What a June!


We had two beautiful and very different Events this month, our first Annual Golf Tournament and 'Lunch in the Vineyard' at Ruxton Ranch. Both wonderful days of fun, laughter, wine / food and great people.

We had our golf date booked in June for months in advance. We had been wanting to host a golf tournament for years and the day was finally here. Mother nature through us a huge curve ball: 100 degrees even in the Redwoods at Northwood Golf Course in Monte Rio. None the less, everyone showed up their game face on in shorts prepared. We offered water spritz and ice cold water and wine to assist.

 

           Such a great group of sportsmen willing to swing in the heat!

 

               Longest drive and closest to the pin prize options. One family took the women's longest drive and the men's closest to the pin.

              
                                           

The wine cart was very popular, offering chilled water spritz, cold rose' , water and gewurtz

 

 

 

A very fun afternoon that we will definitely plan again next year. Hopefully the temperatures will be a little lower.

 

Part Two of June 2019

 

"Lunch in the Vineyard" at Ruxton Ranch

 

This vineyard came to us in 2005 via Mat's connection with the Dutton Ranch who farm the Vineyard. George, Bill and Jack, the three Ruxton brothers from the Bay area, whom grew up coming to the ranch for summer vacation have been consistently connected to the land.

The only remaining brother from our early contracts is Bill alongside his wife Jan, their nephew Scott and one other niece from Jack are the current land owners, all Ruxton's.

 

Here 14 years later, we're still purchasing the same original Pinot planting from 1999, my personal favorite Pinot. They're 55 acre lot is so picturesque, at a high elevation looking east at the Mayacama mountain range that divides Sonoma and Napa counties.

 

 

 

The table is set in the only cool spot on the property, in the barn.

Bill Ruxton and his wife of 67 years marriage, welcomed our guest's.

 We gathered at the top of the property under a big redwood tree that allowed some shade.

 Next up, everyone followed Mat down the side of the vineyard to view the section that we purchase. Unfortunately it was not as clear as it can be.

                                
One of the inspirations for these lunches, this being our second, is the chef. Matt Masera is extended family of the Ruxton's and a very talented Bay area chef who is currently working with Tyler Florence. We were so thrilled to have him for our second vineyard lunch!

He started everyone off with a mushroom pate crostini and we poured the 2018 rose' of pinot and 2018 gewurz to pair.
                           

     

 

In the ranch house is the classic...

 Setting the chef's up for taste testing in the kitchen.

Everyone sat down to a table with a view on both sides,

one of the vineyard and the other of fruit trees.

 

 

And lunch is served - Kale salad so finely chopped with sour cherry, parmesan and walnuts.

               Grilled peaches, burrata, arugula, pine nut, bacon, crispy shallot

 Roasted potato salad and

 16 hour sous vide tri tip with santa maria dry rub with

Ruxton 2015 Pinot Noir 

Not to be missed was the finisher, a blueberry coffee cake that was not     too sweet, beautifully moist and enjoyed!

                   Table of happy diners toasting the day at Ruxton Ranch.

 

The wine bottles consumed were lined up on display, three vintages of Ruxton from 2013, 2014 and 2015, plus a magnum of 2010 Ruxton, 2018 Rose' of Pinot and 2018 Gewurtz.

 

 

And that was our June of 2019. 

Rose' in May

We just released our 2018 Rose' of Pinot Noir. This evening was a tribute to Rose' from Sonoma county and the great food pairings that may be produced. Even though the weather pretty much sucked, the food, wine and company were bright and cheery like Rose'.

We started the evening with a little toast to rose' with our 2014 Brut Rose' and truffle potato chips.

Once we sat down, everyone was welcomed with 4 glasses of Rose'. 4 different varietals and producers, all from Sonoma County. The guesses were varied and the favorites were also.

 

We were all rose' inside the Tasting Room even though the weather did not co operate.

With Mat being away for a sales trip in Michigan, we asked our chef friend Tricia Brown to guest chef. She was a perfect choice as a serious lover of Rose' and wine in general. Plus she loves to pair wine and food and create wine specific menu's.

After the blind tasting we introduced the first course and changed the wines up. Focusing on all Paul Mathew wines -
2018 Rose' / 2018 Gewurztraminer / 2017 Manchester Ridge Pinot Noir.

1st course an Ecuadorian Shrimp Ceviche with Avocado Puree.

Even though the Gewurz won the best pairing, the Rose' was great to pair as well.

