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Washington State

Steak and chocolate – The best way to enjoy a L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon

Steak and chocolate – The best way to enjoy a L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon

Jan 27, 2021

As we embark on the new year, we embark on a new relationship with L’Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla.  They have invited a selection of writers to join them to explore their wines in 2021.  We don’t take this relationship lightly.  We value the trust of our readers, and we will only recommend wines that we honestly trust and like.  L’Ecole No. 41 stands to that challenge, so we look forward to sharing their wines with you over the next year.

You may have seen our social media posts on their Columbia Valley Semillon.  It’s likely, that if you are not “into” wine, you might not be familiar with this variety.

If you are it is probably due to its use in the sweet wines of Bordeaux like Sauternes, or maybe you have heard of the fabulous expression of this wine coming from Australia’s Hunter Valley.

While not widely grown, this is one of L’Ecole No. 41’s most popular white wines.  Three cheers for them getting this variety out into the wider market!

Our post today will focus on the L’ecole No. 41 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Walla Walla Valley.

L'Ecole No. 41 2019 Columbia Valley Semillon
L'Ecole No. 41 2019 Columbia Valley Semillon

L’Ecole No. 41 and where it fits in the Washington Wine World

I’ll be honest, when you look at Washington Wine, first you see the big names, Columbia Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle.  Columbia Crest sold 7.53 million cases of wine in 2019!

L’Ecole No. 41 is on a smaller scale selling around 50,000 cases per year.  Of the smaller wineries, they are one of the bigger ones.  They are family-based.  Marty and Megan Clubb took over the winery from Megan’s parents Bake & Jean Ferguson back in 1989.  Today their children, Riley and Rebecca continue the legacy.

Baker and Jean when they founded L’Ecole No. 41 were just the 3rd winery in Walla Walla.  It was their retirement project in 1983.

Where did the name “L’Ecole No. 41” come from?

The winery is in Frenchtown, just outside of the city of Walla Walla.  The school was built in 1915 and named the Lowden school.  The community was called Frenchtown, because of all the French Canadians who settled here in the early 1800s.  They were of French descent, so of course, they made wine!  The district here is “41”.

For more details on the winery you can see our post L’Ecole No. 41 2017 Merlot with Dinner and a Unique Dessert.  We also do a really fun pairing there with a bleu cheese ice cream for dessert with the Merlot!

Now let’s dive into this wine.

The 2017 L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon from Walla Walla

This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and is blended from several vineyards in the Walla Walla AVA that cover 4 different soil types.

  • Ferguson Vineyard, an Estate Vineyard has fractured basalt soils
  • Pepper Bridge Vineyard has ice-age flood silts
  • Seven Hills, Loess, and Summit View vineyards have wind-blown loess soils
  • Stone Valley and Yellow Jacket Vineyards are in “The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater which has lots of cobblestones of basalt.

The lots are hand-harvested and fermented in steel then racked to small French oak barrels 40% of which are new.  This ages with 4 different rackings for 22 months.

*This wine was received as a sample, no other compensation was received.  All opinions are our own.

LEcole No 41 2017 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon bottle shot
LEcole No 41 2017 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon

What does all that mean as far as flavor?

Here are my tasting notes:

Deep red ruby in color, this wine has a pronounced nose of Ground coffee, cinnamon, tobacco, forest floor, cocoa powder, baking spices, and bruised mint.

On the palate, it is dry with high tannins that are very fine, medium to high body, and medium acidity.  I get notes of mocha, spice, and black currant.  It has a medium-long finish.  This is a higher alcohol wine, and you know it, but it is not out of balance.  I think of it not as large, but rather as tall and elegant.

This wine is 14.5% abv and retails for $39.00.  They made 1,800 cases.

So what to pair with this Cabernet Sauvignon from L’Ecole No. 41?  Well Steak of course!

Well, it’s a Cabernet Sauvignon, so I reached for steak.  Michael is a lean meat guy so we did Filet Mignon with an arugula salsa verde which included some spices, like cumin and sumac.  Alongside we did a fresh green bean salad with grape tomatoes, feta, and lemon.

The wine was great with the food, brightening both dishes and making the feta seem even more aromatic.  The steak was a great pairing, of course, and the addition of the salsa verde tied in nicely with the spice notes and acid.

Chocolate and Cabernet Sauvignon

But we didn’t stop there.  While I know a few people who are not fans, I am a BIG fan of Cabernet Sauvignon and chocolate.  With the L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon, we decided to try some homemade wine truffles.

The recipe is simple, just dark chocolate, half and half, and wine.  I mixed this up then split my mixture in half.  To half, I added a bit of espresso powder and to the other half, chopped dried cranberries.  The idea was to pull out these notes in the wine.  After they set up, I rolled the espresso wine truffles in cocoa powder and the cranberry wine truffles in ground pistachios.

Both went beautifully with the wine in my opinion.  Espresso is wonderful in accentuating dark chocolate and this did pair really well with the wine bringing out those dark brooding notes.

The cranberry truffles were brighter and pulled out the fruit notes in the wine.  These also for some reason firmed up a little better so they were easier to eat.  Either way, you can’t go wrong, and having to eat a truffle with a fork, is not a deterrent for me!

Check out the recipe below!

Want to know more about L’Ecole No. 41?

L’Ecole is located just outside of Walla Walla Washington.  You can visit their website to learn more about the winery and its history.

Cabernet Sauvignon truffles with espresso and cocoa or cranberries and pistachios
Yield: 14 Truffles

L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Truffles

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Additional Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes

These delicious wine truffles are completely decadent. We created two, one with chopped dried cranberry inside, dusted with ground pistachio, and one with a touch of espresso powder inside, then dusted with cocoa.

The wine we used was the L'Ecole No. 41 2017 Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon, which is also the perfect wine to pair with these truffles.

Thank you to L'Ecole No. 41 for the delicious sample that inspired these truffles.

Ingredients

  • 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup of whole milk
  • 1/4 cup of heavy creme
  • 2 tablespoons Cabernet Sauvignon wine
  • 1 teaspoon espresso powder
  • ¼ cup chopped dried cranberries
  • 2 tablespoons Cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons ground pistachios

Instructions

  1. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate (slowly) until smooth
  2. Remove from the heat and stir in half and half, and the Cabernet
  3. Divide this mixture into 2 small bowls
  4. To one dish add the chopped cranberries
  5. To the other add the espresso powder
  6. Put in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or until firm enough to hold a ball shape
  7. Put the coating ingredients in shallow bowls
  8. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
  9. Scoop out a teaspoonful of the espresso mixture and gently roll into a ball and then roll in the cocoa powder to coat
  10. Place on the cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining espresso truffle mixture
  11. With the cranberry mixture, roll this in the ground pistachios
  12. Refrigerate until ready to serve

Notes

I did notice that the espresso truffles came out a little soft, compared to the cranberry truffles. Perhaps including some chopped hazelnuts in these would have worked. None the less, I am happy to eat them with a spoon if necessary!

Nutrition Information

Yield

14

Serving Size

1

Amount Per Serving Calories 113Total Fat 7gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 1mgSodium 10mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 2gSugar 7gProtein 2g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

© Robin Renken
Cuisine: Dessert / Category: Recipes and Wine Pairings
Cabernet Sauvignon truffles with espresso and cocoa or cranberries and pistachios 3 scaled

Sources and Resources

  • https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/subscriber-only/2020/08/07/largest-wineries-in-washington-state.html
  • https://www.lecole.com/visit-us/our-schoolhouse/
  • https://rocksdistrict.com/terroir

For more great wine and food pairings visit our recipe page.

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Cannolis with Lemon Curd

Cannolis with Lemon Curd

Dec 17, 2020

Lemon mousse cannolis

So Amazon Prime day caused our kitchen to fill with new gadgets.  One of the things that Michael ordered was cannoli molds, and he was ready to use them.  We used Alex Guarnaschelli’s recipe https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alexandra-guarnaschelli/homemade-cannoli-recipe-2042720 from the Food Network for the Cannoli shells.

For the filling, well, we made that up.  It’s more lemon curd and whipped crème.  A bit unorthodox but still tasty.

Time: 1 Hour 25 Minutes

Yield: 6 people

finished Cannolis with lemon curd creme
finished Cannolis with lemon curd creme

Cannolis

Ingredients

2 cups of flour

1 tbs granulated sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tbs + 2 tsp unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)

1 egg yolk

½ cup dry white wine

Plus+

1 quart of canola oil

Flour for rolling

1 egg lightly beaten (egg wash)

Directions

  1. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl.
  2. Add the butter, smushing between your fingers until the mixture is sandy.
  3. Add the egg yolk and wine and mix until the dough is smooth.
  4. Wrap this in plastic wrap, squishing out any extra air.
  5. Rest in the fridge for 5-10 minutes
  6. Heat enough canola oil in a heavy bottom pot to be able to submerge the cannoli. Heat the oil to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  7. Sift a layer of flour onto your counter and flour a rolling pin
  8. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick
  9. Cut the dough into 4-inch rounds. (Alex says you should end up with about 24, hmm…I think I got a dozen, maybe mine were thicker?)
  10. Wrap each circle around a cannoli mold, using a little of the egg wash on the ends to seal it shut so it won’t fall off the mold
  11. Flare the edges out from the mold so that the oil can get in to cook them.
  12. Use a pair of tongs to hold the edge of the mold to lower it in the oil.
  13. Cook until crispy for 2 to 3 minutes. *Here I insert a helpful tip.  Keep your instant-read thermometer nearby if you don’t have a fryer, it is very easy for the temperature to continue to increase and overcook your cannoli.  Likewise, it’s easy to turn the heat down a little too far or for just the process of cooking the cannoli to lower the oil temperature.  We had some casualty cannolis as a result.*
  14. Remove the cannoli carefully from the oil.
  15. Holding the mold in one hand with the tongs double a dish towel and grip the cannoli shell with the other and carefully slide it off the mold.
  16. Repeat until you are done!

Lemon curd crème filling

I cheated on this, it was a cup of crème whipped then I folded in some lemon curd I had in the fridge.  This went into a piping bag with a star tip and I piped it in before serving.

Watch our quick video for the highlights.

Bailey Family Wines 2017 Chardonnay

Bailey Family 2017 Chardonnay

The Aspen block was planted with Pinot Grill in 2006.  In 2014 they grafted over ½ of the black to Chardonnay Clones 75, 76, 95, and 548.  The block is on Marine sediment and sits at between 500 and 600 feet.

The 2017 vintage was warm with an early bud break and a dry growing season. Then cooler temperatures gave great acidity and mineral notes as well as rich deep fruit at harvest.

This wine was aged for 8 months in neutral oak and they made just 229 cases, which are sold by allocation only.

100% Chardonnay 12.5% abv SRP $85

We paired this with a beautiful Chardonnay from Bailey Family Wines in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. This wine was bright but full and complex.  With the lemon curd filling, it was delicious and we did use a bit of it in the cannoli dough.

Read More

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As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Co Dinn 2015 Syrah Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 – Day 5 of the 12 Days of Wine 2020

Co Dinn 2015 Syrah Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 – Day 5 of the 12 Days of Wine 2020

Dec 17, 2020

We got lost on the way to the Roskamp Vineyard to meet Co Dinn.  In Washington’s Yakima Valley, GPS service here can be sketchy, and even when you look it up ahead of time, sometimes roads have gates and you find the maps program tried to take you in a locked back door.  So after a bit of driving for us and Co talking us in through landmarks we were unfamiliar with, we finally connected and headed up to the Roskamp Vineyard in the Snipes Mountain AVA.  Co sources grapes here, for his Syrah and Chardonnay and it is a great vantage point to see the Yakima Valley.

Co Dinn is an expert on the soils and topography of the region.  As we walked the vineyard he pointed out the large rocks that had been tumbled through with the Missoula floods.  This is “ancestral Columbia River gravel soils, uplifted atop a sharp south-facing ridge top”.  You can feel the difference in the wind from this block, to the Chardonnay block on the south side.  Block 2 is on an edge at 1150 feet and the block is very exposed to wind.  These low vigor vines in these conditions give small berries so you get more structure.

