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Amazon puts a cork in plans to sell wines online
Amazon.com, that mega-giant online purveyor-of-just-about-everything-you-ever-want, has decided the task of selling wine online is too much for even that Web wizard’s staff and recently announced it won’t be in the wine market, after all.
It appears the mystifying hurdles of the three-tier system, not to mention the lingering, 76-year-old shadows of Prohibition, pushed Amazon to drop its plans to distribute wine through its subsidiary, AmazonWine. A test program had been up for about a year, testing the logistic difficulties of dealing with 50 states and their widely varying regulations and limitations.
As wine-industry specialist John Fredrikson said in a story on the Web site for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, Seattle-PI.com (see link above), “People have no idea how complex this is, dealing with 50 different (state) governments. You wonder if a company like Amazon, which is well organized to sell just about anything, can’t pull it off. But wine is different from anything else they are selling.”
Wine, indeed, is different, and Jeff Siegel, who writes the always-entertaining blog The Wine Curmudgeon, ventures Amazon’s withdrawal from the front line of the wine wars has to do with the lingering effects of Prohibition. You can read his comments here.
Amazon’s decision will let many distributors breathe easier since it eliminates one more attempt at weakening the three-tier system, which has both detractors and supporters. Online wine sales haven’t done well, although one of my favorites sites, Wine Till Sold Out, appears to be doing well.
In the final analysis, it might have been the business model, which only on the surface seemed quite capable of selling fermented grape juice, that signaled Amazon’s reluctance to continue. As Fredrickson noted in the Seattle-PI.com article, “It’s a very complex business which doesn’t seem to fit the Amazon model.”
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Snow brings changes to weather, wine
The calendar says it’s still fall but the 2 inches of snow covering my lettuce, basil and cilantro thumbs its collective nose at the calendar.
I’ll have to salvage something from the garden tonight before it really freezes. The cold snap in late September that sent temperatures down to 28 degrees didn’t take everything, although the basil certainly looks the worse for wear. But tonight, if the clouds leave and the skies clear, my gardening might be finished for the year.
This column has something to do with wine, honest. I’m making the same transition to winter as the rest of the world around me, and it like most everything else it takes me a while to adapt to changing temperatures, shorter days and more-substantial meals.
I start slowly, not always out of necessity but of choice, because there are some wonderful wines that go well with the slide into winter’s dark hours.
Leaving behind the sauvignon blancs of summer, I turn to something with more body and heft, such as the lightly oaked 2007 chardonnay from the Frank Family Vineyards.
I visited the Frank Family cellars a few years ago with friends from the Katherine Jarvis Communications firm in Los Angeles and recently Sarah Warner of Jarvis sent me a sampling of the Frank Family’s latest offerings, some of which aren’t yet available here.
The chardonnay was yummy, with flavors of lime, pears and white peaches along with a hint of minerality. The oak is present but pleasant, not obnoxious, indicative of California’s much-awaited move away from the over-oaked bombs of a few years ago.
Rich Frank, former Disney executive and now a successful Napa Valley winemaker, during a visit in in 2007
The wine’s a bit pricey for this recession-minded writer ($32.50 on the Frank Family Web site and $28 elsewhere online) but if you want to splurge for a holiday white wine, this might be the one.
You can read an interesting take on the Frank Family Vineyards here and here.
More on transition wines next time.
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Early frost pushes growers to pick
Colorado’s major wine-grape regions - the Grand Valley and West Elks AVAs - are scrambling to to adjust picking schedules after record-low temperatures late last month and into the early days of this reminded everyone that life is a matter of balance.
Vineyard worker Carlos Adan picks riesling grapes at Avant Vineyards in Palisade as harvest continues following an early fall frost.
In several places along the Colorado River, which runs through the Grand Valley AVA, temperatures dipped to 27 or 28 degrees, up to 13 degrees below normal. Those cold marks were of pretty short duration - maybe an hour or two - long enough to concern growers but not enough to freeze the grapes.
“We got frost in some areas but it was really spotty,” said grower Bruce Talbott of East Orchard Mesa. “There was some damage here but most things are pretty well finished. It’s inconvenient but not a big deal.”
When frost kills the leaves, the vines shut down and grapes don’t ripen further. Growers want to get the grapes off the vines before the grapes start to dry out, called “raisining,” which changes the taste profile of the grapes. Plus, frosted leaves dry out and pickers have trouble keeping them out of the crush.
Some growers, such as Nancy Janes at Whitewater Hill Vineyards, a longer hang time for some grapes is preferable. She’s hoping for a little raisining to raise brix ( a measure of dissolved sugar in the grapes) for her Zero Below late-harvest chardonnay.
“We sometimes let them hang for 10 days after the frost and they can reach 34 brix, which is really high,” said Janes. Since the first frost normally doesn’t arrive in the Grand Valley until mid- to late October, nearly a month of so later than this year, the grapes can hang an dditional four weeks or more.
“Yeah, a month and half can really change the flavor profile,” Janes said with a laugh.
She’s doing a lot of things right. Her 2008 Zero Below Late Harvest Chardonnay took a gold medal at the 18th annual Colorado Mountain Winefest.
Several Grand Valley winemakers buy riesling grapes from the North Fork Valley growers, but those grapes are being harvested early this year because temperatures there dropped to 24 or so. Picked early, the riesling won’t be as ripe, with less sugar (lower brix) and higher acidity.
This means Grand Valley riesling will hang a little longer to develop more sugars to balance the acidity in North Fork riesling.
Riesling grapes hang among frosted leaves
“Our riesling usually isn’t this late but we’re trying to get a few more brix,” said winemaker Jenne Baldwin-Eaton at Plum Creek Winery in Palisade. “Usually the riesling comes in before the Bordeaux varietals but with the frost everything had to come in together. Delta County got a little damage in their riesling so some of the growers there brought in their rieslings before their Bordeaux.”
The sudden onset of full-on harvest means crush lived up to its name. Two weeks into it and “we still haven’t caught up,” said Baldwin-Eaton. “Maybe by the end of the month.”
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A busy fall for Colorado wine lovers
It’s been a busy fall and I’ve been somewhat relaxed in my approach to writing about wines. From sampling as many as possible of the 80-some Colorado wineries at Winefest to several distributor-level fall tastings and the early arrival of cold weather, there hasn’t been much break in the realm of local wine news.
I’m not complaining, mind you, because there’s nothing bad about researching and writing about wines (except not having enough time to do everything).
Wine enthusiasts at the Colorado Mountain Winefest surge toward the booth for Denver-based Balestreri Vineyards. Julie Balestreri’s hand-crafted, unfilterd wines are a perennial hit at the Winefest.
The 18th annual Colorado Mountain Winefest fell on three lovely days in mid-September and a record number of wine lovers (roughly 6,800 according to some figures) spent a day tasting and drinking Colorado wines.
