Name: Temaki Hand Roll – Luminesce style
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Fusion
Ingredients: 2 sheets of Nori (8´x 7.5”); ½ cup cooked sticky rice; 1/2 tsp sushi vinegar; 2 tbs cream cheese; 2 tbs goat cheese; ¼ cup carrot julienned; ¼ cup cucumber peeled and julienned; ½ cup smoked salmon diced; 1 tsp fresh dill; 2 tbs microgreens; 2 tbs fish roe; ikura (salmon) or tobiko (flying fish)

Wine Tasting

Getting Kind of Wild with Some Simple Backyard Grilling

Jul 27, 2021

You remember a while back when we trekked into the wild at Mt. Charleston and picnicked with a view and a wonderful Rosé from the Hérault department in the South of France? (Kind of Wild in the Wild)

Well, when we received that #sample from Kind of Wild they included 2 other wines, that we couldn’t fit in our backpack that day. We saved those to pair with a bit of grilling.

Kind of Wild Syrah Grenache Rose and a picnic with a view at Mt. Charleston

Kind of Wild Wines

In case you missed our previous post, Kind of Wild is the brainchild of Adam and Jordan Sager, two brothers in the wine import business. They wanted to bring delicious wines from growers who were out there working hard for the planet, growing organically and regeneratively, to the people. They started with an Indiegogo campaign, that hit its target in just 2 weeks, and now are off and running.

Not only are the wines certified Organic, but they are also certified Vegan. What does that mean? It means that no animal byproducts were used in creating the wine. Sometimes egg whites or fish bladders are used as a method of fining wine (fining, that’s kind of like filtering, but you add something, like egg whites and the particles, etc, bind to that substance and drop out of the liquid so they can separate it).

The bottles we received were the Kind of Wild 2020 Sauvignon Blanc from Valle de Lolol, Chile, and the 2020 Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendoza, Argentina, so we were doing a bit of a South American theme!

These wines were received as media samples. No other compensation was received. All opinions are our own.

Adam and Jordan of Kind of Wild Wines (photo courtesy Kind of Wild)

Kind of Wild 2020 Sauvignon Blanc, Valle de Lolol, Chile

If you are familiar with Chile, this is in the Colchagua region of the Rapel Valley. This is about a couple of hours south of Santiago. Valle de Lolol is pretty close to the Pacific Ocean, giving it a cooler climate and as a result, making for happy Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The estate here has been organically farmed for almost 25 years and is now farmed biodynamically.

13% abv – $25.00 SRP

It poured a soft rosy lemon tone in the glass. My nose picked up grapefruit, apple, pear, lime gooseberry, and soft white floral like elderflower. Bright on the nose, it is round on the palate with a luxurious softness.

Kind of Wild Sauvignon Blanc and Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon

Kind of Wild 2020 Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendoza Argentina

A blend of 70% Malbec and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, this wine hails from Mendoza. This region accounts for over 70% of Argentina’s vineyard acreage. The estate is a third-generation family estate that is about 30 outside of the city. The vineyards are in the foothills of the Andes at near 3,000 ft.

13.5% abv – $25.00 SRP

Deep and rich in color, this wine is juicy with balanced tannins. My nose picked up blackberry, black cherry, cassis with cocoa and coffee, and just a hint of cumin. This wine is joyful, but with a bit of depth. Really enjoyable.

Pairing on the Grill

I will admit, we are hot these days! Grilling is done in the afternoon in the shade in the backyard and still, you will roast. It does, however, keep the kitchen cooler! So we prepped a couple of dishes that wouldn’t take too long on the grill to pair with these Kind of Wild Wines, that we could then take back inside to enjoy in the comfort of the AC. (We did take some photos out in the sunshine, before bringing these back in and devouring them!)

Kind of Wild wines and pairings on the grill

Grilled Edible cheese plate!

I know, cheese plates are edible, but we mean the actual plate! I found this recipe on FoodNetwork.com

This was not perfect, but it was delicious. I look forward to trying it again with some tweaks.

The base is pizza dough. Rather than make it from scratch (this was supposed to be easy!) I used refrigerated dough (you know the ones that are like canned biscuits). The recipe said to lay everything out on an oiled sheet pan, scattering red grapes, dried apricots, walnuts, and rosemary.

I added some fresh thyme from the garden. Then I used some of my various sized round cutters to layout my design, leaving a spot for a wheel of brie, honey, nuts, and salami. I made aluminum foil disks in these and placed them on the sheet. Then I rolled out the dough and laid it across the top. This went into the oven for an hour to prove.

It was supposed to rise according to the recipe, but not according to the canned pizza crust directions. So, we shrugged and moved on to the next step. 10 minutes on the grill. Then we flipped it. Michael said the grapes had stuck so rather than putting it directly onto the grill he flipped it over onto another pan. It cooked 10 minutes here, then we added the brie and cooked it another 5 minutes.

We burnt some edges, but overall this came out delicious! We added blueberry goat cheese, salami, walnuts, & honey.

Edible Cheeseboard to pair with Kind of Wild Wines

But that was just the start. I marinated a flank steak for 30 minutes in olive oil, minced garlic, soy, honey, red wine vinegar, and pepper, in a ziplock in the fridge, then it grilled for 2 to 3 minutes per side, then we moved it to the cooler part of the grill while we cooked the shrimp.

The Shrimp were tossed in garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper and skewered. They got a minute per side and they were done.

The flank steak was cut against the grain, on an angle in thin strips.

We rounded things out with a broccoli salad, with purple cabbage, broccoli, sliced grapes, and a simple dressing of honey, cider vinegar, and mayonnaise.

Everything paired well. A big surprise was how well the sauvignon blanc paired with the slightly charred apricots in the edible cheese plate. It was nice with the goat cheese and great with both the shrimp and the broccoli salad.

The Malbec was terrific with the flank steak and the charcuterie as well as the blueberry goat cheese!

Broccoli slaw with purple cabbage and grapes

Finding Kind of Wild Wines

If you want to find these wines, look no further than the Kind of Wild Website. You can purchase them online, or sign up for the club and save 20%. To make you feel even better about your purchase, they donate 1% to invest in soil health as a climate solution with the help of Kiss the Ground and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.

(BTW if you have not caught “Kiss the Ground” on Netflix, I highly recommend it!

2020 Luminesce, Estate Seven Hills Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley

If you have been to Crushed Grape Chronicles before, you know that we have been tasting wines from L’Ecole No. 41 in Washington’s Walla Walla Valley. Walla Walla is not known for its white wines.

This is a warm climate region and 95% of the wines from Walla Walla are red. This is one of the rare finds of white wines.

The grapes for the Luminesce come from their Seven Hills Estate Vineyard, where they have just a few acres of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

These grapes were harvested in early September, before the fires and the smoke, which while it did not affect the vines via smoke taint, did cause hazy skies and cool temps which extended harvest.

A blend of 62% Semillon and 38% Sauvignon Blanc this wine was whole-cluster pressed and protected from oxidation. It did primary fermentation in neutral French Oak and then completed a full malolactic fermentation, which takes the edge of the acidity and gives the wine a rounder mouthfeel.

In addition, it aged sur lie (on the fine lees) for 4 months in oak with bâtonnage (stirring of the lees) every two weeks. This adds to the complexity and texture in your mouth.

14.5% abv – 1,350 cases produced – Available in August 2021- SRP $22

This wine was received as a media sample.

No other compensation was received and all opinions are our own.

What the 2020 Luminesce tastes like

In the glass, I found melded aromas of blossoms, white flowers, Meyer lemon, apple, pear, something tropical, perhaps lilikoi? There was a bit of chalk and a tiny hint of the lanolin that let me know this has some Semillon in it.

In my mouth, the wine was dry but had fruit-like sweetness. The acid is bright without being sharp making it wonderful for pairing. The body was richer on this wine from the bâtonnage.

With just 1,350 cases produced, this wine goes fast. It is available in the market through distribution, so, it is possible you may run into a bottle in a shop near you, but your best bet may be to find this on their website.

Update on the vineyard

With the heat we have been seeing in the West, I did ask about the vineyards and Constance was kind enough to share an update.

They are in their 3^rd straight week of triple digits in Walla Walla. Grapevines will shut down when the temperature hits 110° F and they have been past that, often staying over 100° until after 6 pm. They do cool to 60° overnight, so they are getting quite a bit of diurnal shift.

Typically this time of year they are doing leaf pulling to let the berries get more sun as they start to head into veraison. This year they are waiting on that, allowing the extra leaves in the canopy to shade the vines and keep them cooler.

Of course, this means the vines are expending more energy to the leaves and the canopy. They will begin leaf pulling in the next few weeks to prepare for veraison.

To mitigate the heat, Sadie their vineyard manager has been misting the vines at the heat of the day on the hottest days. This fine mist cools the air without landing in large droplets on the vines. Luckily Walla Walla is a dry climate, so they can mist without fear of mildew.

This will be a vintage like 2015, Marty predicts, with Harvest beginning as early as August 13^th or 14^th, which is at least a week earlier than last year. This year will be low yield and high quality. They had wind stress during flower and fruit set, and they had an abrupt cold spell last winter causing the vines to go more quickly into dormancy than usual.

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc were hit especially hard, which means that rather than 2 bunches per shoot, they were lucky to get one. With the heat event, bunches will be smaller. So as small as the production was on the Luminesce this year, next year is likely to be even smaller.

Seven Hills Vineyard gazebo — View of the Seven Hills Vineyard from the gazebo. (photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41)

Pairing with the Luminesce

Since the Luminesce is the same blend as a White Bordeaux, I wanted to tie in some flavors that tie those notes in.

Here’s what I came up with; smoked salmon with fresh dill, a spread of cream cheese and goat cheese (to pull out the notes in the Sauvignon Blanc), cucumber, carrot, then topped with microgreens, for their sheer beauty, and fish roe.

We used both Ikura (salmon roe) and Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe). I’ll include the recipe card below.

Truly any kind of sushi would go well.

Other suggested pairings for the Luminesce include crab or halibut cakes, cream sauces, prosciutto-wrapped melon, scallops, or richer seafood.

My friend Liz suggested aged white cheddar or a mustard herbed chicken. Constance at the winery was daydreaming of this wine with a simple baguette with butter and ham, which I think sounds divine.

Temaki Hand Roll – Luminesce style

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

We did a bit of a fusion mix on our temaki to pair with this white wine. The Luminesce wine from L'Ecole No. 41 in Walla Walla Washington is made in the style of a white Bordeaux. Bordeaux has a sister city in Fukuoka Japan. So we riffed on this theme and created a handroll that incorporated some French flavor adding goat cheese and dill.

It makes for a spectacular presentation and it's delicious. This should make 4 temaki (hand rolls). Enough for 2 people.

Ingredients

2 sheets of Nori (8´x 7.5”)
½ cup cooked sticky rice
1/2 tsp sushi vinegar
2 tbs cream cheese
2 tbs goat cheese
¼ cup carrot julienned
¼ cup cucumber peeled and julienned
½ cup smoked salmon diced
1 tsp fresh dill
2 tbs microgreens
2 tbs fish roe; ikura (salmon) or tobiko (flying fish)

Instructions

Cook the rice, let it cool, and place in a large flat dish
Season the rice with sushi vinegar
Wet your hands and form them into small balls or logs for each hand roll
Mix the cream cheese and goat cheese
Chop the salmon & Mix with dill
Peel and julienne the Carrot & cucumber
Cut the Nori in half, into 8” x 3.75” rectangles (scissors work well here)
Place a dish of cold water and towel on your dominant side
Layout your ingredients: carrot, cucumber, rice, salmon, cream cheese, microgreens, & roe
Make sure your nondominant hand is dry and place the Nori in this hand
Place a ball of rice on the left side of the Nori, make it into a triangle or diamond shape flattening it with your finger, wetting that finger carefully so the rice does not stick to you.
Spread a bit of the cream cheese mixture on top
Add some of the salmon on top
Place a few pieces of carrot to one side and some of the cucumber to the other
Roll into a cone (be careful to keep your hands dry when they touch the Nori)
Use one piece of rice to seal the cone
Top with microgreens and Finish with roe

Notes

It's important to keep the Nori dry. If it gets wet it will shrink up. To keep it from getting soggy, keep it in your dry hand, not on the counter to make the rolls, and be careful to keep your wet hand from touching it.

