wanted to duplicate this. The Vajras had read Jeffersons’s notes on his Nebieul and thus decided to make a wine in this same style. Nebbiolo has a very pretty color, not black, yet very pretty and it has a scented character and was always bottled with some residual sugar to referment in bottle the year after the harvest. It was this character that the Marchesa Falletti di Barolo, a French noblewoman, wanted to get rid of in her wine and hired a French enologist to change the wine from the family estates in Barolo to something more like French wine. So it was done. And that is why we have Barolo today.
Vajra Claré J.C. 2019 will probably live to be 5-7 years old. It was not meant to be a long lived wine, although sometimes wines can surprise you with their longevity. It is meant to be slightly sprightly on the tongue, fragrant and dry, with a delicate fruitiness. It is ideal for first courses of cold cuts, salame and such; cheesy dishes and pasta courses with meat sauce. With Chinese--especially Cantonese dishes--it is remarkable. But it should be taken for what it is, not what is isn’t. Perhaps you’ll agree with Jefferson.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
BURUNDI COFFEE, A women owned cooperative in Burundi: Drinking well by doing good.
Everyone likes a good cup of coffee. A new Corti Brothers coffee selected by San Francisco’s famous Jeremiah Pick is a Busiga Region, Ngozi province, arabica coffee from the tiniest country in Africa, BURUNDI. This country--land locked in the Great Rift Valley in equatorial Africa--is bordered by Rwanda to the north, Tanzania to the east, and southeast, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Lake Tanganyika is its southwest border. Interestingly, the country is the source of the Nile River. The country’s history is besotted with trials and tribulations since before the beginning of the 20th century, and things have not improved much.
Enter: Jeanine Niyonzima-Aroian, born in Burundi and educated in the U.S. She has created a coffee export company called JNP Coffee that empowers women producers of Burundi coffee. Interestingly, coffee and tea, are two of the most important exports of Burundi, which exports mainly agricultural products. JNP has a network of some 206 Burundian women producers, part of the group International Women’s Coffee Alliance. Due to the efforts of these women, some men have asked to take part. The women growers pick the best cherries, hand sort them, and float the husks off the cherry and then dry them on raised beds. The specific area is in the Karehe growing region. JNP’s Jeanine’s, empowering movement, allows her to pay the women grower members well above the government minimum for cherry and then the women meticulously sort the beans for this bonus. This gives the women a real pick up in the GDP. By purchasing this coffee, you will drink well and do good at the same time.
All of this Burundian coffee is arabica, from old landraces--without any genetic modification--grown at between 1200 to 1900 meters high. Its flavor is a bright acidity, sweet, complex, with a full body. This is a wonderful example of what Americans like about coffee, especially when drunk with a bit of milk. I cannot imagine a better morning cup, nor for that matter, an afternoon one either.
In 2011, Corti Brothers first offered KAMPOT Pepper from the kingdom of Cambodia. Kampot pepper was famous in France during the almost 87 year period when Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam were part of French Indochina. Known by the Chinese since the 13th century, Kampot pepper comes from the vine of the species Piper nigrum, which produces all of what we call “pepper,” the little grain that also gives its name to a monetary term: peppercorn rent.
Kampot is a province in the southern part of the country, just south of the capital Phnom Penh. It is the first Cambodian product to be given, in 2009, a PGI or Protected Geographical Indication by the national government and the European Union. This means that the pepper vines must be grown within its designated area in Kampot and Kep province, following traditional methods. Kampot was the source of most pepper in France from 1863 to 1953, when the country declared independence. In the 1970s, the country became a site of political devastation and the pepper vines were left to die. They are very sensitive and require careful attention. The fruit of the pepper vine produces a series of differing peppercorns.
From the same “fruit of the vine,”a new producer, La Plantation, owned by a Franco-Belgian couple, produces traditional black peppercorns; white pepper corns, which are black pepper with its skin removed; the very special and slightly different flavored “red” peppercorns, which are pepper berries picked when red colored and ripe, and a very special type of green pepper corns, which are fermented and salted. These latter two are remarkable!
Together with the Red Kampot pepper, the salted green peppercorns is something no kitchen should be without. Rare and delicious, they are both truly exceptional. The Kampot Red should be ground in a mill just like white or black pepper is. The Salted Green is to be used whole, as is, in place of ground pepper. Put into sauces, braises, even salads, it acts as pepper but with a very special character: the berries pop in your mouth much like first rate caviar berries do, but these have a magical piperine flavor which hits your palate with an almost mentholated burst that is both surprising and delicious. The peppercorns themselves seem hollow. When wine is drunk after a hit of these peppercorns, you mouth comes alive. Now I can see why Lord Byron used to sprinkle cayenne pepper on his tongue before drinking claret. But the sensation with the salted peppercorns is more delicious.
LA PLANTATION KAMPOT PEPPER all packed in 50 g plastic bags
Another very special pepper is also produced by La Plantation. It is another flowering vine in the same family as Piper nigrum, but is completely different looking and historically was used much earlier than peppercorns. It is Long Pepper, or Piper longum, or Indian long pepper called “pipli” or “pippali.” It used to be used in European cooking and is probably why capsicum peppers began to be called “pepper” when they were first brought to Europe from the New World after 1492. They are similar looking.
Long pepper looks like a hazelnut catkin. The fruit is attached to its stem in minuscule fruits, poppy seed sized. It is hotter than its relative, Piper nigrum. Both long pepper and round pepper were known in Europe and Piper longum was displaced by round pepper about the 14th century. It also must be milled in a pepper mill or in a mortar, with pestle. Used a lot in medieval recipes, it is now used mainly in Pakistani and Lucknow cuisine. You should try it to see the difference between them.
Two new Spanish oils: An HOJIBLANCA and a Green Harvest ARBEQUINA bottled for Corti Brothers
These two Spanish oils are from two different cultivars which have slightly different characteristics. Both are light medium bodied oil bottled here in the States. They are from a company called MillPress which sells numerous oils, buying oil from around the world. These two new Corti Brothers labeled oils are special since they represent the two cultivars and the efforts in making fine oil. Both have the influence of Marino Uceda and his family.
Marino Uceda is probably the most important oil technician in Spain. Having retired from his position at Jaen Oil Station, he now acts as consultant for oil production both in Spain and throughout the world, with his company IADA INGENIEROS. His daughter Mercedes is following in his footsteps.
Both oils were entered in the Los Angeles International Competition where, (full disclosure) I am the chairman, but do not taste the oils. The Hojiblanca won a Gold medal and Best of Class. Hojiblanca, grown mainly in the center of Spain, produces a delicate flavored oil from the area of Montes de Toledo. Our oil is from Antequera, in the province of Málaga, where the orchard was planned and planted by Marino Uceda for his wife’s family. The oil was extracted under his care at the Almazares Aguilar mill in Ecija (Sevilla). The fruit was mechanically harvested in excellent condition, on 23 and 28-29 October 2019, where 11 kilos of fruit produced one kilo of oil. Hojiblanca is a variety which produces oil of great finesse, well balanced, and not exaggerated in either bitterness or pungency.
The other oil is a Green Harvest Arbequina from Ecija (Sevilla), selected by Mercedes Uceda and milled also at Almazares Aguilar. This oil won a Gold Medal in the New York tasting. The fruit is from an intensive planting, mechanically harvested with excellent fruit condition between 10-19 October 2019. Seven kilos of fruit produced one kilo of oil. Both oils were filtered after extraction for stability. Arbequina is a Catalan variety, which produces the two first denominations of origin oils in Spain: Borges Blanques and Siurana. Arbequina is now widely planted in the south of Spain and throughout the world, especially California. When harvested early, as was this oil, it retains its characteristic green fruitiness with soft palate hints of bitterness and pungency. Delicacy and softness are characteristics of this variety’s oil. Harvested early, when still green in color, it does not lose its fruity character by becoming flat tasting with time. Both oils were bottled for Corti Brothers on 20 June, 2020.
This is a very special white wine from the Colli Euganei, blended for Corti Brothers. Due to brand questions, it is sold under its registry number rather than its winery name. The name of the wine is RIME, (Rheemeh) which means “Poems” and the label comes with the inquisitive eyes of Francesco Petrarca peering out, dressed with his laurel wreath crown as Poet Laureate in Rome in 1341.
The wine is a blend of wines--all from the Colli Euganei--which include: chardonnay, pinot bianco, sauvignon blanc, incrocio Manzoni, moscato bianco. They are all from the splendid 2019 vintage.
But why RIME? This is the name of the most famous collection of Petrarch’s poetical works also known as the “Canzoniere.” Petrarch was chosen since the producing winery is in Arquà Petrarca, the poet’s home at the end of his life, where he died on 18 July 1374. The 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica has a very interesting history of Petrarch (Vol XXI, pp 310-315) where the article’s author, John Addington Symonds, describes him as “the founder of Humanism, the inaugurator of the Renaissance in Italy.” Petrarch’s works are now not much studied or even thought about, but as Symonds writes: “What he achieved for the modern world was not merely to bequeath to his Italian imitators masterpieces of lyrical art unrivaled for perfection of workmanship, but also, and far more, to open out for Europe a new sphere of mental activity...He determined what we call the revival of learning.” (p.313)
Thus, this wine is a fitting blend coming from Petrarca’s last home, that it should show the effects of all the white grape varieties planted there. RIME 2019 is a big wine in structure, not a fat one; with excellent acidity and a composed scent rather like white flowers in spring. It should hold well for 4-7 years in bottle and right now can be enjoyed with fairly full flavored dishes and should drink well with some age, holding up, much like Petrarch’s poetry.
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A UNIQUE WINE NEVER BEFORE MADE IN CALIFORNIA: VERDELHO CANTEIRO 2015
This is a MADEIRA-STYLE wine made from a Madeira grape variety, VERDELHO, grown in Clarksburg, California, fortified and then aged in the not often used CANTEIRO fashion, which is putting the wine in cask and then allowing it to age at alternating very warm and cold temperatures without the normal “estufagem” or baking process used on Madeira. The Canteiro system is used on the island of Madeira for only the finest wines. The vintage of Lost Slough Verdelho Canteiro is 2015 and was just bottled, so it is a little less than 5 years old. This is the first time Canteiro aging has been used, as far as I know, in California. California does not produce a large amount of fortified wines made any more. At one time, more fortified wine was made than table wine, and more was sold.. California sherry, baked, was more like a Madeira style wine than your typical sherry from Spain.
With the McCormack family winery, Dancing Coyote of Acampo–previously Barengo winery and previous to that, the Mondavi winery–we have tried to revive the original purpose of the Portuguese variety Verdelho. This variety has never been made as a Madeira-style wine ever in California. There was some made like this in Australia, but Verdelho got stuck in the table wine position in both countries and now is only grown for making a light table wine.
I have taken the Dancing Coyote Verdelho to Portugal, to the Douro, where it was tasted with the Douro Verdelho–called Gouveio, and only recently available for planting in California. The table wine style was well liked, but considered less interesting than the Gouveio. The actual name of what is planted here as Verdelho is known as Verdelho da Madeira. Portugal is practically the only country to use this variety to make fortified wine. Other than Madeira Verdelho, made as a semi-dry/dry-ish wine, the only other famous wine made from the variety is in the Azores, where on the island of Pico, a Verdelho based wine called Lajido is produced. We offered this some time ago. At the time of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the Verdelho of Pico was highly thought of at the Russian Court.
The Lost Slough is the name of one of almost eighty sloughs (pronounced “slews”) in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta, south of Sacramento and along the Sacramento River. The Sloughs are rather like meandering bodies of water mixed in the levee protected strips of land that comprises the Delta area. Basically, the vineyards are in the area of Clarksburg, a small township named after Judge Robert Christopher Clark in 1849. This area has become noted in recent times for its agriculture and especially for grapes–before it was famous for its pears–and now it is very much sought after for its Chenin Blanc, which is possibly the best grown in California. Edwin Bryant, the next to last alcalde of San Francisco, writing in 1848 in his work What I Saw In California, describes the sloughs thus:
The Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers empty into the Bay of San Francisco at the same point, about sixty miles from the Pacific, and by numerous mouths of Sloughs, as they are called. These sloughs wind through an immense timbered swamp and constitute a terraqueous labyrinth of such intricacy, unskillful and inexperienced navigators have been lost for many days in it, and some, I have been told, have perished, never finding their way out.
Grape growing was started in this area by the Bogle Family in 1968. So it has a comparatively recent history. But it has gained traction and the wines of Clarksburg have a presence on the market.
Wanting to try making a distinct Verdelho, not just a table wine, but the Madeira-styled wine, I asked Celia McCormack if the winery would make a fortified Verdelho to be aged in the former sherry barrels from the closed Harbor Winery whose wines we bought and had bottled. These reused whiskey barrels had previously held a sherry type wine for some 40 years. Celia agreed, and I asked that the wines be put into a space at the winery that would get very hot in the summer and then cold in the winter. This was done and the wines were just left to age on “scantlings,” or beams that support the casks, which is what the word “canteiro” means in the Madeira tradition. It also means that the wines aged by this method are not forcibly baked with steam coils as is done normally with Madeira. It is rather a sort of benign neglect, at different temperatures, if you will, that transforms the wine into something different from what the variety produces as a white wine. There are some 10 barrels that have aged this first vintage–some 170 cases. Half of the quantity belongs to Corti Brothers, the other half to Dancing Coyote.
The Verdelho’s label is LOST SLOUGH. It is not that the slough was lost, its name is actually Lost Slough, where there are 220 acres of the McCormack’s grapes. The unique nature of these vineyards is that they are very warm during the day and then cooled by the Delta breeze coming off San Francisco Bay in the late afternoon and evening. Since the soil condition is erosion soil from the two rivers, it is fertile with lots of former marine residue which provides an interesting soil condition for wine grapes. There will be a follow up vintage of Verdelho Canteiro in 2020. But it will take time to mature, at least as long as the 2015, so I would suggest that you buy some of this first vintage and then get on the list for the next one. Due to the small quantity of wine available, we are limiting sales to 6 bottles per customer. In the American Madeira tradition, this is probably what the wines drunk in the 18th and 19th century were like, but of an infinitely better quality. Madeira ages well, but once, it also, was a young wine.
LOST SLOUGH VERDELHO CANTEIRO 2015 19.5%
$39.99 750ml (#5062) $215.00 case/6 (#5062C)
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TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, spirits, books will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
PLANNING FOR THANKSGIVING: RE-MAKING THE A. T. TURKEYS
You might want to ask, “What are A.T. turkeys?” Well, they are turkeys raised and fattened according to the history that I got from Napa Valley’s André Tchelistcheff. André was the most famous winemaker in Napa Valley, having directed winemaking for Beaulieu Vineyards from 1938 to 1973 when he retired. What is very interesting is a little known fact: André was not trained as an enologist, but as an “agronomist.” Agronomy in the early part of the 20th century comprised almost everything that had to do with agriculture. Grape growing and wine making is definitely a part of agriculture. As was poultry husbandry and other parts of farming. In fact André’s sole book, is one dealing with poultry raising. He wrote it in Russian and it was published by the Paris Y.M.C.A. in both Russian and French. It was done as André said: “ to help impoverished emigré Russian nobility in France earn a living.”
But now to the A.T. turkeys. I was always invited to André and his wife, Dorothy’s “blini” parties at the beginning of Lent. At one of these parties, André was recounting to me what would go on in his family’s home for Easter, the most important religious period of a devout Russian Orthodox household. Amongst all of the dishes that would be set out for Easter and Bright Week, the week after Easter, would be roast turkey, served cold. The turkey was fattened according to the wishes of André’s grandmother, fattened with walnuts. I found this fascinating since animals do respond to what they are fed, and special feeds can produce special character and flavors. I asked: “What did the walnut fed turkeys taste like?’ He answered: “The flesh was very silky with a light walnut scent, The turkeys like the walnuts, because they are slightly oily and fragrant. This is passed through to the meat.” This notion stuck with me since in this country we used to have milk fed poultry, which sold for a lot more than normal poultry. I began to think about how to do this.
In 1995, the year after André died, I asked the then grower who produced our turkeys, if he would finish about 25 birds on walnuts. He did and we sold them that Thanksgiving. The following year, the experiment did not do so well and we dropped the project.
Come 2020. There is a family ranch in Amador County called P.T.Ranch, which raises turkeys, chickens and Pekin ducks on pasture and I asked if they would be interested in raising and fattening some turkeys for us using the Tchelistcheff regimen. They agreed and we will have 100 birds to offer at Thanksgiving of the A.T. Turkeys. There is one caveat, in order to get one, you must order it NOW. You have to give us your order so that the bird can be picked up just after November 20, 2020. Otherwise we cannot guarantee that you will get one. The price will be $9.99 the pound and sizes will be between 12 to 18 pounds. So, if you are interested in trying the walnut fed turkey, you might want to serve it as a cold roasted bird or at room temperature, rather than one right out of the oven.
Being pastured birds also, the texture of the meat will be definitely on the firm side, since the birds will get exercise. This is how poultry used to be, and its flavor should be definite. But you MUST order your bird in order to get one.
CORTI BROTHERS A. T. TURKEY approximately between 12-18 pounds
$9.99 per pound (#5063)
POST SCRIPTUM: The first biography of André Tchelistcheff, titled MAESTRO: André Tchelistcheff and the Rebirth of Napa Valley, written by James Gump, emeritus Professor of History at University of San Diego, will be out in early 2021 from the University of Nebraska Press. Be on the lookout for it.
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IF IT IS PANETTONE TIME, CHRISTMAS IS NEAR Our Standbys and some New Delights. BARDI, LOISON, AND NOW COCCHI
Let’s begin with the new one: COCCHI PANETTONE AL VERMOUTH di TORINO. This is a special panettone from a unique recipe created by Vermouth Cocchi and Albertengo, a noted Piemontese baker. This is the first time a panettone made with Vermouth is offered in the U.S., and available at Corti Brothers. The panettone is aromatized with the Vermouth di Torino Cocchi, where the candied fruit and raisins are macerated in vermouth and then vermouth is added to the dough. The dough is made from a mother sponge for rising, with butter, pastured eggs, candied fruit, and vermouth.
Why is it different? The addition of vermouth to the dough and the fruit macerated in vermouth give a very special scented and rather exotic character to everything. The frosting is made from Piemontese hazelnuts, Italian almonds and sugar granules. Vermouth is not considered a dessert wine as such, and for this reason was tried as an ingredient in panettone. It is a lovely addition for panettone since you can enjoy a room temperature glass with your slice of panettone. The vermouth just makes the panettone slightly less sugary and the herbal/spice character adds a special touch to panettone’s already complex flavor. This should appeal very much to customers not enjoying very sugary desserts with an aromatic and less sugary wine accompaniment. COCCHI panettone is unique. This is the first time it is sold in this country.
To go with the Panettone al Vermouth, we offer three Vermouth di Torino from Cocchi: Vermouth di Torino; Dopo Teatro Vermouth Amaro, and the most expensive vermouth produced, Cocchi Venaria Reale Riserva, where artemisia used for the vermouth comes from the gardens of the Royal Hunting Palace (Venaria Reale) outside of Torino. The resurgence of vermouth on the market is amazing, but it is appropriate that it has happened. It removes vermouth from a minor role in mixology to the special place where it was and deserves to be again.
COCCHI VERMOUTH di TORINO 16% $18.99 750 ml (#5101) $205.00 case/12 (#5101C) Made from Piemontese muscat base with local herbs. The first of the renewed style “di Torino” vermouths.