Syrah with a view. Co Dinn's block at Roskamp Vineyard on Snipes Mountain in Washington's Yakima Valley
Syrah with a view!
Roskamp Vineyard In Washington State, Snipes Moutain AVA with Co Dinne
Co Dinn of Co Dinn Cellars
Roskamp Vineyard In Washington State, Snipes Moutain AVA with Co Dinn
Roskamp Vineyard In Washington State, Snipes Moutain AVA with Co Dinn looking toward the Rattlesnake Hills AVA
Roskamp Vineyard View on Snipes Mountain Yakima Valley Washington
Roskamp Vineyard View on Snipes Mountain Yakima Valley Washington
Roskamp view looking to Painted Hills
Roskamp view looking to Painted Hills

As we stood there in the wind we could look across to Painted Hills and Horse Heaven Hills on one side and Elephant Mountain and the Rattlesnake Hills AVA on the other.  The views are really spectacular and listening to Co explain how this land was transformed by the Missoula floods I could picture the floods and the land moving and shifting.

While we had to run off that day to another appointment, we were able to return a few days later to meet Co in his tasting room in Sunnyside.  It is a restored historic building that was the city waterworks.

Co dinn Cellars Tasting Room
Co Dinn Cellars Tasting Room Sunnyside WA
Co Dinn Cellars Tasting Room in the restored historic water works
Co Dinn Cellars Tasting Room in the restored historic waterworks
Co Dinn in Co Dinn Cellars
Co Dinn in the Winery at Co Dinn Cellars

Co showed us the winery and we tasted through a series of his wines. We left with a Chardonnay and with this Syrah.

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah

This Co Dinn Roskamp Vineyard Syrah is fermented in one-ton bins.  He presses when he feels the tannins are structured by not too grippy.  The wine does secondary fermentation in neutral French oak.

100% Syrah.  14.6% abv SRP $45

My notes:

This wine is a burgundy purple color and it is glass staining.

It has an intense nose of dark fruit with red notes.  Red currant, cocoa powder, espresso, baking spice, anise, and brown sugar come to mind.  Kinda sounds like dessert right? (We’ll get to that later).

In your mouth, it is intense again and warms and coats your teeth and gums.  Flavors of dark tart black cherry, and blackberry with notes of anise.

We did a full meal to go with this!  I was inspired.

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Syrah

BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri sauce, and smoked gouda mac and cheese with Co Dinn Roskamp Vineyard Syrah

We made BBQ chicken thighs with my special blend BBQ sauce.  I played to the wine with my flavors, including black cherry preserves, and spices, a bit of espresso and cocoa, along with my usual mix of tomato paste, ketchup (yes, or catsup if you prefer), Worcestershire sauce, soy, honey, cider vinegar, balsamic, paprika, nutmeg, and assorted other spices.  We did these in the slow cooker.  If I do them again I will skin the chicken.  Alright, I like fat and the flavor it imparts, but in this case, my sauce didn’t get to permeate the meat as well as I would have liked.

We also did grilled eggplant.  In his tasting notes, Co mentions the wine will pair well with eggplant dishes.

Lastly, I made a smoked gouda mac and cheese.  This made the whole thing feel like a Southern picnic to me and well, there is a little bit of pandemic virtual travel to be had in that!

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah with BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri and smoke gouda mac and cheese
Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah with BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri and smoked gouda mac and cheese
Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken
Slow-Cooked BBQ Chicken
Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese
Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese
Grilled Eggplant with Chimichurri Sauce
Grilled Eggplant with Chimichurri Sauce

All the dishes paired beautifully with Co’s Roskamp Vineyard Syrah, but the smoked gouda mac & cheese was my favorite.

You can check out the recipes here.

Black Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches

To complete our Southern picnic theme, I made black cherry ice cream sandwiches.  Okay, I made the cookies for them and bought black cherry ice cream which I thought would pair well with the wine.  The cookies though included cocoa and espresso powder which I hoped would pair well with this Roskamp Vineyard Syrah.

Indeed they did!  It was delicious!  You know, those moments when you take a bite and a sip and close your eyes and groan with pleasure just a bit. Yeah, that kind of good!

Find the recipe here.

Black Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches
Co dinn Cellars Tasting Room in Sunnyside Washington

Finding Co Dinn Wines

 

Co Dinn’s wines are wines that you should search out.  These are made in small quantities so they are rare finds.  When you can visit his beautiful tasting room at 501 Grant Ave in Sunnyside WA.

In the meantime, you can head to his site and order this Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah as well as his current releases.

Sources and Resources

  • https://www.codinncellars.com/
  • https://wineyakimavalley.org/

More by Crushed Grape Chronicle on the Yakima Valley and Co Dinn

  • Chardonnay: Nuances in Expressing Site – An Example from the Yakima Valley
  • The Scenic Route Flash Tour 2019 Part 5 – One Day 3 Washington AVAs
  • Elephant Mountain Vineyard in Yakima Valley’s Rattlesnake Hills
  • Yakima Valley Seminar

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Syncline Subduction Red – Day 3 of the 12 Days of Wine 2020

Syncline Subduction Red – Day 3 of the 12 Days of Wine 2020

Dec 15, 2020

It was a cool summer morning when we visited Syncline.  Located on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge just where the lush green western part of the gorge begins to turn into the flatter browner drier landscape.  Here though, the trees still grow lush and we entered the quiet property and set up in the gardens where James Mantone the vigneron and winemaker met us.

James is thoughtful and quiet, a man who uses words sparingly.  He is happy to share information on his property and wines but is in no way boisterous.  When he speaks, you know that he has thought through what he is saying.

He took us to the vineyard up on the ridge to see the view the Syrah has.  You can see the river in the gorge from there.  It’s beautiful and perhaps a little humbling, as you can see far into the distance and the scale really puts your smallness into perspective.

The patio at Syncline Winery
The patio at Syncline Winery
Syncline interview behind the scenes
Syncline interview behind the scenes
Walking the Steep Ranch Vineyard with Syncline's James Mantone
James Mantone of Syncline walked us to the top of their vineyard to enjoy the views from their spectacular location on the Columbia Gorge
Views of the Gorge make this Washington Wine delicious
View of the Columbia River and the Gorge
The View from Syncline's Steep Ranch Vineyard
The View from Syncline’s Steep Ranch Vineyard
Syncline 2017 Subduction Red from the Columbia Valley

Syncline 2017 Subduction Red – Columbia Valley

 

A blend of 49% Syrah, 26% Grenache, 12% Carignan, 7% Cinsault, 6% Mourvedre, this is their version of a Côtes du Rhône Villages wine.

Syncline sources this fruit from a variety of vineyards in multiple AVAs: Columbia Gorge, Horse Heaven Hills, Red Mountain, and Yakima Valley.  With all of the vineyards that they work with, they have long term contracts and a good relationship and sense of trust with the growers.

91 barrels were produced.  13.7% abv SRP $25

My notes on this wine start with its medium color of dark red with blue notes.  On the nose, there are raspberry notes in the front, with deeper black fruit and rich red notes.  Sitting in the very back you find notes of dried currant and whiffs of anise.  There is also an undertone of brambles and dried herbs.  As it evolves I get more spice.

Medium in body, dry and elegant with medium to low tannins, in my mouth it has deep juicy red and black fruits and something like the scent of a woodfire with herbs.

While this wine is from many vineyards it is incredibly integrated.

Bacon-wrapped stuffed pork tenderloin with raspberry sauce, beet greens, and a root vegetable gratin

Syrah loves bacon, and raspberry notes with this wine meant I wanted to tie those in somehow.  I found a recipe for a stuffed pork loin and thought this would be a good match.  I had just bought fresh beets, so beet greens on the side were a no brainer.

The pork loin is stuffed with crème cheese and a raspberry sauce.  The loin is wrapped in bacon, basted in the sauce, and roasted for a few hours.

This was really wonderful with the wine, bacon, and raspberry and Subduction Red makes for a perfect trio.

You can see the full recipe here.

I did a side of sauteed beet greens, that brings in an earthy note and added to that with our rainbow root vegetable gratin.  You can find the gratin recipe as part of this post.

  • Syncline Subduction Red paired with stuffed pork loin, beet greens and root vegetable gratin
  • Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with creme cheese and savory raspberry sauce
  • Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Pork Tenderloin with Syncline Subduction Red 2

Bacon brie raspberry bites

We stuck with the bacon and raspberry notes for a sweet/savory dessert bite.  This is really an hors d’oeuvres, but it was a perfect bite to finish the meal.  These are quick and easy with phyllo cups filled with brie, bacon, and a raspberry preserve.

This was a perfect little bite with the wine.

Check out the recipe here.

Phyllo cups filled with brie, raspberry sauce, bacon, rosemary and almonds
Phyllo cups filled with brie, raspberry sauce, bacon, rosemary and almonds
Syncline 2017 Subduction Red with bacon, brie, raspberry phyllo bites
Syncline 2017 Subduction Red with bacon, brie, raspberry phyllo bites

Syncline is open for limited outdoor seating on weekends for tasting and you can do take out bottle sales.  They have a reservation section on their site.

The outdoor tasting bar at the Syncline Winery
The outdoor tasting bar at the Syncline Winery
Syncline Wine's tasting garden in the Columbia Gorge AVA
Syncline Wine’s tasting garden in the Columbia Gorge AVA
Syncline Wine's tasting garden in the Columbia Gorge AVA
Syncline Wine’s tasting garden in the Columbia Gorge AVA

They are located across the river from the Dalles.  If you can’t get there to enjoy their beautiful gardens you can order online and enjoy these delicious wines in the comfort of your own home.

Production here is under 6,000 cases annually. These wines are truly something special.

Sources and Resources

  • http://synclinewine.com/
  • https://www.washingtonwine.org/wine/facts-and-stats/regions-and-avas/columbia-gorge

More on Syncline and Washington Wines

  • 12 Days of Wine Day 12 – Syncline
  • The Scenic Route – Flash Tour 2019 Part 3 – Columbia Gorge to the Yakima Valley

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Black cherry ice cream Sandwiches with espresso and cocoa cookie a perfect pairing with Co Dinn Syrah

Black cherry ice cream Sandwiches with espresso and cocoa cookie a perfect pairing with Co Dinn Syrah

Dec 11, 2020

Black cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches with cocoa and espresso cookie

 

When I read that the Co Dinn Syrah we were opening had notes of Black Cherry, cocoa, and espresso, I knew that a good dessert pairing would be epic.  I searched and stumbled across this recipe for black cherry-chocolate ice cream sandwiches on Food & Wine. I encourage you to check out their recipe

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/black-cherrychocolate-ice-cream-sandwiches

The single tweek I made was using espresso powder rather than instant espresso granules, due to what was in my cupboard.

Time: 40 Minutes
waiting time 11 hours

Yield: 6 people

Ingredients for Black cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients for Black cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches

What to Pair?

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah

This Co Dinn wine is fermented in one-ton bins.  He presses when he feels the tannins are structured by not too grippy.  The wine does secondary fermentation in neutral French oak.  100% Syrah.  14.6% abv SRP $45

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups flour (plus more for rolling)

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp salt

¾ tsp baking powder

½ cup unsalted butter softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon espresso powder

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla

1 quart of black cherry ice cream (no I did not make my own ice cream for this)

Directions

  1. In a medium bowl sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa together.
  2. In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream the butter, sugar and espresso powder until it’s light and fluffy
  3. Keep the mixer running and add the egg, mixing until it is well combined.
  4. Add the vanilla
  5. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the flour, ½ cup at a time. You want to mix this just until it is combined.
  6. Wrap this in plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
  7. When the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  8. Roll the dough out on parchment to a 14×11 inch rectangle that is 1/8 inch thick.
  9. Trim this to a 13×10 inch rectangle to clean up the edges.
  10. Slide the dough with the parchment onto a baking sheet
  11. Chill for 30 minutes
  12. Poke holes all over the dough about ¾ inch apart.
  13. Bake 9-11 minutes (it will be set, but still soft)
  14. Cool on a wire rack about 30 minutes
  15. Cut this cross wise into 2 rectangles (2- 6 ½ x 11 rectangles)
  16. Line a cookie sheet with foil big enough to hold one of the large cookies
  17. Place ½ face down (the poked side) on the foil
  18. Top with the softened ice cream.
  19. Place the other cookie on top (poked side up, you want to see those!)
  20. Wrap in aluminum foil and freeze 8 hours
  21. Remove from the foil, trim the edges and cut into 12 bars!
Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Block 2 Syrah with a Black Cherry Ice Cream Sandwich

Black cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches with cocoa and espresso cookies

1 ¼ cups flour (plus more for rolling)

1 ¼ cups flour (plus more for rolling)

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 tsp salt

¾ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking powder

1-3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Watch our quick video for the highlights.

