August 25th

                                                Charles Phan Fans


We both love the Slanted Door in San Francisco and Mat loves to cook. This was 100% his pick for our newest Foodie Dinner in the Dining Room in Graton. Two cookbooks, 14 guests, 4 recipes and Paul Mathew wines.

A really great opportunity for our guests to see how versatile our wines are and discover food and wine pairings that might be unexpected.
We poured 4 wines for the evening, starting with the newly released *Brut Rose', 100% Pinot Noir, Methode Champenoise and really quite perfect to start with as well as taste with every course. * 2017 Gewurztraminer, *2014 RRV Pinot and *2016 Cab Franc.

 

Vietnamese Beef Jerky and Brut Rose' to welcome our guests.

 

 

A line up of 4 glasses and a menu greet our guests to the Dining Room.

 

 

 

 

 

We started with the Tuna Tartare, everyone loved this version and the winning wine was the Gewurz.
I did expect this outcome for the pairing. We have served our Gewurz with a different recipe of Tuna Ceviche to a very regular standing ovation. Wins every time.
The Brut Rose' was the second favorite wine pairing.

Mat's third Gewurz produced, he started purchasing the fruit in 2014.
So often in the tasting room customers do NOT want to taste the Gewurz, they think it will be sweet. Our rendition is bone dry, stainless steel fermented and wonderful with so many foods especially Asian flavors.



The second course, jicama and grapefruit salad, one of my favorite dishes at The Slanted Door.
This dish also won the Gewurz as best pairing. This salad has candied pecans and a really wonderful soy based dressing, it really depends on which combination of flavors in each bite to determine the best wine. Of course grapefruit is quite difficult. The Brut Rose' once again came in second place.

Bahn mi sandwich, WOW. I had never had one and we did a sample run a few nights before to see how the bread stood up. Amazing flavors. This one was made with Mama's Meatballs which are incredible on their own. But in the sandwich with pickled carrots, jalepeno's, cilantro and cucumber.
This was the favorite dish of the evening!!!

The Bahn mi favorite wine was hands down the new release 2016 Cab Franc. This wine is so fun to pair with food, it does really well in a lot of difficult food combos. Pinot Noir and Brut Rose' tied for 2nd place.

Bo Luc Lac: Shaking beef up next. A very beefy dish surprised me that the Pinot was the best pairing picked by the majority of the guests.

 

 We finished this enjoyable evening with Coconut Ice cream from 'Scoop of Sonoma' in Forestville.
A lot of great conversation and a little bit more wine. Plus a beautiful serenade from our dear friend Tim Portwood. Once again, full bellies and happy memories were the main results.

 

 Next up?? Still in the works. Hoping for a couple of Harvest lunches in the Vineyard. Stay tuned.

For the LOVE of Viognier                                                                        Saturday July 21st, 2018


Viognier is a grape varietal that many do not know, can't pronounce it, or one has an instant opinion of love or not. I love it in many cases but not all. This evening we explored the flavors of viognier from 5 regions and paired ours with 5 courses.

Our very first viognier from the 2017 harvest has turned many people on to this grape and changed others opinion about Viognier. A very clean, non floral, low mineral, stone fruit, neutral oak aged, balanced rendition we are very proud of from Russian River Valley.

We begin our discussion of Viognier with a tasting flight of five examples from the classic Condrieu, to Australian, Oregon, Southern Cal and our Sonoma County. Prices range from $15 - $72.

Commonly used descriptions – medium viscosity, highly perfumed bouquet, fresh pear, nectarine, honey, warm peach, honeysuckle and allspice scents, flavors of white stone fruits, clove, hazelnut, marzipan, white pepper, smoke and minerals, with a note of orange, Buttered citrus, honeysuckle, pineapple, and a kiss of saltiness

 

 

 

Now that we know what to expect from different regions and winemakers of viognier, we'll begin with our first course.....

..chilled carrot and orange soup. Another character that can be found in Viognier, orange zest.

Second course - Fresh peaches and Burrata. Pairing is mostly successful working on similarities or opposites. Peaches have a great flavor component that can often be smelt or tasted in Viognier. The Burrata mellows out the fruitiness and adds a creamy component.

 

 I love this Burrata...…

Third course - Scallops. Fennell dusted, seared and served with Fennell puree. Fennel is another flavor profile that can be found in Viognier. You're getting the theme, right?

Fourth course - sweet potato and chicken curry, mildly spicy. Love curry and our 2017 handles it perfectly. You get all the spicy, sweet flavors and the Viognier character is not lost.

Last course of our tasting, cheese. A duo of very different cheeses and a sweet treat surprise....a late harvest Viognier that will never be labeled or sold, sorry. Cheese accompanied by dried apricots, cashews and nightingale French baguette.

A great cheese with our Viognier. Good acid and texture, dense but creamy.




Late harvest Viognier, fermented on the skins. Beautiful balance of sweet with acidity and great fruit!

 

We loved the format of this dinner: doing the tasting flight and then the varietal focus food.

Next up, menu inspired by Charles Phan and the Slanted Door paired with Paul Mathew.

Happy eating & pairing

Spring Fling 2018

Russian River Chamber of Commerce started this Annual Event in 2015 which is a wonderful showing of local Wine & Restaurants. Only in it's 3rd year, it is appearing to be a great success and favorite event for many local's coming from near and far.

             The Entrance with a beautiful blue sky although we did get a some April showers.

                                   Our awesome Front Entrance team, welcoming guests...

                   
                   Nothing happens here without ALOT of volunteers helping. Wrist bands anyone.

We had a local food writer, Michele Anna Jordan selling her cookbooks and she hosted a VIP early entrance tour of the Vendors.

 

The walk around the perimeter was set up alphabetically so we'll start with Agriculture Public House.

           
                  Chicken meatball slider with parmesan cream sauce. Where's the Chardonnay?

                        Here's the Chardonnay on ice, from Boheme Winery in Occidental.

And next up our local market which features Biscuits plus so much more.....

Wine from our new Tasting Room on the strip, Equality Vines.

We're getting a treat from this local producer that doesn't have a Tasting Room yet,

coming in 2019 we hope.

New to the scene

             
            Super treat, local bubbles since 1883 I believe. This is a beautiful property to visit.

 Seaside Metal Oysters with your Bubbles.

 We like the fact that some of our local wine club members joined in the festivities today.

And we had local talent 'The Thugz' performing.

 Hiding from the 5 minute rain that snuck up on us and Thankfully went away and the sun came out.

 

Pat's Restaurant made a great appearance with their KFC, Korean Fired Chicken. Although currently closed for some remodeling, the reopening will be anticipated by locals for this favorite treat. And the history of Pat's Restaurant goes back along way

 

 

 

Our neighbor up the street Redcar Winery.

 

 Fairly new to the neighborhood, Scoop of Sonoma, ice cream, yes please.

This is a popular stop rain or shine

There was so much more to this great Event Spring Fling. El Barrio tacos, Cape Fear shrimp and grits, Twist Eatery smoked salmon cheesecake, Main Street Pizza. Woodenhead wines, Sheldon, Moshin Winery, Landmark wines, Fort Ross Winery and yes Paul Mathew was pouring three wines.

Look for this event in 2019, it's bound to get better each year!