Grand Old Zins and Icon Grill Unite

By Kathy Ward

Tasting Card • Zin Lineage • Chef Nick Musser, icon Grill • ZAP • Arista

Red, white and bountiful is Zinfandel, the truly American varietal, the only wine grape considered unique to the United States.

Second leading red produced in California, Zinfandel is a versatile grape turned out in a range of styles from sparkling and blush/rosé white to fortified port and even late harvest dessert. And there's robust reds with complex depth and spicy flavors, varieties chosen for the March tasting card.

High-flying food-friendly Zins joined forces with Americana home cookin' selections by Executive Chef Nick Musser at icon Grill at this event.

Ruth Arista, owner of Arista Wine Cellars of Edmonds, was guest speaker for the program. She leads tastings for community and wine industry groups using samples of scents and flavors found in wines as "taste bud training." Dried fruits and nuts were incorporated into the program as instructional tasting components.

Tasting Card
Burgess Cellars, a St. Helena mountainside winery with origins back to the 1880s, has been family owned and operated in the Napa Valley with the same winemaker for 30 years.

Peachy Canyon selections demonstrate the model of Westside/Eastside Zinfandel showing distinct difference in soil, climate and rainfall in grapes produced on either side of the Central Coast Salinas River.

Seghesio Winery, established by an Italian immigrant in 1895, began a four-generation lineage of Zinfandel grape growers in Sonoma’s Alexander Valley, with over half their 400 acres today devoted to Zin.

Bradford Mountain vineyards sit on a mountain plateau a thousand feet above the Dry Creek Valley floor, former home site of an Italian family whose late 1800s Zinfandel vines still make up part of the Grist Vineyard.

Dry Creek Vineyard, started in 1972 as first new winery in the Valley since Prohibition, launched a success that inspired revitalization of the area’s wine industry. Their Late Harvest Zin took state fair Best of Class and Gold at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair.

Zin Lineage
Zinfandel's ancestry may have been Italian Primitivo or Croatian Plavac Mali, or possibly even a Hungarian cousin. There are several stories as to Zin's true origin and how it first arrived in California. The name Zinfandel is believed to have been first used in this country in 1832, giving the grape a separate and uniquely American identity.

“Many in the wine world refer to Zinfandel as ‘America’s heritage grape’ because it was widely planted in northern California during the Gold Rush and is prominent in histories of that time, as a heavy-producing grape type whose wine satisfied many a miner’s thirst,” notes University of California, Davis, Professor Carole Meredith. She says many California old Zinfandel vineyards survived Prohibition, some dating back to the late 1890s.

ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates & Producers), founded in 1991, funds research on this varietal. One project involves collecting pre-1930 vines from across California for the Heritage Vineyard in Oakville. Professor Meredith is documenting Zinfandel DNA in these vines, another ZAP-funded effort.

Heritage Vineyard is administered by Professor James Wolpert of the UC Davis Viticulture & Enology Department. He conducts Zinfandel “safaris” throughout the state locating choice old vines for this living history museum of the grape.

“Few New World wine regions have had the opportunity to create a new great wine,” states Dr. Wolpert. “With other varieties, we have constantly compared our efforts to European standards. Zinfandel gives us an unparalleled opportunity to create unique world-class wines.” ZAP oversees production of wine from the Heritage Vineyard. (See ZAP Web site for complete details.)

In Concert with Cuisine
Icon Grill's Executive Chef Nick Musser is highly visible in the Seattle culinary scene and community. You’ve likely seen or heard this multitalented man in person or on television.

Trained to be a classical violist, Nick supported his music education by working at the Rusty Pelican in Seattle. He quickly became a star at Bite of Seattle, then worked as McCormick & Schmick’s sous chef under Christine Keff. He followed her to Yarrow Bay Grill as head chef at the Beach Café, and on to her Flying Fish restaurant where his chef d’ cuisine experience contributed to their four-star status.

As opening chef at glitzy Fifth Ave icon Grill in 1998, Nick developed an "Aroused Americana" menu showcasing his personal cooking philosophy. He says this means taking Heritage Style cuisine, or comfort food, and bringing it to a whole new level.

"I like to take recognizable foods, such as meatloaf or macaroni and cheese, and make it using the techniques I learned while discovering French, continental and haute cuisines," Nick explains. "We feel this brings all the flavors and ideas up a level, hence the 'aroused.'"

Nick adds that veal demi as a base for gravy, with house cured ground chuck and a hand selected high end apple smoked bacon, mean, "This is not your mother's meatloaf." He says it's OK to have a nice glass of your favorite red wine, like a great Zinfandel, with a feel-good favorite like meatloaf.

Additional nostalgia is a Nick-inspired takeout school-box lunch — a real icon of American childhood — upgraded to a gourmet sandwich, taro chips and Hostess-like cupcake filled with grand Marnier chocolate mousse.

And that brings us around to significance in the name chosen for the restaurant: American food icons as a basis of the menu. It also refers to the eclectic décor of Northwest visual icons such as blown glass and other works of art by local artists.

Nick has demonstrated his culinary expertise in Sur La Table and Bon Vivant classes, for KOMO-TV and KCPQ 13 programs, on stage at Seattle Cooks and The Home Show, and at charity events. Profiled as Redbook magazine 2001 Husband of the Year, he was interviewed on the CBS “Early Show” with wife Erin.

And never missing a beat with his first passion, Nick still makes music as principle violist for the Lake Union Civic Orchestra and with the Raven String Quartet.


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