½ cup unsalted butter softened

½ cup unsalted butter softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon espresso powder

1 tablespoon espresso powder

1 egg

1 egg

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Block 2 Syrah with a Black Cherry Ice Cream Sandwich

Black Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches

To complete our Southern picnic theme, I made black cherry ice cream sandwiches.  Okay, I made the cookies for them and bought black cherry ice cream which I thought would pair well with the wine.  The cookies though included cocoa and espresso powder which I hoped would pair well with the wine.

Indeed they did!  It was delicious!  You know, those moments when you take a bite and a sip and close your eyes and groan with pleasure just a bit. Yeah, that kind of good!

Read More

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As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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BBQ Chicken in Crockpot with Grilled Eggplant and Gouda Mac and Cheese

BBQ Chicken in Crockpot with Grilled Eggplant and Gouda Mac and Cheese

Dec 11, 2020

BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri sauce, and smoked gouda mac and cheese with Co Dinn Roskamp Syrah

Our BBQ lunch to pair with this Washington Syrah from Co Dinn paired beautifully!  BBQ with Syrah, especially when you play up the notes in the wine in the sauce, can be spectacular.  Co had suggested eggplant dishes on his site and I found a recipe for Grilled eggplant with chimichurri sauce and lastly a smoked gouda mac and cheese!

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah

This Co Dinn wine is fermented in one-ton bins.  He presses when he feels the tannins are structured by not too grippy.  The wine does secondary fermentation in neutral French oak.  100% Syrah.  14.6% abv SRP $45

Time: 2 hours 25 Minutes

Yield: 2-4 people

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah with BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri and smoke gouda mac and cheese
Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah with BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri and smoke gouda mac and cheese

Slow cooker BBQ chicken thighs with a syrah inspired BBQ sauce

This recipe was inspired by Jennifer Banz – crock pot chicken thighs

https://jenniferbanz.com/crock-pot-bbq-chicken-thighs

2 people, 2 hr 15 min to 4 hr 15 minutes (depending on slow cooker setting)

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken
Slow-Cooked BBQ Chicken

Ingredients

4 bone in chicken thighs (I recommend pulling the skin off of these, I did not and I regret that, the meat was not able soak up my brilliant sauce)

1 tbs paprika (smoke or sweet)

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp Montreal Chicken seasoning (it’s what I had)

¼ tsp ground white pepper

1 ½ cups of BBQ sauce (

Directions

  1. Mix the spices and the salt and pepper in a small bowl
  2. Put your chicken thighs in the slow cooker and sprinkling the spice mix over the top.
  3. Pour on 1 cup of that BBQ sauce (use my recipe below, make your own concoction or grab a bottle from the store)
  4. Cook on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.
  5. Pre-heat the broiler.
  6. Place the chicken thighs on an aluminum lined baking sheet
  7. Baste with the rest of the sauce
  8. Broil on the center rack of the oven for about 5 minutes (keep an eye on them) They should caramelize and bubble.

BBQ Sauce recipe

First, I love making BBQ sauce, and it’s never the same.  I throw together flavors and taste as I go.  Here is what I used for this recipe.

Minced garlic

Dried cranberries

Dark brown sugar

Worcestershire sauce

Apple cider vinegar

Honey

Balsamic vinegar

Espresso powder

Cocoa

Ketchup

Soy sauce

Tomato paste

Paprika

Ground white pepper

Montreal chicken seasoning

Black cherry preserve

Nutmeg

Salt

Directions

Nope, you don’t get exact measurements.  You need it to be your desired consistency so that will guide you.  The other thing that will guide you is your taste buds.  Grab a jar or bowl, or a big 2 cup measuring cup.  You are looking to have 1 ½ cups of this in the end.  Add, stir, taste.  Maybe there are other flavors you want to add in?  Do it!  If you are not sure, then take a bit to the side and try it there.

The important thing for this recipe, was the black cherry preserves (I added about 2 tbs) the cocoa ( I added 1 tsp) and the espresso powder (again 1 tsp).  These were the components that would pick up in the notes of the wine.

Grilled Eggplant with Chimichurri sauce

20 minutes 4 servings

This recipe was adapted from one on Foodie Crush https://www.foodiecrush.com/grilled-eggplant/

I didn’t need to make quite so much and I’ll be honest, I mixed up my chimichurri so that it is more of a sauce and is not quite a traditional chimichurri which is thiner and more drizzly.  None the less it was delicious.  I also cut this recipe in half and adapted for ingredients that I had on hand.

Grilled Eggplant with Chimichurri Sauce

Chimichurri style sauce

Ingredients

½ cup flat leaf parsley leaves only

¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves only

2 shallots finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic

¼ cup olive oil

2 tbs of red wine vinegar

½ lemon juiced

½ tsp salt

½ tsp red pepper flakes

Directions

  1. Do this in a food processor
  2. Start with the parsley, cilantro, onion and garlic, pulse to mince
  3. Add the olive oil, vinegar and lemon juice, and red pepper flakes.
  4. Pulse just to mix
  5. Season with salt.

Grilled Eggplant

Ingredients

1 large eggplant

1 tbs of olive oil

1 ½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp freshly ground pepper

Directions

  1. Heat your grill pan over medium high heat (I typically grind fresh salt over the pan first, it will help with clean up)
  2. Cut the eggplant into ½ inch slices
  3. Brush the slices with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper
  4. Grill turning once until they are tender and you have lovely grill marks
  5. Plate and drizzle with the chimichurri sauce.
Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese

Serves 4

25 minutes

Smoked Gouda Mac & Cheese

I love baked mac & cheese, but sometimes you just don’t have the time for that.  This mac & cheese with smoke gouda is so good, I didn’t miss the baking!  I found this recipe on Hey Grill Hey an adapted it cutting the recipe in half.  I also messed up my sauce and guess what?  Still turned out okay!

Ingredients

½ lb of elbow macaroni

¼ cup of butter

2 tbs flour

1 ½ tsp mustard powder

1/2 cup of crème

½ cup whole milk

2 oz of crème cheese

1 ½ cups of shredded smoked gouda

¾ cup of shredded white cheddar

Directions

  1. Cook the pasta. Read the directions on the package, just use a big pot, bigger than you think you need, so those macaroni have space and salt the water.  Salty like the sea, my chef friend always says!
  2. Drain the pasta. (yes, I did that before I made the sauce, because I didn’t want to break my focus on the sauce, by having to stop and drain pasta)
  3. Get out your cast iron skillet (12 inch) melt the butter over medium heat
  4. Add the flour whisking until it forms a thin smooth paste. This is your roux, I am notorious for over cooking my roux, keep this over medium and you should be okay.
  5. Whisk in the mustard powder.
  6. Slowly pour in the milk and crème, continue whisking while you bring this to a boil.
  7. Reduce the heat and add the crème cheese, whisking until smooth
  8. Add the gouda and cheddar and stir until melted.
  9. Turn off the heat, add the pasta and stir to make this a gooey bunch of deliciousness.

Watch our quick video for the highlights.

Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Block 2 Syrah with BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri and smoke gouda mac and cheese

BBQ chicken, grilled eggplant with chimichurri sauce, and smoked gouda mac and cheese with Co Dinn Roskamp Syrah

We got lost on the way to this vineyard to meet Co Dinn.  In Washington’s Yakima Valley GPS service can be sketchy and even when you look it up ahead of time, sometimes roads have gates and you find the maps program tried to take you in a locked back door.  So after a bit of driving for us and Co talking us in through landmarks we were unfamiliar with, we finally connected and headed up to the Roskamp Vineyard in the Snipes Mountain AVA.  Co sources grapes here, for his Syrah and Chardonnay and it is a great vantage point to see the Yakima Valley.

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Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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L’Ecole No. 41 2017 Merlot with Dinner and a Unique Dessert

L’Ecole No. 41 2017 Merlot with Dinner and a Unique Dessert

Oct 27, 2020

October is Merlot Month. It’s also the month of our wedding anniversary here at Crushed Grape Chronicles. 23 years ago, Michael and I tied the knot at Mount Charleston. I don’t know that we realized then, that Vegas would be our home for so long. We now live close enough to have a view of the Mountain.

Merlot has always been one of Michael’s favorite wines, and quite honestly we don’t drink it often enough. #MerlotMe has given us an opportunity to dive back into this variety that too often is overlooked.

The bottle we will open today is from L’Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla Washington.

The wine in this post was provided as a media sample. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own

L’Ecole No. 41

This 3rd generation winery is actually just outside of Walla Walla in Frenchtown. It is named for the French Canadians who settled in the Valley in the early 1800’s and began the wine making tradition in the region.

The schoolhouse bell - The L'Ecole No 41 Schoolhouse - photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41
The schoolhouse bell – The L’Ecole No 41 Schoolhouse – photo courtesy L’Ecole No. 41
The L'Ecole No 41 Schoolhouse - photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41
The L’Ecole No 41 Schoolhouse – photo courtesy L’Ecole No. 41
Marty & Megan Clubb of L'Ecole No. 41 - photo courtesy of L'Ecole No. 41
Marty & Megan Clubb of L’Ecole No. 41 – photo courtesy of L’Ecole No. 41

The tasting room for L’Ecole 41 is in the restored Lowden School that was built here in 1915.  The name “L’Ecole No. 41” comes from the French word for school, the 41 for the school district, and is an ode to the early wine pioneers of the area.

Marty and Megan Clubb run the winery, now, but it was Megan’s parents Jean & Baker Ferguson who founded the winery in 1983 as their retirement project.  At the time it was just the third winery in Walla Walla.  In 1989 Marty and Megan came to take the helm and grow the winery.  Today their children Rebecca and Riley work at the winery as the 3rd generation in this family business.

.

L’Ecole No. 41 Merlot – Columbia Valley

While this is called a Merlot, it is much more in the style of a Right Bank Bordeaux wine.  It is 81% Merlot.  In the US (and much of the world), to call a wine by a variety name it must be 75% of that grape.  So, this is a Merlot by those standards.  It also includes other typical Bordeaux grapes in small quantities with 14% Cabernet Franc and then just drops of Malbec and Petit Verdot.

 

.

L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley AVA Vineyard Map - Courtesy of L'Ecole No. 41
L'Ecole No. 41 Columbia Valley AVA Vineyard Map - Courtesy of L'Ecole No. 41

This wine is a “Columbia Valley” wine with fruit from Estate Seven Hills Vineyard and Pepper Bridge in the Walla Walla Valley, Winebau and Stone Tree which are north in the Wahluke Slope AVA, Bacchus & Dionysus Vineyards which are in the larger Columbia Valley AVA north of the Tri-Cities area and then 2 vineyards in the Yakima Valley AVA: Candy Mountain, which has just become its own AVA, Klipsun in the Red Mountain AVA. So as you can see, this covers a wide area in the Greater Columbia Valley AVA.

The Details:

  • 81% Merlot, 14% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot
  • Columbia Valley (from these Vineyards” Estate Seven Hills, Bacchus & Dionysus, Candy Mountain, Klipsun, Weinbau, Pepper Bridge and Stone Tree)
  • Hand-harvested
  • Racked into small oak barrels – 30% new
  • Four rackings over 18 months
  • 14.5% abv
  • 4,870 cases produced
  • SRP $25
L'Ecole No 41 Merlot 2017 from Washington's Columbia Valley bottle shot with green
L'Ecole No 41 Merlot 2017 from Washington's Columbia Valley

Tasting Notes from Winery

“Layered with complex aromas of black cherry, rose petal, baking spices and cocoa.  Full bodied with a seamless finish with fine-grained tannins.”

So now…what to pair?

It’s Saturday as I write this and a cold front is coming in.  The temperature has dropped and layers of clouds cover parts of the valley.  It’s a day to stay in and nest.  A simple but delicious lunch of Carne Asada soft tacos is in order, that will pair with this wine, then later, we will try an ambitious dessert and see how it pairs.

Carne Asada & Bleu Cheese soft tacos.

