How to Make The New Chia Fresca Raspberry Twist Health Drink

Niall: So I’m here today with Frank from roberfranciswine.ie, and you got some absolute bankers for us today. Frank: Yeah, Niall, they’re kind of solid ones that we would pick for around the holiday time, thanksgiving, Christmas, we kinda gone with, and a fresh interesting white solid pinot noir from America and some fun sparkling wine from the Alsa, always a good time. So, I think we get straight in to the first wine, which is an Orvietto. Niall: And, just give us a little bit of background ‘bout yourself, what… Frank: I ran a wine website here, there’s a couple of them now in Ireland, it’s just really about helping people find great bottles of wine in their off license, as you can see behind us here, there’s a huge selection of wines and the decision between the good bottle and the bad bottle is sometimes, literally, be the width of a bottle. Niall: Yeah. Frank: So, it’s just trying to find good wines in price brackets. Niall: Very good. Frank: So, you know, it’s all about helping the consumers, so this is a Cardeto, it’s a treviano from Umbria, which is in the main spine Italy. Being from the chef background, you might notice, but, treviano is actually used to make balsamic vinegar, now this wine doesn’t taste anything like balsamic vinegar, but… Niall: You sure? Frank: …yes, I had it before, and, but, you know, it’s just a little fact to people, and so you can see, it’s got a nice color. Niall: Now, is there be a case for pairing up with a dish with balsamic vinegar, or is that totally off the mark. Frank: Probably a bit off the mark, balsamic sometimes can be quite acidic as you know yourself, now if you maybe reduced it down a little bit and gone for the more sweeter syrup, I think possibly, but this would really be suited to kinda salads and fish dishes in the lighter side. Slightly a bit golden in color, you know, and on the nose, it’s just kinda got good fresh clean fruit, you know, it’s not gonna change your world with this wine but it’s really solid entry level wise. You know, it retails for about 10, 11 euros a bottle. Niall: I like that very nicely. Yup. Frank: So now I just got those clean fresh kinda citrus fruits, bit of apple maybe… Niall: Yeah. Frank: … and just, good acidity as you can see really on the side of your mouth. Taste a bit more like it would be a bit more expensive than it is, it’s 11 euro, you know, that’s pretty solid in today’s market place, and Italian whites are really the quality is just sky rocketed and lately, there’s so many great varieties, there’s literally one for everyday of the year, so, you know, if you wanted to try something different, if you’ve been trying chardonnays and sauvignon blanc a lot, this is ridiculous, there’s Gavy’s , there’s a whole pile. Niall: And why is it that the quality’s rocketed reason, is it production? Frank: Well obviously the new world totally changed everything between Australia, Chile, Argentina, all came to the party, and… Niall: Think they kick up the ass Frank: … yeah, pretty much, I mean, Italy before that used to make huge quantities of wine, everybody remember the chianti bottles with wicker base, everybody make candle holders out of. So this, this kind of, they realize they Argen, Australia and Chile and so on, we’re taking over a huge segments of the market, so they said that they really needed to do, but not a lot of the traditional producers did make high quality wines, they just didn’t get exported, but there are some fantastic wines out there now. Now you be kinda 10 to 15 euros for the Italian whites, but this so much selection really is great. Niall: It’s great, 11 euro is a great value. Frank: Yeah, and that’s available in chardis, in Ireland, so. Niall: Okay, I know we’ll go on to the second wine now. Frank: As you know yourself, being a chef, the meal a lot of the time takes over, and there’s so many complex flavors and some of the dishes that you be creating, but Christmas dinner is one, where you got the kind of sweet turkey meat and then people can good after with the stuffing and the gravy and all of that, now pinot noirs is traditionally the wine that would be met, much with turkey. Niall: Yeah. Frank: And, but in my opinion, my personal experience, sometimes you can pay an awful amount of money for burgundy and they can be a little more delicate, which is fantastic with other dishes, but sometimes the aggressive nature of the Christmas dinner can overpower it, so I… Frank: Niall: Have you always go with the red or a white at Christmas dinner. It’s totally whatever you like, I, I, I would generally go with the