COCCHI DOPO TEATRO VERMOUTH AMARO 16% $21.79 500ml (#5102) $235.00 case/12 (#5102C) The same Cocchi style, slightly more bitter with bittering herbs and less sweet than the original. For after dinner or theater.
COCCHI VENARIA REALE 18% $89.99 500ml (#5103) $485.00 cs/6 (#5103C) Limited production: 1891 bottles. Some ingredients come from the gardens of Venaria Reale, the largest palace complex in Italy. Amber colored without caramel; rich with Piemontese mint, and bottle aged for at least six months. Recommended for aged bourbon or rye, or with a lemon twist and ice as an aperitif or alone as an after dinner drink. Vermouth ages well in bottle. This is its debut in the U.S. Cellar some of this Venaria Reale Riserva while you can.
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VENEZIANA is less buttery and fluffy in texture than panettone, spiced reflecting Venice’s long tradition on the Spice Road. Panettone is Milano, and Veneziana is, well, Venice.
LA BONISSIMA, A medieval pastry “Torta” from LOISON
This year Dario Loison has reproduced an almost medieval pastry called LA BONISSIMA, which has its origin in medieval Modena, Italy. While not one of the lightest of dishes, it is extremely tasty. It is a simple thing: a simple flaky dough, filled with honey and walnuts and then covered with a layer of dough and baked. Literally, its name means “The Good Lady.” Or the “Good Torta” (pie). But as with many things, the name and its meaning vary.
In Modena, at one of the corners of the Palazzo Communale, there is a statue which seems to be a pastiche of sorts, reflecting the symbol of “Good Business.” Another meaning is that it reflects the noble woman who during a famine in Modena about the year 1178, acted for the less well off citizens by feeding them during the famine and asking charitable help from other city nobles. This pastry is like what fed the hungry populace. Hence, its name. It seems very à propós these days of 2020. Which ever story you would like to believe, the pastry remains, and you should find it very much to your liking. The original version is made from wildflower honey and “Lara” Italian walnuts. Dario Loison has even embellished upon it making two other versions; one, with Calabrian figs and “Tuono” variety almonds, and the other with marron glacé and hazelnuts.
VINTAGE PORT is a very special wine. It deserves and needs special care and time to age. We have a stock that is perfectly aged and is ready for drinking. If you like Vintage Port and have not providently laid some down, here is your chance to make up this lacuna. I suggest that you take a look at the list, buy early before drinking, let rest and decant to see what all the fuss is about. I think you will be pleased. All the bottles are 750 ml.
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THE LAST COPIES OF CORTI BROTHERS’ PRINTING OF A MADEIRA PARTY
Now, more than a quarter of a century ago, to celebrate our Bi-Centennial, Corti Brothers re-printed a Madeira short story published in 1895 by a noted physician, Silas Weir Mitchell, and reprinted in 1900 and 1910. It deals with a Madeira party in Philadelphia. That a physician should write such a piece only goes to re-enforce the affection of the medical profession for wine. The printing was done by one of San Francisco’s most famous fine printers, Andrew Hoyem with artwork by noted Sacramento painter, Patrick Dullanty.
In 1976, it was chosen as one of the Western Books of that year by the Rounce and Coffin Club of Los Angeles. Now we are down to our last copies of A Madeira Party and with the new interest in Madeira itself, we are offering them to bibliophile minded Madeira wine lovers.
A Madeira Party does not deal with the making of Madeira, but the drinking of it. There is a forward written by a late physician friend, Bill Dickerson, about Weir Mitchell, the author, and an afterword on old Madeira by Roy Brady, also a late friend who edited several wine magazines in California. When it first came out in 1976, one of the first purchasers was the late Alfred Knopf, of the publishing house, who commented that “finally, someone has made a proper sized edition which can be read.” The book is in small octavo size. The original was in 3"x5" size.
For most of at least 200 years, sherry has always been spoken of as a blended wine, a “solera” wine. Although a vintage is made every year, the wine of Jerez normally has a life where it is blended in the fractional blending system known as “SOLERA.” This blending system serves to produce wines of a certain style and character which obviates the necessity of storing wines with a vintage date. In the traditional cellars of Jerez de la Frontera, the wines in cask are also unruly and do not hew to a line. They ferment differently and the production of “flor,” the yeast film that covers the surface of the wine in cask protecting it from oxidation and leaving it as a “Fino”wine, makes it very difficult to prognosticate what wines in various casks will turn out to be. The solera system was begun about the time of the Napoleonic wars in the early 1800s, when the shippers of Cádiz started to “blend” the different years to maintain freshness and “style” of wine rather than a vintage date. Previously, wine had been dated. During the Napoleonic period, wine was shipped from Cádiz, since it was a port and the provincial capital.
There are very few sherry producers who actually leave many casks simply to mature as they will and can be sold as a vintage wine, called in Jerez an “AÑADA” wine. The now almost 200 year old firm of GONZALEZ BYASS is one of those that do leave some casks to develop this way. Corti Brothers has sold other vintages as Añada wines of differing characters. The majority of añada wines fall into the “static aged” style, Amontillado, Palo Cortado, and Oloroso. Palo Cortado is the rarest of the sherries, since it has a double life: first as a Fino under flor, then as an Oloroso without. First--a biological aging, then a static one.
I would like to point out to you that currently we offer the PALO CORTADO AÑADA 1991, which is the most recent bottling. These wines are very rare, offered once, then never again seen on the market. Right now there are other producers who are doing this type of aging; getting some of these wines for your cellar is like finding a needle in a haystack. This 1991 is a light medium amber colored wine, with an exquisite bouquet of “rancio”, that characteristic scent of age in old wines and a flavor similar to concentrated broth, soy sauce, nuttiness and a delicacy which almost belies description. The aftertaste goes on for many seconds with the scent and flavor mixing on your palate like few other wines. Of wines that are meant to be highly aged, these añada sherries are the rarest. The Consejo Regulador, which controls all aspects of sherry production, seals casks in aging as añada or vintage wines and the producer is not allowed to touch the cask or casks, without permission. So this vintage notion is not like table wines where the wines can be tasted to see how they develop. The casks are left alone until it comes time that the producer wants to bottle the wine. As is normal in Jerez, the casks are not topped.
These are wines that also develop very well in bottle, becoming ever more aromatic and intensely flavored. In fact, when decanted for serving--they should be decanted--the decanting area is scented with the wine’s bouquet. Another good thing about these wines is that you do not have to drink them up at one go. They will keep at least a month or two, often improving with air. As to price/value relationship, these wines are worth more than old table wine which needs drinking upon opening. I highly recommend cellaring some of this wine before it disappears forever. There were 992 bottles produced, bottled “en rama,” that is, unfined and unfiltered.
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WINE BOOKS: The kind you keep and keep referring to. (Sometimes a better gift than wine.)
In the world scheme of things, ARMENIAN WINES are becoming known and appreciated due to their innate quality and the fact that Armenia is now known to be the oldest wine making region on the planet. Nelli Hovhanissyan has written what is the compendium of everything known to be known about Armenian wine and grape varieties. Some varieties may become useful with climate change in other growing areas.
More copies have come back in stock of THE GRAND BOOK OF VERMOUTH di TORINO, which tells the complete story of vermouth and its special place in Italian and Piemontese wine lore. This work is a must to understand now current excitement on the mixology and drinking front. Vermouth is coming back to where it deservedly was.
LA CUCINA MEDIEVALE is a unique book. To be of value to you, you must read Italian. It deals in synoptic form with Late Medieval Italian cuisine, the basis of modern Italian cooking. It is a lexicon, history book, and recipe collection. It is printed in dictionary form with 16 column pages of text on pasta, 9 on Olio and Oliva; 21 on Salsa; 16 on Vino. Written by Enrico Carnevale Schianca. Recipes are reproduceable “by a willing, open minded cook.”
FREISA, is a Piedmontese grape variety which is related to nebbiolo. It is a very famous variety that has fallen somewhat out of fashion. It is also a dark colored, semi-aromatic variety which forms one of the two work horses of Piemontese wine making and drinking. The other is barbera. When looking at grape varieties from Europe for California, Professor Eugene Hilgard tried many varieties to see what would work and what wouldn’t. One that received favorable comments due to its good color and body–more importantly its acidity--was freisa. But then came the practical side: it didn’t produce well. So, its partner in winemaking, barbera was given the nod. But freisa was highly thought of.
HARRINGTON winery, now closed, was in San Franciso and made wines from vineyards both above and below San Francisco. Harrington is also the first winery to release a commercial Freisa wine. The winery is also known for its care in winemaking, producing wines with little or no extraneous manipulation, bottled as was this wine, unfined and unfiltered. Since the bottles have been kept cork down in the case, there will be a slight deposit attached to the cork. This can be removed from the cork after opening the bottle and the interior of the neck cleaned with a piece of paper towel. It is just a sign of the minimal manipulation the wine has had. Its name is pronounced: FREY-zah.
Freisa is a fall and winter wine par excellence. Its color is dark, but not malevolent looking. There is the slightly aromatic, berry-like scent, almost “rose” like. Like most Freisa made in Piedmont, it has a tiny bit of contained carbon dioxide gas, a slight fizzy quality, which makes the wine perfect with cold cuts, hams and other sausage like things. It is also the favorite wine for Piemontese pasta dishes, especially those made with lots of butter and cheese, which it helps to mitigate. Fall, fatty dishes is what this wine is made for. Harrington Freisa is just the wine for cold weather drinking since it really does bring to the palate the savor and fruitiness of a “joyful” summer grape variety. This is the kind of wine that a Piemontese producer would drink everyday. Barolo being far too grand for everyday drinking! But Freisa is the kind of wine one can get close to without much denting of the pocketbook.
You owe it to yourself to try the Harrington Freisa since it is a first and probably last of its type. I would suggest it with your New Year cotechino and lentils. Or, your holiday ravioli!
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CORTI BROTHERS SPICED FIGS
These SPICED FIGS are the realization of something I have wanted to do since 1966. I first tasted them at Chalone Vineyard on my first visit there in May, 1966. Dick Graff, who was the then new owner of Chalone (I became a partner in the venture shortly after,) had asked me to come down with him to see Chalone since Corti Brothers had just purchased the first vintage of Chalone, the 1960, and had offered it for sale at a tasting we put on in Sacramento. Dick was at the tasting since he was taking classes at UC Davis. So I drove down with Dick for the weekend at Chalone.
There we had the spiced figs, spiced with nothing more than cloves and stick cinnamon, two sugars and white vinegar along with some yoghurt for dessert that night. I found them exotic and really tasty. So he gave me the recipe. But since it takes three days of bringing to temperature then cooling off, I really never bothered making them, but I have thought of them ever since.
This year we started buying fresh figs from Harvey Correia, who has a fig collection near the Sacramento River at Rio Vista. He sells fig cuttings, but figs come with the trees. We sold his ripe figs, of many varieties–the number he grows is amazing--as fresh fruit. When Harvey said he had enough to supply us through the season, I asked Janet MacDonald of The Good Stuff Preserves here in Sacramento if she would like to try making a batch. And so, she has.
Packed in 12oz jars, they are ready for you to taste. We only made a small amount this time, not knowing what the reaction would be. Consequently, we do not have a lot to sell. If you like them, we will make more next year. They keep very well and--even a couple of years old--improve with silkiness of texture and harmony of flavor.
I suggest having them with well made vanilla ice cream or traditional, natural yoghurt so that there is relief from their sweetness. They could accompany a baked, smoked ham very well. But they are meant to be sweet.
New Year would not be New Year without COTECHINO and Lentils. LEVONI COTECHINO is our favorite. It takes about 45 minutes to re-heat and it is about the same amount of time for you to cook BARTOLINI UMBRIAN LENTILS. This way you can have the wishes for the New Year with “riches (fat) and plenty (lentils)”
Stoccafisso Ragno: Air dried cod from Norway: $39.99 lb (#5163) whole fish only avg. wt. 1.75-2 lb
Note: Randon weight items are unlinked as they can not be purchased on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
VIGNALTA is the name of a winery in the hills close to Padova in Italy’s Veneto Region. It is in the area called the Colli Euganei, a thermal spring area, where the vineyards are on volcanic soils from now extinct volcanos. On the vineyards are wild growing herbs, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, which are harvested then dried with Sicilian sea salt and packaged. This herbed salt is probably one of the most delicious salts on the market and practically indispensable in the kitchen for seasoning meat of any kind. This is what I use for my Christmas roast, Thanksgiving turkey, chicken when the mood strikes. For lamb or pork chops and steaks of every type, it is obligatory. In short, every well run kitchen should not be without it. It also makes a wonderful hostess gift that will be remembered well into the year and you for having brought it.
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
Please order early to assure availability and timely delivery. Order transit times will increase during the holiday season.
TEAS FOR COLD WEATHER: Indian teas from Young Mountain Tea
Indian Teas have long been a staple for cold weather drinking. Also they are lovely made as Iced Tea for the warm summer. YOUNG MOUNTAIN TEA has been in the forefront of importing exciting, new teas from the subcontinent. Corti Brothers now has several which I have been enjoying and would like to present to you.
From a new production, entirely woman-run, from the hills in South India, the NILGIRIS, we have the NILGIRI BLACK PEARL, which makes a lovely cup of copper colored liquor, with a delicate flavor and dried fruit, sweet scent, that is lovely without any milk. It has a bracing character without excessive tannin and can be steeped very well four times. It is a lovely style and the all woman staff of the TEA STUDIO, makes it with great sensitivity. It is a very impressive tea.
Back in our stock is KUMAON BLACK, from a producer in one of the first areas of India to be planted to tea. It was forgotten until revived by Young Mountain. Kumaon is a perfect area for growing tea, but was very difficult to export from since there were few and difficult roads leading out of the area. The cultivar in the area is probably the oldest in India. It is also a revelatory style with great balance of flavor and scent.
NEPALI GOLDEN BLACK does not come from India but from the adjoining country of Nepal. Here the teas correspond to the “Darjeeling” character, but with more tips in the leaves when harvested. It is again, a light copper colored liquor when brewed, with a distinctive fruity scent and elegant flavor, not too heavy nor tannic.
DARJEELING RUBY OOLONG is a specific type of Darjeeling from the north of India and one of the two classic production areas. It takes its name from the slightly reddish cast of the liquor. The style is not the usual, but made in the Chinese fashion with curled leaf shape to the tea. The “oolong” shape is not traditional to the area, giving this tea a different cast both in leaf shape and flavor extraction. I have been enjoying all of these teas without any addition, either of milk or sugar, and have found them delicious as a morning cup with short steepings.
A new Book on Smells: NOSE DIVE: The Field Guide to the World’s Smells by HAROLD McGEE
Written by the noted author of ON FOOD AND COOKING, Harold McGee, this is a work of some 654 pages. It is a fascinating tome on what we smell and why we smell it. It is written with both the professional and amateur in mind and delves into what things probably smelled like before there was anything around to smell them and what we notice when we smell things--what it is that we are smelling. Harold, who is an old friend, has spent a great deal of time on this work (ten years) and the result is probably going to be the last word on smells for a long time to come. All odors are described in an eminently readable text, with seductive prose and much erudition. Harold’s writing style is easy to read and understand. Without a lot of technical vocabulary, it gives a lot of information both technical and common. It is a lot of information, but easily digested! BRAVO, HAROLD! (All booksellers.)
CECILIA CHIANG–1920-2020 AVE ATQUE VALE A Gracious Lady, my friend, traveling companion, and mentor of all things Chinese.
My best wishes to all our customers for a happy and serene Holiday Season and for all of us, a joyous NEW YEAR.
Darrell Corti
For a printable version of our Newsletter, click the link below.
Happy Springtime and Spring Holidays to All. Darrell Corti
COLOMBA: THE EASTER CAKE
Much as panettone is the emblematic cake for Christmas in Italy, COLOMBA, a similar cake in the shape of a flying dove, is the cake for Easter. Its origins are masked in remote history, yet it probably originates in the Renaissance period. A mother sponge raised dough--with various candied fruit, raisins, and almonds--the Colomba is just slightly lighter and less buttery than panettone. It is the cake for the Easter tradition. From LOISON, in Italy’s Veneto region, we again have these delicacies. And delicacies they are. The Colomba holds up very well and can be used during the spring and summer as bases for fresh fruit compositions which extends its usefulness.
Here is our Colomba Selection for Easter 2020: Unless noted, all are one kilo in size.
Our Corti Brothers label is on four extra virgin oils for the 2019 harvest. All were made with the innovative Giorgio Mori system developed by Marco Mugelli. But there are some differences.
Corti Brothers Picual and Coratina were milled by Pablo Voitzuk at Apollo, the first Mugelli mill in California. The Frantocino and the Frantoio were produced using the mill on “The Olive Truck” a Mugelli system in a transportable mill brought to the olive grove, milled by Samir Bayraktar and Gian Luca Grandis. All of these oils were produced with basically the same SYSTEM, different millers, and olives from different growing areas. They should please the most exigent of tasters! All are in 500 ml, dark glass bottles.
PICUAL: Yolo County fruit, Pablo Voitzuk, miller; milled and bottled at Apollo, Oregon House, CA. (Won a Gold Medal at the L.A. International E.V.Oil tasting, 2020) $19.99 500 ml (#4918) $107.00 Case 6 (#4918C)
CORATINA: Yolo County fruit, Pablo Voitzuk, miller; milled and bottled at Apollo, Oregon House, CA. (Won a Gold Medal at the L.A. International E.V.Oil tasting, 2020) $19.99 500 ml (#4919) $107.00 Case 6 (#4919C)
FRANTOCINO: Petaluma fruit, milled by Samir and Gian Luca in “The Olive Truck” at the grove, co-milled with a small percentage of Leccino olives, hence its name. Bottled by Pablo Voitzuk. (Won a Silver Medal at the L.A. International E.V.Oil tasting, 2020) $19.99 500 ml (#4920) $107.00 Case 6 (#4920C)
FRANTOIO: Petaluma fruit, milled by Gian Luca Grandis and Samir Bayraktar in “The Olive Truck” at the grove. (Won a Silver Medal at the L.A. International E.V.Oil tasting, 2020) $22.99 500 ml (#4921) $124.00 Case 6 (#4921C)
(Complete Disclosure: I am the Chairman of the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Oil competition. I do not taste the oils. I select the tasters and do not have anything to do with selecting which panels taste which oils. In case of necessity, I adjudicate, but do not taste.)
CORTI BROTHERS FIVE CITRUS MARMALADE MARMELLATA DEI CINQUE AGRUMI
For the second year, the Five Citrus Marmalade has been made for Corti Brothers by The Good Stuff, here in Sacramento. The five citrus fruits, Citron, Bergamot, Blood Orange, Meyer Lemon, and Chinotto are from trees in my backyard. They are not sprayed or over watered, but mulched and looked after. Ingredients are the classic: citrus fruit, sugar and water. Nothing else.
This marmalade met with great success in 2019, selling out in two months. With an increased production, hopefully more customers can enjoy it.
This year, for the first time, we are making a CITRON (Citrus medica) marmalade. Normally citron is produced to be candied–this done when the fruit is still green. If you allow the fruit to ripen to a yellow color, it becomes very mellow and aromatic. So we are trying citron by itself as a marmalade. I believe it is unique.
