Financial Times Europe - 09.11.2019 - 10.11.2019

9 November/10 November 2019 ★ FTWeekend 23

Food & Drink

FRANCE

cJosmeyer cKreydenweiss

cMartin Schaetzel

ITALY

cCantina Kurtatsch, Alto Adige

cCantina Terlano, Alto Adige

cCastel Juval, Alto Adige

cColterenzio, Alto Adige

cGirlan, Alto Adige

cHofstätter, Alto Adige

cKränzelhof, Alto Adige

cAlois Lageder, Alto Adige

cManincor, Alto Adige

cMusella, Veneto

cTiefenbrunner, Alto Adige

GERMANY

cBattenfeld-Spanier, Rheinhessen

cBrenneisen, Baden

cChristmann, Pfalz

cErnst Dautel, Württemberg

Top Pinot Blanc/Weissburgunder/Pinot Bianco producers

I

n the English-speaking world,

the wordpie s eems to carry a lot

of cultural baggage. It conjures

wholesome pleasure and domestic

succour. From the British steak

and kidney to the Australian Four

’N Twenty,pies mean more than just

filledpastry.

You can be a cutie pie, for example, or

pie-eyed,therearehumblepiesandpies

in the sky, you can have fingers in many

orbeaskedtoshutyourpiehole.

Whoever came up with the phrase

“easy as pie” surely meant the ease of

eating one as opposed to making one.

While it shouldn’t require any special

skills, there is no point denying that

making a pie is a bit of a mission, and

Life of pie

Honey & Co Pistachio and cocoa-enriched pastry combines superbly|

with pears, rosemary and lemon. BySarit PackerandItamar Srulovich

To make a 24cm American-style pie

For the pear filling

8 pears (4 peeled, 4 unpeeled, cut

into a large dice)

1 lemon, slices of half, juice of the

other half

2 sprigs of rosemary

60g butter, diced

3 tbs sugar

2 tbs cornflour

For the cocoa and pistachio pastry

110g whole peeled pistachios (or

use hazelnuts)

120g icing sugar

150g unsalted butter

1 egg

200g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

For the topping (optional)

2 tbs demerara sugar

20g pistachios, roughly chopped

Method

First, make the filling. Heat the oven

to 180C (fan assist). Place the cut

pears on a tray, add the remaining

ingredients, mix well and put them

in the oven to cook for 10 minutes.

Mix and then cook for a further

10 minutes — the pears should be

soft by now with some breaking up

and some staying whole. Take them

out of the oven and leave to cool on

the tray. Once cold, remove the

rosemary sprigs and the whole

lemon slices. Chill in the fridge.

To make the pastry, blitz the

pistachios in a food processor until

they become a crumb. Add the icing

sugar and continue blitzing until

the consistency is like fine

breadcrumbs. Add the rest of the

ingredients and continue pulsing

until the pastry comes together.

Remove and form two dough

balls, one weighing about 400g for

the base of the pie and the other

about 250g. Wrap both and chill in

the fridge for at least 30 minutes or

up to a couple of days.

When you are ready to assemble

the pie, heat the oven to 170C (fan

assist). Roll the large ball of pastry

into a large circle between two

sheets of baking paper. Once you

peel the top layer, you lift the whole

thing and place it carefully in the

tin, then push it into place so there

is a layer of paper lining the tin.

Fill with thepear.Roll the smaller

ball of dough between two sheets

of baking paper into a circle for the

top. Peel off the top layer, flip the

pastry so that it forms a lid and peel

off the other sheet of paper.

Pinch the edges together, dust

with the demerara sugar and

sprinkle the chopped pistachios

around the rim. Create a fewvent

holes in the top of the pastryand

put it on the lower shelf of the oven.

Bake for 25 minutes. Rotate and

bake for a further 20-25 minutes —

the pastry should look opaque all

over and feel crisp to the touch.

Cool before cutting.

