So what are fats? How are they used either as a static component of the ingredients or as an added element in creating a dish? We will simplify the details but these are complex questions requiring a bit of detail in the answers so get on the reading glasses and let's go.

Fats are categorized in three main ways. Fats, oils and lipids. First thing to know is that all fats belong to a group called lipids. however not all lipids are categorized as fats or oils. The primary importance regarding all lipids is they do not mix with water under normal circumstances. Because lipids do not mix with water, they are perfect for forming barriers between water-laden cells. Another attribute that all fats have in common is that as a cooking medium they allow foods to be heated - cooked - above the temperature of boiling water and since they form a barrier as mentioned above, they allow for the crisping of the outer layer of the food, thus trapping moisture inside and providing a barrier to moisture from permeating the food from outside.

Fats and oils are created by animals and plants as a way to store energy. Since fats pack twice as many calories per equal weight as sugars or starches, it is obvious why we love them so much - whether we consciously know it or not. They automatically feel like sustenance and therefore are quite addictive in the scope of our overall caloric intake. More bang for the buck? The body says YES!

So now that we know the basics of what fats are, and what they do, let's look at the most common fats. Fats from animals, like lard (rendered fat from pigs) or suet and tallow (rendered fats from cows and sheep) are saturated fats. A fat is "saturated" when it is tightly packed - or saturated - with hydrogen atoms. While they are unhealthy, saturated fats are great to cook with as the regular structure of the saturated fat molecules allow it to stretch out and lay down a perfectly even surface for cooking. They also feel smoother in the mouth thus making them seem like a good thing to eat.

The most common fats used in western culture cooking today are butter, pork fat, fruit oils like olive and avocado, vegetable oils like soy, corn, sunflower, canola and safflower, and margarines. This of course is dependent on where you live. In Africa and many tropical zones, suet and tallow, palm, peanut and coconut oils are more prevalent. In the Asian cooking world, sesame and vegetable oils are used as not only a cooking medium but as a flavoring agents as well. There are also many nut oils who's use is also predicated upon geography, such as walnut, almond, pecan, macadamia and pinenut. Seeds also produce popular fats - like sunflowers, flax, mustards, melon, apples, sesame and more. These are all fats used in dishes around the world every day.

"So?" I hear you say... "what does this have to do with beer, wine and other beverages?" A lot!

When you put something fatty in your mouth, several factors come into play. For our purposes, the one primary thing that happens is the fat coats and blocks various taste buds (papillae) - the flavor receptors, on your tongue - and by doing so makes the acids in the food and the beverage appear to smooth out. In the most basic equation, the fattier the food going into your mouth, the higher acidity the beverage can have without the drink feeling like it's going to rip your gums open. Now that does not solve the pairing question entirely because flavor profile and body weight also must come into it, but that is for another article.

With this simple equation in mind we now know that foods that are high in fat, can actually taste and feel refreshing to eat, when paired with a beer that has high levels of carbonation - such as a lager; or a wine that has high levels of acidity, like a Sauvignon Blanc or a young red like Nebbiolo-based wines from the Piemonte region of Italy. Conversely, we can choose to emulate and indeed boost the heaviness of a fatty dish by using a beverage with very low levels of acidity, thus allowing the fatty profile of the body to be upheld and thus amplified. A good example of this is the classic pairing of lobster with a rich Chardonnay, or a traditional Irish Stew with a rich stout.

These two avenues for pairing come under the headings of complementing (using fat and heavy together without acidity) and contrasting (a fatty profile with a counteracting, high-acidity drink.)

This of course leads to many questions. Which is which? How do I know which wine is high in acid? Which beer should I serve with salad? Do acid and acid go together? Now there is a great question thank you, and I would be remiss if I did not address that ... in my next article in this series.

There's some food for thought for you - now get in the kitchen and cook!

