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Home / FineWaters Diary |
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Shopping the Day Before Yesterday, my husband and I shopped for our picnic lunch at home. Our good friends Tom and Deborah, who had just moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, were in town. They joined us for lunch - a long, leisurely lunch that left plenty of time to catch up on their recent move. Sam and I did not want to cook and, more nostalgically, we wanted to relive the wonderful picnic lunches we had had in the Dordogne Valley in France on our recent hiking trip there with Wilderness Travel. To recreate those menus, we visited a few of the specialty stores in the area. We Plan Our Picnic Lunch First stop was Pascal Epicerie & Wine store in Newport Beach, California, where the food is French as are the wines (and is the fine restaurant, Pascal, next door). My husband bought wine, pates, and cheese, and I looked for fine waters. They only sold small bottles of Evian (France) or Sole (Italy), generally for consumption with the take-out food sold in the store. All this writing and thinking about water had made me thirsty, so I purchased a bottle of Sole sparkling mineral water for $1.99 (330 ml), rated FineWaters Balance Light with just a small amount of effervescence. It had been stored in a cool, but not too cold, refrigerator (less than the temperature for storing white wines), and it hit the spot. Nearer to home, we finished our shopping at Bristol Farms. As nearly as I could tell - because there were different bottled water displays in several local locations in the store - Bristol Farms had between 10 and 12 different brand names of bottled water, both still and sparkling. I had not consulted our resident FineWaters expert, Dr. Michael Mascha, about cheese and water pairings, so I purchased several waters based, in part, on their attractive, unusual or interesting packaging. Pairing Tips for Cheese and Water Later, Michael coached me on pairing water and cheeses, reminding me to serve the water at room temperature. That definitely makes sense. Cheese is best served at room temperature, and the water should match. It definitely should not "cool down" the cheese, which would degrade the flavor and texture. "Remember," he advised, "with water it's about mouthfeel, not taste as it is with wine. You are not matching flavors, you're matching the mouthfeel." Michael says that "Taste + Smell + Mouthfeel = Flavor." When describing the flavor of water the most important factor is the mouthfeel, which is generated by the size, amount and distribution of the bubbles or the absence of it. Carbonation, or its absence, he says, together with the size amount and distribution of the bubbles are a significant contribution to the mouthfeel of water and the prime focus on matching water and food. Subtle textures go better with FineWaters Balance Still or Light whereas louder textures are more suited to a FineWaters Balance Classic or Bold. "And if you get adventuresome," he teased, "you can try opposing the mouthfeel." "Not yet," I say. For our picnic, Michael recommended a FineWaters Balance Effervescent or a Still with cheese. With a stronger or harder cheese, he suggested a Classic that has a little bit bigger bubble. A FineWaters Balance Classic with Salami As it turns out I had purchased three different brands of Classic water and two Still waters, and we had all soft cheeses. I served one of the Classic bottled waters - Gerolsteiner (Germany), a naturally sparkling water with a high mineral content (2527 TDS) at $2.49 for 1 liter - with the salami. Bottled since 1888, Gerolsteiner comes from the Gerolstein volcanic rock. The town is located in the heart of the Eifel - the wooded highland between Rhine, Moselle and Luxemburg that is filled with extinct volcanoes and crater lakes. Today, Gerolstein is a leading center of the world's mineral springs industry. As with many European waters, it comes in a glass bottle. I enjoyed the Gerolsteiner with the salami - but not the cheeses and pates. It matched the spiciness of the salamis: a Rosette de Lyon saucisson (Pascal) and a dry salami from San Francisco (Bristol Farms). FineWaters Balance Still Works Best with Soft Cheeses The FineWaters Balance Still bottled water was ICE AGE (Canada) at $2.15 for 1.5 liters - a premium glacier water sourced from British Columbia's pristine, remote and protected Coastal Glacier Range at Alpine Creek, Toba Inlet. It is "naturally micro-structured by ice filtration from a time long ago," says the bottle's label, and is "documented to be absolutely the world's purest and softest water." It comes in a cobalt blue plastic bottle, which has been trademarked by the New Attitude Beverage Corp. of El Segundo, California. This water, to my mind, was an excellent accompaniment to the pates, cheeses and white wines. The pates included a chicken liver mousse truffle pate (Bristol Farms) and a country pork pate (Pascal). In the cheese category, we had a special double cream Brie, which Pascal calls its "house" Brie. I can't remember a richer, smoother, more