Pear pie with a cocoa and pistachio crust

Blanc

checks

D

avid

Schildknecht is a

wine writer of

my vintage,

based in Ohio.

Over the years, he has been

particularly generous in

sharing tips. It was thanks to

him, for example, that I first

visited Spottswoode in St

Helena: to this day, it

produces some of the finest

Napa Valley Cabernets, never

having wavered from its

gentle, terroir-driven style.

He also drew my attention

to Rutger de Vink’s RdV in

Virginia, an American

producer ofBordeaux

blends. I would never have

trekked to this cosseted estate off the

world’s main wine routes without

Schildknecht having suggested it.

And five years ago, he presented a

special masterclass at Vie Vinum, the

annual wine fair in Vienna, devoted to

expressing his admiration for a white-

wine grape that doesn’t get much

airplay, Pinot Blanc, known in German-

speaking countries as Weissburgunder,

occasionally Weisser Burgunder, and in

Italy as Pinot Bianco. I wasn’t

completely persuaded at the time but I

have to admit that recent tastings have

convinced me how good — and useful

— wines made from this grape can be.

(Schildknecht’s contention is that Pinot

Blanc/Weissburgunder can taste a bit

like sweetcorn in youth, while it takes

on a flavour reminiscent of shrimp

shells in age. I can certainly perceive

the sweetcorn but I’m not quite sure

about the shrimp shells.)

Recently, I was reminded of its fruity-

yet-fresh charms when tasting an

intriguing example that costs just £10.95

from The Wine Society, the popular and

venerable British wine-buying co-

operative. Jülg Weissburgunder 2018

Pfalz is made by a German vintner from

grapes that are actually grown over the

border in France’s Alsace region. My

tasting note includes the observation

that it’s “arguably more fun than most

white burgundies”. It’s the frankness,

vitality and lack of oak that is so

appealing. Werner Jülg was clearly not

afraid to lavish attention on these Pinot

Blanc grapes.

The funny thing is how differently

the grape is rated on either side of the

Rhine. In Alsace, growers regard it as

one of their lowlier grapes, several

ranks below Pinot Gris, for example,

which is officially designated “noble”.

In my experience Pinot Gris is

generally more perfumed, spicier,

deeper coloured and more potent than

Pinot Blanc — especially in Alsace. But

as Pinot Grigio — the Italian name for

Pinot Gris — the currency has become

debased. Because of bloated yields,

Italy has exported oceans of

inexpensive, anodyne Pinot Grigio.

Pinot Blanc is a pale-skinned

mutation of the great red burgundy

grape Pinot Noir, just as Pinot Gris is a

pink-skinned one, so there is no genetic

reason to regard Pinot Blanc as some

impoverished cousin. But few Alsace

wines labelled Pinot Blanc are made

with real ambition, and even fewer

contain 100 per cent Pinot Blanc grapes.

Auxerrois is a distant relative of Pinot

Blanc. It is commonly planted in Alsace

and for some reason an Alsace wine

labelled Pinot Blanc may contain as

much Auxerrois as the producer likes

— even 100 per cent. Yet Auxerrois can

easily lack crispness, an increasing

problem as summers warm up.

Across the Rhine, however,

Weissburgunder is really taken

seriously. In Germany, Chardonnay

had not been planted in substantial

quantities until recently, so

Weissburgunder (a relative of

Chardonnay, also part of the massive

Pinot family) was regarded as

Chardonnay manqué for many years.

Owing to this, it was given the same full

(and sometimes too much) oak

treatment as a white burgundy, the

quintessential Chardonnay. In the

early years of this century, that led to

some rather fat, oaky

Weissburgunders. But things have

changed decidedly for the better.

Today, most producers in the

southern regions of Baden, Pfalz and

Rheinhessen, where most German

Weissburgunder is to be found, have

outgrown their obsession with oak

and produce a host of really fine,

appetising, charming

Weissburgunders, especially in Baden,

where those of Heger and Rebholz

enjoy real prestige.

