Day 8 of our 12 Days of Wine found us doing a late night pairing. We met Leah Jørgensen of Leah Jørgensen Cellars this summer and had a wonderful conversation with her about her wines and so many other things. You can find all that info here.
Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Blanc de Cabernet Franc,
One of the unique wines that she makes is a Blanc de Cabernet Franc. She had run into one of these in the Loire Valley and decided to make one from Oregon.
Tasting notes: A most unusual white wine that first comes across as quirky, but then mellows into a truly distinctive beauty. Offers aromas of lemon, rosemary,beeswax and gradually gives way to deeper fruit aromas as it is exposed to air— ripe nectarine, blood orange and honey. There is even a note that recalls lilacs. Ultra-smooth texture and medium body, with some minerality on the finish. A wine with a lot of grace. Drink young. Recommended for: Summer sipping on the back patio. With food, I’d aim for roasted chicken or cedar-planked salmon.
Opening a bottle – What is Blanc de Cabernet Franc Like? May 11, 2016
While it wasn’t summer, we wanted to enjoy this bottle young.
I had to work, but when I returned at almost midnight, Michael had a feast set with a cedar-planked salmon in maple and spices, rosemary bread with goat cheese, and a fruit and cheese plate complete with two goat cheeses, one honeyed, the other herbed, gouda, grapes, prosciutto, blood orange slices and some of that lovely gooey haymarket goat cheese.
Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Blanc de Cabernet Franc, with Cedar planked Salmon
The wine
This wine is really fascinating. You put your nose in the glass and you get tart citrus and pith. It was blood orangey, but after tasting my blood oranges, it was a little more tart, drifting toward pink grapefruit. And then you get peppers, green, but not bell. It really is that a roasted pickled poblano pepper. On the back there was a bit of salinity, and there is that touch of tannins.
This is a wine that starts like a white and ends like a red with a lingering finish.
The pairings
Leah Jørgensen Cellars, Blanc de Cabernet Franc, with goat cheese and blood oranges
Maybe it’s just channeling the Loire Valley traditions, but I found that this wine went spectacularly with all the goat cheeses most especially the honeyed goat cheese. With the gouda? Not so much. With the salmon it was great, holding it’s own against the heavy spices on the salmon, the wood, with the maple helping to round and soften each bite.
Last August we held an event entitled “Crushed Grapes and Open Minds”. My friend RuBen with Act2Art by RuBen is an accomplished artist and created some works specifically for this event. The idea connected scent memory and art, both in the creation of the pieces and peoples reactions to them.
We chose 5 wines, a Champagne (A.J. de Margerie a Bouzy Grand Cru), a Sauvignon Blanc (Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand) a Syrah (Carhartt 2013 Estate Syrah Santa Barbara), 2 Zinfandels (Tobin James 2010 Fat Boy & French Camp Zin) and a Dessert wine (Chateau Megyer Tokaji Aszu 2010)
There was a station for each wine, with a pairing, aroma jars, the wine and of course the associated work of art. Cards to explain the pairings were located at each station.
Individuals bring their personal experiences and memories as they interpret a work of art. Scent memories are similar, an aroma can trigger a very personal memory. Mixing the two and stirring in a little wine and good food can make for a powerful experience.
We asked guests to smell the aroma jars, taste the wine, and look at the art, then jot down a word, a phrase or a memory that came to them.
A.J. de Margerie a Bouzy Grand Cru
We chose this Champagne for the bread on the nose. When we were sampling Champagnes, Cremants and Sparkling wines, we dipped our nose in this glass and got hamburger buns. Yep, hamburger buns. That yeasty smell of bread came across in a very approachable way that we thought would make this wine less intimidating for those new to finding aromas in wine, so it made a great start. This Champagne is mostly Pinot Noir so you also get berries on the nose and so there were scent jars of hamburger buns and berries for people to smell. For a food pairing we matched it with Salty potato chips. The salt and fat are a perfect pairing, the salt making you crave another sip of the champagne and the champagne’s bubbles and acid clean the fat off of your palate after each bite, making every bit as delicious as the first.
The Art – Champagne
Champagne
Some of the responses to this piece: “A perfect first date” “Crisp pears – a cool spring afternoon” “Happy – like a picnic at an apple orchard” “Fields of dandelions – fresh grass” “A beautiful sun shower in late April or Early May”
Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough New Zealand
We had a bunch of Sav Blancs to choose from, but the nose on this one was just captivating! This wine, is not fancy, you can find it in your local grocery store. We had jars of lime, grapefruit, cut grass, stone fruit, and lemongrass and everyone found something different in the wine. We paired this with Guacamole and chips. The avocado is fatty which is nice with the acid in the wine and goes well with the lime and fresh greenness of the wine.
