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Argentina's "Bread" Pudding

This is Los Angeles, not Buenos Aires, but there on the bakery counter stood a huge, golden-brown, sesame-sprinkled loaf of...torta Argentina.

The girl behind the counter couldn't explain the Argentine connection. It's orange-flavored, was all that she could tell me. 

This, she said, made it different from the other tortas on display, including the Alemana, named for Germany.

The Continental Bakery, which sells mostly Mexican and Salvadoran breads, cakes and cookies, is perhaps trying to live up to its name.

A torta is a cake, and this one was massive, weighing in at more than 2 1/2 pounds. The color inside was an astonishing bright, deep yellow with flecks of orange.

More dense than pound cake, the torta was good sliced and toasted. But what else could I do with it?

Ah, of course, make bread pudding. It was firm enough to stand up to that. And so I searched through my Argentine cookbooks to find out how budin de pan (bread pudding) is made down there.

The recipes all seemed to include Cognac, raisins, candied fruit, almonds or other nuts, cinnamon and, sometimes, lime peel. This sounded so delicious that I simply had to make that pudding.

And so I went to work, substituting orange zest for lime to tie in with the torta's flavoring and soaking the dried fruits and raisins in Cognac. Mmm, they smelled so good.

I had to guess at proportions, baking time and everything else. It's nervewracking to work like that, with no guidelines. The pudding could have been a disgusting, frustrating failure. But it wasn't. It was marvelous--moist, rich in flavor and as light as the torta itself was heavy.

Thanks, Argentina, for a wonderful dessert.  There's so much torta in my freezer that I'll be eating it again, and again, and again.

BUDIN DE TORTA ARGENTINA
Argentine "Bread" Pudding

1/2 pound sliced torta Argentina or other dense, firm, plain cake
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
3 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup candied fruit, diced if in large pieces
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup Cognac
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
3 eggs, separated
Powdered sugar or custard sauce

Cut the cake into 1/2 inch cubes. There will be about 3 cups, packed.

Place the cake cubes in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar, orange zest and 2 tablespoons of the butter, cut into small chunks.

Heat the milk until very hot, but not boiling. Pour the milk over the mixture in the bowl and stir until the butter is dissolved. Add the cinnamon and stir.

Let the mixture stand until the cake is very soft, about 20 minutes. Stir to break up the cubes.

Meanwhile, combine the candied fruit and raisins in a bowl. Add the Cognac and let stand until the raisins are softened. Stir the undrained candied fruit, raisins and the almonds into the pudding.

The dessert can be prepared in advance to this stage.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Coat a 12x8-inch baking dish with the remaining 1 tablespoon butter and set aside.

Separate the eggs, placing the whites in a large bowl. Beat the yolks until light, then add them to the pudding mixture and stir until blended. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them gently but thoroughly into the pudding with a spatula.

Turn the pudding into the prepared dish. Bake 55 to 60 minutes or until browned and firm  when pressed with a finger and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.

Place the pudding on a rack to cool.

Serve warm, cut into squares and dusted with sieved powdered sugar. Or serve with custard sauce.

Makes 8 servings.

Torta Argentina is $4 at Continental Bakery, 262 S. Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90004 (in a mall at the corner of Third Street and Normandie). Tel: (213) 380-3878.

Buenos Aires' Best: A Stir-Fry

Who would guess that my top dish in Buenos Aires this past trip would be—not steak, not pizza, not pasta, but a Chinese stir-fry.

It was a beautiful contrast to the overload of ham and cheese in which I had indulged. Apart from steak, these two seem to be the staff of life in Buenos Aires. And I was ready for something else.

I found it when, by accident, I wound up in Chinatown. I had gone to Belgrano to visit the Museo de Arte Espanol Enrique Larreta, a mansion that is now a museum of Spanish art and furnishings. But I arrived too early. it hadn't opened.

There was nothing to do but explore the neighborhood. Walking along Avenida Juramento, where the taxi had let me off, I passed the usual cafes and shops. And then I stumbled upon Arribenos, a  cross street crammed with Chinese restaurants, markets and shops selling the sort of Asian trinkets you find in Chinatowns everywhere.