I’d love to say I found all the wines great (heck, I’d love to say I thought all the wines were good) but my palate says otherwise. While there are many enjoyable and thoughtful wines, some winemakers prefer over-extracted, too-fruity and high alcohol wines.
I listened during a seminar by Maximilian Riedel while one winemaker bragged about making this type of wine. While these fruit bombs with 16-percent alcohol aren’t what I look for, they enjoyed a large following at Winefest.
For the large part, the state’s wine industry still is at the stage were it’s important to sell out each year to pay for next year’s vintage. It’s like any small business that relies on product turnover to guarantee there will be a product next year.
Some winemakers - Parker Carlson of Carlson Vineyards comes to mind - have discovered a niche wine that pays for “more serious” winemaking. In Carlson’s case, his magnificent cherry wine sells so well he can afford to experiment with his “serious” (his words) red wine.
I don’t begrudge wine makers from making a product that sells, every business owner should be so fortunate to find that product. The lines of people edging toward each booth at Winefest, and the happy crowds lounging under the massive cottonwoods and enjoying a bottle of Colorado wine, was evidence enough Colorado winemakers are doing something right.
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Kids’ Pasta Project serves the comunity
PAONIA — The waitress, sporting a red headband and a colorful apron of many patterns, reached for the glass and then stopped.
“I can’t, I’m not old enough,” she said, withdrawing her well-tanned fingers away from the wine glass. “I’m 11 and a half.”
Even at 11 1/2, Marissa Edmondson showed remarkable poise during her recent stint serving tables at a recent Kids’ Pasta Project dinner at Scenic Mesa Ranch near Hotchkiss.
Marissa was one of the more-experienced youngsters working that night, and as such she was fulfilling her role as model, teacher and confidante to the younger kids.
Marissa Edmondson serves home-made pasta to Elaine Brett during a recent Kid’s Pasta Project dinner at Scenic Mesa Ranch.
“I tell them how to do things and we talk about things like waiting tables and smiling,” she said, gliding quickly away from the table for another trip to the kitchen.
The Kids’ Pasta Project is a unique program originating in Paonia’s kitchens and living rooms that aims to involve youngsters 7-16 years old in serving meals and serving their community.
Each week, a cadre of kids gathers at a local restaurant prepare a home-made pasta dinner, complete with salad, entree and dessert for around $10 per person. Wine, from North Fork Valley wineries, is available and costs extra.
Parents (volunteers all) do the heavy lifting including anything dealing with boiling water, sharp knives or serving alcohol.
Everything else, from making the pasta and sauce to serving the meals to washing dishes and sweeping the floor, is the domain of the small set.
“I really like it,” said Maddie Rubinoff of Paonia, who was able to wait on her “favorite customer,” her father Dan Rubinoff. “It’s hard work but it’s fun and I’ve learned a lot already. It’s pretty cool.”
Fun and work, glued together with sense of community and the joys of eating right, which in this case means fresh and local when possible.
There’s no template for the Kids’ Pasta Project, which originated when four moms in the North Fork Valley pooled their immense energy and imagination.
“Our goal is to give back to the valley,” said Jo Edmondson, one of the founders and mother of Marissa. She cited some stirring impressions gained from Pres. Obama’s inauguration speech and said “his words about ‘doing something for the community’ resonated with us.”
She made sure to say the Kids’ Pasta Project wasn’t political organization but merely a way to get youngsters involoved in the world around them, away from videos and texting and cell phone society.
None of the four founders, including Edmondson, Moni Slater, Jo Feldman and Aki Blake, were professional chefs, said Feldman, who also designed the distinctive headbands and aprons.
“We’re just moms and we know how to cook,” she said.
Much of the ingredients are donated by local producers ranging from organic veggie growers to ranchers raising hormone-free elk and buffalo to major grocery chains and everything in-between.
Dan and Maddie Rubinoff of Paonia discuss the night’s events at a recent Kid’s Pasta Project dinner.
The proceeds from each meal go to pre-selected charities and special causes. The recipients have included a Paonia man diagnosed with cancer but who lacked health insurance, local youth services and others.
The night we visited, the dinner raised $150 for the local chapter of Slow Food, which is a major sponsor for the project. (The local chapter, not Slow Food International. Yet.)
The keys to the success of the Kids’ Pasta Project in a rare moment of contained energy.
There were lots of smiling faces and plenty of energy, all being creatively funneled toward the goal of making people happy and learning something new.
“I don’t think the kids know the strengths they are gaining form this,” said Paonia winemaker Bil Musgnung. “They’re not only learning about food but learning about being confident in their own abilities.” That wasn’t lost on Maddie Rubinoff.
“I’ve learned a lot and it wasn’t so heard to talk to people you don’t know,” she said. “It’s fun to try different things.”
That’s a lesson that more grownups need to learn.
For more information on the Kids’ Pasta Project and future dinners, go here or email: kidspastaproject@gmail.com.
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August wine events for open space
It’s not often you can help preserve open space and world-class views by sipping fine wines and nibbling great foods but August is not an ordinary month and land preservationists are not ordinary people. Two special events benefitting local land trusts take place this month, both which aimed not only at entertaining you but educating you, as well.
The first is the Mesa Land Trust “Dine in the Vines” experience 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. Aug. 20 at Red Fox Vineyards, the beautiful Palisade home of Ken and Kathryn Stubler.
The second event takes place that same weekend, on Aug. 22, when talented chef and innkeeper Yvon Gros of Hotchkiss opens the expansive Provencial-style grounds of his Leroux Creek Inn and Vineyards to supporters of the Black Canyon Land Trust.
The Mesa Land Trust dinner will feature a rustic family style meal by Chef Jean Barbier of Le Rouge restaurant and a very capable winemaker in his own right. Wines will be supplied by Parker Carlson of Carlson Vineyards and by Garfield Estates Vineyard and Winery. A silent auction will feature the work of artists Malcom Childers, Charles Morris and George Callison.
“Ken and I are excited to have the opportunity to help raise awareness for the Land Trust’s mission of preserving agricultural lands, wildlife habitat and open space in and around Mesa County,” said Kathryn Stubler, who manages to run a business and maintain one of the most-fascinating herb-and-vegetable gardens I’ve seen in western Colorado.
The Stublers grow several varieties of grapes, and although Ken constantly swears he’s going to quit because it’s too much work, they’ve become a valuable source of carefully grown grapes for home winemakers.
This should be an entertaining event and knowing the Stublers, it certainly won’t be a stuffy affair. Take your sense of humor. Tickets and information are available from Mesa Land Trust at 263-5443 or online at www.mesaland.org.