We do not think much about citron except as a candied fruit for fruitcake or in Sicily for cassata. The fruit’s peel is very aromatic, not exactly lemon, but similar. There is very little juice to citron, but it looks like a giant lemon. The Romans had citrons, but not lemons, which were a gift of Arabic culture in Sicily. Our Citron marmalade is light amber in color, with a delicate scent and delicate bitterness typical of the fruit. Mouthwateringly lingering, it will enhance your breakfast toast. Ingredients: Citron, sugar and water. Nothing else.
TWO DELICIOUS WINES FOR $100 THE CASE: Pinot Noir and Dry Riesling
These are two delicious wines meant for drinking, both from the 2016 vintage from Germany. They are the HOOKED wines from Rudi Wiest, a German specialist importer in California, who has now retired. Both of the wines are from prized German growing regions. The riesling is from the Rheinhessen and the pinot noir from Baden.
You might wonder as to their origins. The Riesling is labeled dry and is. The Pinot Noir is from Baden, a newish area for this variety, and shows the effect of climate change since Germany is now making some outstanding pinot noirs that rival some Burgundians. Jancis Robinson is very fond of them. There is a certain delicacy of flavor to German Pinot which we don’t get in California.
Both of these wines are under the “HOOKED” label created by Rudi, and we bought them as delicious wines for everyday drinking–even for special occasions–because they were, well--so delicious. We can offer them at $100.00 the case of 12 bottles plus tax. At this price they are awfully hard to beat. With sales tax and shipping, if you want them shipped, they are a very good deal. Enough said! They can be mixed in the case if required.
MIXED CASE 6 bottles each variety $100.00 cs/12 (#4926C)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
FOR MIXOLOGISTS ONLY (not really): The Grand Book of Vermouth (2019) and Futurist Mixology: The Italian answer to cocktails of the 1930s (2014). EXCLUSIVE TO CORTI BROTHERS
FUTURIST MIXOLOGY is the name of this fascinating, bilingual work (English/Italian) produced by Robert Bava of the house of COCCHI in Asti, Italy, which makes products that are much in line with the notions of this work. What is Futurism? Many would not know that it was a social system set up between the years 1925 and 1935 in Italy where poets, writers, and artists worked on notions that wanted to bring something new to the world after the shock of World War I. There was also some sense in it of what in the U.S. would be called “Modernism.” This work is for barmen, written by a barman–(I really do prefer this term to that of “bartender”!) His name is Fulvio Piccinino. There are elucidated 18 Futurist cocktails, called “polibibite” meaning a “drink made of many things,” the exact notion of a cocktail. There is a general history of the Futurist movement in art, food, and drink. It is enlightening--and for barmen--a real opportunity to look at what was being created and thought about during this period between two wars.
Italy is not much considered in the cocktail world, but just look at the idea of a “Negroni.” In Futurist Mixology, you have ideas about other similar drinks which should cause even more ideas, and so on. For barmen and the adventuresome drinker, this is a book to keep in the bar and also next to your bed. It is a terrific read.
THE GRAND BOOK OF VERMOUTH DI TORINO is exactly that. It is a very good English translation of the Italian original which sets out everything that there is to know about Vermouth, especially the one made in Piemonte called “di Torino.” Published in 2019, it is the last word on vermouth, now very much on drinkers’ minds and palates.
Rich with full color labels of historical products and copies of historical recipes, The Grand Book of Vermouth di Torino could be the last word on the subject for our times. Everything is described. There are 27 pages just on the various herbs and spices commonly added to vermouth along with their color photos. The wormwood, which is the basis for vermouth, is explained in two chapters on its growing, use, and chemical composition since wormwood (Artemisia species) gave its name, “wermut,” to Vermouth.
Vermouth and its entry into the cocktail world is well described. As are the “polibibite” of the Futurists. Everything notable and some things not so notable about Vermouth are described in this one of a kind work. The collection of graphic art from generations of Italian artists used as publicity material for Vermouth is worth the price of this work alone. It is a fundamental work on a delicious product, now returning to the fore. This is a unique book.
CARCAVELOS: A wine which will become extinct in our lifetime
CARCAVELOS, is the smallest wine appellation in Portugal, located just west of Lisbon at the mouth of Tagus River where it meets the Atlantic. It was created by the Marques de Pombal in the 18th century because he had a palace in the area. Now other “palaces” called developments, are going to bring ruin to the wine. The vineyards are inexorably being built on. Hence, the wine will disappear.
What is Carcavelos? It is an “oxidative” wine much like Madeira or Tawny Port, a fortified wine, a “ vinho generoso,” but with its own character and its ability to age and develop in bottle, providing a lot of flavor. It is this kind of wine, made from very different grape varieties, some nine in all, both white and red, aged for a long time in partially filled barrels that give the wine character and almost imperviousness to time. If you are looking to give someone a bottle of birth year wine, it is this kind of wine that gives the best results. Unopened it keeps very well.
It is aged standing up, not laid down like most table wines with corks; and once opened, has the ability to last in the opened bottle until you finish the bottle.
This collection of Carcavelos represents the sum total of wines currently available on the market. The wine has been bottled in 500 ml size just to make it go further. You should try it and then cellar some. Soon, it will be like drinking history.
There is basically one active producer, Villa Oeiras, a partnership between the Potuguese Ministry of Agriculture and the city of Oeiras begun in 1983. The vineyard is 12.5 hectares, half of the appellation. Carcavelos became famous since it was gifted to the Chinese emperor in Beijing in 1752 by José I, King of Portugal. British officers stationed in Portugal during the Napoleonic Peninsular war, took it to London. Officially it was demarcated in1908, recognized as one of the four fortified wines of Portugal, the others being Port, Moscatel de Sétubal, and Madiera.
The other wine available is that of Quinta Dos Pesos, where wines from three hectares of vineyard have been produced, aged, and ultimately bottled in 2018.. They have lain undisturbed in cask and hopefully will continue to be bottled in small amounts until the vineyard is no more.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
BOETJE’S MUSTARD AND SEA SAUCE
BOETJE (pronounced boat-chee) is the name of a wonderful mustard, a stone ground mustard, made in Rock Island, Illinois since 1889. Now in the hands of the third family to own the company, the quality is the same, and it is one of the most delightful American made mustards on the market.
Stone ground means that the Canadian sourced brown mustard seeds are coarsely ground, showing their granular texture and pungent character. This style is a “Dutch” style mustard, not the brilliant yellow of say, French’s mustard, nor the ochre color of Dijon mustard, but mottled brown and dull yellow color of the stone ground seeds.
Pungent, yet not overwhelming, Boetje’s is savory, yet not dominant, when put on a sandwich or used as the base for grilled cheese on toast. There is nothing added to this mustard other than the natural ingredient of water,vinegar, mustard seed, salt, and sugar. No preservatives, ever.
BOETJE SEA SAUCE is a recent addition to the line and is made with the same stone ground mustard, tomato sauce and horseradish. It is startlingly pungent, yet harmonious with a nice flavor kick that lets you know it is present. Really remarkable in flavor, it can be toned down by the addition of good mayonnaise or sour cream to make a delicious creamy dressing, but right out of the jar, it has a sharpness that improves any seafood. Boetje Sea Sauce and shrimp are made for each other. A crab salad with a dollop of Sea Sauce is a delight. Both come in 8 ½ ounce jars and should be refrigerated after opening.
CLASSIC KI NO BI COCKTAILS: The KI NO BI Gin Book from the World’s Best Bars
This is a very limited printing of a wonderful book on a gin: KI NO BI GIN from Kyoto. It shows detailed photos of the raw materials and the distilling process used to make this most elegant gin. All the elements come from Kyoto, Japan or grown in the prefecture. The recipes for cocktails using KI NO BI come from noted bars from varied places, such as London, Tokyo, New York, Amsterdam, Brooklyn. Some are inventions, others, new takes on old classics.
Launched in 2016, KI NO BI has become a gin highlight on the world scene. It is truly the “distillation of location.” The Classic Ki No Bi cocktails book, by Dave Broom, did not see the light of day until 2019. I wrote about the gin in our Fall 2019 newsletter. The Cocktail book did not come out until later, produced by the prestigious KYOTO JOURNAL. A bi-lingual edition, English and Japanese, this should be in every gin lover’s library.
And as a reminder: KI NO BI GIN from Kyoto 45.7% $69.99 750ml (#4942) $377.00 case of 6 (#4942C)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
A NEW CORTI BROTHERS COFFEE SELECTION: NICARAGUA PACAMARA
Once again, using our old friend Jeremiah Pick, who selected this coffee for us, we offer a rarely seen coffee whose bean size is called “Elephant Bean.” This coffee varietal, MARAGOGIPE, was discovered as a sport in Bahia, Brazil in the late 19th century. Now grown in small quantities in Central America, it has a unique sensory profile.
PACAMARA, is a hybrid of Pacas and Maragogipe. It is the result of 30 years of research in El Salvador. Pacas is named after a family that discovered a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety growing on their farm in 1956. The variety Pacamara was released in 1980.
A Modesto, California, coffee company, Don Tomas Coffee, grows this Pacamara in the cloud forests of Jinotega, Nicaragua at 4,500 feet. Shade grown, and harvested only as ripe cherries, the family company has been growing coffee since 1890. They deliver to their roasting facility in Modesto about 10% of the best beans grown for their own roasting. Having this coffee is the result of a seed to cup experience--a perfect image of an Estate Coffee.
The large bean size produces a unique visual image with a complex flavor, medium to dense body, with texture and elegant acidity. If you like great coffee, here is a unique experience.
GERMAN WINES IN MAGNUMS: A Selection of some wines that will make you very happy
The magnum size was never much desired in German winemaking, but now some producers are bottling magnums of wines meant for longer aging. The bottles themselves are quite a sight. The magnum size bottle looks impressive and is, especially when left to mature. It takes very little imagination to think of two bottles of Mosel or Rhein wine being drunk at a meal. The magnum bottle serves this purpose and--as has been described many times with magnums of red wine--the resulting wine is usually better than that of a bottle. Trials have been done with half bottles, bottles, and magnums of the same wine, same vintage; yet in most, if not all instances, the magnum comes out the best.
Corti Brothers can offer these magnum bottlings in the following wines:
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, spirits, books will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
For a printable version of our Newsletter, clink the link below.
To our Customers: My very best wishes for a joyous, serene, and pleasant Holiday Season. Darrell Corti
PASTA MANCINI: ESTATE GROWN AND PRODUCED PASTA MADE IN THE MARCHE
When we think of Italy and food, PASTA is probably the first thing that pops into the mind. There are numerous fine pasta makers in Italy. But there are very few “ESTATE” pasta producers where the wheat is grown by the maker, harvested and milled by the maker, and then the pasta produced by the same maker. One such producer is MANCINI PASTIFICIO AGRICOLO, where everything is done by the same company. Mancini grows wheat, stores and mills it, and extrudes through bronze dies and slowly dries its pasta in their plant in the middle of a wheat field on Italy’s Adriatic side in the MARCHE region. Obviously, it is pasta in a limited production, hence not available all over. It is truly lovely pasta with an intriguing wheat scent before it’s cooked and a delicious wheat flavor when it is. I would suggest that you try Mancini Pasta just to have the experience of an estate production which is unique.
Using what is called Good Agricultural Practices, Mancini Pasta is able to grow wheat on about 400 hectares of land. Three special durum wheat varieties, selected for the area, and the ancient line of hard wheat called KHORASAN, or Triticum turgidum var.Turanicum–“I Turanici”--are grown. This latter wheat has very low gluten and the pasta is the product of two strains of it, #17 and #38.
Another unusual thing about Pasta Mancini is that they hold the unmilled wheat in cold storage, which allows them to store the grains without the use of pesticides or antifermentatives. The land planted to Mancini wheat is in 28 fields, surrounding the pasta plant.
Not all pasta coming from Italy is made from Italian wheat. Most pasta is made from Canadian, American, and in the old days, Ukrainian wheat, coming from the Black Sea. In fact, the Republic of Genoa had outposts in what they called Romanìa Genovese. This was in the 14th century and continued/continues up to today. (As an aside, to those customers who have used our Ardoino olive oil: the Ardoino family were shippers of Crimean wheat to pasta factories in Imperia for a hundred years before getting out of wheat and into the oil business.)
MANCINI PASTA merits your attention. Corti Brothers has the following cuts: bucatini, mezze maniche, linguine, spaghettini . Mancini Pasta is $7.69 the 500g bag. 3 kilo boxes: the same cuts: $41.49 each. Please specify.
The “I TURANICI” pasta has fewer cuts and is recommended for its low gluten content. It is not gluten free, just low in gluten due to the nature of this old hard wheat variety. This flour is milled using a stone mill and is certified organic. Turanici is available in the following cuts: penne lisci, sedani 20 righe (10 ridges outside and 10 inside this cut), spaghetti. Mancini “I Turanici” are $8.79 the 500g bag.
The winter holidays mean PANETTONE is on the menu. This mother leavened baked bread with raisins and candied fruit is the traditional sweet bread for Christmas in Italy. As much as the producers would like to see this change, it is only sold during the Christmas holidays. There is no reason why it cannot be sold all year round, but it is fiercely seasonal. In California at least, there are small bakers who make it year round and customers readily eat it up. Not in Italy. By about the first of November and until the 2nd of March, Panettone is on the market. Then you wait for it until the next holiday season. So PANETTONE is now once again available.
VENEZIANA is less buttery and fluffy in texture than panettone, spiced reflecting Venice’s long tradition on the Spice Road. Panettone is Milano and Veneziana is, well, Venice.
Ever popular, BAGHI PAN DOLCE ALL’ALPIANE, is made with a mother yeast leaven dough, candied fruits and then at the end of baking Vignalta Orange Muscat is poured on top of the cake which is baked in its jar. So, in the end you have an almost cylindrical shaped cake, very tender, that is wonderful with vanilla flavored whipped cream. It can be eaten out of the baking jar, for two people, or sliced and served for 4-6 desserts. A unique presentation and delicious.
ACETO BALSAMICO TRADIZIONALE: CASTELLO DI VERGNANO
At the holiday period, we tend not to think of price, but quality, rarity and appropriateness. One such idea is Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale (ABT). This is the only authentic balsamic vinegar made from boiled down grape juice (must) and then aged for a very long period is small casks of various different woods which lend an inimitable flavor to this condiment. Although it is called “vinegar,” ABT is more of a condiment. Rarely used by itself, in dressing a salad, it is mixed with good, normal wine vinegar to enrich the wine vinegar and to mellow it out. Used on grilled meats, for example, it acts more like a sauce. On vanilla ice cream, it is a topping, unusual and perfect. With fresh strawberries, it is wonderful.
Due to the availability of an industrial type of vinegar, ABT is almost never seen. Its price is also a consideration since real ABT must be expensive. It takes years to age and to perfect. Time is money! Beginning with its base of boiled down, concentrated grape must, it cannot be cheap. When thinking about giving a gift that is unusual and unusually good, you should think about Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale. Anyone with an idea of being knowledgeable about food would appreciate this gift. It acknowledges their sophistication and your magnanimity.
Corti Brothers were the first to bring ABT to this country. Since 1982, we have offered the various ages of ABT produced by one family in their “acetaia,” or vinegar aging house. First called San Geminiano, now Castello di Vergnano, it is the same product which we initially offered. Castello di Vergnano ABT comes in the 100 ml bottles controlled by the Consortium of Reggio Emilia. This is one of the two governing bodies that tastes each of the products prior to bottling and confirms its quality.
Since ABT is made by blending the product from different casks in the different “batterias,” no exact date can be attributed to the product. But what is more important actually, is the age of the various wood casks that contain the vinegar at different stages in its development. Thus, it’s the wood that makes all the difference. We have three ages of ABT. The oldest ABT from 11 tiny casks that were started about 1650. This is AN12. Another is AS19, which was begun in 1855, and the last, AS15, which was begun in 1970. When we started importing Castello di Vergnano, this last one was just a baby.
CASTELLO DI VERGNANO ACETO BALSAMICO TRADIZIONALE: boxed, with recipes and history
MASTRO ACETAIO: Castello di Vergnano’s daily vinegar
You should know about this product since it is made with the same care as the ABT. MASTRO ACETAIO, means the Master Vinegar Maker. It is a blend of young ABT, made with just boiled down must and old wine vinegar. This is the blend to be used for dressing salads, already made for you. This is a dressing for everything when you want to have the Balsamico taste and character without spending a lot of money. But, you can be certain that it has real flavor and character, since the bases are the same as for ABT.
COUGAR GOLD CHEESE FROM WASHINGTON STATE I like to present this extraordinary cheese during the Holidays since it fits in with leisurely dinners with a mature vintage Port or red wine. COUGAR GOLD is a cheddar-like cheese made at Washington State University that is unique in that it is aged in anerobic conditions in its tin. It matures very well and the provident buy several tins when we have them and age them for future use. I think it is the perfect wine cheese since it does not have the sharp, acid character normally found in aged cheese, but it remains sweet and yet mature tasting, not bothering the taste of its accompanying wine.
The Creamery at Washington State cannot produce a great deal of this cheese, and consequently the supply is limited. You should get it while you can.
Using the name MONASTERY BAKED GOODS, the community of Benedictine nuns in Ferdinand, Indiana, produce and package an interesting line of traditional German style cookies. The nuns arrived in the U.S. in 1852 from the Benedictine abbey of St. Walburga, in Eichstätt, Germany to minister to the German speakers in the Midwest. In 1867, they established another foundation in Ferdinand, Indiana. They carried on the German tradition of baking, especially for the holidays, and offer the anise oil flavored, chewy, white, thick cookie, SPRINGERLE, a traditional German Christmas cookie. ALMERLE, is a similar cookie, but flavored with almond oil rather than anise. Using the traditional recipe for a spice cookie given by St. Hildegard of Bingen, a medieval Benedictine nun poetess, mystic, and writer, the sisters produce HILDEGARD cookies. Recently, a new shape has been introduced as a mini round cookie rather than the traditional rectangular one.
SIMPLY LEMON cookies are a crisp outside, chewy centered cookie made with fresh lemon juice and zest. GINGERSNAPS, flavored with ginger and cinnamon with a crackly character, are crispy and crunchy.
Recently, pretzels have joined the lineup. These are broken pretzels, not whole ones, that are differently flavored. They are called PRAYERFUL pretzels coming from the traditional, crossed arm shape of pretzels. There is HONEY MUSTARD, with a kick of tangy mustard and sweetness from honey. SWEET pretzels are coated with a mixture of cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg. SPICY pretzels are hot, with a hint of sweetness. And a gluten free option is also available in this one only. These will all come in handy for holiday entertaining..
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
Order transit times can increase during the holiday season. Please order early to assure availability.
KAJKAB: SINGLE ORIGIN CHOCOLATES MADE ONLY WITH CACAO BEANS AND SUGAR
So how do you pronounce KAJKAB? (Kahzhkab) In Mayan, it is the word for “bitter drink” later, CACAO. Single Origin means that the cacao beans come from an individual site, with a unique character. Much like grapes for wine, the beans are grown in a special place, and then fermented, roasted, milled, and the “massecuit” conched with unrefined organic sugar and nothing else. Conching is the continual mixing of the milled cacao with sugar until it becomes CHOCOLATE. There is nothing added to mask flavor or to smooth out the chocolate. With just two ingredients, that means they both must be of very high quality in order to stand up to production. No mistakes are permitted.
Kajkab Single Origin Chocolates are from Peru, Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Ecuador, Tanzania, and Vietnam. Production is done under the watchful eyes of the “Maestro Chocolatero” Diego Ceballos in Tecate, Baja California. The cacoa level is 73%. They come in 1 ½ inch round “palettes,” 15 palettes to a round, lined tube. These are just the thing for that chocolate lover in your life. The palette tubes all cost $11.99 each.