The Art – Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc Painting by Act2Art Ruben Permel
“Blowing out candles on your birthday cake” “Very content and peaceful – smells like our smoothie day” “Blood splatter on the grass from when I split my lip” (I love this childhood memory)
Carhartt 2013 Estate Syrah Santa Barbara
We love the wines from this Winery and Syrah from Santa Barbara is almost always wonderful. These are the same “Carhartts” that make the work clothes. They owned a cattle farm in Santa Barbara that Mike Carhartt turned into a vineyard. His wife Brooke and their son Chase now make the wines and they have my favorite tasting room on the planet in Los Olivos.
Carhartt Syrah
This wine has quite a bit going on with aromas of Black berries, dirt, allspice, tobacco, vanilla bean and beef jerky and we had scent jars with all of these. As to a pairing? Well there is a pig on the label, so bacon was the perfect pairing.
The Art – Syrah
Carhartt Syrah Painting by Act2Art.com Ruben Permel
“The calm after a winter storm – perfect tranquility” Dark – cosmos – blanketing” “Thirsty – the kind of thirst when flying” “A very tempestuous sunset”
Tobin James 2010 Fat Boy and French Camp Zinfandels
Tobin James Zin at Crushed Grape Open Minds Event
We were members of Tobin James for a while and pulled these two older Zinfandels from the cellar to try. Tobin James is in Paso Robles California and their wines tend to be pretty big. The aromas on these were earth, pepper, fruit jam, leather and chocolate. We paired them with chocolate fountain mini cup cakes from Retro Bakery.
The Art – Zin
Zinfandel Painting by Act2Art.com Ruben Permel
“Making a picnic lunch for the family” “Costy – like a warm blanket wrapped around me during the winter” “tobacco warmth – a little earthy – comfortable”
Chateau Megyer Tokaji Aszu 2010
Chateau Megyer Tokaji at Crushed Grape Open Minds Event
Tokaj is an area in Hungary and this wine is made from a grape called “furmint”. This is a wine made through “noble rot” or “botrytis cinerea” a fungus that shrivels the grapes like raisins. The raisins are then made into a paste which is added to a dry base wine. This is a sweet wine with citrus, apricot and honey on the nose. We paired it with Brie and Comte cheese.
The Art – Tokaji
Chateau Megyer Tokaji Painting by Act2ARt.com Ruben Permel
“Oceanside Cliffs on a summer evening” “My first visit to Montreal – wonder and excitement – Christmas eve” “Tending to my fathers garden”
In addition to the wine stations, there was more to eat with a table filled with delicious things with notes to suggest pairings to try with the wine as well as more of RuBen’s beautiful art around the space.
Perfect pairings with wine at Crushed Grapes Open Minds Event
This was an evening of exploration, discovery and animated conversations.
A few years ago we had attended an event at Cold Heaven in Santa Barbara. It was called “a Rhone Scent-ual Experience”.. You can visit the blog post and see the video here “Cold Heaven Cellars – Rhone Scent-ual Experience”.
I was amazed, not only at how wonderful it was to find these aromas from the jars in the wines, but also how excited everyone became. People who had just met (or not even) were excitedly sharing the jars and asking what other people smelled. Inhibitions were gone and people joyfully bonded and shared the experience.
Wine Event
We had done a small event after that with a friend and found again that people loved the scent jars. Putting together these aromas of things they were familiar with and then finding them in the wine glass made people so excited. I remember people speaking for weeks about the wet stones that we had with the Tablas Creek 2014 Vermentino. (check out the blog post on this party here “Wine with friends – A California Tasting & Pairing”)
Tablas Creek Vermentino
Cut Grass Scent Jar
Creating Scent Jars
So I knew we wanted to do scent jars again for our “Crushed Grapes & Open Minds” Event and I did some further research on how other people do them. My go to for stuff like this is Madeline Puckett of Wine Folly and I found a great article here http://winefolly.com/tutorial/make-wine-aroma-kit-30/
I took her advice on the jars and I did find them at Cost Plus. I opted out of the small jars and went for one size larger (which were a dollar more), because they would give me more room for fresh fruit and better visuals. And I did not blend any wine into the jars, I wanted the fresh scents.