red, but, I mean, you could perfectly with turkey, you know, some nice chardonnays, or, if, you know, if you’re having a nice glass of chardony before hand, you could perfectly… Niall: Bring in to that. Frank: Yeah, it’s really about what you like, you know, I mean, perfectly happy to sit there drink some very nice champagne, if anybody wants a (slurry) . Niall: I think, turkey such a, sort of, well bland, to be honest. Frank: Yeah. Niall: I think you could get anything to go with it. Frank: And the fruit forwardness of the new world pinots, but this one’s being from the west coast of the States, really just kind the, just kinda give it a little bit of extra umph and power it, so that it can hang in there behind. Niall: So, we get straight into it. This is another, sort of bargain… Frank: This one’s slightly more expensive now. This one is at 20 euros, our, their, their bottle, it’s imported by James Nicholson in Ireland and, but, it’s a fantastic wine, this is their entry level, there’s a brown ranch when it comes in, brown range that comes in that probably about twice the price, but 20 euros Christmas day, it’s not beyond the means, and they also, you know, I’ve had this several times now, a big fan of it. Niall: It’s sort clear, isn’t it? Frank: Yeah, it’s, it’s quite a lighter color, but it’s still good color concentration, doesn’t look anything, almost looks like it kinda water down ripe vina. You know what I mean. It’s not looking like the concentrated ripe vina, so, on the nose there’s just lovely kinda strawberry red fruit, kinda soft, a little bit of oak in the background. Niall: Yeah, absolutely. Frank: But really inviting. Niall: Very smooth as well. Frank: Which you get from pinot, and you get some of the delicacy that you get from pinot, but the, there is that solid fruit in there, and the oak isn’t done anyway powering it, you know, that’s the ’04 vintage now, so that’s actually, that’s very good now, an ’04 is a recently good vintage from California, so. Niall: Yeah. And when did your passion in wine come from, I know you’ve got the blog. Frank: Ahm. It actually, probably stemmed from my wife, my wife grew up in Australia and ever since, you know, trying to show off, taking her out for dinner and like everybody stuck to the Chilean wine section, I went to visit her brother in western Australia, and then I got there, and so theirs is no Chilean wine section in the menu, so all of a sudden I was trying to figure out what different grapes where in, I was there looking at these grape varieties that I’ve never seen before, I don’t know what a semilean was or semion, or any of that, so it was kinda from that, it just kinda stemmed, I’m a little bit of a geek that way, I like the, the different varieties and the different styles and what different people can do to them, so it really stemmed from there. Niall: I think specially the aussies just like haven’t been on vineyards and sometimes just strip away all pretense about wine… Frank: Yeah. Niall: Just what it is. Frank: Yeah, there was no, I mean, having grown up in Ireland, it was whether you wanted a burgundy of a Bordeaux or even back in the day, it was black tower or leapershanbleu and all and all of that, but I never knew what they were, it was when we got to Australia, it was, you know, you want a chardonnay, okay, whatever go would that like, you know, what’s that? but it was, it was just so refreshing, and that’s really why the new world has done so well, and I mean, Australia commands a huge, I think nearly a quarter of the Irish market, so, it’s a, it’s, it’s a really good, it’s a good way, when you go to the vineyard as well. I was fortunate to get, to visit some in Marga river, that really, that really helps kinda solidify things in your head, and people in Europe, I mean, you know, riding our flight to Carkisan, it’s very easy to get to the Longdocker or some of the region in, in Europe. Niall: Well, I think that’s what that sort of happening in the internet, especially at the moment, there’s all that, sort of pretense and, not bullshit, that’s probably strong a word, but all this sort of, stuffiness it’s been a wrong way, it’s sort of being strip away, which is fantastic. Frank: Yeah, well I mean, I suppose 20 years ago you wouldn’t heard two people sitting down saying it looks like raybino, or I get, you know, kind of cherry fruit, or like little cherry penny sweet or something, back then it was much more or I’m in a meadow and it was probably a bit more, bit more pretentious, but now a days, it’s, it’s just more of what people want, and people have a better idea of what they wanted so much choice, I