On Aug. 22, the Black Canyon Land Trust partners with Leroux Creek Inn and Vineyards to present “Taste The Valley,” a daylong celebration of cooking demonstrations and food and wine tastings. Featured chefs include Gros and guest chefs Johannes Busch and Heath Stone from Johnson and Wales Culinary School in Denver.
Chefs Johannes Busch and Yvon Gros will serve elk and buffalo at the Black Canyon Land Trust’s “Taste the Valley” on Aug. 22.
Meals will feature local-raised elk and buffalo (livestock raisers Dave and Sue Whittlesby of High Wire Ranch) and new ideas for using local vegetables and fruits. A special guest will be author Eugenia Bone, whose latest book is “Well Preserved,” a collection of small-batch preserving techniques and 90 recipes perfectly suited to the home shopper at local farmers’ markets.
Wines will be presented by North Fork Valley wineries. Food demonstrations and tastings will be from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. with a private wine tasting to follow. A suggested donation of $75 per person will go to the Black Canyon Land Trust. Information: Black Canyon Land Trust, 970-252-1481 or e-mail info@blackcanyonlandtrust.org.
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West Elk wine weekend
If you’re stumped for something special to do this weekend, head over Saturday and Sunday to the North Fork Valley.
The West Elks Wine and Culinary Alliance and the wineries in the West Elks American Viticultural Area are hosting the West Elks Wine Trail, a two-day tour of wineries, vineyards, orchards and the lush gardens around Paonia and Hotchkiss.
Spend your days on a self-guided tour of the local wineries, where you’ll find special food-and-wine pairings, recipes and complimentary wine tasting. If you’re diligent enough to collect recipes from at least five of the area’s wineries, you will receive a free wine glass.
Winemaker Eames Petersen of Alfred Eames Cellars will be participating in this weekend’s West Elks Wine Trail.
Wineries participating in the festivities include Alfred Eames Cellars, Azura Winery and Gallery, Black Bridge Winery, Delicious Orchards, Leroux Creek Winery, Liliputian Winery, Stone Cottage Cellars and Terror Creek Winery. The wineries will have their tasting rooms open from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day.
Also, each of the five Wine Trail wineries is offering a special wine dinner or event and while some dinners are sold out, others still have openings available. Yvon Gros, the talented chef and winemaker at Leroux Creek Winery, said as of Sunday there still were a few seats unfilled for his five-course dinner ($55) Saturday night set in the Provencial atmosphere of his gardens. Information: 970-872-474.
For other events, please contact the individual wineries.
Azura Winery and Gallery — “Tapas at Twilight,” 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. Saturday, $25. 970)-390-4251.
Alfred Eames Cellars -— Barrel tasting and dinner on the deck, 5 p.m., Saturday. $35, limited to 12 persons (sold out) 970- 527-3269.
Black Bridge Winery — Dining in the vineyard, 6:30 p.m., Friday $30. 970-527-6838.
Leroux Creek vineyards — “Dine in the Vines,” local North Fork Valley products featured in a five-course French meal. Limited to 30 guests, $55, all inclusive. 970-872-4746.
Liliputian Winery -— Wine-making event at the winery, noon, Saturday and Sunday. Tasting room open 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.. 970-872-3019.
Several of the above wineries, including Leroux Creek and Alfred Eames Cellars, aren’t shy about using organic methods to grow their grapes and low-intervention methods to make their wines.
These aren’t organic wines, rather they are wines made with organically grown grapes. There seems to be more interest in organic wines, which most of us understand as wines made without added sulfites.
Sulfites occur naturally in grapes and winemakers add more sulfites during the wine-making process to help stabilize wines and give them shelf life. Many of the early ventures into organic wines weren’t very successful because without added sulfites the wines simply didn’t last long.
You had to drink these wines young, usually within the vintage year, because they lost their fruit or went flat. Some winemakers have figured out how overcome that problem by making delicious organic wines that have a decent shelf life.
Some new rules governing the production and labeling of organic wines were unveiled last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service and the Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Now, winemakers considering organic wines will have to say whether the wine also contains non-organic ingredients and if so, what the percentage is of nonorganic ingredients.
Also, the wine must meet one of the four basic National Organic Program Organic Categories for alcohol beverages:
— “100 percent Organic” has all organic ingredients with no chemically added sulfites.;
— “Organic” has at least 95 percent organic ingredients with no chemically added sulfites;
— “Made with Organic (ingredients here)” has at least 70 percent organic ingredients and may contain added sulfites;
— Products containing less than 70 percent organic ingredients and products not processed by a certified organic handling operation may only disclose organic content in a non-conspicuous “Organic Ingredients Statement.”
Along with the ingredients statement, wine declared organic also must carry a separate statement revealing the percent of organic ingredients in the bottle.
Before a wine can be certified organic, the winery must go through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s certification process for organic producers. No process, no certification, even if the contents are 100 percent organic. The complete rules may be read here.
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Guy Drew, Cortez
Dinner Friday night at Dava Parr’s Fresh & Wyld Farmhouse Innin Paonia was highlighted with meeting winemaker Guy Drew of Cortez. Guy’s vineyards are in McElmo Canyon, an archeology-rich canyon that runs from just west of Cortez in way southwest Colorado to the San Juan River near Bluff, Utah.
Guy Drew, right, raises 18 acres of wine grapes along McElmo Creek near Cortez in southwest Colorado.
Guy built his first career selling “material handling equipment” (that includes pallet jacks, dollies, all that stuff you need in a warehouse) then sold that business in 1997 to plan for his next adventure, this one as a winemaker. He developed his taste for wine by the age of 23 and really spent most of his corporate career working for the time he could retire from his first career and start his second, winemaking.
After looking around the West for his future home, including a stop in Oregon (which he considered too cold), he and wife Ruth decided on southwest Colorado. They bought a hay ranch along McElmo Creek in 1997 and moved full-time to the area in 1998. Since then, they have have planted 18 acres and nine different varietals on their high-altitude (5,700 feet) 154-acre ranch.
If you’ve ever driven through southwest Colorado you know the area around Cortez can be awfully dry outside the irrigated lands. However, the soil is very fertile and farmers and ranchers discovered quickly that if you can get water, you can grow just about anything.
“My place is tough to grow grapes but it grows great fruit,” said Guy, who also sources some of his grapes from other vineyards ranging in elevation from 5,00 to 7,000 feet high. In addition to wine grapes, Guy and Ruth also grow tomatoes, peppers, corn and melons for personal use and to sell at their farmer’s market.
Guy said he began “with a wish list of wines I like to drink” and spent time learning which of those varietals would grow in the semi-desert climate of southwest Colorado. “My original thought (and the plan he sticks with) was to plant grapes and work from the fruit they gave me.”