Perhaps these are more wrap than a taco.  We took the easy way on this and picked up some pre-marinated Carne Asada from Trader Joes.  This cooks on high for 2 to 3 minutes per side (we like our steak on the rare side), on the grill pan on the stove.  It rests for 5 minutes, while we warm the tortilla’s one at a time in the rod iron skillet.
Slice the meat thinly across the grain and build your soft taco.  We served our bean and rice on the side, but certainly, you could add those and make this a burrito if you wanted.  Meat, crumbled bleu cheese, arugula, sliced avocado, and corn relish (also Trader Joe’s, guess you know where I shop).

Carne Asada and bleu cheese soft tacos with arugula, avocado, and corn relish
Carne Asada and bleu cheese soft tacos with arugula, avocado and corn relish
L'Ecole No 41 Columbia Valley 2017 Merlot with Carne Asada soft tacos
L’Ecole No 41 Columbia Valley 2017 Merlot with Carne Asada soft tacos

Now to dessert. We just got an ice cream maker. You would think, that I would start with vanilla and hone my skills. Nope. I dove right in and made a bleu cheese ice cream. Couldn’t help it! My dessert ties in some of the notes from the wineries tasting, we will see how it goes. The idea is to taste and see how these flavors pair. Forget the food shows where you have to scoop it all into one bite, this is flavor and taste experimentation.

Here’s what I plated:

  • Honey
  • Ground pistachios
  • Balsamic reduction
  • Shaved dark chocolate
  • Rehydrated cherries
  • Fresh plum
  • Ground nutmeg
  • Dried rose petals
  • Fresh mint
  • Bleu cheese ice cream
Bleu cheese ice cream dessert pairing for Merlot from L'Ecole No 41
Bleu cheese ice cream dessert pairing for Merlot from L'Ecole No 41

Bleu Cheese Ice Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 quart Half & Half
  • 1 tbs of black peppercorns
  • 5 oz of Bleu cheese
  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1 tbs lemon juice
  1. Heat the half & half with the peppercorns until hot
  2. Strain the peppercorns out
  3. Put 2/3rds of the bleu cheese in a bowl
  4. Pour the hot milk over and stir until smooth
  5. Add the sugar and lemon juice and stir until dissolved
  6. Chill overnight, or at least 4 hours
  7. Add the remaining 1/3 of the bleu cheese and stir lightly (you want the chunks)
  8. Put in an ice cream maker and churn as directed

I found that my ice cream maker suggested 15 minutes, but that was too soft to make Quenelles, so I put some on a cookie sheet and stuck it in the freezer for 20 minutes.  You could also put it in a container and freeze it for about 2 hours (I was hungry and in a hurry).

Make the Quenelles of ice cream with 2 spoons. (or go ahead and use an ice cream scoop if you want!)

You can plate with whatever other flavors float your boat!  I chose notes that would pair with my specific wine, but you do you!

So how did the pairings go?

The Carne Asada soft tacos were good with the Merlot.  The spices might have kicked up the heat on my palate a little, but the avocado cooled things down and the bleu cheese was just the right kick!

With dessert?  You remember we were laying out a tasting plate to experiment.  The plum and nutmeg melded and melted away.  The cherries, the balsamic, the chocolate?  Yeah, all were good together and with the Merlot.  The pistachios added texture, but not a lot of flavor.  The rosepetals?  They were pretty, just not tasty. And the ice cream?  Yeah, I’d do that again.  It is tasty. Keep in mind we just did a single Quenelle with all the other bits to mix in.  I would NOT do a bowl with 3 scoops of this!

I had been worried about the sweetness of the ice cream with the wine and didn’t find that to be a problem.  The savory funk of the bleu cheese balanced out the sweetness and I enjoyed this with the wine.

It is Merlot Month so we’ve written done a few other tastings and pairings as we joined in the celebration with #MerlotMe and the writers at #WinePW!

  • Merlot from elegant to badass.  Time to #MerlotMe with #WinePW 
    • (in this one you will find all the links to the other pieces by all my colleagues at #WinePW)
  • Merlot from 2 big-name companies, that are worth finding for different reasons.
  • Celebrating Merlot month with a Selby Merlot from Sonoma County

You can also visit #MerlotMe for lots of great pairing ideas as well as specials and events with wineries!

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Chardonnay: Nuances in expressing site – an example from the Yakima Valley

Chardonnay: Nuances in expressing site – an example from the Yakima Valley

May 21, 2020

Chardonnay is one of the world’s most popular grapes.  A noble grape, its parents are Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc. We first see mention of it in the 16th century in Burgundy.

You can find it grown all over the globe.  From its home in Burgundy to Australia’s Hunter Valley.  You find it in Italy, South Africa, Spain, Chile, Argentina, California, Oregon, Washington…Yes, Washington.  We will get to that later.

 

The Different Styles of Chardonnay

These different regions bring in some of the differences in the wines.  With wine grapes, flavors and aromas come from the variety, the location where it is grown (climate and soil) and then the winemaking. Chardonnay is incredibly adaptable.

Chardonnay can have aromas and flavors of yellow apple, citrus, tropical fruit, butter, vanilla, chalk, lime, white flowers, or stone fruit.  Warm climates give you tropical notes, cool climates more citrus and pear.

 

The wine makers hand…

Here there are many variables.  It can be as simple as when the winemaker chooses to pick, what the sugar levels are at.  Then you can ferment in stainless or in wood.  You can allow the wine to go through malolactic fermentation or not, you can age on the lees, you can filter or not filter….so many options that will affect the taste of the wine.

 

A tale of two Chardonnays

With all these variables that can affect the outcome of a bottle of Chardonnay, what if you eliminate a few.  Would the wines then taste the same?  We had a chance to investigate the nuances of Chardonnay with two vineyards in Yakima Valley.  These vineyards sit in 2 different AVAs within the larger Yakima Valley AVA.  DuBrul Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills AVA and Roskamp Vineyard in the Snipes Mountain AVA.  While they are in two separate AVAs, if you were a crow you would have a 6 to 7-mile flight to get between the two vineyards. Standing in one vineyard, on a clear day, you can easily see the other.

Last year we visited with two winemakers we had met there before.  Co Dinn of Co Dinn Cellars and Kerry Shiels of Cote Bonneville.  The two both make Chardonnay from these vineyards that look across the Yakima Valley at each other.

 

Map Yakima Valley 2019 courtesy of WineYakimaValley.org
Map Yakima Valley 2019 courtesy of WineYakimaValley.org

 

Co Dinn Chardonnay Roskamp Vineyard Snipes Mountain AVA

 

Co in Vineyard
Co pointing out DuBrul vineyard to the North

Co Dinn makes his Chardonnay from the Roskamp Vineyard on the Snipes Mountain AVA. Snipes Mountain sits in the middle of the Yakima Valley, an anticline in the Yakima fold belt. The north side is a gentle slope, while the south side is steep, with basement rock exposed.

His Chardonnay sits on the north slope.  While that might be odd in most regions, you have much longer days in the growing season here and they rarely have trouble getting fruit to ripen.  Keeping the Chardonnay on the north slope gives it the morning sun and keeps it protected from the afternoon heat. They have 3 blocks of Chardonnay here at Roskamp, the one Co pulls from is the most protected.  It is planted to the Dijon clones 76 & 96 in a field blend.

These grapes, thanks to the sandy soil in Washington are own rooted. They keep the west side shaded and expose the east side.  The vines need more protection from the southwest heat and wind. Soils here on the gentler north slope are deeper, you can see the difference in vigor between these vines and the syrah vines growing closer to the south side.

Co makes his wines in a very traditional way.  His chardonnay is barrel fermented with full malolactic fermentation and ages 17 months on the lees.  His goal?  To really showcase the site.

 

“I believe that the ultimate expression of a wine is to capture the character of the site.  You can make beautiful wines by blending but you lose specificity.  I’ve decided to find these special places and to express them.  For example, this place is very unique and so are the wines.”

Co Dinn, July 2019

 

Roskamp Vineyard 04
The view of Rattlesnack Hills and DuBrul Vineyard from Roskamp Vineyard

Co points out DuBrul Vineyard across the valley to the North.  The vineyard there is southwest facing.  Theirs is the older clone.

 

Kerry Shiels, DuBrul Vineyard, Rattlesnake Hills AVA

 

Dubrul Vineyard with Kerry Shiels
Talking with Kerry Shiels of Côte Bonneville in her DuBrul Vineyard in Yakima

A few days later, we spent the morning with Kerry Shiels at DuBrul Vineyard. This site sits on a basalt upthrust.  They have a south facing slope with a cutout that allows for southwest and southeast aspects. They sit high in the foothills of the Rattlesnake Mountains.  This unique vineyard with its aspects grows quite a range, from Cabernet Sauvignon to Chardonnay to Riesling!

 

Mt Adams
Mount Adams, West of the Yakima Valley

The morning we visited the Mountains were out. When you looked to the West you could see Mount Adams to the south and further north in the distance Mt. Rainier.

We spent some time in the cool chardonnay vineyard.  This was early July, and they would not pick the Chard until the beginning of September.

Kerry also does her Chardonnay in a classic style with a barrel ferment, full secondary, full malolactic.  They keep it on the lees, and it spends about a year and a half in barrel.

 

“I have a friend who doesn’t like Chardonnay, she says “your chardonnay is good, I recognize the quality, it’s not my favorite grape. Which is fine, but it’s good enough that she says “If I’m going to drink Chardonnay, I’ll drink yours. But I’d rather drink coke”.  If you like Burgundian styled classical age-worthy complex balanced Chardonnay, then you are going to like our Chardonnay.”

Kerry Shiels, July 2019

We look across to the South to Snipes Mountain and Roskamp vineyard.

 

DuBrul Vineyard

 

“I think it’s really interesting how different that Chard taste from this Chard.

I mean they are different clones, but also the soil is different.  Snipes is its own, geologically it’s totally distinct from this.  It’s fun to see that sense of place.“

Kerry Shiels, July 2019

 

Similarities and Differences

So how did our side by side tasting go?  It was interesting.  Let’s run down the similarities and differences again.

 

Chard Pairing
Cote Bonneville 2015 DuBrul Vineyard Chardonnay and Co Dinn 2015 Roskamp Vineyard Chardonnay

Both were barrel fermented, with 17 to 18 months on the lees.  They were both unfined and unfiltered and from the same 2015 vintage. Both come from the Yakima Valley, from vineyards just 6 to 7 miles apart.  They were both made by winemakers with similar styles, both wanting to showcase the site.

They were Chardonnays from different clones, from 2 different AVAs (regardless of how near they are), the aspects were different with the Roskamp Chardonnay on the gentle North slope and the DuBrul on a South west facing slope. The soils and the microclimates (most definitely the microclimates) are different.  Lastly, quite honestly, I don’t know what yeast they each used.

 

Tasting & Comparing

The Co Dinn Roskamp Chardonnay was plush and creamy with baking spice, whereas the Cote Bonneville was leaner and more elegant with not quite ripe pear notes and a lovely mineral note.

How much of this was the soil, the different aspect, perhaps the picking date?  I don’t know, I just find it wonderful and amazing that two wines made from grapes in vineyards that look out on to each other, can be so subtly different.

I’m going to also mention that these are probably two of the finer Chardonnay’s that you will find in the Yakima Valley and they don’t come cheap.  In fact, the Cote Bonneville may no longer be available. Pick up the latest vintage.  They pride themselves on consistency and it is bound to be good.

 

The Wines and where to find them

Both of these wineries can be found in Sunnyside Washington, at about the mid point of the Yakima Valley. Both has beautiful historic buildings for tasting rooms and are well worth the trip. But, in these days, when travel is not so easy…you can order them online.

2015 Chardonnay Cote Bonneville SRP $50

 

Cote Bonneville, Tasting Room Sunnyside Washington
Cote Bonneville, Tasting Room Sunnyside Washington

https://www.cotebonneville.com

2015 Co Dinn Chardonnay Roskamp Vineyard SRP $45

 

Co dinn Cellars Tasting Room
Co dinn Cellars Tasting Room

https://codinncellars.com/

 

Other resources on Chardonnay and the Yakima Valley

 

  • Wine Yakima Valley
  • Washington State Wine
  • Jancis Robinson – Chardonnay
  • Wine for Normal People: The Grape Miniseries.. Chardonnay
  • Wine Folly – Chardonnay

 

More on this region from Crushed Grape Chronicles

 

  • Yakima Valley Seminar
  • Elephant Mountain Vineyard in the Rattlesnake Hills
  • Yakima Valley – Wine and beyond with Wine Yakima Valley’s Flavor Camp
  • The Scenic Route Flash Tour 2019 Part 5 – One day 3 Washington AVAs
  • The Scenic Route Part 7 – Du Brul to Hiyu
  • 12 Days of Wine – Day 4 Côte Bonneville

 

 

 

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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Seth Kitzke on Kitzke Cellars, Upsidedown Wine and so much more.

