Your scribe’s update trip to Italy last month reinforced my opinion that Europe appreciates using more bitter greens for both taste reasons and health benefits compared to North America. Various chicories (dandelion plant family) are utilized there in many ways throughout a meal to great culinary advantage. In America the use seems much more limited to a salad course sometimes including radicchio for colour or some curly endive thrown in. Certainly those bitter flavours take some getting used to compared to our often “sugar” dependent taste preferences. Sort of like learning to enjoy a classic campari & soda as an aperitif or the increasing use of Aperol by the cocktail crowd. However this may be changing as there is a trend developing and it is encouraging to see farms now growing a wider range of these varieties with suppliers trying to make them more available for the consumer. This was brought home at several recent events including “Every Chef Needs A Farmer” written up here previously. Obtained impressive description cards to get to know several of these chicory varieties better plus a recipe on the back of each for a suggested use. Here are 6 interesting ones you might consider to persue further:

1. Chioggia Radicchio – Apple, Fennel & Radicchio Salad

2. Castelfranco Radicchio – Winter Radicchio & Citrus Salad

3. Sugarloaf Radicchio – Sugarloaf Pasta with Lemon & Almonds

4. Punterelle – Punterelle Salad with Anchovy

5. Escarole – Italian Wedding Soup

6. Pink Rosa Del Veneto – Rosa Del Veneto Winter Citrus Salad

You might want to buy some seeds and try growing some of these exciting greens yourself. Should be worth it!

Do you already enjoy a specific chicory bitter green you can recommend with a recipe?

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Question: How can I find a special bottle of older wine I want to purchase that is not available at my liquor store?

Answer: Don’t know where you live but this is a common problem for wine purchasers everywhere around the world. Government liquor stores only carry a limited number of wine listings. Your local wine shop will probably be better in assisting you to locate that treasure you want or put you in touch with the wine agent who acts for the appropriate producer. Lots of larger wine shops have an extensive inventory of wines you can search on their site. Many of the auction houses (including Acker Merrall, Christie’s, Hart Davis Hart, Sotheby’s, Zachys among others) are worth monitoring for top wines coming up for sale. In Ontario check out Waddingtons.ca. However do your own searching on line too. Your scribe still uses wine-searcher.com to check possible locations and especially ball park wine values. Also check out lots of others including winezap.com, wineaccess.com and irongatewine.com. This last one is an Ontario company of President Warren F. Porter & Megan McDonald Sales & Acquisitions Specialist who this week held a Vancouver reception opening 1976 Krug Collection in Magnum plus other collectibles and have an impressive rare wine inventory on their website. Good luck. Enjoy your investigation.

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An important initiative by the British Columbia Government through the Minister of Agriculture (Lana Popham) is a program aptly called “Every Chef Needs A Farmer & Every Farmer Needs A Chef”. It delivers an important timely food message and is something that should be looked at closely by other regions around the world. It provides a wonderful opportunity for chefs, food service professionals, and consumers to connect directly with the farmers, seafood providers, and other local food producers. An extension of your weekly local Farmer’s Market. The Second Annual one was held in Vancouver on November 12, 2019 with interesting exhibitors and panel discussions. The later included:

(a) Success Stories: Hand harvested wild edible seaweeds by Dakini Tidal Wilds; Finest At Sea; B.C. Garlic Growers; Fraser Valley Hazelnuts; Aurora View Farms; The Acorn + The Arbor; Gaia Kitchen; and others.

(b) Opportunities for more BC Foods: Emphasis was on getting more chefs out visiting the farms. Some ideas presented included the use of more berries like huckleberries, haskap (first fruit of the season), aronia (chokeberries), freeze-dried blueberries, peppers, squashes, stinging nettles (as a substitute for spinach), game birds, fresh water fish, bison & buffalo, diverse vegetables grown, olive farms,…

(c) Opportunites for Storage & Distribution of Local Food: Berrymobile Fruit Distribution; Coastline Markets accessing seafood directly and “skip the middleman”, Long Table Grocery, B.C. Co-op. etc.

(d) Videos “Inspired by Farmers” – example Chef Rob Belcham with BC Dairy Association.

(e) “Building a Local Brand for BC Beef” by Kevin Boon of BC Cattlemen’s Association.

(f) Keynote Speaker Executive Chef Ned Bell of Ocean Wise on “The Future of Food in BC”: “Food connects every human” but like “an octopus with many arms needs to all work together” for the produce from our land & oceans. “5 million people with 20,000 farms & 10,000 edible plants in our oceans”. Ned inspired everyone to become more of “a conscious consumer!”.

