Chanterelles and 1993 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir

I’m currently teaching my homebrew club’s annual Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) prep classes. The other member who is running the class has a relative who’s a mushroom forager and every fall I try to get some chanterelles from him. I was ale to get about a pound of them from him last week and was looking forward to making a meal that featured them.

Oregon is renowned for wild mushrooms and chanterelles are my favorite of the bunch. I had initially thought about making a steak and mushroom type of thing, but frankly, chanterelles are that good that it seemed wrong not to have them be the centerpiece of the meal. I thought about some kind of mushroom stew, but ended up making a quick sauté of the chanterelles, garlic, shallots, parsley, and amontillado sherry, served over plain polenta.

I will confess that I used to make polenta with lots of butter, cream and mascarpone cheese in it. In fact it was safe to say that the polenta was really just a vehicle for all of the fat, but in the last several years, I’ve found that I actually like polenta that tastes like, well, polenta. So now when I make it all I use is a little salt but otherwise serve it unadorned so that you can actually appreciate its flavor. It’s a good base for richer stews and a natural with a mushroom sauté.

I was also in the mood for good cheese and got a small piece of garrotxa, a goat’s milk cheese from Catalonia, and a piece of an Italian blue cheese with a red wine washed rind, the name of which I didn’t know and was too stupid to write down, alas.

I generally consider beer better with cheese, but really wanted a good red so I pulled my last bottle of 1993 Beaux Freres Pinot Noir. I didn’t buy a lot of 1993 Oregon Pinot because at the time I thought it was a mediocre vintage without the forward fruit of 1992 and 1994. In retrospect I missed the boat. A lot of the local winemakers actually preferred their 1993’s to the overripe 1994 and this wine showed just how right they were. It still had remarkable intensity of fruit but had wonderful acidity that cut through the layers of fruit. If you have any of it, I would likely drink it soon, because it’s on the downward side of its curve. It had a brick red edge, but had amazing cherry fruit as well as some mushroomy, meaty and earthy notes. Several years ago I had a vertical tasting of six vintages of Beaux Freres (1991-1996) and the 1993 was the clear winner. In may have been in decline but it was remarkable with the mushrooms and actually quite good with the cheese (the acidity helped cut through the richness of the cheese).

Now if I can only manage to get more of those chanterelles.