The water and towel are important as the rice is sticky and it will stick to your hand and make this process impossible. a dish of water to rinse your fingers in and a folder towel to wipe them dry will be very helpful.

You can mix up your fillings to suit your palate! Be creative!

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 263Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 139mgSodium 1354mgCarbohydrates 16gFiber 1gSugar 3gProtein 21g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

More from Crushed Grape Chronicles on Washington Wines and L’Ecole No. 41

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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.

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

Women of Alsace – conversations with 4 Women on their family wineries in Alsace #Winophiles

Jul 16, 2021

Alsace, it’s that sliver of a region in Northeast France that borders Germany. There was a time it was Germany. In fact, the French/German border has moved several times. The region has a tumultuous history, changing hands with empires and dynasties.

First planted to grapes by the Romans when they conquered in 58 BC, the wines quickly grew in acclaim. Today the region is known for its aromatic white wines which are, unlike most of France, labeled by variety.

Four of these varieties are considered Noble: Riesling, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Muscat. Other varieties that are grown and do well here include Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Chasselas, and Pinot Noir. You will also find Auxerrois and Chardonnay planted, much of that for the sparkling Crémant d’Alsace.

The region is a tapestry of soils, with over 20 major types. In addition, the Vosges Mountains catch the clouds coming from the West creating a rain shadow making this one of the driest areas of France. The mountains also create multiple microclimates within the region with valleys and a variety of aspects.

Overall the climate is sunny and warm, with the slopes creating the best wines and the flat areas closer to the Rhine suited to grapes to pick early for the sparkling Crémants.

In June we had the opportunity to do a virtual tasting with 4 different wineries in the Alsace region, which I thought would be perfect to share with the French #Winophiles deep dive into the region this month.

Led by Rupal of Syrah Queen the French #Winophiles will explore Alsace, its wines, people, soils, and perhaps pairings. You can read her invitation post here.

You can join the #winophiles to discuss the region on Twitter on Saturday, July 17^th (8 am Pacific or 11 am Eastern). Just use and follow the hashtag #Winophiles to join the conversation.

At the bottom of this post you will find links to all of my Colleagues’ pieces on the subject, so prepare for a bit of Alsace immersion!

Millésimes Alsace 2021 Digitasting

Vins d’Alsace organized a beautiful Digitasting. The site provided information on each of the 100 wineries participating in the show. I received tasting boxes with 2 ounce pours from 4 different wineries, then had the opportunity to schedule an online video meeting with them to taste through the wines and ask questions.

We met with 4 Domaines:

Domaine Sohler Philippe
Sipp Mack Vins D’Alsace
Domaine Saint Remy Ehrhart
Agathe Bursin.

All have women who if they not running the winery, they very close to the helm.

These estates sit North and south of Colmar. If you drove from Domaine Sohler Philippe in the north to Agathe Bursin in the south, passing through the villages where Sipp Mack and Domaine Saint-Remy Ehrhart are located, it would take you just over an hour.

The wines we received as media samples. All opinions remain our own.

Map of Alsace with the vineyards mapped out (courtesy Google Maps)

Domaine Sohler Philippe

Lydie Demangeat Sohler

Lydie is the 3^rd generation on this estate, started by her grandfather. Her father began the winery Domaine in 1995, which is why it bears his name. She is now the winemaker having taken over from her Father Philippe and runs the winery with her sister Marine.

Located in Nothalten, Alsace, their vineyards cover 60 parcels in 5 towns with very diverse soils. “We are at the service of our terroirs, we reveal it,” they say on their site.

They are careful with their soils, allowing the living creatures in the soil to work the ground, the earthworms, and micro-organisms. They take pride in their soils and work to allow them to speak through the wines.

They have 7 different soil types. Lydie shows me the hard grey rock from the Heissenberg plot and the volcanic subsoil on the Meunchberg Grand Cru that you can see in the photos here.

From top right to bottom left: Famille Domaine Sohler Philippe, Grand Cru Muenchberg au pied de l’Ungersberg, Lydie & Marine récolte la reine des prés, Lydie en cave, Marine & Lydie, roche volcanique Muenchenberg, sous-sol Heissenberg, and Lydie vendages (harvest).

Domaine Sohler Philippe Alsace collage (photos courtesy Domaine Sohler Philippe)

Gaia 2017 Assemblage

The first wine we taste is their Gaia 2017 Assemblage. First known as the Cuvée de la Reine de Vins, it was the wine created in 2014 when she was elected the Queen of Alsace at the Colmar Wine Fair.

They liked the blend and so they continue it, now under the name Gaia, a more philosophical name, graceful and referring to the energy of the sun, the moon, the rocks…all these things that are a part of their story.

Gaia is a blend of 60% Riesling from The Grand Cru Muenchberg on volcanic rock and Heissenberg on sandstone rock, then 20% Muscat from very old sandstone that is a light pink when dry, and 20% Pinot Gris from Zellberg on a plot of marl sandstone.

Lovely white florals waft out of the glass at you with this wine.

We also tasted the Riesling Heissenberg 2018 which has grassy notes and lemon with complex mineral notes, from the Hessenberg Vineyard.

The Grand Cru Meunchberg Riesling 2017 grows on volcanic subsoil which is an amazing purple and green color. The nose is smokey with saffron and brioche. It is large and round in the mouth with a wonderful texture, an interesting comparison to the linear Heissenberg.

Lastly, we tasted the 2017 Mateo Pinot Noir. There is a tradition in Alsace to make a wine and name it after the children in the family. This wine is named after Lydie’s son Mateo.

Sipp Mack

Carolyn Sipp

Sipp Mack sits in the village of Hunawihr. Carolyn Sipp and her father Jacque met with me. Carolyn will be the 10^th generation, and she has the 11^th generation on the way.

Hunawihr is picturesque and small, with just around 600 people Carolyn tells me. They have one shop (a bakery), a few restaurants, and a fortified church, that was previously a castle. Centuries ago when the castle became vacant, the people of the town turned it into a church. Catholics and Protestants have shared this church since 1680.

The family has 25 hectares of vineyards in Hunawihr, Ribeauvillé, and Bergheim, including plots in the Grand Crus Rosacker and Osterberg. Their vineyards sit in limestone, you will find no granite here.

We begin our tasting with the 2019 Tradition Pinot Blanc. Meant for everyday drinking, this wine comes from younger vines and is released faster, but still retains complexity. The blend, Jacque tells me, is 70% Pinot Blanc Auxerrois for fatness and 20% Pinot Blanc for straightness. To me, it tastes like springtime in a glass.

We move on to the Riesling 2018 Vielle Vignes, 50-year-old vines, from 4 lieu dits that could become Premier cru in the next 10 years. Different vineyards, same elevations which Carolyn says brings a balance, one plot gives the richness, one the structure, another acidity, giving consistency and complexity to the wine.

We move on to the Grand Cru Rosacker Riesling 2016, which spends one year in tank and then 3 to 4 in bottle before release. The nose on this wine is reminiscent of beeswax. They find there is a precision of minerality that gets smoother and stronger as this wine ages.

Their plots sit at the top of the Rosacker Grand Cru sees and cold winds from the forest above at night that keep the acidity in this wine.

We finish with the 2018 Gewurztraminer Vielle Vignes, which is sweet at 42 g/L of residual sugar balanced by acid and with tremendous aromatics. It comes from heavy clay soils. You get all that you expect from a Gewurztraminer, lychee, and roses with other tropical fruit notes.

We speak a little about the weather and Jacque mentions that last year’s harvest began on the 25^th of August. This year they expect to be back to a more normal 20^th of September, but nothing is routine. Climate change has been great for the quality of Pinot Noir, but Riesling needs the cold for acidity.

On the property, they have 5 guest rooms. Carolyn’s grandfather was ahead of his time, creating the guest rooms to attract people to the small village, creating vineyard experiences in the 70ss and 80s.

When I ask if there is anything else I should know, Jacque tells me “That you should for the rest of your life, don’t forget to enjoy a Sipp of Mack.”

Sipp Mack Jacques Laura & Carolyn (Photo courtesy Sipp Mack)

Sipp Mack Wines Alsace (photos courtesy Sipp Mack)

Domaine Saint Remy/Ehrhart

Margot Ehrhart

The domain has been in the family since 1725! Margo is part of the 8^th generation in this family working these grapes. Her father and her brother take care of most of the vinification, but she sometimes helps. With a family winery, they all must do a bit of everything.

When her father took over, they became organic and purchased 7 additional hectares of vineyard from a cousin. Based in the village of Wettolsheim just 5 km west of Colmar, they are now much bigger with 24 total hectares over 12 villages, but they still focus on quality.

They are also Demeter certified and her grandfather has taken charge of making the biodynamic preparations.

Primarily, they make Cremant d’Alsace, those bubbles that are in such high demand, but also quite a bit of still wine with 28 different wines in their portfolio.

They are quite lucky to have parcels in 4 different Grand Crus, Hengst, Brand, Goldert, and Schlossberg.

We began our tasting with the Riesling JADE 2019, a cuvée named for her brother’s daughter. Grown in alluvial soils on the La Fecht River, a tributary of the Turckheim river, this sandy alluvial soil with clay allows for nice minerality and acidity in the wine. Margo suggests pairing it with seafood or oysters. It is made in Stainless Steel and sits for 8-9 months on the fine lees.

We moved on to the Riesling 2019 Grand Cru Hengst made from their 5 hectares on this Grand Cru. The soil is rich with limestone and marl and sits at 300 meters on a mostly south-facing slope.

This wine, while vinified in the same way as the JADE, is so different, heavier and rounder in the mouth. They make all the wines, in the same way, so the difference is from the soil and the land that the grapes are grown on. Margo loves to eat this with sushi and I can see where the umami of the soy would be brilliant with this.

Next up was the Pinot Noir “H” 2017 also grown in the Hengst vineyard. It is called “H” for the first letter in “Hengst”. The Grand Cru vineyard name cannot be on the label, as Pinot Noir is not a noble grape. They are hoping that a Pinot Noir Grand Cru will be approved, but for now, they wait.

The “H” is linear with great fruit and spice.

We finish with the Gewurztraminer Rosenberg Reserve 2019 from the Rosenberg Lieu-dit. This vineyard sits just below the Grand Cru Hengst and has a bit of sweetness with 7 g/L of rs, that is balanced by acidity. It is elegant and Margot suggests pairing it with spicy foods or spicy cheese.

Domaine Saint Remy/Ehrhart is located close to Colmar and they have a beautiful cellar that they built just 8 years ago, that is open daily for guests. Their annual production is 150,000 bottles.

Agathe Bursin

My meeting with Agathe Bursin was enchanting. I was enamored by her expressiveness and while I did not understand all of the words, the energy she spoke with carried much of the meaning. We recorded the conversation and translated it afterward, as she had answered questions that I emailed her earlier.

Agathe was born to a family of vintners. Her mother passed her plots to Agathe and in 2000 she settled down on these 3 hectares of vineyard in Westhalten about 15 kilometers south of Colmar.

Her land is divided into 40 plots around the village, which sits at the intersection of two faults. The village is surrounded by the famous hills Zinnkoepflé, Strangenberg, and Bollenberg and is famous for its Mediterranean-like climate.

Agathe tells me the two-fold story of why she got into wine. First, she remembers her grandparents making wine. At just 3 years old she was drawn to the clack, clack of the press and would press her fingers between the slats to taste the sweet juice. Later her grandfather gave her a taste of the fermented wine to her grandmother’s dismay. But the die was cast, this was the beginning.

The second reason might have been peer pressure, she was one girl with 4 boys in kindergarten, drawing pictures of tractors and grapes with them, all of them planning to become grape growers.

