Before jumping into the menu, I must say that David and Gary at Café Luna were responsible for an amazing evening (for the May 6th dinner). The small intimate restaurant was beautiful, with separate glasses for every single wine and course. The restaurant was alive with energy, and everyone seemed to be excited about the evening. And the foods were truly outstanding! The general consensus was that all of these recipes should be added to the daily menu, and we all left just a hint fatter and whole lot happier!

Enjoy the menu!

Café Luna Winemaker Dinner

Featuring wines from Madroña Vineyards

Contorni

Salad Course

2011 Nebbiolo Rosé paired with Grilled Garlic Shrimp, Black Pepper & Melon Salad

With Fontina Cheese on Greens

Antipasti

Appetizer Course

2000 Zinfandel paired with Asparagus and Gruyere Tart

Roasted Asparagus with Dijon Mustard, Grape Tomatoes & Gruyere Cheese Baked in Pastry

Primo

Pasta Course

2010 Hillside Zinfandel paired with Pork & Fennel Lasagna

With House-Made Ricotta

Secondo

Main Course

2008 Signature Zinfandel paired with Braised Dry-Rubbed Beef Short Rib

Gorgonzola Polenta

Grilled Tomatoes, Garlic Mushrooms, and Roasted Parsnips

Dolce

Dessert Course

2007 Late Harvest Zinfandel paired with Torta Barozzi

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Cake with Dark Cherry/Zinfandel Sauce

One of the great aspects of the El Dorado appellation is that we, as vintners, have the opportunity to grow so many different varieties well, expressing the region’s unique terroir. Similarly exciting is the talent of chefs in the region showcasing the amazing dishes available in our own backyard.

With each Varietal Month, our hope at Madroña is to educate consumers by focusing on one particular variety the entire month. With facts, recipes, tastings and pairings, people can learn the ins-and-outs of each of the varieties.

May will be Zinfandel month for us. The highlights of this month include:

1. Two Winemaker dinners
   1. Café Luna (Placerville)—May 6^th and May 20^th
   2. Maranello’s (Fair Oaks)—May 31^st
2. Wine pairings with our 2010 Hillside Zinfandel and 2008 Signature Zinfandels with selected dishes at local restaurants (including many recipes)
3. A recipe designed specifically for our 2010 Hillside Zinfandel by Chef Sandra Simile—Middle Eastern Spicy Lamb Meatballs served with Pine Nuts and Herbed Couscous
4. Zinfandel blogs explaining aspects of this great variety as well as how we work with Zinfandel at Madroña
5. A Zinfandel question asked each morning on Facebook with the answer given in the evening
6. A Zinfandel celebration in the tasting room pouring a different older vintage every day (1979-2008)
7. Lastly, on weekends we will give the experience of tasting our 2007 Late Harvest Zinfandel with Mimolette cheese (tasting room only)

The idea is simple. Let people experience the wines of Madroña and the foods of El Dorado County while learning about grape varieties. If only all education could be this exciting!

May, 2012

It always amazes me how much talent we have in the restaurants of El Dorado County. Not only do we have exceptional chefs, but the restaurants are interested in showcasing their skills with the wines of the region. So when we started our program of highlighting Zinfandel (arguably the wine of the Foothills), it didn’t surprise us that so many restaurants would want to participate. What did surprise us was the diversity of the pairings, from fish to pastas to heavy meat dishes.

With 19 restaurants signing on, it gives us a chance to experience a different culinary take on Zinfandel pairing nearly every day of the week. As a winery, this simply shows how truly diverse Zinfandel can be. Our Hillside Zinfandel, complex with a rustic edge, is the claret style of Zin. The Signature Zinfandel is all about the texture and richness of Zin.

We look forward to sampling all the pairings below while learning just a bit more about this great variety of Zinfandel!