Seth Kitzke on Kitzke Cellars, Upsidedown Wine and so much more.

Apr 2, 2020

After checking out the Syrah out back, Seth walked us to the vines out front.  Here you walk between 2 vineyards, Kitzke‘s Candy Ridge vineyard and their neighbor Jim’s vineyard.  (You can read our previous piece in the back block here.)

Boulders the size of VW buses!

Out front is where Jim’s old vine stuff is as well as a bit of geological history.  Seth takes me to a spot where we can see a large piece of granite poking up through the ground.  Jim found it while he was planting the vineyard and thought he would pull it out.  As he started digging he realized it was bigger than he thought, approximately as big as a VW bus!  So…he covered it back up. This large boulder was likely part of the Missoula Flood that rolled through the Columbia Valley at the end of the last ice age.  With all that debris being swept down by the floods Seth says “Who knows what’s really under here?”  He’s found decomposed granite before.  It’s not common in Washington, it’s random, brought in by the floods. This boulder is chipped on the top.  From the mower Seth tells me. 

a large boulder just off of Kitzke's Candy Ridge Vineyard in Jim's yard
Boulders the size of VW Buses

Jim’s old vines

The Boulder sits next to a block of chardonnay that he believes is close to 30 years old. 

Jim also has cabernet sauvignon & merlot.  Seth says they get about 2 barrels of the old vine cab and one of the merlot.  Jim originally planted these just to make wine for himself.  He now sells to at home wine makers in smaller quantities.  He’s been known to even crush the grapes and ship them to Portland for clients.

Cab Franc Pet Nat

We talk about the cab franc on the lawn.  These plants get more water than the rest, due to the proximity to the lawn sprinklers.  So Seth decided to make a Pet Nat from them.  Pet Nat is short for petillant naturel, a light sparkling wine that has become popular (it’s a favorite of mine). It’s made by bottling the wine while it’s fermenting to capture the carbon dioxide, giving it a bit of effervescence.

Cab Franc on the lawn at Kitzke's Candy Ridge Vineyard
Cab Franc on the lawn at Kitzke’s Candy Ridge Vineyard

“I don’t want it (the cab franc) to go to waste just ‘cause it gets too much extra water.  When I was looking at the acids, the pH was low. It actually worked out pretty perfect for it.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

They pick early and don’t thin this as much, so they get a heavier crop.  He found the pH was low so that seemed perfect.  He says it can be hard to get exact numbers on it, but he shoots for 21 to 22 brix.

Tasting with Seth Kitzke and more

Tasting with Seth Kitzke at Kitzke Cellars Candy Ridge Vineayard Washington
Tasting with Seth Kitzke at Kitzke Cellars

We did a tasting of both Kitzke wines and Upsidedown wines.  Everything they do, with the exception of their Method Red is vineyard designate.  The Method Red is a blend of cabernet, nebbiolo and either sangiovese or Malbec depending on the year.

Rescue rosé

  • Upsidedown Wines Rescue Rosé
    Upsidedown Wines Rescue Rosé
  • Rescue Rosé notes fro Upsidedown Wine
    Rescue Rosé notes fro Upsidedown Wine

We begin with discussing the Rescue Rosé which at this point is the only rosé of nebbiolo in Washington.  This is 100% nebbiolo that was grown specifically for this rosé. They crop at a higher tonnage.  Seth says they do the opposite of what they do with cabernet sauvignon.  Here they water during fruit set, trying to get bigger clusters and bigger berries.  More and larger clusters with more acidity is what they want, and they want to slow down the sugar accumulation.  This is whole cluster direct press, no skin contact and Seth cuts off the press when he feels it’s starting to be too astringent.  He notes that nebbiolo has thin skins, but those skins have quite a bit of tannin.  His wine making technique is low intervention so he does not use bentonite for stabilization or fining agents which would pull out some of the astringency.

Color and thin skins in Rosé

It seems strange that thinner skins often give more color.  “If you do something like a cab franc that has thicker skins…like Michael Savage, he does a cab franc he does a direct press and it has very little  but it has thicker skins”. With nebbiolo, the skins are so thin that it really leeches out the color.

Savage Grace Blanc Franc with Ranier cherries at Red Willow

Here is one of those wonderful coincidences in the universe.  This wine he was speaking of was Savage Grace Blanc Franc, which we actually tasted later that day, thanks to Jonathan and Mike Sauer of Red Willow Vineyard, we sipped this white cab franc at the Chapel with fresh Rainier cherries, watching sunset…

Seth is looking to make in a Provenće style rosé.  To create that big luscious mouthfeel with fruit, but keeping it dry, they do lots of lees aging in stainless.

Why is it called Rescue Rosé?

At Upsidedown Wines they work with a different non-profit with each wine through their Give Back program.  For the Rescue Rosé they work with the Humane Society.

The Syrah (artist series)

2016 Artist Series Syrah from Upsidedown Wine
2016 Artist Series Syrah from Upsidedown Wine

Seth poured us a syrah, and warned us that it would need to open up.  In fact, he swears that this syrah is best on day 3 after having been opened.  That’s when it really comes into it’s own.  This is from that east/west block of syrah in the back, closest to Candy Ridge.  100% syrah, they did 50% whole cluster in the 2016 vintage.  Since then they have opted for 100% whole cluster.  It’s neutral oak large format when possible, with lots of lees aging to create a style that feels like Northern Rhône to him. 

He loves the sense of garrigue and crunchy red fruit of the Northern Rhône.  Seth finds (similar to what we heard about cab sav from Justin Neufeld) that in Washington people are worried about picking early and getting too vegetal a flavor.)  They pick this earlier and end up with a syrah that sits at 13.3%. 

Oak, but not by choice

They have been integrating some new oak, not really out of choice.  He is trying to switch over to 500 liter puncheons and you don’t find those available used.  Those puncheons will just have to age and become neutral in his cellar over time. 

The syrah was really elegant.  Seth says if you pick early you get this coffee/smoky side that is really interesting.  He’s not sure what to attribute that too.  The spot where this block is, used to be where the neighbors orchard was and nearby was a big gravel pit.  The soil there almost looks like asphalt, like black gravel that has been conglomerated. 

Cab franc & labels

  • 2016 Kitzke Candy Ridge Vineyard Cab Franc
    2016 Kitzke Candy Ridge Vineyard Cab Franc
  • Back label of the Kitzke bottle.
    Back label of the Kitzke bottle.

The cab franc has a great back label with lots of details.  They use it on all of their Kitzke wines now.  It actually shows you what pH the fruit was picked at. This wine was 92% cabermet franc.  Typically it’s close to 100%. 

This cabernet franc also has the Candy Mountain label.  With the AVA on it’s way, he wanted to showcase where this sense of place in a timeless way. 

The labels at Upsidedown Wine are a bit more fun.  The artist series switches each year and they even play with bottle shapes.

This cab franc is one of Seth’s favorite wines from this vineyard.  It has good acid, a very cab franc feel, but a rich mouthfeel with the fruit.  Seth finds it hard to get the balance in Washington.  He finds some Red Mountain cab francs to be big, grainy and really rich, without the green bell pepper spice that he loves in a cab franc. He notes also that at the really cold sites the cab franc gets too thing and the green pepper then just dominates.  Getting the balance between these two versions can be tough.

’13 Monte

2013 Monte Caramelle from Kitzke Cellars with the older label.
Back label of the '13 Monte Caramelle Kitzke Cellars

He pours for us the 2013 Monte Caramelle, which had been opened the day before.  It is 66% sangiovese, 18% cabernet sauvignon and 16% syrah.  It’s not a blend they do every year.  This is their Super Tuscan style wine.  Monte Caramelle, is Candy Mountain in Italian.  This vintage was made by Charlie Hoppes from Fidelitas Winery.  Seth worked with him to make the Kitzke wines in 2013 & 14 and then in 2015, Seth started to take the reins and adjust the wines more to his own style.  The 2013 is inoculated and has a shorter fermentation period.  With all of Seth’s wines now they are native yeast and 6-7 days to start fermenting with a slower cooler fermentation.

Hood River

We get talking about other things.  Seth has a busy week scheduled and is sad he couldn’t meet us in the Upsidedown tasting room in Hood River.  I ask him how they ended up there.

“I love Hood River.  I lived on Mt. Hood for a while 3 or 4 summers teaching snowboarding after highschool.  I used to do the…I was a semi-professional snowboarder. I’d teach and work at the summer camp there in the summers and then winters I’d take off from college and go film videos. So Mt. Hood and Hood Rivers always been a spot for me.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

Seth looks at Hood River as a gateway to Washington Wine.  Yes….it’s on the Oregon side, but people fly to Portland and head out to the gorge and that’s where the vineyards start.  The Columbia Gorge AVA straddles the state line including both Washington and Oregon.

The Kitzke Tasting Room

For the Kitzke tasting room they wanted to be on the vineyard.

“we want to be able to walk you through the vineyard, we want you to come in the fall, you can taste a sangiovese grape you can taste the grapes and taste the wines and see the similarities side by side.  That’s more of our style, cause we’re growers at heart.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

The benefits to making your wine near the vineyard

Seth lived in Seattle and didn’t want to do the Woodinville thing.  He had grown up around the grapes and wanted to be close.  He did his 2016 vintage in Seattle “everyday that the truck would bring the grapes was my favorite part.  Unloading the trucks you smelled all the fresh cut vines, the dirt…everything.  So you kind of felt like you were in the vineyard for a second.”

The downfalls to being so far from the vineyard…you schedule picks 6-7 days in advance and you don’t get to taste the grapes as often as you would like.  Picking from the numbers doesn’t always work. 

“if you would have picked off of just pH and sugars, in ’15, your wines would have been harsh and astringent and vegetal, because stuff would be 25 or 26 brix, but it would taste bad, the berries were not developed yet.  It was so hot, a lot of people were picking at the end of August.  If you are not there, tasting that, you don’t know that.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

On growing in the Gorge and natural vegetation

In the Gorge, it’s a cooler area, consistently windy and of course rainier.  He notes that it is so much easier for people to be biodynamic and organic there because with the wind they have less mildew pressure.  This year at Kitzke they had to do sulfur sprays every 10 days.  They don’t use herbicides, as they are trying to get the natural vegetation to return.

“In our other vineyard you are really seeing it. We are starting to see a lot of sage and yarrow and stuff starting to grow back in the vineyard.  I feel like even last year you could get a little more of that in the wine versus clean under rows and vineyard, planted by vineyard, planted by vineyard without any of that natural vegetation carrying through the vineyards.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

He notes people finding more aromatics in the wines depending on the local vegetation.  Like the garrigue you get in wines from southern France.

More to Come…

We did speak to Seth more about a grenache he is making from the WeatherEye vineyard on Red Mountain.  This is a fascinating project, more on that soon.

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Renken CSW (photo credit RuBen Permel)

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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A Vineyard walk on Candy Ridge, Candy Mountain AVA with Seth Kitzke

A Vineyard walk on Candy Ridge, Candy Mountain AVA with Seth Kitzke

Mar 31, 2020

It was July 2019 and we were on summer whirlwind trip called #thescenicroute.  We had come from the beautiful Columbia Gorge region and were meeting Seth Kitzke at Candy Ridge Vineyard at Candy Mountain.

We pulled in and up to the Kitzke Cellars tasting room, on a Monday. Their tasting room is only typically open on the weekends, so we pulled up to a very confused looking gentleman.  This was Paul Kitzke, owner of the estate and winery and Seth’s dad.

Seth had evidently not mentioned us coming and Paul was surprised to see people at the tasting room so early, not to mention with camera and recording gear.  After a quick explanation, he warmed and looked to invite us in just as Seth pulled up.

Seth’s tasting room for his own brand Upsidedown Wine is in Hood River, where we had just been, but he was coming from a meeting somewhere else this particular morning.  He had managed to squeeze us in to the middle of his day.

 

So where exactly are we?

Well, we are in the east end of the Yakima Valley in Eastern Washington. The area is near the Tri-Cities close to the city of Richland. Candy Mountain is just South East of Red Mountain the fairly famous Yakima Valley AVA that is winning high praise for it’s grapes and wine.