I savored the wines as I tasted through them. Agathe does not have a website and she notoriously sells out of her wines quickly, so this was a rare tasting.

The wines we tasted through include: the Riesling 2019 Bollenberg from 72-year-old vines on the SW facing slope of the Bollenberg, the Grand Cru Zinnkoepfle Riesling 2019, which comes from a 1200 foot elevation plot, and the Pinot Noir 2018 Stangenberg which does a brief 8 days of maceration then spends 18 months in barrel.

Finally, we finish with the Grand Cru Zinnkoepfle Gewurztraminer 2018 Vendage Tardives They leaf-pull by hand, creating airflow without exposing the berries to too much sun, allowing them to keep their acidity. Humid mornings with fog are followed by sun to dry out the grapes creating beautiful noble rot, giving those beautiful aromas and sweetness.

Agathe Bursin Alsace Collage (photos Courtesy Agathe Bursin)

She is a huge proponent of this Sylvaner and I was sad not to have the opportunity to taste hers. Sylvaner has been pulled out in Alsace in favor of the noble varieties and relegated mostly to the flatter lesser vineyards. If it is planted in beautiful soils, she says, it will surpass all other grape varieties. Her grandfather told her if she one day became a winemaker in another country to not forget to put Sylvaner in her suitcase, he is the one who will tell you if it’s a vineyard or potato terroir.

Truly, the conversation with Agathe was wonderful, she is so passionate and as I go back through the translation I find gems. She spoke of global warming, here is my approximate translation.

“This winter we had a beautiful cool winter and the spring was not that hot. So I say to myself, we are still talking of global warming? We must not hide our face, you must not have blinders. If everyone was making efforts, maybe nature would have the strength and so we could reverse the trend. It’s true I believe in man and the ability to change their habits and then to ensure that nature is more and more beautiful. I am always hopeful.”

These women are all continuing family legacies of grape growing and winemaking in Alsace. Holding to traditions, while innovating for the future. It seems the vineyards of Alsace, at least with these four women, are in good hands.

The French #Winophiles

Here are those promised links to all of my Colleagues’ pieces on this wonderful region of Alsace! Don’t forget to join us on Twitter Saturday July 17th at 8 am Pacific time (3 pm GMT). Just use and follow the hashtag #Winophiles!

3 Riesling from Alsace by Gwendolyn at Wine Predator
All About the Wines of Alsace by Jennifer at Vino Travels
Alsace Wine and Cold Poached Salmon with Sauce Verte (Green Mayonnaise) by Terri at Our Good Life
Alsace Wines’ Heart and Soul – Land Sustainability, Family Tradition and Food Compatibility by Pinny at Chinese Food and Wine Pairings
Alsace Wines Shine with Summer’s Bounty Risotto by Jeff at Food Wine Click!
Blending Innovation and Tradition with Wines of Alsace by Jill at L’Occasion
Butternut Squash Chickpea Curry with Wine from Alsace by David at Cooking Chat
Domaines Schlumberger 2018 Pinot Blanc: A Delectable Grape Mutation + Criques de Pommes de Terre by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Five Winemaking women of Alsace by Linda at My Full Wine Glass
Once Upon a Wine in Alsace – a Riesling rekindling by Wining With Mel
Shrimp Louis Sandwiches paired with an Alsace Pinot Blanc by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
Summer Food Pairings with Alsace Wines by Jane at Always Ravenous
Wines of Alsace Bring the Wow Every Time by Liz with What’s in that Bottle?
Zind Humbrecht Pinot Blanc with a Leek & Bacon Tart by Nicole of Somm’s Table
Our Host Rupal of Syrah Queen shares Alsace Rocks with Paul Blanc Rosenbourg Riesling and Summer Shrimp.

Kind of Wild

Adam and Jordan Sager are brothers who have been importing wines with their family company Winesellers, Ltd for a while. They love organic wines, good organic wines from all over, and are passionate about bringing them into the US market.

So they have searched for new organic winegrowers across the globe to find wines that are both delicious and good for the planet. These are wines made from grapes of people who are caring for the soil and trying to leave the planet better than they found it. These are organic and regenerative growers, that you can support, while enjoying delicious wine, and the idea is to spread support for this type of growing, encouraging others to grow in this way, making better wine and a better planet.

If you are not familiar with regenerative agriculture, it’s really about taking care of the soil. Yes, grapes don’t want great soil, but…they still need the symbiotic relationship with microbes in the soil to survive and be their best. This means cutting back on tilling and protecting the soil, which in turn, cuts back on the carbon being released into the atmosphere.

They have partnered with Kiss the Ground and the Organic Farming Research Foundation.

The name “Kind of Wild” comes fromthe idea of “Rewilding the planet and returning it to its most natural form”. As Adam and Jordan remind us, we often look for organic in our foods, but overlook it in our wines. “ If you eat organic, you can drink organic”

You can see a video introducing the concept here .

Now onto the wine in the Wild!

We packed a picnic and the bottle of the Kind of Wild Syrah Grenache Rosé from Pays d’Herault into our picnic/wine backpack (shout out to Dean for a really cool Christmas gift he gave me a few years back!) and headed to the Mountain.

Mt. Charleston is practically in our backyard and we don’t seem to get there often enough. We headed to our favorite trail, the Upper Bristlecone Loop, and trekked into the aspens and pines. The beginning of the hike was cool, shaded by the trees and I was easily distracted with nature photo ops.

We continued around to a viewpoint overlooking the valley and set up our picnic.

Ham and cheese croissants, fresh strawberries, and a salad of watermelon and feta, made for a perfect lunch. I brought along two Kerr jam jars for enjoying the Kind of Wild Syrah Grenache Rosé.

Kind of Wild 2020 Syrah-Grenache Rosé

The wine was delicious! It is a 50/50 blend of Syrah and Grenache

“made by a 3rd generation female winemaker in the South of France.”

The Pays d’Herault IGP is for wines from the Hérault department of the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the South of France, North of the border with Spain. The region has its Southeast border on the Mediterranean sea and includes the cities of Montpellier to the North and Béziers to the South.

The wine had notes of watermelon and strawberries, it was refreshing but had a depth with a bit of tannin to keep it from being too carefree. I think of this, not as a party wine, but rather the perfect wine to quietly enjoy an amazing view…which is exactly what we did.

12% abv – $25.00 SRP

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

Even the bees knew this was good Rose from Kind of Wild

Kind of Wild Syrah Grenache Rose on Mt. Charleston with a picnic

We did receive 2 other bottles from Kind of Wild as samples that we look forward to sharing with you in the future, the 2020 Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendoza, Argentina, and the 2020 Sauvignon Blanc from Valle de Lolol, Chile. Watch for those coming soon!

Want to find some?

You can order Kind of Wild Wines from their site individually or in packs, and they have a club. I know it seems like, over the past year, quite a few clubs have popped up. But this one is caring for growers and caring for the planet. You can check out how their club works, which is pretty cool, it’s 6 bottles every other month, shipped free and you can skip or cancel shipments if you need to, without any fees. Check out the details here https://www.kindofwildwines.com/club-wild/

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.

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

Eleanor – an homage to family by Caprio Cellars

Jun 30, 2021

Washington was once mostly wheat, rolling hills of waving grain that seemed to extend forever. Now it is dotted with the green of vineyards.

The property that is now Caprio Cellars was once covered in wheat. In 2003 Dennis Murphy bought this former wheat field and began his dream of starting a vineyard. This vineyard is named for his grandmother Eleanor and the winery is named Caprio, her last name and the name of generations of his Italian family.

His grandmother grew grapes for wine in her yard. She was the first to immigrate to the United States. Her nickname was Grandmother Grapes.

“My ancestors viewed wine as simply an essential part of daily life. Sanitella, my great grandmother, knew each family in her small Italian neighborhood by their homemade wine. For her, a person’s very character was built on the quality of their craft.”
Dennis Murphy from the Caprio Cellars website

The View from Caprio Cellars Walla Walla WA (Courtesy Caprio Cellars by Richard Duval Images)

The Estate Vineyards of Caprio Cellars

Eleanor was the first vineyard. A mere 3 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot planted in 2006 that has since expanded to 7.5 acres. Since then, they have added the 22-acre Octave vineyard, where they grow more Cab and Merlot as well as Cabernet Franc and Malbec. They planted this hillside vineyard in 2007.

Sanitella is their newest vineyard. It is located in the SeVein vineyard complex on the Oregon side of the Walla Walla AVA.

Dennis Murphy

Dennis spent 16 years building homes in the Northwest as the CEO of Hayden Homes and got hooked on the wine. Now he is the owner and winemaker for Caprio. He makes about 2,000 cases each year of Bordeaux varieties.

In addition, he recently acquired an ownership interest in both Pepper Bridge Winery and Amavi Cellars. He took over the Goff family portion of the ownership of the wineries and joins partners Norm McKibben, Eric McKibben, and Jean-Francois Pellet in this venture.

Dennis Murphy of Caprio Cellars

Caprio Cellars 2017 Eleanor Walla Walla Valley

We received a bottle of their 2017 Eleanor as a media sample. In 2017 the spring was wet and cool and the whole season was cooler. This gave the fruit structured acidity. The Octave vineyard flourished this vintage, so it dominates the amount of fruit in the blend.

It is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 12% Malbec, and 10% Cabernet Franc. This blend was 65% from their Octave Vineyard and 35% from the Eleanor Vineyard.

While the vineyards are just 10 miles apart they are dramatically different.

The soils in the Eleanor Vineyard are clay and loam on a vineyard with full sun exposure which gives generous fruit to the wine.

The Octave Vineyard is in fractured basalt at 1,300 feet on a north-facing vineyard. Here you get structure and power.

Blending the wines from these two different sites gives balance and complexity to this wine.

The Eleanor aged 18 months in 35% New French Oak.

Released October of 2019 – 439 cases produced – 14.3% abv – $48 SRP

Caprio Cellars 2017 Eleanor Estate Red Blend

Pairing the Eleanor

Yes, this is a Cab blend, and normally you would think red meat or steak. We decided to think outside the box and go with Grilled Octopus and roasted potatoes.

Michael had found some octopus at Trader Joe’s which was precooked and frozen, so all we needed to do was defrost and grill it quickly. We seasoned with salt pepper and paprika.

The roasted potatoes were a bit of a cheat also. These fresh potatoes come ready to pop in the microwave then you add butter or olive oil when they come out and toss them with seasonings.

Both of these dishes were divine with the wine! While I did my tasting notes, Michael was slowly and carefully tasting and pairing and was enamored by the way both dishes worked so well, picking up on the herb and spice notes in the wine.

What I got in the glass

The 2017 Caprio Cellars Eleanor was deep ruby and hit my nose with red currant, dusty cherry, and dried herbs. There were spicy notes of nutmeg as well as wet leaves and tobacco. In my mouth, there were fresh cranberries, dusty mocha, and dried berries as well as some spice.

Visiting Caprio Cellars

You can visit their state-of-the-art tasting room just south of Walla Walla. The stunning tasting room is all about hospitality. The tasting room with its 360° views of the Walla Walla Valley is open Wednesday to Sunday with bookings available on their website.

You are likely to meet Emily Kiefer, their Customer Experience Director pictured below.

The Kitchen at Caprio Cellars is open with a seasonal menu and perfect small pairings to accompany your tasting. They source locally and organically for fresh ingredients.

We are looking forward to being able to visit Caprio Cellars later this summer. If you find yourself in Walla Walla and you want to take in those 360° views and the stunning hospitality of their tasting room, head to their site https://www.capriocellars.com/ to book a tasting.

Caprio Cellars

1603 Whiteley Rd, Walla Walla WA 99362

509.412.3054

[email protected]

Sources and Resources

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.

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

Pintxos and Txakoli – a celebration of Basque Country #WorldWineTravel

Jun 25, 2021

Txakoli

Okay, I know at first glance if you are unfamiliar with this wine or with the language of the Basque region of Spain, you might wonder, how in the world do you say this? It’s easier than it looks. “tx” is the “ch” sound in this language, so “cha – koli”.

