squid for 30

When I’m cooking for company I usually also like to try a recipe for the first time which is not typically advised for obvious reasons. I’m not totally sure I would recommend it myself. I think when I was younger my dad and his best friend Richard would use Friday night dinner as an opportunity to experiment with new recipes. Maybe this has rubbed off on me a bit and maybe that’s why when Cub and I decided to cook for 30 people I insisted upon trying this thing I had been staring at for a while. I had actually tried to prepare it earlier in the year, but the store where I did my shopping did not carry squid. C’est la vie.

This particular dish, a squid and potato stew, came from Margot Henderson’s cookbook You’re All Invited: Margot’s Recipes for Entertaining. She is one of chef/owners of Rochelle Canteen, a very fashionable restaurant in London that serves lunch every day and dinner some days. So I imagine she, especially at this stage in her career, has time to entertain for dinner. Her style is very straight forward in the way that I’ve been craving, referencing both her peers in cookery and experiences as a mom. It is important to add too that she is the wife of the chef Fergus Henderson, and as half of a different hospo couple I feel drawn to her, at least partially, for this reason. As the title makes clear the book is designed with a party in mind and the stew comes from a particularly useful section called “Feeding the masses”. Each recipe is modestly presented for four people while also scaling a few times up to 30 which is useful if only to spark your imagination and offer you confidence that not only is it possible it’s roughly the same experience.

The squid dish is inspired by our lady of squid Marcella Hazan’s recipe for Squid and Potatoes Genoa Style from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Henderson’s differs in a swap of marjoram for crushed red pepper and more garlic. I think Marcella Hazan might have balked about the amount of garlic in the dish, we kind of did. Garlic can be hard with wine, but we chose to split to difference by crushing each clove instead of finely chopping as suggested. This was also due to my refusal to finely chop 60 cloves of garlic for the dish, hosts have other things to think about. Another change we made that differed from both Hazan and Henderson is that we used two tins of tomatoes instead of one as written. Which was less stylistic and more due to my forgetting, but I think it worked well and I would do it again the next time I pursue this.

Margot Henderson suggests not to make the recipe in advance, so we tried to make as big of a dent in prep as we could. Peeling the garlic and potatoes in the afternoon before people arrived. It's nice to have the opportunity to cut so many potatoes, I kept thinking and rethinking about how I big I wanted a bite to be. They were not uniform, which eventually led to some murkiness in our broth but I valued variety of bite and texture more that day. That's maybe one of my favorite parts about parties, the little moments where you can let the anticipation build. We then finished it up that evening, when we were starting to feel hungry though it was a blazing hot day and I was regretting the choice of recipe. We left our guests outside for a bit as we endeavored to do the stew in the kitchen, meanwhile the sky opened up and offered a hard & brief rain. It was blessedly chilly after and everyone wanted the stew. With the rain returning I thought of this recipe again, light and warming. Perfect for a chilly summer evening, the kind where you can turn your stove on. And make more if you can, you never know who might end up at your house.

                                                                          pic by Mac Parsons

Rainbow Wines’ Squid and Potato Stew for 30, after Margot Henderson & Marcella Hazan updated due to circumstance & convenience*

10 lb cleaned squid

12 lb waxy potatoes

800 ml very good olive oil

50 cloves of garlic, smashed

7 tsp dried red chili flake

6 large handfuls chopped parsley

2 tins (28 oz.) whole tomatoes

1 liter water

Cut the squid into ½ inch pieces. Leave the tentacles whole unless they are very large. 

Peel the potatoes and cut into 2 -3 in chunks. 

Now prepare to cook the squid in batches of around 1 batch per 2 lbs of squid: 

Over medium heat, warm some of the olive oil in a wide heavy bottomed pan. Add some of the garlic, chili flakes and parsley and some salt**. Cook for a couple of minutes then turn up the heat and add the squid. Cook for 2 - 3 minutes, until it is sizzling away, add a little more salt, then add a good splash white wine and let it bubble for 1 - 2 minutes to reduce. 

Dump the squid mixture into a big pot, and repeat if working in batches. 

Place the potatoes and the water in this big pot as well. Break apart the tomatoes in your hands and add to the pot. Bring this mixture to a boil, then turn down to a simmer. Keep the heat low, gently simmering away, with the lid on for about 40 minutes. Stir occasionally, until the potatoes are cooked through. Season to taste and serve hot to lukewarm even is good.

