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| Antonio Gianola |
Oops, I said dinner. It’s actually a lunch set for July 30 at Hori’s equal parts hip and sublime sushi, et. Al. spot at Richmond and Kirby. The tariff will be $300 per person. Expensive? Yes. But worth the price? Absolutely, on multiple levels.
As pairings go, Hori and Gianola make for a perfect partnership. The former has long wanted to give his wine program a major upgrade and the latter admits he has missed pulling together events like this one. In what no doubt feels like a previous life, before MS forced him to adopt a more sane work schedule, he was one of the city’s best and brightest young sommeliers. I got to know him circa 2007 when I first started writing a wine column for the Houston Chronicle and he served as Chris Shepherd’s “wine guy” at Catalan on Washington Ave.
As a wine-buyer in the retail world, Gianola can be creative, too, but he admits he missed the challenge of finding the perfect pairings. A memorable dejeuner at a vigneron’s favorite Sushi hangout in Beaume back in 2019 planted the seed and he spoke to Hori about duplicating the experience not long after he returned to Houston. Kota Robata was already the place where, he said, “my wife and I always celebrate our birthdays and anniversaries.”
Planning began in earnest. Then COVID-19 happened.
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| Chef Yori / photos by Julie Soefer |
Anyway, now it’s a go and the two principles can hardly wait to greet their noontime guests. The wine lineup is Burgundy-centric, not surprisingly given Gianola’s fond memories of that Beaune soirée. And, while he’s proud of each of his six selections, which include a Waris-Larmandie Blanc de Blanc Champagne plus a red from Bordeaux to serve with a hearty beef dish, two are especially close to his heart because they’re from what he calls “quirky producers” who favor hanging onto their wines for a decade or longer before release: the 2010 Domaine Potinet-Ampeau Meursault 1er Cru Les Charmes and Daniel-Etienne Defaix’s 2007 Chablis Premier Cru.
“It’s always special to find Burgundy with age on it,” he said, “and then be able to drink it when it should be drunk.”
Both, he said, are under the radar of Western consumers but are frequently used in high-end pairing dinners in Asia, often served alongside the #fancy likes of Domaine de la Romanée–Conti and Domaine Leroy, whose best bottles command four-figure sums. Before coming to Houston, Yori had, in fact, worked at a restaurant in Japan that pioneered pairing sushi dinners with Burgundy.
“It was incredibly fun and fascinating to have to go back and crack open books and search out terms,” Gianola said. “It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had to do that.”
The big-picture wine ideas evolved quickly. However, despite his fondness for and familiarity with Kata Robata’s cuisine, he admitted, “I’m no expert in way, shape or form. But chef allowed me to come in and taste the entire menu so, instead of just making educated guesses, I was able to really dive into it.
“And, while I found the acidity to be a touch high on occasion, they worked incredibly well with the food . . . the wasabi, the soy . . . It was really amazing, actually.”
No doubt.
More detailed information will be available at katarobata.com in the next day or two. Pay close attention. The 30 to 35 seats figure to be reserved quickly.
Travels with Pablo and (maybe) me
I wrote about Pablo Valqui and his Gourmet Tours business (www.gourmettours.biz) in my last post, but I want to keep him – and me – on your front-burner going forward. He’s got two superb Germany-centric wine-and-food extravaganzas already on the books for this September, and we’re also in the early stages of brainstorming an eight-person itinerary for next spring/early summer that will most likely focus on France’s Southern Rhone Valley, the Languedoc and Bordeaux. I would love to hear your thoughts (sportywineguy@outlook.com) on same. At this early juncture, we could custom tailor an adventure specifically for your needs/wants/desires. Autocrats we aren’t!
Sippin’ with sporty
Rosé
2021 Chène Bleu – It’s a classic blend of biodamically-grown grenache, syrah, mourvedre and cinsault fruit that was picked five weeks later than most in the Ventoux AOC. Skin-contact maceration followed, given the wine more structure, concentrated flavors and aging potential than you’ll find in garden-variety rosés from the Southern Rhone. The secluded 340-acre Chène Bleu estate, with its thousand-year-old monastery, was largely derelict until 1993, when American Nicole Rolet and her French financier husband Xavier bought the property and lovingly restored it over the next decade. Grapes have been grown on the land not far from Provence’s biggest mountain since the Middle Ages. $42.99 at Houston Wine Merchant (houstonwines.com)
White
2021 Diatom Chardonay Santa Barbara County – Winemaker Greg Brewer gets his fruit from the Los Alamos neighborhood in Santa Barbara County, then ferments the juice at low temperatures in stainless-steel tanks. Wildred Wong of wine.com, who awarded this Diatom vintage a 90 rating, says Brewer, through the use of “inhibited” malolactic fermentation, “captures chardonnay in its most raw, carnal state, imbuing recognition of place with as little disturbance, distraction or interference as possible.” I like that. And I like Brewer, a most amiable winner-dinner host when he visited Houston last year. As for the wine, I loved it for its creamy, peachy notes accompanied by an intense minerality. It speaks Californian with a French accent. $24.99 at wine.com
Red
2018 J. Lohr Carol’s Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon – J. Lohr may have become famous for its home-office Paso Robles wines, but this one can play any day with Napa Valley’s big boys. Aged for 17 months in thick-staved, tight-grained 60-gallon French oak barrels (60 percent new) after undergoing fermentation in open-top tanks, it’s got a small (8 percent) petit verdot component in the blend to add nuance. All the fruit comes from the 27-acre Carol’s Vineyard on the northern edge of St. Helena hard by the Napa River. You’ll taste both chocolate and cherries and you’ll love the long, satisfying finish. Kudos to winemaker Brenden Wood! $60 at jlohr.com
H-town Happenings
* Wine-Pairings lunch with Chef Hori and Antonio Gianola – Kata Robata, Saturday, July 30. Noon. $300. 713 726-8858. katarobata.com
Follow me
* Podcast: Sporty Wine Guy
* Instagram: sportywineguy
* Twitter: @sportywineguy
* Facebook: Dale Robertson
Other folks to follow
* Sandra Crittenden (winelifehouston.com) – Sandra shares a piece she wrote for Galveston magazine breaking down Oregon wine country’s newly designated sub-regions.
* Russ Kane (vintagetexas.com) – Russ, a.k.a. “the Texas Wineslinger,” gives us the skinny on Texas mourvèdres, a varietal he calls “a rising star” in the Lone Star State. He also lists four recent award-winners in major competitions.
* Jeff Kralik (thedrunkencyclist.com) – Jeff recommends seven “random samples” he recently had the pleasure of trying.
* Jeremy Parzen (dobianchi.com) – My podcast partner in crime reports on how a catastrophic avalanche in Italy’s Trento province both explains how the country’s best wine regions were formed . . . and how they could be destroyed by global warming.
* Katrina Rene (thecorkscrewconcierge.com) – On a happier note, Kat expounds on how well Schiava, the most famous red wine from Italy’s Alto Adige, matches up with Texas barbeque.
The Sporty Wine Guy 