FREISA is a Piemontese grape variety which generally gets overlooked in the wine world. It was very well liked by the notables at the University of California in the early days (before Prohibition) and was never much thought of after. It is a nicely dark red wine in Bryan Harrington’s iteration. It has been bottled early to preserve its freshness and a bit of CO2. In Piemonte, it is one of the everyday wines, and together with Barbera, was recommended by the University for growing in California. It has good color (in California), very good natural acidity, and has a parent-offspring relationship to nebbiolo. One characteristic in California is the misspelling of its name: Fresa, Fresia and the like. It is pronounced: FREY-zah. Well worth remembering!
Harrington Wines will be closed by the time you read this, and Bryan Harrington’s carefully made wines will soon be but a memory except for collectors’ cellars. This Freisa is from Skow vineyard in San Benito County; you should try it since it has all the requisites for modern day wine drinkers. It has a nice red color, lightly scented with a small red fruit scent, and a very much “come hither” flavor, like its scent. It is probably the best “pasta” wine I could imagine. In Piemonte, it is the true first course wine.
A word about Bryan Harrington’s winemaking. Here is a winemaker who comes from the fruit preservation, anti-oxidation school. He racks his wines only once, sometimes not even using oak for aging, uses judicious topping up and low SO2. The idea is to preserve freshness going into bottle aging. Hence, his wines last very well in an open bottle, improving with air. This is one school of winemaking. There are others. But this is probably how wine should be made, now rarely is.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
AN ODD NUMBERED YEAR 2019: PISTACCHI DI BRONTE TIME
The pistachio grown on the western slope of Sicily’s Mount Etna, PISTACCHIO DI BRONTE is harvested only in odd numbered years. 2019 is one of these years. Pistachio trees are alternate bearing, producing heavy crops every other year. The farmers remove the flowers in the “off” year to allow the trees to rest. We will again have these brilliant green, peeled pistachios, hopefully by the time you read this. Otherwise we will ship them to order, when they do arrive this year.
The PISTACCHI DI BRONTE are so good, pastry makers in Italy say they use them; many do, just to enhance the prestige of their products. They are a real treat when peeled, with a delicate, yet intense flavor that is inimitable. They will be vacuum bagged by Corti Brothers and should be kept in the refrigerator and removed a few minutes before serving. They are best enjoyed as they are, at room temperature. They will enhance your glass of Vintage Port, Vintage Madeira and are particularly perfect with old Marsala, Vin Santo, or a Passito wine. Please let us know how many bags you would like and we will ship them upon their arrival.
A curiosity: Horatio Nelson, Admiral Lord Nelson of Britain, was given a title and property by the king of Naples Ferdinand IV, in 1799, in gratitude to the British admiral for liberating Naples from the French under Napoleon. This title and property were at Bronte, in Sicily. Lord Nelson became the first Duca di Bronte. His signature from then on became Nelson Bronte. His heirs still bear the title.
PHOENIX OOLONG, DAN CONG TEA FROM CHAOZHOU: EIGHT IMMORTALS
PHOENIX OOLONG is a tea I selected from the stocks of a grower/producer from very tall, older trees that has the inimitable scent and flavor of this particular type of oolong. The plants are grown very high up, about 1300 meters in Guandong province in southern China. We (I was with Wing-chi Ip, of Lock Cha Tea shop in Hong Kong and Rick Mindermann), visited gardens on Phoenix Mountains for two days, saw the production of the spring harvest of two different Dan Cong teas, and selected this one--Ba Xian (Eight Immortals) to bring back to Sacramento. The 2019 harvest tea will be available next year. This Ba Xian is from 2018. The name Dan Cong means “individual bushes” since the plants are not in a garden-like plantation, but are individual trees with some age to them, unusual in tea production.
The Phoenix oolong type is very fragrant and very flavorful, The scent and flavor components are similar: very fruity with a distinctive mango, lychee, peach/muscat character. It should be brewed with just under boiling water and for a very short period in order to preserve the fragrance and flavor. The liquor color should be a medium yellow color, with brewing time just “in and out,” no long steeping. Steeping should be about 10 seconds and go up for subsequent steepings. You should be able to get at least 10 steepings from this tea.
From the same grower, I also liked very much his Lanhua Xiang or Orchid Scent oolong. This is another type of Dan Cong oolong, with a different scent. It is less forceful, very light yet present, hence its name of “orchid scented.” Rarer than most Dan Cong oolongs, it is noted for its delicacy and honied character.
Phoenix oolong is a tea which probably makes the best iced tea imaginable. All you do is brew the tea and then pour it into another container, doing this until you have the amount of iced tea required, then chilling the brewed tea. It must be brewed, not just steeped. For ice tea, please use about twice the amount that you would to make normal tea. Since you are serving it cold, temperature requires more flavor than when serving just brewed hot tea. It can become addictive.
ORTIZ TUNA: BONITO DEL NORTE RESERVA DE FAMILIA 2018
This white tuna preparation is considered the finest made by ORTIZ. It is so fine that the box housing the tin of tuna in olive oil is dated giving the year of catch. Meant to be kept for several years before consuming, it can be eaten right now, but becomes even silkier and more flavorful with time in aging. You should keep some just to see what happens to the tuna. Then it should be eaten, almost right out of the tin with good bread and a bit of salted butter. If you want a quick and very satisfying meal, this is it. Or drained and added to a cream sauce and cooked egg tagliatelle, Ortiz Reserva de Familia, makes the best tuna casserole you have ever had.
GIULIANO’S TOMATO SAUCE From Giuliano Hazan, Marcella Hazan’s son, comes this lovely pink tinged sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes, onions and butter. It is perfect for a very fast meal with Mancini Pasta. The jar is enough sauce for 500g of pasta and serves 4-6 easily. A very easy meal!
BACCALÀ AND STOCCAFISSO: Norwegian Superior and Canadian Salt Cod and air dried codfish.
Norwegian Superior: Salt Cod with skin/bones $17.99 lb.(#4871) avg, wt. 3 lbs
Canadian: Salt Cod boneless and skinless $16.99 lb (#4872) 1 lb pieces, or avg. wt. 3 lb. side pieces.
Stoccafisso Ragno Dried Cod from Norway: $39.99 lb (#4873) whole fish only, avg. wt. 1.75-2 lb
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LEVONI COTECHINO di Modena SAUSAGE A necessity for celebrating New Year in the Italian fashion with fat and plenty. This is the “fat” wish for the year.
BALL CLUB CHIPPEWA WILD RICE 2019 Harvest. A North American original. Delicious and easy to cook and an alternative to other starches on your menu. Hand harvested from Minnesota.
A WONDERFUL COOKBOOK: Canal House COOK SOMETHING, Hamilton & Hirscheimer.
Right now, if you know of someone who is just getting into cooking or someone who wants to refine their cooking, I cannot recommend more highly this cookbook. For the novice cook, it is a hand holder. For the experienced cook it is a mine of new and innovative ideas. To all, it is a pleasure to read and then ask” Why didn’t I think of this before?” Lots of lovely photographs and 300 really good recipes.
CASAS DE HUALDO PICUAL Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2019 Marco Mugelli Prize winner
Corti Brothers has never had this oil before. It comes from Spain’s province of Toledo, almost in the center of the country. The Finca Hualdo, in El Carpio de Tajo, sits between 400 and 600 meters above sea level. This is a harsh geographical area, and the olives produced here give highly distinctive oils. The estate is a family owned one, consisting of some 3,200 hectares of which about 600 are planted to olives . The first oil was made in 2009 from some 300,000 olive trees. Casas de Hualdo PICUAL was the oil selected at the end of the 2019 Los Angeles International Olive Oil Competition as the winner of the MARCO MUGELLI PRIZE, the highest award given at the tasting. It is a delicious medium/intense, intensity oil with peppery Picual flavor.
At twenty years of age, the Los Angeles competition is the oldest olive oil competition in the U.S. (Full Disclosure: I am its chairman, but do not taste. I select the tasters.) Casas de Hualdo entered the competition for the first time in 2019. The traditional oil made in the Toledo area is produced from the Cornicabra variety, but the finca also has planted other varieties. This Picual is an example of modern Picual, harvested earlier than was normal in the center of Spain, and is now recognized as an excellent variety if harvested early. When harvested traditionally, it always has a highly distinctive character. In this case the early harvest has produced a very fresh, grassy scented and pungent oil. Picual is famous for its amount of antioxidants and polyphenols. Harvested early, these are maintained and the fragrance of the variety is less strident and obvious and more like the green olives from which it is produced.
The 2019 Los Angeles competition had 530 extra virgin oils presented. There were 7 Best of Show awards, 20 Best of Class, 136 Gold Medals, 126 Silver medals, and 91 Bronze. The full list is available at www.LAOliveOilComp.com The Mugelli award is named for Marco Mugelli, a Florentine oil expert who set in motion the newest technology in oil extraction. He was a taster at the L.A. competition, who died suddenly in 2011. The award is given to the oil considered the best of the Best of Show award winners, both domestic and foreign.
SAUBOTA, Camel’s milk and SAUMAL, Mare’s milk from Kazakhstan: A real surprise.
SAUMAL is the brand of a very unusual product: freeze dried fresh mare’s milk. The word itself means “healthy animal” in Kazakh. SAUBOTA, is the freeze dried camel’s milk produced by the same company. Kazakhstan is a country in the heart of Eurasia, and both are freeze dried milks from a German-Kazakh project which started in 2015. This milk from two different mammals–horses and camels--is produced using very specific German technology to produce a freeze dried product from two very distinct lactating animals which are not often considered in the American scheme of things. But both types of milk have an envious history in human nourishment. Let’s look a both separately. SAUMAL is produced from a Kazakh horse breed, the JABE, historically used for work, meat and milk. The milking is done relatively quickly since the mares must be with their foals to be comfortable, which affects the amount of milk produced. Processing takes 24 hours for the fresh milk to be frozen and then dried. It takes 200 liters of fresh milk to produce 19 kilos of the dry product. Saumal is the world’s largest producer of freeze dried mare’s milk.
The company has 25,000 hectares of pasture in the Kazakh steppe with more than 1,500 mares. Mare’s milk has been written about by early medical writers like Hippocrates and Avicenna. With German milk technology, the organoleptic and biological properties of the freeze dried milk remain the same as in fresh milk.
SAUBOTA, meaning “healthy camel calf,” is camel’s milk produced using somewhat the same technology but a different animal raised on the same pasture as the mares. This is in the region of KARAGANDA, in the very center of the continent. Mares are difficult to milk, but camels are nearly impossible–yet it is done. Both animals are on natural pasture all year long--green during the wet months--otherwise dry pasture, but not fed anything other than natural steppe pasture. Like mare’s milk, fresh camel’s milk is pasteurized, frozen and then freeze dried.
Camels (curiously, I have not found a word that is used for the female camel like mare is for horses) are a North American mammal. They originated during the Pleistocene epoch, a period 40 million years ago, on the North American continent. Then, about the size of a rabbit, they continually evolved and migrated to where we see them now–the deserts of the Middle East and Asia. They disappeared from their origin. New World Camelids are found in South America, at the vertiginous heights of the Andes mountains. They are the Vicuña, Llama, Alpaca, and Guanaco.
So what do these milks taste like? Both dissolve very easily in tepid water, just about body temperature, and do not like being made very much ahead of consumption. Two hundred ml of water is enough to dissolve three tablespoons of the dried milk. I would recommend making the amount of milk necessary and then cooling it, if necessary, and drinking it or using it. It does not stand up to being kept more than 12 hours after dissolving. The tastes: Mare’s milk and camel’s milk are similar. Both are opaque white, and have a slightly fresh grass scent of good milk. The milk body is pleasant and not at all sticky or thick. The flavor is fragrant, soft, and very pleasing. Much more so than the sometimes “chalky” taste of cow’s milk.
For the nutritional aspects of these milks, I would suggest your viewing the company website: www.saumal.kz
KI NO BI is the first Japanese gin to be made in Kyoto from Kyoto origin elements. Everything that is distilled to make the gin is grown in the Kyoto area. Even the water is from the famous Fushimi spring which is brought in to the distillery. The distillery itself is a model one with a young, very serious, English distiller overseeing all of the production. I first tasted it in 2018 from a bottle brought back to me from Kyoto. It was then not in the U.S.
Now that it is, this is a very serious Dry gin, but not a London Dry gin style. It is also made by distilling each of the individual elements separately and then blending the elements to create Ki No Bi. It is a supremely elegant gin, that almost necessitates its being drunk straight. With a couple of ice cubes, and Ki No Bi, you
have the approximation of a very fine Martini. If you use vermouth, use a very dry one, Noilly Prat or Dolin. But the balance of flavor in Ki No Bi straight is really fine. Perhaps you should try it with the KÜHNE GIN CORNICHONS also in this newsletter rather than an olive or pearl onion. You just might be surprised.
KI NO BI DRY GIN from Kyoto 45.7% $69.99 750ml (#4753) $377.00 case of 6 (#4753C)
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DUCK FAT SPRAY: Novel, but not a novelty.
Here is a novel way of using a delicious fat in a spray can. CORNHUSKER KITCHEN has created a cooking oil spray from rendered duck fat which allows you to flavor your favorite food with the inimitable scent of duck fat without having to use a great amount of fat in cooking. The 7 oz can has a bag inside holding the liquified duck fat and you merely add the spray to a cold pan, not a hot one, to get the duck fat effect. Frying potatoes has never been easier and the duck fat aroma and flavor is delicious. Potatoes take on another character when treated with duck fat. But then you can use it for frying almost anything. And you don’t have to have the duck present to do so. The can should be stored at room temperature.
So, what is a Mangalitsa? Spelled also in slightly different ways, this is a notable breed of pig which comes from Central Europe, Hungary mainly, and was created by a notable royal in the early 19th century. The breed was once very prolific, now reduced in numbers. It is a “lard” breed, having lots of delicious fat surrounding reddish meat rather than the pinkish tone of modern, less fat pigs.
The Austrian Archduke, Joseph Anton Johann, the Palatine of Hungary, crossed older breeds with wild boar and a Serbian breed of pig to create this now unique breed which is notable for its wooly coat, not the silky thin coat of other pigs. It is extremely rustic and is kept out and generally on open pasture. An enterprising grower in Pender, Nebraska, Leon Svoboda of ELTEE FARM, has begun producing what the breed is famous for: LARD.
Lard is the rendered fat of pigs. It is used in a lot of cuisines, but the idea of lard has been shunned in recent times due to habit changes about eating and perhaps unwarranted dietary constrictions. Mangalitsa lard is open kettle produced from the animal’s fat. Lard is a wonderful fat for cooking, but unless you took the time to render it, it really is not found in commerce just as pure lard without preservatives.
Frying in lard is wonderful. There is no frying smell. Using lard in baking–it makes the best pie crusts and flaky pastry possible--is not possible unless you have really good lard. Now with GOURMET PORK LARD, the Eltee Farm’s brand of Mangalitsa Lard, you can try all these things. If you have never tried using lard in cooking, here is your chance.
Mangalitsa, a breed that is very rustic, has more Omega 3 monounsaturated elements in its fat than other fats. In this case it really is true that what the pig eats is transformed into what we, who eat the pig, get. Mangalitsa Lard comes in a 1.5 pound (24 oz.) tub and should be kept refrigerated or frozen. It may not be for everyday use, but when you want a really special taste and consistency, Lard it is!
This island off the southern Viet Nam coast is closer to Cambodia than to Viet Nam. Pronounced “FU WəK” Phú Quóc island is famous for its fish sauce, black pepper, and now tourism. This last will probably cause the demise of the other two. But I would like to point out the Black Pepper of Phú Quóc.
RED BOAT is the producer of possibly the most famous of the Island’s fish sauce or Núoc Mám Nhi. I have written about it before when just available. It is a 40N fish Sauce. The 40N indicates the level of nitrogen in the sauce, hence the highest flavor and quality.
Now, Red Boat has started importing the Black Pepper of Phú Quóc. This is non-irradiated pepper, hence in its natural state and with the inimitable slight citrus character both to its scent and flavor. Obviously, It has the flavor of black pepper, but then even in black peppers there are differences. This is one of the rare black peppers. Very close to Cambodia’s Kampot pepper area, it may even be the same cultivar. But unless we use it, it will disappear.
Pepper is a vine and requires a great deal of hand labor to produce. Right now due to a shortage of market and labor, pepper farmers are allowing their vines to wither and die since they cannot get enough for their pepper to make ends meet. Here is where using the product helps preserve it.
Founded 10 generations ago in Berlin, the KÜHNE brand of pickled products has come up with a new one: GIN CORNICHONS. Cornichons are small cucumber gherkins, usually known by this name in France. Since 1905, Kuehne has been the premier gherkin producer in Germany. Based now in Hamburg, they source cucumbers from all over Germany. Using a novel method of picking the cucumbers–a slow moving harvester which straddles the rows--they are picked by hand by pickers lying prone on the machine as it very slowly crawls through the fields. The gherkins are picked when they are not smaller than one’s little finger. Cornichons are picked when the size of one’s little finger.
Pickled using a proprietary recipe, the new GIN CORNICHONS are also flavored with German gin. There is probably less alcohol in the Gin Cornichons than there is in fresh bottled orange juice, but the flavor is there. They can be used like any other pickle, but are very interesting for use in gin drinks, like a Martini for example. I have used them in Gin and Tonics and the effect is delicious. But in Martinis, they are scrumptious.
VOICES FROM THE RAILROAD: Stories by descendants of Chinese railroad workers
A new publication of the Chinese Historical Society of America, based in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Edited by Sue Lee and Connie Young Yu, this history captures the reminiscences of Chinese workers on the Transcontinental Railroad which in 2019 is 150 years old. The work is a memorial and a justification: A memorial since it memorializes family history for a reader other than the interested family and is a justification of the immense effort made by a people considered “un American” and worthless by their American superiors, when, if it had not been for their labor, the Transcontinental Railroad would not be celebrating its 150 years of existence. Our copies are signed by the two editors.
RUE & FORSMAN Ranch Rice: White Jasmine Rice and White Basmati Rice from California
Since 1946, this family farm in Olivehurst, north of Sacramento has produced rice. Just recently, they have begun to grow in California two rice cultivars that were once considered not possible due to California’s dry climate. But Rue and Forsman has made it possible.
Their sustainably grown white Jasmine rice is a cultivar that is a cross of Thai Ho Mali and California long grain. The rice is aromatic, just slightly sticky with a lovely fragrance and an attractive, shiny aspect when cooked.
The sustainably grown white Basmati rice is another fragrant variety, with a distinctive slender grain, that elongates from the uncooked grain when cooked. Again, very aromatic, with its slight “woodsy” scent, this is a drier appearing rice with a wonderful scent and texture, different from the Jasmine. Both come in resealable two pound bags.
I would not recommend cooking less than one cup of rice. Both of these rices re-heat wonderfully. Trying to cook less than a cup of rice is really not practical and normally produces less than stellar results. I would recommend soaking the rice for about a half an hour after rinsing well. You should use about one finger joint of water above the rice level and a bit of salt. Bring the rice to a boil and reduce heat when little craters form on the rice surface. At this time turn the heat to very low or put on a heat dissipater, place a piece of cloth or a cloth napkin on the pot lid and cover the rice with the covered lid. Let finish cooking on low heat or no heat for about 15-20 minutes. Fluff with a fork and serve. Failing all of this, follow the directions of your rice cooker!