*Margot Henderson says you can’t make this in advance but Cub and I both enjoyed our leftovers a lot. The potato disintegrates making for a murkier color and texture, and softens the sharpness of the wine/tomato acidity.

**if you wanted to add some marjoram here I bet it would be good. I love marjoram.

pic by Mac Parsons

We drank Paski from Cantina Giardino with this and I recommend it whole heartedly. It was from a very large bottle which added to the sensation so I may also suggest a magnum of their Rosato, a fun surprise from the El Rancho warehouse. Definitely recommended to get the cold cold wine going with the hot stew.

We’re adding some new things to the shop this week from L’Octavin and getting a restock of La Clarine rosé too. DM @rainbow_wines or send us an email at rainbowwinechi@gmail.com if you have any questions or want to chat. 

a salad story

I had been craving peas. I keep frozen peas just about all the time to add to soup or pasta. But I was wanting fresh peas, I was wanting to lovingly shuck them and enjoy them for dinner. It’s June. Peas time. I’ve been wanting to also eat less meat lately. With vegetables that require more effort to prepare, my pathological mind somehow decides these earn their place on the dinner plate where meat is not present. I guess there’s some innate comparison to the incredible use of resources (not only labor) in raising, harvesting, butchering meat. I’d like to not think like that, but at least it means I like to lavish time on preparing vegetables (not to mention how much work and care goes into growing and harvesting them). 

i made this drawing of peas while watching star trek, i love them 

 Nichols farm has some peas. They were deliciously sweet. It was also very hot last week so we decided to have salad for dinner. I started to build this dinner salad around the peas. I love how many other foods work so well with peas - how the peas sit on the surface, absorb fat and flavor, and add a vegetal crunch. I really love peas with pork - with bacon, ham or pork fat. It feels sort of 1950s. We happened to have some Casella’s prosciutto in the pantry. You can buy it in sealed packs that last a while and don’t require refrigeration, which is nice. With the prosciutto I was then thinking about egg, would it be eggy dressing, a poached egg on the bottom of the plate would impart silky egg yolk, and add some protein to the dish. I also love peas with potatoes, and I am there for potatoes in a salad any time. We eat a lot of delicious boiled potatoes in my house. We didn’t have any bread to make croutons, but even if we did, I wouldn’t have thought of it. Poached egg, mustardy piquant vinaigrette, greens, ham. A couple small boiled potatoes cut in quarters at the bottom of the dish (yukon golds from Nichols also) and peas. A bright white wine made this a really beautiful dinner. Le Pressoir de St Pierre from La Grapperie would be divine - it’s a kind of herbaceous Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley with golden acidity and mellow richness, enough to match all the layers of fat in the salad. This wine we have tested happily a few times to see how it is with salad, and can say it is delicious. 

 It was very tasty. The greens got wilted rather fast, however, with the heat of the egg plus the richness of the yolk with the vinaigrette too. I kind of enjoy wilty greens sometimes, just sometimes. They feel in process. They are easy to eat a lot of. But I thought, if I make this again, I will use a hearty green, like escarole, or better yet something that can absorb the dressing without melting like frisee. And I might crisp the prosciutto. And maybe croutons would be better than potatoes, or a nice addition for chew. 

Then I realized, this was just a salade Lyonnaise. Salade Lyonnaise is lardons, frisee, poached egg, croutons, vinaigrette. It is an important dish, a foundation of Lyonnaise cuisine, itself founded in the 16th century when Catherine of Medici brought her chefs to France and ordered them to cook with produce sourced around the country. It’s about layering fat and flavor. The realization didn’t upset but amused me. I wasn’t trying to make an original salad, but I did feel like it was sort of a crazy combination, until I realized, there are very few, maybe no crazy combinations left in this world. This breakfast for dinner / salad for dinner melange is just another delicious corruption of something old. 

 Contaminated salade Lyonnaise 

 Handful of peas, freshly shucked if you can, gently cooked in boiling water for 1 minute 

Couple slices of torn Prosciutto, or Lardons 

Boiled potatoes, cut in quarters 

 Poached egg 

 Hearty greens 

 for the vinaigrette: 

 1 tsp dijon mustard 

 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar 

 4 tablespoons olive oil 

 Sprinkle of salt 

 Mix the mustard and the vinegar, then slowly add the olive oil and finish with the salt. 

