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Thanksgiving Wines

Published
by
joanie
on November 13, 2008
in Joanie Hudson and Wine and Food Pairing
. 1 Comment

Thanksgiving dinner in and of itself is a meal full of personality and contrast. Think about it, when else do you (or would you) mesh together on one heaping plate roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, moist bread which has been cooked inside of a bird, and buttered whipped potatoes. Oh ya, and toss on some candied yams with marshmallows and go to town. If you look around your table you see faces that sometimes only come together this one night a year. The players can change - people bring boyfriends, girlfriends turn into wives, and kids get older. And whether you are eating Grandma’s mashed potatoes, Dad’s stuffing, or Betty Crocker Pumpkin Pie, you need some tasty wine to mark the occasion.

Designate one person in the family to be in charge of wine. Let’s pretend just for the sake of this article, that it’s you. Pinot Noir and Riesling are two notorious Thanksgiving favorites. Grandma may only drink Chardonnay and Dad may only drink Merlot, but as the Beatles say, we can’t always get what we want. Choose versatile wines that you like, so that at the very least if you can’t please your family, you will be happy. Light bodied, refreshing, not overwhelming, pleasant, affordable, and memorable - these qualities will unite your food, wine, and guests with a golden thread of contentment.

Have it be as easy as a click of a button. See below for some of my current favorites for your holiday meal.

2005 Lafond Pinot Noir Arita Hills Vineyard
Inherent complexity, light, ethereal, refined, and elegant. One of our more “feminine” Pinots. A great match with savory foods.

2007 Santa Barbara Winery Riesling, 1.7% Residual Sugar
Our Rieslings are designated by their degree of sweetness as measured by the residual sugar content (sugars leftover after fermentation has completed). They range from dry to a sweeter style (we even have a Late Harvest dessert Riesling). The 1.7 is off-dry with just the right touch of sweetness to meld with the caramelized quality of the turkey after a day in the oven.

2007 Santa Barbara Winery Rose of Syrah
Think Rose’s are just for summertime sipping? Think again. Our dry style Rose is light while still retaining great body and freshness. The citrus elements interwoven with red strawberries work very nicely when served chilled with your massive plate of food.

If you have a favorite wine that you just can’t stand to part from for the night, since when did I become the expert? Listen to your own rules!

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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Planting Cover Crop at Lafond Vineyards

Published
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Pierre
on November 8, 2008
in Articles on Wine and Vineyards and Winter in the Vineyard
. 0 Comments

When harvest is over it is time to prepare the vineyard for the winter rains. The photos below show the discing, which prepares and creates the furrows, followed by the seeding. The seeds are a combination of grasses which protect the vineyard from erosion.

The vineyard staff was very proud of their planning abilities. The disc tractor moves at 3mph and the seeder at 5mph. How much leeway to give the disc tractor so that the seed tractor does not bump into it? Apparently it has been calculated with precision and it never happens.

Click images to enlarge:

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The grapes are in, now what?

Published
by
joanie
on November 5, 2008
in Harvest and Joanie Hudson
. 0 Comments

Arguably the most crucial part of the 2008 vintage is over, the grapes are in and undergoing fermentation. Great wine is made in the vineyard, and this has everything to do with weather, grape quality, vineyard practices, and yields per acre. There is no way to disguise mediocre grapes with expensive technology or science no matter how hard a winemaker will try.

I like to compare this important fact about high quality wine to buying produce at the Farmer’s Market, or getting your fish straight from the harbor where it was caught fresh that day. You wonder why some restaurants are able to make the simplest salad so much better than what you make at home? Even though you think you are using the same ingredients? It is because of the olive oil they are using, the crisp fresh lettuce, fresh cracked black pepper, sea salt crystals. Compare this salad to one made from bagged grocery store lettuce, salt and pepper from shakers, and low grade olive oil. Same ingredients, extremely different product.

Back to the winemaking… so, while yields were low this harvest (meaning we received less grapes per acre than average), quality is extremely high. I get to witness the white winemaking process at Santa Barbara Winery (our reds are made up at the Lafond Vineyard). I have seen Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc and Orange Muscat brought down from the Santa Ynez Valley in picking bins on trucks for the past two months. I have tasted different stages of these wines fermenting in tank, noticing the sugars slowly turn to alcohol. Literally turning from pressed grape juice to the first stage of a wine’s life cycle after primary fermentation.

So where are we right now in the process? About two thirds of the wine is done with primary fermentation, the rest besides one lot is just about done. The one lot that is still actively fermenting is the Lafond Vineyard Riesling that we are going to do in a sweet wine style. Assistant Winemaker Ryan Ralston says in his 12 years of winemaking he has never had everything in barrel/tank before Thanksgiving.

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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More Cheeses

Published
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joanie
on November 2, 2008
in Cabernet Sauvignon and Joanie Hudson
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Cheese is similar to wine in that to think about all of the different cheeses produced in the world, in each and every town, can be very intimidating. But, the subject becomes more approachable when you don’t immediately look to the big picture, but instead break it down and learn little by little. Last week I attended my monthly Spiritland Bistro Wednesday Wine and Dine dinner and was introduced to three new cheeses that were paired as a starter course with the West Coast Cabernet Sauvignon themed tasting: Queso de Valdeon, Chaource, and Comte.