The Casa China had the same things as Asian markets in Los Angeles, from woks and ladles to sushi vinegar, low-salt soy sauce,  lemongrass, Thai shrimp paste and fresh seafood on ice.

But where to eat?  There were too many choices. Midday bargain lunches were tempting. For as little as $4.50, they offered several options. But which would be best?

And so I asked a man who appeared to live in the neighborhood. “Go to that one,” he said, pointing across the street. “Everyone likes it.”

And that is how I came to eat at Todos Contentos, a traditional Chinese restaurant fitted out with red lanterns, red walls and placemats with Chinese horoscopes. Instead of chopsticks, tables were set with knives, forks and big spoons.

My $7.60 choice from the "menu con platos combinados" (combination plates) included just two dishes and a drink. All three were very, very good.  

Pollo con almendras (almond chicken) was light, fresh and perfectly cooked. The moist and tender chicken chunks were tossed with diced carrot and red and green bell peppers, then finished off with a handful of fried whole almonds. 

The chop suey beside it showed off impeccably fresh, crunchy bean sprouts combined with shredded carrot, green onions and cabbage.

The sauce for these dishes appeared to be nothing more than broth seasoned lightly with soy sauce. And so I was able to taste the food directly, free of extraneous flavors.  

The drink choices were mineral water, a gaseosa (soda) or cold tea.  Even the tea was exceptional, at least to my taste. It came in a tall glass without ice but sweetened, just as tea in Indonesia is sweet unless you specify no sugar.

Todos Contentos means everybody content. After that lunch, I was no exception.  

Todos Contentos, Arribenos 2177, Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Local Tel: 4780-3437. 

Breakfast at Noon in the Barrio

It was noon and time for breakfast. Lunch, actually, but the sign outside Metro Deli No. 2 was impossible to resist.

The deli is in a Latino neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles, and so the sign was in Spanish.

Desayunos (breakfasts) for $2.75, it said, including handmade tortillas. The choices were huevos (eggs) rancheros, huevos a la mexicana, huevos con jamon (ham), chorizo or salchichas (sausages) or just plain fried (estrellados).

Soon I was inside, waiting for huevos rancheros--eggs with a mild tomato sauce, refried beans and rice. A super hot green salsa on the side let me spice it up as much as I could stand.  

The tortillas, fresh and hot, had chewy texture, unlike smooth, thin, lifeless machine-made tortillas.

I thought about ordering a banana shake (licuado). That would have rounded out the egg plate and tortillas with milk and banana, but I wanted horchata, a light, frothy rice drink speckled with cinnamon.

This was simple food but delicious, as if I were eating in someone's home. And the ambience was just as friendly.

The women behind the counter laughed and chattered with customers. I was "muchacha," and the man at the next table was "muchacho." One of the customers was a taxi dispatcher from Veracruz, eating with a driver.

The wall I faced was painted with a mural of fishermen at work in some tropical estuary. This indicated that seafood would be present. And soon a man came in and asked for "camarones, con mucho, mucho ajo" (shrimp with lots of garlic).

If he hadn't wanted shrimp, he could have had a campechana (seafood coctail), fried fish or caldo siete mares, a big fish and shellfish soup. Or shrimp prepared in some other fashion.

For its size, Metro Deli tackles an impressive variety of food, ranging from goat birria and chicken mole to steaks, chops, fried chicken and the usual tortas (sandwiches) enchiladas, chiles rellenos and tacos.

Pupusas too, because Metro Deli servess Salvadoran food, including a breakfast of fried bananas with cream and beans. But the price for that rises to $3.25  and goes all the way to $3.75 for machaca (shredded beef) with eggs.

Breakfasts are $2.75 to $3.75 at Metro Deli No. 2,  1422 W 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017 (in a mall at the corner of 6th and Valencia). Tel: (213) 483-6455.

I

Beefing up Birria At Los Arcos

The birria in my taco was so good that I begged for the recipe.

I was eating at Los Arcos, a Mexican restaurant in Medford, Oregon. People who like really good Mexican food  drive miles to eat there, and one of them told me about the place.