 Place your potatoes, your egg and a few pieces of prosciutto on the bottom of the plate. Toss the remaining ingredients in vinaigrette, then pile up on your plate. Enjoy, outside, if possible, with a glass of French white wine. 

a photo i found online someone took of their salad Lyonnaise from Le Bouchon in Las Vegas. 

 Lots of new wines in this weekend - stay tuned to the store, instagram and also - sign up for our email newsletter using the link on this blog for the deep dive on what’s going on every weekend. Hope you get to shuck some peas soon, if that sounds good to you.

flavors saved my life pt. 2

today I would like to share two things that are of interest to me from Mireille Johnston and M.C. Richards and that I think pair nicely.

I.
A couple months ago I was searching “richard olney” on YouTube, hoping to find something I had never seen. This something ended up being the series “A Cook’s Tour of France” hosted by Mireille Johnston and produced by the BBC. You can find the entirety of the series online uploaded by John Whiting, a food historian and kind of classic gourmand seeming guy. Each episode highlights the culinary traditions of a different region of France and is densely packed with segments in each half hour spot. An ex-professor, she’s able to weave history, politics, and emotion together with examples of cookery so tightly it’s easy to miss some of the nuance she presents.

I have a particular fondness for the first episode of the second season on the Loire Valley, the garden of France. It’s a nice watch for this time in the Midwest because the show features a lot of fruit and vegetable preparations and a great, succinct explanation of what dessert is. But for this edition of “flavors saved my life” it’s the elementary school taste class that really gets me.

It’s so fun to watch the class work to widen their experience, their expressions and shyness feel relatable. Then there is the idea that all five senses are important in our perception of taste as the class tastes five colors of fromage blanc. Cub and I have been talking about sight a lot lately especially as it concerns our tongue and brain’s perception of rosé. Does it really remind us of Italy or is it just dark? There is also the resonance of touch here, for us it would be the wine touching the earth, the winemaker’s hands, technology and aging vessels, your drinking vessel, your mouth, your stomach. So much touch! Lastly, the sweet sentiment: Here they are learning how to be attentive to a wide variety of fragrances, tastes, aroma, textures so that they can enjoy the pleasures of life fully and hopefully transmit a rich collective memory later.

II.
In her classic Centering, teacher, poet, and ceramicist M.C. Richards writes:

Appreciation requires a discipline of selflessness. I tell them the expression of personal taste is not our primary goal. The development of taste is: the ability to taste what is present. I try to exercise this sleeping or lethargic member by making it clear that I am not primarily concerned with what we like. I am concerned with our power to grasp, to comprehend, to penetrate, to embrace. There are different levels at work here as elsewhere. On the other hand, there is an attachment to liking and disliking that obstructs learning and deeper enjoyment. The right to opinion must be honored without exception, but not all opinions are equally honorable. Though everyone is free to be who he is, ignorance and cruelty are not freedoms.

The shop opens for the weekend tomorrow, we added some new things (mostly to serve COLD) last Friday from Cantina Giardino, Babass, Le Coste, Gilles Azzoni and we have some makgeolli too from Hana based in Brooklyn. DM @rainbow_wines or email rainbowwinechi@gmail.com if you have any questions. Thanks for keeping us busy, ciao!

Styrian Runner Beans for Summer

 As the covid confinement period continues to shift, I find myself thinking about where I’d most like to travel, if anything was safe and possible. 

This time of year, in early summer, I would most like to be in southern Austria, in Styria, or Steiermark, as it’s called in the German language. Styia is known as the green heart of Austria. In May and June, the landscape is extraordinarily verdant and lush. The wines pair especially well with vernal flavors, like fresh farmer’s cheese, spring peas, and even asparagus, a food that can be unfriendly towards wine. 

I got to travel there in early May 2019 with an importer we work with, Jenny Lefcourt from Jenny & Francois Selections. All the winemakers we met were warm, intelligent and kind people. A visit from an importer means winemakers usually go all out to make them feel welcome - in this case as it has been so far in my experience, this felt very sincere. Our first stop was to Franz and Christine Strohmeier, situated on the northern end of the Styria region. My first thought upon arriving was a sense of relief. I felt so comfortable there. A lot of their furniture is low to the ground, bigger and open - I don’t think I would have noticed if I didn’t sense something in them that felt intentional about this choice - to make their place feel relaxed and more continuous with the earth. Their home is built into a hillside, among their vineyards, with small vegetable gardens and their chicken coop placed around little shelves they’ve carved into the steep slopes. Their winery is built underneath their house. 