Vashon Island still hosts farmland, raising everything from cattle and sheep to fruit, vegetable and flowers for market. One thing however that does not grow on Vashon Island is vitus vinifera - the predominant family of grapes that give all of us our classic high-quality wines. Normally one would write off Vashon as a suitable place to build a winery of any repute, but then Andrew Will Winery, with Mr. Chris Camarda at the helm, is not what most consider an everyday, normal winemaker or winery owner.

Being in the wine industry as a retailer and sommelier had exposed me to many of the wines this small winery produces and except for several bottles that I have kept for aging (because aging to a heightened level of elegance is something that Andrew Will wines do very well,) they have all been what can only be described as fantastic, putting to shame many wines from better-known producers. However, fame and popularity have eluded Andrew Will Winery. Even with high scores and accolades from respected wine raters Robert Parker and Stephen Tanzer, who have hailed Mr. Camarda as one of the best winemakers in America, few outside of the wine industry have heard of Andrew Will. This turns out to be a blessing for those of us in western Washington as we can still obtain these wines - for now.

Catching the Washington State ferry from the Southworth terminal for the short 10 minute crossing to Vashon, I was filled with excitement and anticipation at the prospect of spending time with Mr. Camarda. After the arduous crossing I finally found the unmarked mailbox, leading up a long, unmarked gravel drive, leading to a clearing in the woods where the unmarked house is home for Chris Camarda and Andrew Will Winery. The open property hosts a cubist-style architect-designed home in colors reminiscent of Mr. Camarda’s Italian heritage, a second outbuilding in the same style which serves as a sales office and case storage facility and a longhouse-styled barn which is the winery proper. Here is the place that Chris and Annie Camarda moved to in order to surround themselves with a sense of place that still had a true agricultural feel, and yet was close enough to their primary sales markets to be effective. After all, making wine in 900 square feet of industrial space in Seattle is not exactly fulfilling of the romantic notion of a winery, which is where Andrew Will Winery was born.

On a lesser note I was also curious as to how many people called or wrote asking for Andrew or Mr. Will. The winery is named after Chris and Annie Camarda’s son Will and their nephew Andrew, but with no indication on the bottle labels to explain that fact it is only reasonable to expect that the person behind the helm would be named such. Not a crucial point in the exploration of winery background but Chris smiled at the question with a twinkled eye of amusement and said around 30% or more did just that.

Before moving into the answers to these questions it is prudent to take a look at several factors that describe the wines of Andrew Will. Sublime, as an adjective, is a descriptive term as applied to wine, albeit rarely, for the best produced in the world; reserved to describe classified Bordeaux and rare Grand-cru Burgundy. According to Webster’s it means to “inspire awe due to transcendent excellence or elevated quality” and that is what Chris Camarda’s wines from Andrew Will Winery are all about - in spades. It is rare these days to come across a wine maker who values purity and elegance above heavily oaked, intensely extracted high-alcohol wines and yet, here in western Washington we are blessed with a winery that pursues clean, elegant and focused wines to rival some of the greatest made anywhere. Not that Chris’s wines are for wimps. While all Andrew Will wines show clean, elegant focus with great purity of grape varietal character, they also possess complexity, muscle and depth – a remarkable feat that is the envy of many of his peers.

As you may have guessed Chris Camarda is not your everyday winemaker. He began his love of wine in the restaurant industry while still in his 20’s up north towards Bellingham – close to the Canadian border, when there was no such thing as a fine dining industry in the greater Seattle area. Fortunate enough to have worked for people who valued world-class wine as a part of the overall dining experience, this was at a time when there were only a handful of international and California wines being brought into Washington State.

As he moved on to better opportunities he landed a plum job at Il Bistro in Pike Place Market, where he served as waiter, wine steward and then general manager. Here Chris was exposed to some of the truly great wines of Italy and France, rounding out his exposure from his previous experiences with the early big boys of the Napa scene. This proved to be a double-edged sword however. While Chris was developing his laser-precision palate, he was also developing his alcohol problem.