Placerville Brewery pouring ’08 Signature Zinfandel

Prime Rib (Saturday and Sunday Only)

Specialty Elk Burger

Shilla’s Sushi pouring ’10 Hillside Zinfandel

BBQ Albacore

Lion King Roll (Baked)

Snooty Frog pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Tournedos Rossini

Tilapia sautéed in garlic

Sierra Banquet Center pouring ‘08 Signature Zinfandel & ’10 Hillside   Zinfandel

Filet Mignon

Rib Eye Steak

Specialty Pastas – Thursday only

Cozmic Café pouring our 2010 Hillside Zinfandel

Portabella Mushroom

Powell’s Steamer pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Cioppino “Lazyman” Style

Hey Day pouring ‘08 Signature Zinfandel

Double R Ranch Flat Iron Steak

Coq au Vin

Cold Springs Golf and Country Club pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Bacon Wrapped Filet

Chantara’s pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Salmon Curry

Lamb on the Run

Kobe Sushi pouring ‘08 Signature Zinfandel & ’10 Hillside Zinfandel

Sexy Salmon Crunch Roll

BBQ Albacore Tuna

BBQ Beef Short Ribs – Korean Style

Los Pinos pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Puerco con Frambuesa (Pork Tenderloin)

Costillas de Borrego (Rosemary Rack of Lamb)

Negro y Azul (Marinated Grilled Flat Iron Steak Salad)

Café Luna pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Osso Bucco

Cascada pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Puerco con Frambuesa (Pork Tenderloin)

Costillas de Borrego (Rosemary Rack of Lamb)

Negro y Azul (Marinated Grilled Flat Iron Steak Salad)

Gold Vine Grill pouring ‘08 Signature Zinfandel

Somerset Broil

Pork Chop

Casa Ramos pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Carne Asada y Mas

Burrito Carnitas

Zarapes

Z Pies pouring ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Rosemary Lamb Z Pie

Steak Cabernet Z Pie

Sierra Nevada House pouring ’10 Hillside Zinfandel

Roasted Chicken with Blueberry Apple Confiture

Pear Chutney Pork Chop

Salmon BLT

Fifty Grand pouring ‘08 Signature Zinfandel & ‘10 Hillside Zinfandel

Rib Eye Steak

Filet Mignon

Prime Rib (Thursday, Friday and Saturday)

Zia’s Gelato pouring ’10 Hillside Zinfandel

Lasagna and Hand-rolled Pizza

Tasting Room Activities – Click Here
Purchase Tickets to New-World Port Vertical Tasting at Annabelle’s on February 9th – Click Here
Restaurants participating in New-World Port Month – Click Here
Interesting Port Facts -Port Facts #1-16 (This will be updated daily)
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Stayed Tuned to this blog for more New-World Port News!

Port 101—How to Make an Estate Grown Port (February 9, 2012)

Our own illustrious history with Port-styled wines is almost as exciting as that of England’s love for the stabile wine, Port. One would hope that we at Madroña started drinking the great Ports of the world, fell in love with the style, sourced the vines, planted and nurtured them, and proceeded to make a wine that we believe is amongst the best in the world.  To some degree, that all did happen, just not in that order.

The first Ports* we made at Madroña were produced simply for economic reasons. We had the capacity (with new empty tanks), and another winery had the need. So starting with the 1983 vintage, we began to make Ports under the guidance of Tim Spencer for his winery St. Amant (still, to this day, one of the best Port producers in California). In 1989, we actually bought some of Tim’s wine to make a Madroña brand Port. But it really wasn’t until the year 1996 that we decided that Madroña needed a Port program under the Madroña name.

In 1997, we planted nearly 2.5 acres of Portuguese varieties slated for our new Port program. It was a good decision on many facets. For one thing, my dad, Dick, had a real interest in researching the varieties needed to produce outstanding Port. Secondly, we had recently purchased 240 acres in Pleasant Valley that had on it a 2.5 acre area seemingly perfect for Portuguese varieties (it looks like Portugal with rocky soils and uniquely drier conditions). And lastly, there were very few, if any, wineries consistently making Port in El Dorado county.

Of the countless varieties originating in Portugal, my dad worked closely with Tim in choosing  the seven Portuguese varieties to plant. In the end, we planted Souzao, Alveralhao, Tinta Cao, Touriga, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Amarela, and Bastardo. Of these, only a small amount of the Touriga was planted as we had wanted to plant true Touriga Nacional, and that was difficult to find. (After being told that we would be put on a four-year waiting list for Touriga Nacional through Plant Material Sciences (at U.C. Davis), we sourced the budwood from another vineyard and planted the remainder of the block the following year.)

