31 Days of German Riesling at BauhausA German-inspired four course menu, each paired with exceptional Rieslings - 31 Days of German Riesling has arrived at Bauhaus! They say it takes 30 days for something to become a habit, so we're pleased to welcome you to your new obsession. Each dish is paired with a Riesling that works in harmony with the characteristics of the dish's ingredients. If you're not already in love with Rieslings, this is the menu that will change your mind. "Wine is sunlight, held together by water." - Galileo This 4 course menu includes wine pairings is $135 and available only for the month of August.
Bauhaus's wine expert, Alan Koller, is back. This time, with a story about a California man and his vineyard.
Let’s begin by talking about the vineyard. The To Kalon Vineyard is a very old vineyard site near Oakville, originally planted in 1868. Fast forward many years and you will find 3 owners of this vineyard site. Robert Mondavi, Mouton Rothschild and Mondavi from Opus One, and Andy Beckstoffer. Opus and Mondavi own 75% of the site, while Andy owns the rest. The grapes that come from this vineyard are incredibly intense and complex, and are some of the most desired grapes in California. Wines made with these grapes almost always score over 95 points and it is one of the few vineyards that can brag about perfect scores of 100 on what it seems a yearly basis. Janzen, Paul Hobbs, Schrader, B Cellars, and Tor vineyards are all some of the big names that feature wines made from this vineyard. However, he important part of the story at this point is the understanding that only Andy Beckstoffer sells grapes from his vineyard. Who is Andy Beckstoffer? Well, way back in 1966 he got involved in a marketing company, Heublein, which owned wineries like Inglenook and Beaulieu. In 1970, he created a separate division in Heublein called Vinifera Development Corp. All the wineries would be shifted into this division. As if in a game of chess, this move set up the next, which was to buy out Vinifera and make it his own. Now this is how Andy became owner of his part of the To Kalon vineyard. It was the vineyard that supplied Beaulieu vineyard. From this point is where Andy’s marketing side took control again and he began rebranding and creating the Beckstoffer Vineyards. Here is the interesting part: Beckstoffer Vineyards only grows grapes, they do not make wine. The brand has expanded to include 16 vineyards, and several are the most sought after in Napa, Mendocino and Red Hills. Perhaps at this point you might be wondering, well why doesn’t he just make a Beckstoffer Winery? Apparently, he has two goals: firstly, to grow the best grapes in the world; secondly, to create vineyard designation as the highest level of wine in California. He is content to let others take his grapes and create wines, but if you think this man is just a nice guy that grows great grapes, you would be mistaken. To call him a shrewd business person would be a polite description, and to call him a confident business person would be very polite. The reports from the vineyards seem to be relatively consistent. He is direct, arrogant, and one of the most difficult people to negotiate with on the planet. All characteristics of a person that would fail as a business person if they didn’t own the greatest grapevines in California. To illustrate this, let’s say you want to buy grapes from his To Kalon Vineyard. First, you and your winery must be approved by Andy. Second - the best part - the pricing. Believe it or not, the pricing is not the same for everyone. Originally, there was the price per tonne and the price per acre. You paid whichever was higher. Yield per acre can vary from 2.5 tonnes to 4 tonnes in a strong year, and it is because of this that there existed the two pricing options. This created consistency for Beckstoffer in revenue, but inconsistency for wineries. The system worked for a while, but then Andy torched all his contacts with wineries, came back to them and said, "here is how the pricing is going to work now. It is based on a minimum price per acre of $45,000, and we still have a pricing based on a per tonne. BUT we are now charging you based on the price of your wine per tonne. If you are charging $350 for a bottle of wine, then you will pay 350 X $175 per tonne. That would be $61,250 per tonne." Andy used to base it on a set number of 100 times the bottle price. Now the price fluctuates. Well, I guess if your grapes are that good, you can do it. So, the moral of the story is this: if you find a wine that is from the To Kalon vineyard, the grape cost alone for the vineyard is $100 a bottle USD. Expect to pay a lot more than that. We have two wines carrying the To Kalon designation: The Janzen and B Cellars. The Janzen is the 2011, and the wine is showing its true colours a little more with each passing moment. Rich black currant and black cherries get wrapped with incredible amounts of herbs and spice all balanced with wonderful mocha and soft tannins in the finish. The B Cellar’s is the 2014; early tastings are putting the score between 98 and 100, with Robert Parker leaning towards the 100. Parker describes this wine as a skyscraper of flavours and textures, it just keeps going for 50 to 60 seconds on your palate. There is no quit in this wine. What do I think of it? I haven't tried it. I had to write a blurb about it so Uwe realizes he hasn’t tried it. That way, when he gets back from Germany he'll want to try one. Based on the price, that's probably the only way I'll get to try some too. Soak up the sun with the new Summer Tasting Menu, brimming with the season's warm, fresh flavours. This stunning menu is the second Tasting Menu created for