I prefaced a couple of questions to Chris with “I don’t want to ask anything too personal…” to which he responded with shrugged shoulder and smile – he knew what was coming; I kept it subtle and delved right into alcoholism and the passing of his beloved wife and partner Annie in March of 2005. Chris responded with the gracious candor of a brave man who has been through tough emotional times; with the brute honesty of someone who has faced down his demons. Chris spoke of his alcoholism in absolute terms. Telling of lost days and nights and an addiction that meant more to him than his health or life, he stopped drinking himself towards death in 1985 when he became painfully aware that he was sprinting down a ruinous path reaching out towards a disastrous finish line. He didn’t need to speak of Annie. He said it all in the best way he could – he made a new wine in her honor – the Annie Camarda Syrah, replete with a beautiful flowered label – quite different from all the other labels bearing the Andrew Will logo.

For those of you who don’t know him, Mr. Parker rates wines from around the world using a numerical, 100-point scale - which his legions of fans eagerly await, trusting Bob’s hard-working nose and palate rather than their own. And to top it off, many wines that come under his scrutiny for rating publication are hard to find for a wide variety of reasons. So why do I say Bob rocks?

New-world wines, of which Bob is a big fan, tend to show huge layers of concentrated fruit, high levels of alcohol and too much oak treatment to lend any elegance or balanced structure. They are known as “big” wines and are all the rage these days. They are generally rich and heady with teeth staining color extraction for the reds and thick, almost syrupy textures for the whites. I don’t like these kinds of wines. They are not food friendly and show little in the way of the sublime complexity that I prefer.

This must lead you to the idea that I don’t think Parker has a good palate. Not true - but his palate and my palate don’t agree nose to nose. I like old-world styled wines while Bob prefers new-world wines. Of course there are caveats to all things in life and there are always some elegant surprises that I find in Bob’s recommendations from time to time – but this is the exception, not the norm.

So why do I say Bob rocks? Say what you will about the guy who rates wines – a subjective bit of work if ever there is one. However, Bob has done more for the world of wine than few could ever dream of. Bob is truly an independent. He accepts no advertising in his publication, “The Wine Advocate” and buys all wines that he samples for rating out of a personal budget. Wines which are shipped to Bob gratis for his work are subsequently donated to good charity cause auctions. His character and mission of absolute independence and honesty without the pressures of indebtedness is honorable. That’s a pretty high standard for any to hold dear and yet Bob seems to do it with élan.

By not accepting gifts or advertising dollars, rest assured that Bob actually is independent of and not beholden to producers who may shower others with special bottles, trips, meals, full-page glossy advertisements in their publications, and more (if you know what I mean, nudge nudge, wink wink.)

There is lots of info and bio about Bob out there with all kinds of accolades and admiring histories but I don’t care about that and won’t parrot what’s already been done – all I care about is the wine. So that leads to what has Bob done for me lately? After all – being the selfish and cantankerous wino that I am, what’s in it for me? C’mon Bob – where’s the must?

The first major impact Bobs’ work provoked was the overall quality improvements of Bordeaux region wines – which continues through today. Through sheer exposure and unbiased writing and reviewing, Bob has literally forced Bordeaux to get over its bad self and pay attention to what they do in the vineyard and the winery. Bob isn’t scared of the entrenched power of the Bordeaux elite and refuses to back down in his demand for better wine. Does that mean that I prefer the new-world style of Bordeaux over the old? Nope! While there is an ocean of insipid, thin and vegetal wine that come out of Bordeaux en mass, when Bordeaux gets it right, the elegance and sublime complexity of great Bordeaux is astonishing and memorable. That is not truly compatible with the new style of wine being made there today by the new guard who listens to what Bob preaches: better extraction of fruit harvested later than tradition dictated, oak treatment bordering on the absurd, and alcohol levels approaching those of fortified wines. Many of these new-world wines are subtle as a falling piano.