We had trialed out the market with our 1997 Cabernet Port and had found a real interest in that style of wine. So in 2000, we had our first Madroña New-World Port, a blend of our fruit and that of Tim Spencer. Starting in 2001, the Madroña Ports were 100% Estate Grown, using only our own fruit, and have been ever since.

On a side note, we’d like to answer the question of the name “New-World Port.” We understand that Ports come from Portugal, and we don’t want to take anything away from that. However, there truly is no better word than “Port” to describe a sweet, fortified, after-dinner wine. We needed to find some middle ground where we could use the commonly recognized name of Port without stealing from Portugal. Our solution was to call our wine “New-World Port,” noting that we are part of the New-World of wine (California, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, etc., as opposed to the old world of Europe), but it is a “Port-styled” wine. It has served us well.

And on a side-side note, our use of the term “Port” is grandfathered in. As of 2006, wineries which are producing new Port-styled wines but do not have existing label approvals from the government are not able to use the term “Port” on their labels. Instead these wineries must use a proprietary (made up) name. Ironically, the term “fortified” is also not allowed on wine labels. This is a long-standing policy set by the Tax and Trade Bureau (the government entity that regulates much of a winery’s life). The regulation seems to be partly steeped in the idea that foods are “fortified” (like corn flakes fortified with vitamins) and they don’t want to have any confusion. But not being able to use the term “Port” or “fortified” makes it difficult for wineries to sell these wines.

And to think we once thought that the hard part would be making the wine! Welcome to the wine business!

*Please note that the term “Port” truly designates a wine made in Portugal. We (and everyone else around the world outside of Portugal) make “Port-styled” wines.  But for simplicity sake, I will use the term “Port” instead of “Port-styled wines” in this blog. It just sounds better too!

NEW-WORLD PORT  BLOG – Part 1 (February 1, 2012)

Port 101—How to Make an Estate Grown Port

A Simplified History

Having worked in the tasting room for so many years, I must say the most generally misunderstood wine in our portfolio (no pun intended) is our New-World Port. It seems that many people have a deep-rooted dislike for Port-styled wines based entirely on one “Port” that some relative brought to some family holiday decades ago. I internally shed a tear hearing this, thinking of a life without Port and the happiness it could have brought. The fact is, they have based their entire love/hate of a complete wine style based on one “bad” wine back in 1976.

Grape Harvest, Duaro Valley

When they finally are convinced that tasting our New-World Port in the tasting room won’t subject them years of therapy, their comment is, “I like this!”

The ironic thing is that we, as Americans, tend to think of Port as simply a sweet, alcoholic wine. But the fortification with the alcohol in Port was not originally intended to simply make another style of wine. Instead, its addition played a much more basic function. The higher alcohol of Port kept the wine from spoiling during transport.

To be honest, true Port only comes from Duoro River Valley in Portugal. The Duoro River Valley is the oldest, formally recognized appellation in the world dating back to 1756. But the name “Port” comes from the port city (no pun intended) of Oporto where the Duoro River empties into the Atlantic. The wine traditionally traveled from the wineries downriver through the city of Oporto.

The Duoro Valley, Portugal

Although several European countries were drinking wines from Portugal in the 1700’s, it was England’s thirst for Portuguese wines that drove the modern style of Port. England’s relationship with France, due to things like wars, soured their taste for (or at least their ability to get) French wines. Portugal was a good alternative.

The Portuguese source, however, posed a problem in that the wines often went bad during the long voyage from Oporto. The solution—make the wines more stabile by adding alcohol. It was no secret that at higher alcohols, fewer spoilage organisms (like yeast and bacteria) could survive in such an environment. And being pre-filtration, this was paramount.

Thus, Ports were born because they could travel without going bad! It’s kind of lackluster story, but the product is truly one of greatest wines of the world!

To give you an idea of what’s happening at this time of year, the wines from the previous harvest (in this case, 2011) are all in barrel, slowly finishing up their malolactic fermentations. The fact is, other than topping, there isn’t much to do with these wines (in this case, 2011) until the fermentations are finished (and for some wines this means waiting until spring when ambient temperatures warm enough to ferment once again).