He brought two of his wines for dinner, a 2006 Metate (a field blend of roughly 80 percent cabernet sauvignon, 18 percent cabernet franc and 2 percent petite verdot, $30) and a 2005 Meritage, a blend of 53 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 cabernet franc and 22 percent petite verdot, ($19). The Metate is named for the many grinding stones Guy turned up while working his fields, stones left more than 1000 years ago by the Ancient Puebloans.
His distinctive labels, which feature a stone point, also reflect the immense archeological history of the Four Corners region.
Both wines are dark and rich, with good balance and plenty of fruit and paired well with the braised leg of lamb we were served. There is a real sense of terroir, a smell and perhaps a subliminal feeling of the dusty, dry country that comes alive with flavors and fruit when you judiciously add life-giving water to the parched soil.
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Old Burgundy on review
ASPEN - There are many reasons to attend the Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen, just as there are many reasons to partake of good wine and great food beyond the simple pleasures of enjoyment.
I won’t belabor the point that some people unfairly diss the Classic for its air of apparently unbridled consumption, an argument that falls apart when you realize how much control (both personal and legal) is manifest by the attendees and those running the Classic. And a general softening of the “It’s my money, I’ll spend it any way I like” was particularly noticeable this year after many Food & Wine Classic regulars were stung hard by the financial contretemps of one Bernie Madoff.
The latter point in some way might have played into my favor, something I realized after finding myself sitting in a seminar on vintage Burgundies from the house of Remoissenet Pere & Fils. In “normal times” (whatever those might be) these Reserve Tastings would be played to full houses but this year an opening unexpectedly appeared and I sat down as fast as possible.
The tasting was led by the knowledgeable and very low-key Bartholomew Broadbent, a man who’s credentials and lineage are as impeccable as that of Remoissenet itself. The tasting featured a fascinating vertical of Remoissenet’s Clos Vougeot (“reverent wines,” Broadbent described them), including a 1952 that came from Broadbent’s personal cellar.
Apparently Broadbent, with his Oxford diction and wind-swept shock of light brown hair, is a bit of a pack rat, or maybe cellar rat is more appropriate. He said he’s fond of burying newly purchased cases of wine under older purchases, an attempt to hide the new wines until they are ready to drink.
Unfortunately, what sometimes occurs is he loses track of some cases, as happened with the 1952 Clo Vougeot. “I had completely forgotten about it and found it when I moved,” he told the audience. “I might have found it too late.”
While still quite pleasant and drinkable, the wine was starting to show its age, wearing a bit more of the brickish color one sometimes expects from older Burgundies. Panelist Robert Simpson said the wine still showed “oriental spice and soy sauce” aromas while David Schofield admired the “layers of fleeting aromas” including a faint whiff of vanilla but said the wine finished “a bit short.”
Other wines in the Clos Vougeot tasting included a 1955 (very pale in color with hints of violets); 1957, from a generally poor vintage but this wine was terrific, with scent of roses and maple; 1959, at 40 years old a marvelous, no-tannin wine from what Simpson described as “one of the greatest vintages ever,”; 1964, earthy, dark cherry and plum nose, flavors of dried strawberries and plenty of tannin and acidity; and a 1969, a gorgeous wine at its peak from another great vintage.
We also sipped from a 1978, 1985, 1997 and a 2007 Clos Vougeot. It was a lifetime of education and experience crammed into 90 minutes by Broadbent and his panel, which also included Pierre-Antoine Rovani, the former “Wine Advocate” writer who now works for Remoissenet.
Rovani summed up the tasting when he said, “When learning about Burgundies, take everything you know about wines and throw it out.” Don’t be afraid, he implicity was saying, to start over with a clean slate. It reminded me of a recent writing by Italian Wine Guy Anthony Cevola on his blog, “On the Wine Trail in Italy.”
Cevola is one of the most-thoughtful and provoking (in a grand and fascinating way) bloggers writing about wine and life, and recently he wrote: “Just once, try and approach a wine you think you know really well and imagine you have lost your memory of it. Maybe that is the essence of blind tasting. But instead of trying to find markers, imagine this is the first time any wine has ever passed your lips. Learn to forget.”
You can read the entire blog here.
But the point is terribly valid whatever you’re tasting at the moment. I read somewhere that a good wine critic is one who can appreciate a well-made wine even if it’s not a wine the critic particularly likes. Leave the old prejudices (pro and con) at home, you might be surprised at what you find.
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Day 3 - Aspen redux
ASPEN - I forgot to add yesterday when talking about Michael Chiarello’s presentation on sustainability that he also talked a great deal about cooking, which makes sense since most people know him from his cookbooks, appearances on the Food Network and his St. Helena, Cal., restaurant, Tra Vigne (which, if what little Italian I know holds up, means “between the vines” or “between the vineyards”).
One of his points, among many, was there’s a big difference between taste and flavor, a thought he was getting to ready to expand before he was sidetracked by something else. It was a curious and thought-provoking statement, reflective of his well-known quote (it’s on his NapaStyle Web site here) that “It’s not about the taste but the experience.”
Could we say the same thing about wines, particularly wines with a story (tradition, family, memories) behind them? I think of all the indigenous varietals I tasted at VinItaly, many of which never make it to the U.S. but which have rich histories accompanying them, as well as some of the small-production winemakers trying to make something special, hanging on to the past while making wines for today?
It’s a marvelous topic for future posts but for now, back to Aspen. It’s always a struggle to decide which of the events to attend during the Food & Wine Classic. I sat in on Jacque and Claudine Pepin’s “Fast Food Our Way” and came away (again) impressed with their message that good food and fast food can be the same thing, as long as a bit of care, ingenuity and love go into the making.
“My food is usually easy and fast to prepare, but it is not processed food,” Pepin said. He emphasizes using fresh ingredients, organic when possible. There was the usual bantering and good-natured rivalry between le pere et lal fille plus more of Jacque’s impeccable knife skiils. Claudine once referred to her father as “the human food processor” and if you’ve seen him wield a knife you know what she means.
Then it was off to watch Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger demonstrate some of his Asian fusion (my description in lieu of anything else) techniques.
During his presentation, he chatted as if we were sitting across his kitchen work table, which we were, although there were a couple hundred of us hanging on to his words. Among the gems were: — Potstickers were actually a mistake that came about when a Chinese chef forgot and left some dumplings cooking too long; — Judaism predates the Chinese culture by 300 years, which left Ming to wonder, “Where did all the Jews eat for 300 years?” — and his recommendation to use box wines for cooking since it doesn’t oxydize like bottled wines.
I didn’t try any boxed wines during the weekend but gave the bottled varietals a good go. I’ll tell you about some of them next time.
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Day 2 — Spheres of influence at Aspen Food & Wine Classic
ASPEN — The rains returned late Friday night but quit sometime before dawn, a fact I only learned this morning from a giddy couple still heading home after a night on the town. They both were soaked, although more from something in their Reidel glassware rather than anything falling out of the sky.