The word makes me think of chocolate, but the wine is far from that. Bright with lemon and strong mineral notes with a slight effervescence, this is the perfect wine for the warm days of summer.

When the World Wine Travel group of writers settled on the Basque region for this month’s topic, I knew this was the wine I wanted to find.

The #WorldWineTravel group will be exploring this region led by Jill Barth of L’Occasion. You can find her preview post here. You will find links to my colleagues’ writings below. If you are interested in learning more or want to share your love of this region, we will be gathered on Twitter on Saturday Morning June, 26^th at 8 am Pacific or a more reasonable 11 am Eastern time in the US, to discuss the region and it’s wines.

Join us by using and following the hashtag #WorldWineTravel

Basque Country (País Vasco)

Map of Spain with the Pais Vasco Basque Country highlighted (Adobe Stock)

Often when I see maps of Spain, it is in isolation, just an outline of the country. I know in my mind where the Pyrénées lie to the North East that borders France, I picture the Mediterranean to the East and the Atlantic to the West, but for some reason, my brain forgets about the Bay of Biscay and the Cantabrian Sea.

The Bay of Biscay is a wide inlet that dips into the side of Europe on the Atlantic from the Northern Coast of Spain and up the western coast of France. It has some of the fiercest weather on the Atlantic causing severe harsh winters.

The bay has long been feared by seamen. There are Atlantic swells near the coast and being out on the water can be like being inside a washing machine.

The Cantabrian Sea is the Southern part of the Bay of Biscay, that buffets the Northern Coast of Spain. With a coastline dotted with stunning cliffs and colorful fishing villages this region is colorful and filled with traditions.

It is believed that the Basque people have been in this region for over 5,000 years. They fought off invasions from the Arabs, Romans, Visigoths as well as the French and Spanish. It wasn’t until 1516 that the Basques on the Spanish side of the Pyrénées agreed to join Spain, provided, they could be self-governing. In 1876 the Basque region finally came under the rule of Spain south of the Pyrénées and France to the north.

The language here is ancient, one of the oldest still spoken today. It was almost stomped out by Franco when he banned the language, but it is making a revival. This language predates the Latin-based romance languages. It is called Euskara and has eight modern dialects.

The region itself begins on the coast north of Bilbao in the Spanish Province of Biscay and follows the coast to Biarritz in Southern France.

Txakoli (or Txakolina)

The grapes for Txakoli (or Txakolina) are grown on hillside vineyards with high elevation, which gives them high natural acidity. Proximity to the sea often elevates mineral or salty notes in the wine.

There are three regions or DOs for Txakoli

Getariako Txakolina DO
1. Established in 1989, this is the oldest of the three DOs.
Bizkaiko Txakolina DO
1. Established in 1994 the vineyards of this region are planted close to Bilbao, along the coast and inland, where they can get to 500 feet.
Arabako Txakolina or Txakoli de Álava DO
1. The youngest of the regions was established in 2001 and sits further inland than the other two. This is also a region for Rioja wine which has vineyards in the south part of the region.

We are going to focus on Getariako Txakolina DO.

Getariako Txakolina DO

This is the largest of the three DOs which is located near San Sebastián. There are 433 hectares of vineyards, of which 90% are in the coastal area. Here vineyards are close to the coast but are planted on south-facing slopes for maximum sunlight and protection from the coast.

The grapes allowed here are Hondarribi Beltza which is a black grape that is often mistaken for Cabernet Franc. The other grape, which is much more often used for Txakoli is Hondarribi Zuri.

This is not as it might seem a white version of Hondarribi Beltza. According to the Oxford Companion of Wine, this is a name used for 3 varieties in the Pais Vasco region: Coubu Blanc, Crouchen & a hybrid called Noah. (Zuri actually means “white” in Basque (source)

Bodega Hiruzta

The name comes from Hiruen Uzta, which means a “three-person Harvest”. The Rekalde family, father, Asensio with his sons Txarli, and Angel built this winery in Hondarribia. When the Getariako Txakolina DO opened to plantings in the Gipuzkoa in 2007, they planted their vines. They opened their winery in 2012.

This region of Hondarribia had long been know for grape growing, with archives of vineyards dating to 1186. The region on the coast and the border was battered by battles and the enemy would often raze the gardens and pull up the vineyards. Many were permanently lost in the siege of 1638.

Hiruzta looks to recover and revitalize this grape named for this village and the cultural wine heritage of the region.

Their 17 hectares of vineyard are trellised on a south-facing slope, with great sun and cool breezes from the Jaizkibel cliff (as seen above)

The region is beautiful and when we researched with found so many beautiful images! The Northern side of those Jaizkibel is pretty beautiful also. As is the nearby village of Hondarribia, a medieval town that allows you to step back in time.

Hiruzta Bodega in Spain's Basque Country where Txakoli is their specialty (photo courtesy Hiruzta Bodega)

Hiruzta 2019 White Txakoli

This wine is 100% Hondarribi Zuri.

To make this wine they harvest the grapes and carry them in small crates to the winery. Small crates ensure that the berries on the bottom do not get crushed. At the winery, they destem and crush, then rinse and gently press, then let the juice settle at a cool temperature. They preserve the naturally occurring carbonation and do a gentle clarification and stabilization process then filter at a low temperature.

The resulting wine is effervescent, and the first thing that hit my nose was the scent of wet stones. Under this minerality, you find notes of lemon and lime, pear, and saline. This wine is bone dry with bright acidity and notes of bright rich lemon and mineral on the palate, maybe a bit of grapefruit in the background giving a just slightly bitter note of grapefruit pith.

12% abv – $19.99 SRP

Hiruztya Txakoli from the Getariako Txakolina DO in Spanish Basque Country

Now to make this a truly Basque Celebration, I needed to master the Txakoli high pour.

Mastering the Basque High Pour

Now to make this a truly Basque Celebration, I needed to master the high pour. I thought it would be pretty easy. LOL! After drenching the dining Room table, I finally wised up and worked over the sink.

The high pour is great for presentation, but more than that, it released the carbon dioxide and gets those bubbles moving, which also increases the reléase of the aromatics in the wine.

The glasses for this type of wine are different also. These are short squatty glasses, similar to a rocks glass. My rocks glasses were too small for this so I opted for a taller glass.After a bit of practice with an empty Riesling bottle (which is a similar shape) and a few gallons of wáter, I found a few tricks to help my consistency.

First, using a wine pourer, one of those little silver circles of mylar that you curl up and use as a spout, helped keep the flow steady.
Second, elbow lifted! If you start with your elbow lifted, as you raise the bottle you have fewer moving parts in your arm and it makes it easier to stay on target!
Lastly, perhaps it is my height, but I found that it was easier when I held the glass, rather than placing it on a table or counter.

So those are my cheats. I intend to practice and look forward to becoming more impressive with this parlor trick.

Pintxos to pair

We wanted to do classic Pintxos for our pairing. Pintxos (or pinchos) are like tapas but are a single bite. You find them in all the bars in the region.

We prepared 6 pintxos and did them in 2 styles, one-bite pintxos in a spoon and the traditional way on bread. I was excited to finally use this beautiful spoon tray that my dear friend RuBen gave me.

The first 4 I found on Spain on a Fork He has great step-by-step videos for these.

Tortilla de espinacas con queso manchego (Spanish egg with spinach topped with manchego cheese)

Pan con Tomate y Manchego (Spanish tomato bread with Manchego cheese)

Atún con Anchoa (Tuna and anchovy pintxos)

Pintxos de camarones al ajillo (Garlic shrimp)

I was craving something lighter, so we created a

Pintxos de salmón y pepino (Salmon with cream cheese and dill in cucumber)

and as I had dates in the house, we did our favorite

(bacon-wrapped dates) which would be Dátiles envueltos en tocino in Spanish

Pintxos - top to bottom - •Pintxos de salmón y pepino •Atún con Anchoa •Pan con Tomate y Manchego •Tortilla de espinacas con queso manchego •Pintxos de camarones al ajillo •Dátiles envueltos en tocino

How did they pair?

The pairings were delicious and each a bit different. With the cucumber and salmon, the flavors seemed cooler and brighter with the wine and the wine was less bitter with a sweetness like clear fresh Spring wáter. The tortilla (keep in mind tortilla here means omelet) with the wine made the bite less heavy. The garlic shrimp seemed sweeter.

With the tuna and anchovy, the wine seemed to intensify the flavors. I overdid the garlic in the tomato bread and it hit my palate hot! The wine seemed to tone this down. Lastly, we had the bacon-wrapped date, which has always seemed like a red wine pairing to me. I wasn’t expecting this pairing to be very good, but as I like this bite, I made them anyway. I took my first sip of the wine with this and it wasn’t bad but wasn’t great, then quickly sweetened and was better than expected.

Overall these were great pairings! Keep in mind that this is for my palate. Everyone’s palate is different and some people are much more sensitive to bitter or sweet and that can make pairings different for them.

Pintxos and Txakoli (or Txakolina) from Bodega Hiruzta in Spanish Basque Country

#WorldWineTravel

Okay, that was my Venture to Basque Country. I can’t wait to read what the rest of the #WorldWineTravel Group discovered! You will find the links to their pieces below! These will go live on Saturday, June 26th, 2021!

Basque Country Means Pintxos and Txakolina by Jeff at Food Wine Click
Fish Friday in the USA with a Spanish Txakolina Rosé by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
Two Versions of Txakoli, Perfect Summer Wines from Susannah at Avvinare
Almejas en Salsa Verde (Clams in Green Sauce) + 2019 Zudugarai “Amats” Getariako Txakolina from Cam at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Basque Country Wines for Beginners and Great Food Pairings from Teri at Our Good Life
Recalling Spain: Ameztoi Getariako Txakolina Rubentis and Shrimp from Martinat ENOFYLZ Wine Blog
Tasty Txakolina from Basque Country calls for fish by Linda at My Full Wine Glass
Basque’s Effervescent Txakolina #WorldWineTravel from Gwendolyn at Wine Predator
Cooking to the Wine: Ulacia Blanco Getariako Txakolina and Crispy Cod with Garlic, Jalapenos, and Lime by Nicole at Somm’s Table
The History of the Basque Culinary World Prize by Jill on L’Occasion

Sources and Resources

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.

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

Rosé season is here, but don’t take that rosé for granted!

Jun 25, 2021

It’s International Rosé Day and if you have not already popped your first bottle of rosé, do yourself a favor and find a bottle now! Sipping rosé is self-love, sharing it with friends? Well, then you are just too generous!

I know, you may be saying, “Wait Robin! Didn’t we already celebrate Rosé Day?” Well, yes, National Rosé Day was June 12th, this is International Rosé Day. Really, are you going to argue with celebrating these wines twice this month?

We think of rosé in general, I mean, it’s right there in my title! We don’t say “Red wine season is here!” We also don’t often speak of rosé with grape varieties. We just lump all rosé together, but there is a wide variety of rosé styles, varieties, and methods, each with something different to offer. Rosé is more than just a color of wine.

Rosé is delicious and bright and it is the perfect summer sipper and now that we mostly realize that all pink wine is not going to be the sweet White Zin of our youth, people are reaching for more and more of it and you will be hard pressed to find a winery that doesn’t have at least one in their repertoire.

L’Ecole No. 41 Grenache Rosé

Alder Ridge Vineyard

Horse Heaven Hills

This month we are sampling a L’Ecole No. 41 Grenache Rosé that comes from Alder Ridge Vineyard in Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills.

Before I go and tell you about this wine, I want to break the news that this wine is sold out. Yep, rosé goes quick my friends. They released this wine in March and it was gone by mid-May.

They made just 1000 cases this year. You might, if you are really lucky, find it in a store that carries L’Ecole No. 41, a small bit of this wine gets out for distribution. There are also a few restaurants if you happen to be in Seattle, that might have some left. Other than that? This is a wine you need to order when it’s released or be a member of the wine club to get some.

