New hours starting March 21st!

Starting on Wednesday the 21st, we’ll be open:

Mon-Fri 8-7

Sat 9-6

Sun 9-4

It’s spring (almost)!

We’ve got some new additions here at Rosemont Produce Company today; artichokes and flowers!

Come check us out!

Shameless 2

Another installment of blatant cross-promotion: Below is the text from my latest Portland Press Herald wine column. This week is all on Cru Beaujolais, surely the least respected great wine category on Earth. Tremendously versatile with food, luscious, approachable, grippy and fun!

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Gamay is the best wine varietal you’re not drinking. A descendent of Pinot noir, it’s Pinot-like but easier to deal with in the fields. Incapable of the glorious heights to which Burgundian Pinot can ascend, Gamay is nonetheless fascinating, unique, delicious – and at every level, cheaper than its more famous cousin.

Gamay is terrific in France’s Loire Valley, but attains fullest potential in certain areas of Beaujolais, which is north of the Rhune and south of Burgundy. “Ugh Beaujolais.” Wait: You’re thinking of Beaujolais Nouveau, the over-marketed young juice that goes from vineyard to storefront in 20 minutes. (And by the way, taken for what it is – young, fruity, gulpable harvest wine – Nouveau is undeniably fun.)

Today, however, I’m talking Cru and Villages Beaujolais, which are worlds apart from Nouveau. Cru appellations have serious winemakers and the best soil: Villages is technically a step below Cru, and the wines are generally less luxe-y though often more approachable. These are Beaujolais with complexity and fire, and are some of the most versatile food wines in the world.

Some common traits of good Beaujolais: cherry-red color and fresh and/or sour cherry fruit; low tannins, low alcohol, and light body, therefore: fun, quaffable, food-flexible (anything from omelets to tacos and even spicy food – try a slightly chilled Beaujolais with Chinese take-out); and grip – a raspy, succulent textural quality. As many have said, Beaujolais behaves in many ways like white wine.

More cheerleading:

• Beaujolais’ fresh fruit (not sweetness) and gamey elements are perfect for autumn and Thanksgiving, when menus turn to winter squash, fatty poultry, cranberries and so on.

• Cru Beaujolais ages incredibly well, often only coming to maturity (i.e., full mindblowingness) after 6-12 years.

• 2009 Beaujolais is being called the “vintage of a generation” (or even more hyperbolic phrases), for its opulence and even splendor.

Domaine Dupeuble Beaujolais 2008, $15 (National). From longtime traditional-Beaujolais promoter/importer Kermit Lynch, this is beautifully balanced and as inexpensive an excellent Beaujolais as you’re likely to find. Lacks the concentration of some Crus, but concentration isn’t the premium with Beaujolais; freshness and vitality are, and evident here in spades. Currants and sour cherries are the fruit, the rest is smoke, dust, and tenacious grip.

Domaine de la Chaponne Morgon 2009, $15 (Pine State). Real tongue-tingling at first, like a jumpy child loving life, then mellows into a young adult – contentedly joyous rather than boisterous. Fascinating fruit – cranberries, cherries, blueberries – and no earth at all, there’s something in here the slightest bit Californian (which is how I like my Californian). Comes to us via Georges Duboeuf, the famous popularizer of Nouveau. Duboeuf’s many Crus are worth exploring (especially the musky, fungal Descombes Morgon 2009) , especially for those who like prominent fruit ahead of mineral spine.

Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2009, $33 (Nappi). Like Burgundy but the luscious fruit is more up-front, deepened with pronounced cinnamon and allspice. A brilliant experimental scientist of Beaujolais who did much to expose the profundity these wines are capable of, Lapierre died just last week, so the ’09 is his last gift. I’ve tasted the 2006 recently, sighing wordlessly in appreciation of its development. Please consider buying this ’09 masterpiece to age.

Domaine Diochon Moulin-a-Vent 2006, $27 (National). Anyone ready to get what they pay for? This is flat-out crazy wine; a more respected area (Bordeaux, Barbaresco, etc.) would charge twice as much for something this complicated. A balloon-y rubber nose turns to lip-smacking grape bubblegum on the palate, joined to cinnamon, forest floor, wet pine needles, mint, chive, sweat, woodsy animals. Wow.