Secondly, Bob is also partly responsible for the enormous increase in both the production of fine wine, and the interest and enjoyment of wine by consumers here and abroad. America, partly because of Bob, has finally slipped out of its pathetic coma – induced and controlled by the zealot morons who tout abstinence – the prohibitionist absolutists – who kept Americans from fine wine for decades. (If you want proof of this, just look into the history of Pre and post-prohibition wine industry in this country. I can recommend several books and studies on the subject – alas, most are good cures for insomnia, even though the data is pure and damning.) Through Bob’s high-profile, we are finally coming to our senses in this country and embracing wine as part of a good life; one which includes great meals shared with fine friends and family, and a glass or three of excellent fermented grape juice. It really doesn’t get much better than that folks!

The last thing that I’ll blather on about is that Bob is an unabashed French fanatic a Francophile if every there was one. In the days following France’s refusal to get drawn into President Shrubs Iraqi debacle, some “Mericuns” were seen pouring French wine out in the streets – showcased and spurred on by our mass media. How pathetic is that? At my old shop I was called several times and threatened if I didn’t get rid of my French wines. I had the extreme pleasure of booting someone from my shop for the insolent demand for the same. Through it all, Bob kept going to France, rating the best wines in the world and reporting back to us in his unbiased and unapologetic way. Bob’s refusal to jump on the anti-French bandwagon raised my respect for him even more.

So the next time you badmouth Bob, think about what I’ve said and thank him for all he’s done for the world of wine – even if, like me, your palate doesn’t mesh with his. Now if I can just get Bob to embrace the grace and subtle complexity of Burgundy, the Cabernet Francs from Saumur-Champigny and Chinon, or the delicacy and laser precision of the great Rieslings from the Mosel-Saar-Rüwer, we’ll be on the same page so I can enthusiastically back his recommendations. Of course that would mean that I wouldn’t have to taste the wines myself thus passing my own judgment on each wine out there… Hmmm – on second thought – Bob – why don’t you retire!

Cheers,

Larry the Sommelier

Walla Walla is the place to be... farm living is the life for me....

It's January. The stubble of the last wheat harvest sticks up like a flat-top buzz-cut across the dun rolling fields as I head toward town down the rural double-lane highway. An icy layer of fog softens the dells like floating ghostly pillows in the shallow depressions. Silos and barns, horses and farmhouses, tractors and trailers, fruit and vegetable stalls dot the roadside and beyond as I cruise this road I have taken many times before. This is not Napa! When it's not January, looking out over the Walla Walla Valley from any high point is to look at a beautiful pastoral painting. Soft rolling hills sporting changing hues of browns and greens roll off into the distance, etched with patterns of agriculture, punctuated here and there with signs of habitation, livestock and really big sky. It's beautiful American farm land and comes replete with the rich smells and inherent sounds of such a place. That's not to say there isn't a town. As you come over the last crest, the town of Walla Walla is laid out before you looking the very part of a small American farm town that's seeing good times again.

When I first started going out to Walla Walla in the mid-90's there were 12 wineries. Everyone involved in this localized wine world a tight-knit group of friends with an attitude toward sharing knowledge, labor and equipment - a practice that continues. Today there are over 70 wineries in Walla Walla with more on the way. I was on my way to meet up with some winemaking friends to discuss everything from upcoming releases and what's slumbering away in barrels, what new vineyards had been planted and where, and how the oenology program was coming along at the community college. It' s also a damned good excuse to drink a lot of amazing wine, catch up with the recent gossip, cook some great meals with friends and in general have a Dionysian weekend. It was post- harvest, the new wines were slumbering away in tank or barrel, and the holidays were but a memory; everyone was looking forward to some quiet time just relaxing without chores, phones and faxes, emails and winery visitors.