 

Washington AVA Map Courtesy of Washington State, with Candy Mountain AVA
Washington AVA Map Courtesy of Washington State, with the area of the Proposed Candy Mountain AVA penciled in.

We started in the vineyard with Candy Mountain in the background.  The view is the same as the view on the sketch on their labels. The first thing I wanted to know about was the proposed AVA.

 

Candy Mountain AVA( it is now Official)

You know we get into proposed AVAs, we’ve talked about the proposed AVAs in the Willamette Valley and I was really curious about the proposed Candy Mountain AVA.  When approved, it will be Washington’s smallest AVA at around 820 acres.  Seth told us it’s been submitted and approved on the Washington State side and now they are just waiting on the Federal stuff.  The application was “Accepted as Perfected” on January 24, 2017.

As of the date of this piece, the time for public comment had closed and it was just waiting.  Likely it will be waiting a bit longer with everything slowing down right now.  It’s a little confusing.  I went to the TTB page and they are no longer listed on the “Pending approval” page, but they are also not listed on the “Established AVA” page.  So they are sitting in limbo in between.  As Seth put it “It’s sitting on someone’s desk somewhere in a stack waiting to get stamped.”

 

Details on the proposed AVA

The thing is, that this AVA which would be nested in the Yakima Valley AVA spills a little over the edge and they would need to expand the Yakima Valley AVA by 72 acres to adjust the overlap.  *Update! My understanding is that the adjustment to the Yakima Valley AVA is complete.

The AVA is on the the southwestern slopes of Candy Mountain.  Seth mentioned that the slopes here are south facing due to the the way the ridge and Mountain are oriented.  Red Mountain AVA with it’s much larger 4040 acres, wraps around Red Mountain with vineyards Southeast facing, south facing and wrapping around to some that are south west and west facing also.

 

“…Candy Mountain doesn’t really have that option. It’s pretty much all directly south.  You might have a tiny bit of southeast and southwest..”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

 Seth studied sustainability and tourism before getting into wine and like preserving ridge lines and views.  He mentions that a hiking group that used to do “hike, wine & dine” events bought up the land that goes up to the ridge so that the views won’t ever get obstructed with a bunch of houses.

 

Candy Ridge Vineyard

 

Kitzke Cellars on Candy Ridge in the Yakima Valley AVA
Kitzke Cellars on Candy Ridge in the Yakima Valley AVA

The Candy Ridge Vineyard is the Estate Vineyard for Kitzke Cellars.  They have another vineyard, the Dead Poplar Vineyard which is in the lower Yakima Valley directly across from (but not in) the Red Mountain AVA.

Here at the Candy Ridge Vineyard they are mostly growing Bordeaux varieties, Cab Franc, Cab Sav, Petit Verdot and then some Syrah in the back and some Sangiovese out front.

 

“The sangio is kind of an anomaly here.  It’s all east facing all lyre style trained stuff, like a double cordon that comes up and splits, a lot more shade.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

Their neighbor Jim, is kind of the reason Seth’s parents started growing grapes.  He has Merlot that was planted in 1982 as well as some other varieties that they get some of.  Seth says that he is really the pioneer of Candy Mountain.

 

Cabernet Franc and Caliche soil

We walk into the vineyard and Seth points out Cab Franc that was planted in 2008.

 

Cab Franc by the Lawn at Candy Ridge Vineyard
Cab Franc by the Lawn at Candy Ridge Vineyard

 

“We kinda added as the wines proved themselves. My parents started gobbling up a little more of the square footage of the area, planting more rows…basically the yard was big and they were like “hey let’s plant some more cab franc.””

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

 

The cons of caliche soil

Previously all the cab franc was east facing out front and the back was just Petit Verdot and Cab Sav.  But just because they had the space didn’t mean it would be easy.  The front is rocky with floating basalt in the loam.  In the back…well

 

“My dad called me a wuss, because I couldn’t dig the poles when we got up here.  The caliche layer is like calcium carbonate, a really hard layer, like natural cement.  He ended up bringing in our backhoe.  When we had the backhoe in here it broke 2 teeth off the metal bucket on the backhoe.  It shows you how hard this stuff really is.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

 

Caliche comparison at Kitzke Cellars
In the lower hand basalt, in the upper caliche. The caliche, while really hard, is so much lighter.

 

But there are also pros…

The caliche though, has is pluses.  The berries on the cab franc in the back are tiny little stressed berries, where as the ones in the front get a little more size on them.  Stress berries equal tasty wine typically.  The Cab franc in the back has more shatter and natural stress from the caliche layer.  But caliche is also porous.

They had a foot of snow as late as early March in 2019.  Where as with basalt the moisture would evaporate, the caliche layer locks the moisture in and holds it.  In early July when we were there it was the first time they had turned on the water this season. They were trying to get the canopies to shut down and focus on fruit.  You can see in the video that the canopies were kinda going a little crazy.

 

Petit Verdot and new training systems

We moved on to the Petit Verdot.  Seth was getting ready to implement a new training system.

 

“So you can see we are leaving some of the suckers low this year.  This stuff is all around 20 years old and you are getting older and older wood on the cordon.  So to preserve the vineyard and make it healthier longer I’m going to slowly start switching to can pruning, lower that way there are less cuts, less possibility for disease, or at least that’s what they say.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

This system keeps fresh wood which encourages sap flow.  Vines produce less as they get older. Seth wants to keep these elderly vines as happy as he can.  At 20 years old they only do one color pass at veraison.  The vines tend to regulate themselves keeping to 3 to 3.5 tons per acre.  3 tons is Seth’s sweet spot for quality.

 

How to manage Syrah planted East/West

We walk back to the Syrah in the back.  This is trained differently.  When his parents first put these vines in they were not really thinking from a wine making standpoint.  This part of the vineyard is all trained east/west.  That sounds crazy to anyone who knows much about planting vineyards.  You typically run north/south to get the best of the sunlight.  Here with the east/west vines, you get sun on one side of the vine all day.  So, what do they do?

 

“We’ll hang more fruit on the shady side, less on the sun side.”

Seth Kitzke, July 2019

Seth notes that in hot areas in Washington, syrah can get rich, ripe, jammy and high in alcohol.  He wants to taste the terroir, not just the fruit.  So they pick separately the sunny side and the shady side, with again, more fruit on the shady side.  This allows them to really keep the alcohol down.  We later tried a syrah in the tasting room that Seth said was picked at 23 brix and came out at 13.3% abv.  Still it was phenolically ripe with time to develop without the sugar spiking. Rather than pulling out this vineyard, they found a way to work with it that really works for them.

 

More to come!

Stick with us.  We spent a ton of time talking with Seth out in the front vineyard and then in the tasting room where we tasted through Kitzke wines and Upsidedown Wines and talked about all sorts of interesting stuff.  You can read about that here. One thing we spoke about was the Grenache that Seth was getting from the WeatherEye Vineyard up on Red Mountain.  More on that soon.

 

Tasting with Seth Kitzke at Kitzke Cellars Candy Ridge Vineyard Washington
Tasting with Seth Kitzke at Kitzke Cellars

In the meantime, some links…

 

  • Kitzke Cellars
  • Upsidedown Wine
  • UsDoingWine
  • WineYakimaValley
  • Washington State Wine
  • The #ScenicRoute Day 4

 

 

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign up for our monthly newsletter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Bell Renken I have always loved people’s stories. I spent a career in Theatre helping to tell stories, as a Stage Manager. Daily enabling artists to freely and safely tell stories through their art. Then I fell in love with wine. There are so many details, so many nuances, not just in the glass, but in the vineyard, the region and the people. As I met winemakers and vineyard owners and even the people in the tasting room excited to pour me a glass and tell me the story of this wine, I knew these were stories I wanted to share. I completed my study and became a Certified Specialist of Wine and continue learning daily as I meet and interview people in this industry.

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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The Valley Grove Vineyard and the future of Armstrong Family Winery

The Valley Grove Vineyard and the future of Armstrong Family Winery

Mar 25, 2020

The Valley Grove Vineyard

It was a lovely afternoon in the Walla Walla Valley and Tim & Jennifer walked us around the property. (You can hear the crunch, crunch of the gravel under our feet in the video). Their Valley Grove Vineyard is located just north of Walla Walla Washington.

 

From the Blue Mountains to the Ocean

We walked down to where they hope to build their winery. Tim pointed out the tree line, which is the property line. It is also where the creek flows. This creek flows into the Walla Walla River, then into the Snake River and eventually into the Columbia River. Then the Columbia carries this water through Portland Oregon and finally out to the Pacific Ocean. The creek is fed by the Blue Mountains, which we can see in the distance. Over the course of a year the creek rises and falls pretty dramatically. Rain or snow melt will see it rise 5 to 6 feet beyond where we see it now.

 

The vision for the future

 

Where the winery will be…

The winery will be built in this area facing the Blue Mountains to the west. They will landscape and add some more vineyard. The idea is to include a porch where people can take in this view. There will be grass. It will be a place where people can wander and take in the splendor. (Oh dear…yes, I have been binging West World)

 

The park

We walk on to the pond, the area they like to call The Park. It is a man made irrigation pond. Already it is beautiful, with lavender around the edges and some fish. They will landscape here and picture dinners and maybe a band. (They have Wednesday night Jazz at their Walla Walla tasting room, an event we will get to later on this day).

 

History on display

 

The bare cliff wall below the Audrey block at Amstrong Family Winery's Valley Grove Vineyard
The bare cliff wall below the Audrey block at Amstrong Family Winery’s Valley Grove Vineyard

We walk on beyond a bridge that straddles the creek and turn to see this amazing exposure of soil, a cliff or ledge of sorts, beneath the Audrey block of Cabernet. Here you can see the layers of wind blown loess that the roots are growing through, and eventually the layers of ancient riverbed.

 

Nature won't be kept down. A couple of reborn volunteers in one of the pulled up blocks at Amstrong Family Winery's Valley Grove Vineyard
Nature won’t be kept down. A couple of reborn volunteers in one of the pulled up blocks

We walk to another old vineyard patch. There are a few straggly vines popping up. This used to be a vineyard but with winter damage they determined to pull it up. Still, vines struggles to continue, trying to come back. Eventually they will plant vines here again. They are pondering on Cab Franc, or Riesling or perhaps Gamay. While there is not much of any Gamay planted in Walla Walla, Tim things it might do well. It’s cold hardy and you can harvest it early to make a lighter red or rosé.

 

The historic barn

 

  • Armstrong Family Winery Barn at the Valley Grove Vineyard built in 1895 with clouds above
    The Historic Barn at the Armstrong Family Winery’s Valley Grove Vineyard
  • Armstrong Family Winery Barn at the Valley Grove Vineyard built in 1895
    Built in 1895, the barn is on the Historic Barn Register
 

As we walk to the barn, Tim tells us why he feels the so important.

 

The thing about it is that it kind of connects this site to the history of this land. This is agriculture and it has been agriculture.  It’s just really neat to have that history here and be able to tell the story about how, it wasn’t grapes, but people have been farming here for a really long time.  We like the historical character that that barn brings to the property and how it ties us to the history.

Tim Armstrong, July 2019

The barn dates to 1895 and they do have it registered with the Heritage Barn Register. Considering the shape it is in, it is probably beyond repair, as far as actually turning it into a usable building from health department standards. Barns were not built for those kind of things. Still the historic character of this building and it’s iconic presence on the property…they will keep it for it’s historic character.

The vines are older than they look

We walk on to the Emily block of Cabernet which you drive past to arrive at the house and cottage. The vines here are almost 20 years old, but by looking at them you would not immediately know this. When they bought the vineyard, there was some extreme winter damage and the vines needed to be retrained. They have spent the last few years doing just that.

The vines were cut back to the roots, the new shoots grew to become the trunk and now after 3 years they were going to get their first harvest in 2019. This is different than planting new vines, the grapes have the advantage of a root system that has already had time to dig deep.

When you look closely you can see that the base of the plant is pretty big. Where it enters the ground the base is about 1 foot in diameter. Tim pointed out the suckers at the bottom of the vines.

 

This is the grapevine basically saying “I’ve got tons of energy in my root system, more energy than the canopy is currently supporting based on the trunk size.”  So it is just pushing up suckers. We’ve been through here to clean this up once this year, an we’ll go through to clean it up again, here in the next couple of weeks.