Austria is another very important

source of vivaciously mouthfilling (but

not sweet) examples, some of them

labelled Weissburgunder and some

Pinot Blanc. It was no surprise that

Schildknecht chose to deliver his 2014

encomium to the grape in Vienna.

There are producers of fine examples

all over Austria, especially in the south-

eastern Burgenland region, even

though the country’s very own white

wine grape, Grüner Veltliner, as

well as the famous Riesling, often

take precedence.

But the one place where Pinot

Blanc really does get its due is where

it’s more likely to be called Pinot

Bianco. Alto Adige, or the southern

Tyrol, is the distinctive subalpine

region that is a cocktail of Italian,

Austrian and German influences.

Here, as nowhere else in the wine

world, a sizeable majority of the

best wines are made by well-run

wine co-operatives. The Cantina

Terlano, for example, produces a

superb array of different Pinot

Biancos, some of which are designed

to express the character of a

particular vineyard, as is the

growing global trend no matter

what the grape. Here, Pinot Bianco is

typically fermented in stainless steel

and aged in large old oak casks. These

are wines that can continue to develop

for five years or more in bottle — and

can, like serious white burgundy, go

superbly with food.

There is also some Pinot Blanc

beyond Europe, although historically

the variety has languished in the

shadow of Chardonnay. For many

years Chalone, in the mountains of the

Monterey hinterland south of San

Francisco, made a Pinot Blanc every bit

as serious as a white burgundy and,

further south, Au Bon Climat has

continued the tradition in sensitively

oaked Central Coast blends of Pinot

Blanc and Pinot Gris.

I was also amazed by the quality

of the Pinot Blanc — way outside the

Australian norm — produced by

Granite Hills in the chilly breezes of the

Macedon Ranges outside Melbourne

when I visited there a couple of years

ago. Schildknecht is worth listening to.

More columns at ft.com/jancis-robinson

Jancis Robinson

Wine

cHanewald-Schwerdt

cHeger, Baden

cHeitlinger, Baden

cJülg, Pfalz

cKnewitz, Rheinhessen

cRebholz, Baden

cStigler, Baden

cMartin Wassmer, Baden

cWittmann, Rheinhessen

cZiereisen, Baden

AUSTRIA

cEbner-Ebenauer cNeumayer

cPrieler cHerbert Zillinger

ELSEWHERE

cAu Bon Climat, Santa Maria Valley,

California

cGranite Hills, Macedon Ranges,

Australia

For stockists, see wine-searcher.com

there will be some who will not consider

tryingthisrecipe.

For those who do, we have made sure

it’ll be worth it: the fruity filling is given

a special twist of rosemary and lemon,

lending the pears a friendly kick; the

pastry is enriched withpistachiosfor

flavour and crunch, and cocoa for a lux-

uriouschocolatefinish.

You should let it cool a bit before serv-

ingand,asyoutakeitsteamingfromthe

oven, pause for a moment to luxuriate

in the smells: butter mingled with cocoa

androastedpistachios,thestewed,rose-

mary-scentedpearsinside.

This is the reward foryour hard work,

a special treat reserved for the cook, a

momentassweetas(whatelse?)pie.

More on FT.com

RestaurateurAhsan Akbar

of Teatulia Tea Bar in

London’s Covent Garden

tells you where to find the

best of food and drink in

Dhaka, Bangladesh,

in My Addresses —

plus more recipes from

Honey & Coand tips from

Jancis Robinson n the besto

wines atft.com/food-drink

Whoever came up

with the phrase

‘easy as pie’ surely

meant the ease of

eating one rather

than making one

Leon Edler

Photographs by Patricia Niven

NOVEMBER 9 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 11/20198/ - 15:37 User: adrian.justins Page Name:WIN23, Part,Page,Edition:WIN , 23, 1