They believe strongly that vibrancy in the wine depends on biodiversity in the vineyards. Franz has had some difficulty with his own family, including his father who also made wine there before him, and his neighbors, who challenge his philosophy - one that prizes healthy, symbiotic relationships with the land and all organisms over productivity and profits. He seems only to respond with patience. I think maybe this slight conflict also strengthens his resolve, and pushes him to be more bold. For instance, they have a significant sized vineyard that is growing wild, reflecting a willingness to experiment in pursuit of working with nature. 

the wild vineyard

The Strohmeiers are vegetarians and served us a delicious risotto with white asparagus. My first taste of wine at their home was their rosé, from the grape variety called Blauer Wildbacher. Franz makes many dynamic wines - from much admired traditional method sparkling wines, to complex, macerated white wines and expressive reds that he waits to bottle not based on market demand but solely on when he thinks the wine is ready. I love the rosé because it shows his deft hand with maceration and retains the lightness of being that I think is imparted from their harmonious way of life. 

the rosé Karmin I got to taste in bottle was No 8, mostly 2017. We also tasted from barrel what would be the 9th edition. We have the 10th edition in our store now. 

We went south towards the Slovenian border the next day to Sepp and Maria Muster. Like the Strohmeiers, the Musters view their work as winemakers as keepers of the natural balance in their land and region. Their home is also situated around their vineyards, with their winery just across a small courtyard from their living space. They also love to cook and are invested in the cultural lineage of their area. They have a large traditional stove that works like an Aga, holding heat, giving the powerful presence of a warm hearth to their beautiful home. Their wine labels feature the work of their friend, the late artist Beppo Pliem. The paintings represent the natural interaction between earth and sky. For years prior I had been enamored of the Erde wines Sepp ages in anfora and puts in a clay bottle. Erde means soil in German, and this line of wines stands for the commitment to holistic farming and winemaking. 

sepp in the vines

anfora at muster

----

Memorial Day weekend coincides with my partner’s birthday, and we almost always have a bbq. 

Like every time this year, I started thinking about sides and salads that maintain or improve when sitting out at a table in the yard or in a tupperware at a picnic for hours, in the heat, probably, too. 

I knew I wanted to share this amazing wine we have in from Sepp and Maria Muster, Erde, at the bbq. It marries so well with spring flavors, but it also seems to have the power to slow time a bit. It elicits attention and study but it’s not so serious. Its presentation in a clay bottle is fairly commanding. I thought it would make for a nice moment during the day to stop and sip it for a second, to try to make the beautiful afternoon last a little longer. 

When I went to the Muster’s house and winery, they served a delicious bean salad, a staple of the Styrian table. The bean salad is a perfect dish for something that keeps its integrity over time. It really has just two key ingredients - the beans, which are very large, scarlet runner beans, and pumpkin seed oil, a delicacy identified with the region, called kernol. The oil is expensive because it takes about 5 pumpkins to produce a quarter of a cup. It has a low smoke point, and is not suitable as a cooking fat. 

I’m not usually a fan of ‘finishing oils’ - coming of age in the aughts as a little brat foodie I grew to hate truffle oil, walnut oil, etc. From what I can tell pumpkin seed oil had a celebrity chef moment when Austrian chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck put it on his pizzas - but it was somehow spared the overexposure of truffle oil. Maybe because it’s quite a bit more earthy. It is also a rich, dark green, almost black color, something maybe not all diners would go for. I love that about it. The richly colored runner beans coated in ‘the green gold’ of Styria look like gemstones in your dish. 

When I’ve made this, I find the pumpkin seed oil is beautiful, but I longed for some fruitiness from olive oil to balance its pungent nutiness. We have a fruity olive oil from Paterna that worked well - I added just a little. If you add olive oil make sure it’s not too green and sharp. 

Marinated Bean Salad inspired by how they make it in Styria but a little different

Scarlet Runner Beans

Pumpkin Seed Oil (you can find this online, that’s what I did. Buy in small quantity as it doesn’t keep long after opening) 

Olive Oil 

Salt 

Lemon or Wine Vinegar 

Big handful of chopped parsley 

A recent email from Steve Sando, the owner of Rancho Gordo, offered the best bean cooking instructions I can imagine: 

“My current, and so far fool-proof, technique is: bring the beans and water up to a full boil and keep it there for 15, maybe even 20 minutes. Not a gentle simmer but a rapid boil. This initial bullying makes it clear to the beans that you are in charge and there’s no turning back. Then reduce the heat as low as you can take it. If you’re in a hurry, a nice simmer is fine. If you’re cooking for pleasure, the gentlest of simmers is best. Low and slow and loaded with love.” 