Tim Armstrong, July 2019

 

Clones and canopy management

This is all clone 4 cabernet. Clone 4 is the Mendoza clone which was imported from Argentina. This clone is noted for it’s typicality, the herbal character that Cabernet Sauvignon is known for.

 

Vines running North to South in the Valley Grove Vineyard in the Walla Walla AVA
Vines running North to South in the Valley Grove Vineyard in the Walla Walla AVA

Vineyards here run north south, so canopy management is pretty straight forward. The morning side of the vines will have the leaves thinned to allow the grapes to soak up the sun. On the afternoon side, where the sun will be much hotter, they allow the vines more sprawl, leaves covering and protecting the bunches of grapes from sunburn.

 

Other sources

While this year they will make their first estate wine from the Valley Grove vineyard, they have been making wine since 2010. In that time they have connected with several vineyards where they continue to source fruit. They are making wines that are both Walla Walla AVA as well as Columbia Valley AVA.

Tim tells us about Discovery Vineyard in the Horse Heaven Hills.

 

they have this amazing vineyard site that sits up above the Columbia River, literally on the bluff above the river, looking into Oregon. It’s just this gorgeous site with the wind coming up the river all day long.

Tim Armstrong on the Discovery Vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills, July 2029

In addition, they pull fruit from Walla Walla’s Seven Hills Vineyard. Seven Hills is one of the 1st commercial vineyards in Walla Walla. From the Yakima Valley they source from Dineen, outside of Zillah and Sugarloaf. The Bogie’s blend we tasted with them on the patio is a Syrah/Cab Franc blend that comes from Elephant Mountain. (add the link to elephant Mountain)

 

Visiting them

While they work toward building their winery on site, they work out of a Walla Walla custom crush facility. But don’t worry, there are lots of ways to experience their wine. They have tasting rooms in both Woodinville (outside Seattle) and in Walla Walla. The Walla Walla tasting room is charming with a great staff and Jazz on Wednesday nights.

If you want to see the barn and the beautiful Valley Grove Vineyard, you can book a stay at the Armstrong Vineyard Cottage. This beautiful vacation rental on the property has two bedrooms and a wrap around porch, a full kitchen and a fireplace. You are likely to meet Bogie, their beagle or the resident cats, while you take in the breathtaking views.

Winery tasting room Located at 14 W. Main Street in Walla Walla
Winery tasting room Located at 14 W. Main Street in Walla Walla
Beautiful exposed brick and the backdoor to the Armstrong Family Winery Tasting Room in Walla Walla

Armstrong Family Winery

The Walla Walla Tasting Room is located at

 

14 W Main St
Walla Walla, WA
509-524-8494

If you are interested in staying at the guest house check out this link https://www.armstrongwinery.com/visit/guesthouse/

You can see more on the history of Armstrong Family Wines here

 

  • Armstrong Family Winery – The Journey to Washington
  • 12 Days of Wine Day 6 – Armstrong Family Winery

 

 

The Woodinville Tasting Room

 

19151 144th Ave. NE, Ste. I
Woodinville, WA 98072

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Armstrong Family Winery – The Journey to Washington

Armstrong Family Winery – The Journey to Washington

Mar 18, 2020

We were driving through rolling hills of fields of wheat for as far as the eye could see. This is the Armstrong Family Winery’s Valley Grove Vineyard. It is their home and an oasis in the wheat fields.. You’ve seen it. It’s popular for car commercials these days, and for good reason. It’s spectacular, and eerie. The vastness makes you feel at once both immense in this wide open vista and extremely small.

Armstrong Family Winery Barn at the Valley Grove Vineyard built in 1895 with clouds above
The Historic Barn at the Armstrong Family Winery’s Valley Grove Vineyard

So this is wine country? You wouldn’t guess that from the scenery. We were driving North out of the city of Walla Walla Washington, past the penitentiary and into the open fields of wheat. Finally, we turned and came upon a green patch. Turning in, we crossed the creek to a spot of green with trees, vineyard, a house and cottage and a spectacular historic barn.

We sat with Tim & Jennifer Armstrong on their back patio overlooking the Audrey block of cabernet sauvignon.

Armstrong Family Winery

It started in Chicago

Neither of them were really into wine to start with. It wasn’t part of their lives, even as young adults (I can relate to this personally). When they got married, Tim had a little interest in wine. He had been to New York and someone poured him a glass of Opus One (lucky guy).

Well, this hooked him on Bordeaux wines and soon enough he was spending a good bit on wine and investing in Bordeaux futures! His pragmatic wife Jenifer asked “Hey, do you know what you are doing?” He found an online class from the UC Davis extension that they both took.

They literally would mail DVD’s

Jennifer Armstrong, July 2019

Yep, they are a little dated by this. They sat in their Chicago bungalow learning about wine and Tim realized that this was his calling. He had grown up in Wisconsin surrounded by farms, and while the family didn’t farm he had a propensity for mechanical things. That and his love for wine…he’d found his bliss. Jen was skeptical, but supportive.

A bottle of Merlot

How did they decide on Washington? Here’s the story. It all kind of started with a bottle of Merlot.

So when we were in Chicago, we were buying mostly Bordeaux, getting progressively geekier about those wines and paying a lot of attention to the wine that we were drinking.  One day Tim came home with a bottle of Walla Walla Merlot.  It was a Walla Walla Vintners bottle.

Jennifer Armstrong, July 2019

They had been thinking about wine making and researched different regions. Virginia & North Carolina, came up since they were near to Jen’s family. They thought about New York with the Finger Lakes region. With Tim in the technology industry, the Bay area was an idea, but that bottle of Walla Walla Merlot….

We tasted it and were kind of blown away.  It tasted like the Bordeaux that we had fallen in love with.

Jennifer Armstrong, July 2019

What blew them away? Tim says this bottle was new world fruit with the structure and earthiness they loved about Bordeaux.

It really was striking this balance between old world wines and the California west coast wines that we had gotten to know.

Tim Armstrong, Armstrong Family Winery, July 2019

Armstrong Family Wines start in Woodinville

So now Washington was a viable option for them. They spent a couple years doing research and paying attention to the region. When an opportunity to move to Washington for Tim’s job came up, they made the move. This was the opportunity to be a part of a world class wine region. Something you can’t do in Napa or Sonoma without coming in with a large fortune. In Washington it is still possible to own a small vineyard and make wine, without being a millionaire.

Tim flew to Seattle and a friend told him he needed to check out Woodinville. He was blown away. Here people kept their day jobs and moonlighted as winemakers! It occurred to them that they could pursue this and get started right here.

They moved out in 2010 buying grapes even before the furniture was delivered. They met people at a wine shop and then a brewer/winemaking supplies company who referred them to people in the warehouse district where they bought a couple hundred pounds of grapes.

Immersive education and a fast track to winemaking

Tim arrived on Jennifer’s birthday in October around 7:30 am to pick up the grapes. Well, the grapes were not there. While he waited (until 4 pm) for the grapes he had them put him to work. He had his first experience in a commercial winery that day. Waiting for those grapes, he helped out, cleaning things and shoveling grape must.

The next summer he called John Patterson of Patterson Cellars in Woodinville. Tim told John he wanted to make some wine and work with him. John tried to talk him out of it. He was unsuccessful. In 2011 Tim & Jen contracted 6 tons of grape and made their first vintage. So the 2010 home batch they started…by the time it was ready to bottle, they were bottling it in a commercial winery. Fast tracking for sure.

Tim dove into classes with the WSU extension as well as South Seattle Community College. As the business evolved they signed a lease at the end of 2012 and opened their own space in 2013. 2013 they did their own crush, in their own facility in Woodinville. By 2016 they had 52 tons of grapes in that tiny spot. They had upgraded equipment, but it was just Tim, Jennifer and Jennifer’s Dad doing it all.

They played the winery tetras game, which was more difficult in this area. The Warehouse district tasting rooms were open all day, so you couldn’t utilize outdoor space in the parking lot until late at night. They pulled 10 all nighters that harvest. They determined it was time to make a change.

The Walla Walla spell

They fell for Walla Walla. It’s easy to do. A drive through town will have you enchanted and you won’t ever want to leave. So they didn’t. They found a small vineyard north of town that was for sale and their fate was sealed. With a vineyard, a house, a historic barn, a creek, a guest cottage…it was perfect.

Not that it was easy. The spot was originally out of their budget. They kept their eye on it and eventually the price came down. Sadly it went under contract just before they got to it. Their disappointment only lasted a day, when a friend in the industry told them the contract fell through. They drove up from Seattle immediately and the rest is history.

The Valley Grove Vineyard is 22 acres with 2 blocks of cabernet sauvignon. They had to do some retraining of the 17 year old vines and pulled their first harvest in 2019. They now have 2 tasting rooms, one in Woodinville and one in Walla Walla, and they have plans for the winery they want to build here on site.

Our conversation didn’t end there. Join us as we talk about the history of the vineyard, and their plans for this beautiful spot just outside of Walla Walla.

For More information

Want more information? You can visit their website or read the other pieces we’ve written about them.

  • Armstrong Family Winery
  • 12 Days of Wine Day 6 – Armstrong Family Winery
  • The Scenic Route Flashtour Day 5 – One Day 3 AVAs

As always be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up to date on all of our posts.

Robin Renken CSW (photo credit RuBen Permel)

Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.

When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.

