Top food and wine memories from 2015

An evening in San Francisco at Monsieur Benjamin. Best Foie Gras appetizer and Roast Chicken Entree of the year. Frog legs are here.

Lobster and meyer lemon Risotto made at a friends to pair with Chardonnay. The lobster was butter poached using Thomas Keller's recipe then put into the risotto. Spectacular.

Surprise wine, holding by a thread, fun

 Grilling Chicken with

 Frasca Boulder, CO  -  10 course Tasting menu

                         
My first introduction to pineapple guava, WOW

Artisan Cheese Festival, Crab Poutine from Nick's cove

 Car Bomb cupcakes, c/o Fabino Baking

Bink's, Scottsdale, AZ

                    Crab Season which we are missing now.

                             Hog Island BBQ oysters, amazing with PMV Valdiguie or champagne

First course of 12 at The Restaurant at Meadowood, tasting menu. Eel wrapped in seaweed

Chicken Liver Mousse, yes, I'll take two. Village Inn Monte Rio

 Oysters, flash fried, sirachi mayo

                        Home smoked oysters, so incredible!

                                    
Wine Tasting at 9am with Evan Goldstein, Yes

              Start of asparagus season

                                   Canadian memory visited, frozen belini's.

An Okanagan treat, Crab bisque @ Radz

                Devilled eggs are back...

                                                  The BEST wedding cake ever, cheese.

                           
                             Guerneville Spring Fling

 Seaside Metal, Guerneville

Willi's Wine Bar, Foie Gras.

                                                                   A new favorite at home, beer can chicken prawns.

 Mushroom season, finding a pound of black trumpets

December Celebration 2015

Every year we hold a special dinner for our Wine Club featuring all library wines with a multi course paired dinner. This yeas we had an extra special twist, our newly released Brut Rose'.

For this evening, our tasting room becomes a dining room seating 40 guests. A team of chef's work all day and the service team arrives at 4 to set the tables.

The menu has been planned out for weeks starting with a caviar dollop on a potato chip paired with the sparkling wine.

Next is a delicious mussel soup with our 2011 Chardonnay, a perfect combination. A very rich cream soup with a strong essence of mussel with an austere chardonnay, very well paired.

Lobster in puff pastry paired with our 2007 Chardonnay from magnum. Both were spectacular and together even better!

A salad of winter greens, pomegranate with Redwood Hills Chevre paired 2 wines. Mat picked the 2012 Bohemian Pinot, the only non library wine of the dinner and I picked our 2014 Rose' of Pinot.

"Mosaic Mushrooms" are next up and very popular from the chef's former restaurant days. A combination of sautéed local mushrooms alongside cowgirl creamery Mt. Tam triple cream and grilled Nightengale Baguette. An oh so rich and wonderful dish paired with 2 wines.

2006 and 2007 TNT Vineyard Pinot to accompany this course.

Liberty Farm Duck confit for the main course with 2 Horseshoe Bend Pinot's, from 2009 and 2010 vintages.

We finished the evening with a new local business, Fabino Baking. A trio of cakes that was a perfect finish to a fabulous evening of celebration.

 What a night, we have a year to start planning the next Annual and a year to rest.

October 7th, 2015  My Dinner with Ruth Reichl


As a huge self proclaimed foodie and wine fanatic, meeting Ruth Reichl was high on my list.
In fact 1 out of 2 female mentors, I've now met the second.

I was first introduced to Ruth via Tender to the bone in 2002 by a colleague and that was it. The first book took mere hours to complete the first time. I waited on any news of something to follow. A few years past and 6 books later, multiple Gourmet Editorials and here we are. I'm having dinner with her.

What an event, probably 100 other fans, but when she spoke it was just her and I. An eloquent and humble speaker with words of experience from the heart. A lot of her life was shared in her books so I feel like I know her. Questions about her son and husband's arose from the audience, none of it excluded. Her honesty of words blanketed the audience and the flavors filled our Foodie souls.

We sat down to a treasure trough menu, all recipes from her newest book: what happens after Gourmet Magazine. She was the editor for ten years when the end was announced. And she turned to food and then turned it into a FABULOUS book. The recipes that warmed her home and heart

The three course set menu gave the page # of each recipe so you could read along while enjoying the flavors.

