Dan Dawson, Dan the Wine Man:The best wines to drink with fava beans – Napa Valley Register

DAN DAWSON

The beginning of spring, a blurred seasonal line due to our Mediterranean climate, officially begins tomorrow.

Ken Morris’s “Cooking for Comfort” column on Tuesday prepared us for one of spring’s soul-lifting garden gifts: fava beans. A particularly early spring this year increases the need for early preparation because “Look out, Ma, those fava beans a’ comin’!”

I have three wines for you to pair with Ken’s fava bean recipes. All are easy for you to acquire in Napa. But before the wines I have a couple of asides:

Do eat raw fava beans raw and unpeeled, as Ken suggests. Taking it a step further, if you grow favas pick and eat the whole bean, big outer shell included. You want them to be about the size of your index finger. A quick, hot sauté is all that’s needed. Folks usually look at me as The Most Interesting Man In The World when I tell them how delicious whole favas are. I like that. Also eat the young leaves raw as a green salad embellishment or fried up with spuds for an extra kick.

April 2004: Holly (now my wife) and I had been dating for seven months. It was Masters Sunday, a near-religious holiday for golf fans. Holly gave me four pounds of blanched fava beans to pop out of their inner shells. For five hours I watched and popped as Phil Mickelson won his first Green Jacket. ‘Twas one of history’s great relationship compromises.

This Week’s Wine Pairings

Ken’s Cooking for Comfort recipes this week:

Broad thoughts on matching wine with favas.

1) Fresh, young fava beans are easily influenced by other flavors, so take a good look at all the ingredients, especially the strong flavors, in finding the best wine to match.

2) Regardless of the dish, I like a wine with at least a little bit of green-ness to pair with garden-fresh fava beans. Take Sauvignon Blanc for example. While not my first choice, its natural herbaceous makes it a natural match.

It would be fair to assume Ken’s Crostini with Fresh Fava Been Purée is a straightforward and quite pure expression of the fava. However, it takes just a taste to realize there’s a lot more going on. EVOO, garlic, herbs, cream, lemon juice and last but not least the salty/nutty Pecorino cheese: no shy flavors in the bunch.

Enter today’s wine pick #1, Merisi Pinot Gris, Carneros 2019 ($24). The wine’s pungent white pepper, lime zest and green tea smells equal to that of the purée. High natural acidity cuts through the cream and garlic. The tea and pepper flavors match the fava beans, herbs and Pecorino. Merisi is sneaky in its many layers of flavor when, at first impression, you may think of it as no more than a satisfactory crisp white.

Buy the Merisi Pinot Gris at MerisiWines.com. Owner/winemaker Mandy Heldt Donovan offers a 20% discount on a case purchase. Take my word for it and buy a case, or buy a bottle or two to decide for yourself. We’ll be up to our elbows in favas soon so buying backup is a good idea. This also makes a fantastic Easter brunch wine by the way. Choose free pickup at checkout.

On Monday I perused the wine corner at Oxbow Wine Merchant in the Oxbow Public Market for fava-friendly wines and came up with two $20 winners.

The Fattoria La Rivolta Coda di Volpe, Taburno-Sannio 2018 is a white wine from near Naples and the Mediterranean coast in the Campania region.

Allow me to break down the name CliffsNotes style…Italian wine labels can be so wordy. Fattoria La Rivolta is the winery. The grape is Coda di Volpe, which translates to foxtail due to the shape of the cluster. Taburno-Sannio is the region.

This Coda di Volpe is aromatic, fresh and full of personality a little like Viognier but with more restraint. The citrus blossom and crushed green apple smell conveys a spring freshness, not unlike fava beans. I have no problem imagining Ken’s Fava Bean Purée, a chunk of Pecorino, a baguette and a bottle of the Coda di Volpe on a warm spring day.

Also purchased at Oxbow Wine Merchant, the Domaine de la Bergerie Anjou “La Cerisaie” 2018 ($20) is all Cabernet Franc from France’s Loire Valley. I sent OWM partner Peter Granoff the Beef Meatball with Fava Beans and Lemon recipe with a request for Cabernet Franc and this is the result.

The wine is cranberries, plums, blueberries and a tasty greenness that I want to compliment the favas. Along with the favas the meatballs have spring onions, capers, cumin and lots of herbs.

As red meat dishes go it doesn’t get much greener than this, which makes this particular Cabernet Franc a great pick. Lots of cutting, racy acidity and freshness here. There’s no obvious comparison to a better-known style of wine so if you haven’t had a Loire Valley Cabernet Franc before I encourage you to try this one. Just make sure to have it with Ken’s Meatballs, Favas and Lemon dish…or something like it.

Visit Oxbow Wine Merchant any day of the week to buy these two wines and anything else that suits your fancy. Don’t be shy in asking for help finding the wines. Good chance Peter will be your guide which is a mighty fine thing.

I don’t have a wine recommendation for the Fresh Fava Bean Salad with Sherry Vinaigrette. Wine pairing is a challenge with vinaigrette in general, and especially when made with Sherry vinegar. I am curious how a Fino or Manzanilla Sherry will pair. I have a great bottle of Sherry vinegar in my pantry and a field of favas in my front yard. I’ll give this pairing a try and let you know how it goes.

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