The main focus this weekend for many attendees of the Food & Wine Classic does seem to the be near-endless list of parties being hosted from Starwood to the top of Aspen Mountain. It’s a grand life but it does get in the way of actually attending one of the dozens of seminars and demonstrations featuring many of the top names in food and wine.
If you’re determined, however, you can have it both ways, as renowned Napa chef and winemaker Michael Chiarello demonstrated during his seminar on sustainability titled “The Farm-to-Fork Connection: Creating a Sustainable World at Your Table.”
“Is anybody else suffering a red-wine hangover this morning,” asked Chiarello, an opening line that brought a murmur of agreement from the crowd. “But we’re pros, right? We can do this.”
Chiarello and organic gardener Peter Jacobsen, whose Jacobsen Orchards near Yountville in the Napa Valley supplies greens and other veggies to the French Laundry restaurant, emphasized the “spheres of influence” we each have in making choices on where and what we eat, decisions completely personal but with immense impacts on the world around us.
“Eating is an agricultural act,” said Jacobsen, quoting poet and farmer Wendell Berry. “And (author) Michael Pollan called it ‘voting with your fork.’”
He urged everyone to become a farmer. “Plant some basil, get involved in the agricultural process,” he said, “Commit creative acts of gardening. Take one small step for farming.”
We each had a glass of Chiarello’s zinfandel at our seat and he asked us to pick up the glass, swirl, sniff and sip. “You can smell the soil inside this wine,” he said. But Chiarello, who organically farms 20 acres in the Central Valley, said the switch to better food production (better being my term, meaning fewer pesticides and chemicals) won’t be easy. “It took me seven to nine years” to change-over his farm to organic although “after five years we were seeing everything come to life. “Once the soil came alive, I was getting the same yield” as the non-organic producers, he said.
But it’s not enough to say you’re sustainable simply because you’re organic, Chiarello warned. “Sustainable is not just organics; part of sustainability is reducing your reliance on other things,” Chiarello said.
Like, umm, tequila maybe. During an earlier panel discussion on vintage Burgundies, Canadian wine merchant Robert Simpson blamed “a night of tequila” on his foggy manner although he rallied like a trooper during the 90-minute seminar.
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Day 1 — Aspen Food & Wine Classic
ASPEN - It’s Day One and the rains that turned Colorado’s high country into a wildflower paradise took Friday off, just in time for the first day of the three-day 27th annual Food & Wine Magazine Classic in Aspen.
You live in the mountains long enough and you expect the unexpected, whether it’s 50-degree weather in March or snow showers in July.
But even the glitterati of Glamour Gulch found the incessant series of toad-stranglers a bit depressing, as one local remarked while waiting for a cup of coffee, “It’s been 40 days of rain and Noah’s building a boat in my alley.”
The week leading to the Classic ended on brilliant sunshine, a perfect high-country welcome to the much-anticipated weekend of seminars, parties, demonstrations, more parties and high-profile star-gazing.
It’s a world, just like that of big-time sports and politics, where everyone who is anyone is known by his or her first name. Walk down an Aspen street or linger in a cafe and you’re bound to encounter (or at least gawk over) Mario or Bobby or Michael or Jacques and Claudine in the food end of things as well as just about every wine writer and blogger you might imagine.
And like the other celebrities that often appear without public fanfare in this private town, not much is made of their day-to-day wanderings.
You can get plenty of gossip and star-worship at the parties but while those gatherings certainly are the hottest topics for local chatter and a sort of spirited competition to see how many you can crash, they really aren’t the reason for attending.
Each year I’m amazed me at how much knowledge and passion for wine and its many mysteries and attractions is gathered in one small venue. The most difficult decision is which seminar or demonstration to attend.
Do I hear about Italian wines or Spanish? Washington reds, Napa cabernet, great value Burgundies or spicy Rieslings? Do you watch Jacques and Claudine Pepin prepare “Fast Food Our Way” or listen to Michael Chiarello and organic farmer Peter Jacobsen talk about sustainability and the “Farm-to-Fork Connection”?
On that opening morning, bereft of direction on a sea of temptations, a stroke of luck found me in a seminar on vintage champagnes sponsored by the Champagne house Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin of Reims, France. Founded as Clicquot in 1772 by wine merchant Phillipe Clicquot, by 1775 Clicquot became the first Champagne house to ship a rosé Champagne.
Sparkling flutes with vintage Champagne from Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin
But in 1805 his son Francoise, then head of the company, died prematurely and left the company to his widow, Barbe Nicole Ponsardin, who became the “veuve” (widow) of Veuve Clicquot. Madame Clicquot decided to stay at the company’s reins and in 1810 changed the name of the company to Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and that same year produced the company’s first vintage Champagne.
She was known not only as a good business person but also an innovator. She invented the technique of riddling, hanging bottles upside down and occasionally turning them so the sediments can be removed, leaving a wine that’s clear and sparkling.
Among the selections were two Rare Vintage releases, a 1985 and 1988 rosé (to compare with a recent non-vintage rosé and a 2002 rosé) along with a stunning 1978 rosé.
The seminar was led by renowned wine importer Bartholomew Broadbent, who in 1997 was named one of the 50 “most influential in the wine world.”
Broadbent reminded the audience that older Champagnes, just like older Burgundies and other fine wines, change constantly in the glass and cautioned us that no one knew what to expect, particularly from the 31-year old Champagne.
We weren’t disappointed. The 1985, from a very small vintage due to exceptionally cold weather that killed or damaged many vines, still had fine bubbles and flavors of red fruit, earth and spice.
The 1988 (both wines were disgorged in 2002 after the company decided to sell part of its vast library of wines) carries a nose of dried fruits, flowers and what only can be described as terroir.
And even the 1978, darkened by age to the color of sherry, was rich and earthy, with a hint of what panelist David Schofield described as the land in which the wine was grown.
“Only Champagne can smell like this,” said Schofield, holding the glass deeply to his nose. “You can smell the chalk the vines were rooted in.”
More next time on the Food & Wine Classic and my time with Grand Junction grape growers (and soon to be winemakers) Neil and Diane Guard.
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Taking a chardonnay break
I’ve been drinking a lot of sauvignon blancs the last couple of months. The weather started out in March and April warmer than usual, which makes me crave chilled white wines instead of the deep reds of winter and fall. But a couple of weeks ago everything changed back to spring instead of the high-desert summer and I went looking for something a bit more substantial.
About then, I found in my mail a bottle of the J 2006 Chardonnay from Sam Dependahl at J Vineyards and Winery in Healdsburg, Cal. That year was the first year for their new winemaker, George Bursick, and the 2006 vintage clearly has Bursick’s talents all over it. Bursick, who also carries the title Vice President of Winemaking, is well-known in the wine industry with his 30-plus years of experience in winemaking, winery design, vineyard management, just about anything an industrious and inquisitive winemaker might delve into.