Terry Beaudoin, not an Italian name, but French, has resuscitated olive growing in Calaveras County, California. Calaveras County, to the south of Amador County, in the Sierra Foothills, used to produce a lot of olives and olive oil. At the closing of Rocca Bella in 1963, the major olive producer then in the area, the groves have been left to their own devices until Terry Beaudoin began to use them again for the production of Sicilian cured olives.
Sicilian cured olives are made curing the olives with salt and water, nothing else. This is a time consuming curing method which produces flavorful olives, but in the Beaudoin olives, they remain crunchy, something rarely seen in cured olives. In olive curing, the flesh tends to soften during curing, giving a sometimes buttery character to the olive texture. The Beaudoin olives remain “crunchy” and thus different from a lot of cured olives on the market. There are two styles: Traditional which are unpitted and Spicy which are pitted. But both have the same delightful, crunchy texture.
The olive size is Colossal or Super Colossal. This is normally the size of the Sevillano cultivar in California. Curiously, olive sizing is unique since there are about 11 sizes ranging from “sub petite” to Super Colossal, with extra large, mammoth, giant, and jumbo--all sizes smaller than colossal and supercolossal. Another one of the curiosities of the food business! However, the Beaudoin Traditional Sicilian Olives are delicious. Their texture alone is only one lovely aspect to their quality. They fit wonderfully as an hors d’oeuvre or antipasto. And you will be keeping alive centenarian olive trees that have been revived from neglect.
VERMOUTH, which is now enjoying something of a comeback, is an aromatized wine. This means that a base wine is flavored with various herbs and spices, including “wormwood” (Artemisia species), from which it takes its name–“wermut” in German. The Mancini family in Italy’s Umbria region, where the notable grape variety is Sagrantino, has taken Sagrantino to the vermouth well with spectacular success.
Using wormwood, gentian and other aromatics, they have created a “varietal” vermouth, if one could call it that, using a red wine rather than white. In Piemonte, where vermouth was conceived, the base wine for Vermouth di Torino, now a denomination of origin, is normally muscat wine. Red wine can be used, but the RAÍNA VERMOUTH NUMERO UNO is made only from this dark, very tannic red variety, called Sagrantino. It is unusual in vermouth production since the basic wine structure makes this vermouth, red in color with a tannic background, carry the herbs and spices extremely well. It makes forceful cocktails and drunk by itself, is delicious both as an aperitif or after dinner as a digestivo. Vermouth Numero Uno makes a killer Negroni, but you should use the classic recipe of equal parts Vermouth and Campari with just a float of gin as the drink was created for the Count Camillo Negroni in Florence. Possibly better yet, is to make an Americano, which is equal parts vermouth and a bitter, such as Campari, Luxardo or others on the market.
Using Vermouth Numero Uno for bourbon cocktails, you might want to do some fiddling around to see how much you like the forceful character of the vermouth and the whiskey used. Higher proof whiskies should go very well.
RAÍNA VERMOUTH NUMERO UNO 18% $29.99 750ml (#4763) $161.00 case of 6 (#4763C)
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CRUESS FIANO 2017
Here is a wine with several things going for it: An historical name, an historical grape variety and lovely wine making. Alissa and Anthony Beckman started making wine in 2013 under the CRUESS label. The historical significance of the label is that William Vere Cruess (1886-1968) was Alissa’s great uncle. He was also one of the giants of the then new science of Food Technology at the University of California, Berkeley. Literally responsible for the success of the processed olive industry in California, Cruess also invented such things as fruit cocktail, the prune dehydrator and rejuvenated the science of winemaking after Prohibition. Curiously, he never went to Davis when Food Science and Enology were transferred there. He remained at Berkeley.
FIANO, is a southern Italian grape variety, possibly one of the oldest known in that country. Its name is said to derive from “Apianum”, beloved by bees, since the Romans had named the variety due to its honeyed juice that during harvest was much appreciated by bees. Fiano is also a variety just recently become famous in the world due to the effort of various producers around Naples, namely the Mastroberardino family, making lovely wines from it. Easy to pronounce, it rhymes with “piano,” the variety is grown now in several places in California. The Cruess bottling comes from Sonoma’s Russian River Valley. The wine requires several years of aging to show at its best and the 2017 is the current release.
Anthony Beckman, the owner/winemaker, is also the winemaker for Balletto wines in Sonoma. His tempered winemaking produces balanced wines with a sense of character and place.
Pale greenish in color, with a flowery aroma and a rich yet stony flavor, this vintage improves with being open. It seems to develop flavor, but does not appear to oxidize easily. It may change your idea of what white wine should taste like.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
CORTI BROTHERS KUSHIKUMANA KENYA AB COFFEE, Jeremiah’s Pick Coffee Co.
From a group of thirty small farmers, we have chosen a highland Kenya coffee presented to us by Jeremiah’s Pick Coffee Company of San Francisco. KUSHIKUMANA, means “work together” in Swahili, one of Kenya’s languages. The highlands of Meru County in Kenya, about the middle of the country, are from 1,400 meters to 2,000 meters in elevation, optimal growing country for coffee. There are five varietals of Arabica coffee grown, and KENYA coffee is recognized world wide as one of the most consistent high quality coffees produced.
The growers are small growers who pool their beans which are worked separately by each grower, coffee having been introduced by missionaries in 1911. The quality classification of AB refers to the size of the beans. AA quality is 1/4 inch in diameter, and AB is a mixture of this size and one slightly smaller. In some instances, as in our selection, AB, is actually higher in quality. The informing character of Kenyan coffee of this grade is the bright acidity and floral character of the light medium roast we have selected. This is coffee particularly for fans of black coffee or those liking a lighter style with cream and/or sugar. This is “small batch” coffee of the highest quality.
Five years ago, the 24 year anchor/reporter for Channel 31 in Sacramento, TINA MACUHA, was “bitten” by the honey bee “bug” and has not looked back. After doing a story about honey bees, she got her first hive–now has five–and sells some of her wildflower honey directly to Corti Brothers. Her 12 oz jars of dark colored honey are the result of this interest, now passion.
Honey bees are very important to agriculture, and the area surrounding Sacramento is, if nothing else, important agricultural land. When Tina says her honey is wildflower, it really is. Some of her hives are now out on the rural side of the Sacramento River, and the flowers are, well, wild. Forty six percent, almost half, of the global bee population has vanished in the last ten years due to varroa mites, colony collapse, and pesticides. This is something we should all be thinking about: no bees, a lot of food wont be produced. This is not scare tactics, it is extreme reality. Anything that can be done to help honey bees helps us.
THREE BEES WILDFLOWER HONEY is unpasteurized, just natural honey from Sacramento. Its deep color reflects the myriad flowers used by the bees. Deep flavored and very long on the palate, this is honey that sticks with you. It is not a thin, watery honey, but a decisive, full bodied and flavored one that merits your attention. In particular, not a lot is produced, it is from Sacramento, and it sells out very quickly.
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection
FROM PORTLAND, OREGON: VINN, AMERICA’S ONLY BAIJIU PRODUCER
What is the world’s largest selling spirit? An interesting question, isn’t it? The answer is BAIJIU, (pronounced BYE-joe) and it is produced and consumed almost entirely in China. It is basically a clear spirit, very high in proof, drunk usually ceremoniously at banquets and the like; highly collectable by the Chinese and known by several brand names, Maotai, being the most famous.
But, we have a production of BAIJIU, right in our backyard (well, almost!) The LY family, ethnic Chinese expelled from Viet Nam in 1978, and having finally settled in Portland, Oregon, make Baijiu there in a small distillery and also produce a rice based, wood aged whiskey, a vodka, and several flavored baijius. Originally the family came from southern China in Guandong province and had been several generations in Viet Nam. Using rice as a base grain, the family had traditionally distilled baijiu. When they arrived in Portland, they had to make it all legal.
BAIJIU itself is a distilled product like no other. Normally using a grain base, the distiller makes a sort of beer with water and then distills this beer, to make a spirit. With Baijiu, the distillation takes place using the almost dry grain where the fermentation has happened inside the grain itself. Roughly, it goes like this: water is used to soak/cook the grain; a fermentation starter called “qu” (chew) is added, something akin to “koji” in making sake, and fermentation takes place inside the grain itself. An analogy for westerners would be that of the traditional distilling of grappa or marc from solid matter left after pressing wine. But--this is just an analogy. Baijiu has begun to attract the attention of major western distilling companies, and some of the giants have invested in Chinese baijiu producers. Cereal based alcohols are extremely popular in China, where they are used for everything.
But what concerns us is the VINN Baijiu production from Portland, Oregon. The brand is called VINN since the five siblings who own the production all have Vinn as their middle name. The substrate for their production is Calrose rice from California. Their classic Baijiu bottled at 53%, the Family Reserve, is classified as a rice based baijiu. Normally baijiu is made with sorghum or blends of grains, sometimes up to five different ones. The name Baijiu means “white alcohol”--the jiu part of the name the generic alcohol name for all alcohol in Chinese. The character itself is added to alcohols like grape wine “putaojiu,” beer “pijiu,” or in the case of baijiu, “bai” white or clear and “jiu.” Well, you know what we are talking about!
The Vinn Distillery produces two baijiu: FAMILY RESERVE at 106 proof and a lower proof Baijiu at 80 proof. Since baijiu is similar, but not analogous, to vodka, they also produce a rice based VODKA at 80 proof. All three of these rice based alcohols have a family similarity, with a soft, nutty character, with a delicate, similar to puffed rice scent. Customers who are afraid of gluten based alcohols, here is your opportunity to enjoy absolutely gluten free alcohol.
The Vinn WHISKEY is the first rice whiskey produced in the U.S. Here rice is treated like any other grain used to make a whiskey and aged in char #4 American oak barrels. It is still made in small amounts yet, but is now available. It is a delicate whiskey, elegant and soft, showing its rice background. Similar to Japanese rice whiskies, there is a family resemblance, with a definite American accent.
The sweetish HONEY BAIJIU is blended with Oregon honey and is not apparently honey sweet, but gently soft with a distinctive honey aroma and flavor. It could be used as an after dinner drink or in a cocktail. The Vinn family suggests adding it to apple juice for an apple pie scented cocktail.
VINN BIAJIU FAMILY RESERVE 106 proof, 750ml $73.49 (#4700)
BAIJIU, 80 proof, 750ml $43.59 (#4701)
VODKA, distilled from rice, 80 proof, 750ml $29.29 (#4702)
WHISKEY, 86 proof, 375ml $31.89 (#4703)
HONEY BAIJIU, 70 proof, 375ml $31.89 (#4704)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
COLOMBA: THE EASTER DESSERT CAKE
Of a specifically uncertain date of origin, the COLOMBA is Italy’s Easter answer to the Christmas PANETTONE.
Formed in the shape of a flying dove, hence its name, the Easter or Spring cake is much like the Christmas one. It is made from a mother sponge, butter and eggs and has candied fruit in it; also almonds and is just slightly firmer textured than panettone. It is very fragrant and lightly sweet, with a delicate flavor and consistency that also makes it useful in making other desserts. While delicious by itself, it can be used to make a trifle, Zuppa Inglese, or used as the flavorful “shortcake” base for a fruit topping, especially with the first strawberries of the season. Here are this year’s selection from LOISON, our baker in the Veneto in Italy’s northeast.
There are also two other cakes: FOCACCIA with almonds and the VENEZIANA. The Focaccia is not the savory bread, but a dome-shaped, sponge/pound cake-like bread used for morning coffee in Venice; the Veneziana is similar to the Colomba, but in a half-dome shape. This also is the typical sweet of Venice, used at breakfast or, as in Venice, whenever. Unless specifically noted, all sizes are one kilo.
The Montna Farms short grain rice is a blend of two extremely famous Japanese short grain rice varieties: KOSHIHIKARI and YUMEGOKOCHI. They are both grown just north of Sacramento by the Montna family who have been farming in California since the middle of the 19th century. The great grandfather of the current owners, Pierre Montané, was once a worker for his fellow Frenchman Paul Masson, the early California viticulturalist, who created what was to become one of the first famous sparkling wines of California in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Montané changed his name to a more americanized Peri Montna. The following generation, then started to plant rice.
JAPONICA is the family of the short and medium grain rice grown in Japan. Most of California’s rice is of this type, but the Montna Farm varieties, are the most famous in Japan: KOSHIKIKARI and YUMEGOKOCHI. They are blended together to provide a slightly different and more scented flavor experience when cooked. The Montna rice should be cooked to be eaten in the Japanese way, by itself. It should be washed well, soaked for a few minutes, then cooked with just a bit more water than rice. A CAUTION: It is very difficult to cook a small amount of rice. It can be done, but it takes some care. Better would be to cook, say, two cups of rice than one, and use the leftover rice–if there is any--the next day. So for this, you would use two cups of rice and a bit more than two cups of water to cook the rice in. (If you have a rice cooker, follow the instructions.)
Corti Brothers has repacked the Montna rice for you. I find that the “normal” selling quantity of Asian rice to be a bit too much for westerners, thus we have packed bags of 24 ounces since it would be used up in a shorter time.
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.75%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
NEW TEAS: FROM LOCK CHA AND YOUNG MOUNTAIN
We have new teas from both Lock Cha, our Hong Kong Tea merchant and from Young Mountain Tea, our Indian and Nepali tea supplier. The Young Mountain teas have been repackaged in a new cylindrical paper tube, very elegant in design. These teas are from several areas in India. One particularly interesting area is KUMAON, which was the first location the British planted to tea in India in the 19th century. It unfortunately was in an area very difficult to bring out the tea and hence got forgotten about as other areas developed. It is coming back and produces a delicious black tea and now also a white tea, its diametrical opposite. Using Chinese traditional methodology, the bushes here produce a flavorful pale liquor which is lovely as a change of pace from the black version.
The Ruby Oolong Darjeeling, from north eastern India is unique both in color and flavor. The color is actually a pale ruby, and the scent--not as flowery as “muscatel” Darjeelings--is very satisfying and complete. It makes a lovely cup which does not need milk.
From a small country on India’s northern border, Nepal, the Nepali Golden Black from the Tinjure garden is very similar to classic Darjeeling, but with more delicacy and finesse. It is also a tea from a new area which makes it exciting. Green Nepali pearls are made using Chinese methology to produce small balls of tea, like those used to make Jasmine Pearls, but without the jasmine. A very satisfying cup of green tea indeed.
Anhui Yellow Tea is a variant of green tea which is not often found. It is called yellow tea since the liquor is more yellowish in color than green tea due to the “smoothered” oxidation of green tea to produce yellow tea. It is a specialty of Anhui province. Dongting Bilochun is the production from central Taiwan of small leafed green tea. A very delicate flavor, it is flavory and scented. Alishan Oolong is another Taiwanese tea coming from the highest peak of Taiwan. Like most oolongs, it is rolled and has a full fragrance and rich liquor, again very satisfying. Premium Oriental Beauty is a specialty of Taiwan, where the best teas are made with the heaviest attack of a leafhopper which chews the leaf pagination, causing the production of sap which gives the tea a scented, peach- like character, which is very enticing. It is a unique tea. Sun Moon Red Jade is a “red” tea (we know it as “black tea) that is wiry and when brewed shows the ruddy color of the careful oxidation of the leaf tips. It is almost creamy in flavor with delicacy. Green Pu-er cake in container is a 100 g cake of this unique Yunnan, China, green tea which ages very well and produces a mellow liquor beloved by the Cantonese for drinking with dimsum. We have just a small amount of Mid Autumn Festival Green Pu-er cakes, molded in the shaped of a “moon cake” from 2011 each in a small container for further aging, should you like, or for drinking. Very fragrant and mellow.
MONASTERY CREAMED HONEY from Redwoods Abbey, Sonoma Ca.
According to St. Benedict, the father of Western Monasticism, monks must live by the work of their hands. This goes for nuns also. All monastics are supposed to produce something to support their monastery. The Trappist nuns of Redwoods Abbey in Sonoma County have come up with the idea of using honey and flavoring it as their livelihood. These monastics bring in organic honey and then use organic flavorings to produce a “creamed” honey which is wonderful on anything you want to put it on. There are several flavors--plus the original, just creamed honey.
Creamed honey is liquid honey seeded with previously worked honey to give it a satin-like, homogeneous consistency that makes it more like a spread than liquid honey. Literally, it is the controlled granulation of honey. Some of MONASTERY CREAMED honeys are made with clover honey, others not. But in any case, all is organic honey, blended with organic everything else. They are very good honeys. Especially if you want something just slightly different for your breakfast toast. The velvety consistency of creamed honey is very attractive and does not further granulate, nor is it sticky as is liquid honey.
MONASTERY CREAMED HONEY $6.99 per 8oz jar. Available in:
CORTI BROTHERS CAPITAL VINTAGE MARMALADE AND THE FIVE CITRUS MARMALADE
Corti Brothers has made Seville Orange marmalade since 1981. It is made using the recipe in Mrs. Beaton’s Book of Household Management from oranges grown in Sacramento. Its name is a play on this idea: Sacramento is California’s capital and “capital” is a British term for “very fine”. It is left to mature in jar, so that it develops a rounder, softer, more mellow flavor from the usually bitter Seville oranges. The production year of the current stock is 2015.
In 2019, we had made for Corti Brothers by The Good Stuff folks, another marmalade using the citrus grown in my backyard here in Sacramento. It is a blend of five different citrus with their dominance in this order: Blood orange, bergamot, citron, Meyer lemon, and Chinotti. The result is exceptional, both as a marmalade for your toast or even as a hot drink. A spoon full of the marmalade in a cup filled with boiling water, makes a delicious drink. We do not have a lot of this marmalade, and I would like to limit purchases to six jars per customer in order to have it satisfy more customers. Both are exceptional marmalades that deserve your attention. Both are in 11oz jars.
CORTI BROTHERS CAPITAL VINTAGE MARMALADE production 2015
This very unassuming name is probably the oldest commercial vinegar available in California. It is produced by Brad Alderson, an old friend who was the first general manager of Robert Mondavi winery in Woodbridge, CA. I have known Brad since his school days at UC Davis. He has always had a interest in making “real” barrel aged, Orléans style, red wine vinegar and sells us a small amount from time to time.
Vinegar is a true project when viewed from a winemaking point of view. You have to begin with good wine and then acetify it, then age it. It takes a yeast fermentation and then a bacteriological fermentation to produce vinegar. It is not just spoiled wine! Traditional Method Red Wine Vinegar has been some 20 years in the making. It has 7.5% acidity, and should be used sparingly since it is pungent. But this is what aged vinegar should be like. When we ran out just before the holidays 2018, a customer was almost hysterical trying to get it. Her holidays would be ruined if she did not have her vinegar. It came back in. The holidays were saved. It is really good.
CORTI BROTHERS 2018 HARVEST CORATINA EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
Again, this year Corti Brothers has a lovely CORATINA oil to offer from the 2018 growing season. Once again it was made by Pablo Voitzuk, which is why we call it “Pablo’s Oil.” The fruit comes from outside of Woodland, Ca., just as the two previous harvests have. It is a lovely example of the variety with a light green tomato skin scent, balanced pungency and bitterness, characteristic of Coratina which originates in Italy’s south, in Puglia. Our climate is much like Puglia and here the variety makes a lovely oil. We do not have much since 2018 harvest was a short one for quantity, but where successful, very good quality. It will be very handy with this summer’s bounty!