Queso de Valdeon is produced in Spain and can also be called Valdeon Cheese here in the States. It is named for Valdeon, the town that it comes from. It is a salty blue veined cheese with a strong flavor profile. Made from a blend of cow and goat’s milk it gets its characteristic earthy taste from being wrapped in a layer of sycamore leaves prior to aging. I have heard that it is excellent when melted on hangar steak.

Chaource is an ancient cheese that has been named for the small town in France where it has been made since the early 14th century. The village of Chaource is located in the Champagne-Ardenne region. This is a cow’s milk double cream cheese similar to Camembert but with an even creamier texture that is absolutely mouth wateringly delicious. Its rich ripe flavor is offset by its mushroom scent, giving it a very unique profile. It is produced in elegant small discs of soft centers surrounded by a white rind.

Comte comes from the Franche-Comte region of eastern France and is also called Gruyere de Comte. This cows milk semi-firm cheese has an underlying nutty sweetness (think almond skins drizzled with a hint of honey). A delicious cheese to eat on its own, it is also a notoriously fantastic melting cheese.

I brought along a 1999 Santa Barbara Winery Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($35) to the dinner, and it is at prime drinking age. We currently have it available in our cellar selections and it can be ordered by phone or in the tasting room

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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Pear and Goat Cheese Tart

Published
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joanie
on October 29, 2008
in Joanie Hudson and Wine and Food Pairing
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I always have an eye out for new and interesting dessert recipes.  Recently I have noticed restaurant dessert lists mixing sweet and savory elements to create distinctively modern and headturning dishes.  A couple of months ago I had a delicious example of this at the Santa Barbara local restaurant, Square One.  The dessert was a cheesecake made from goat cheese, sprinkled with tiny pine nuts and topped with a raspberry.  I would normally shy away from cheesecake, but this just was such an interesting combination that I had never seen before.  Something that, when I thought about it, was such an obvious combination of tastes I was surprised I had never seen it before. 

I have been looking for similar recipes and found a great one to share from Wine Spectator’s website, a Goat Cheese and Pear Tart.  The caramelized sugars from the baked pear go nicely with the Santa Barbara Winery 7.3 Riesling.  With just the an exquisite degree of sweetness that does not overwhelm the dessert, this pair will be wonderful for any holiday entertaining or dinner party. 

Pear and Cheese Tart

Recipe adapted from The All American Cheese and Wine Book (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), by Laura Werlin

• 6 ounces fresh goat cheese, room temperature
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 9-inch pre-baked tart shell
• 2 Comice or very ripe Bosc pears, cored, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 1/2 teaspoons decorative sugar or crushed sugar cubes

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F, with the rack in center position.

2. Whisk together the cheese, egg, sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the pine nuts. Pour into the pre-baked tart shell, and spread evenly across the bottom.

3. Place the pear slices over the filling, slightly overlapping, in a circular pattern, starting at the edge of the tart shell and continuing toward the middle. Brush the pears with the melted butter, and sprinkle with the sugar.

4. Place the tart on a baking sheet, and bake until the edges are golden and the pears have softened and browned around the edges, 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and place on a wire rack to cool before serving. Serves 8 to 10.

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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Wine from the Kitchen Sink?

Published
by
joanie
on October 26, 2008
in Joanie Hudson and Other News
. 0 Comments

What would you do if you went to your kitchen sink to fill of a flower vase with water and instead of water coming out, wine was in fact flowing through the pipes?  I would probably think I was dreaming, as I’m sure those who live in the tiny town of Marino, just south of Rome in Italy, did when it happened to them earlier this month. 

I came across the article on Decanter’s website, which tells the playful story that seems like something from a movie.  The town holds an annual harvest celebration, which they call the Sagra dell’ Uva, during which a crowd gathers to watch 3000 liters of the newly pressed vintage spray out of a 17th century fountain.  Well, instead of connecting the wine with the fountain, the local plumbers accidentally connected it with the local water supply.  So wine was literally flowing freely out of the kitchen sink.  As word spread, people filled up whatever they could find with wine.  What an amazing story…

Frascati is the straw-colored white wine produced in this area of Italy, and it is made from trebbiano and malvasia grapes. 

You can read the full article here:

http://www.decanter.com/news/269612.html

Joanie Hudson, Assistant Tasting Room Manager, Santa Barbara Winery

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End of Harvest at Lafond Winery and Vineyards

Published
by
Pierre
on October 24, 2008
in Harvest, Lafond Winery, Syrah and Wine News
. 0 Comments

Today, Friday 24, is the end of one of the shortest harvests I can remember at Lafond Winery and one of the smallest. All vineyards in the area were affected by the March/April frosts and yields were drastically down. Our neighbor, Hilltop Vineyards, whose 30 acres of Chardonnay we purchase, normally has over 100 tons, this year they picked 30.

The bright side is that the quality is high. Small yields generally are more concentrated and, of course, with less wine to worry about the winemaker can concentrate on what he has. “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds”.

The first photo shows Winemaker Bruce McGuire on the line sorting the grapes on the conveyor belt. He is in the grey shirt on the left. The second photo is taken from inside the Tasting Room which gives a great view of the process all the while enjoying a glass of wine.

Click photos to enlarge:

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