South African Pinot Noir & French Olive Oil

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Vino Voices is an e-book that will be republished this summer. Hardback and paperback editions are already available. It is 230 pages long and includes interviews, made in a dozen countries, with more than 45 professionals working in the world of wine. They explain why they love their work. The book includes more than 100 photographs.

Overview—

Included is an overview of a South African winemaker, followed by the bizarre reality of how scarce French olive oil is.

This South African Winemaker Cooks a Stunning Abalone Risotto—

During a visit to South Africa years ago I met many winemakers, including Kevin Grant, owner and winemaker at Ataraxia. Kevin lives in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and his gorgeous property includes a renovated hillside chapel with splendid views.

Kevin makes wines primarily from Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes. He contributed a seafood recipe for my soon to be published cookbook, The Winemakers' Cooking Companion, which pairs with both his Sauvignon Blanc and his Pinot Noir wines.

Kevin also wrote a glowing testimonial for my cookbook:

“The Winemakers’ Cooking Companion is a beautifully conceived collection that captures the natural relationship between wine and food through the hands and palates of those who live it every day. This is a book that will live as comfortably in the kitchen as it does on the coffee table—a genuine companion for anyone who loves fine wine and thoughtful, authentic cooking.”

—Kevin Grant, winemaker & co-owner, Ataraxia Wines, Hemel-en-Aarde, South Africa

Recipe—

The free recipe below, from my cookbook The Winemakers' Cooking Companion, is from Kevin Grant of Ataraxia.

Reminder about the Cookbook—

Click the button below to be notified when The Winemakers' Cooking Companion Cookbook is published in July. If you sign up I'll send you a free ebook that I wrote (to be republished this summer) titled Vino Voices: Wine, Work, Travel, Life which includes interviews with over 40 people who work in the world of wine in a dozen countries.

French Olive Oil—

This past weekend I visited L'oulibo in the town of Bize-Minervois in southern France, which is the largest olive cooperative in the Languedoc historical and cultural region (located within the Occitanie administrative region, got that?). 800 producers bring their olives to this facility to be processed.

The hour long tour was led by a woman named Pauline. We first walked past a 2,400 year old olive tree, which is still alive and still producing olives.

Pauline explained that 40% of the world's olive oil is produced by Spain, while only 0.2% of the world's olive oil is produced by their northern neighbor, France. Of that small amount, 28% of that olive oil comes from the Languedoc (while some 60% comes from Provence and 10% from the Rhone Valley).

We tasted a few of the 15 available olive varieties found in the Languedoc. The Lucques is considered the 'Rolls-Royce' of local olives—favored by chefs. It is only produced in this region of France and includes flavors that are smooth, mild and nutty. It goes well with foods that include fish and potatoes.

We then tasted olive oils. The Cuvée Lucques was, like the olive, smooth, balanced and slightly sweet.

The Picholine, in contrast, felt to me to be the whiskey of local olive oils, providing a peppery throat feel. This feel made me cough and my eyes water. This throat burn has a name in French, which is ardence. ("Cette huile me donne une forte ardence"—or, "this olive oil gives me strong ardence.")

This ardence comes from polyphenols in the olives, which develop to resist pests and diseases. The particular polyphenol known as oleocanthal provides a significant peppery kick, with levels in the hundreds or thousands of milligrams per kilogram in Picholine olives, compared to maybe 10 or 50 in an olive such as Lucques.

This Picholine olive oil goes well with lettuce and salads and tomatoes. These olives are easy to grow and quite common throughout France. They also produce the most oil per olive in the region.

Oil made from the Bouteillan olive, in contrast, is soft and mouth filling and goes well with fruits and shrimp salad.

I purchased three bottles—Bouteilen, Picholine and also Belle Epoque. This third olive oil is made from black rather than green grapes and has smokey flavors (black and green grapes are not different species or varieties; green grapes turn black after they spend more months growing on trees).

What's Coming Next In Vino Voices

I'll soon feature:

• Review of white wines from Friuli in Italy, as well as reds from Napa Valley in California in the U.S.
• Recipe for Tarte Bugiste (Bugey is located about mid-way between the cities of Lyon and Geneva)
• Profile of a Parisian wine TV personality and author.

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