ORTIZ “LA GRAN ANCHOA” SELECTION ANCHOVIES FROM SPAIN
These anchovies are quite something! For one thing they are very large in size. They are very expensive. They are the kind of anchovy that one would find on a restaurant menu where due to their quality they would be offered with some good bread, possibly some excellent butter, a couple of the anchovy fillets on a plate; and you would be excited to have them since they are so good. In this country, we don’t consider offering a prepared product as worthy of an excellent restaurant. But when the product is of such quality that it is truly different, why not? Restaurants don’t make their own caviar. Instead they offer the best procurable from the best caviar producer or selector. This is a similar case. In Italy, in May 2018, this was exactly how these anchovies were served to me as an antipasto.
Ortiz, has been preparing fish products in Vizcaya in Spain since 1891. The Gran Anchoa are large anchovies, from the spring catch, selected especially for barrel aging for a minimum of six months, then filleted by hand, one by one, and then packed in a tray with extra virgin olive oil. They are a semi-conserved product which should be kept refrigerated. Please allow them to come to room temperature before serving. The trays hold approximately 10 anchovy fillets, about 4-5 inches in length and about a half inch in width. As temperatures warm, shipping will have to be overnight.
Quite often we get asked if we have “00" (double O, “doppio zero”) flour. Yes, we do. It is called for in most pizza dough and bread recipes and for making homemade pasta. Ours is from Antimo Caputo, from Naples, Italy and is in 2.2 pound (1 kilo) paper bags.
Caputo is probably the foremost flour mill in southern Italy and they have labeled their “00" flour as “Chef’s Flour,” a soft wheat flour, which produces a “strong elastic gluten for dough which requires a long fermentation.” This is the recommended flour for authentic bread, pizza dough, focaccia, and pasta making. You should not use it making American style cakes or pies, but for what it is very good at. Customers may say, “but flour is flour.” Yes, but all flours are not equal. Some do one thing, others do other things. This is your “go to” Italian flour.
PIZZELLE are a wafer-like, waffle like, cookie traditionally made in the central-south of Italy, the Abruzzo and Molise. They are made using a type of waffle iron with a flavored batter. An Italo American family run bakery, Fogliani, using the site of a well known bakery in Sonoma County, has begun producing delicious pizzelle. They are more often seen on the east coast of the U.S. than the west.
In their homeland, pizzelle are also called “ferratelle” because they are made with the special iron plate, or “ferro” which gives them their typical flatness and usually round shape. Made with a batter and originally cooked over an open fire, pizzelle are just one of this type of cookie made in Italy. Pizzelle are usually made on the Adriatic coast, while “Cialde” are made on the Mediterranean side in Tuscany.Think of Chinese fortune cookies, another wafer-like cookie. It originated in the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park during the Panama-Pacific Exhibition which took place there in 1915. They have now become ubiquitous, but they are not Chinese.
There is a difference between the two types of wafer cookies made in Italy. The “Cialda” type is not “waffled.” It is smooth, but also has a design. This stems from the notion of wanting to “brand” the cookie. Original pizzelle had the coat of arms of whatever noble family was serving them. But you did not even have to be noble to make them. The ingredients were those commonly at hand--flour, eggs, oil, and simple flavorings. But they have always been well loved.
The Fogliani Pizzelle are made just slightly differently from the traditional recipe. They are made with butter rather than olive oil, giving them more of a crispy, friable character. There are two colors: the dark brown chocolate, and the golden of the vanilla and anise seed flavored ones. They also have two different designs to the pizzelle. The chocolate one looks “lace-like;” the other two have an arabesque design.
Pizzelle are wonderful with which to make other things. They can be used to make ice cream sandwiches. Two can be stacked together to make a chocolate cream sandwich with a chocolate mousse, for example. They can be spread with jams and sandwiched together. But rather than having to make your own pizzelle, with Fogliani Pizzelle, you have the major work already done. Just open the bag, use, and enjoy them. Five ounce bags: $6.99 each
I can only extend to you all, the most heartfelt best wishes, for a joyous Holiday season.
Darrell Corti
LOISON PANETTONE and VENEZIANA
This season, we have another exceptional flavor for panettone. It is a traditional panettone called A.D.1476, the presumed date of the first production of this bread. Most of its ingredients are Slow Food Presidia. There are four Veneziana: similar to panettone but very typical of Venice, not Milano. There is one with amarena cherry and cinnamon, with Alpiane passito wine, with chocolate and spices, and apricots and spices. Unless noted, all are one kilo in size.
Corti Brothers has now offered BARDI panettone for 20 years. The product always satisfies and is well liked by our customers. This year there is a special BARDI LIMITED EDITION in small quantity.
BAGHI PANDOLCE ALL’ALPIANE is novel, and it is a great hit. The 60 hours moist raised dough, with mother leaven, and stone ground Italian wheat, Belgian butter, cage free fresh eggs, and house candied Calabrian oranges, is baked in a WECK thermal resistant jar to produce a jar baked bread. Then it is injected with Vignalta Alpiane, the noted orange muscat dessert wine produced in the Colli Euganei. The result is a slightly moister type of bread than panettone and can also be used as the base for other dessert preparations. It can be sliced into rounds and served with whipped cream or zabaione, or even toasted for breakfast. It is unique, delicious and comes in its reusable jar.
COLAVITA ARTICHOKE HEARTS IN EXTRA VIRGIN OIL: Carciofi sott’olio
Fresh vegetables, minutely trimmed, cooked, and put in extra virgin oil are called “sott’olio” in Italian. They form a real specialty in Italian preserved products. They need to be made by hand in a laborious, fiddle-y process that can leave one wondering as to how and why they are done. If you have ever tried to trim artichokes, you know what I mean. COLAVITA, a very large Italian food product company makes a specialty of processing vegetables to make “sott’olio” products in their original, small plant at Sant’Elia in Pianisi in Italy’s Molise region, just south of the Abruzzo. Entirely hand crafted, both the form and look of these small artichoke hearts, will make your mouth water. They have terrific intense artichoke flavor that comes from the selection of raw material, careful cooking, and then preservation in really good oil
Colavita Artichoke Hearts in extra virgin oil are a wonderful example that high quality, artisanal products can also be made by a very large company. There are different artichoke hearts on the market. When you taste these their flavor astounds with its preciseness. Their texture is silky. The oil is excellent, lending an added depth of flavor through its own flavor. This is a product which really is another of those “I bet you can’t eat just one”things that quickly has you reaching for more. They should be eaten by themselves because they are so good.
As I have written before, I think GRABER OLIVES are the best canned olives made in California. Using only estate grown manzanillo olives, hand harvested–no more than seven per handful–when just starting to turn color and cured in the Graber fashion, these “olive colored” olives will make a relish tray sparkle. These are not strong flavored olives, but very smooth, silky textured ones with an almost buttery character. No other olive producer in the country makes these olives as good as Graber does. Depending on the harvest, there are different sizes. We have four available. These are from the calibration of the olive size. The higher the number the larger the size. Orchard run contains varied sizes. I cannot think of a better non alcoholic gift from California than these olives. GRABER OLIVES 7.5 oz tin. $7.99 Case 12 $86.00
Felicetti Animal and Alphabet pasta. We are all kids at heart
On my trip to Italy in May, 2018, I visited the FELICETTI pasta plant outside of Trento in Italy’s north. I had never been there before. At 110 years old, this family held and run company was founded and is still located at Predazzo, in the Val di Fiemme. Felicetti makes a very large range of pasta, including several from different wheat selections, also Khorasan-Kamut, and Farro. These are called the “Monograno.” Pasta is a foodstuff made with grain, usually wheat and water. Felicetti uses water from the Latemar source at 2000 meters in the Dolomites and it is claimed that, just as much as the wheat used, the water is likewise very important.
While going through the plant, we came upon a press which was processing a curious cut of pasta. I stopped to look at it and it was a little animal, a duck. Back in Felicetti’s showroom, I saw the packages containing the same cut. The cuts were little animals, ‘animali della fattoria” six farm animals: a duck, sheep, fish, horse, pig, and rabbit. It was children’s pasta, the pasta that is usually put into broth, and usually given to children to keep them amused. I asked if it were for sale and was told that it had never been introduced to the U.S.. It went to Japan. So, I immediately asked for these cuts to be sent to us, since they are so cute as to be something that will not only keep children amused, it will also amuse us “older” children.
The cut is very elegant since it is a two dimensional, outline representation of the animal, not just a flat image. There is also alfabeto pasta. This is about the same size cut, again, two dimensional outline, not just a flat cut, but looking like a cutout of a letter of the alphabet–all 26 of them. Its style is that of a “college” letter, called “college block.” Both of these cuts are organic and made with Italian wheat milled in Italy.
When it comes to seeing food on a plate, sometimes we are all children at heart. Although this “pastina,” as these cuts are called, are normally served in broth, they can also be served with a thin sauce, either something like Giuliano Hazan’s Tomato Sauce or if you have been provident, your own homemade tomato sauce that you have frozen, or the juices from a leftover stew.
The important thing is that the sauce not be chunky. Simply cooking the pasta in water until tender and dressing with the sauce and a bit of cheese, you have a very quick dish that will be both pretty to look at and fast--simple cooking that will satisfy not only the inner child. And if you want to be a food archeologist, you could serve the FELICETTI animali and alfabeto as they were served before the invention of tomato sauce--just with some nice, cold butter and grated cheese, “in bianco.” Both are in 500 gram bags and sell for $4.39 each.
This is a new venture for GIULIANO HAZAN, the son of Victor and the late Marcella Hazan, who runs his own cooking school in Italy and lives in Florida. Taking a page (literally) from his mother’s first cookbook, Marcella Hazan’s THE CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKBOOK, Knopf, 1976, GIULIANO’S TOMATO SAUCE is the Tomato Sauce III, in this seminal work for Americans. As Marcella states in her introduction to the recipe: “This is the simplest and freshest of all tomato sauces...[What does it have?] Pure, sweet tomato taste, at its most appealing. It is an unsurpassed sauce for potato gnocchi, and is excellent with spaghetti, penne and ziti.” (p. 95)
This lovely pink tinged sauce is really delicious. It is San Marzano tomatoes, onions and butter. Differing slightly from the original recipe, the onion gets pureed into the tomatoes. But here is a sauce for dressing pasta; for using as a base for other sauces or where you want a tomato sweet, creamy tomato taste. Best of all, you just have to open the jar and heat. Giuliano states that the contents of the jar is enough sauce for a pound of pasta. This would serve four to six persons, depending on where it is in the menu. Remember: Italians like pasta with sauce, not sauce with pasta!
COUGAR GOLD: WASHINGTON STATE’S UNIQUE CHEESE: Production 2017 and 2007 Reserve
COUGAR GOLD CHEESE is the result of war! In fact it may be the only good thing ever to have come out of war. During World War II, it was created by Washington State University to be used as military rations. It is the only cheese that I know of that is made to be aged in a can. Normally, one does not think of cheese being aged in a can, but Cougar Gold has become famous for this methodology. It is a “cheddar” like cheese that I think is possibly the best cheese to accompany wine. It has very low acidity, which does not change the taste of wine, and does have the clean sharpness of an aged cheese. Unique, it is made only at Pullman, Washington, and deserves to be better known.
It is also an easy to care for cheese. Just buy several tins and put them in your refrigerator and turn them from time to time. They just sit there getting better and better. It is also a cheese that is firm, with a crumbly texture, a pale yellow color and it will have specks of tyrosomine on it. Once the can is opened, wrap the cheese in waxed paper and then film and enjoy it until it’s gone. I think it is perfect with an old Cabernet or Vintage Port, perhaps not rich enough for Burgundy. If you like cheese and have not had Cougar Gold, you owe it to yourself to try it. It is hard to resist. By the way, when was the last time you had a 11 year old cheese?
Why is Corti Brothers selling soap? When you need to make a gift and alcohol or foodstuffs may not be appropriate, these soaps from VALOBRA, the last soap maker on the Italian Riviera, might be just the thing. And then there is another reason: I just enjoy them! They have wonderful scents, the lather is exquisite, packaging opulent, and they last a long time. These are expensive soaps. But then, what really fine product is not expensive? Corti Brothers offers Valobra Soaps during the holidays and once customers have tried them, they just keep ordering them. We have them in stock all the time. Soaps are taxable items.
These two salts, BLUE LABEL and RED LABEL are products from a small, volcanic island in the Pacific some forty five minutes by air from Tokyo. I visited the island some 25 years ago and Corti Brothers has stocked the salts since.
The BLUE LABEL is salt that is dehydrated in shallow ceramic pans in the sun, yielding a flaky, crystal structure. The RED LABEL is pan fired salt, where the reduced sea water from about two thousand feet under the ocean’s surface is concentrated by flowing through a series of sprayers. Then it is heated and the calcium chloride (nigori) removed. The salt is then dried.
There is a certain sweetness to this salt and it should be used as a finishing salt rather than a cooking salt. It is perceptibly flavorful and really does make a difference in the savoriness of a dish. It is now becoming rare.
BALL CLUB WILD RICE is hand harvested by two people in a canoe during the months of August and September, the 3-4 week window for harvesting genuine wild rice (Zyzania aquatica) in Minnesota. BALL CLUB WILD RICE is a pale khaki brown color, the NATURAL color of wild rice. It is very different from the very hard, black wild rice normally seen on the market and whose black color comes from overparching the seed.
Since Ball Club wild rice has just been harvested, it does not need to be soaked before cooking and will take about ½ hour to cook rather than the hour or more that the black form takes. It is delicate, yet intensely scented. If you have never enjoyed this kind of wild rice, Ball Club is a revelation. It makes a delicious and very North American addition to poultry or game. Once cooked, it is very handy to keep in the refrigerator, just to be re-steamed, and served with grilled or roasted beef, pork, or lamb as an alternative to potatoes or other starch.
Known as MAH-NO-MEN in the Anishinabe language, wild rice is a cultural staple, a medium of exchange, and a food delicacy. Traditionally harvested from wild growing plants, this is a far cry from the black, paddy grown, and machine harvested “wild rice” normally found in commerce. The black wild rice has a following. But BALL CLUB WILD RICE is what the taste should be, and you should experience it to know the difference.
In 2013, the Barone de Renzis Sonnino began production of what is basically an old condiment, AGRESTO, named for its base material “sour grapes.” The name “agresto”is from the word “agro” “sour” and is a take off of medieval “verjus” a condiment that antedates the use of lemon in Europe. The traditional Agresto of Tuscany was a composed sauce, based on unripe grapes but more like a thin chutney, having herbs, onions, nuts, garlic, and bread added.
The AGRESTO of CASTELLO SONNINO is a light, sauce-like concoction made from the green pruning of their vines in the area of Montespertoli. It is very flavorful and reminds me very much of classic Worcestershire sauce, with a Tuscan accent. The un-ripe grapes are pressed and the juice is cooked in stainless steel vats to reduce; then honey, vinegar, onions, garlic, herbs and spices are added. Once cool, the blend is filtered and bottled.
AGRESTO is delicious. It can be used with anything. Think of it as Tuscan Worcestershire sauce. Traditionally, it was added to soup. Put with grilled meats and fried things, it is the condiment that spices up the otherwise rather simple, fresh taste of Tuscan cooking. It is one of the historical parts of Tuscan cooking which has happily been revived. It could not have come at a better time.
This bright red colored liqueur could be called the “original” liqueur of Europe. It is a spice liqueur made from what were the then exotic spices of the East, infused in alcohol and colored. From what once was called the “de’Medici” liqueur, it has now been relegated to a culinary staple and is a necessity in the making of certain Italian desserts like Zuppa Inglese and others. Luxardo, possibly the foremost Italian liqueur distiller, makes it, and it is at high strength expressly for culinary use. Literally, there are no substitutes for it. So if you have been waiting to try a recipe calling for ALKERMES, here is your chance. You might even find other uses for it, once you have it!
All Saints Rutherglen Muscat: Australia’s gift to the wine world
Some forty years ago, this wine, ALL SAINTS RUTHERGLEN MUSCAT, was the first Australian wine Corti Brothers had imported since it was the only producer in the area in Victoria who would sell to us. A lot of things have changed, and when this wine showed up on an importer’s close out list, I snapped it up. Rutherglen Muscat, together with Hunter Valley Semillon are Australia’s gifts to the wine world. There is nothing like them made anywhere else in the world. Rutherglen muscat is made from a clone of muscat now found only in this central part of Australia where it is known as “Brown Muscat.” It is made and blended in a sort of solera fashion, older wine giving character to younger wine, the young wine lending fruit. This bottling is in 375ml size, a perfect size for serving dessert for four or six diners.
With its darkish tawny color, intense scented muscat raisin aroma and its creamy, luscious flavor, this is a perfect wine for winter and holiday desserts. But even in Australia, where this wine was born, it is not much consumed and if allowed to die out, an irreplaceable patrimony will be lost. So, in order to keep this wine type alive, we must drink it! Now is your chance to help.
ALL SAINTS RUTHERGLEN MUSCAT 17% $11.99 375ml (#4664) Case of 12 $129.00 (#4664C)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
HOLIDAY ITEMS WHICH YOU SHOULD NOT BE WITHOUT
LEVONI COTECHINO DI MODENA AND UMBRIAN LENTILS
COTECHINO, a pork sausage made with a lot of finely chopped pork skin (cotena) and chopped meat is presented here already cooked, in its re-heatable bag, shortening all of the lengthy cooking time, to about 45 minutes. Just follow the instructions on the box and serve with separately cooked Umbrian Lentils from Bartolini and you have the classic Italian New Year’s day meal. It is to symbolize “fat and plenty” the rich sausage and the plentiful lentils for the coming year. Drink it with an excellent Lambrusco and finish the meal with Pandoro--you have now celebrated New Year in the traditional Italian fashion.
These are both codfish preparations, but of two different types. BACCALÀ is salted codfish and STOCCFISSO, is simply air dried codfish. Curiously, in the Veneto is called Bacalà. The two are not inclusive. Stoccfisso or stockfish is used after soaking for about 10-12 days in cold water changed twice a day for making special dishes, while baccalà, salt cod, soaked for 3-4 days in cold water, again changed twice a day for other dishes. Baccalà is the Italian; bacalao, in Spanish, and bacalhau in Portuguese.
Stoccafisso from Norway, Ragno quality, $37.99 the pound in the whole fish. (#4667) Avg. wt. 1 ½ - 2 lbs
Baccalà from Norway, with skin and bones, $18.99 per pound, random weight Avg. 3-4 lbs (#4668)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
MODERN GREEK COOKING: a new Greek cookbook from Pano Karatassos
No, Corti Brothers is not trying to out do Amazon Books! But here is a new cookbook written by a friend who is a trained C.I.A. chef, who runs a famous Atlanta, Ga., restaurant called KYMA using traditional Greek recipes, geared for the home cook. I met Pano in Greece and was impressed with his ability. In his first cookbook, Pano uses traditional ingredients but classical cuisine notions in making new dishes. Having worked for Eric Ripert, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and Thomas Keller, now running his own Atlanta restaurant, this is not your average Greek cookbook. It is a studied use of Greek elements and new techniques and ideas. If you are Greek, or part Greek or just want to try new recipes, buy this cookbook. With 60 full color photographs and wine pairings by the noted Sofia Perpera, you cannot miss. This is a unique work aimed at the adventuresome home cook..