Chateau des Jacques Moulin-a-Vent 2009, $28 (Nappi). The only one I tasted that displays that brooding wisdom-soul more closely associated with Bordeaux or Barolo. An untracked forest: earthy, gamey, brambly roses. It wants fat – duck or goose.

no organizing principle

Rosemont’s Joe Appel’s Press Herald latest wine column up and running. Wine people tend to think categorically: “How does this Sauvignon Blanc compare to that one?” “Ten perfect BBQ-friendly reds.” “What’s the best region for Merlot?” (It’s Italy, by the way, unless you’re buying $100+ Right Bank Bordeaux.) I’m as guilty as anyone. But this week my column’s about…nothing in particular. It’s just a collection of five terrific wines — white, red, dessert — at very reasonable prices (the one over $15 is Brachetto, and more than worth it!).

Most Rosemonts have most of the wines — but check particulars: Of course any store can get in any wine, quickly.

Up in the sky, it’s a…

…bird, it’s a plane, it’s…well, it’s a mushroom. And it’s a bird. Chicken-of-the-woods mushroom, to be exact. I just cooked one last night. I’d gotten it from the store, after our master forager and mushroom cultivator Rick Tibbetts from Scarborough, had brought it in. Most chicken-of-the-woods I’ve had have been woody, styrofoamy, incredibly disappointing. This was exquisite: soft, buttery, meaty but delicately so rather than earthily like a portabello.

It was good because Rick knows what he’s doing, and he only brings us the best. He said this chicken-of-the-woods will last a week (from Tuesday), and I trust him. See this week’s email newsletter (subscribe via our website) for more info on Rick.

The thing I want to stress is that despite the high-seeming price of our locally foraged or cultivated mushrooms, a little goes such a long way. The piece I bought cost around $5, and in the following preparation was plenty for two people. You could even get less and supplement with portabello. If you’ve been aching to try maitake, get a small piece to add to your white buttons for an omelet; or mix a handful of shimejis in with some sliced criminis. The deep flavor of these mushrooms is worth experiencing, and though they look intimidating/weird they’re fun and easy to play with in the kitchen.

Here's what it looked like, right before I slid it on a plate under eggs over-easy. Those brilliant-orange slices are the "chicken".

I sautéed an all-local mirepoix — local fresh onion, local celery, local carrot — in butter on low heat, mostly covered so it wouldn’t brown. Because I can’t help it, I added some chiffonade (fine shred) local lacinato kale, salt, pepper. Meanwhile, cut the woody core off the mushroom, slice it gently 1/8″ wide, toss in the pan and continue to cook, covered, until soft. I fried some eggs to go on top. And yes, it does — though subtly — taste like chicken!

Inspired foraging

No extra words necessary, click here for a very cool video on what happens when passionate and knowledgeable cooks focus on locally foraged foods. A lot of Rosemont friends (and even employees) are in there…

New, beautiful Burgundies at 15% off

We just got in a small, careful selection of terrific Burgundies — Chardonnay and Pinot Noir the way they should be. All are priced at approximately 15% off, and won’t last long. The wines are available in all three stores; ask John, Ian, Ebo and Dan for more info.

There’s no better time to begin or continue a relationship with what, in the end, remains the most thrilling wine region on Earth.

• Louis Jadot Côte de Beaune-Villages 2007, was $27.99 now $21.99
• Louis Jadot Beaune Premier Cru 2007, was $35.99, now $29.99
• Louis Jadot Bressandes Premier Cru 2007, was $39.99, now $31.99
• Bruno Clair “Les Grasses Têtes” 2006, was $31.49, now $25.99
• LeFlaive Mâcon-Verzé 2007, was $35.99, now $29.99
• Pierre Matrot Meursault 2006, was $35.99, now $31.99

The kids are alr…thinking globally and acting locally

It really is so easy to despair. Israel, Hamas and Turkey. BP. Afghanistan. $$$. Home-grown idjits dominating our discourse. But there’s a way out; I found it — or, to be more charitable to myself, rediscoverd it — after sitting on a panel last week at Casco Bay High School‘s Sustainability Symposium. This was the culminating event of a group of students at the innovative Portland public school, who had spent much of the school year investigating “sustainability” from all angles. I was honored to be there, but more importantly I left with genuine confidence that we’re entering a new, better era.