2nd course, Lemongrass Spring Pea Bisque with Proscuitto Crisp. This soup had a beautiful zing of citrus, creamy delicate texture and the prosciutto changed it from being totally Rose' to easily favored with our 2017 Manchester Pinot Noir.

Course 3, Flatbread- Charred Scallion Goat Cheese, Zucchini, Pickled Spring Onions, Nova Lox.
Rose' and Pinot tied for 1st place pairing. Some people just wanna drink Pinot. We have always found that.

 Still raining...

 Fourth course, Lamb Ricotta Meatballs, Tzatiki Sauce, Lemon Orzo with Pine Nuts, Herbs. The Pinot won the best pairing but again, the Rose' stood up to all the flavors just fine.

 

As always, everyone has fun, a lot of wine is consumed. Something new has been experienced with food and wine and the friends that arrived left with many more friends when they departed!
Wine brings people together in ways that might not happen.

It was such a pleasure to have the company and help of my niece and god daughter here in Sonoma County. She was even inspired enough by the Rose' to take to the chalk board!

 

And next month....we'll be focusing on our 1st Annual Golf Tournament and our 2nd 'Lunch in the Vineyard'. Lots going on, an lets hope the sun is here to stay!!!

Nola in Graton   -  Saturday April 13th


 Mat and I took a vacation to New Orleans in January. The food scene is unique and different. We also have a chef friend that lives in Sonoma county. All these components came together for our Foodie Night in April.

We started with three wines to taste with each course, our newly bottled 2018 Rose' of Pinot, a new wine for us and Mat's pick, 2017 Manchester Ridge Pinot plus 2015 TNT Vineyard pinot. Really three completely different wines.

From Mat's days working at a Restaurant in Calistoga owned by a Nola Chef - Bienville Oysters. Traditionally made with mushrooms and shrimp, tonight we used Mat's locally foraged black trumpet mushrooms and crawfish.

Big oysters, big taste and rich. These were truly enjoyed even by a few people that told me they never eat cooked oysters. The purist that only eats raw oysters LOVED them!

 

The winning wine for the group was the Manchester Pinot. This is the dish that Mat wanted specifically paired with the winning wine. My favorite was hands down Rose' of Pinot.

 

Next course: Alligator and Boudin Balls with remoulade sauce.

 

Once again the Manchester Pinot won the favorite pairing although, I'm sticking with Rose' on this one too. I think Brut Rose' could of won if we gave it as an option.
It was a little over whelming as this dish had 2 proteins but the sauce was really the driving force for the pairing.

We had purple, gold and green napkins and some beads to add to the ambience. Many of the diners were wearing the beads too!

The next course, not on the menu and what we called the "Graton" course, a mixed greens with a creole mustard vinaigrette.

Main dish a classic seafood gumbo. For this I had to pull out our Syrah from 2016, which did win the best pairing. Not as pretty in picture but truly a great dish with such great flavors!

 

The all red line up. 

 

 
We did finish with beignets that had no wine pairing. We don't usually offer dessert but a Nola Dinner isn't really complete without them. Prepping beignets....

and then eating them warm.

 Some really great table art...

 

Also some really great notes.

 

And more great table art!

Next up Rose' Dinner with another guest chef. It's so much fun playing with flavors, food, wine all in our Dining room.

  
             Puzzle Season is officially over


            When the cool days and rain arrive, we start having a puzzle in the Tasting Room for us and   
             our guests. It's amazing to see people totally drawn in or vice versa.

            The sun is now shining and puzzle season is OVER! This was a really long puzzle season for  
            us. We had a great season with a lot of participation and so many rainy days to assist with the 
            focus.


            The first puzzle of the season, very apropos...Fall vegetables and gords

 

 

After that, colorful and playful.

Then a local flare, farming and agriculture...lots of fun to do. Not to difficult. Completed in a couple weeks.

We put our 17 year old cat down and in the midst of sadness, we were gifted this puzzle. It was a delightful process to complete,


And then A very challenging cloudy view of the San Francisco skyline. Almost complete, thanks to a few of our regular friends that enjoy contributing to the picture.

 

Daunting to say the least but finally 24 hours before my deadline, the final pieces were placed. Nobody to witness. 10 minutes after it was done, it was back in the box. The rains are over and so its this puzzle season.

Okay everyone, I'll give you a few weeks more to get this done. Spring sunshine does not lend to staying inside to puzzle.

 It's been a great productive puzzle season. Until next Winter. cheers



 

March 2019     Floods, Cheese Fest and some nice news

These current times in Sonoma County are challenging to say the least but there are bright moments and lots of hope for better days!

