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Noyau De Poissy France’s Oldest Liqueur
After a lapse of some thirty years, Noyau De Poissy is back in the U.S. market. Considered the oldest French liqueur, it dates from about 1698, in the Île de France region around Paris. It is known that a lady innkeeper, Madame Suzanne, offered this liqueur to her customers, the buyers and sellers at the cattle market of Poissy. Much in the then current taste, Noyau is a sweet liqueur–a crème–flavored with almonds and apricot kernels. In French noyau means pit, as in “stone fruit pit.” Here the kernels of apricot pits are macerated for three days in a young cognac base with aromatics and then distilled. Poissy was a center of apricot production. The claim for being the oldest French liqueur is probably correct since liqueur making entered France with Catherine de’Medici and was probably something like the red colored, spiced, Alkermes, famous in Florence. The heyday of liqueurs was the period from after the French Revolution to before World War I. The grand names of French liqueurs did not arise until after Napoleon Bonaparte. Chartreuse was not to become famous as a liqueur until 1868. The orange liqueur Cointreau was created about the same time as was Bénédictine. Grand Marnier came later. One could imagine Noyau de Poissy as a type of amaretto, but clear in color. It has a delicate almond character with a touch of spice and rose. Delicate, it can be used in dessert making or with coffee after a meal. Well balanced and long tasting, it would blend very well with fresh fruit salads or in custard sauces. It would be perfect over good vanilla ice cream. Served just as is, over ice or in frozen liqueur glasses, it would put an end to a meal in perfect fashion just as it did in the 17th century.
Nebbiolo is the great black grape variety from Italy’s Piemonte. It has a very special character, elegant, like pinot noir, that should be obvious when smelled and tasted. Often, this character is covered up by too much extraction, tannin, and wood. But the Nebbiolo Langhe 2007 of the Martinenga vineyard in the comune of Barbaresco, owned by Alberto di Grésy, is a superb example of the pretty, rather than magisterial, side of this variety. The color of this wine is a perfect ruby. The scent, fruity with a slight hint of dark rose, balancing its dark cherry character with perfectly balanced soft tannins, presents a red wine that is a delight to drink now. I do not know if this is de-classified Barbaresco or a wine made for its own sake. Whatever it is, I think it is near perfect nebbiolo both in style and flavor. The Nebbiolo della Martinenga 2007 is perfect now and will keep for several years. I could not imagine a better wine served at cellar temperature on a summer evening. Its remarkable varietal character is very classy and distinctive. So, if you want to experience the quality of Piemonte’s most important variety, this is your opportunity.
I am a great fan of CornNuts, the product created in 1936 by Albert Holloway, which is now part of Planters. Our store director, Rick Mindermann, went searching for a like product and came up with what Corti Brothers calls Tuerca De Maiz. The name does not mean anything, but is the name we have given to these tender, light hulled, parched and fried kernels of corn. They are very good, especially with a cold drink on a hot day. Parched and toasted corn has antecedents in our culinary history. This was the way of being able to use corn while on a march or when cooking was not possible. Made well, as our Tuerca de Maiz is, it has a very satisfying flavor. Our Tuerca is tender, crispy and easy on teeth. But if you have delicate teeth, I do not recommend your enjoying our Tuerca. Otherwise, I cannot imagine anything better to accompany a gin and tonic. (The name came about in the oddest of ways. Rick used the computer dictionary to find the word in Spanish for “nut.” What he got was the translation of the word for nut as in “nut and bolt.”) In any event, the product is delicious and anyway, a name is just what you call something...a rose by any other name...
A new cookbook concept produced by Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, this is a cookbook to be issued three times a year: Summer, Fall and Holidays, Winter and Spring, nicely bound and with lovely photographs. The first issue, Volume No1 contains mouth watering recipes from the two authors who like to cook and enjoy food. The recipes are one page or less long, home cooking by home cooks for home cooks. Both Christopher and Melissa worked at the early Saveur magazine and have brought that sensitivity to their new recipe collection. Canal House Cooking Volume No 1 can be purchased from Corti Brothers for $19.95. It can also be purchased through their website, www.thecanalhouse.com which will act also as an information clearing house for things culinary. I would suggest that you check it out.
Just off the press from the Robert Mondavi Institute at UC Davis, this is another unique book like the first imprint, Rixford’s The Wine Press and The Cellar. But this book is different. It contains the 13 works dating from 1878 to 1892 that form the historical background of olive culture and oil making in California compiled into one volume that describe the what, how, where, and why of growing olives and making oil. In this volume you have the texts of the history of the olive in California, which are almost impossible to collect now. To use a simile, these texts form the “Old Testament” of olive growing and oil making in California. If you are at all interested in olives and oil, this volume is a must for your library. 317 pages, numerous plates.
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Corti Brothers
Sacramento CA