We did some shopping and some scrounging to fill the jars. The Champagne had some bread and yeast on the nose that we found reminded us of hamburger buns (I know, right?). And it was a mostly Pinot Noir based Champagne so you got berries and cherries. So our jars here were filled with hamburger buns, fresh & dried berries (I used sliced strawberries, blueberries and dried cranberries) and then cherries, which were defrosted from frozen, because they were out of season.
Hamburger Buns
Starbourgh Sav Blanc and Scent Jars
Starbourgh Sav Blanc
The Sauvignon Blanc had grapefruit, lime, lemongrass, stone fruit and grass. We did slices of the citrus, cut up the lemon grass to release it’s scent. We chopped up a peach for the stone fruit and Michael headed with the scissors to the local park for the fresh cut grass.
Syrah & Scents
Carhartt Syrah
The Syrah had jars with Black Berries, Allspice, dirt (we used a little potting soil here, since backyards in Vegas are not filled with very happy soil), tobacco (I found a smoke shop and got pipe tobacco, which worked but wasn’t exactly what I wanted), vanilla bean and beef jerky (for smoky meat).
Tobin James Zinfandel and Scents
Tobin James Zinfandel
The Zins had jars of earth, pepper (black & white peppercorns), fruit jam, leather (we hit the craft store, chopped it into pieces and added a little water to bring out the fragrance), and chocolate (we used a broken up dark chocolate bar)
Tokaji & Scent Jars
Tokaji
Lastly our dessert wine was a Tokaji. It was just 3 Puttonyons so on the less sweet side. We had aroma jars of dried apricots, citrus (thinly sliced lemon and lime) and a jar of honey.
You don’t have to invest in jars though, you can use wine glasses. If you are doing this with friends, it’s fun to find wines that have unexpected aromas. We had a Magerum Rose that had Watermelon Jolly Ranchers on the nose! The important thing is to have fun with it. Which is what we did, and the people at our Crushed Grapes & Open Minds Event did.
Behind the scent jars in each of the photos you can see a bit of each of the beautiful paintings that RuBen did to pair with each wine. More on that to come.
Check back here at Crushed Grape Chronicles for more on the details on the wines we paired with the Art and our Crushed Grapes and Open Minds Event! You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
And you can find RuBen and his gorgeous art at Act2Art or on Facebook
After our trip to the Central Coast, my friend RuBen asked if we wanted to do a wine & cheese party with him at his house. Well of course! RuBen is the hostess with the mostest and has a beautiful backyard. He also knows wonderful people, who are always a joy to talk to. So….RuBen planned the decor, the people and the over-all menu and I planned the wines and pairings. I spent several days going through and picking wines from our cellar and then finding interesting facts about each and pairing ideas. Here’s what I settled on…
Carhartt Pinot Noir
Carhartt Pinot Noir
Carhatt Vineyards Sangiovese
Tablas Creek Vermentino
Tobin James Fat Boy
Margerum Rose
Laetitia Brut Cuvee
We needed to start with something bubbly, so we pulled out a bottle of Laetitia Vineyard & Winery Brut Cuvee. The winery is in the Arroyo Grande AVA which is just south of San Luis Obispo. We had recently done an Interview on their beautiful property with Heather Muran of the SLO Wine Association. Starting with bubbles is always a great celebratory way to start any event and it’s a great palate cleanser. This wine is made in the Champenoise method and the winemaker says his favorite pairing with this is potato chips! So…that’s what we paired it with. It was fun to talk to people about this wine and have people share with me their knowledge of sparkling wines.
Tablas Creek 2014 Vermentino
Next we moved onto a white wine, but I didn’t want to do a typical Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. Instead we did a Vermentino from Tablas Creek Vineyards in Paso Robles. This winery is known for their Rhone Varieties, and while Vermentino is a little out of the Rhone (although it is grown there under the name Rolle) it is a variety of grape that thrives in the soils and climates you find at Tablas Creek. It is bright and minerally and we put a jar of wet stones next to it for people to smell. It was amazing to see people dip their nose into the glass then into the jar and watch the look of realization and surprise come across their faces. People always think that tasting notes sound so snooty with the wild things sommeliers say they can smell in a wine. Having it right there and smelling it opened their noses to trying to smell other things in the wines! Vermentino pairs great with many things, but unlike so many other wines, it is great with green vegetables, so we paired this with a pesto.