But wait just a minute - let's use the way-back machine and visit hell on earth! The Walla Walla region, in fact the entire Columbian plateau, is perched atop massive basalt flows deposited during the Cenozoic era; layer upon layer of lava continuously roiled out of the earth blanketing a vast region over a geologic age, creating the third largest such formation in the world. Things cooled and calmed down for a while but then came the flood about 15,000 years ago during the last ice age, when continental glaciers spanned the region. It was much more than biblical! If you can imagine a flood carrying the water volume of all the rivers on our planet at once, magnified by a power of 10 - moving across the landscape at 75mph with a depth of several hundred feet... well it's really hard to grasp that picture but let's just say "surfs up" and you better bring a long board!

What set the stage for such an outrageous event? During the last ice age there was a lake as big as the Great Lakes today. It was held in check by an ice dam. It covered Montana. That is until it decided it didn't like the real estate in Montana anymore and yearned to join the sea. Only one problem: the ice dam and the huge stretch of land to the west that was in its way. Eventually the enormous, continuous pressure of the lake water burst the ice dam and the lake drained over the Columbia Plateau, wreaking havoc and scouring out deep canyons and valleys gouging out deep cuts in the basalt layers. As the waters drained, silty alluvial soils were deposited in deep layers blanketing the region. Then the ice dam reformed, the lake refilled and the process repeated itself every 25 to 50 years. Geologic records show these cataclysmic floods occurred in this region 44 or 45 times over a 3000 year period. With each flood a new layer of loess, silt, cobbles and loam was deposited in varying compositions in different areas, building up layer upon layer of fine and complex soils on top of the basalt flows. Amazing and deep complex soils, perfect growing day conditions, clean water, great drainage, the same latitude as Bordeaux and Burgundy - presto - wine country! You're now an expert!

Walla Walla Washington however - even with a great stage setting, is truly an unlikely place to be pegged as the new Mecca of fine wine in the US. It's really out of the way. There are no major metropolitan cities within hundreds of miles (Seattle 275 miles, Boise 260 miles, and Portland 250 miles) and until recently there was little hospitality industry to speak of. So how did a world-class wine industry pop into existence in such a short period of time? For one thing it has a deep agricultural history that dates back to the late 1850's. The early settlers, who of course double-crossed the local Indians (who in turn had a little massacre party,) planted wheat. For several decades in the early part of the 20th Century Walla Walla was the wheat capital of America, a crop still grown in abundance today throughout the Palouse prairie. Then came barley, corn, potatoes, peas, asparagus, apples and pears, dairy and meat farming, the Walla Walla Sweet Onion and much more.

In 1974 Gary Figgins, an ambitious and all around great guy with an Italian family-winemaking history, got a harebrained notion to plant a vineyard. In 1977 the first wine made from that vineyard was bottled as Leonetti Cellars and Gary's first commercial release - the 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon was judged by Wine & Spirits Best in America. Like a firework painting a night sky the Walla Walla wine industry was born. Rick Small, a friend of Gary's decided that maybe he was onto something and Woodward Canyon was born a few years later. These were not some backwoods "I'll drink it cause it's here" wineries. Both Gary and Rick took to winemaking with a dedicated passion, creating stylish and poised red wines that were at once serious and professional. Then along came Norm McKibben. Norm figured that vintners needed grapes. He audaciously planted out Seven Hills and Pepper Bridge vineyards - which today account for nearly 200 acres of fine vines, each showing the unique terroir of their location and orientation. Vineyard planting has continued and increased as new microclimates are identified and now total almost 1,400 acres.

With the success of Leonetti Cellars and Woodward Canyon wineries, and a sudden abundance of vitus vinifera grapes available, others in the valley began to take notice. Roger Cockerline opened Bunchgrass Cellars and Marty Clubb started up L'Ecole No. 41 wineries, the Dunham family started up Dunham Cellars, Gordy Venneri and Miles Anderson teamed up and opened Walla Walla Vintner and Chuck Reininger opened Reininger. Others joined the ranks and all of a sudden people started to notice wines bearing a Walla Walla address popping up all over the state. One of the big changes that occurred though was when a short and very energetic Frenchman appeared on the scene. Funny and personable with a deep French accent, he came to Walla Walla with a deep family history in winemaking from the Champagne region.