I was fortunate to meet Bursick in early 2007 shortly after he came over to Judy Jordan’s Russian River Valley operation and have to admit I wasn’t sure what to make of him. I was aware of his reputation as a talented winemaker but what I didn’t expect was to find someone so approachable and friendly, willing to share as much information as I had the knowledge to ask about, which admittedly wasn’t much.
No state secrets changed hands, that’s for sure, but he gave a handful of writers an extended tour of some new vineyards and explained his goals for the future of J wines. We were looking at a Pinot Noir vineyard when someone asked Bursick about the challenges the moody grape offers. Well, he said slowly, it’s true no one owns Pinot Noir. “If you want to do it right, you can’t cut corners and you can’t lower your standards,” he said. That was his modus operandi, he said: Get the details right and everything will work out.
Without daring to speak for Bursick, I’d say the future nearly is here. I was earlier impressed with his Pinot Noir and now the 2006 Chardonnay proves to be lively and fresh, without any of the over-bearing oak flavors too many California chards fell into in the last decade or so. Just enough oak to act as a subtle condiment, enhancing rather than overpowering the flavors of green apples, citrus and hints of caramel in the wine.
It’s a bit pricey, $35 or so, and in these times that price point isn’t moving quickly off the shelves. But as investor Warren Buffett often has said, quoting economist Ben Graham, “Price is what you pay; value is what you get.”
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The wine and bison dinner
It’s not often you get the opportunity to eat something that’s still on the hoof. You’d have to be a real carnivore (and likely awfully hungry) to get that close to your meal but there we were, eating bison (it was cooked) while some of the meal’s relatives were watching us balefully through a double-wire fence.
It was the second annual “Wine and Buffalo” dinner at Dave and Sue Whittlesey’s High Wire Ranch on Rogers Mesa about 35 miles southeast of Grand Junction.
The Whittlesey’s have been raising grass-fed bison since 1981 and elk ranching since 1987, so they are two of the more-experienced “alternate livestock” raisers in western Colorado. Incidentally, even though their Web site (and nearly everyone else) refers to the big, furry animals wandering the pastures as “buffalo,” both Dave and Sue will tell you the temperamental critters really are bison.
The difference? While both bison and buffalo belong to the same family (Bovidae, for those interested), true “buffalo” are native only to Africa and Asia.
Chef and winemake Yvon Gros serves some of his bison dishes at the “Wine and Buffalo” dinner held recently at High Wire Bison Ranch near Hotchkiss.
The bison diner was paired with wines from Yvon and Joanna Gros’ Leroux Creek Vineyards, located about a mile down the road from the ranch. Yvon, a classically trained French chef-turned-winemaker and innkeeper, lured several of his chef friends up from Denver to participate in the weekend events.
There were appetizers and entrees featuring various buffalo (oops, bison) dishes and Yvon’s distinctive wines, particularly his unique hybrids, the French-bred Chambourcin (red) and Cayuga (white), both grown organically at his vineyard.
It was a fascinating meal, if for no other reason than how often do you get to sample bison skirt steak roulade, a brochetté of bison medallions and grilled bison sirloin steaks? This certainly wasn’t the meal for vegans, although the local produce (from North Fork Valley farmers including TLC Greenhouse in Paonia) provided a fine balance for those who eat less meat.
The chocolate desserts were provided by chef and chocolatier Johannes Busch, a long-time fiend of Yvon and the pastry and confection instructor at Johnson & Wales University in Denver. Later that evening, accompanied by yet another glass of Yvon’s wine, Johannes gave a few of us late-night lingerers an insight into the fervors shared by true chocolate devotees.
“You savor chocolate, you don’t just eat it,” commanded Johannes, sharing with us tiny pinches from a prized bar of dark chocolate he had recently “smuggled” into the country after a visit to Europe. And the next morning, during breakfast at the Leroux Creek Inn, bakery chef Ron Levallee, also from Johnson & Wales, talked of baking at high altitude and shared some his pastry tricks.
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Spring brings barrel tasting
The Hostess and I spent the weekend at what seemed a virtual sprint but an enjoyable one, nonetheless. The schedule began Saturday with us chugging around the valley for the second weekend of the “Barrel Into Spring” tasting event sponsored by the Grand Valley Winery Association, a fun annual event that this year seemed more-crowded than ever.
Officially limited at 190 people per weekend (it originally was a one-weekend event but demand grew to where another weekend recently was added), this year there were enough winelovers partaking in the hospitality that another weekend might be added soon.
At least that’s what we were told by one winemaker, but until the announcement is official It’s best I not say who said it. We tasting some interesting wines, some not-so-interesting wines and some wines best forgotten. That’s to be expected no matter where you go in the wine world, and the Grand Valley is no different in that respect from Napa, New Zealand or Europe.
Winemaking remains mostly art with a bit of science (it seems chemists make pretty good winemakers) thrown in to balance the left/right sides of the brain.
But one thing you find everywhere is the passion to make great wines, even if you know the path ahead of you is fraught (that’s a Jeremy Parzen-sounding word, isn’t it?) with peril.
This year’s Barrel Tasting was the usual mix of education and delicious food. Jenne Baldwin-Eaton, winemaker at Plum Creek Winery, arranged a well-conceived and well-executed display of wine glasses each holding a different scent to give guests a better idea of what aromas they might find in wine.
And Parker Carlson of Carlson Vineyards, had the incomparable food of Grand Junction’s Il Bistro Italiano to accompany his wines. His Tyranosaurus Red is made from Lemberger, a medium-boded red wine that paired well with the lamb Ron Hall was cooking.
Parker and Mary weren’t present this year but instead were in Wisconsin on their annual business/fishing trip. It seems last year Mary caught the bigger pike on the trip, something she was quick to share with us on their return.
Speaking of Dr. P, he, Alfonso and Susannah have written some lovely words about Abruzzo, recalling the terremoto (earthquake) of six weeks ago and the resilience of the Abbruzzesi people.
I’ll touch on that a bit later.
And oh, yes, there was this wine dinner at a bison ranch. More on that, too. I’m off on another assignment.
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Terremoto at VinItaly
On the road, northern Italy - It’s early on April 6 and the voice, not the words, of the radio announcer on Italy’s Radio Uno that alerts me something is changing. My Italian is limited, mostly to wine-related topics and that mostly to when the speaker takes it easy on me.
But the news of the earthquake in Abruzzo isn’t easily hidden even by a language barrier, and it’s not long before I’ve pulled off the road to listen. “Terremoto, megnetudo 5.8,” says the voice and the latest results say 287 dead, including 20 children.