mean we had never have as much choice as we have now. So it’s all good for the wine consumer at the end of the day. Niall: Yeah, I like that one, strong flavor. Frank: Yeah, there’s good concentration on the flavors. Niall: And that’s, 17 you said, roughly. Frank: About 20, 19.50, 20 something around that. Niall: Again, for special occasion. Frank: Special occasion, you know, I mean, whether, you know, you’ve got your red and your whites sorted for Christmas day for 30 euros, that’s, that’s, that’s not bad. Niall: So I think, you weren’t lying when you said you get two bankers and yet those were absolutely homeruns. Frank: Yeah, so I, you know yourself, Christmas day, again being a chef, you probably start cooking early on, so the day kinda starts you reasonably early. Niall: Yeah. Frank: Sometimes you don’t really want a big heavy wine to start in the morning, you know, less you got a serious drinking problem, probably not. So, we’ve gone from a fun fizz here from north eastern Italy, it’s from near Trovisso, big reputante, and this is the Coll Salliz Prosecco. Niall: Very interested to watch how you do this. Frank: I’d like to… Niall: A lot of people that with open champagne. Frank: Yeah, it’s, any sparkling wine can be dangerous, obviously, some of them nowadays come with the, the beer cork on the top of them. Niall: Yeah. Frank: The bottle top, bring point in Australia, are famous for doing this on some other wines, but this is the way that I open it, it’s not necessarily the textbook method, but, it, it, it works for me, you know, I haven’t lost an eye yet, so. And, well again, it’s just about kinda, you know, being reasonably careful at the same time, it is a pressurize unit, so you never know what’s going to happen, just carefully take off the guard, I’ve had had had a corks pop on me, with this stage so, be very careful. Now, when you read the box inside, they all talk about turning the bottle and not the cork, so that way the cork wont snap in your hands, so you just grab it at the bottom of the punt, and this is a live one, just a simple little turn like that, and there we go. Now, so like I said, this is a Prosecco, which is interestingly enough in the new world style is the great variety, so it’s not often that you see new world places that they put that on it, so, cheap fizzing. Okay. Niall: I would say I’m a big fan of Prosecco, really discovered when I was in Italy, it’s usually an awful a lot cheaper. Frank: Yeah, I mean, this, this, this bottle retails for about 17 or 18 euros. So it’s probably high after price of your reasonable champagne, in my experienced and having drank a reasonable amount of it, and, you know, you’re much better off to go for a good sparkling wine than a bad champagne, you know, bad of anything is never good. Niall: And champagne, is it, are paying for the name, pretty much? Frank: You are in some regards, but a lot regard, there’s huge amount of tradition and quality that goes into it, you’re paying for different grape varieties as well, you know, between pinot noir, chardonnay, pinot muniey, you know, this, this, this, there will be a lot more weight. This is laysher, got much more fun, I’ll generally won’t have the complexities of flavors, and what, at the same time, like I said, if you’re starting cooking early, you want something that’s a little more approachable, a little softer, this is certainly won. But still maintaining good acidity, which is always important. So cheers. Nice for having me along. Niall: I might swirl in this? No? Frank: You, you can do, but generally if you just get your nose in there it should be reasonably, okay so, there’s, you know, there’s apple, kinda, but it’s just kinda light and fresh and inviting, you know. Niall: Yeah. That’s very nice. It’s crisp and… Frank: Yeah, it’s crisp and it’s dry, and clean the palette quite nicely, and a little touch, tiniest touch of residual sugar, just left on the tongue in there that you’ll get in the end, that will soften out some of the acidity, but, you know, it’s really, it’s just a fun, fun fizz that you can drink early on. Niall: And it’s just, I just like the fact that it’s sort of clean and light, you know. Frank: Yeah. Niall: You’re not gonna get bug eyed, you know, it’s just… Frank: I mean, Italy again is just fantastic things in this range that people want to try a Mascado de Aztiz, or Aztiz Blumantiz, or some of them can be a little sweeter in style, but it just gives great freshness and great fruit and it’s no frizz, but, you know. Niall: Yeah. Frank: You got what you pay for, and it’s, it’s good fun. Niall: One of the nices desserts I ever had in