melt-in-your-mouth Brie. The still Ice Age was the right mouthfeel for the soft, creamy cheeses. It also did not compete with the white wine, one of my favorites, a Kistler chardonnay (1998 Dutton Ranch) from the Russian River Valley. The other cheeses - a Carr Valley goat cheese, a Petit Basque, and a chevre La Pointe de Bique (all from Pascal) rounded out the selection. A nice fruit accent was the Turkish apricots from Wild Oats. Just to make sure no one left hungry, Sam threw in melon with Serrano Prosciutto, and a homemade chopped cucumber, heirloom tomato and red bell pepper salad flavored with balsamic vinegar and fresh basil. Our four-hour lunch was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon. We we ended by promising to come to Las Vegas to visit our friends and celebrate our respective wedding anniversaries. Stores Pascal Epicerie & Wine 1000 Bristol Street Plaza Newport, Bristol and Jamboree Newport Beach, CA 92660 Tel: 949-261-9041 Fax: 949-261-9422 Bristol Farms 2080 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90815 Tel: 562-430-4134 Fax: 562-431-1396 Wild Oats Natural Marketplace 6550 E. Pacific Coast Highway Long Beach, CA 90803 Tel: 562-598-8687 Travel Wilderness Travel 1102 Ninth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Tel: 1-800-368-2794 Tel: 510-558-2488 Fax: 510-558-2489 Fine Waters Sole (Italy) Evian (France) Gerolsteiner (Germany) ICE AGE (Canada) FineWaters Balance™ Wines Kistler Vineyards 4707 Vine Hill Road Sebastopol, CA Tel: 707-823-5603 Monday, September 20, 2004
Local Waters at Denver International Airport
Bottled Water for the Flight Home On our way out of town on Monday, Stephanie and I picked up two locally bottled waters at the Denver airport for the airplane ride home. They were Aspen Pure (USA) at $2.75 (709 ml) and Naturally Boulder (USA) for $1.65 (500 ml), both still waters. Both needed to be added to the FineWaters' growing list of bottled waters. Aspen Pure is "bottled at the source in the Rocky Mountains to guarantee freshness and the highest quality." The company donates a portion of the sale proceeds to research on breast cancer, heart disease and muscular dystrophy. Naturally Boulder "comes from a timeless place of snow-capped peaks and journeys to Colorado's prehistorical Arapahoe Aquifer. When it is brought to the surface, it is carefully bottled to ensure the safest quality." Coincidentally, after I got home, FineWaters founder Dr. Michael Mascha directed my attention to a recent report about water served on airlines and asked me to do a story for the October 2004 issue of the FineWaters e-mail newsletter, The Water Connoisseur. I don't know whether I think airline water is safe. I often take a bottle on the plane just to have the water handy. We'll find out. FineWaters The FineWaters List of Bottled Waters The Water Connoisseur - The FineWaters E-Mail Newsletter Is Airline Water Safe? at FineWaters Sunday, September 19, 2004
The Capital Grille in Denver, Colorado
Steak, Steak, and More Steak  Sunday was my sister Catherine's birthday, and we headed for the Capital Grille in downtown Denver. The Capital Grille is all about steak. They are many ways to serve it, but the center of the meal is still beef. Somehow, water and beef did not seem to us to be much of a pairing, and we'd exhausted most of our pairing energy the day before. We spent our time catching up and discussing the events of the day. My niece Gwyn had joined us, and it was a lively group of six women.Hint: Order the Water and the Required Glasses at the Same Time We did order both the still Acqua Panna (Italy) and the sparkling San Pellegrino (Italy). I forgot to specify stemware when I placed my water order, so the waiter had to re-pour the water into wine glasses. Next time, I'll get all the requirements out in the same sentence. For appetizers, most of us ordered the special Poke salad (it's a raw tuna dish originating from Hawaii) with wasabi cream. Hands down, the tuna with the spicy wasabi cream and toasted sesame seeds (which have a strong flavor on their own), paired best with the San Pellegrino (FineWaters Balance ™ of Classic). During dinner, we also agreed that the San Pellegrino worked well to balance the potatoes au gratin. We stuck to wine with the steak, a 2001 Penfolds Kalimna Shiraz "Bin 28" selected by my daughter Stephanie. With dessert we chose the still Acqua Panna, a natural spring water from the hills of Tuscany. The still water did not compete with the subtle flavors and spices of the desserts and provided a perfect complement to the sweetness. High Mineral Content Holds Up to Steak Afterwards I talked to Dr. Michael Mascha, our resident FineWaters expert, and he suggested that the best option with steak is the sparking bottled water Sanfaustino (Italy) with a FineWaters Balance of Effervescent. It has 1207 TDS indicating a high mineral content that works well with beef. Restaurants The Capital Grille 1450 Larimer Street Denver, CO 80202 Tel: 303-539-2500 Fax: 303-870-5422 Fine Waters Acqua Panna (Italy) San Pellegrino (Italy) Sanfaustino (Italy) FineWaters Balance ™
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