                                                  Butternut Squash Soup pg. 32
                                                 Broccoli Rabe Bruschetta pg.66
                                           Hummus with toasted pine nuts pg. 220
          

       
                                                 Spicy Kale  pg. 16
                                     Buttermilk Mash Potatoes pg. 15
                                     Cider-braised Pork Shoulder pg. 14
                                       Jonathan Apple Sauce pg. 90
            

                                       The Cake that cures Everything  pg. 63

It was so delicious and worth every bite!
The evening was a glowing success for me. Savoring every bite and every word she spoke. An amazing lady that has put her heart and soul into her career. I love it. I'll cherish this opportunity for weeks and keep the memory alive with the book.
Highly recommend this book purchase for any foodie fan in your life. Maybe you'll get a meal and an explanation of the chosen menu in return, we all have our favorites. Dotties Spinach will be one of my sides and there will be many meals inspired from Ruth's year.

Can't wait to meet her in New York for lunch!

August 29th                 Duck, Duck, Duck, no goose


A favorite protein for us and perfect with Pinot! We have duck very regularly at home in many different preparations and shared this fun with our Wine Club this past weekend.

 

The menu started with Duck Rillette which we love to pair with our Rose' or

our newest addition the 2014 Gewurz. 

A fun Hors D'oeuvre as guests arrived in excitement of the Duck filled night.

This Duck Rillette was made from both Roast Duck and Duck Confit. Recipe coming to our web site.

 

 

 

We started with a new recipe that Mat loves to do, Vietnamese Duck jerky.

The recipe comes from Charles Phan's beef jerky substituted.

A soft jerky with great texture and flavor.

We lined up 3 very different pairing wines:

2014 Rose' of Pinot, 2013 Valdiguie and 2012 TNT Vineyard Pinot Noir.

We always recommend to taste each wine before pairing, and then to taste each wine with the dish.

This snack size course is packed with flavor and the wine preference was tied between the Rose' and the Valdiguie. My personal favorite was the Valdiguie, I had tried it before and believe it really works so well together.

 

3rd course is the classic, Duck Confit ( Duck legs cooked and store in their own fat ).

We poured three Pinot's with very different profiles:

2009 Horseshoe Bend, 2012 Bohemian Vineyard from Freestone and 2012 TNT Vineyard.

 

 

 

   The Confit course was the most difficult to choose the pairing because they all were great together but the table of attendees picked the Bohemian Pinot for 1st place.

Our 4th course was my idea and it was my least successful dish. The duck did not show case as I expected even though it tasted wonderful and the tortilla through off the wines. The winning pair was with the Bohemian Pinot.

Up next, our chef of the night being from New Orleans prepared Duck Gumbo. Using a whole roast duck with the classic recipe. The flavors were amazing and really great with Pinot! all the wines were great pairings but the boldest TNT Vineyard won the pairing.

 Duck breast seared with duck fried potatoes with no surprise. Three Pinot's and unadulterated duck flavors. There was no loser with this pairing. Individuals that love the 2009 Vintage picked that one and people who love the Bohemian picked that and the TNT Vineyard had it's followers as well. The great part is enjoying a fabulously perfect seared Liberty Farms Duck Breast and the wine that does so well with it PINOT!

Lucky for us we have a Wine Club member with great talents as a pastry chef who agreed to create a Duck dessert, Yes folks, the finale was fantastic!!! And no wine, just smiles.

Another fun evening with many of our great Wine Club members. A tight squeeze to have Mat available at the start of a very early harvest, but we did it. Now the next few months are focused on Wine Club Party and the December Celebration Dinner. Our Foodie Seminars will resume next year. Stay tune for 2016 Events.

August 2015        Harvest is here...



Our 1st vineyard to be picked every year, Ruxton, was picked Monday August 17th. The average harvest date for Ruxton Vineyard is Sept. 7th. I think the average date has just been upped a week or more.

Punch downs and cold soaking are now a daily occurrence and gone are the days of golfing and kayaking, for a few months.

2015 is showing a lot of shatter from the growing season and with the drought, these 2 facts have influenced the beginning of harvest with small crops and early ripening.

We anticipate great quality from the small clusters with a good concentration although come bottling time next summer, there will be a lot less wine. It is always interesting to see what Mother Nature tosses our way.