Traveling Without Moving

I've spent New Year's Day both cooking and building a bonfire. The snow is deep, but I've shoveled a path to my burn area, away from the house and barn, and slowly I've been dragging scrap wood, broken shingles and destroyed cardboard boxes out of the barn to throw atop the pile. In between, I've tended to the pots slow cooking in the oven. Mid-afternoon, after the sun sets, I light the fire, and the orange flames leap to form an intense contrast against the deep blue sky and the light purple snow. The time is right for a break and I remember the bottle of wine and medallion of cheese I've put aside for a quiet moment.

The wine is a Malbec, Septima in the Mendoza region of Argentina, and the cheese, Toledo, not from the Spanish city of the same name but from the Estremadura of Portugal, the region surrounding Lisbon. Toledo is an "all-in cheese," which uses milk from all of the big three dairy animals: cows, sheep and goats. It's shaped like a yogurt container, and the cheese is dense and tangy. A coating of paprika covers it's surface, and inside there are little blooms of the red spice throughout the cheese. The taste and feel are rustic, and fit well and satisfy in this outdoor setting. The wine has cooled a bit in the glass tumbler, which sits nestled in the snow at my feet. But compared to the cold air out here the wine feels warm in my mouth.

Although I've only traveled a few dozen feet from my house, the fire, sky, snow and the tastes in my mouth make me feel as if I've gone a great distance. The wine and cheese certainly have. The Toledo's paprika dusting reminding me of the millions of miles walked by traders on the spice route. Use of the dried pepper spice is native to Portugal, but is present in India, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany and of course, Hungary. The wine also has a long history of global travel. Originally a Bordeaux grape, the Malbec found its way to Spain, and then later to Argentina. The shortened global distances are present in the hints of vanilla in the wine, not a traditional Malbec characteristic, but one pursued by winemakers to make wine more appealing to customers in America. So my mind wanders far, and the wine and the fire keep the cold away, but the kitchen beckons, so I return home.

Don Lindgren

Wine: Malbec - Septima, Argentina
Cheese: Toledo - Goat, Cow and Sheep's Milk, Portugal