Soutirage

Thick wine lies at the end of "soutirage"

Dear wine lovers,

When a tank has completely finished its malolactic fermentation, it is time to separate the wine from its lies (lies [LEEZ] are the thick deposit resulting from both decantation and fermentation.

To do so, we will use a pump which is first hooked on the highest van level of the tank. Then, we will let the wines fall by gravity inside a case and we will pump the wine until it becomes thicker. Time then to put the lies in some small containers since it is an obligation to bring them to the distillery.

Then, the big cleaning starts inside the tank and again in the cellars since, as you can imagine, lies stain a lot.

The finest lies (the ones which come first from the tank at "soutirage") are also very good to cook with. My Aunt Marie-Françoise uses them to make one of her culinary specialties which is the Provençal "Daube" marinated with fine wine lies :

Ingredients for 4 people :
2 teaspoons of olive oil
10 garlic cloves, crushed
1 (2-pound) chuck roast, boneless, trimmed and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
2 cups of fine red wine lies
2 cups of chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups of chopped onions
1/2 cup of beef broth
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh thyme
A bit of ground cloves
1 (14.5-ounce) of can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 leaf of bay
3 cups of cooked pasta

Preparation
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Heat olive oil in oven over low heat. Add garlic to pan; cook for 5 minutes until soft. Remove garlic from pan and put it aside. Turn up the heat. Add beef to pan and brown it. Sprinkle beef with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoons of pepper. Cook 5 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Add wine lies to pan, and bring to a boil, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add garlic, beef, remaining 1 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, carrot, and next 8 ingredients (through bay leaf) to pan; bring to a boil.
Cover and bake at 300° for 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender. Take out bay leaf. Serve over pasta. Garnish with fresh thyme

If you are interested in doing this recipe and you don't have a way to get some fine wine lies, you can always use an old bottle of wine that you will reduce with flour.

Here are all my greetings for a beautiful Christmas Season and a happy New Year with, I am sure, some great wines to celebrate.

Cheers,

Jean-Marc Espinasse - Domaine Rouge-Bleu

Comments

[Phyllis E. Morton]

I havae been reading of you and Kriston for several years, long ago to have bought her three self-puclished bbooks amd the hard back. And I have all of your vinyard stories and fotos. As an 'elder' whe never lived allher dreams, I am thrilled that you and yours are living yours. Good luck and many more to come. Phyllis

[Marge]

Jean-Marc, this recipe sounds delicious, and I'd like to try it soon. Can you explain a bit further the process of reducing the wine with flower? Did you by any chance mean "flour"?
Thanks,
Marge

[Marianne Rankin]

After all the ingredients have been brought to a boil, you write, "cover and bake . . ." Shouldn't they be put into an oven-proof container (rather than staying in the pan) before they are baked?

Thanks for the continuing interesting information about how wine is made.

[Carol McFarland]

Best wishes to the Espinasses family for 2008! The recipes and stories are wonderful.