Christophe Baron started up Cayuse Vineyards with a dream. From the beginning Christophe farmed biodynamically and started to make single-vineyard Syrahs of profound depth unlike any from American soil. Big scores from Parker soon followed and suddenly Walla Walla was no longer a killer locals secret. All I can say is that the first time I tasted his Bionic Frog syrah I was immediately transported to Hermitage. Big and robust, earthy and gamey, with bold sweet fruit and ultrafine balance - this was a wine to be reckoned with on an international level. It set a whole new standard for what could be done on American land - Walla Walla has never been the same since.

Walla Walla does have its issues though. The area is prone to regular arctic freezes in the winter very 7 to 10 years - which many vignerons take great pains to mitigate. The extreme damage that these freezes incur are fought by burying the canes of the vines before winter, thus ensuring a crop in the coming year. It is an expensive and time consuming chore that nevertheless has to be done. Like a warm blanket, covering the canes prevents a freeze from destroying the canes down to the trunk. This however only works until a really deep arctic freeze sets in; then it will take every bit of equipment and a lot of late nights to prevent the kind of damage that will occur. Smudge pots, big fans, a blanket of frozen water - all will be needed to insulate the vines and save the trunks and root stock when the really deep arctic freeze happens; it's overdue. However enough with the negative - now for the positive: Washington has longer growing days - by 2 hours - than California. The days are often hotter and nights are always cooler than its famous southerly counterpart. This combination makes for ideal conditions for growing grapes. Through this combination grapes come in with perfect levels of sugars and phenolic ripeness at the same time. The really big advantage though is the cool nights: the grapes maintain their natural acidity so the wines show better balance naturally without having to resort to tricks in the fermentation and barrel rooms.

So what are the wines of Walla Walla I hear you scream after all this reading! Sleek, sophisticated, poised, balanced, precise, rich, bold, full of varietal flavor; these are just some of the attributes that have been used to describe the wines of Walla Walla. There is no shyness about the use of oak and yet there is such a deep understanding and sharing of knowledge of how different oak provides differing layers of complexity in a finished wine amongst the brain trust of the Walla Walla wine scene, so it is rare to find a wine that is over-oaked - a problem that other parts of the country seem to have on a consistent basis. The variety of variatals grown in Walla Walla AVA is also astounding: Red grapes are represented by Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Tempranillo, Carmenere, Nebbiolo, Barbera, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Mourvedre. White varietals planted are Chardonnay, Pinot gris, Chenin Blanc, Semillon, Viognier, Sauvignon Banc, Marsanne and Roussanne, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Muscat. A rather outrageous line-up of the best varietals known in the world! Couple that with a local desire to make the best wines in America - weather single varietal, single vineyard wines, or Bordeaux and Chateauneuf styled blends - both red and white, and you've got a region that needs to be reckoned with.

Over the long and very cold weekend we hung around the big farm kitchen table, a fire roaring in the corner fireplace, all had a great time playing chef, enjoying many classic dishes that never seemed to end: a rich and satisfying Cassoulet (thank god we made a ton of of it,) duck confit, steak tartare, various dishes of foie gras, braised root vegetables, incredible desserts of every style, and so much more. The wines were superb and never ending even though at some point or another we all threw up the white flag of surrender. We caught up, pondered the future and reviled the past, solved the worlds problems and invented few new ones. The general consensus was that Walla Walla will not be overrun with Napa-esque Hummer-limo tours, hoards of drunken bicycle riders with bottle-laden pannier bags peddling zigzag from winery to winery, those demanding white zinfandel and sparkling shiraz and so much more that is wrong with other wine-tourism destinations. We all raised our glasses in toast to that and treasured the thought that this, at last, in America, is a real wine region producing world-class wine that just by a lucky act of geography will be left intact to do what it does best.

Salut,
Larry the Sommelier