Instead for us, our focus is completely upon the previous, previous vintage (in this case, 2010). These are the wines that we carefully tucked in and put to bed last August so we could put our full attention into the upcoming harvest (in this case, 2011). And harvest we did!

So other than a couple of mid-October and mid-December free sulfur tests and barrel tastings (checking for any issues), our plunge back into the 2010 vintage was almost like a reintroduction to an old flame, remembering what characters made you fall in love so long ago, and the excitement of how they’ve matured.

What a beautiful reunion it was! Composite samples of each of the lots had been pulled, representing every single barrel of the 2010 vintage. The tasting started with a bottle each of 2010 Cab Sauv #1, Cab Sauv #2, Merlot #1, Merlot #2, Malbec #1, Malbec #2, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Syrah #1, Syrah #2, and Syrah #3, each in their 100% varietal form.

The Cabernet Franc was particularly intense, the Malbec #1 had an amazingly luscious texture, and the Syrah #3 was a stand-alone perfect wine (very uncommon).

Our task now was to make blends, working with the strengths and weaknesses of each of the wines while staying within the governmentally regulated percentages (no less than 75% of one variety in order to call it that variety), and hemmed in by the volumes of each lot we had in the winery. In other words, our goal was to make a Quintet, a Cabernet Franc, a Malbec, a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Merlot, a Syrah and a Shiraz/Cabernet out of the components we had.

The difficulty in this is that you need to start somewhere. So, we prioritize the wines depending partly on the quality of the best lots as well as the needs of our market (sales). The Quintet works nicely into this equation because it is a proprietary blend and has no regulations on percentages. In other words, we can base the wine on the best lots in the winery and blend whatever we want. This blend generally comes together very quickly, and then the fun begins.

Each component has its positives and its negatives. The nose is fantastic, but the tannins are aggressive. Or the mid-palate is intensely fruity, but it needs more of a lingering finish. The point is to blend two (or more) complimentary wines together to work with the weaknesses and build on the strengths. The difficulty, though, comes as you get farther into the blending and the components become limited in volume.

So imagine that we’ve figured out the blends for the Quintet, Cab Franc and Malbec and have started on the Cab Sauvignon. Unfortunately, the Cabernet Sauvignon really needs more 100% Cabernet Franc to enhance the blend. If that’s the case, then we need to readdress the Cab Franc blend which may in turn change the Malbec and Quintet blends. It’s a bit of a domino effect, and the rule of thumb is to be patient. It’s not uncommon to say, “If we make the blend with those percentages, then we can’t make that blend over there.”

More often than not, the patience pays off and the blends come together nicely. And that’s how the 2010 vintage worked out. The components were all very good to fantastic, with only one lot needing a bit of softening (the Cab Sauv #1, older (1 and 2 year-old) barrels) destined for the Shiraz/Cabernet.

My personal favorites were the 2010 Cabernet Franc and the 2010 Malbec, although the 2010 Signature Syrah is right there to. The interesting thing now is to take these small 100ml blends and project it out to the 500-3000 gallon blends in the tanks. Although the blends are tracked in terms of percentages, we generally determine the blends by the number of barrels to be added (i.e. 2 barrels of Cabernet, 1 barrel of Merlot, 7 barrels of Malbec, etc.). Then we can taste each barrel individually to choose the best two Cab barrels for the Quintet, or a hint more American oak for the Merlot. But we won’t do these blends for another 3 weeks.

So with two days of work, stained tongues and teeth, a plethora of blends finished, we decided it was time for a beer.

If the question is, “Is it necessary to blend?” Our answer is “Almost always, even if it’s all the same variety but from different lots.” The wines are more complex and more balanced, thus more fun to drink! And our blending January slowly moves into our bottling February.

We have our wonderful friends, Markus and Verena, friends in Switzerland, to thank for introducing us to this wonderful dish.  Raclette is a cheese dish, somewhat similar to fondue, but for us, fondue get’s boring after a few bites while serving raclette allows for so many choices in flavors.  Raclette is perfect for a group of 8, allowing for slow mingling over warm tasty food.