This sign, almost a premonition, was seen in a booth at VinItaly
The news shocked the final day of VinItaly 2009 and some friends still at the show said winemakers from the Abruzzi region hurriedly left for home, casting long looks at the road ahead, both literally and figuratively.
The spirit of VinItaly, while certainly one of intense deal-making and bargaining for the future, also is one of high-spirited fun, with the enjoyment of wine at the center of life. It’s also a reflection of the Italian love for the good things in life, including their love of their families and the sanctity of personal spirit. Much of that spirit was subdued with a simply shrug of the Earth’s shoulders.
We can’t do much but offer our meager condolences and best wishes to our many friends and acquaintances made during VinItaly and wine trips through central Italy. And our prayers for the people who feel the pain of loss.
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Day 4, Vinitaly
Tramin, Italy - This town lies smack in the Alto Adige region of northern Italy, the home, at least the historic home, of Gerwurtztraminer, the spicy white grape and wine that gives so much delight at so little cost. It’s late and I’ve arrived after spending most of the day purposefully wandering the aisles of VinItaly with Susannah Gold, author of the delightful blog avvinare.
Was it the weather or the economy that kept crowds down at VinItaly?
VinItaly seemed a bit less crowded this year, although less crowded is a relative term when it comes to Italy’s largest wine fair. Still, the Sunday morning rush never seemed to start until late in the day, and even then it wasn’t as big as expected. “It’s early, Sunday morning is always slow,” Susanna Crociani of Azienda Agricole Crociana advised on our first stop.
Susanna Crociana of Montepulciano and her delightful wines
Susanna Crociani’s winery and agriturismo is in Montepulciano, that southeastern region of Tuscany about where the “knee” of the Italian boot might be found, if you look with an imagination. Among the eight wines she makes are an elegant Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG and Rosso di Montepulciano DOC, both blends of 90 percent Prugnolo Gentile, (a clone of the Sangiovese grape that dates back at least to the 18th century), 15 percent Canaiolo Nero and 10 percent Mammolo, the differences being the respective aging times demanded by the DOCG and DOC regulations.
She’s carrying on a family winemaking tradition that began with her great-grandfather and over the generations was handed to her grandfather, her father and her brother. But life is not without its mysteries, and only a couple of years after her father Arnaldo died, last year Susanna’s brother Giorgio died unexpectedly and she took the winery and the business.
“I’m a one-woman show,” she said with a sweet laugh, one not without a bit of sadness.”I used to write a blog, too, but now I’m just too busy for that.” She said Montepulciano “is one of the oldest wines in Italy you can find reference to in books. We’re right in the middle (of famous wine-making regions), with Chianti on one side and Brunello on the other.”
She also blends Rosso d’Arnaldo, named for her father, that include 70 percent Sangiovese, 10 percent Canaiolo Nero, 10 percent Mammolo, and 5 percent each of Malvasia and Colorino. And then there’s her “il Segreto di Giorgio,” this wine based on a “secret” barrel she discovered last year in the family cellar.
“I asked Giorgio what was in it and he said it was a secret,” she recalled. “Then, two weeks later he died. I was looking at the barrel and decided to make Giorgio’s wine. He never told me what was in the barrel so I called it ‘The Secret of Giorgio.’”
She eventually discerned what the barrel contained and each year will make another batch of Giorgio’s secret wine. It’s a delightful red with round tannins and the bright fruit of Sangiovese (hey, this is Tuscany, remember?) but don’t ask the exact blend.
“I can’t share Giorgio’s secret,” Susanna steadfastly maintains.
And she’s looking for a U.S. importer, if anyone wants to take the chance on some delightfully satisfying wines made with the tradition of Montepulciano and a lot of family love.
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Day Two, Vinitaly
VERONA, Italy— April 3. The rains returned today to this city of Romeo and Juliet and a walk around the Coliseum was washed out along with some of the expected crowds at VinItaly, the largest wine fair in Italy and possibly the world.
There are 3,500 or so exhibitors here this year, a mere smidgen of the estimated 27,000 commercial wine producers in Italy. And that does not come close to including the millions of Italians who grow a row or three of grapes for their home winemaking.
The schedule here is full of meeting wine makers preserving their tradition in small batches, less than 25,000 bottles a year. Of course, here, too, are also are the Mionettos of the Italian wine world, a giant Prosecco maker who bottles more than 8 million a year. Gallo of California produces 1 million 12-bottle cases a week, in contrast.
I will have more as the week goes on, the fair ends Monday but on that day I have a meeting in Magrè, a villagio in northern Italy, where the food and language is German more often as Italian and the wine predominately is white. I am off to met winemaker Barbara TAmburini, who at 34 is one the hottest winemakers in the country, twice voted Winemaker of the Year, something nearly unheard of in a country of male winemakers..
I also will try to figure out this European key board, which does not seem to include an apostrophe……
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Day 5: Italy 2009
CARPESICA, Italy - Some early thoughts during this year’s trip to Il Bel Paese…
“Welcome to sunny Italy,” said winemaker Santé Toffoli with a rueful laugh Tuesday as we watched the rain splash onto the rolling hills of his already soaked vineyard in Refrontolo, Italy. It’s been raining in northern Italy for four or five days, just about since I walked off the plane Friday in Milan. Just a coincidence, that’s all. Honest.
This small village (at the risk of being redundant, yes, but it IS small) at the foot of the Alps is on the Strada del Prosecco that snakes through the hilly north-eastern part of Italy roughly from Conegliano on the east to Valdobbiadene on the west. Prosecco DOC as its known, a name that will change sometime this year when DOC turns to the more-restrictive DOCG, a change eagerly awaited by Prosecco makers here.
I’m here for VinItaly, or at least waiting for VinItaly (which starts Thursday in Verona, about 90 minutes away) while I visit friends made in January at the VINO 2009 show in New York City. Santé is one and I’m staying for a couple days at the B&B owned by Cinzia Canzian and Umberto Cosmo, who also own Alice (Cinzia’s) and Bellenda (Umberto’s) wineries. They, too, produce Prosecco and quite lovely it is.
The rain, for me being a desert boy, is nice change although the winemakers, being farmers at heart, are ready for some sun to push their grapes into action. Two years ago I was here about this time and there already were buds forming, an early spring that Santé called as “mad, mad.”
“Everyone here said they’d never seen anything like it,” he recalled as we sipped his 2008 Prosecco Extra Brut, one of only two or three extra brut Proseccos made (umm, since it’s more than one that means it’s Prosecci in l’Italiano), since Santé pointed out most people prefer the dry or extra dry. “Traditionally we harvest Prosecco in mid-October, that year we were done by end of August.”
Much talk around here of President Obama and Obama campaign buttons are often seen, as if the election hasn’t ended. When people discover I’m American they all want to share their thoughts on the future of America. So far it’s all positive and they’re hopeful America can carry out a recovery that includes Italy.