Located on the edge of town in an industrial zone, Los Arcos has something rare in this region--handmade tortillas. Women come in to pat them out on weekends. But any day the restaurant offers delicious tacos, chiles rellenos (made with fresh poblanos).  barbacoa, carnitas and many other dishes, all produced from scratch.

The Thursday I was there, the specials were menudo, caldo de pollo (chicken soup) and chicken burritos.  I opted for tacos (with a relleno on the side), because my informant had said they were so good. And the sign on the wall outside indicates that Los Arcos is an "autentica taqueria Mexicana" (authentic Mexican taco shop).

The tacos were small, presented open faced with the meats and a good fresh green salsa on top. Carne adobada (marinated pork) was more delicate than the robust, spicy meat that I am accustomed to. Carne asada was fine, but the birria stood out. The flavors of tomato, chiles and seasonings blended in perfect balance without any sharp intrusion of chile heat or strong spice.

The meat was beef, not goat or lamb as is usual in Jalisco, the state in Mexico where birria originated. Beef birria is not unknown there, so this was not a "foreign" adatation.

The cook, Leonarda Gonzalez, is from Zacatecas, a state that borders Jalisco. Her husband Martin, who owns the four-year-old restaurant, is from a town near Tepic, Nayarit, which also borders Jalisco.

Leonarda was not in that noon, but their son Martin, who was in charge, picked up his phone and called for the recipe. And she obliged, although it was probably a challenge because she cooks without measuring. 

Here is my interpretation of Leonarda's birria. It may not be quite the same, given the way I had to guess at quantities and procedures, but it is delicious in its own right.

BEEF BIRRIA
Adapted from Los Arcos Mexican restaurant

4 dried California chiles
1 pound roma tomatoes
½ onion
2 cloves garlic
1 ½ pounds beef stew meat, trimmed of fat
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 inch stick cinnamon
6 black peppercorns
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 teaspoon salt or to taste

Lightly coat a heavy griddle with oil and heat over medium high heat.

Place the chiles on the griddle and roast for a minute or two, until fragrant but not browned.  Place the chiles in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let stand until soft, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, roast the tomatoes, onion and peeled garlic cloves on the griddle until spotted with brown. Remove from the griddle. Pull off any loose skin from the tomatoes.

Drain the softened chiles, reserving 1 cup soaking liquid. Remove the stems. Open the chiles and rinse to remove the seeds.

Combine the chiles, tomatoes, onion and garlic in a blender container and blend until smooth. Pour into a sieve set over a bowl. Rinse out the blender with ¼ cup reserved soaking liquid and add to the sieve. Puree the mixture through the sieve, discarding the solids that remain. 

Place the beef in a large saucepan. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil 1 minute. Pour into a colander and rinse well. Return the meat to the cleaned pan.

Pour the chile puree into the saucepan. Rinse out the bowl with the remaining chile soaking liquid and add to the beef along with 1 cup water.

Add the vinegar, bay leaves, marjoram, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, beef bouillon cubes and salt.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook at a gentle simmer, loosely covered, 3 hours.  If the heat is low enough, it should not be necessary to add more water.

Take out the meat, place on a cutting board and shred, using two forks or a fork and a sharp knife. Return to the pan and simmer for 30 minutes, mixing with the sauce.

Eat as a main dish with rice, or use as taco filling. For tacos, place the meat on top of hot, soft corn tortillas and top with chopped onion and cilantro, then fold and eat.  The beef is not spicy, so accompany the tacos with hot salsa to add as desired.

Makes slightly more than 3 cups, enough for 12 tacos or 4 servings.

Los Arcos Restaurant, 1501 Sage Road, Medford, OR. Tel: (541) 773-8226.

 

Rivera's Stylish Latin Food

Stepping into Rivera for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. The long sleek room is spare and contemporary. Big loungy chairs line the dark bar at one side. And what looks like a bright white sushi bar gleams at one end.

No signs indicate that the main dining room is called Samba, for South America. The "sushi" bar is the Playa Bar and will eventually dispense Mexican snacks. And a clubby room behind the scenes has been named Sangre (blood) for the Spanish conquest of Latin America. The only hint of bloodiness there is the fiery color of the chandelier. 