For this dish, you must start with raclette cheese which you can find as a Swiss or a French cheese.  Stolen from the Seriously Good Food Blog – Raclette is a pungent Swiss cheese somewhat reminiscent of Gruyere. It’s typically softer and a bit more oily than Gruyere. The French also make a Raclette, but in my experience it’s milder than the Swiss variety and not as good. It’s worth noting that the primary difference between the Swiss and French versions is which side of the valley the cows grew up on as the region where it was developed predates both countries. Well said, and I agree (although I love both French and Swiss raclette)!  We also learned that raclette was a dish the sheep herders made.  The block of raclette cheese would set next to the fire, and the end would slowly melt.  As it melted, they would take the warm melted end and put it over potatoes or meat.

First, you must start with a raclette machine.  Best to ask your friends if any of them have one, or you may want to purchase one.  Ours is like having a griddle on top with open electrical elements below allowing you to broil the cheese.  It comes with 8 very small non-stick pans (like spatulas) for the cheese.

Secondly, you need good cheese.  And just to let you to know, this is, no doubt, the most expensive part of the meal.  We purchase ours from Mary Dedrick on Main Street.  We call ahead and order center cuts of the cheese wheel so they are consistent in thickness.  You can work with raclette cut as a wedge, but we find it does not melt as evenly.

Next, boil potatoes – lots of potatoes.  We used Yukon gold potatoes and chopped them into large bite-size pieces, but if you can get small creamer potatoes, they work best as you can serve them whole.

Now, when we were in Geneva, Hanna ordered raclette – and for 27 euro’s, this is what she got – boiled potatoes and a slice of melted raclette.  It was quite tasty, but when we were in Zurich with Markus and Verena, there were lots of accoutrements.  You would place the boiled potatoes on your plate, then while your cheese was melting, you would grill up sausage or a meat of your choice, add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, pickled asparagus or olives…you get the picture!   Ask your guests to bring an assortment of items.  Our dinner had sun-dried tomatoes, olives, pickled asparagus, marinated artichokes, sardines, chicken apple sausage, little smokies, spam (yes, spam), sauteed mushrooms, radishes, red/yellow peppers, pickled onions, bacon, cornichon, and capers.  The pickled items really add some zip to the flavors.  Favorite combinations were artichoke hearst and sun-dried tomatoes, pickled onions and bacon, and pickled asparagus, all of course with potatoes and cheese.  Another item that I read about, but didn’t serve was salami, and I think that, or other sliced meats would be a good addition.

Oh, and the wine pairing.  Paul can never bring home just one wine, so we tried 3!  We had the 2010 Hillside Gewurztraminer, the 2010 Signature Dry Riesling, and the 2008 Signature Cabernet Franc.  Both the Gewurztraminer and Dry Riesling were perfect, the acidity balancing out the richness of the cheese and the smokiness of the meats.  The Cabernet Franc tasted like chocolate – why, we are not really sure, but it was interesting and enjoyable.

So, on the next rainy night, get out the raclette machine and throw a party!  Happy eating!

So what is the story? How did this come to be? And what in the world is “grain par grain?”

Let’s start with the “grain par grain.”  As you most probably know, our family had a sabbatical in southwest France last year. We had the amazing opportunity to taste fantastic Cahors Malbecs all through the Lot region (Malbec’s birthplace). The wines are masculine in style, complex-fruit charactered with structured tannins and bright acidity.

However, we did have the occasion to meet two winemakers who were each making a very soft and supple Malbec with incredible extraction and density. Pascal Verhaeghe of Château du Cédre and Germain Croisille of Château les Croisilles both introduced us to these spectacular wines. Pitch black in color, we tasted one year-old wines from the barrel that had more elegance, richness and fruit intensity than we had ever experienced in wines. And all this from a variety that expresses itself more aggressively from this part of southwest France.

So why aren’t all wines of the world made this way? What’s the catch you might ask? “Grain par Grain.” This is French term for “grain by grain” or “berry by berry” for us in the wine world. These wines are super time-intensive to make, thus making them relatively expensive (the two wineries mentioned above sell the wines for between 50 to 100 Euros per bottle!). “Grain par Grain” literally means to remove each grape berry, one at a time, from the stem by hand. Yes, by hand!