I feel very lucky to have received a bottle as a sample. Back when they sent it, I don’t think they expected it to sell out so quickly.

So, what’s so special about this rosé? Well, L’Ecole No. 41 was early on the rosé train. They began making this rose in 2009. I say this rosé because they have been sourcing the grenache for this wine from Alder Ridge since this wine’s inception. The problem? They can only source so much. They will get a little more next year, enough to maybe add another 100 or so cases.

L'Ecole No. 41 2020 Grenache Rosé Alder Ridge Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills

Alder Ridge Grenache, why it makes such good Rosé

They could buy grapes off the bulk market and make more rosé, but that’s not the way they roll. They want to know the grower, or to grow it themselves. This may be a rosé, but they still strive to express the sense of place.

Marcus Rafanelli, the L’Ecole No. 41 winemaker told us what makes the Alder Ridge Vineyard Grenache so good for rosé.

“Grenache is really a late-ripening varietal…it takes a lot of heat units to get ripe. What’s nice about this site is that it is right on the Columbia River and it is a pretty warm section, but it has this view …it sits on this little bluff overlooking the Columbia River, so it gets a lot of wind in there and it gets a lot of heat in there. With this particular variety and this particular site, over the years Marty has just seen the potential. It’s a warmer site so we can get a little bit more ripening…before we pick it than we would normally get in another site.”

The beautiful Alder Ridge Vineyard overlooking the Columbia Gorge. (Photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41)

I did tell you that they have been making this rosé since 2009. Well, perhaps not exactly this rosé. Marcus and Constance told us that it has evolved quite a bit. From a deeper maceration with much more color and a bit more residual sugar to the ballet slipper-colored wine that it is today that is dry with just a bit of residual sugar to balance out the beautiful high acidity.

This is the Provençe style rosé that everyone is clamoring for. This is the wine that makes you close your eyes and picture yourself on the beach on the French Riviera.

About making rosé

There are a couple of methods you can use to make rosé.

You can add a bit of red wine to white wine.

This method is mostly seen with sparkling rosé where the final dosage has a bit of red wine for color (Dosage or liqueur d’expedition is the wine and sweetener added after they disgorge the yeast from traditional method sparkling wine. It tops up the bottle and adjusts the sweetness level giving you that variety from Brut Nature to Doux or Sweet)

You can make the wine via the saignée method

In this method a winemaker making red wine, bleeds off some of the juice, allowing them to concentrate the red wine. This juice they have bled off then ferments to a rosé.

Or you can use the maceration method.

In this method, the grapes are grown specifically to make rosé wine. Rosé like sparkling wine needs to have that extra acidity, so it is usually picked a little less ripe than you would otherwise pick the red grapes. The grapes do a short maceration on the skins, leeching out just a bit of the red color. They are then pressed and fermented into wine, much like you would do for white wine.

At L’Ecole No. 41 they use the maceration method. Alder Ridge Vineyard is about an hour and a half drive from the L’Ecole No. 41 Winery. The grapes are picked early, at about 21 or 22 brix (brix is a measurement of the amount of sugar in the grapes) by machine harvest. This allows the picking to be quick and done early in the morning when it is cool.

Those containers of stemless grapes go on a truck and head to the winery in Walla Walla. As they ride along, they are seeping out some of their juice, the bottom berries crushed under the weight of the berries on top, and they start macerating. When they get to the winery, they macerate for just a bit longer before they are pressed, keeping the wine cold with dry ice.

Sugar in Rosé?

No, this is not White Zin.

Talking about sugar. This wine came in with a pH of about 3.26. This would give about the acidity of a lime. That’s pretty tart, you would be puckering if they bottled it that way. To balance that acidity, a little residual sugar (4.5 g/L) is left in the wine.

How do they do that? Leaving the sugar in the wine? Well, while the grapes are fermenting, the yeast is eating up all of the sugar, so rather than letting the yeast eat all of the sugar, Marcus and Marty taste the wine along the way. They track the fermentation rate in the lab to see where it is just right to arrest the fermentation.

L'Ecole No. 41 Winemaker Marcus Rafanelli (photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41)

“It ended up being on a Sunday morning, that we just got to this beautiful point in the wine…it was about 10:30 and we were like, “this is it!”.

They arrested the fermentation by adding sulfur. Sulfur is used often in winemaking, it has antioxidizing and antiseptic properties. So it keeps the wine safe to drink and keeps it from oxidizing and turning brown. With a light-colored wine, sulfur can bleach the wine, but the color will over a little time, come back. Since sulfur can bleach the color out, they did not want to use it multiple times, fearing that they would lose too much color. With this rosé, they only used the sulfur this one time.

So what to pair with this lovely Grenache Rosé?

Grenache Rosé pairs with so many things! Just don’t overpower it. Lamb, melon, and prosciutto, even a hamburger (just avoid blue cheese). The wine will give you notes of strawberry, pink florals, watermelon, a bit of pepper. The group of us had a wide range of pairings and ideas, from goat cheese and crostini to sausage or ham, Asian shrimp tacos, pierogi, halibut and grilled vegetables, shrimp saffron wraps,…

Michael put together the pairing for this wine. It was a lovely day and was still cool enough to get up to the rooftop deck for some time in the sun. Now of course we would roast. He picked up chicken, sushi, lobster cakes, and some cheese and we headed to the roof to enjoy some sun, the breeze, and the view.

What do you get in the glass?

The wine was refreshing and elegantly joyful. Allow me to wax poetic…close your eyes, picture yourself in a lounge chair, with a view of the ocean, all you can hear is the sound of the wave lapping on the shore, the sun is just right, not too hot, enough to warm your skin from the cool breeze blowing off the water. This is the wine you have in your glass. Just watch the subtle smile creep across your face.

Girl is sitting on sea beach with wineglass of Rose at sunset in summer vacation in resort.

Sadly it’s sold out, but….

As I said, sadly it is unlikely you will find a bottle of this wine. But they will make it again next year, it will be subtly different, as each year is, but it will be as delicious. So, ready yourself to order a bottle next spring, or join the wine club to guarantee yourself a bottle.

Until then, pick up a bottle of rosé or two from somewhere, ideally a small vineyard and winery, somewhere with a story, where you can hear how the grapes were grown, and give a toast to summer.

Heritage by L’Ecole

They have also just recently opened their new Wine Bar in Walla Walla.

Located at the beautiful Marcus Whitman Hotel in downtown Walla Walla, Heritage by L’Ecole is open for business! You can book a table online or call 509.676.3777 for a reservation. They are open daily from 11 am to 7 pm.

Heritage by L’Ecole

6 West Rose St. Ste. 103

Walla Walla, WA 99362

Heritage by L'Ecole, the new wine bar at the Marcus Whitman in downtown Walla Walla (photo courtesy L'Ecole No. 41)

Of course, you can always visit them at their tasting room at the winery at the historic Frenchtown School that you see pictured on their label. That is located at:

41 Lowden School Road, Lowden, WA 99360.

You can reach them through their website at Lecole.com https://www.lecole.com/

By email at [email protected] or by phone at 509.525.0940

More about the wines of Washington and L’Ecole No. 41

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.

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

BBQ and a Titan from Bells Up

Jun 23, 2021

Bells Up

They identify as “Micro-boutique and un-domaine”. Bells Up Winery was born from leaving stress behind and blowing their own horn!

The name comes from a term in classical music composition as a note for French Horns. When it says “bells up” it means to play with gusto, with the bell of the horn up to allow the music to be heard.

That’s an allegory for how Dave and Sarah feel about their winery.

We tasted two of their wines, the Bells Up 2020 Prelude Estate Rosé of Pinot Noir Chehalem Mountains AVA and the Bells Up 2020 Rhapsody Pinot Blanc Willamette Valley Paired with a backyard feast for Memorial Day.

Celebrate Memorial Day with Bells Up Winery

Today we move on to the…

Bells Up 2018 Titan Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley.

Let’s first address the name. Titan refers to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major(all of their wines are named for Musical pieces)

This piece was considered unusually grand and ambitious for the time, by a young composer. Perhaps this mimics this wine, Dave coming into the Willamette Valley where Pinot Noir is revered and jumping in with both feet in a bold way when he was so new to the industry.

This symphony evoked the heroic ideals of the day for Mahler and was originally called “Titan: a symphonic poem”. The title alluded to a popular novel where the protagonist uses only his inner strength to defend against evil.

The wine is their flagship Pinot Noir. It is a blend of 3 Pinot Noir clones from 2 different sites.

The largest part of this wine is the Pommard clone of Pinot Noir and is from 10 year old vines in the Chehalem Mountain AVA. The vineyard sits at 800 feet and has wind-blown loess soils that give this wine bright fruit notes.

Then there are two clones 115, 777, grown in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA with vines that are 18 years old. The elevation here is between 460-520 feet and the soils here are Willakenzie. The oldest soils in the Willamette valley, the Willakenzie soils come from marine sediment from when this part of Oregon was a seabed.

The soils are well drained and the roots have to work hard to find water, which creates a spiciness and structure in the wines. The structure and tannins need time to integrate and will help the wine age.

The 2018 growing season was consistently warm and dry with cool nights, which adds to the structure and balance of this wine.

While this bottle was delicious, it will continue to get more delicious as it ages in the bottle. Get more than one bottle and taste it on its journey. It will be maturing for the next 7 or so years.

The details:

41% Pommard, Chehalem Mountains AVA

29.3% 115 clone & 29.3% 777 clone, both from Yamhill-Carlton AVA

Harvested October 4^th, 2018, aged 12 months in 38% New French Oak. Bottled in December of 2019 and released Sept 2020.

111 cases produced – 13.7% abv – $40 SRP

Bells Up 2018 Titan Pinot Noir Willamette Valley

What to pair with a Titan?

Michael decided we should pair BBQ with this Titan Pinot Noir and set out to pick up a Feast for us. I was mid studying for a Wine Certification and cooking was the last thing I wanted to do. He ordered from Famous Dave’s and returned with a feast that all we had to do was plate it and open the bottle!

We headed to the rooftop deck to enjoy, St. Louis-Style Spareribs, BBQ Chicken, Texas Beef Brisket, Georgia Chopped Pork, Burnt ends (my favorite), Sweetwater Catfish, Garlic Red-skinned mashed potatoes, creamy coleslaw, Firecracker Green Beans and Corn Bread Muffins.

The 2018 Titan Pinot Noir from Bells Up had notes of red cherry, raspberry, cooked fruit, cola, nutmeg, forest floor, & tobacco on the nose. In my mouth it was more like cranberry, red cherry and candied fruit with a bit of baking spice.

Michael mentioned getting a bit of cherry Jolly Rancher, and the wine did have a juiciness about it.

It blended beautifully with the fruit and spice notes in the BBQ.

With full tummy’s and the rest of the bottle of wine, we headed downstairs to watch out beloved Vegas Golden Knight play a bit of Hockey. (We are still in the playoffs, feel free to send some love the VGKs way!)

Do you need some of this?

If you are interested in getting of a bottle of the Titan or any of the Bells Up Wines, head to their website for the details at http://bellsupwinery.com/ Then you can reach out to place your order by phone at 503.537.1328 or email [email protected].

More on the Willamette Valley by Crushed Grape Chronicles

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.

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

Coming home and finding a new home – the stories of two wines from Maury #Winophiles

Jun 18, 2021

This is a story about being drawn to a place.

One story follows people who left this place, where their family had been for generations, and how, when the opportunity arose, they were able to return to this place where for them, it all began.

The other story is of a stranger who unexpectedly discovered this place and fell in love with it.

This month the French #Winophiles are exploring Maury led by Lynn of Savor the Harvest. You can read her Introduction post Get to Know Maury in Roussillon for more information on the region.

You will find links to my colleagues’ articles at the bottom and you can join us Saturday, June 19^th on Twitter and use the hashtag #Winophiles to follow or join the conversation.