It was sunny for a few hours this morning and you could see fresh snow on the mountains but by nightfall the clouds were low, the wind chimes were ringing and drops fell against the windows. The weather can’t make up its mind, swinging back and forth as the Earth turns toward summer.
There’s much to explore, and lacking a GPS on my rental car (a Fiat about the size of a small refrigerator) I’ve seen a lot of Italy I didn’t initially plan to see. But it’s all fun and I learned several years ago to smile and stumble through my rough Italian. As one woman told me in Asti, while she practiced her English, “don’t be afraid to make a mistake. People don’t expect you to be perfect.”
Or as one of my yoga instructors reminds us every class, “it’s about progress, not perfection.” Now, if only I could successfully navigate the photo downloads on this laptop… The church bells in the tower 100 yards away just clanged 10 p.m. More from sunny and not-so-sunny Italy soon… Ciao for now.
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A wine with a taste of spring
It’s springtime in the Rockies, no matter what the calendar says. Ski season began in December with a blast of snow across the state but the rest of this winter never lived up to the promise of last year when most ski resorts were reporting record snow falls.
We spent Thursday skiing Telluride, where the weather was decidedly undecided on whether it was winter or spring. A little snow, a little sun, a little wind, more snow, more sun, more wind, etc.. The temperature never got warm enough to soften the snow but the coverage was great and the skiing equally so.
All that means is the Ides of March have brought more snow to the mountains while white blossoms already have appeared on my apricot tree, which also means those blossoms are likely to be wiped out by a late frost. I’ll be picking apricots from someone else’s tree again this summer.
That early advent of spring weather has us thinking of spring and summer wines and particularly Sauvignon Blancs. These easy to like whites wines have caught our late-winter fancy and when the Hostess and I stopped for dinner at Cazwella’s in Montrose (the Web site is www.cazwellas.com but I can’t get the link to work) on the way home from Telluride, we chose a Plum Creek Winery 2005 Colorado Sauvignon Blanc, with its bright citrus and hints of lemon, fig and melon and reasonably priced at $23 (about $11 retail).
We’ve been sampling Sauvignon Blancs for a couple of weeks, starting with a 2008 Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvingon Blanc the Hostess snapped up ($12.99) on a whim and a great whim it proved to be. This is a lush Sauvignon Blanc, with lots of citrus (mostly grapefruit with lemon and lime and what New Zealanders call gooseberry), high acidity and what I consider a pure version of a New Zealand-type Sauvignon Blanc.
As a comparison, we opened a Casillero del Diablo 2008 Sauvignon Blanc from the Chilean winery Concha y Toro and imported by Banfi Vintners. The interesting story behind the name Casillero del Diablo, which means Cellar of the Devil, is explained on the Concha y Toro Web site.
Their Sauvignon Blanc, however, needs little introduction. Crisp and clean, lots of lemon grass, melon and a bit of white peach, this affordable ($9) wine from Chile’s Central Valley (the historic farming area south of Santiago between the Andes and the Coastal Range) was a delight to drink with a light dinner. Somehow Gracie Slick the black cat managed to hold still long enough to pose next to the bottle.
There are some delightful Sauvignon Blancs coming out of California, where the wine sometimes is known as Fumé Blanc, a term invented in 1968 by Robert Mondavi when he introduced a dry version (dry for California, anyway) of Sauvignon Blanc. As the story goes, Mondavi’s company borrowed Fumé Blanc from the French Loire wine Pouilly-Fumé (say pwee foo-may) which at the time was enjoying some success in the U.S.
Mondavi never patented or copyrighted the name so it became an accepted identifier for American-made Sauvignon Blancs. We’ll talk more about some French and California Sauvignon Blancs next time. More information on Sauvignon Blanc wines may be found here.
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To be Fresh and Wyld
The Hostess and I spent Friday skiing the steep but not-so-deep of Telluride, a lovely day of confused weather (blowing snow and cold, cold wind alternating with spring-warm, sunny skies) and then hied off to Paonia for dinner at Dava Parr’s wonderful farmhouse inn, gardens and bed-and-breakfast called Fresh and Wyld.
Dava’s an extremely talented and down-to-earth chef, having earned her burns serving some of Aspen’s high rollers for more than two decades before deciding to move to Paonia and start her own business.
Dava Parr at the breakfast stove, her smile bright as ever
This cozy burg along the North Fork of the Gunnison River has a strong organic, local foods movement and Dava builds her frequent dinners with a fervent desire to serve fresh, local good-tasting foods in a family atmosphere.
Friday’s dinner was one of the regular Friday night meals. The meals are severely underpriced ($15 adults, children under 4 feet eat for $8) for the quality and variety they offer and they are served early so the locals can go out to the local watering holes or the theater after.
A recent kitchen menu (not this week) at Dava Parr’s.
I said dinner was at 6 p.m. but we didn’t arrive until about 6:30 after the drive from Telluride. A bit late but our excuse (no, it was our reason) was we stopped after skiing for a drink at the old Sheridan Bar, a regular feature of the Telluride post-ski routine.
Meals at Fresh and Wyld are served community style and you can bring your own wine, which makes it seem truly a family meal. We enjoyed Bill Muscnung’s Bethlehem Cellars 2006 Syrah (a blend of 60-percent Syrah and 40-percent Cabernet Sauvignon) with our meals.This week’s menu consisted of High Wire Ranch buffalo lasagna, Thistle Whistle Farm salad with a vegetarian option of lasagna with butternut squash, mushrooms and spinach. The lasagna was home-made and we tried both versions. Dessert was an apple crisp and house-made gelato.
The High Wire Ranch buffalo lasagne and Thistle Whistle Farm salad served as part of Friday night’s communal dinner at Fresh and Wyld Farmhouse Inn.
Dava makes her own pasta, mozzarella and buffalo sausage (among so many other delicious items). I’m not sure if the salad really had thistle in it but it was pretty tasty, especially after a cold day of skiing. Summer dinners are held outside, weather permitting, and if there’s not a wedding set up in the garden.
There also is an active local Slow Food group in the North Fork Valley and you frequently see members of the group attending Dava’s diners. Her philosophy about food and eating are closely aligned with Slow Food and are topics for later blogs.
It’s almost spring in the North Fork Valley, and all the snow I shuffled through on my visit last month (did I mention Fresh and Wyld is a regular part of the schedule?) is long gone, with hints of green grass taking its place.
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Great project and great coverage!! It gives me faith that our future will be in good hands with kids like this.
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9/29/09 Go Casey. One of our greatest contributions to a complete life involves service to others, hopefully for the benefit of a worthy cause. Grand Daddy is proud of you.
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What a great idea! I will plan on making it up to one of those - thanks for the info! Great project for kids.
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