His general advice is to soak if you have time, but if you don’t, it’s not a problem - it just means the cooking time might be a little longer. 

He doesn’t mention anything about aromatics, but since I had things in the fridge to make a bouquet garni, I did. I don’t know really how much flavor it adds, but in the spirit of ‘loaded with love’ the tied bundle of aromatics feels like a little present for the beans on their journey. 

The rest of this salad is pretty much just seasoning to taste. 

Before adding any oil or acidity, season your beans with salt. This will take some time, and, in my experience, a lot of salt. Add pumpkin seed oil, and taste, add more if necessary. Same with olive oil. Then add lemon juice or wine vinegar or both. Add your chopped parsley. The parsley is key because it absorbs any excess dressing and then wraps around each bean.

Let marinate for a few hours if you can before enjoying, or eat some right away then savor it over a few days, kept in the fridge. 

The Muster & Strohmeier wines mentioned here are available now in the store. We have many new wines in this week from Milan Nestarec just over in Czechia, as well as from Southwest France (Simon Busser) and the Loire Valley (Domaine Bobinet) and also from California (Sonoma Mountain Winery)! Lots to taste! Email us at rainbowwinechi@gmail.com or DM us @rainbow_wines anytime if you'd like us to make any selections for your or have questions - tasting notes will be coming soon. Have a wonderful week.  

a few questions for Atsunori Satake

There were about six months where, if you were at my house, you were drinking wine out of a cup made of clay. I had really just started serving wine at home to guests and the choice of vessel extended the feeling that I wanted them to have, cradled in a hand and soft. I also liked that your mouth was touching where someone's hand had made an impression, the fingerprints in the cup making clear the fingerprints in the wine. Or that was my idea, but in reality the glazed vessel does make the wine soft on your palate carrying more of the qualities of the finish on the cup than the wine itself so the switch to tasting glasses was made. This experiment in what is gained and what is lost in difference of vessel made me keen and always interested in others' experiences and cup preferences. My friend Riley and I have talked about this a lot, he liked to reminisce about drinking wine out of tumblers at Luce in Portland, where he used to live. He says in a tumbler the wine feels immediate and approachable. Every time I drink wine out of a glass like that I drink very fast.

This might be why last summer he asked me if I had heard of Vineria Il Passagio in Tokyo. When I told him I hadn’t he immediately sent me their Instagram full of bottle shots with shells and unglazed clay vessels positioned next to the wine. I couldn’t stop scrolling, trying to imagine drinking familiar wines out of unfamiliar vessels. The collection of pictures reminded me of some thoughts I’ve had but have been afraid to pursue but expressed with a confidence I still can’t summon. I’m working on it for myself, to write to you all about this, but for now I want to make sure you see a little bit about this wine bar.

I DMed the proprietor, Atsunori Satake, and asked if he would have the time to answer a few questions. He graciously offered his time to me and I’m so grateful. Out of respect to him I’ve kept it short and sweet on my end. I hope that his insights and ideas inspire your approach to your next glass of wine and perhaps the other things you touch/that touch you. Google translate provided my translation and Atsunori provided his own, I’ve included both the Japanese and English in our conversation.

How long has Vineria Il Passagio been open? Vineria Il Passagioはどのくらい開いていますか？

Vineria Il Passaggio has been open since 2013 ヴィネリア・イル・パッサッジョは2013にオープンしました。

Who are your mentors or who inspires your work most? あなたのメンターは誰ですか、それともあなたの仕事を最も刺激するのは誰ですか？

I have no mentor.The people who inspire my work are those who face their senses of all genres. For example, athletes, biologists, painters, potters, writers, physicists, philosophers, mathematicians, chemist, etc.

私にメンターはいません。私の仕事を刺激する人は、あらゆるジャンルの自らの感覚に向き合う人たちです。例えば、アスリート、生物学者、画家、陶芸家、作家、物理学者、数学者、化学者、などです。

Where do you find your vessels? 船はどこにありますか？

I'm looking for a vessel in Japan. My favorite potter is Yukiharu Kumagai, a earthenware potter.