Corti Brothers has two new California wines from a singular source: A famed baseball player and a UC Davis winemaker. Both are unique. The baseball player is Dusty Baker, a former Major League player and manager and the winemaker is “Chik” Brenneman, the winemaker at the winery on the UC Davis campus where he is in charge of teaching the budding winemakers in school there what to do in making wine.
I, who am catatonic when it comes to sports, had no idea who Dusty Baker was, just that he was the person who had his wine made by Chik. Having been asked for an opinion on the two proprietary wines Chik made, a white and a red, I found them very good. The white is particularly fine and the red an interesting combination of Barbera, Sangiovese and Petite Sirah. The white wine is all Semillon. The appellation is Sierra Foothills. The white is near varietally perfect. It has that scented, almost white fig scent and slight lanolin-ly body so typical of the varietal. It is a varietal which really gets little respect, but makes a superb wine.
The Proprietary Red is composed, not rustic nor overly tannic, gentled by the Sangiovese and brightened by Barbera, so that the Petite Syrah is tamed and not so obvious either in color or tannin. It is nicely blended and eminently drinkable. Both are really good values for more than just interesting wines coming from the Sierra Foothills to the east of Sacramento. Dusty Baker, who went to school in Sacramento and who now lives just north in Placer County can be very proud of his wines made with care and great sensitivity by Chik Brenneman.
BAKER FAMILY PROPRIETARY WHITE 13% $19.99 750ml (#4670) $215.00 case of 12 (#4670C)
BAKER FAMILY PROPRIETARY RED 14.5% $20.99 750ml (#4671) $226.00 case of 12 (#4671C)
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.25%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection.
Please order early, due to high holiday shipping volume. Please ask us, if you require approximate time in transit.
To our customers: Here is the Fall Newsletter. I hope you enjoy it.
Darrell Corti
G.D. VAJRA CLARÈ J.C. 2017
This new Nebbiolo wine from the estate of Barolo producer G.D.Vajra is wine made to recall nebbiolo wine made before the invention, rather, creation of Barolo. It is a wine made from nebbiolo that recalls the description of nebbiolo (nebiule) written by Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, in 1787, when he was our minister plenipotentiary in France (1785-1789) and was making a trip though northern Italy.
His description of “nebiule” was: “There is a red wine of Nebiule made in this neighborhood which is very singular. It is about as sweet as the silky Madeira, as astringent on the palate as Bordeaux, and as brisk as Champagne. It is a pleasing wine.” Memorandums taken on a journey from Paris into the South parts of France and Northern of Italy in the year 1787. We know the exact date it was drunk–April 18th–and the place, the Hotel d’Angleterre in Torino. (If you want to see more about what Jefferson writes on wine, see my old friend John Hailman’s book, Thomas Jefferson on Wine, U of Mississippi Press, 2009)
The creation of Barolo, a major wine made from nebbiolo, did not happen until after the arrival of the French enologist, Louis Oudart, for the estate of the French born Marchesa Falletti di Barolo. Barolo as a “classical” wine is one of the youngest of these wine types since it was born in the mid nineteenth century. Classic French and German wines had already been famous for several hundred years before. Barolo and its brother, Barbaresco, are the two red wines of Italy that were born in the nineteenth century, just before the ravages of European vineyards by both powdery and downy mildew and then, Phylloxera.
What is interesting about nebbiolo as a grape variety is that it was known to be a lovely scented variety and not a massive one. Its color was also never intensely dark, since nebbiolo, like pinot noir, is deficient in color pigment. It was also a variety that made a slightly sweet red wine, since it could be fermented quickly and retained some residual sugar leaving it with a light, though scented, fruitiness, making an extremely pleasant red wine that drank very well (when well made!).
My recollection of this nebbiolo type was the last bottles of 1949 Nebbiolo Spumante made by the important firm of Gancia in Canelli, which we happily drank at a party in my parents’ home in 1960, the night I graduated from high school. As a counterpoint to this wine were some half bottles of Gancia Barolo 1947, also memorable, but as Barolo, not nebbiolo.
I spoke of this a few years ago with Aldo Vajra, whom I have known since he was twenty years old, and he thought that it might be possible to reproduce this wine. I had given him the references to Jefferson about nebbiolo, and then in 2014 he produced a small amount of what was to become CLARÈ J.C.
Originally, the wine was spelled CLARET, and then the Bordeaux association got perturbed since that was the name of their wine and insisted Aldo stop calling his wine that name. So the wine changed its spelling and the Claret became CLARÈ. The following letters J, refers to Jefferson and the C to Corti. The wine has been made in the vintages 2014, 2015, 2016 and now, 2017. There is not a lot produced. Technically, it is a Langhe Nebbiolo. But this Vajra version is really special.
Beginning with its lovely color, it is a luminescent red--actually red--not purple red or black red, extremely pretty to look at. Its scent is fragrant; red berry fruit-like, with perhaps a bit of rose, without any predominant character, typical as nebbiolo’s varietal scent. The flavor follows through with the scent. It is fruity, not tannic or harsh, has nicely balanced acidity, with a slight amount of residual CO2. For pure pleasure, I find it unbeatable.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
ITALIAN CANDIED FRUIT, SYRUPS AND ESSENTIAL OILS FOR BAKING AND DRINK MAKING: PARIANI
At the 2018 CIBUS in Parma, Italy, this year, I ran across an old friend, MATTIA PARIANI, whose products I had almost forgotten about. Some years ago, Corti Brothers sold his hazelnut oil, but now he has expanded his product line to take in candied fruits and fruit syrups and essential oils.
From the Pariani line of cubed candied fruit in syrup, there are beautifully flavored and fragrant Sicilian lemon, orange, and Calabrian citron peel for baking use or adding to a dessert recipe. These are presented in syrup in glass jars to keep the fruit flavor intact. Pariani candied peel will change your mind about using candied peel in recipes. All are $13.99 the 260g jar
We have also selected two unique fruit syrups, made from pressing whole candied fruit. These sugar syrups can be used to flavor anything. The two selected are: Green Walnut syrup and Chinotto syrup. Green walnuts are candied, then pressed to produce a syrup to be used in place of nocino, the green walnut liqueur. Chinotti, a very special citrus (Citrus myrtifolia), are treated the same way. This very special flavor, tart, slightly bitter, and fragrant, forms the base of several Italian soft drinks called “chinotto.” We also have the same fruit in its whole candied form, made by the last producer in Savona, its place of origin. These are from the BESIO company. Chinotti in Italy are a presidium of Slow Food. The Pariani syrups are $10.99 the bottle.
In this same range of products, Pariani produces semi-candied, whole Wild Strawberries and Elderberries for dessert garnishing or adding to cocktails. These are made using a process whereby the candying leaves a fresh flavor and almost fresh fruit consistency. Another splendid cocktail ingredient are the candied Cantiano cherries called Visciola di Cantiano. These very special cherries are a wild cherry (Prunus cerasus var. austera), growing wild around the village of Cantiano in the Marche on Italy’s Adriatic coast. The pitted cherries are simply cooked in sugar syrup, but have a very intense cherry flavor. If you are familiar with Luxardo Maraschino Cherries, the Visciola di Cantiano are even more flavorsome and intense. Try them in your next Manhattan cocktail. All are $14.99 the 260 g jar.
Another mixologist specialty from Pariani are the Essential Oils which they cold press from fruit and bottle in small bottles with a dropper stopper to be used in making cocktails or for flavoring anything, especially ice cream with the essential oil of these fruits. We have the essential oils of Orange (sweet orange), Bitter Orange, Lemon, Bergamot, Mandarin, Grapefruit and Lemon grass. These are just pure essential oils, without alcohol, for flavoring--especially when you cannot use fresh fruit.
PARIANI ESSENTIAL CITRUS OILS: all in 15 ml bottles $22.99 each
With the current high interest in Greek wines becoming even stronger, I have purchased some works on specific Greek wines and on the history of wine in Greece written by the Grande Dame of Greek Ecology, Stavroula Kourakou-Dragona. I have known Madame Kouraou since 1993 when we presented wines together at a conference in San Gimignano in Tuscany on autochthonous white varieties. She presented on the major Greek white varietal and I on that from California, specifically, chenin blanc. Madame Kourakou has written extensively on Greek viticulture and Ecology and was previously the head of the OIV in Paris. Madame is perfectly bilingual in Greek and French, not English. But her works have been translated very well into English and now, also finely printed.
The works here presented are those printed at the FOINIKAS PRESS. They are done on fine paper, with a lovely format, and are a pleasure to hold and read. Printing like wine is only a part of life, but when done properly, very pleasurable and rewarding. Both deal with different senses as art forms. There are, of course, different works on Greek wines in print. A lot are technical, comprehensive works dealing with all of Greece written by various authors of many stripes, from Masters of Wine, to sommeliers, to “wine writers.”
The works of Mme Kourakou now available from Corti Brothers, I believe are the only ones available in the United States. They are focused and specific to wine type and location. Her magnum opus Vine and Wine in the Ancient Greek World is just that: a magnum opus about the history of wine in antiquity and something that should be read by any really interested wine lover.
There is a lot of information on the pages of these finely wrought works, plus they are from the pen of the person who actually created many of the appellations for these wines and hence knows a enormous amount about them and their history. If you are looking for tasting notes or what to purchase, do not buy these books. If you are looking for history and the history of the creation of Greek wines in modern times, these works are a must for any wine lover’s library. All book sales have 8.25% California sales tax added. The book covers are pictured at the bottom of this page.
TOM PINNEY’S BOOK ON LOS ANGELES WINE: THE CITY OF VINES: A HISTORY OF WINE IN LOS ANGELES.
This work which came out in 2016 and has passed relatively unheralded, is the latest work from the prolific pen of Prof. Thomas Pinney, emeritus Professor of English at Pomona College and author of the magisterial two volume work on Wine in America from UC Press among other wine writings. The City of Vines tells the compelling story of how wine growing began in Southern California, where historically the wine business started when California was still Spanish, and the vicissitudes of growing grapes and selling wine years before the invention of Napa and Sonoma, and, at times, in competition with them. It documents the who, what, when, where, and how of the wine business in an area now inconceivable for wine growing. Yet it all started here.
What is amusing is to read about the places described as vineyards, now either houses, skyscrapers, or freeways. Vestiges of this history are still recognizable in certain parts of greater Los Angeles, such as the small parcels of vineyards remaining in Cucamonga. But to read about Pasadena/San Marino, let alone San Gabriel Valley being a large vineyard area is mind-boggling. The same with Disneyland in Orange County. Yet all the history is real. What is sometimes surreal is that we either don’t want to know the history or don’t want to believe it.
Tom Pinney, meticulously and somewhat laconically describes and gives the players and the reasons why it is now, just history. The fact that there is a vineyard in Bel-Air, vineyards in Malibu, should not seem strange to us, but merely a continuation of this history which began along the Los Angeles River, now a cement channel for rain run off that goes from Union Station in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. Compared to European wine history, this history is not very old. At less than 200 years old, it is history that happened just the other day. This is a work both enlightening and very enjoyable to read. And is a somewhat cautionary tale of “How do you make a small fortune in the wine business? Start with a large one!”
A REMARKABLE SELECTION OF MATURE VINTAGE PORT TO GET YOU READY FOR FALL
I am setting out this collection of vintage port to give you ample time to decide what to buy for later enjoyment this winter. These wines need special care when serving and need to be carefully handled, therefore the warning. They have been stored perfectly. The bottle fills are almost pristine. But you need to make your choice early since there are less than a dozen bottles of some wine, more of others. This list is also has some single quinta wines, vintages usually declared when the wines are lovely, but the firm does not do a classic declaration. These are delicious wines that otherwise would not be seen.
If you like vintage port and have not laid down any, here is your chance to have a nice selection of ready to drink wines for this winter/holiday season and for the next five to ten years. The pleasure of drinking mature vintage port means you have to have laid some down when it came out upon declaration. It is only with collections like this that you can make up for your lack of astuteness in past years. But you should not buy vintage port and take it home and open it. It needs to be transported, then rested, then opened, decanted, and then enjoyed. Here is an opportunity which does not come along every day. All bottles are 750ml.
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
WALNUTS AND WALNUT BUTTER: NEW PRODUCTS FROM CALIFORNIA’S CENTRAL VALLEY
Since 2004, the Martella family has been shelling and processing their own walnuts and those of surrounding growers at Hughson, in California’s Central Valley. They have now spread out forming a company called The Nutty Gourmet to process their shelled walnuts into Walnut Butter and also into toasted and flavored walnut meats. Corti Brothers has just found out about them and we have selected both nut butters and shelled walnut meats from the range of products The Nutty Gourmet produces.
Walnuts are a real “Superfood” with proven health advantages. The Nutty Gourmet uses only their California grown walnuts and the products are made without preservatives and other extraneous stuff. Basically, just walnuts.
The Walnut butters are: ROASTED, SEA SALT, and MAPLE CINNAMON. The Roasted walnut butter is made with walnuts and palm oil. Sea Salt is made with walnuts, palm oil and sea salt. Maple Cinnamon is made with walnuts, maple sugar, organic cane sugar, palm oil, cinnamon, sea salt. All you do is stir them to re-introduce the oil into the butter and use. They should be kept refrigerated after opening.
Interestingly, the Martellas are Ligurian Italians as are numerous of their neighbors in Hughson. You should try the roasted walnut butter to make the Ligurian pasta sauce “Tuccu de Nuxe” (sugo di noci) or walnut sauce for pasta. Instead of having to work walnuts into this paste like sauce, simply use the Roasted Walnut Butter.
The other product The Nutty Gourmet makes are 8 ounce bags of walnut meats with different flavors. Corti Brothers has the SEA SALT, toasted halves with olive oil and sea salt. MAPLE CINNAMON, toasted with maple and a bit of sugar and cinnamon. HABANERO, (no, it’s not really hot) with a Habanero chile flavoring which enhances the walnut flavor, highlighting it. These are truly lovely products for putting out with drinks, especially for up coming holiday season entertaining. But eating three walnuts a day, or 6 halves is known to be very healthy for you. We just like to think they taste good.
THE WINES OF KURTATSCH OR CORTACCIA: A remarkable producer in the Alto Adige
I discovered these wines from the cooperative cellar of Kurtatsch or Cortaccia in the Alto Adige in May 2018. I had never been there before and was brought there by my friend Peter Dipoli, a wine merchant and producer himself in the Alto Adige. The seat of the cellar is in a remarkable building dating from 1521, nestled right up against the cliff of the southeast facing slope of the Dolomites facing the valley of the Adige River. Cooperative cellars function very well in the Alto Adige and make some lovely wines from the small parcels owned by the member growers. Founded in 1900, the Kurtatsch Kellerei has 190 members farming 190 hectares of vineyard. It shows that cooperativism works if everyone is on the same page. You can view the cellars on Corti TV on our website: wwwcortibrothers.com
I was particularly taken by several white wines and one typical red which is a red wine varietal we do not grow in California: Grauvernatsch or Schiava grigia. It was tried, but in the 1890s. I was particularly taken by the SONNTALER, (Sun Valley in German), from a vineyard site at about 450 meters high. This variety produces a pale colored red, with great fragrancy and flavor and light tannin, but is always an inviting red wine to drink even when you don’t think you want a red wine. It’s particularly good with Chinese cuisine, especially dim sum. SCHIAVA GRIGIA is a member of a heterogeneous group of Schiava varietals. The others are Schiava gentile, Schiava grossa and Schiava Lombarda. They are all distinct varieties. Schiava grossa is also called Trollinger in Germany, and is one parent to a lot of other varieties. Its name most likely comes from “Tirolinger” the original name of the Alto Adige, Süd-Tirol. The famous hot house vine still growing since the mid eighteenth century at Hampton Court in England is Schiava grossa, known as Black Hamburg. So, perhaps there are some vines of this variety growing in California since we are known to have Black Hamburg in old, mixed plantings.
However, the SONNTALER is particularly lovely. At one time in the late 1980s, early 90s, growers were invited to pull up their old, good producing plantings of Schiava and replant to Cabernet and the like. This has caused a dearth of Schiava in the Alto Adige, a variety which produces well and makes a light bodied red, currently sought after. Just how much Cabernet or Merlot can one drink?
The other wines selected from the Kurtatsch cellar are whites: Müller Thurgau, Pinot Grigio, and Pinot Bianco. MÜLLER THURGAU is a cross between riesling and Madeleine Royale, a variety now not grown but an offspring of Schiava grossa. At one time it was the major variety planted in New Zealand. The GRAUN vineyard Müller Thurgau is a remarkable example of the variety with a pale color, delicate fragrancy and an intense flavor with riesling-like persistence, grown at the limit of viticulture at almost 900 meters. We have a few bottles of the 2013 Cellar Reserve Graun to show what age does to this variety.
The PENÓNER PINOT GRIGIO comes from a vineyard high up in the village of Penon. Here the altitude (650mt) produces a delicacy in the variety rarely seen in this flavorsome varietal. Again, it is one of the flagship wines of the cellar and will keep extremely well if you can keep your hands off of it. HOFSTATT PINOT BIANCO is a delicious version of this white form of Pinot noir showing fullness and flavor. This style of Pinot Bianco is perfect for those times where one wants a full bodied white, but not a tiring one. Zippy acidity and body are its hallmarks due to soil condition and vineyard altitude.
All in all, the wines from Kurtatsch are those of a producer that leave a very fine mark in this lovely area of fine wines. They merit your attention.
GRAUN MÜLLER THURGAU 2013 13% $35.99 750ml (#4504) one bottle per order, please
Note:The un-linked items in the newsletter are not available for purchase on our website. If you are interested in any of those items, please phone or email us your request. 916-736-3800 or 800-509-Food cortibros@sbcglobal.net
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.25%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection
Where does time go? It is now spring, and it was just the holidays! But spring is the time of renewal and freshness, Easter and Passover. We have some new things at Corti Brothers and some traditional ones. I hope you will find interesting items in this newsletter that will make your spring very pleasant. Darrell Corti
LOISON COLOMBA AND VENEZIANA
Much like the arrival of panettone at Christmas, COLOMBA arrives at Easter. Like panettone, Colomba is a similar sweet, buttery, bread-like cake, made with a mother yeast and candied fruit, sprinkled with sugar. Its name comes from its shape which is that of a flying dove. It is the other of the seasonal bread cakes famous in Italy. We have also the two typical Venetian cakes, the Veneziana and the Focaccia Mandorlata. Both of these come from Venetian tradition, and found on the breakfast or dessert tables of Venetian connoisseurs. For us, all–Colomba, Veneziana, Focaccia–are wonderful spring delights and delightful throughout the summer period, especially with fresh fruit.
All are from the renown LOISON bakery, near Vicenza. Unless otherwise stated all are one kilo in size.
INES ROSALES CORTADILLO DE CIDRA Citrus Crumble Cake
The CORTADILLO DE CIDRA is a Spanish specialty, in fact an Andalucian specialty. The cake is made by the firm of Ines Rosales, founded in 1910, near Seville, famous for its olive oil cakes, Tortas de Aceite. The Cortadillo is made of a similar flaky oil made dough, but with an unusual filling made from a very special squash called CIDRA or Calabaza CABELLO DE ANGEL, “Angel Hair.”
The squash is melon shaped and looking, but when cooked separates into filaments which are cooked with sugar. It is very mild in flavor, taking on flavors easily, but having this delicate, tender filament structure which is beloved in Spanish and Latin American cuisine.
Cortadillo means it has been cut into pieces, in this case 6 individually packaged pieces. The sensation of the flaky crust and the tender, yet sweet, flavory filling is at once both tasty and intriguing.
