Fork and Gobble It: New Year's Bubble Buddies

Fridays on the BottleBlog will feature a food-related article, wine pairing, or travelogue. Today, Wine Manager Mark Ricca shares his New Year's Eve.

My co-workers and I are fortunate in that we are doing what we love to do, and we enjoy the company of those that we work with. New Year's Eve is basically the last night of the long and difficult holiday season in this business. We had all been working very hard and given that we'd all be together in a working capacity during the day, I thought it would be a fine idea for us to gather at my home to ring in the New Year. We would be six all together, myself and my wife, and our two other wine managers Debbie Nelson and David Zinman and their respective significant others. Debbie's husband Joe volunteered to make a lasagna for dinner and a chocolate bourbon cake for dessert. I provided appetizers and a green salad. Gatherings like this are especially fun because we all brought something special from our cellars to share. And of course there would be bubbles!!!

Long ago I abandoned the notion that bubbles, i.e. sparkling wines, were just for special occasions. Anytime you're alive and well is a special occasion to me. There is always some form of bubbles in my cellar or more likely, refrigerator, ready for, well... whenever! Tonight, though, I was going to break out something a little better.

A little geekish info first: Note that I use the word "bubbles" as my generic term for sparkling wines. We love many forms of bubbles and refrain from using the more specific "Champagne."

All Champagnes are sparkling wines, but not all sparkling wines are Champagnes. Champagne is a specific region in the north of France that produces the most fantastic sparkling wines in the world IMHO, but many countries have their own form of sparkling wine and lots of those are delicious. Some of them have proper names like Cava from Spain, and Prosecco from Italy. Others are simply sparkling wines, like those from this country. There are lots of options at all different price levels and it's great to explore them and create an occasion.

For our NYE celebration I chose a rose Champagne that I was particularly impressed with, Vilmart Cuvee Rubis. It is a non-vintage (sparkling wine made with juice from multiple vintages) rose that delivers a lot for a very reasonable price (well under $70.00). We got started with that wine and my appetizer offering for the evening, Truffled Chicken Liver Deviled Eggs:

=4 oz unsalted butter
-½ shallot minced
-6 oz chicken livers
-1 oz brandy
-Salt and Pepper
-Green Peppercorn mustard (optional)

Melt the butter in a saute pan, add the shallot and cook until translucent. Add the livers and cook until almost cooked through. OFF THE FIRE add the brandy and carefully return to the heat. If the alcohol fumes contact the flames the brandy will ignite, which is fine - if you are expecting it. Once the flames go out or the brandy has boiled for a minute, take the pan off the fire and stir in the mustard if you desire. Put the contents of the pan in a heatproof container and refrigerate until cool.

Hard boil 8 eggs. My method is pretty foolproof. Place the eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by a full inch. Add a tablespoon of salt for each egg and bring the pot to a boil. Have a timer set for 10 minutes. At the point where the eggs begin to boil start the timer. When the timer goes off, immediately remove the pan from the heat, dump off the boiling water and run very cold water into the pot and allow it to run for about a minute. Drain the eggs and peel them.

Cut the eggs in half as for Deviled eggs and reserve four of the yolks. In a food processor, put the livers and liquid and the four egg yolks, and puree. Add in enough heavy cream to thin the livers to the consistency of toothpaste. Drizzle in some black truffle oil. Spoon or pipe into the egg whites using a pastry bag. Top with finely sliced scallion and a few flakes of sea salt and serve.

Debbie and I gave two classes in the early part of last year on Food and Wine pairing where we sang (not literally) the praises of sparkling wines and salty foods like potato chips, french fries, or in this case, Deviled Eggs.

Six jubilant revelers can absorb wine like a big sponge so after the Vilmart was gone we popped a rose Cava that is a regular in my house, the Llopart Leopardi Brut Reserva 2007. Big Bang for the Buck, this is a vintage rose Cava that is absolutely delicious and inexpensive (around $17.00). Full of strawberry fruit, toasted bread, yeast, and crisp acidity, it is a serious bottle of bubbles for the price. But wait, there's more...

Next up was a non-vintage Brut Champagne, Chartogne-Taillet Cuvee Saint Anne, a personal favorite that we had previously selected to be served at our wedding last year. This is what is known as a "Grower Champagne," because unlike the big house bubbles who contract for their fruit, Chartogne-Taillet makes their wines from vine to bottle. I should point out here that this wine and the Vilmart come from the portfolio of Terry Thiese, an importer who really knows his bubbles. When in the store I like to point customers to the back label of imported wines. Knowing that you like an importer's selections can be a good guide to purchasing wines that you don't know.

We moved on to dinner and several more wines (remember I said we love what we do), toasted in the New Year, and gave thanks that we can do things like this. That in itself was reason enough to celebrate regardless of the date on the calendar.