Adernats Cava Cathedral - Come for the Wine Stay for the Hazelnuts

As I mentioned previously, here in this post, I was part of a hosted team that toured the Cava region of Spain last month for the 50 Great Cava’s Tour in the Penedès.

Above right, Lara and Kathy “lean in” for more information

Our first stop was at Adernats Vinícola de Nulles where we discovered the César Martinell designed wine cathedral--an homage to modernism with a hat tip to Antoni Gaudí. This is the place to taste Cava and ponder the elements of architecture and structure in wine.

We walked the grounds around the vineyards and examined the rocky clay and limestone soil. The vineyards have little change in temperature from day to night, but a sea breeze gives respite from the heat, and allows for good acid and sugars to develop.

Adernats is part of a co-op that was formed after the phylloxera devastation in the region. Adernats also produces other products within the co-op including a superb olive oil, honey, fruit jams and hazelnuts.

Confession: I hate hazelnuts. I think Nutella tastes like poison. The smell of hazelnut flavored coffee makes me recoil. In short; I've never met a hazelnut I liked. But my abhorrence of hazelnuts came to an end at Adernats. Cava and hazelnuts might just be the perfect pairing.

Maybe I've just never had a good hazelnut before or all the previous ones were rancid, but the nuts at Adernats were a revelation. The slightly oily and full rich flavor of the toasted hazelnut was a sublime pairing with the crisp dry Cava. Perhaps the winery should be called Adernuts!

Cavas tasted:

Reserva Brut Nature Cava DO

Reserva Brut Cava DO

Gran Reserva Brut Nature Cava DO (bottled fermented 40 months)

All were a blend of Macabeo, Xarel•lo and Parellada grapes.  

We also tasted one of the 50 Great Cavas -- The XC Gran Reserva Cava DO crafted from 100% Xarel•lo grapes and barrel fermented for five months, followed by 45 months of secondary fermentation in the bottle. 

This was my favorite Cava of them all. It had a lightness of being, yeasty with notes of spiced pears and apples and grounded with wonderful minerality. 

Our host looks a bit like Sergio Garcia here, no?  

As we popped nuts, sipped Cava and contemplated the architecture, I chatted with Ms. Lara Dunston of Grantourismo and noticed her pockets were stuffed with nuts. How they got there is anybody's guess. I suppose good hazelnuts are hard to come by in Cambodia.  

After the Cava tasting we were led up to the top of the winery for an outstanding dinner in the rafters above the tanks.

Watermelon anchovy gazpacho? Yes, Please! Watermelon and anchovy may sound weird but I loved it. I love anchovies with everything so this was a special treat, there was also some olive oil and tomato in the gazpacho to round out the flavors.

During the meal we donned blindfolds which added to the heightened sensory experience and gave the evening a slightly naughty Eyes Wide Shut tinge. While blindfolded we were given several food items on a wooden skewer including a cherry tomato, watermelon, and pineapple and asked to identify what they were. I must say trying to eat anything off a skewer while blindfolded is an accident waiting to happen. Fortunately the blindfold served as protection from getting poked in the eye.

I’m not sure what the above dish was called but it was AMAZING - a mélange of flavors with pine nuts, salmon, cream, balsamic vinegar, and my new best friend, hazelnuts. 

The winery holds dinners once a month that are open to the public. If you are going to be in the area, contact the winery and make plans to attend. The inspiring surroundings, fine fare and excellent Cava's make for a notable evening.

Resources:
Adernats Vinícola de Nulles
http://www.vinicoladenulles.com/

How Did You Get Here? My # 1 Search Term of the Year.

As the year draws to a close it’s only natural to look back and reflect on what went down in 2010. I’ve had this wine blog for almost two years now and this year showed a marked increase in traffic to Come for the Wine. I’d love to think it’s because of my witty outlook and scintillating take on the wine world at large, but it’s much less honorable than that.

After reviewing my blog analytics for the year it has been revealed that the number one search term that brought people to my site this year was: “nuts and wine”. Nuts & Wine!!!

Apparently there are boatload of folks looking for information on nuts and wine and I seem to be the person to give it to them because about 60% of the people who come to my site with that search parameter stick around… for quite a while!

Nuts & Wine. Make of it what you will. I guess it’s not a complete random act that this search term delivers my blog as a result. After all, I did write a few things that do fit the category like: The Danger of Pine Nuts. And oh yeah my post called Pairing Nut's with Wine probably started it all. Or perhaps it was the Lamrusco incident that lead people to think I was nuts?

Go figure. I guess I will just embrace it. After “nuts & wine” the second most popular search term was “type of blogger” or “crazy type of wine blogger” which lead people to my most popular post of the year:

The Five Types of Wine Bloggers: What Kind of Wine Blogger Are You?

This post of course was a joke but you would not believe how many people took it as a serious treatise on the state of wine blogging. {well maybe it is} But Helloooo! Satire while grounded in the truth is still a parody, humor, and mirth! It’s amazing how many people don’t get the joke.

