The Wines of (Not So) Polar Q 1

The Wines of (Not So) Polar Q 2015.

The date was January 28, 1990. The San Francisco 49ers were blowing out the Denver Broncos with a final score of 55-10. At the same time a small band of fanatics – some might say maniacs – gathered in the cold and snow of a suburban back yard in Columbus, Ohio. Their purpose was not to watch Super Bowl XXIV, but to engage in one of America’s other great traditions, the back yard barbecue, cooking and eating in the out of doors.

That was the birth of Polar Q, a mid-winter barbecue held every year on Super Bowl Sunday. There were four cooks that day, including Steve Hamm, who had originated the idea of the Polar Q, and Joe Coles who was a chef at the time at Rigsby’s Kitchen in the Short North. Polar Q has always been about the “cookers” and the “eaters,” and Steve recalls that first year there were about a dozen “wives, friends, girlfriends and others” who had come to taste what the cookers prepared.

Since the beginning, Polar Q has changed locations, and it has grown. Some years as many as 35-40 cookers will show up, with hundreds of eaters. More recently, as the charm of the often frigid weather has faded, Polar Q shifted to May of each year, and has been rebranded as (Not So) Polar Q.

A Legacy of Fine Dining

It is not just some of the best amateur chefs in Columbus who cook at Polar Q. Over the years we have shared cooking spaces with Columbus-based Master Chef Hartmut Handke and Master Chef Rod Stoner who was at the Greenbrier. Alana Shock from Alana’s Food and Wine sometimes cooked in her giant wok, and Bruce Hildreth from Tapatio was a regular. More recently, Kent Peters of Black Creek Bistro has been participating. Steve Hamm was also a member of the Barbecue Boys, a competition cook team with Jim Boudros, Dr. John Kean and Mike Taylor, who gained nationwide acclaim, at least in barbecue circles, for winning the beef brisket category of the Kansas City Royal barbecue contest, known by many as the Super Bowl of Barbeque, with a brisket entry they cooked on a Weber grill.  John, Jim and Mike went on to found City Barbeque, now a Columbus institution, with 24 locations in four states. Mike has since moved to Florida, but John and Jim, along with Steve, continue to be the backbone of (Not So) Polar Q, and always seem to be the first to arrive on site.

I started participating in Polar Q about 20 years ago, and it quickly became apparent that the event was about good friends, new and old, sharing the best they had to offer of food and beverage. The cookers seriously commit to producing the best tasting, most original and unusual dishes they can make.  And there is always wine, and I mean spectacular wine. Many of the cookers and eaters contribute bottles and sometimes cases of wine to the shared experience that is (Not So) Polar Q.

The Wines of (Not So) Polar Q

2015 was something of a down year for the event in terms of total participation.  Heavy rains through the night and into the morning of the event, and a forecast calling for more storms throughout the day, undoubtedly kept a lot of people away.  But we nonetheless had about 10 cookers and three or four dozen eaters. And though heavy rains did fall several times during the afternoon, everyone seemed to keep the rain from washing out their party spirit, putting out the fires, or watering down the wine!

It is next to impossible to be able to see, let alone taste, every wine that is opened at even a relatively small (Not So) Polar Q. Distributors, Sommeliers and amateur collectors of all stripe bring unique craft beers, and this year upwards of four dozen bottles of wine. There were white and rosé sparkling wines from France, Italy and Argentina, and red, white and rosé still wines from around the world. Some of the wines were from recent vintages, and others had nearly 35 years of bottle age. The wines of (Not So) Polar Q are varied, often surprising, and nearly always delicious.

Some of my favorites included the 2010 Langhe Nebbiolo “Bricco Magno,” a more modernist-styled Nebbiolo from Piedmont in Northern Italy; the 2010 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé, a wine from Provence, France, made from 100 percent Mouvedre grapes; the five-year vertical of A. Rafenelli Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma; the 2004 Travaglini Gattinara from northern Italy; and the 2012 “Essence,” a relatively cool climate Sauvignon Blanc from Grgich Hills in Napa. That does not even touch on the wines I did not get to, like the 1980 Pére Jacques Cote-Rotie from France or the 1990 Henri Bourgeois Pouilly Fumé from the Loire Valley in France.

In addition to those, I was really blown away by a number of other things I tasted at this year’s (Not So) Polar Q, in no particular order.

The 2008 Sierra Madre Vineyards Chardonnay.