Margerum 2014 Riviera Rosé
Onward now to a Rosé. Rosés are coming back into vogue and you find them popping up everywhere. While you can find rosés made from Pinot, Zinfandel, and even Merlot…I love a Rhone or Grenache Rosé best, with a little watermelon and strawberry on the nose, but dry. That is what we got with the Margerum Wine Company 2014 Riviera Rosé. This Rosé is Grenache with a little Counoise and Cinsault. The Grenache for the most part is done in the saignee method, then a bit of Counoise and Cinsault are added as well as a little barrel aged Grenache. As Rosés notoriously go well with anything pink, we paired it with a prosciutto.
Carhartt 2012 Pinot Noir
It was time now to go a little darker. We pulled out a 2012 Pinot Noir from Carhartt in Santa Barbara. The Carhartt’s are the same Carhartt’s you think of with work clothes. The family owned a ranch in Santa Barbara where they raised cattle for years. Mike Carhartt and his wife Brooke planted grapes on the land and now it is a family affair with son Chase studying wine making and assisting in the process. This particular wine is not grown on their estate but comes from Riverbench Vineyard up in the Santa Maria Valley where they grow some amazing Pinot Noir. We paired this with cheeses; goat cheese, gouda and baked brie!
Carhartt 2012 Sangiovese
We continued with a little more robust red with a Carhartt Sangiovese. This wine was estate grown and smells of cherry, fig, cola, all spice, sweet oak and rose petal. I had a fresh burrata from the Downtown Summerlin Farmers Market that paired perfectly with this!
Tobin James 2009 Fat Boy Zin
I must admit that we don’t drink alot of big reds these days. Most are just a bit too big to pair with a meal. At one time we were members of the Tobin James wine club and we have a bunch of great big fat Zins from them, that I have not yet opened. So…here was an opportunity to open one and see how it was. Did it mellow with age or would it have gone flat and passed it’s peak? We opened a 2009 Tobin James Fat Boy Zin. It is an over the top Zin that Tobin says is “like the best friend you had as a kid; big brash and maybe slightly obnoxious, but always loved!”. This is definitely big with the alcohol level sitting at 15.8%. But indeed, this big boy was loved by many at the party. We paired this with Smoked Gouda, but truly this big Jammy Zin would go best with bold bold BBQ.
Carol Shelton 2008 Black Magic
We ended the eveningstepping a little further north, with a late harvest Zin by Carol Shelton her 2008 Black Magic from Sonoma County. Late harvest wines are those that are left on the vine to let their sugars develop and often they will leave them to raisin on the vine concentrating the sugars even further. This dessert wine screams for chocolate and indeed we paired it with that, but also with a lovely Stilton. The sweet wine and the savory cheese are a perfect combination for finishing an evening.
This was an amazing evening with around 20 people just mingling talking about the wines and whatever else came up and meandering around RuBen’s beautiful backyard with little seating areas tucked here and there. We enjoyed the wine, the company and conversation as the sun set and the stars came out. Yep, wine with friends…what could be better?
Beginning Thursday April 10th and running to Sunday April 13th, the Vintners Weekend is filled with a variety of events.
Thursday there is the Vintners Festival Golf Tournament and the Sta. Rita Hills AVA Dinner & Wine Pairing.
Friday during the day there is a Vintners Wine Education Seminar Series happening as well as vineyard hikes at Beckman, Buttonwood Farm, Baehner Fournier, Hilliard Bruce and Refugio Ranch. That evening you can choose between a Barrel Toasting Seminar with Barrel Tasting or a 90+ Points Top Rated Wine & Dine Event. Other events happening that day include a blind tasting and seminar on Cabernet at Brander Vineyard, a Wine and Cheese Pairing at Brewer-Clifton and a Flying Goat Winemaker Dinner at the La Purisima Mission.
Saturday is the big event with the Vintners Festival Grand Tasting. There will be over 100 wineries and over 50 varieties of wines represented. In addition there are Open houses and other events at many wineries including: Melville, Zaca Mesa, Pence Ranch, Lafond, Alta Maria, Longoria, Brander, Lucas & Lewellen, Foxen & Cottonwood Canyon.
Sunday wraps up with a Farm-to-Table Picnic & Concert. Plus lots of vineyards and wineries will be having open houses, brunches and receptions.
This is the perfect opportunity to explore all the wines of Santa Barbara County, meet the vintners and have a really extraordinary weekend.
Wiens Family Cellars was having a Vertical tasting of their Reflections red blends and we couldn’t go…so we put together a vertical of our own. We had the 2008, 2010 and the 2011. These are of course blends, so they are all a little different, so this a little different from a typical vertical. Typically you would have a single variety of grape or a fairly set blend that you would be comparing from year to year. You would get the differences in the climate and season that affect each year’s harvest. You would also be able to see how the wine ages. We were able to do those things, but the field for comparison was a bit more wide open. Let me take a minute to give you the breakdown on these three vintages.