my entire life was those I tried in Sicily, and they have these sort of little sweet peaches and they were just ripe, and then they slice them up and sprinkle tiny bit of sugar and then Prosecco over the top, and I took about a minute to make, and I swear to god, it’s mind blowing, ripe, the little frizz from the… Frank: Yeah, you don’t want to over complicate things, you know, just keeps it nice and simple in straightful. Niall: And how much does this one coming at? Frank: This is one is about 18 euros, 18, 19 euros, now again when you think about 5 or 6 euros of that is tax that goes to the government so you know it’s it’s pretty good, even the new world sparkling wines will probably be 20, 25, so it’s a bit cheaper so. Niall: And personally, would you go for Prosecco or a champagne, for special occasions. Frank: Special occasions I probably push the bulge out and go for a nice, a nice champagne bottle, but I think, Christmas day, if you’re buying a lot of other bottles, the budget can get away from you very quickly and all of a sudden 50 euros can become a hundred euro, so, in that case, you know, if you’re buying a couple as well, Prosecco’s can offer great value from your money. Niall: I suppose another thing is I’ve done parties for like 20 or 30 people, so simply if you have a lot of people, maybe Prosecco, if it was a tight knit, like 4 or 5 of your family. Frank: Exactly. Right. yeah, you know, and, and, and it depends as well, I suppose that sometimes you don’t want to be pulling out your best champagne if people aren’t going to be into it, it’s not their cup of tea, and as you can see this, this would suit most occasions, so. Niall: What about things to mix it with like in cocktail, like in some Blainis isn’t it or… Frank: Yeah, blainis, you can do, their cairoyales as well with crème de cassis and, you know, again, with your more expensive champagnes, you obviously not gonna dump a whole pile of, of peach into your crystal or something, but, into the slightly more economical buy, you can get away with that comfortably, and you know, I mean, this isn’t a whole lot more expensive than Jacob’s Creek, which is the most popular, probably sparkling wine in Ireland today. But nobody seen the labels and nobody knows what it is. Niall: Exactly, yeah. Frank: If, if, if you want to be conscientious and get away with it, prosecco might be the way to go there too. Niall: Yeah, no, very nice, very crisp. Frank: Yeah. Niall: So, the next one, you’re gonna have quite a bit of selling to do with me because it’s port. Frank: A well I may be the man to do that. Niall: I have to be totally honest with you, I’ve tried quite a few times, and never, I don’t know maybe I’ve never get the right one. I just, I can drink it, but , it’s never been like a hamding or a, I’ve never been blown away. Frank: I, I love port. Absolutely adore port, I hate it’s so unvalued in today’s market place. The amount of tradition and worked, I mean this is a, this is an aged tawny, so this spent, you know, 10 years this bottle has been, and you’re still getting it for only 20 euros. I mean you’re not gonna get your Bordeaux and your burgundies at that price bracket. With the amount of skill and labor, it’s all hand harvested fruit down there in the Drula valley in Portugal, so, you know, the amount of time that it takes, you know, the same with whiskey or anything like that, when you put in the side for a long time, there’s a big capital investment there. Niall: Yeah. Frank: So this is a tawny, there are a number of different styles, you’ve got your bottle vintages, your vintages, single quintas and so on. But tawny for me brings the most versatility to a Christmas thing, and a big fun of chocolate. Niall: Yup. Frank: And that’s always a problem when it comes to matching wines and chocolate, always a problem, you know, chocolates and frazier or anything like that, it’s always very difficult. And tawnys kinda do that for me. They, they really do kinda just help you have something to finish off the meal, there’s a little bit of spirit on the background as well so it can help out as digestive as well. So you know, for people who don’t know, when they’re making ports, it’s a traditional fermented wine and then they add some grape spirits to stop, to stop the fermentation and add that extra percentages of alcohol in it. Okay, so we’ll have a straight liquor, this is a quinta de fronseca, there’s a whole, you’ll find a lot of the time as well the very famous port houses have very resounding names, and because the port houses that were back in, it back well in the 15, 1600, you hear Grahams and Churchills, yeah, and