器は日本国内から探しています。好きな作家は、土器作家の熊谷幸治です。

Will you explain your philosophy of pairing wine and vessel? ワインと器を組み合わせるというあなたの哲学を説明していただけますか？

e philosophy of combining wine and vessels starts with the idea that “I am in the position of wine."

The traditional method of serving wine has been "how people can enjoy wine". My philosophy is “how wine can enjoy”. 

If there is a correct answer to the taste of wine, I feel that it is there.

ワインと器を組み合わせるという哲学は、「自分がワインの立場になる」ことからスタートしました。

これまで行われてきたワイン提供の方法は、「人々がワインをどのように楽しむことが出来るか」でした。私の考え方は、「ワインがどのように楽しむことができるか」です。もしワインの味わいの正解があるならば、そこにあるような気がしています。

This old post really spoke to me, will you talk about your idea behind it? この古い投稿は本当に私に話しました、あなたはその背後にあるあなたの考えについて話しますか？

My idea behind this post is about the importance of tactile sensation. 

Specifically, the sense of touch also has sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Therefore, I think that when we drink wine, we also taste it tactilely. 

In my experience, drinking wine with vinyl gloves blocking the sense of touch makes it taste bad. The taste goes far.

この投稿の背後にある私の考えは、触覚の重要性についてです。具体的には、触覚には視覚、聴覚、嗅覚、味覚もあるということです。よって、私たちはワインを味わうとき、触覚でも味わっていると、私は考えています。私の経験では、ビニール手袋で触覚を遮断してワインを飲むと、味わいが悪くなります。味わいが遠くに行ってしまいます。

What inspires your drawings and when do you draw? 何があなたの絵に影響を与え、いつ描きますか？

 I draw whenever i want. I've never been inspired by anyone.

I don't mind if it’s not good.I try to draw my own feelings without lying or deception. I think that will lead to my growth.

絵はいつでも好きな時に描きます。誰かに刺激を受けたことはありません。下手でも良いから、嘘や誤魔化しがない自分の感覚を描こうとしています。そのことが自分の成長につながると考えます。

How has your project changed over time? あなたのプロジェクトは時間とともにどのように変化しましたか？

First of all, when I started Vineria Il Passaggio, I was using a regular wine glass.

Two years later, I take various glasses to better serve the wine.

The glasses used at that time were Zalt glass(Austria),Radikon glass(Slovenia ),Gravner glass(Italy),Baccarat glass(France),etc.

A year later, I started to feel something wrong when drinking natural wine in a wine glass.

Just then, I met a pottery cup.

I bought that cup, and put some natural wine in it and drank.

In that taste, something wrong I felt disappeared. And next I tried using a pottery cup without glaze. Its taste made a great impression on me. For wine, I feel that a vessels can be likened to a microscope to see the landscape of its taste.  I felt that the landscape of wine was in focus by ungraded cup.

I started letting go of the wine glass the next day.

the next three years, I found a lot of vessels and studied their compatibility with wine every day.

Now I mainly use earthenware and shells. Studying will continue in the future.

まず、私がヴィネリア・イル・パッサッジョをスタートした時、私は一般的なワイングラスを使っていました。当時使用していたグラスは、ザルトグラス(オーストリア)、ラディコングラス(スロヴェニア)、グラヴネルグラス(イタリア)、バカラグラス(フランス)などです。

それから一年後、ナチュラルワインをワイングラスで飲む時に違和感を感じはじめました。

ちょうどその時に、陶器のカップに出会いました。そのカップを買い、ワインを入れて飲んでみました。その味わいからは、私が感じていた違和感が感じられなくなっていました。そして次に、釉薬のない陶器のカップも使ってみました。

その味わいは私に大きな印象を与えました。ワインにとって器は、その味わいの風景を見るための顕微鏡に例えることができると私は感じます。釉薬なしの器によって、ワインの風景にピントが合ったと感じました。そして私は翌日からワイングラスを手放しはじめました。そしてそれからの3年間で、器をたくさん見つけてワインとの相性を毎日研究しました。今は土器と貝殻を主に使っています。これからも研究は続きます。

There will maybe be some new wines later this week which we're looking forward to. DM or email us to talk about which wines do well out of plastic cups at a picnic or to get ahead of the new stuff. We always enjoy talking to you. Cheers:)

-Emily

for the love of giambotta

 Lately, whenever I call my friend Dario it’s the afternoon, and he is making himself and his family pasta for lunch - yesterday it was carbonara, last week it was bolognese. Actually I think the Bolognese sauce was for serving in Giambotta, his pizzeria, that evening, but the point is, Dario is often cooking for other people and for himself. 

