Auteur Theory
1 Dalmatian White | 01 Macedonian Red
I had lunch with René Redzepi 13 years ago at Edulis. I introduced him to Matty Matheson, who happened by our table . Young Matheson had just survived his cocaine induced heart attack and was newly high on life in a way that captured Redzepi’s attention. The chefs engaged in a deep eye-contacted way. As a very seriously minded, gonzo, participatory food and wine journalist, I thought, this is gold.
I was, in fact, having lunch with René Redzepi at Edulis with a lot of other people. And I managed to squeeze myself in to a seat opposite the chef from the World’s Number One Restaurant because I was on the steering committee of the Terroir Symposium chef’s conference that brought him to Canada. Hanging with rock stars is about access, and I had it briefly on an insider’s connection and duly wrote it all up for Good Food Revolution.
I thought about that lunch this week when news of Redzepi’s resignation from the Noma organization following Julia Moskin’s reporting in the New York Times, that Redzepi had been accused of abusing (sometimes violently) his staff. Or at least the volunteer stages who came to learn from him, and work for free, at what was acclaimed to be the best restaurant in the world.
I learned about the latest Redzepi affair when a friend sent me a link to one of the articles. In my thank you reply I wrote that I had a few regrets on whatever part I had played over the last twenty plus years in cultivating the phenomenon of the celebrity chef.1 After a day or two of mulling it over I have come around the attitude that guilt is a futile emotion and the phenomenon was bound to happen anyway.
I don’t know what kind of monster René Redzepi is, isn’t, was or wasn’t. I do know the idea that there is a “World’s Best Restaurant”, presumably seen over by the “World’s Best Chef”2 is absurd. I also know that I would very quickly accept any invitation to dine at it or with her or him and write about it right away. I just would try not to fawn too obviously.
And, of course, I am sure I will continue to foster various cults of personality around interesting winemakers whose work I respect and admire. Barbara Widmer from Brancaia, pictured above, is one of my latest victims subjects. I just filed a profile of her for my column at The Hub (to be posted at 7AM on March 14 here).
A bottle of wine, like a restaurant meal or a feature film, is more than the product of one person. But someone has to speak for it, and as consumers we want to know what’s in the directing mind of the person in charge of making it. It’s a deep human compulsion.
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Like fine wine the MJ Wine Box Substack takes time to develop: look for a second weekly MJWB email and post starting April 1st.3 The new, premium posts, will be for Paid Subscribers and feature not available at the LCBO, typically priced between $30 and $50. It will also feature special offers and first in line opportunities like participation in a relaunched MJ Wine Box Wine Club… more on that shortly.
WINE RECOMMENDATIONS
Stina Cuvée White 2024
Price: $21.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Stina
Country: Croatia
Region: Brač
Appellation: Not sure? Maybe Dalmatia ZOZP?
Grapes: Posip (70%), Vugava (20%), Chardonnay (10%)
Alcohol by Volume: 12.5%
Sugar Content: 2 grams per litre
The back label of the 2024 Stina Cuvée White says that he grapes that make it were sourced from the central and southern Dalmatian Coast. The wine they make seems to have a connection to the crisp, dry, seafood loving white wines made on the other side of the Adriatic in Abruzzo and the Marche. Or maybe it’s vice-versa. In any event, it’s about time we began to get more Croatian wines here at an everyday price.
Look lime citrus notes and acidity with a sprinkle of salt. If served with calamari, you’d need no spritz of lemon. This wine wakes up the palate and promises sunny days and better weather to come.
https://www.lcbo.com/en/stina-cuvee-white-32035
Kir-Yianni Cuvée Villages Naoussa Xinomavro 2022
Price: $21.95
Channel: LCBO Vintages
Producer: Kir-Yianni
Country: Greece
Region: Macedonia
Appellation: Naoussa Xinomavro PDO
Grapes: Xinomavro
Alcohol by Volume: 14% alcohol by volume
Sugar Content: 3 grams per litre
When I recommended the 2020 vintage of this Kir-Yianni Xinomavro in 2024, it was $17.95. Now, it’s 22% more expensive, which seems like a lot more than the rate of inflation over the last two years. So, is the 2022 22% better than the 2020? Maybe. Reading over the older vintage notes, this 2022 vintage seems to have a different, maybe even elevated character.
Where I describe raspberry notes in the 2020, I now pronounce dark cherry ones in the 2022. And, if I compared the 2020 to Pinot Noir, I now compare the 2022 to Nebbiolo. The thing about the Xinomavro grape’s name being roughly translated as “black acid”, still works I think:
French and Italian grape analogies aside, the best way to think about Xinomavro is to translate it. In English it means roughly ‘black acid’, and under the raspberry fruit roll-up notes in this wine is a line of black currant and refreshing, food friendly, juicy tartness. It’s both light and heavy at the same time…
There is so much fresh and clear fruit in this wine that it takes a minute to feel the fine grip of its tannins. I would put this $22 Greek Macedonian wine up against any number of $30 or $40 Langhe Nebbioli. It’s a good deal.
Black acid needs food: lamb is the obvious choice, while a vegetarian option would include cheese or cream.
Except Nigella. I regret no hagiography of Nigella and may well resort to it again. Since she’s not technically a chef, I think it’s okay, though.
You will know that I am really desperate for a Substack topic when I write 1,000 words exploring the question of whether the world’s best chef could cook anywhere other than the world’s best restaurant or vice-versa in a mutation of the age-old Oscars question of the difference between Best Film and Best Director.
Yes, I know. And, no, it’s not a trick.