2008 Reflection is 30% Sangiovese, 28% Barbera, 28% Merlot, 14% Petit Verdot with Alcohol 15.1 and Residual sugar .6%
2010 Reflection is 63% Sangiovese, 14% Cabernet, 14% Syrah, 9% Zinfandel with 14.5 Alcohol and .5 % residual sugar.
So as you can see this blend is Sangiovese based, but that’s about where the similarities end. This makes for a brilliantly exciting tasting! At the winery they are doing “Reflections of the Decades” and they are tasting 6 of these wines, 2006-2011. We somehow can’t find the 2009 so I must have already enjoyed it! At the winery they are doing a decade theme starting with the 60’s for the 2006. I perused their pairings and then went back to the suggestions with the wines. We picked up some Spanish meats and cheeses (yes I know, I could have picked up Italian!). We did a tasting upon opening and then let them breathe for a bit and tasted each with the meats and cheeses. For the pairings we went a little out of order and cooked them for each course. I know it sounds tough, but…we have Trader Joes. So here’s the run down for the pairings:
2010 Reflection with a goat cheese and basil pizza, to which we added a little sage and thyme.
2008 Reflection with Eggplant Parmesan
2011 Reflection with meat lasagna and a spinach salad.
Then we had chocolate cake for dessert and tasted it with all 3.
We found that the wines opened up quite a bit over the course of the evening. I had e-mailed the winery to ask decanting recommendations. Bob was kind enough to get back to me and suggested decanting the 2010 and 2011 straight down into a decanter on the counter top to add as much oxygen as possible. For the 2008 he suggested carefully pouring it down the side of a tilted decanter to give it some space to gently open up. Thanks Bob! Unfortunately, I do not yet own a nice decanter. So…we took the advice the best that we could. We opened up the 2008 and gently poured into glasses and let it air. The other two we got the aerator out and poured them through to add oxygen. On to the tasting!
Early morning touring Tablas Creek Vineyards with Steve Fascinating, Here are the Highlights. All of the vines were sent from Chateau Neuf de Pape they spent 3 years in quarantine before they could graft them to american root stock and plant them. All were grafted in the nurseries on site. They have a staff that monitor’s the vineyards year round so they do not need to depend on over hire during the harvest. They also use legumes as a cover crop to put nitrogen back into the soil, also oats to bring in lady bugs which combat lace wing bugs. The winery is owned in part by the Perrin family of Chateau neuf de pape in france who own the Chateau Beaucastel and Bob Haas who is a wine importer. Chateau Beaucastel does Rhone varietals and found the limestone and climate here on the westside of Paso Robles perfectly suited to growing these varietals. They found 120 acres here in Paso Robles and also farm in an adjacent farm with 160 more acres. They brought 80 cuttings from France which sat in quarantine for 3 years before being approved. They set up a nursery on site and began grafting the cutting to American rootstock. They are for the most part Mourvedre (they have 21 acres of Mourvedre) based with lots of Syrah.
After walking up and looking at the vineyards we went behind the tasting room to look at the limestone wall, which covers the side of the hill which is basically limestone beneath. There is about 6 inches of top soil and the rest is limestone. The 2 foot shales act as a reservoir for the rain. They are turning much of the vineyard to head pruned plants which they find better reflect the terroir. They typically get 2 to 3 tons of fruit per acre. They work hard to maintain high quality compact berries. Head pruned plants while they take more space, produce the same amount of fruit in the same space as trellised fruit. Steve mentioned that the grape roots secrete and enzyme that dissolves limestone allowing the roots to got deeper for water and nutrients. We discussed that this lets them go through more layers of rock and minerals. It has been chemically proven that the vines take in ions and not minerals. So when we say we taste the slate in the terroir, that is not chemically possible, something else is going on there. The vineyards are certified organic and most is meant to be dry farmed. They do have part of the vineyard that is being grown biodynamically. We discussed the care of the vineyard, that the staff is constantly in the fields, clearing, pruning etc… The trellised vines have yet to be pruned and will probably be pruned in February when they are completely dormant. He mentioned that each place where a leaf appeared last year has a bud at the base, which if sliced open would show you miniaturized versions of 3 or 4 grape bunches plush leaves. So next years harvest is already somewhat determined and sitting there on the vines already!
There was a station for each wine, with a pairing, aroma jars, the wine and of course the associated work of art. Cards to explain the pairings were located at each station.
