Edible Delirium

Okay, something is seriously wacky with the cheese people. First, pink prosecco cheese. Now this: Finlandia cheese company has created an edible cheese wine glass and edible cheese beer glass. At first, I thought, “okay, I’ll get one as a gag gift (really a gag gift) for WineSpeed’s publisher since he likes cheese.” But then I found out each eat-me glass cost $5000. And then I discovered you could only buy the glass on Facebook (beat that op-ed Amazon) and only on one day—last Wednesday. I swear if eat-me glass went viral, I’m in the wrong business. Your complimentary subscription BrieSpeed will arrive next week.

A chocolate flavor in wine comes from oak barrels.

Answer: False.

Maybe. Okay, we know that “maybe” isn’t exactly true or false, but it’s not definitely clear where a chocolatey or cocoay character in wine comes from. Some of the experts I’ve talked to do say that oak barrels that are toasted at a certain level produce chocolatey flavors in red wine (barrel fermented or barrel aged whites usually don’t display chocolatiness). But other experts note that chocolate flavors can simply be a characteristic of very ripe high-tannin grapes such as cabernet sauvignon and merlot. And still others associate the flavor with a given terroir. (The wines of Rutherford in the Napa Valley are often said to possess a dutched cocoa character). What everyone does agree on is where a vanilla flavor in wine comes from. When most oak barrels are made, the wood is toasted over a fire in order to bend the staves into shape. Toasting causes complex chemical reactions in the wood that result in the creation of various flavors, among them vanillin, a molecule responsible for the flavor known as vanilla. Wines that are not made or aged in new toasted oak barrels almost never taste of vanilla.

“On one particular occasion, André [Tchelistcheff] and I were visiting Sancerre [in France’s Loire Valley], specifically Didier Dagueneau. But before we arrived at the winery, André told us to stop by the road. He got out and walked over to the vineyard, bent down, grabbed a handful of dirt in his hands, rubbed it and then told me to do the same. Then he said, ‘Smell it because that is what you will smell in the wine.’ And he was right. When we tasted Didier’s ‘Silex,’ I was overwhelmed by the aroma and unique mineral character in the wine.”

—Rob Davis, winemaker at Jordan Winery in Alexander Valley, California, talking about his mentor, the late André Tchelistcheff, who is considered the father of California winemaking

Edible Delirium

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