This place? It is Maury, located in the Roussillon in southern France on the West side of the Mediterranean Sea. (look to the bottom of the map just at the top of the section that is shades of purple, you will find Maury)

I first learned of this place, not through wine but from a friend and colleague. She and her parents had spent their lives traveling. Her parents realized their dream of settling and opening an Inn, in an idyllic village, where the French and Spanish languages and cultures blend at the Pyrénées in the region of Maury.

Map of the Languedoc-Rousillon Wine Region in France — The Languedoc-Roussillon Wine Region in France

The Pyrénées -Orientales

The region known as the Pyrénées-Orientales (or Roussillon for the wine world) was Spanish until 1659 when it reverted to France. The people here often consider themselves Catalan and the Catalan language is widely used.

The overall region of Roussillon is a large amphitheatre, with Spain to the south with the Albères mountains, the Mediterranean to the east, the Corbieres mountains to the North, and the foothills of the Canigou to the West. With the diversity of this region and its wines (24 different varieties, 14 AOPs, and 2 IGPs) there is an immense amount of wine to explore. We wrote about this diverse region before in our piece: Snow-capped Pyrénées to the Mediterranean Sea – Exploring the Stunning and Diverse Roussillon Wine Region.

Maury

Maury sits at the top of the Roussillon wine region, this region that is exploding with potential.

About a 35-minute drive north-west of Perpignan you find Maury. The area is protected by the Corbieres Mountain range to the north. Nearby is the Castle of Queribus a medieval fortress sitting high above the valley at 728 meters. This citadel, now crumbling was the last stronghold of the Cathar resistance, falling to the crusaders in 1255.

The Wines of Maury

The region is known for its sweet wines, fortified red wines, vin doux naturel under the Maury AOP. The wines are based on Grenache or Garnacha, depending on if you are speaking French or Spanish.

The AOP Maury Sec was approved in 2011 for dry red wines.

Other wines from Maury fall under the AOP Côtes du Roussillon for reds whites and rosés or the IGP Côtes Catalanes. These are the categories that our two wines fall under.

The soils here are black marl and black schist in the hills and are surrounded by the garrigue.

On to our stories and our wines.

The tale of coming home…

Jean-Marc Lafage is the 7^th generation of a wine-growing family. The first 5 generations lived in the village of Fenouillèdes in Maury, with vineyards out in the countryside.

Jean-Marc grew up working the vineyard with his father and grandfather. As a boy he decided he wanted to be a winemaker, his father encouraged him by putting him in charge of a batch of the vineyards finest fruit.

His father dreamed of owning a vineyard with a farmhouse in Maury (the family, as I said, lived in the village, not on the vineyards), but as fate would have it he inherited a vineyard in Canet en Roussillon, which later Jean-Marc took over. This is Domaine Lafage.

When Château Saint Roch came up for sale, Jean-Marc quickly bought it, excited to share this place vineyard with a Chateau with his father. They returned to a place that they both loved and felt a deep connection to, his father’s dream was at last realized.

The Castle of Queribus looks over the vineyard from the North. The 44 hectares of vineyard have clay-schist soils on the slopes over a limestone base and the Tramontane winds blow through, keeping the vines healthy. They grow Grenache, Carignan, Mourvèdre, and Syrah, but we are focusing on their white wine.

2017 Chateau Saint Roch Vieilles Vignes Blanc

On the sides of the Saint Martin de Fenouillet near Fenouillèdes and the Caudiès de Fenouillèdes further northwest, they have Grenache Blanc planted at over 400 meters, which retains beautiful acid in the wine.

This wine is a blend of 80% Grenache Blanc and 20% Roussanne from vines that average 50 years old. This is fermented in tank and aged mostly in concrete with some aged in French oak demi-muids.

This wine took a moment to open up. Perhaps we had it overchilled. It is mildy lush, warm and likeable. I got meyer lemon, wet stones and a creaminess, before it lulled me into just enjoying it and not over-thinking it. Michael and I both found ourselves drawn to this wine, without being able to tell precisely why. It was comfortable, refreshing but round, soft spoken but present.

Chateau Saint Roch 2017 Vielles Vignes Grenache blanc Roussanne from Maury

The tale of discovering…

You will undoubtedly be familiar with Dave Phinney’s work. This California winemaker is responsible for The Prisoner, Orin Swift Cellars, and Locations.

Well, as the story goes, Dave got a call in 2008 from a distributor telling him he had found something special. Dave jumped on a plane and flew to French Catalonia and drove into Maury on a windy rainy day when the Tramontane winds were wicked.

The next day, things had cleared and he could see the 100-year-old Grenache vines in the beautiful schist soil and fell in love. He bought 40 acres and then built a state-of-the-art winery to make small-lot wines.

I don’t know that the neighbors at first approved. Catalonians can be distrustful of strangers and this Californian buying up vineyards and building this fancy-schmancy winery…well. They seem to have warmed to him now.

What would he name the winery? Would it be a Domaine or a Chateau? Nope. Like his other labels, this one would be unique yet tied to the place. Department 66, is the Department for this French Region of the Pyrénées -Orientales, and so “Department 66” it was.

You can see the origin story for D66 here.

2015 Department 66 Others

The wine we tasted was the “Others”. It is a blend of 75% Grenache, 10% Syrah and then the rest is a mix of Carignan, Mourvèdre, and Lledoner. (Geek Alert, Lledoner Pelut is a name for a form of Grenache Noir, that is less rot-prone source)

This wine was an opaque ruby in color. Aromas of redcurrant and black cherry tried to peek out from behind the garrigue, spice, mocha, cloves, cinnamon, leather, and wet leaves. This is a high alcohol wine sitting at 14.5%.

In my mouth, it was cooked and dried fruit, a bit of prune, then a lavender-like note, something peppery, bright, and a little numbing in my mouth. Again those notes of clove, and wet leaves, and a bit of tobacco. With the deep color, it had more acidity to the palate than I expected and it went well with more of our pairings than I expected.

Others Old Vine Grenache blend from Department 66 in Maury

Pairing Catalan style

Today we focus on the wine, dining Catalan style with small bites: Sardines and tuna in oil and fried goat cheese with crusty bread, dried apricots, peach to compliment the Chateau Saint Roch. Cured meats, roasted peppers, olives, drunken goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, and grilled bread with tomatoes called “pa amb tomàquet” in Catalan to pair with the “Others”.

The fried goat cheese went amazingly well with the Chateau Saint Roch (thanks Nicole for the inspiration!), as did the peach and apricot. The cured meats and pa amb tomaquet were the stars with the “Others”, but I was surprised that many of the lighter foods paired well with this wine also!

The French #Winophiles and their virtual trek to Maury

I can’t wait to see what my colleagues with the French #Winophiles uncovered about this region! You can read their pieces below.

You can also join us on Twitter Saturday, June 19^th at 8 am Pacific or 11 am Eastern time to talk about the wines of Maury. Just use the hashtag #Winophiles to follow or add to the conversation!

“Linguini with Tuna and White Beans and a Rose from Maury” written by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
“Clapassade + Chateau Saint Roch Chimeres 2016” from Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
“Sipping sweet Maury Vin Doux Naturel in strawberry season” from Linda, My Full Wine Glass
“The Maury Region” from Cathie at Side Hustle Wino
“Looking at the Sweeter Side of Maury” from Susannah at Avvinare
“Maury Savory and Sweet” shared by Jeff at Food Wine Click!
“Two Sides of Maury in Roussillon: Sweet and Dry” from Lynn at Savor the Harvest
“A Search for Roussillon’s Maury #Winophiles” shared by Gwendolyn from Wine Predator

Sources and Resources

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.

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

Banish me to Mantua, with a glass of Lambrusco Mantovano #ItalianFWT

Jun 4, 2021

Mantua. When I hear the name, I think of a place of banishment, possibly a dusty trailer park in the Mohave Desert. Thanks, Baz Luhrmann! While Shakespeare never traveled to Italy, he chose this place for Romeo’s banishment after killing Tybalt.

Mantua is a city in the region of Lombardy that is closest to both the Veneto and Emilia Romagna. The region around the city is also known as Mantua or Mantova. It is far from being a desert and, hey if you want to banish me there…go right ahead! They have Lambrusco, so I don’t mind!

Susannah of Avvinaire leads The Italian Food Wine & Travel Group on our exploration of Lambrusco this month. She has definite expertise here. You should check out her preview post “June Celebrations with a Glass of Lambrusco”

We will be gathering on Twitter on Saturday, June 5^th to discuss Lambrusco! Join us at 8 am PT following the hashtag #ItalianFWT to add to the conversation. You can scroll to the bottom for links to my colleagues’ pieces.

When I heard that the Italian Food Wine and Travel Group was diving into Lambrusco I was definitely on board. I enjoy Lambrusco, but good Lambrusco can be hard to find. The only place I had been able to locate Lambrusco was the bottle shelf at Trader Joe’s. I wanted to up my Lambrusco Game.

I had met Sheila with Vero online late last year. She imports wine and gourmet foods from Italy and Spain among other places, bringing in products from small producers that might otherwise never be seen outside their immediate area.

The wines I ordered from Vero are not from the region most thought of for Lambrusco. Emilia-Romagna is the typical region for this wine, much of it coming from the Province of Modena. Our wine comes from a little further north, across the border into Lombardy and the Mantova Province, where you find the city of Mantua.

Map of Lombardy, Italy with Mandova in red, (Adobe Stock Vector map By Alex Perazzoli)

Mantua

Settled as early as 2000BC this city on the Mincio River later created lakes to surround the city like a moat.

The Palazzo Ducal is a city-palace and its mirror reflection graces the lakes. The complex was built throughout the centuries and now houses the Ducal Palace Museum, Italy’s biggest architectural museum.

Really, this doesn’t look like such a bad spot to be banished to.

Europe Italy Mantova-Mantua ancient castle at the river reflecting in still waters at sunset highly illuminated by lights (adobe Stock by Taras Vyshnya)

Mantova - San Benedetto Po - Abbazia Polirone (Adobe Stock By Gianluca)

San Benedetto Po and the Polirone Abbey

If you head further south and cross the Po River you come upon the city of San Benedetto Po. The Polirone Abbey here was founded in 1003 taking its name from the Po and Lirone Rivers that met at the Abbey. Matilde di Canossa founded a library at the Abbey and was buried at the monastery.

Wine has been made here since at least the 11^th century. This is the region for Lambrusco Mantovano.

Bugno Martino

South of the city of San Benedetto Po the land opens up and you will find Azienda Agricola Bugno Martino.

Giuseppe and Raffaella together run this family farm and produce Lambrusco Mantovano. They respect the land and farm naturally with biodynamic and organic principles. Farmers first, they see taking care of the land as a privilege.

On their 9 hectares they grow 3 varieties of Lambrusco; Salamino, Ancellotta, and Grappello Ruberti.

“Lambrusco” means “wild grape” in Italian and there are multiple varieties of Lambrusco that were likely all domesticated from wild local vines. Giuseppe and Raffaella love this wine, it’s wildness, intensity, and elegance.

We opened 2 of their Lambruscos, the 2019 Rosso Matilde and the 2018 Essentia, that we ordered from Vero.

Rosso Matilde 2019 Bugno Martino Lambrusco Mantovano IGP

Bugno Martino named this wine as a tribute to Matilde di Canossa, who had such an influence as a female leader in this region in the 12^th century. Sheila wrote a wonderful piece on her history and contributions that you can find here.

This wine is a blend of Lambrusco Salamino and Lambrusco Ancellotta and is made in the Charmant method. It spends 4 months in stainless steel.

The Rosso Matilde pours a deep frothy ruby. On the nose, there was blackberry, black cherry, bramble, dried herb, soy, and a little smoke. It smells “wild”.

On the nose, it was medium intensity, but when you take a sip, the wine explodes with flavor. The fruit notes bursting through with the more subtle savory notes in the background. This wine is dry, don’t confuse it with the semi-sweet Cold Duck of the 70s.