This nomenclature makes clear that the menu is Latin-inflected. Rivera, located in downtown Los Angeles, is the first restaurant in 14 years for John Rivera Sedlar, following Abiquiu and Bikini in Santa Monica and Saint Estephe in Manhattan Beach, where his innovative French-Southwestern food won wide acclaim.  

A single meal at Rivera can travel from Yucatan to Peru, back to Mexico City and over to Spain.

Drinks range from complex infused tequilas and Peru's pisco sour to an exhaustive wine list that ranges from Spain and Portugal to Argentina and Uruguay.

After dinner, there is coffee from Brazil. And perhaps a glass of golden, nuanced extra anejo tequila. The walls in Sangre are lined with engraved bottles of this tequila, purchased by customers and kept under lock and key.

The food is decorative and interesting but not precious. An "old fashioned" red chile chicken enchilada is just that, a stacked enchilada filled with chicken and goat cheese and bathed in as pure and clean-tasting a red chile sauce as may exist in Los Angeles.

The sauce is made of guajillo chiles and a dash of chimayo chile from Sedlar's native New Mexico. Flowers scattered over the top and baby vegetables on the side give a nod to upscale presentation.

Fish tacos are equally direct--chunks of striped bass on small corn tortillas garnished with red onion rings, sweet red pepper and an avocado salsa verde.

A duck enfrijolada puts duck confit between tortillas coated with spicy-sweet black beans.  Over this goes a red wine and cascabel chile sauce. Sedlar thinks so highly of the enfrijolada that he is already referring to it as his signature dish.

His updated quesadilla layers Serrano ham and Idiazabal cheese from Spain between white and blue corn tortillas so that each side is a different color.

And blue and white  tortilla chips accompany xnipek, a Yucatecan salsa with a seductive deep, spicy taste from toasted chiles, charred tomatoes, onion and garlic. 

Sedlar uses only tortillas made from real ground corn, not instant masa flour. At night there are tortillas florales, handmade tortillas embedded with flowers in pretty designs. The corn for these is cooked and ground in the kitchen. 

The restaurant is new and experimenting. Black mussels in a broth of  pisco and aji amarillo (yellow chile) from Peru arrived topped with strips of dried Spanish chorizo one week, with slices of red jalapeno the next. The spiciness of the chiles might appeal to some, but I felt it overpowered the subtlety of the mussels, whereas the chorizo added an interesting layer of flavor.

Milder dishes include wild striped bass with Peruvian purple potato salad, rib-eye steak with cilantro mashed potatoes and a poached artichoke filled with marinated slow-roasted pork.

Calabacitas (squash) and quinoa with spinach come in little packets formed of dried corn husks. 

Desserts keep up the pace. The most interesting is a Mexico City style sundae with habanero caramel sauce, pine nuts and passion fruit. 

The most dramatic is a wedge of dense chocolate torte draped with rum-soaked drunken pineapple on a platter flashily painted with the Catalan word for chocolate, Xocolata.

There's an important reason for the restaurant to endure. Sedlar has embarked on an ambitious plan to produce his own tequila. The agaves that he has planted in Arandas, a tequila region in the state of Jalisco, will mature in six years. Then the tequila will spend five years in French oak. That means at least 11 years until J. Rivera Sedlar Tequila can be poured at Rivera. 

Rivera Restaurant, 1050 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, CA 90015. Tel: (213) 749-1460.

Middle East Food--and Nachos

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And that is exactly what Herminie's Grill has done.

This Armenian-owned fast food restaurant opened last year at the corner of 6th Street and Witmer, on the same block as Good Samaritan Hospital.

The menu was and still is (mostly) Middle Eastern--kebabs, hummus, stuffed grape leaves, eggplant and Greek salads, gyro sandwiches and baklava.

Good food, but not what this strongly Latino neighbohood is accustomed to. So Herminie's made some changes, hired a Latino cook and put a new sign in the window.