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*This wine was received as a media sample. All opi *This wine was received as a media sample. All opinions are our own.  As we embark on the new year, we embark on a new relationship with L’Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla. 
They have invited a selection of writers to join them to explore their wines in 2021. We don’t take this 
relationship lightly. We value the trust of our readers, and we will only recommend wines that we honestly trust and like. L’Ecole No. 41 stands to that challenge, so we look forward to sharing their wines with you over the next year.
_____  Today we will focus on the L’Ecole No. 41 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Walla Walla Valley.  This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and is blended from several vineyards in the Walla Walla AVA, that covers 4 different soil types.  The lots are hand-harvested and fermented in steel then racked to small French oak barrels 40% of 
which are new. 
_____  My tasting notes:  Deep red ruby in color, this wine has a pronounced nose of Ground coffee, cinnamon, tobacco, forest floor, cocoa powder, baking spices, and bruised mint.  On the palate, I get notes of mocha, spice, and black currant. I think of it not as large, but rather as 
tall and elegant.  This wine is 14.5% abv and retails for $39.00. They made 1,800 cases.
_____  So what to pair with this?  Well, it’s a Cabernet Sauvignon, so I reached for steak. We did Filet Mignon with an arugula salsa 
verde with a fresh green bean salad with grape tomatoes, feta, and lemon.  But we didn’t stop there. For this wine, we decided to try some homemade wine truffles.  Using the L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon with chocolate and half and half, we mixed half with chopped dried cranberries and rolled them in ground pistachios and the other half with a bit of espresso powder and rolled them in cocoa powder.  Both went beautifully with the wine. The espresso truffles went really well with the wine bringing out those dark brooding notes. The cranberry truffles were brighter and pulled out the fruit notes in the wine. 
_____
Visit CrushedGrapeChronicles.com for the full recipe!  🍷🍷🍷  @lecole41 
@wa_state_wine 
#cabernetsauvignon 
#wawine 
#youcansipwithus 
#wallawalla 
#wineandfoodpairing
Beautiful. Far from normal, but beautiful. Beautiful.  Far from normal, but beautiful.
It's snowing in Vegas! It's snowing in Vegas!
Want the recipe for that delicious cod in white wi Want the recipe for that delicious cod in white wine and saffron sauce we posted about the other day?  Here it is!  In less than 30 minutes (we clocked it at about 17 minutes) you can serve up this elegant dish.  With just a few ingredients: cod fillets, onion, red bell pepper, garlic, saffron, olive oil,  white wine, salt and pepper, you've got a stunning dish and wine already open for dinner.  We paired this with the 2017 Finca Alto Cantabria from Conde Valdemar.  The wine is 100% Viura, fermented and aged in barrel.  It has good acid and is rich and full enough to match the dish without overpowering it.  Find the recipe at crushedgrapechronicles.com.  @bodegasvaldemar 
@valdemarestates 
#WorldWineTravel
@rioja 
#youshouldsipwithus
This month with the brand new #WorldWineTravel gro This month with the brand new #WorldWineTravel group will be exploring the wines of Spain this year, beginning with the Rioja region in North Central Spain.
_____  If you want you can join us on Saturday, January 23rd at 8 am PST or a more reasonable 11 am EST on Twitter. Follow and use the hashtag #WorldWineTravel to join the 
conversation on wines from this region.
_____  When you think of Rioja, you think Spain, you think red wine and you probably think Tempranillo.But there is more to Rioja than red wine and Tempranillo. Today we will be talking 
about a 100% Viura from Conde Valdemar.
_____  Finca Alto Cantabria 2017  This wine is from their Alto Cantabria estate. The Viura here was planted in 1975. This vineyard is on an 11- hectare plateau above the Ebro river. 
_____  Viñedos Singular  At the time that they made the 2017 Vintage, this vineyard was proposed for the “Single Vineyard” designation “Viñedos Singular”. It was approved in 2019.
_____  In 1988 they made this wine, the Finca Alto Cantabria, for the first time. This was the first white wine exclusively fermented and made in barrel in Spain.
_____  My notes:
Medium lemon in color this wine had a pronounced nose with notes of Lemon, petrol, beeswax, lanoline, citrus pith, and wet stone. On the palate is was tart with notes of roasted lemon.
_____  What to pair with White Rioja?
We opted for a Spanish inspired cod dish with a wine and saffron sauce. We added a side of roasted potatoes with lemon and a salad with seared lemon and goat cheese and a honey wine vinaigrette.
_____  Read the whole piece at @CrushedGrapeChronicles.com 
and watch for the recipes 
coming out soon.  #WorldWineTravel
@bodegasvaldemar 
@rioja 
@riojawine 
@valdemarestates 
#viura
#WhiteRioja
#youcansipwithus 
#wineandfoodpairing 
#spanishwine
One last recipe to share with you on our sides we One last recipe to share with you on our sides we paired with that lovely Alloro Pinot Noir.  This one is quicky and easy and makes a great bright side dish.  Minted Pea Mash  You can use fresh or frozen peas.  There is a bit of garlic, some butter and sourcreme and then fresh mint!  You can serve it warm, but we found it delicious and refreshing cold!  Find the full recipe and video at CrushedGrapeChronicles.com!  #mintedpeamash
#wineandfoodpairings
#greenthatisnotsalad
#recipes 
#pearecipes
My celebratory bubbles for today come from @carhar My celebratory bubbles for today come from @carharttvineyard  This is the 2019 Nat/É Boi 
It is 100% Sauvignon Blanc made in the ancestral method.  It comes from Rancho Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County's Santa Ynez Valley.  This is made under their Venture Label.  Sorry to say, only 60 cases were made.  I have one more bottle so you might have to visit me to taste it!  12.5% abv  Perfumed and glorious!  I'll just dab this behind my ears.  Really, it's like you stuck your head into a cooler in a floral shop.  Beautiful white flowers, waxy, cool and in bloom.  Forget my ears, I would bathe in a tub of this stuff!  Heaven.  @syvwine 
@carharttvineyard 
#heaveninaglass
#iwanttobatheinthiswine
#celebrating46
#itsagoodday
Starting the celebration early. I'll admit when Starting the celebration early.  I'll admit when Michael read off this blend I was skeptical. 
40%  Sangiovese, 34% Zinfandel, 14% Malbec and 12% Blaufrankisch.  Yeah, weird, right?  14.1%  abv, they speak of this as a wine to bring people to table.  A wine that with it's fruit and acid is food loving.  The nose is aromatic with a basket of fruit notes, the nuances of each variety vying for attention.  It's boisterous, like an extended family dinner with the Italian side of your family (that from personal experience with a dinner with my cousin and her husband's family in EHC NJ).  There are notes of sweet tobacco.  In your mouth it's raucous and lively.  It's a real pick me up, which is something I needed today.  #weirdblends
#redwine
#joyfuljuice
#youcansipwithus
If you read our post on our pairing with the @allo If you read our post on our pairing with the @alloro_vineyard Pinot Noir that we received as a #sampke, last week then you saw this dish, which is just so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it!
_____  This is Roasted Baby potatoes with burrata, spinach, basil and radicchio with lemon.  It is so tasty!  Get the recipe at @crushedGrapeChronicles.com!  #sopretty
#foodporn
#foodandwinepairing 
#pinotnoir
Full recipe on CrushedgrapeChronicles.com for this Full recipe on CrushedgrapeChronicles.com for this pairing with the beautiful Alloro Pinot Noir we received as a sample.  Roasted Cornish Game Hens with a Savory Berry Drizzle.  Complete with recipe card and video.  This is the perfect pairing to brighten a chilly winter day!  #wineandfoodpairings 
#cornishgamehens
#recipes
@alloro_vineyard
#pinotnoirpairings 
#youcansipwithus
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*This wine was received as a media sample. All opi *This wine was received as a media sample. All opinions are our own.  As we embark on the new year, we embark on a new relationship with L’Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla. 
They have invited a selection of writers to join them to explore their wines in 2021. We don’t take this 
relationship lightly. We value the trust of our readers, and we will only recommend wines that we honestly trust and like. L’Ecole No. 41 stands to that challenge, so we look forward to sharing their wines with you over the next year.
_____  Today we will focus on the L’Ecole No. 41 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Walla Walla Valley.  This wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and is blended from several vineyards in the Walla Walla AVA, that covers 4 different soil types.  The lots are hand-harvested and fermented in steel then racked to small French oak barrels 40% of 
which are new. 
_____  My tasting notes:  Deep red ruby in color, this wine has a pronounced nose of Ground coffee, cinnamon, tobacco, forest floor, cocoa powder, baking spices, and bruised mint.  On the palate, I get notes of mocha, spice, and black currant. I think of it not as large, but rather as 
tall and elegant.  This wine is 14.5% abv and retails for $39.00. They made 1,800 cases.
_____  So what to pair with this?  Well, it’s a Cabernet Sauvignon, so I reached for steak. We did Filet Mignon with an arugula salsa 
verde with a fresh green bean salad with grape tomatoes, feta, and lemon.  But we didn’t stop there. For this wine, we decided to try some homemade wine truffles.  Using the L’Ecole No. 41 Cabernet Sauvignon with chocolate and half and half, we mixed half with chopped dried cranberries and rolled them in ground pistachios and the other half with a bit of espresso powder and rolled them in cocoa powder.  Both went beautifully with the wine. The espresso truffles went really well with the wine bringing out those dark brooding notes. The cranberry truffles were brighter and pulled out the fruit notes in the wine. 
_____
Visit CrushedGrapeChronicles.com for the full recipe!  🍷🍷🍷  @lecole41 
@wa_state_wine 
#cabernetsauvignon 
#wawine 
#youcansipwithus 
#wallawalla 
#wineandfoodpairing
Beautiful. Far from normal, but beautiful. Beautiful.  Far from normal, but beautiful.
It's snowing in Vegas! It's snowing in Vegas!
Want the recipe for that delicious cod in white wi Want the recipe for that delicious cod in white wine and saffron sauce we posted about the other day?  Here it is!  In less than 30 minutes (we clocked it at about 17 minutes) you can serve up this elegant dish.  With just a few ingredients: cod fillets, onion, red bell pepper, garlic, saffron, olive oil,  white wine, salt and pepper, you've got a stunning dish and wine already open for dinner.  We paired this with the 2017 Finca Alto Cantabria from Conde Valdemar.  The wine is 100% Viura, fermented and aged in barrel.  It has good acid and is rich and full enough to match the dish without overpowering it.  Find the recipe at crushedgrapechronicles.com.  @bodegasvaldemar 
@valdemarestates 
#WorldWineTravel
@rioja 
#youshouldsipwithus
This month with the brand new #WorldWineTravel gro This month with the brand new #WorldWineTravel group will be exploring the wines of Spain this year, beginning with the Rioja region in North Central Spain.
_____  If you want you can join us on Saturday, January 23rd at 8 am PST or a more reasonable 11 am EST on Twitter. Follow and use the hashtag #WorldWineTravel to join the 
conversation on wines from this region.
_____  When you think of Rioja, you think Spain, you think red wine and you probably think Tempranillo.But there is more to Rioja than red wine and Tempranillo. Today we will be talking 
about a 100% Viura from Conde Valdemar.
_____  Finca Alto Cantabria 2017  This wine is from their Alto Cantabria estate. The Viura here was planted in 1975. This vineyard is on an 11- hectare plateau above the Ebro river. 
_____  Viñedos Singular  At the time that they made the 2017 Vintage, this vineyard was proposed for the “Single Vineyard” designation “Viñedos Singular”. It was approved in 2019.
_____  In 1988 they made this wine, the Finca Alto Cantabria, for the first time. This was the first white wine exclusively fermented and made in barrel in Spain.
_____  My notes:
Medium lemon in color this wine had a pronounced nose with notes of Lemon, petrol, beeswax, lanoline, citrus pith, and wet stone. On the palate is was tart with notes of roasted lemon.
_____  What to pair with White Rioja?
We opted for a Spanish inspired cod dish with a wine and saffron sauce. We added a side of roasted potatoes with lemon and a salad with seared lemon and goat cheese and a honey wine vinaigrette.
_____  Read the whole piece at @CrushedGrapeChronicles.com 
and watch for the recipes 
coming out soon.  #WorldWineTravel
@bodegasvaldemar 
@rioja 
@riojawine 
@valdemarestates 
#viura
#WhiteRioja
#youcansipwithus 
#wineandfoodpairing 
#spanishwine
One last recipe to share with you on our sides we One last recipe to share with you on our sides we paired with that lovely Alloro Pinot Noir.  This one is quicky and easy and makes a great bright side dish.  Minted Pea Mash  You can use fresh or frozen peas.  There is a bit of garlic, some butter and sourcreme and then fresh mint!  You can serve it warm, but we found it delicious and refreshing cold!  Find the full recipe and video at CrushedGrapeChronicles.com!  #mintedpeamash
#wineandfoodpairings
#greenthatisnotsalad
#recipes 
#pearecipes
My celebratory bubbles for today come from @carhar My celebratory bubbles for today come from @carharttvineyard  This is the 2019 Nat/É Boi 
It is 100% Sauvignon Blanc made in the ancestral method.  It comes from Rancho Santa Ynez in Santa Barbara County's Santa Ynez Valley.  This is made under their Venture Label.  Sorry to say, only 60 cases were made.  I have one more bottle so you might have to visit me to taste it!  12.5% abv  Perfumed and glorious!  I'll just dab this behind my ears.  Really, it's like you stuck your head into a cooler in a floral shop.  Beautiful white flowers, waxy, cool and in bloom.  Forget my ears, I would bathe in a tub of this stuff!  Heaven.  @syvwine 
@carharttvineyard 
#heaveninaglass
#iwanttobatheinthiswine
#celebrating46
#itsagoodday
Starting the celebration early. I'll admit when Starting the celebration early.  I'll admit when Michael read off this blend I was skeptical. 
40%  Sangiovese, 34% Zinfandel, 14% Malbec and 12% Blaufrankisch.  Yeah, weird, right?  14.1%  abv, they speak of this as a wine to bring people to table.  A wine that with it's fruit and acid is food loving.  The nose is aromatic with a basket of fruit notes, the nuances of each variety vying for attention.  It's boisterous, like an extended family dinner with the Italian side of your family (that from personal experience with a dinner with my cousin and her husband's family in EHC NJ).  There are notes of sweet tobacco.  In your mouth it's raucous and lively.  It's a real pick me up, which is something I needed today.  #weirdblends
#redwine
#joyfuljuice
#youcansipwithus
If you read our post on our pairing with the @allo If you read our post on our pairing with the @alloro_vineyard Pinot Noir that we received as a #sampke, last week then you saw this dish, which is just so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it!
_____  This is Roasted Baby potatoes with burrata, spinach, basil and radicchio with lemon.  It is so tasty!  Get the recipe at @crushedGrapeChronicles.com!  #sopretty
#foodporn
#foodandwinepairing 
#pinotnoir
Full recipe on CrushedgrapeChronicles.com for this Full recipe on CrushedgrapeChronicles.com for this pairing with the beautiful Alloro Pinot Noir we received as a sample.  Roasted Cornish Game Hens with a Savory Berry Drizzle.  Complete with recipe card and video.  This is the perfect pairing to brighten a chilly winter day!  #wineandfoodpairings 
#cornishgamehens
#recipes
@alloro_vineyard
#pinotnoirpairings 
#youcansipwithus
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