Lets start a new chapter. I left Barcelona for now. After my trip in South America i did returned for a couple of weeks (relax, chill and drink :) till i packed my “life” into the car and enjoyed a trip thru whole Europe saying goodbye to Spain. It took 11 days and covered Spain (obviously), France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany and Austria. Couple of stops, visiting lots of friends, having amazing time (with kindof f*cked up weather) and beautiful wines. I loved every minute of it.

Anyway – i am home now in Hungary, officially became an auntie – babysitting SisterSue·s newborn baby. Apparently having enough time to experiment with traditional ingredients in a “homesweethome” surroundings just as much as i enjoy the local hungarian wines as well. I did realize how good they are, having a couple of supercool books to learn from and a couple of banknotes to spend for (a sip).

I can not say that i know something about WINE – i can say what i think its in the glass.

Some nights i invite friends in my home and do experiments. Prepair a couple of bites and a couple of glasses – searching for some unexpected flavour-matches (following some instructions of one of my great book about aroma-molecules).

Its much more easier as it sounds – u can do as well and its so much fun – u dont even need to cook in a proper way – if u dont want. Just get your favorite ingredients whatever they are (fruits like apple, pineapple, fig- fresh and dry both can be amazing), good cheeses (get normal, aged, blue and creamy), couple of charcuterie (different types of ham-jamon, sausages-chorizo, pates) and dont forget about a very good bread – to soak all the flavor.

Now we can play a bit more with some special ingredients like spices (ginger, clove, cinnamon, chilli, saffron, maple etc etc… ) to find a hidden aroma-connection between ingredients and wines.

footnote: if u keen on having a bit deeper knowledge or just want to have lots of fun; i recommend u a book written by Francois Chartier with the title: Papilles et Molecules

Now i just wanna share something really cool… a trick from the Ancient Rome. That time people loved to drink noble mature white wine with a bit of oxidation just to superior themselves. BUT, these types of wines were much more rare and expensive in that time… so they found out a little trick. It calls “toasted fenugreek seed”.

Basically u just marinate your fresh young wine leaving some toasted fenugreek seeds on the bottom of the bottle for a couple of days (continually need to taste – for me 2 days were enough – if u reach the point it becomes bitter than u wish). Thats when u are going to meet the extremly powerful “sotolon” aroma compound.

It was working!!!! Amazingly! I did not trust in it at all – when i tasted before the toasted seeds itself – was truly bitter. But the people of Rome were not fools. Check it yourself – more fun if u buy 2 bottles of your chosen wine – get some fresh, young, intense and dry white wine or a manzanilla sherry can be good options. Leave one as it is – and marinate the other one with 2 spoonfuls of seeds for 2, max 3 days. ENJOY!