We have had record rains which wreaked havoc on West County. A few businesses affected and not open currently with hopes of being back up and running by May. Most everything is open and happy to see visitors from near and far!
With all this coming after a struggling economy from 2 years of fall fires.

 

We still have hope and some great local writers producing articles of mouth watering day trips that have included us. These put a smile on my face.

Link to article
https://www.sonomacounty.com/articles/guide-wine-tasting-graton


https://thepress.sfchronicle.com/review/occidental-freestone/


Another happy moment.... sneak peak taste of our 2018 Rose', which I am so excited about and we have a list of orders already. Cannot wait to have this bottled! Going out in the Spring Wine Club shipment.

The 12th Annual cheese Festival is always uplifting and SOLD OUT! We save this date early on to ensure our participation to pour our wines. Guests visit from all over to learn, tour and taste the great cheeses from local and not so local producers.

Evening 'Bite Competition' focuses on food bites made by chef's and cheese mongers highlighting a specific cheese. So yummy!

Wine of the week. How exciting to receive the news that our 2016 Cab Franc was a hit for the Press Democrat tasting panel and picked for this final 'wine of the week' for March.

You can read the articles in the two links below...

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/9434724-181/paul-mathew-cab-franc-a

 https://www.pressdemocrat.com/lifestyle/9445330-181/pairing-cab-franc-soars-with?sba=AAS

With all this said, we are sick of the rain but Thankful for a lot. Our local support and loyal followers, and our Wine Club! April is just now here, thankfully!!!!!!

CAB FRANC!                                               Saturday Feb. 23rd, 2019


Yes, we love Cab Franc, the kind that generally comes in a Burgundy shaped bottle. But, it's really fun to sit down at a table with 6 Cab Franc's from all over the world and taste them blind and then introduce great food to pair! So that's what we did on this rainy Saturday night in February.


                                     

Here are the six wines

1) A– 2017 Bernard Baudry “Les Granges” Chinon  $20

2) B-  2016 Paul Mathew, Alegria Vineyard   $29

3) C– 2016 Lieu Dit “ Sans Soufre” Santa Maria Valley  $30

4) D– 2013 Pearmund ‘reserve’ Virginia   $42

5) E– 2016 Catena Appelation, San Carlos, Argentina $20

6) F- 2016 Ravines Wine Cellar, Finger Lakes   $20



After everyone took their time to taste, take notes and summarize, we released the info of what wines were tasted. The Chinon unfortunately had so much Brett ( Brettanomyces is a non-spore forming genus of yeast in the family Saccharomycetaceae, and is often colloquially referred to as "Brett". The genus name Dekkera is used interchangeably with Brettanomyces, as it describes the teleomorph or spore forming form of the yeast. )
Anyway, everyone got over the brett. Unfortunately it affected our wine that was 2nd.

I usually label wines 1 thru 6, we used the USDavis scoring template A thru F which was a little challenging when it came to favorites. But you can see E and F won, clearly.

                                                 
What was cool is how many people were dumb founded by the Virginia and Finger Lakes wines. These regions are not well known for much other than this grape and some aromatic whites. Our wine did not show as well beside the line up but with the food pairings, well that's a different story!

Now for Food pairings and adding in Pinot Noir.

1st course - Eggplant parmesan was a HUGE hit! I really love eggplant and had never had this preparation. We did our trial, loved it, perfected it and served it. Tomato sauce is generally a very tough ingredient for some red wines especially Pinot but with Cab Franc, yowza!

                
Course #2
El Molino Central on Hwy 12 in Sonoma is very popular! When we stopped by for a quick lunch, I eyed 'to go' Tamales. Guessing that they would pair well, we took Chicken Mole Tomales home for a trial pairing. OMG, I was in food heaven and thought that the pairing was so outstanding. I made the trek back over to Sonoma Valley to pick them up a week later for our event.

I really thought this would wine best pairing although the group was not willing to let there be one clear winning food pairing. Okay then, but I challenge all of you to try this pairing at home, it's really amazing!

Too many glasses, Thanks to our neighbors @ Dutton Goldfield for the lenders. A total of 96 glasses on the tables and my 6 at the bar.

 

Happy tasters, we were completely sold out with a wait list. Who knew soooo many people love Cab Franc.

Main course, BBQ pork.

Last course, Manchego cheese with homemade crackers with local wild fennel.

 

So the results for the wine was a surprise but the food pairings weren't. The moral of this Foodie night is that great Food and Wine make for happy customers!

Thank you all for playing again.