It appears that the cidra, Cucurbita ficifolia, is originally from the highlands of Peru or possibly from southern Mexico. Curiously, it arrived in Spain by way of India, having been brought from its origin to India then to Spain. As a squash, it does not have a typical squash flavor, but is very neutral and takes on flavor easily when cooked and remains moist textured. Its string-like consistency makes it unique. It is very typical of Mediterranean Spain.
I know you have seen it before on these pages, but what is the difference between bulgur and couscous? They are sometimes confused. One is a wheat, the other, a pasta--yes, and made from wheat. (Answer: couscous is the pasta.)
Bulgur is merely durum wheat, boiled and then dehydrated, next coarsely milled–cracked–then sifted into three sizes of pieces, called bulgur one, bulgur two, and bulgur three. Bulgur three is the largest. To use, traditionally it was merely soaked and used as is–for example making the bulgur salad with parsley called Tabbouleh. Actually, this is a dish which uses very little bulgur and a lot more parsley, but frequently it is made the other way round. Bulgur is often cooked, with stock and sauteed pieces of thin pasta to make pilaff. It can be used to thicken soups, cover meatballs of ground meats flavored with different savory flavors. Or for making desserts.
Corti Brothers buys bulgur from a family owned mill–Sunnyland–in the Fresno area which has been making bulgur for several generations. They also make the unusual, yet very easy to use Yarma, another cracked wheat product, but this time left with its flour and sold as such. A delicious vegetarian/vegan soup can be made using finely chopped onions, yarma, some olive oil and water. Called yarma shourba, its flavor comes from caramelizing the onions, very slowly, adding the yarma and water, then letting it cook slowly. Salt and pepper is added, other vegetables should you like, but basically it takes its almost roast meat-like flavor from the caramelized onions. Very tasty yet simplicity itself in cooking. The exact recipe is shown on the last page below.
Then there is Grano, the pearled whole durum wheat; the hull is removed and the wheat left as a “wheat berry.” Once hulled, it is golden in color and should be stored in the freezer to lessen oxidation. It needs to be washed in cold running water, then soaked (up to overnight) before cooking. It can be cooked just like pasta in salted boiling water until tender and then dressed like pasta. It is the mainstay of the Neapolitan Easter pie called “Pastiera” with candied citrus rind–especially citron–ricotta, milk and eggs, sugar, cinnamon and orange flower water, baked in a buttery, rich, short pastry dough.
All the above durum wheat products are in one pound resealable bags and cost $3.99 per pound.
In Athenaeus’ The Diepnosophists, one of the earliest fine living texts in the western world, the author remarks about “Persian luxury and extravagance.” This Greek author was merely mirroring what the then world knew as sophistication in gastronomy, rather than the Spartan concept that “hunger was the best sauce.” Persian cuisine is not something we often think about in this country, but there is a great deal of tradition and exchange throughout the eastern Mediterranean that owes a lot to this ancient cuisine. The number of cookbooks currently in print about this cuisine has never been greater. Persia is the historical name for what we know as Iran.
An Iranian couple living in Sacramento, Sima and Deen Rashidy, produce what has come to be recognized as exemplary versions of Iranian specialties. Under their “SIMA’S” label there are several delightful items, mainly condiments, that show off the intricacies of this ancient cuisine for modern times.
Using seasonal vegetables, Sima makes two famous pickles: TORSHI and LITTEH, which are relishes. Litteh is an eggplant relish made with eggplant, carrot, celery, parsley, mint, jalapeño, garlic and vinegar. Torshi resembles Italian Giardiniera, pickled vegetables: cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, cucumber, celery, parsley, mint. A new product is Jalapeño Relish, with jalapeño, garlic, parsley, mint. The jalapeño is there, it is not just hot, but flavory.
From her own garden, Sima makes a fresh Mint syrup and a Sour Cherry syrup, both wonderful to make refreshing drinks with the addition of water rather than drinking soda in hot weather. For mixologists, this is a new world.
Sima’s Pomegranate Vinaigrette just needs good olive oil to make a delicious salad dressing or dipping sauce.
Several fruit preparations are made using local fruit, but a really special jam is Sima’s 3 Fruit Jam, made with Fuji apples, Blenheim apricots and quince. The elements are prepared when in season, then when all three have been made, they are blended together. Another different jam is the Carrot and Orange jam called “horig” which is unusual for us, but traditional in Persian cuisine.
Sima also makes several different flavors of rice mixtures which just need to be cooked. One is made with smoked Basmati rice. Another with normal Basmati, but both have dillweed and Iranian saffron. Another blend is Basmati rice with lentils which are cooked together making “Adaspolo.” All three are excellent, easy to prepare versions of vegetarian or meatless dishes that are tasty and satisfying. In Persian, a dish of rice is said to bring families together, secure friendships, and solve arguments. If tasty also, what more can we ask?
With Persian New Year, Nurooz, the 20th of March, you have delicacies to celebrate with.
PUERTO RICAN COFFEE: Single Finca Arabica, Special Roasting.
Coffee is grown commercially in the United States in two places: Puerto Rico and Hawai’i. One is a state, the other a territory. Of the two, the smallest production now is Puerto Rico. Due to the devastating hurricane of fall 2017, where much of the island was torn up and left without services of any kind, being able to find a small amount of genuine Puerto Rico grown coffee is remarkable. A lot of coffee has been grown in the center of the island, in an area called Utuado. Coffee cultivation was introduced to Puerto Rico from Martinique in 1736.
Puerto Rico was discovered by Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage and Utuado has been known since 1553, but only became a town in 1733. Its name is verified by a baptismal certificate dated 1754. In 1894 it became a city. The Utuado area is mainly mountainous, and all told is only 115 square miles in size.
Originally a Taíno center–the Taíno are an indigenous people on the island–the area became a mining region. Now it produces coffee, some tobacco and fruit. Some of the coffee grown is shade grown, planted as the under cultivation of taller trees. The coffee varietal is mainly arabica, the coffee cherries wet pulped, sun dried.
With the help of a Sacramento friend, a past employee of Corti Brothers, Emmanuel Kemiji, now a Master Sommelier and wine maker both in California and Spain, we were able to purchase 400 pounds of green arabica beans from a single “finca” or estate, that of Don Dionisio in Caguana de Utuado. With the roasting assistance of Carlos Moya, possibly the most important roaster on the island, having his own coffee shop, we have two styles of this coffee. Labeled CAFÉ 2150, one roast is just 100% Arabica, the other is made according to Emmanuel Kemiji’s idea using the most famous rum on the Island, Ron del Barrilito Three Star, to macerate the green beans before roasting. The heat of roasting removes the alcohol, but leaves the character of “la formula” the secret herb, spice, and fruit blend of the rum production as a delightful aftertaste in the coffee.
The roast of CAFÉ 2150 is a medium dark “city” roast and the Barrilito roast, slightly darker. This is the typical local taste: to taste coffee, not the charred effect of a very dark roast. Also the island tradition is to drink coffee with heated milk, not exactly like a cappuccino, but a delicious drink. You, obviously, can drink the coffee the way you like. (My first experience at a coffee finca on the island, the heating of the milk, aerating it with a large ladle, took longer to do than brewing the coffee. It was delicious!)
For the current shipment we only have 400 pounds of coffee. The roasting and packaging are done on the island to island taste. The coffee comes in an 8 ounce, foil lined paper bag with a valve and is the only quantity we will have until this fall’s harvest. If there is one! The trees have been pretty beaten up. Roasting is done just before shipping. We hope to be able to continue this project, to give some assistance to this devastated island.
If you have never tasted Puerto Rican coffee, you should try CAFÉ 2150. Try both styles! Puerto Rican coffee was once reserved for Popes and Kings. Now we also can enjoy it. This production is exclusive to Corti Brothers.
TERMS OF SALE: This list supersedes all others. All taxable items, such as wine, beer, or spirits will be taxed at the rate of 8.25%. This is for all sales since we sell in California. Foodstuffs are not taxable. Shipping will be charged at prevailing rates. PLEASE NOTE: In extreme weather, either hot or cold, please give us a shipping address where your order may be properly received and stored. Corti Brothers cannot be responsible for items left without protection
ARMENIA VINE AND WINE:
A new publication on an almost forgotten wine country
ARMENIA VINE AND WINE is a quarto sized book of more than 418 pages dealing with the archeobotany and domestication of the vine, its history and enology, its ampelography, culture, and significance today from a little known about, land-locked country with immense ties to grapes and wine. Written by the lead author Nelli Hovhannisyan, a former cancer researcher now dealing with vines and wine, and numerous other experts from Armenia and other places and numerous museal entities and even grape growers, with splendid photographs illustrating every facet of this complex world, this is a book which deserves a place in the library of every wine lover. Just the amount of color photography makes this a fascinating work that will serve to illuminate and enlighten almost any reader. It is a comprehensive work befitting its noble and ancient history, about which we, in the West know relatively little, but will know much, much more having read ARMENIA VINE AND WINE. It is worth every penny of its price!
MOSCATO PASSITO DI SARACENA: A dessert wine you’ve never heard about
From the tip of the toe of the Italian boot, the region of Calabria, Moscato Passito di Saracena comes as a specialty wine from a single producer, Cantina Viola. The most famous of the region’s dessert wines is Greco di Bianco, made from the Greco variety in the town of Bianco. Linguistically, it seems that it should be the other way around. But like it linguistically is the Moscato Passito di Saracena. Saracena is the place. It means “Saracen” obviously from its history of having contact with the Muslims from the Middle East who ruled this part of Italy or raided it for a long time. Here is what Daniele Cernilli wrote about it in his ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ITALIAN WINES 2016:
“...[M]oscato di Saracena...seems like a wine straight out of the Odyssey. Produced with ancestral methods with a partial cooking of the must (which is creating no few problems with the EU regulations), [this wine is] a cultural heritage as well as being excellent....A blend of Guarnacca, Malvasia and Moscadello di Saracena grapes. [It] Matures for a year in stainless steel ‘sur lie.’ Bright amber. A nose of formidable complexity, ranging from the classic scent of raisins to candied orange peel, dates, dried apricots, and almond paste. The flavor is sweet, but not cloying, full bodied and nicely underpinned by acidity. A really great traditionally-styled sweet wine. 95/100 ” Enough said! But really good.
CANTINA VIOLA MOSCATO PASSITO DI SARACENA 2013
500ml - $49.99 (#4431)
Case of 12/ 750 ml -$269.00 (#4431C)
(Phone us for more information)
CORTI BROTHERS 2017 EXTRA VIRGIN OILS: Coratina and Piqual These two oils were again produced for Corti Brothers by Pablo Voitzuk, the miller at Pacific Sun in Gerber, CA., to the north of Sacramento. These are two southern Mediterranean olive varieties which have once again proven that they do extremely well in California. Once again, they were put in competition at the Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Oil Competition where I am the chairman of the tasting. The tasting is completely blind. I do not see who tastes the oils until the tasting takes place. And once again, they both won Gold Medals in their class, the Piqual also winning Best of Class. Both are very fine oils with medium fruity intensity, with the balanced pungency and bitterness of excellent oils with flavors of fresh artichoke and green tomato. They will definitely enhance your spring and summer salads and vegetable dishes. They are perfect for putting on toasted bread to make the classic “fett’unta.” Very little was bottled in January 2018, so do not dawdle to get some.
This 2015 Amador County Zinfandel is a fifty year commemorative wine. It commemorates the 1965 Amador County Zinfandel made as a home wine that, in 1968, convinced Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home Winery in Napa Valley to begin buying Amador County grapes. A lot has happened in the last fifty years.
The original 1965 Amador Zinfandel was made as a homemade wine by Charles Myers, an English instructor at Sacramento City College, who in 1972 would become a winery owner, opening his Harbor Winery in West Sacramento, CA. Charles’ home winemaking showed Bob Trinchero of Sutter Home how good Amador Zinfandel could be at a time when few wineries actually bought Amador County grapes. Most went to home winemakers in the Bay Area. At that time there was only one winery in Amador County, D’Agostini, which had been there in one form or another since the 19th century. The first new winery in Amador County was to be Cary Gott’s Monteviña which was created in 1970. By that time, Sutter Home had already produced two vintages of Amador County Zinfandel.
In May, 1968, Bob Trinchero, Charles Myers, and I went to Amador County and drank a bottle of Charles’ 1965 Zinfandel which convinced Bob that he should look to Amador County for grapes. The harvest of 1968 was the first year of a Napa Valley winery using Amador zinfandel and also labeling the wine with the appellation of Amador County. (Christian Brothers and Gallo had been buying Amador grapes at that time, but did not label any wine made from them with the Amador appellation.) Sutter Home was the first out-of-county winery to label its wine made from Amador grapes with the Amador appellation. Others would follow.
Since I have Charles Myers’ home winemaking notebook, I tried to make the wine following the notes which Charles wrote about making his wine. The grapes in 1965 were picked October 2, fermented with champagne yeast (the most common wine yeast at the time), pressed off on October 8 at 5% Brix, aged in one used small wood cask and in glass demijohns; racked four times during the year, and bottled August 15, 1966, just before Charles resumed teaching. So: very little time on the skins, very little time in wood, early bottling, and no fining or filtering, just the addition of metabisulfite at racking. It was very simple winemaking. According to Charles’ notes, he paid $75.00 the ton for 500 lbs of grapes which gave him 150 bottles of finished wine. This was his first Amador Zinfandel wine. He would make other vintages and in 1972 made his first commercial wine from Amador zinfandel at Harbor Winery.
In making our 2015 Amador Zinfandel, we asked Andis Winery in Amador County to make it for us. Mark McKenna, the winemaker, was enthusiastic about doing this project and used hillside grown, head pruned vines of some 50 years of age, picked September 3, 2015. Fermentation lasted 10 days with Champagne yeast; the wine was pressed at 2% Brix, and some of the new wine put into neutral oak barrels and the rest in flextanks rather than in glass demijohns. It was bottled on September 1, 2016. This production produced 290 cases of 750ml bottles and 10 cases of magnums. The bottles were bottled with Stelvin caps rather than corks since I am a great fan of Stelvin and I think Charles would have concurred.
A unique thing about this wine is that the label has a portrait of the original winemaker on it done by the noted Sacramento artist Wayne Thiebaud. In the early 1960s, Wayne and Charles were colleagues at Sacramento City College and in 1963 Wayne painted the image of Charles reading, which is on our label. In Wayne’s opus, the picture is called “Man Reading.” We asked Wayne if he would concede the use of this image for this one time bottling, and he graciously allowed it.
Corti Brothers Amador County Zinfandel 2015 is a sort of mirror of what happened in 1965. Fifty years later, wine tastes have changed and in no small part to the effect Amador County zinfandel had on the California wine market. Tastes changed and there is now a completely different profile of Zinfandel as a wine in California. According to the classic wine texts of the early 1960s and before, Zinfandel was always a light, fruity wine, described as such by most wine writers of the time. Amador County changed all of that. And it was begun by a really well made, homemade wine, from 1965.
In May of this year you can almost reproduce the tasting of fifty years ago. It is unusual to be able to experience such a thing in winemaking, especially in California. The last few cases are still here, but not for long!
CORTI BROTHERS AMADOR COUNTY ZINFANDEL 2015 13%
750ml - $24.99 (#4434) Case of 12/ 750 ml $269.00 (#4434 C) Window Gift Box 6/750ml $135.00 (#4435)
(Phone us for more information)
GRABER OLIVES
As I have written before, I think these are the best canned olives made in California. Using only estate grown manzanillo olives, hand harvested–no more than seven per handful–when just starting to turn color and cured in the Graber fashion, these “olive colored” olives will make a relish tray sparkle. These are not strong flavored olives, but very smooth, silky textured ones with an almost buttery character. No other olive producer in the country makes these olives as good as Graber does. There are no better classic California olives than Graber olives.
My trip to Greece, the Peloponessus, Crete, and Santorini in June 2014 led to an unusual discovery. At the Santo Co-operative on Santorini, I found caper leaves. I had never seen caper leaves offered before, anywhere. About 1 ½ inch in diameter, they are treated like the caper buds. Pickled in salt brine, they can be used just like capers and for garnishing are truly lovely. I enjoyed them in Italy at my cousin’s restaurant in Serravalle Scrivia, Villa La Bollina, where they garnished a plate of vitello tonnato in place of capers. The caper leaf flavor is less forceful than caper buds and using both leaves and buds, one could make a lovely garnish with two leaves and a caper bud as a presentation. They are unique and wonderfully flavored. Visually, superb. If I could come up with this sort of find every time I travel, it just might be worth traveling!
Here is a true monastic product made in Sonoma County by the Cistercian nuns of Redwoods Monastery. The sisters cream raw, grade A honey and add organic ginger, orange, lemon, cinnamon, and almond to the honey to give a range of flavors. Creamed honey is finely granulated honey that has had carefully controlled crystallization. Much smoother than naturally granulated honey, its texture is that of soft butter.
All honey can be creamed; but a honey, light in color and flavor, yet high in glucose, makes the best creamed honey. The simple granulation heating process also produces a thin layer of air bubbles which remain on the honey surface, looking like, and called, “frosting.” This is honey for putting on morning toast, scones, sandwiches and the like and not having to worry about its dripping. Monastery Creamed Honeys, all natural and organic, give breakfast another dimension. All are in 8 oz jars and sell for $6.99 each.
DANIELE CERNILLI’S ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ITALIAN WINES 2018
We have just received the new edition of this authoritative Guide. This year there are 1,069 producers selected for inclusion over the 979 from the last edition. The wines written about are 2,733 over the 2,436 in the previous edition. Twenty percent of the estates from the previous edition have been excluded and about 200 estates are all new to this edition. The favored wines have gone up from 220 to 297 due to the excellent vintages of 2013 in Barolo and 2012 for Brunello. Now is the time to get your copy of Daniele’s ULTIMATE GUIDE for 2018.
This recipe is Turkish in origin and uses only Yarma, water, vegetables, and no animal products, in its preparation. It is one of those cooking productions where, even if you can just boil water, you can make this soup. Surprisingly light, this soup also has the advantage of being almost miraculous--that is, it stretches easily and loses nothing. Made in double or triple quantities, it will easily feed you for some time. It reheats very well. Serves 4-6 with leftovers.
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra virgin oil 2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped 1 cup Yarma 1 red bell pepper cubed into small dice (other flavorful peppers may be added) 1 lb. thickly sliced fresh, medium size okra lh lb. diced fresh green beans 1 lb. Yukon gold or other waxy potatoes, peeled and diced 1 lb. eggplant, peeled and diced 1 lb. ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped or broken up Salt and pepper to taste.
In a heavy bottomed pot, heat oil and slowly cook the onion until it is caramelized. It should be done slowly so that the onion takes on a very dark brown color. Stir often to prevent sticking. When caramelized, add the Yarma and 6 cups of water. Simmer for 25-30 minutes until the Yarma is tender. More water may be added to keep the consistency soupy. Then add all the vegetables, salt and pepper, and cook covered for 30 minutes or until all the vegetables are tender. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Taste and correct seasoning and serve. Note: This soup is expandable. If one vegetable is not in season, use something that is. If tender vegetables are available, use those, merely adjusting the cooking time. To expand the recipe, increase the Y anna, vegetables, oil, and water in proportion. The addition of more water to prevent sticking or thickening, can be done at any time. The soup should be soupy. Correcting the seasoning with salt and pepper can also be done just before serving.
