Just as significant has been the rise of the micro-négociant, wine merchants who generally make minute quantities of often superb wines with purchased grapes.
I love these Alpine wines, and a bottle of the Grosjean fumin may cause you to seek out other little-known grapes, like the superb red cornalin and the racy white petite arvine.
Patlican salatasi — mashed eggplant salad — adds a nice touch of smokiness, and the superb Greek salad includes sweet stuffed grape leaves and bits of artichoke.
The best crottin cheese comes from Chavignol, in Sancerre, so is ruled to go best with Sancerre wine, that often superb transformation of the sauvignon blanc grape.
At their best, wines made from these grapes, often cabernet sauvignon and merlot, offered superb fruit flavors and lush, silky textures.
(If he'd bought American, and had been as frugal with his money as he wants the country to be, Ryan could have drunk superb Oregon pinot noir for a fraction of the French grape's price).
His mixed field greens ($5) is a superb selection of gently dressed lettuces that balances texture, flavor and color, accented with sweet grape tomatoes and stuffed grape leaves.
Part of the equation for both are the grape sources, from generally cooler vineyards in western Sonoma County, which allow the grapes to express complex aromas rather than just alcoholic heat; part is the superb 2007 vintage in Sonoma; and part is the sure hand of two experienced winemakers.
Right now in the marketplace are a bevy of superb Vouvrays, many priced gently given their high quality, especially in comparison with those other white grapes of note, riesling and chardonnay.