Bauhaus by the executive chef team David Mueller and Tim Schulte. First Course The Bauhaus take on a Vichyssoise. Poached and torched salmon with potato ice cream, leek, and trout roe. Wine Pairing Domane Wachau, Terrassen Smaragd, 2013 (Austria), Gruner Veltliner Second Course A dish that evokes memories of sun-soaked evenings at the neighbourhood baseball fields. Goat Cheese Agnolotti with summer squash, zucchini, spinach, sunflower seed purée. Wine Pairing Kunstler, 2015 Chardonnay (Germany), Limestone Third Course A nod to Vancouver's incredible seafood. Tuna, avocado, radish, sesame, apple. Sake Pairing Hakutsuru Jumai (Japan) Fourth Course Beef Shortrib, on a sweet corn purée, with torched baby corn and chanterelles, salted and caramelized popcorn Wine Pairing Two Hands, 2014 Shiraz (Australia), McLaren Vale Fifth Course Like a syrupy-sweet summer evening. Duck breast and leg done 2 ways, with fois gras, beetroot, charred onion, and blackberries. Wine Pairing Brunello di Motalcino 2011 (Italy), Verbena Sixth Course A summer vegetable garden. A carrot 'cake' with orange, cream cheese foam, chocolate 'soil,' and carrot tops. Wine Pairing La Stella 2016 (Okanagan, BC), Moscato D’Osoyoos The Summer Tasting Menu is available as four courses for 79
or six courses for 99 Add the wine pairings for 54 / 79 Click below to read Richard Wolack's course-by-course review of the Tasting Menu and wine pairings The Very Soul of Burgundy Bauhaus's resident wine-expert Alan Koller is back, this time diving into the dirt of Burgundy. My last post explored the German obsession with sugar content. Today, we’re going to explore an obsession with dirt, but perhaps I should use the proper term for it – terroir. Now, terroir is one of the key components to creating a great wine. On a regional scale, there is the limestone of the Loire, the gravel and clay of the Pomerol, the steep terraces of slate in the Rhine, etc. Now, terroir can change from vineyard to vineyard. A great example is that of Diamond Creek’s lineup of Cabernets. They have Volcanic Hills, Red Rock Terrace, and Gravelly Meadow, each of which are the names of the vineyards that produce Diamond Creek Cabs. For Diamond Creek, it is clearly all in the names, as each name describes the terroir. However, there exists a deeper level, and it is only found in Burgundy. What is it about Burgundy and terroir that sets it apart from the rest of the world? Perhaps it has to do with the vineyards being very particular about sorting grapes according to terroir. Imagine this: you are in France, walking down a sun-baked dirt road that is no wider than ten feet. There are vines along the road to your left, and vines to your right. What if I told you that the wine made from one side of the road tastes different from that of the other side? You might say that’s ridiculous. Now, what if I told you that the road was purposely put where it is BECAUSE the grapes taste different on each side? That is the level of dedication to terroir that wine producers in Burgundy have. There is another fun detail to Burgundy as well: you can have one vineyard supplying multiple wineries, but unlike the rest of the world, wineries have the rights to specific rows of vines. Napa, for example, will pick all the grapes from a vineyard and then split them up randomly for each winery that wanted grapes from that vineyard. They don’t know where in the vineyard the grapes come from – but in Burgundy, they do. This is of great importance. Wineries in Burgundy are very proud of their wines and insist that the specific terroir of the row in which the grapes grow is as important as any other part of the wine-making process. Now that we've covered the level of committment to terroir that Burgundians have, let's talk about a great example of that in the Domaine Chevrot, Le Croix Moines, Maranges. The vineyard is small - only 20,000 square feet, or about 0.4 of an acre. Very, very small - there are some houses in Vancouver that are bigger than this vineyard! Each year they only produce 2 barrels of wine, or equal to 60 cases of wine. What should you expect from this wine? Well, the 16 months of aging in the barrel has created a complex expression of raspberry and other red berry flavours, mixed in with some wonderful spice. Personally, from the times that I have tried it, there is a certain X factor to this wine. There is amazing complexity, there are these layers of the aforementioned flavours into these wonderful earthy tones that show the true expression of the vineyard. This is not a pinot noir for the rookie drinker. It will challenge you, but it is worth the challenge. We do have a wonderful dish on the menu that this dish works perfectly with: the Summer Tasting Menu's course of duck done three ways. This dish is an incredible combination of cured and seared duck breast, confit of duck leg and foie gras cream, and finished with blackberries and beets. The raspberry flavours of the wine work well with the duck and the blackberry, the more rustic tones of the wine will help soften the sweetness of the beets and just add another layer of WOW to this amazing dish. Come by Bauhaus, and allow me to show you this great example of what makes Burgundy arguably the greatest wine region in the world. If you go to Wine Searcher and try to find this wine, good luck - it is listed in 2 wine shops in all of North America. In that case, I guess we will see you soon. The Dr. Peter Pride Crawl FundraiserWe're excited to announce that we're taking part in this year's Dr. Peter Aids Foundation Pride Crawl! From July 14th to August 6th, simply order the Steife Melone for $14, where $8 will be donated to the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation.
The Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation is a non-profit organization that raises funds to support innovative health care at the Dr. Peter Centre in the West End of Vancouver. The Dr. Peter Centre provides compassionate care to some of British Columbia's most vulnerable citizens who face poverty, homelessness, mental health and addiction issues in addition to HIV. The Hungry Couple YVR It’s a staple on our menu (as either the Cheese Spätzle for the table with crispy onions, or the herb spätzle as a side), and we served it last week alongside our braised pork and housemade kimchi at the Indian Summer Festival Gala. It's an iconic German dish, associated with memories of grandmothers labouring over the hot stove. Today in Germany, spätzle are mainly considered a “Swabian specialty” (Swabia is a cultural, historic, and linguistic region in southwestern German) and are often associated with the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. In France, they’re associated with Alsace and Moselle. The total estimated annual commercial production of spätzle in Germany is approximately 40,000 tons. That’s a lot of spätzle!
Some say the name comes from the word Spatzen, which means “little sparrows.” Why? Some think that before there were specially made Spätzle tools they would put dough into their hands, as if they were holding a little sparrow, and put small pinches in the water. Another idea is that the dough was formed with two spoons, creating little oval shapes like little sparrow bodies. How it got from Spatzen to Spätzle is unclear. Swabia is an area of Germany that has a long history. One of the dishes they are most known for is Spätzle . According to a German company, Spätzle Wonder, one of the reasons for its popularity is that Swabia was a poor area, and that this was a dish that was versatile, simple to make, and could be served alone or with a small portion of meat or vegetables and be satisfying. Spätzle dough typically consists of a few ingredients, primarily eggs, flour, and salt. The Swabian rule-of-thumb is to use one more egg than the number of people eating the spätzle. Water is often added to produce a thinner dough. The flour traditionally used for spätzle is a coarse type known as , or what may be referred to in North America as ‘first clear’ or semolina flour. This gives a chewier texture but can produce a dough too crumbly for scraping if no water is added. Traditionally, Spätzle are made by scraping llong, thin strips of dough off a wooden (sometimes wet) chopping board, called a Spätzlebrett, into boiling salted water, which they are cooked until they rise to the surface. The dough should be as viscous as to slowly fall apart if cut into strips with a knife, yet hold the initial shape for some seconds. If dropped into boiling water, the egg whites will congeal quickly, while the yolks will keep the eggs succulent. Once the noodles have become firm, they’re skimmed from the water and put aside. The Joh. Jos. Prüm Wehlener Sonnenuhr Auslese 2007 Bauhaus's resident wine expert, Alan Koller, is back with another tale about life, wine, and foie gras. My German father was trained as a mechanic by Mercedes Benz back in the '50s. I remember growing up listening to his stories about how Mercedes did things. To say they were a little obsessive compulsive is an understatement. One of the things they did was have all the apprentices get their driver’s license, but the testing was to be done with instructors from the Mercedes race team. The first time my dad took the test he failed. Why? Because he failed to shift between 2nd and 3rd gear in the proper RPM range. Slightly different rules than our driving exams. With that, you have a bit of a vision of what childhood was like for me with a Mercedes-trained OCD father. The good news is, my mother was Canadian so I am well-balanced, just like the wine I am talking about. - Joh Jos Prum. Fine wine in Germany is an exact science. It is the only country in the world that takes its signature varietal and creates 8 sweetness levels on top of its other classifications. There is never a harvest where pickers go into a vineyard and simply pick all the grape clusters. Top vineyards have a tool called a refractometer, which allows a picker to look at a single grape in a bunch and know the sugar content of that grape. If it is the correct sugar content, then they pick the grape bunch. If not, the grape is left on the vine. Robert Weil brags that in their best vineyards, pickers may go through a single vineyard up to 13 times in a season to pick. Joh Jos Prum will handle their vineyards in a similar manor, except they almost never make a trocken or dry Riesling. They specialize in sweeter Riesling, and by most accounts they are the benchmark for Mosel Riesling. If we use price as an indicator then they definitely they are, their Trockenbeerenausese when it is produced can sell for upwards of $5000 a bottle upon release. Here's the good news: the Auslese we are serving is a steal at $240. So what should you expect from this wine? Incredible complexity in a wine that is about a 5 out of 10 for sweetness. The flavour profile shows some green apple, but a great deal of peach and exotic tropical fruit. As it works around your palate, new flavours will emerge and keep you engaged. Near the end you will pick up on a hint of botrytis. It has a wonderfully crisp acidity that rounds out the sweetness - this is instrumental in the wine pairing. Without the acidity, pairing this wine to food would be tough.
What should you pair this dish with? At Bauhaus it is unquestionably the Foie Gras torchon. Upon request, we will serve just the torchon and brioche, and substitute the wine as the dish's fruit component. That is what I would do, and if you check with us, we may just have an alternate wine open for you to try as the pairing for the Foie Gras. It truly is an amazing pairing. If you try it at home, I suggest a quality blue cheese or some fatty pork, as both work exceptionally well with Auslese. I hope you get a chance to try it. |