October 2013

Grilled Cheese, please with Laura Werlin, Paul Mathew wines and guest chef Crista Luedtke of boon eat & drink and Big Bottom Market.

This October's Foodie Seminar included guest speaker Laura Werlin and each guest received a signed copy of the book.

We started by picking five recipes that were all very different from each other. Each recipe incorporated different cheeses, breads as well as other ingredients. We purchased all the bread from Della Fattoria in Petaluma, one of our favorite bakeries.

With the line up of sandwiches, we offered four different Paul Mathew wines, Chardonnay, Valdiguie, Pinot Noir and Cab Franc. The idea was that every person taste each sandwich with each wine. And they did.

The outcome of pairing preference is always fun and sometimes very surprising.

Double cheddar with Tomato jam - first place pairing Chardonnay. Second place Pinot Noir / tied     
                                                         with Cab Franc. This sandwich was one of the two favorite
                                                         recipes of the evening.

Mozzarella with Proscuitto - First place pairing was Cab Franc. Second place Valdiguie. Although
                                               LW and 2 others preferred the Pinot.

Cheese and cherries -  This sandwich was one of the Favorites of the evening and the pairing was tied
                                  for first place between Valdiguie and Pinot Noir. Great flavors and so fun to pair


Balsamic glazed carrots and Havarti - all or none. This very unusual sandwich was not the favorite 
                                                             and none of us felt it was perfect with any of the wines.

Gorgonzola, Hazelnut and Honey - we had to try it even though we didn't expect the magical pairing.
                                                         Fun sandwich and with additional honey even funner. But pairing
                                                         was limited. Some liked the Cab Franc but many did not.

The greatest thing about Food and Wine is the enjoyment of tasting and discussing the flavors.
We look for to 2014's Mac and Cheese, please with Laura Werlin.

Oct. 2, 2013

Cab Franc and Cab Franc foods

This was the topic of our Sept. Foodie Seminar.

All due to our love of Cab Franc: In 2012 we made our first Cab Franc from Alegria Vineyard in the Russian River Valley. We bottled late February and released it in April. People are often thrilled to see a 100% Cab Franc and sales prove this. Our 200 case production is half sold.

We chose this topic for many reasons:
    One - Knowing the foods that pair with our Cab Franc assists in the joy our customers will have    
              with a purchase and recommendation.
    Two - people often seem confused why our Cab Franc is in a Burgundy bottle.
    Three - Many people have come out of the woodwork claiming to be Cab Franc fans
     Four - we did a blind tasting of Cab Franc's after we had signed the contract last year to
                purchase the grapes and wanted to do some research. We enjoyed the tasting so much, we
                wanted to share our findings.

So, what was the outcome, Read more about our evening.....

We started with 4 glasses per person and did two flights. The wines were all wrapped in paper bags & unknown to all participants.
The first flight of four had two French wines and two Californian. The room was not really divided but the favorite was the last wine, Paul Mathew.
The second flight featured a New Zealand, Finger Lakes, Sonoma and a Napa. These wines all had hands up but the favorite two were the Sonoma and the Finger Lakes.

Once we unleashed the line up of wines, everyone was able to retaste the wines & pick what wine to pair with our foods.

The Foods: we discovered that Cab Franc goes really well with tomato based foods. So, we had Backyard Restaurant chef Daniel in Forestville prepare four food items:
      Crostini with tomato jam and lardo
      Ratatouie
      Moussaka
      Paella with chicken and chorizo

Everyone was fairly divided with favorites but there was a consistent result; the Cab Francs were great with the food. The New Zealand showed well with the Ratatouie, Paul Mathew showed with the Lardo crostini. I loved the Mossaka!

cheers to another fun evening of food & wine.

Sept. 14, 2013

2013 HARVEST update


Aug. 30th we picked the Ruxton Vineyard Pinot, always the very 1st vineyard for us picked. We got 10 tons of Pinot and our average is just over 5 tons. So, this is looking like a high yielding vintage.

TNT Vineyard was picked Thursday Sept. 12th. This is about 10 days to 2 weeks earlier than normal. The fruit was pristine as Tom'n Tanya are meticulous farmers. 8 tons came in.

Horseshoe Bend Pinot, Weeks Vineyard Chardonnay & our new Pinot Vineyard in Freestone, Bohemian Vineyard are all being looked at this weekend by Mat.

The Alegria Cabernet Franc Vineyard was at 20 brix earlier this week.

Our temperatures have drastically dropped since last weekends highs in the 90's.Mornings are foggy and cool at 55 degrees. This will help draw out harvest as a week ago with the high temperatures it was looking like a possible picking frenzie.