It’s been a good blogging year though and I have been very fortunate to get the opportunity to taste some amazing wine and meet some incredible people this year.

Highlights include events at:

2010 Diageo Chateau Estate Burgundy Tasting { I'm still thinking about the wines I had that day}

Meteor Vineyards

Willamette Valley

Hands on Harvest at Gloria Ferrer

In retrospect I have to say-- “Wine Blogging has been bery bery good to me.”* In fact I’m off to Portugal in the new year mostly because of this blog, so I can’t wait for that and look forward to blogging all about it in February. *{if you are too young to get that joke Google SNL-- Baseball has been bery, bery good to me}

I want to thank everyone who invited me to taste their wine this year and gave me so many great experiences to write about.

Happy 2011! Here’s to you and a new year filled with less nuts and more wine.

The Dangers of Pine Nuts

Have you heard of Pine Mouth? If you value your palate, or if your work depends on your ability to taste accurately, read on about this very disturbing condition. In the last year there have been reports that pine nuts imported from China have been causing unusual reactions in some people that range from a mild metallic taste in their mouths to a complete loss of taste for up to 14 days.

I've eaten pine nuts all my life and never had a problem till this past year. In the past 10 months I've had pine nuts from Sun Ridge Farms that are supposedly from Santa Cruz and experienced bad reactions with two different bags. But other times I’ve used Sun Ridge Farms and had no reaction. The bag states they are manufactured in Santa Cruz, but the package copy reads: “Our buyers travel extensively throughout the world to visit farms and ensure we pack only the freshest, most delicious and highest quality nuts and seeds available.” Well then that might explain the inconsistency in the packages. It seems that Sun Ridge Farms does not grow pine nuts, they just source them. Perhaps some of those “high quality" nuts came from China?

The same thing has occurred with pine nuts bought in bulk from Whole Foods. Sometimes they were fine and sometimes not.

How I used them did not seem to matter. I once made pesto and experienced a 12-day period of metallic taste and slight tingling burning sensation on my tongue. I also had a bad experience when I lightly toasted the nuts and tossed them over roasted broccoli.

It is only after I searched for the causes and symptoms of severe “metallic taste” that I came across the “pine mouth” posts (see more links below) that described my experience exactly. In addition to the bad taste, I noticed a slight swollen feeling and pale coating on my tongue.

In my case, the symptoms came on the day after and sometimes two days after eating pine nuts. In all instances the symptoms went away after 5 to 15 days, with my ability to taste as normal, increasing gradually each day.

The first time this happened it was very disturbing and I kept thinking it was due to tainted almonds or cheerios since that was what I ate when I first noticed the horrible taste. Subsequently, I was able to trace the common denominator of pine nuts in each occurrence.

If you are not sure if this ever happened to you, I can assure you it hasn’t-- because if it did, you would definitely know. It is not a mild annoyance by any means. It’s quite horrible. In fact, if this sensation could be purposefully induced, it would become the worlds best diet aid ever because you really can’t eat it’s so awful. It makes you avoid all food. Drinking wine while this is happening is impossible. It tastes like poison. Scary stuff.

So my big reason for writing this is to warn others. As much as I love pesto and using pine nuts in recipes, I have decided to delete them from my diet forever. I will make an exception when I am in Italy and the pine nuts are local. But otherwise it’s just too risky and who knows what the cause really is? We know so little about our food and where it really comes from. Unless we grow it ourselves, it’s impossible to know. We all know what happened with the pet food from China. I’m not going to gamble with Chinese pine nuts.

My advice to wineries…I would absolutely avoid the use of pine nuts in any recipes you serve for food pairings and forbid your caterers to use them at your events. It would be very easy for someone to mistakenly believe your wine is horrid, when what they are really experiencing is a reaction to pine nuts. None of my pine nut reactions have been instant, it’s always been a day or two later, but why take the risk?

Links for Further Reading:

Epicurious - Got Pine mouth?

Emergency Medicine

Daily Mail - Pine Mouth Puzzle

Pine Mouth” Syndrome. An Emerging Problem?

EXCERPT From Wikpedia-- Risks of eating pine nuts:

A small minority of pine nuts can cause taste disturbances, developing 1–3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. Though very unpleasant, there are no lasting effects. This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001. Some publications have made reference to this phenomenon as "pine mouth". This is a relatively new phenomenon and appears to be most common in nuts coming from China. It has been theorized that the nut trees are absorbing something and passing it on to the nuts, or the nuts themselves are being treated with something before packaging. It is also possible that the nuts have spoiled and are rancid, causing the metallic taste disturbance. Also, it has been hypothesized that this bitter side effect is caused by an allergy that some people may have to pine nuts, but this does not explain the recent appearance of this syndrome. Metallic taste disturbance known as metallogeusia, are reported 1–3 days after ingestion, being worse on day 2 and lasting for up to 2 weeks. Cases were self-limited and resolve without treatment.