Krofton and all of these names that you expect to be playing cricket for rather than making port. But this is a froseca, and as you can see, it’s a lovely light kind of caramely winey color. Niall: Now we get a little bit of a blue cheese here. Cheese and port, cut a combination. Frank: Yeah. I mean they are, there are certain, yes, and some nos but a lot of time, it’s just having a bit of fun and going it, but you know people would say with blue cheese you should be having sotums or, or, or maybe a traditional vintage port, but for me a, you know, as long as the salt content doesn’t overpower what you’re drinking, you should be reasonable okay. So, thank you very much. Niall: Blue cheese. It looks quite clear. Frank: It looks kinda, clear, yeah. And it, it there’s no sediment or anything in this, now what you would get if you bought a fancy vintage… Niall: Yeah. Frank: Port producer, and if people are having trouble you know, distinguishing the, email ifoods or whatever, we can certainly help them out with vintages… Niall: Yeah. Frank: But on the nose, it’s just lovely raisiny fruit. Niall: Yeah. Frank: Kind of like, and also like a, like a demorelo sugar, you know, the brown condensed sugar. Niall: Absolutely. Frank: And you know, it really does, I ran out of sugar, you’ll hear somebody say I have some of it left in the fridge, but then I get to my tea, and you really get that smell, there might even be a little tea in the background of… Niall: Yeah. Frank: I could be just associating that demorelo. Niall: Thing I find in wines and port and stuff like that, if people tell me… Frank: Yeah. Niall: I get them straight away, if I would sniff at, no idea before, but as soon as you told me the demorelo sugar I get it. Frank: Yeah, and people always get very conscious the fact when they stick their nose into people start talking how yourself going all of this stuff and they can’t get it, it’s just a process, it, it’s a skill that you learn over time. Niall: Could you make something up? Frank: Absolutely, it’s your own palettes, if you smell something here who might tell you it’s not there. So you really get that. Niall: That’s, that’s nice. Frank: Nice raisiny fruit on the, on the palette. Niall: Yeah. Frank: Bit of sweetness, bit of sugar, and, and, you know, with the chocolate dessert or something like that, it’s not coying, but in the same time, there’s a nice sweetness to it. Niall: Yeah Frank: So it’s good, it’s well balanced. Niall: I like that, dessert wines are, I struggle with them, but, I think that’s… Frank: Yeah, it’s not overly sweet. Niall: No. It’s not. Frank: It’s kinda like, like a liquid Christmas cake or something, with the delicious, extra sugar on top, or something. Niall: And how much is that coming up? Frank: That’s about 15 euros, but you know, tawnys in general, does you know, Lily port to Churchill, there’s a whole pile producers that make them. And, but we really get down and get to know your local retailer, the local wine shops, that, they’re the experts there, the guys in the wine, they would tasted them all before, so go down and ask them what they think about it. Niall: And how high would you go, cost wise for port, it’s that? Frank: All in all, the vintage ports, I mean, port lasts forever, I mean, you can buy ’47, 1947 vintage port right now, some of it still turns and so on, with the extra sugar and the alcohol, it really does stay. Niall: Yeah. Frank: But you could, I mean, you could be paying a hundred euro bottle for a really right vintage port. Niall: I don’t, I think that’s perfectly price that one. Frank: Yeah, exactly, you know, and that, they generally come in slightly smaller bottles as well, and it will keep, I mean, if you open it, you’re talking a week anyway, you put the cork back into it, you get of those fancy, wine prevention things and, you know, it should be fine for a week, week and a half. Niall: Very good, let’s try it with a little bit of that cheese. Frank: That’s okay the way, forgot about it. It’s almost having like a dried piece of fruit on top your cheese or something. Niall: Exactly, very nice, I must say, I was never blown away with ports, but that’s, that changed my mind, I like that quite a lot. Frank: There you go now. Niall: So you certainly said you have four bankers here, I think they’re all absolute winners in their own right, wide range there, really, really is. Thanks a million for coming around today. Frank: No problem at all, and people just need to try different things, expand their palette. Niall: Definitely, I think that’s, it opened my eyes today, thanks a million and cheers for coming around.