12% abv – $20.99 via Vero

2019 Rosso Matilde Lambrusco Mantovano from Bugno Martini

Essentia 2018 Bugno Martini Lambrusco Mantovano

Essentia 2018 Bugno Martino Lambrusco Mantovano IGP

This Lambrusco is made in the ancestral method with wild yeast. Bugno Martino says this wine is “deeply linked to traditions and origins”.

The ancestral method predates Methode Champenoise. This ancient method stops the initial fermentation before it is complete, typically by chilling the wine. It is then put into bottle where it completes its fermentation trapping the CO2 in the bottle for those bubbles.

Sheila had prepped me for umami with this wine and she was so right. The first thing that hit my nose was bread dough, followed by red cherry and cherry preserves. Fresh green herbs were followed by smoke and soy. In my mouth, the umami hit first with soy and smoke. Behind that came the fruit, which was darker on my palate than on the nose and the herbs here were more savory and dried.

100% Lambrusco Salamino this wine ferments in bottle for 12 months.

11% abv – 24.99 via Vero

Lambrusco Pairings

Riso alla Pilota

What to pair? I contacted Sheila at Vero, who had already put this question to Giuseppe. Without hesitation, he responded Riso alla Pilota. This is a simple dish of rice and sausage, that is traditional for Mantova, where there are more pigs than people. We paired this traditional dish with the traditionally inspired Essentia.

Giuseppe shared his recipe: Rice is carefully cooked to al dente and mixed with sausage cooked in butter and garlic, then it is tossed with grated parmesan. This dish is simple, hearty, delicious, and pairs perfectly with the wines. It was especially delicious with the umami notes in the Essentia.

You can find the recipe on the Vero site.

Pizza with Lambrusco, you can’t go wrong

Sheila had also suggested pizza with sausage, so I made homemade pizza, making my own pizza dough. We topped our pizzas with a mixture of tomato sauce, tomato paste, and a little fig jam for sweetness. Dabs of ricotta came next, sausage (which I partially pre-cooked), chopped sage, a four-cheese pizza blend, and more sage.

We paired our pizza with the Rosso Matilde and the sweetness of the fig jam played nicely off the bright fruit in the wine.

If you want to taste these wines, Sheila has offered a discount code for 10% off! Drop me a message for the code!!

Grab a bottle and banish yourself “virtually” to Mantua.

#ItalianFWT and wines to celebrate Lambrusco Day on June 21^st!

As I mentioned, there are many types of Lambrusco and I am sure that the Italian Food Wine and Travel group has covered many of them. Read on for more great Lambrusco, then grab a bottle to celebrate Lambrusco Day on June 21^st!

Camilla from Culinary Adventures with Camilla shares “Cantina Paltrinieri Radice Lambrusco di Sorbara 2018 for #WorldLambruscoDay”
Wendy Klik from A Day in the Life on the Farm posts “A Dry Lambrusco?! Well, yes please”
Nicole Ruiz Hudson from Somms Table adds “The Lighter Side of Lambrusco”
Pinny Tam from Chinese Food and Wine Pairings brings “A Dry Lambrusco from Riunite with One-Person Shabu-shabu Dinner“
Jeff Burrows from Food Wine Click! writes “Classic Aperitivo from Emilia-Romagna”
Lynn Gowdy from Savor the Harvest says “Time for Lambrusco”
Gwendolyn Lawrence Alley from Wine Predator suggests “Celebrate Summer with a Dry RED Sparkling Wine: Lambrusco to the Rescue!“
Deanna Kang from Asian Test Kitchen showcases, “A Gluten-Free Brunch Paired with Lini Labrusca Wines”
Terri Oliver Steffes from Our Good Life joins with “5 Things I Learned about Lambrusco and the Best Food Pairings “
Susannah at Avvinare will showcase “Versatile Lambrusco, A Wine For Every Mood”

Sources and Resources

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.

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

Kill Hill Pinot Noir – struggling vines making concentrated wine from Lenné Estate

Jun 2, 2021

Steve Lutz didn’t start out planning to be a winemaker. Wine found him.

He grew up in Colorado and planned to be a lawyer. In college at the University of Oregon, he had his first real experience with wine. He applied to law school and worked for a bit for an oil company, but always came back to that wine. Learning about wine was his calling. He packed up and moved to Napa.

He worked at Beringer, Franciscan, Inglenook, and Merryvale in the tasting rooms and cellar for a decade. Needing a change (and likely having that entrepreneurial spirit) he opened a pizza place in Santa Rosa. It was then that he met his wife Karen.

Four years in he sold the pizza place and he and Karen spent a year in England. Then returned to Oregon where Steve went back to work in the wine industry. That entrepreneurial urge was still there, and they started looking for a property where they could build a house and start a vineyard.

The origin of the name Lenné Estate

“People often ask about the French origins of Lenné. Then, I tell them it was born from a chicken farm west of London, England, in the small town of Wokingham.”

The Estate is named, in a fashion after Steve’s father-in-law. Karen’s father Lenny, passed away shortly before they purchased the property. It’s a much more complicated story than it initially sounds.

Originally the winery was to be named Nashgrove Lane, after the Lane that passed by Lenny’s chicken farm. Then one day Steve was looking at a photo of Lenny, it is the profile shot that you see now as a sketch on the label, “Lenny,” he thought, no “Lenné”! As he says he “French-fried” the name. He could not wait to tell Karen when she came home.

Karen was not as enthusiastic as he had anticipated. Her father was a difficult man and they had not had the best of relationships. But, he had stowed away some money that upon his death became an unexpected inheritance for her and her two siblings. It was that inheritance that allowed them to purchase the property in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. It took some time, but Steve convinced her, and today the bottles of Lenné bear a sketch of Lenny’s likeness.

Lenné Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir

This wine is the smallest production wine that they make at Lenné Estate, sourced from the highest elevation block with the poorest of the poor soils on the site. When we talk about poor soils, these are soils that make the vines dig deep to find nutrients. The name Kill Hill is because many vines don’t make it. The mortality rate on this block is the highest on the estate. In the first year, they lost 30% of the vines.

Luckily this mortality rate is only for the vines, although early on there is a story of Steve rolling their tractor on this steep section of vineyard. I guess there are multiple meanings here.

These vines are clones Dijon clones 114 and 667. You’ll find here in Oregon, that Pinot Noir clones are blended to build out the complexity of a wine in the same way that they blend Cabernet and Merlot in Bordeaux. Pinot is a transparent grape that shows off the place it is planted so a variety of Pinot Noir clones allows a winemaker a bit of room to play.

Lenne Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir and pairings

Steve notes that the Dijon 114 is all about red fruit with bright acidity and the 667 is more structured and intense.

The grapes coming from these tortured vines tend to be small, which gives you a greater skin to juice ratio when making wine. They are also very concentrated. You might think of Pinot Noir as a light to medium-bodied wine. Here at Lenné Estate and especially here on Kill Hill, they tend to have a bit more body.

My notes:

The 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir hit my nose with dusty cocoa powder, then black cherry, raspberry, and blackberry. There was a bit of bramble, a whiff of fresh eucalyptus leaves on a tree, wet stone, and a bit of steaming coffee. Behind that was a bit of cedar then savory notes and a bit of tobacco.

In my mouth, I found black cherry and blackberry with more of those mocha notes.

125 Cases Produced – 14.1% abv – $60 SRP

Finding a Pairing for the Lenné Estate Kill Hill Pinot Noir

The winery noted “blackberry, raspberry, and mocha” in the aromas and flavors of the 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir, so I ran with that as I composed my recipes.

Pinot Noir is often subjugated to lighter meats, chicken, pork, and fish. I knew this wine would have more body than a typical Pinot Noir, so we went with beef, but kept it light doing a bacon-wrapped filet, then doing a pan sauce with a bit of the wine and blackberries.

For our side, I wanted to play on the coffee notes in the wine. We roasted carrots in salt and coffee…well, coffee, and coffee grounds (reduce reuse recycle people!).

We finished with a super simple salad of spring greens and sliced almonds that I dressed with olive oil, balsamic reduction, salt, and pepper.

Did the pairings work with the Kill Hill Pinot Noir?

Hell to the Yeah! These were not complicated dishes, but they stayed true to the notes in the wine and the pairing was delicious.

The coffee salt-roasted carrots had this great sweetness that worked with the wine and the coffee notes blended the food and wine seamlessly. The Pinot has enough acid to cut through the fat in the bacon on the filet. The savory notes in the wine elevated the beef and then the berry notes in the sauce bringing it all together

We finished the evening with some store-bought brownies, that also were wonderful with the wine.

We also had an unexpected dinner guest.

Lenne Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir with pairings

Lenné Estate produces between 1500-2000 cases annually. The poor soils give the wine concentrated flavors. The wines see around 35% new French Oak and are filtered before bottling.

Their wines are available primarily through their website and in their tasting room. As you can see these wines are not available in huge quantities. They are special wines and worth seeking out. When you have one, you have something special in your hand.

You can visit their website https://www.lenneestate.com/contact to schedule a tasting. They are typically open from Thursday to Monday. They also have vineyard tours and as the world opens up again, they will likely be back to doing some seminars and other events that you can find on their site. You can also reach them in the tasting room at 503.956.2256.

They are located at 18760 NE Laughlin Road, Yamhill, OR 97148

Not too long ago we tasted the Lenné Estate 2018 Scarlett’s Reserve Chardonnay. It was a beautiful wine. You can read more about that at

Lenné Estate – Poor Soil, Hardworking Grapes and a Beautiful Reserve Chardonnay

More on Oregon Wines from Crushed Grape Chronicles

Filet Mignon with blackberry Pinot Noir sauce

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Filet mignon is a decadent meal, but it's worth a splurge. We did a blackberry Pinot Noir pan sauce to drizzle over the filets and make this a perfect pairing with an Oregon Pinot Noir from Lenne Estate.

Ingredients

2 tbs oil (neutral or olive)
2 bacon wrapped Filet Mignons
½ pint of fresh blackberries
¼ cup Pinot Noir
1 small shallot (finely chopped)
2 tbs butter

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425° F
Put the blackberries in a blender and puree
Pour the berries into a fine-mesh sieve. Press through to remove the seeds. Discard the seeds and save the juice for your sauce
Heat a rod iron skillet over high heat.
Add 2 tbs of oil and swirl to coat
Sear the filets for 3 minutes per side.
Do a quick spin to sear the bacon, (think of rolling a tire around your pan)
Place in the oven for 3 to 4 minutes to finish cooking
Remove the steaks from the pan and let rest under tented aluminum foil for 5 minutes, while you make the sauce
Pour all but 1 tbs of the oil from the pan, but keep all the crunchy bits that will add flavor to your sauce.
Return the pan to medium-high heat
Add the shallots and the wine to deglaze the pan stirring up the crusty bits in the bottom
Reduce by half (3 minutes)
Add the blackberry juice/puree reduce slightly
Turn the heat to low and whisk in 2 tbs of cold butter
Serve over the rested filets and garnish with fresh blackberries

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 463Total Fat 37gSaturated Fat 12gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 22gCholesterol 83mgSodium 311mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 5gSugar 5gProtein 17g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

Salt and coffee roasted carrots

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Roasted carrots get an earthy update, roasted in salt and coffee. This recipe is great for reusing coffee grounds! The carrots are roasted, buried in a combination of coarse salt and coffee grounds. The mixture also makes for a fun presentation, the carrots on top of the coffee and salt, looking as if they were just pulled from the dirt.

These went beautifully with the Lenne Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir, which had notes of coffee also.

Ingredients

6 carrots, remove the green (use that for pesto)
1/3 cup of coffee grounds
¼ cup of course salt
2 tbs Olive oil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450°F
Toss the carrots in olive oil
Mix the salt and coffee (grounds) in a small bowl
Place the carrots in a glass dish side by side
Cover with the salt and coffee mixture
Roast the carrots for 15 minutes
Reduce the heat to 275 and continue to roast for another 35 to 45 minutes
Spoon the coffee mixture onto a dish and plate the carrots on top

Notes

I did not save enough coffee grounds for my recipe. No worries, I just added some freshly ground coffee to fill it out.