Your scribe particularly enjoyed connecting with many producers & assisting in their distribution channels through The Chefs’ Table Society of BC (@ChefsTableBC) including these 7:

1. VancouverRadicchio.ca @VanRadFest with farms growing a diverse range of radicchio varieties for salad selections.

2. NaturalGiftSeafoods.com for Wild North Pacific Seafood Products (including Albacore Tuna & Ling Cod) “From Our Boat to Your Table”. – Ian Bryce

3. Vancouver Island Sea Salt @vanislesalt hand-harvested & all natural.

4. BC Fruit Growers’ Association (bcfga.com) establised in 1889 “Changing Times Unchanging Values”

5. Fraser Valley Specialty Poultry (fvsp.ca) “Our Family Loves To Farm and Produce Good Food” – Duck & Goose Farm.

6. West Coast Wild Scallops (wildscallop.org) in Courtenay on Vancouver Island – Joel & Melissa Collier.

7. OrganicOcean.com “Naturally harvested Seafood supplied to people who care by people who care” – Carlos Perez.
Spread the word!

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Question: I like the style of nebbiolo and pinot noir red wines but find them rather expensive. Would you kindly recommend a possible alternative?

Answer: Your scribe is also a big fan of wines using the nebbiolo or pinot noir grapes. I agree they can be rather expensive if you go for the top cru Barbaresco, Barolo, or Burgundy. Some rather new good values to seek out include the expanding Langhe Nebbiolo quality wines, the better Bourgogne AC wines, – both being helped for riper grapes by climate change-  and pinot noir from Alsace, Germany & the New World. Suggest as an alternative you try the Baga (“berry”) indigenous grape from Portugal (especially from Bairrada or Dao) with some of those same characteristics of acid, tannins, food friendly, and some complexity. One top pioneer producer to look for is Luis Pato.

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Milena & Jim Robertson are the longtime driving forces of the successful Vancouver Branch of The International Wine & Food Society. They are also enthusiastic and knowledgeable collectors of port wines. Again last week they generously invited guests to their home this time for a tawny port masterclass. The discussion was lively and ably focused by the participation of Jorge Ramos Export Director of the Fladgate partnership. We started with an fresh aperitif of Vertice quality bubbles from Portugal folowed by the paler 30 year & deeper red complex 40 year Taylor tawny ports. The main flight was a vertical of the six years released so far of Single Harvest Port from 1964 to 1969 inclusive – a first that even Jorge had not experienced before. Your scribe having tasted these previously after their annual individual release dates approached this vertical tasting expecting them all to be quite similiar. Sure they were all delicious and 50+ years old. However they were also all quite distinct as the time spent in bottle plus particularly the vintage conditions of the year played a big factor in their lasting impression here:

1964: Very pale colour, drier, less deep fruit with a rather dull flat nose lacking body but flavourful on the palate.

1965: Even slightly more pale on the rim but open with a stronger slightly green note aroma but a better overall impression than expected.

1966: Second darkest deep colour with attractive coffee, smoky toffee caramel bouquet notes and impressive balanced body weight.

1967: Amber aging look has complex orange rind, passion fruit and spices bouquet best of the flight but leaner less harmony on the taste.

1968: Stylish young with a larger production and more typically tawny of dried fruits with a touch of “paper” on the nose.

1969: Darkest most red looking with deep intense younger fresher fruit statement from only about 1/3 the production of 1968.
Excellent nose on the 1967 but leaner than 1966 that won the day. Got us thinking about 1966 as being the best vintage port year of these six releases (1963 also a great vintage) and it showed in the tawny results too. Next release will be an even smaller production of the 1970 tawny at 50 years of age with anticipation and big expectations for it because 1970 was also a very outstanding port year.

Another port house Krohn founded by 2 Norwegians in 1865 known for their older cask aged ports was acquired by The Fladgate Partnership in 2013. We tasted their 1968 Colheita and young still fresh 1965 Vintage. Fun to compare that lovely 50 year old one with the three times older amazing 150+ year old treasure from their two casks stock released as Taylor 1863 Single Harvest Port. What a wine! Brought back memories of that other gem of Scion limited edition as another pre-Phylloxera beauty. This extra time in wood certainly concentrated both the colour and the body (as happens with old vintage Madeira too) due to 3-4% evaporation annually. So intense with almost the mellow texture similar to a Tokaji Essencia. Heavenly ginger, spice, butterscotch and exotic flavours lifted by outstanding acid balance. Most impressive indeed!

Keen vintage port aficionados are being enticed as well over to the tawny port side based on these unbelievable precious rareties. A salute to the Robertsons, The Fladgate Partnership and all around for unique tawny port.

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