We got to know Dario because of Giambotta, but before Giambotta existed. 

The story goes back to 2018, when Dario bought a bottle of wine from Abruzzo, Italy, made by the winemaker Iole Rabasco. He chose the wine for its unusual look - it was in a clear glass bottle, and it had a handwritten-looking label, both of which reminded him of the wines his uncle’s friends would make in their basements in Bridgeport. He took the bottle home and chilled it. He opened it and thought it smelled terrible. He was upset - he had selected this wine and felt disappointed. Something distracted him for about half an hour, then he tasted the wine again, and thought, this is one of the best wines I’ve ever had. 

I love this story because a lot of people tell me when they first try natural wine they find it unpalatable, but that they find that very quality exciting. They say, it smelled like shit! and seem happy about that. That is a totally reasonable feeling and experience, but it says something about Dario’s sophisticated appreciation of wine that it wasn’t love at first sip. Em says that wines tell you how to drink them when you learn how to speak to them. I think in this story that begins Dario’s relationship with natural wine, that is what unfolds, an exchange between the Rabasco and him, that could only happen if he was open to it, if he gave it another try. This is his spirit and the energy of Giambotta - generosity. 

He wanted to share the Rabasco with other people, and contacted the importer from the back label of bottle, who connected him with Mac, our other friend who is a distributor and who introduced us to Dario. Mac went out to Plainfield, Illinois, a nice town southwest of Chicago where Dario lives, to meet him and taste wines together. They say they had a lot of beautiful wines open. It was then and there that Dario knew he wanted to have a place where he served natural wine, along with pizza and antipasti. Unlike a restaurant looking to top off a predetermined concept with whatever beverage program is of the moment, the inspiration for Giambotta begins with natural wine. 

 a wine from Rabasco & some fritti

Dario is Italian-American. His father, Robert, moved to the US with his family when he was 10 from Calabria, where there’s a town named after Dario’s great-grandfather. Robert worked in the industry for a while and eventually opened his own restaurant in 1985. He now owns Capri Sogno in Plainfield. Giambotta opened in 2018 just down the street. 

There’s a sign above Capri Sogno that reads scuola vecchia, old school. When I first heard about Dario and his Dad, and Capri and Giambotta, I was tempted to think of Giambotta as the nuova vecchia. Father and son, old and new, martini bar and natural wine bar. I thought, here’s this young guy who likes wild and crazy natural wines. 

It’s not really like this. Dario chose to serve a traditional, 48 hour proof, soft dough Napoletana pizza, because he admires its handmade nature, how it is made with care and how it connects to a history of taste. The same ideas run through his love of natural wine - the craft and care involved, and the respect for existing knowledge. Sometimes natural wine seems to have a reputation of resisting systems and authority for its own sake. Natural wine does often resist systems and authority, but only because when those things are applied inequitably, unjustly. In his approach to food and wine, Dario is able to parse out what traditions do and don’t have integrity and relevance. He admires the VPN (Verace Pizzeria Napoletana) for upholding tradition but also for being generous with knowledge and resources with anyone interested. From that organization he started researching intensely about dough make up and says, that’s where the nerd started. 

Dario also had worked for the Chicago Pizza Boss, which was where he met the talented pizzaiolo of Giambotta, Mo. Mo is Roman-Egyptian, and would make a different style of pizza, a thin crust Roman style, for the staff as a snack after the shift. They now have it on the menu - so you can have Romana or Napoletana. 

The food at Giambotta is consistent and wonderful. Dario says he is not a chef, and thus looks to what he knows works, what he likes and identifies with. Under his curation, there is nothing wrong with delicious antipasti, fritti, polpetti, pasta and pizza - indeed it is why I drive an hour to eat and drink there. You should too. 

Dario made some selections of his favorite wines from Rainbow! 

Le Coste Rusticone, Zumito Frizbee & Paterna Olive Oil  available now in our store.

We have some exciting new wines perfect for early summer, a fresh pet nat, iconic orange wine, enigmatic 'white from red grapes' and garden-ready lambrusco. Let us know if you have any questions, concerns, wine dilemmas, joys, crises, we are here for you. Email rainbowwinechi@gmail.com or DM rainbow_wines. Have a beautiful weekend!

-Cub