I also am decaf these days, so my coffee (and grounds) were decaffeinated. It does not affect the flavor.

I happened to have some pink Himalayan salt pebbles that I used. I also added some freshly ground salt and some Pinot Noir salt I happened to have. You can do this with almost any kind of salt, but I do think the coarser, the better.

And don't forget to save those carrot greens! While this is in the oven you have plenty of time to whip up a carrot top pesto!

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 168Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 0mgSodium 14228mgCarbohydrates 11gFiber 4gSugar 5gProtein 1g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

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

Lenné Estate – Poor Soil, Hardworking Grapes and a Beautiful Reserve Chardonnay

May 27, 2021

Poor soils – great wine

Steve Lutz is extremely proud of the soil in his Lenné Estate vineyard. He brags that his vineyard has the poorest soil in Yamhill County. Vines here must work hard and prove themselves to survive.

The Lenné Estate Vineyard covers 20.9 acres of steep hillside with Peavine series soils. This soil is ancient marine sediment and lacking in nutrients so the vines have to dig deep to survive. They don’t always make it, but those that do, well they make some tasty grapes. Small and concentrated these grapes turn into delicious wine.

Steve Lutz of Lenné Estate (photo courtesy Lenné Estate )

The Lenné Estate Vineyard in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA

Located on the East side of the horseshoe that is the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, the vineyard sits between 420-575 feet in elevation. After founding Lenné Estate in 2000, Steve planted the first vines here in 2001. They produce between 1500 and 2000 cases each year.

The style here is mostly minimalist, with the goal to showcase the site with the fruit, letting it develop in bottle.

We received 2 wines from Lenné Estate, one of which was a Chardonnay and we felt it was appropriate to share with you today, which happens to be Chardonnay Day! Now you may have seen some posts earlier about Chardonnay Day, but the official day is not a “date” it is set as the Thursday before Memorial Day in the US. Oh, and it is still Oregon Wine Month! So…

The steep vineyard at Lenné Estate (photo courtesy Lenné Estate)

Lenné Estate 2018 Scarlett’s Reserve Chardonnay

This is only the 2^nd vintage for the Lenné Estate Scarlett’s Reserve Chardonnay. It ages 9 months in oak puncheons then does an additional 8 months “sur lie” in Stainless Steel. That “sur lie” aging gives a creaminess to the wine and a bit of bread or brioche on the nose added to the underlying notes of pear, apple, and something tart and tropical.

The wine is clean, bright, and elegant. Not flashy, but casually poised, and authentic, like a baby grand played in a cabin.

They are primarily a Pinot house, the Chardonnay in the vineyard is just a few rows on the edges. Several rows were planted in the eastern part of the vineyard in 2005 and then more grafted on the eastern side in 2015.

*This wine was received as a media sample. All opinions remain our own.

Vineyard map Lenné Estate (courtesy Lenné Estate)

Lenné Estate 2018 Scarlett's Reserve Chardonnay

Pairing Aromatic Compounds

As I looked for a pairing for this Chardonnay, I wanted to play on the apples on the nose and tie in saffron.

*Geek break: Carotenoids, aldehydes, and terpenes are volatile compounds that give saffron its aroma.

Chardonnay and apples have carotenoids also, so these things work together well.

Baked Basmati Rice with Apple and Saffron

We made a side dish of basmati rice with apples and saffron. This bakes in the oven adding crispy bits and amping up the aromas of the apple and saffron. This dish makes quite a bit! We had rice for days, so luckily it was really delicious. The apples and saffron paired beautifully with the wine. (the recipe is at the bottom)

Sea bass on white beans, cherry tomatoes, and spinach

For our main course, we splurged on sea bass, which pairs well with a crisp white wine. The Lenné Estate Chardonnay was crisp, but it also had some depth from that “sur lie” aging that seemed to call for something a little richer.

We plated our sea bass on a mixture of white beans, cherry tomatoes, and spinach cooked in chicken stock, with fresh thyme and a splash of lemon. The beans gave just the right weight to the dish and worked beautifully with the creamy notes in the Chardonnay.

We did a dessert pairing also. Well, not everything can pair perfectly. Sadly the sweetness of the dessert made the wine too acidic. (Keep in mind, it is the food that changes the wine, not the other way around. You should also make sure the wine is sweeter than the food, to avoid the wine being perceived as too acidic).

Nonetheless, this dessert did pick up on all the notes from the dinner and the wine, it stays thematically in line, just don’t sip the wine while you enjoy it.

Stuffed apples with rabri

This recipe by Tarla Dalai played to both the apple and saffron that I wanted and they are beautiful. Apples are cored and cooked in a simple syrup with saffron, stuffed with a sweetened mixture of cottage cheese (or paneer) and pistachios, and served on a lake of rabri, a North Indian sweet of milk sugar and saffron.

This evokes the flavors of this Lenné Estate Chardonnay, with the tartness of the apples and the richness of the rabri.

Want to know more about Lenné Estate?

Feel like you want to know more about Lenné Estate and its wines? No worries, we look forward to sharing more of this winery’s story with you soon, as we taste the Lenné Estate 2018 Kill Hill Pinot Noir.

Until then, you can visit their website at https://www.lenneestate.com to order wines and learn more about them. If you happen to be in the Willamette Valley and want to visit, you will find details on reserving a tasting and their current hours here.

It’s Oregon Wine Month!

We did not drink nearly enough Oregon Wine this month, there are so many amazing wines in Oregon to enjoy! Check out what is still happening in the Willamette Valley to celebrate, as well as what is happening beyond in the rest of Oregon at the Oregon Wine Board Site! (check out their #PourItForward campaign on Instagram & Twitter, where you can find videos of Winemakers paying it forward, tasting and describing another winemaker’s wine!)

10 servings

Baked Basmati Rice with Apple and Saffron

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

This dish beautifully combines tart apple and apricot with the aromas of the fragrant basmati rice and saffron. Sliced almonds and chopped pistachios add crunch. This cooks briefly on the stove, but most of the time is in the oven, where the rice will crisp up on the edges adding another texture to the dish.

It is based on a recipe from FoodandWine.

Ingredients

¼ tsp saffron threads
¼ cup warm water
7 tbs unsalted butter
1 medium white onion
2 cloves of garlic
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
2 ½ cups basmati rice
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 tsp salt
2 green onions
1/3 cup of sliced almonds
1/3 cup pistachios
8-10 apricots
1 Granny Smith apple
¼ tsp Fresh ground black pepper

Instructions

Finely chop the onion
Mince the garlic
Slice the green onions thinly (only the white parts)
Quarter the dried apricots
Set aside
Preheat the oven to 375°F
Crumble saffron into ¼ cup warm water and let it stand for 5 minutes
Heat a large skillet
Melt 4 tbs butter
Cook the onions and garlic on med heat for about 7 minutes
Stir in the cinnamon
Add the rice & stir to coat
Add the chicken stock
Add the saffron & its liquid
Season with salt
Bring to a boil
Transfer to a 9 x 13 glass baking dish
Cover with foil and Bake for 45 minutes
When the rice is done, set aside with its foil still on to cool slightly
Core the apple and slice it into 1-inch pieces, leaving the peel on. (I know this seems big, but trust me it works in the final dish)
Melt 3 tbs of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat
Add the green onions and cook for 30 seconds
Add the almonds, pistachios, and apricots and cook for 2 minutes. The apricots will just be starting to brown.
Add the apple and cook just for 1 minute until it is warm.
Stir this into the rice in the baking dish, scraping down the sides where the rice has browned.
Place in a large bowl and serve family-style.

Nutrition Information

Yield

10 servings

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 231Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 24mgSodium 275mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 2gSugar 7gProtein 6g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

2 servings

Sea bass on white beans, cherry tomatoes and spinach

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

This recipe marries the freshness of the fish with the warm savoriness of the beans. It is quick and easy to make. We went with 2 larger sea bass fillets, but you could easily cut these in half and serve 4.

This paired beautifully with an Oregon Chardonnay from Lenne Estate.

It is based on a recipe from Cooking Light.

Ingredients

2 (8-oz.) sustainable skinless sea bass fillets
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
5 garlic cloves, sliced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
2/3 cup unsalted chicken stock
1 (15-oz.) can unsalted white beans (Great Northern White, Cannellini or Navy Beans any will do), rinsed and drained
5 ounces fresh baby spinach
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions

Heat a non-stick skillet big enough to hold your fillets of seabass over medium-high heat.
Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper
Add 1 tbs of olive oil to the skillet and swirl to coat
Add the fish cooking 3 minutes per side
Remove the fish and tent with foil to keep warm
Heat 2 tbs of olive oil in the skillet again over medium-high heat
Add the sliced garlic and cook until golden brown, stirring often (about 1 minute)
Add the thyme and tomatoes and cook for 1-minute stirring often
Add the chicken stock and beans and bring to a simmer.
Add the spinach a handful at a time, stirring until it wilts.
Squeeze in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper
Plate the beans in the bottom of a serving dish, and serve with the seabass on top
Garnish with extra sliced cherry tomatoes and fresh thyme

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 428Total Fat 23gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 18gCholesterol 31mgSodium 607mgCarbohydrates 33gFiber 9gSugar 4gProtein 26g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

4 servings

Stuffed Apples with Rabri

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Sweet rabri (a milk sweet from Northern India) makes the bed for these saffron poached apples with a sweet filling of paneer and pistachios. These are the perfect balance of tart and sweet, crisp and creamy. This is based on a recipe from Tarla Dalal.

Ingredients

4 small apples
1 2/3 cup sugar (divided)
1 cup water
10 saffron strands (divided)
¼ cup crumbled paneer (or cottage cheese)
¼ cup chopped pistachios
2 tbs powdered sugar
2 2/3 cups of milk

Instructions

Dissolve 5 saffron strands in 1 tbs of water
Combine sugar and 1 cup of water in a deep pan, mix and boil stirring constantly
Add the saffron mixture and mix
Pull off the heat
Core the apples
Add the apples to the syrup and mix well
Simmer 5-6 minutes till apples are soft, turning twice
Remove and drain apples
Mix the paneer or cottage cheese with the pistachios and powdered sugar
Divide the filling into 4 portions and stuff each apple
Heat the milk in a non-stick pan and simmer stirring constantly until reduced by 1/3
Add the sugar and saffron and mix well.
Simmer 15 min until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is thick and creamy
Just before serving heat the rabri and place the stuffed apples in the mixture and heat
Serve immediately.

Notes

Ideally you would have an apple corer for this job. If, like me, you don't have one (and I couldn't find one at the grocery store!) you can use the old school method my husband taught me that his grandmother used. From the top of the apple make 4 cuts with your paring knife straight down through the apple. Turn the apple over to be sure you can see your cut in the bottom. Push the core out (you might have to check and see if the square is bigger on the top or the bottom, push from the smaller side toward the larger side, if this is the case).

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 574Total Fat 9gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 18mgSodium 185mgCarbohydrates 120gFiber 5gSugar 103gProtein 9g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

Wine Tasting

Kind of Wild Wines

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Grilled Edible cheese plate!

Finding Kind of Wild Wines

More great wine stories from Crushed Grape Chronicles

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2020 Luminesce, Estate Seven Hills Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley

What the 2020 Luminesce tastes like

Update on the vineyard

Pairing with the Luminesce

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition Information

Yield

Serving Size

Did you make this recipe?

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Now onto the wine in the Wild!

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Txakoli

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L’Ecole No. 41 Grenache Rosé

Alder Ridge Vineyard

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So what to pair with this lovely Grenache Rosé?

What do you get in the glass?

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More about the wines of Washington and L’Ecole No. 41

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Bells Up

Bells Up 2018 Titan Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley.

#ItalianFWT and wines to celebrate Lambrusco Day on June 21^st!