Are you (a) wine illiterate and wish you weren’t? (b) curious about what wine to drink with chicken Caesar salad but afraid to ask? or (c) interested in tasting before you buy?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, let me suggest a visit to Bin 36, the 8-month-old wine bar, restaurant and retail shop–a veritable day-care center for adults who are enchanted by wine.
Although Bin 36 has become a thriving restaurant, that accomplishment, while welcome, is almost secondary, according to owner Dan Sachs. The Dearborn Street space, adjacent to the House of Blues Hotel, was conceived as a place for customers to increase “their appreciation and understanding of wine,” Sachs says.
The core of the concept is a rotating selection of 50 wines that are sold by bottle, 6-ounce glass portions and 2.5-ounce tasting portions. To encourage comparison, the wines are divided into 12 “flights” of four or five wines each. You might, for instance, taste chardonnay, sauvignon blanc or pinot noir from different regions of the world, a selection of wines from Alsace in France or sweet wines of varied lineage.
There’s information about the wines on a list of flights, and servers are expected to be knowledgeable as well. Indeed, the system fails if the servers are not helpful and encouraging. Since the repertory changes, it is likely that satisfied customers will return and bring friends.
To complete the wine-food connection, each menu item is accompanied by a recommendation of one or more compatible wines.
Brian Duncan, whose job it is to choose the wines and make the matches, mixes well-known producers and locales with personal picks of virtual unknowns. To him, it’s an ideal time for Chicagoans to jump into the lake of wine available here and learn to swim. “The quality (of wines available) is so high and the reach is so broad,” he says. “There is no shortage of options for our guests, or for us for that matter.”
Matching wine to food, Duncan will tell you, is partly chemical. Relative degrees of sweetness, acidity and viscosity matter. So do intensity and depth of flavor, temperature and seasoning. But it’s partly visceral as well. Comparative tasting provides frames of reference and develops personal preference, which can-and often does-trump science and traditional wisdom.
Bin 36 chef Bernard Laskowski can play hardball when it comes to the matching game. Duncan is pressed to return a winner when the chef serves his chili-spiced braised veal shank with smoked cheddar grits or scallops with braised oxtails and lentils.
At home, you might want to try something simpler. Here are two recipes that will enhance wine and be enhanced by it. For comparison, with the meat loaf I recommend an Australian shiraz and a syrah from California’s central coast or two or three samples of either one. With the walleye, try two or three chardonnays from a single region such as Sonoma County.
JAMES BEARD’S FAVORITE MEAT LOAF
Eight to 10 servings
2 pounds ground beef, chuck preferred
1 pound ground pork or mild pork sausage
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 fairly large onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon summer savory
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Bacon or salt pork cut in strips
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly blend the meats, garlic, onion, seasoning and crumbs. Add the eggs and blend again.
2. Arrange the bacon or salt pork slices on the bottom of a shallow baking pan or dish 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep. Form the meat into a rectangular loaf and lay it upon the strips. Lay a few additional strips of bacon or salt pork across the top of the loaf. Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Test with a meat thermometer and when the center has reached 150 degrees, it is done. Baste several times during baking.
3. Serve hot with a tomato sauce or cold with mustard.
–From “James Beard’s American Cookery”
MY WALLEYE WITH BEURRE BLANC
Two servings
1 walleye fillet, about 1 pound
Salt and freshly ground pepper, white preferred
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large or 2 medium shallots, halved and sliced very thin crosswise
1/4 cup each white wine vinegar, champagne preferred, and chardonnay wine
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh tarragon, optional
2 tablespoons finely chopped tomato, optional
1. Rinse the walleye and pat dry. Remove any surface bones. If the fillet is too long for available skillets, cut in half crosswise.
2. Season the flour liberally with salt and pepper. Dust the fish on both sides with the seasoned flour. Pour oil into the skillet.
3. Combine shallots, vinegar and chardonnay in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Reduce liquid over high heat until only a tablespoon remains. Remove from heat.
4. Heat skillet until oil shimmers. Add fish, skin side down, and cook about 6 minutes. Turn and cook 2 minutes longer, or until firm and cooked through.
5. While the fish is cooking, finish sauce. Working on and off low heat, begin adding cold butter to the pan a tablespoon or two at a time, whisking constantly. The butter will become viscous but must not liquefy. Season sauce with salt and a few drops of vinegar, if desired. Stir in optional tarragon and tomato.
6. Remove skin from cooked fillet(s), cut in half crosswise if whole, and transfer to two plates. Spoon sauce over the fish.