"Tacos," it screams in huge letters. And enchiladas, burritos, taquitos, carne asada and nachos. And caldo de res (beef soup). The splashy display almost dwarfs the kebab sign in the next window.

Curious, I went in and asked for nachos.  And, surprise, they were quite good. The toppings were fresh--fresh chopped salsa with bits of jalapeno, freshly made guacamole, beans and yellow jalapeno cheese that was much better than the sickly gluey cheese that comes out of nacho machines.

I would have liked real tortilla chips as the base rather than round yellow commercial  chips, the kind you get at parties where salsa comes out of a bottle. But it was a good effort.

Oddly enough, the carne asada plate with grilled marinated  beef, beans and rice  is the same price as cheese nachos, $4.99. Sounds like a bargain, and I'll have that next time.

Nachos with cheese are $4.99, with beef or chicken $5.99 at Herminie's Grill, 1260 W. 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017. Tel: (213) 966-1237. Open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Cute Spicy Indian Eggplants

There, tucked into a corner of the produce section of Farm Fresh, were the cutest eggplants imaginable.

I say cute, because what else could you call eggplants so small that eight of them added up to less than a pound?

Farm Fresh is an Indian grocery in Artesia. It's on Pioneer Boulevard in the heart of Little India's shopping district. Walking on to Rasa, a block or so away,  I found still more of these miniatures.

That did it. I had to have them, even though I had no idea what to do with them.

But I do now, thanks to my friend Mira Advani Honeycutt, who is chairperson of the Los Angeles Mumbai Sister Cities Affiliation and can cook almost anything Indian. 

We had been touring Little India (see the previous post) and had eaten a Gujarati lunch, and so she gave me a Gujarati recipe.

Mira stuffs the eggplant with spices, including generous amounts of ground cumin and coriander (I used a cumin and coriander blend from Gujarat that I bought at Farm Fresh). Adding besan (chickpea flour) to the spices makes the dish Gujarati, she said. 

Still in the mood of my vegetarian lunch that day, I served the eggplants with mixed vegetables seasoned with garlic and ginger, turmeric and garam masala; yellow rice scented with cardamom and yogurt, or curd, as they say in India.

The dessert: what else but sweets from Little India.

GUJARATI BAINGAN MASALA
Gujarati Style Spiced Eggplant

8 small eggplant, 3/4 to 1 pound in all
2 teaspoons besan (chickpea flour), optional
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 pinch to 1/4 teaspoon ground red chile
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion, sliced lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch gingerroot, peeled and cut lengthwise in thin strips
6 or 7 curry leaves, optional
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes, unpeeled, chopped
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 to 4 tablespoons water, if needed
1/2 lemon or lime
Cilantro for garnish

Wash the eggplants. Remove most of the stem end, but leave enough of the base attached to hold the eggplants together.

Stand each eggplant on its base and cut a slit through the center 3/4 of the way down. Now cut another slit at right angles, dividing the eggplant into quarters, but  leaving them attached to the base. Set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together the besan, cumin, coriander, garam masala, red chile and black pepper.

Carefully separate each eggplant slightly and spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of the masala into the center. Reserve any unused masala.

Heat the oil in a skillet large enough to hold the eggplants in a single layer. Add the onion, garlic, ginger and the curry leaves and cook until  the onion is lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Add the tomato and salt. Place the eggplants in the skillet and sprinkle with any leftover masala. Stir gently to combine. Cover and cook over medium low heat 10 minutes. Uncover and turn the eggplants over. If the vegetables stick to the pan, add a small amount of water.

Cover and cook 10 minutes longer, or until the eggplants are tender. Uncover and squeeze lemon juice to taste over them. Serve garnished with cilantro leaves.

Makes 4 servings.

Farm Fresh, 18551 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 865-3191.

Touring Artesia's Little India

What better way to start a tour of Little India than by eating at a restaurant where the tables look like the Taj Mahal?

The materials may not be as precious, but Rajdhani's gracefully patterned tabletops do call to mind the ornate inlaid walls of the Taj.

More than 20 of us sat down to a Gujarati style vegetarian lunch there before taking off for the shops along Little India's main street, Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia.