2008 Sierra Madre Vineyard Chardonnay, Santa Maria Valley, California. Those who know me know that I do not appreciate the oaked, super ripe, buttery style of many California Chardonnays. But this wine was very different. Grown on the western edge, the ocean side, of the Santa Maria Valley, in one of the coolest vineyards in all of California, these grapes benefit from the cooling influence of air coming off the Pacific Ocean, slowing ripening and leading to a Chardonnay with pretty, elegant fruit at the front end balanced by great, crisp acidity.

The 1988 Lupé Cholet Grand Cru Montrachet.

1988 Lupé Cholet Grand Cru Montrachet, Burgundy, France. The years in the bottle brought great color to this wine which was deep gold with just hints of brown. When I first tasted this, I did not find it terribly impressive. It had decent fruit, but it was flabby, by which I mean there was no structure or acid to balance the fruit. As can happen at (Not So) Polar Q, however, I had several different glasses of wine going at the same time, so I just set this down and came back to it about 90 minutes later. I was glad I did. A brilliant, crisp acidity had emerged that provided a structure to balance the fruit and made this wine a delight.

The 2006 Bellavista Franciacorta, yeasty with beautiful, fine bubbles.

2006 Gran Cuvée Pas Operé Bellavista Franciacorta, Franciacorta, Italy. This was one of the wines I brought to the party. You may recall I wrote about it in my previous blog post, when I talked about finding it at Brady’s Wine Warehouse in New Orleans. Now having tasted it, I can say that my excitement was fully justified. This wine is wonderfully yeasty on the nose, a product of its extended sur lees aging. Sur lees aging means that after the secondary fermentation, the one that imparts the carbonation to the sparkling wine, the dead yeast cells remain in the bottle for up to several years. The yeast cells impart that toasty or bready character found in many fine Champagnes and Franciacortas. This wine has a beautiful, creamy texture and fine, tiny bubbles that go on and on.

Certified Sommelier J.J. Johnson made sure I got a taste of the 2001 Domaine Tempier Bandol. Thank you!

2001 Domaine Tempier Bandol, Provence, France. This powerhouse red wine made from the Mouvedre grape, a grape known for producing dense wines with big tannin structure, was still fairly youthful despite having 14 years of bottle age.  Pretty plum and blueberry notes on the nose which seemed to be slightly more tart and acidic on the palate. The tannins had softened, leaving a gorgeous mouth feel and the kind of palate drying that invites you to take that next mouthful. Wonderfully balanced and integrated, this was a great treat.

The 1978 Conneaut, Ohio Markko Cabernet Sauvignon, perhaps the most uncommon selection from (Not So) Polar Q 2015.

1978 Markko Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Conneaut, Ohio. Before owner/winemaker Arnie Esterer and his partner, Tim Hubbard, started planting the Markko Vineyards in the late 1960s, commercial grape growing in Ohio consisted primarily of hybrid varietals like Catawba. Esterer and Hubbard pioneered the planting of vitis vinifera, wine grapes, in Ohio. Vitis vinifera has more sugar and more acid than table grape varieties, and lots of seeds, which impart more tannin and structure to the juice and eventually to the wine. Markko Vineyards is located in the Lake Erie American Viticultural Area (AVA), the largest grape growing region outside of California, stretching from Buffalo, New York to Toledo, Ohio.

The 1978 Cabernet Sauvignon is a very interesting wine. The wine was cloudy, undoubtedly a product both of its age and the fact that in the barbecue setting, the bottle had likely been agitated, resulting in particles that may have settled being suspended again in the liquid. Despite the cloudiness, the color was a deep purple with only the slightest hint of an orange hue. There was a very slight musty smell at first, but I have had enough experience with older wines to know that this was not the overwhelming mustiness of a wine gone bad or corked, but rather just the result of being closed up in the bottle for so long. The mustiness quickly blew off.  On the palate, the fruit remained quite evident, like overripe plums and cherries. Though not vibrant or fresh, on the whole this wine was still very good. Both for the significance of this wine in the evolution of wine production in Ohio and the Lake Erie AVA, and for its still evident quality, I was thrilled to drink this wine. It has also convinced me to schedule a trip to Markko Vineyards some time this summer.

The Judgment

(Not So) Polar Q 2015, like the many Polar Qs before it, brought out great people, excellent food, and a wine experience of exceptional interest and quality. There is talk of moving (Not So) Polar Q back to Super Bowl Sunday.  I will be there either way.  Neither rain, nor snow…