As per every harvest, long hours of work and little time for anything else. We look forward to having some great wines and enjoying Thanksgiving in Nov. when we have time to enjoy good food wine with friends and family.

August 24th, 2013

Freestone Ranch Foodie Seminar

Last weekend we hosted our August Foodie Seminar with Susan Brady, female rancher @ Freestone Ranch.

Our beef focused evening was a culinary treat. We focused mostly on red wines although the Rose of Pinot shows well with a few of the dishes. The following will explain the prepared foods and favorite pairings of the evening.

We started with an amuse bouche beef broth, this was to get the taste buds prepped for the many coming beef dishes.

Carpaccio ( beef filet ) - we had a 3 way split of favorites:
                     2012 Rose' of Pinot / 2010 TNT Vineyard Pinot Noir / 2012 Cab Franc

Meatballs ( Joy of cooking recipe ) - 2012 Cab Franc won 1st place followed
                    2nd - 2010 TNT Vineyard Pinot Noir   and 3rd 2010 RRV Pinot

Short Ribs ( Adhoc cook book ) - One of Mat's favorite foods to cook and fun to pair. We had a tie
                     for best pairing: 2010 RRV Pinot & 2012 Cab Franc

Rib eye Grilled with salt & pepper - The winning wine was 2010 RRV Pinot
                     In 2nd place was a 50/50 tie between 2012 Cab Franc / 2010 TNT Pinot

 
Beef Jerky ( Charles Phan cook book ) - We had a 50/50 tie between the 2 Pinot's although Mat
                     really likes the 2012 Rose of Pinot with this beef preparation and surprising that the Cab
                     Franc was not well matched.

All in all another fun evening of Food & Wine.

August 15, 2013

Busy days here in Sonoma:
          Started the month off in Traverse City, MI visiting family. Snuck in a little wine tasting    
          which was thoroughly enjoyable & different from Sonoma ( came back with a mixed case of 
          Riesling, Pinot Gris & Cab Franc ). Viewed some beautiful sunflower fields, kayaked the Platt
          River, and got a little Horseshoeing in. All round great trip!

         Now it's back to bottling & checking up on vineyards. Veraison is pretty much complete so,    
         the count down begins.

July 21, 2013

Here comes harvest!

Yesterday Mat walked through TNT & Ruxton Vineyards. The Ruxton was at about 20% veraison
The TNT was closer to 2%. This photo is an example of veraison from a previous vintage.

It's looking like another great vintage for us. We'll keep you posted on what's happening in the vineyards & then crush.
An exciting time of year that we anticipate.

July 13, 2013

Foodie Seminar - The world of Truffles

       This months seminar was the 1st to sell out in our summer series.

       Truffles: we started with the expectations of getting fresh summer truffles from Oregon. As the date drew closer, we found that like our 2013 mushroom season, the truffle season suffered from the lack of rain. Our option was frozen truffles or using truffle products. We chose the 2nd option & found it to be a huge success. Initially we were all a little disappointed but in the end, the lower cost & experience was terrific.

     David Campbell, of mycoventures, was our guest speaker & expert on the topic. David is our Mushroom Foray guide every February. He is a  crowd pleaser with his knowledge & enthusiasm on the subject. He offers tours 'Italian truffle & Wine Forays' which was a topic of discussion with our world of truffles evening.

     We prepared 6 food items all enhanced with truffles. We used truffle oil, truffle butter, truffle salt & truffle paste. Our food items included Truffle Tremor cheese from Cypress Grove, Truffled deviled duck eggs, Potato truffle Torte, Sautéed fresh corn with truffle butter, Truffle & Mushroom Risotto. Grilled Beef Filet with truffle salt and the finale was a locally made chocolate truffle.

     The pairings as always, are so fun with several group opinions. The following are the results of favorite pairings...

Truffle Tremor - Tied between our Rose' of  Pinot, Pinot Noir & Valdiguie

Deviled eggs - #1 Chardonnay, 2nd place tie...Rose & Pinot

Potato Torte - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay 2nd,  Valdiguie 3rd

Fresh Corn in truffle butter - Chardonnay / Pinot Noir / Rose' - all tied

Risotto - Pinot Noir then Cab Franc

Filet of Beef - Cab Franc. & then Pinot Noir

     To be totally honest, 50% of the group said Pinot was the favorite for every item. But I like to look at the balance of what is discussed and some people love Pinot so much that nothing compares.
I personally enjoyed the Rose' so much with the 1st two items and was pleasantly surprised that Pinot was not my 1st pick for any pairing accept the risotto.
    
    Once again, the fun energy, educational element & most importantly the Food & Wine were a winning combo.

For future Foodie event calendar see our events page. Email or call for more info