The visits to jewelry stores, a sari shop, a market, a craft, fabric and furniture shop, an ice cream parlor and a Bollywood dance class were arranged by the Los Angeles Mumbai Sister Cities Affiliation as a benefit for projects in India.

Soon the shiny steel thalis at each place were filled with breads, rice, snacks and curries, an astonishing amount of food that was replenished repeatedly, beyond anyone's capacity to eat. Amazing that such a gargantuan repast cost just $13.99, including dessert and chhas, a yogurt drink.

First came little yellow squares of steamed dhokla to eat with mint and tamarind chutneys. Meanwhile, papads, rotis and puris were piled on the thalis, and the small steel cups set inside the trays were filled with delicious mixtures--garbanzo and potato curries, tomato with green beans and khadi, a thin, yogurt-based curry.

The Gujarati taste for sweet was apparent in sweet nuances to the curries and in dal as thin as consomme in which floated peanuts, not lentils. 

As we ate, servers brought vegetable pakoras and golden brown, sesame-topped squares of baked handwa. There was no need to choose between plain rice and yellow mixed rice. We could have both. 

To spice up the food, there were fried green chiles and chile-dusted onion strips; for cool relief, mango puree and yogurt.

Gujarat's irresistible shrikhand made choosing among the six desserts easy. Both tangy and sweet, this soft pudding is composed of thickened yogurt flavored with cardamom and saffron and dusted with finely chopped almonds and pistachios.

More dessert and chai were waiting at the last stop of the tour, the ice cream parlor Saffron Spot.

The flavors there were as colorful and exotic as the sari fabrics and gem-encrusted jewelry that we had admired earlier.

Jackfruit, chikoo, rajbhog, pomegranate, lychee, saffron silk, fig, guava and more beckoned from the display.

Tipped off by restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, I made sure to try the most exotic of them all--meetha paan (sweet paan), which is modeled on the seasoned betel leaf packets that one chews as a digestive after meals in India.

It was extraordinary, an herbal, almost minty, totally Indian blend of tastes that I hadn't experienced since I was last in India itself.

Rajdhani Indian Cuisine, 18525 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 402-9102.

Saffron Spot, 18744 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 809-4554.

To learn about activities of the Los Angeles Mumbai Sister Cities Affiliation, go to www.lacity.org/sistercities/mumbai.

A Super Sauvignon Blanc

The other day, I tasted a wine that goes to the top of my list for this summer.

It was the Charles Krug Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2007. Bright, fresh and full of fruit--I tasted peaches, along with citrus--it wasn't the least bit grassy. 

"It is the purest expression of the varietal you'll find," said Peter Mondavi Jr., who was in Los Angeles for a couple of days. 

As the proprietor of Charles Krug, Mondavi would be expected to talk well of his wines. But I had heard good things about Krug Sauvignon Blanc before I met him. 

The Krug entry tied for the top spot in a 2005 tasting of American Sauvignon Blancs, wrote Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher in their "Tastings" column in the Wall Street Journal in March. 

The topic of that column was a comparison of inexpensive Merlots. The best of that tasting was the  Krug 2005 Merlot. "Classy and vibrant," the writers said. Krug's Cabernet Sauvignon was their favorite in a previous tasting of widely distributed Cabernets.

After praise like that, Mondavi (in the photo with the Sauvignon Blanc) didn't have to say a word to convince me that his wines were worth trying.

The grapes for the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc were harvested at night when temperatures had cooled off from the soaring heat of the day. The juices spent 18 hours on the skins, then went into stainless steel for very cold fermentation for 30 days. 

No heavy handed wine making techniques were involved, and the wine spent no time in oak. "We take the flavors of the fruit and deliver them in the bottle," Mondavi said, likening the style of the wine to New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs. 

Krug made 15,000 cases of the 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, so plenty is available. The  2008 Sauvignon Blanc will be similar but brighter in acidity and a little less rich because of its youth, Mondavi said. That wine will be released this summer.

The Charles Krug 2007 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc is $18 at the winery, less at retailers such as BevMo. For more information, go to  http://www.charleskrug.com