By hand, the workers slowly fill brand new puncheons (500 liter barrels—basically twice the size of normal barrels) that have had the heads (or tops) removed. There are two aspects to the fermentation that seem to be important with this idea. One, the puncheon needs to be brand new, which not only imparts a bit of the oaky sweetness to the wine, but there is some micro-oxygenation through the pores of the wood during the fermentation. Two, the fermentation is most closely akin to a carbonic maceration where initially there is no juice in the puncheon, just whole grapes. So some of the fermentation happens inside the berry and slowly breaks down the skins of the grapes (equating to less tannin extraction).

But most importantly, the “grain par grain” idea of handling each individual berry means that every grape is sorted, pulling out any slightly red fruit, and there are no stems in the mix! (Stems can add a green, veggie character to wine.)

So knowing that our Malbecs express our vineyard’s terroir as softer and rounder, we decided this wouldn’t be the variety with which to experiment. Instead, we needed to use a variety whose expression of our terroir is a heavy backbone of tannin. Cabernet Franc!

Having chosen the variety, now all we needed were the puncheons and the help. I bought two beautiful French oak puncheons from Seguin Moreau (a French cooperage firm), and they we kind enough to remove one head from each.

As for the help, we put out a call for assistance to all our mailing list in hopes of getting some people interested in trying something new. We were intentionally vague in our description of the type of work needed as we didn’t want to scare anyone off. Ironically, we got a slew of interested parties who, timing permitting, would be a part of making the world’s best Caberent Franc.

The day finally came, with a dozen or so (including ourselves) heeding the call for help. I have to say that I originally had a few misconceptions about this project. First of all, I didn’t think it would take very long to fill the puncheons by hand. I wasn’t just wrong about this; I was way wrong about this. The first day, we twelve toilers sat down with picking boxes and buckets and began our work. It took forever to fill my bucket with individually sorted berries, each carefully removed from the stem as to not crush the grape. And even when my bucket was “full” and ready to dump into the puncheon, it would barely make a dent in overall volume. We worked four hours straight and ended up with half of one puncheon filled.

Knowing now that my original goal of two full puncheons was not going to be possible that day, we stopped for a homemade stew dinner with wine (of course) while watching the sunset. That’s the romance.

However, I needed to finish this project because the grapes had already been picked. I called in our incredible picking crew to work on the remaining Cab Franc. Unlike the earlier day’s volunteers (who, thankfully, marveled at the beauty of the vineyards and relished the time working outdoors), our crew kept asking, “And why are we doing this?” It took another 4 hours of work and a dinner of homemade stew, wine and beer to finish just one of the puncheons.

You may ask what did we do with the other puncheon? Knowing again that we couldn’t finish, we destemmed the fruit with our crusher (by machine) directly into a bin. John, my father-in-law, bucketed it out into the second puncheon while picking out any small bits of stems . This will give us the “scientific” comparison of hand versus machine.

My second misconception was that this process was all about the wine. However, the most memorable aspect of the whole project so far is sitting down with friends and talking. The work is all-encompassing, but mundane. You can’t “multi-task” with your phone or computer while working with the grapes, so you talk and tell stories. It was wonderfully fulfilling, meeting new friends, and the by-product then became the wine.

And the “wine” you ask? How did the Cabernet Franc turn out? Expensive, I know that, but it is still slowly fermenting and hasn’t started its malolactic fermentation. But I do know one thing, there aren’t any aggressive tannins to this wine. And that in itself was what we were originally trying to achieve.

Keep watch for updates, and I think we’ll try this project again next year. Any volunteers?

The Vineyards

Enyé Vineyards, November 2011

Make no mistakes. This was a challenging year to be farmer, tomato, peach and grape alike. A very cool spring coupled with a cool summer made it almost a race to be able to pick. Throw into the mix the spring frosts (with the associated crop loss), a late May snow (with the associated crop loss), heavy rains at the end of June during flower (and the associated crop loss), five inches of rain the first week of October, and this really could have been a recipe for disaster.

Chardonnay (which was hit by the snow and frosts), and Malbec and Merlot (both damaged by shatter) were our real losers. The Chardonnay lost about 60% of its crop, the Merlot about 50%, and the Malbec produced less than two barrels of wine (compared to a normal production of 8 barrels or so). And overall, our total production was down about 20%.

But we did harvest. In fact, we picked everything in the vineyard, for which we should be ecstatic. Not all farmers were so lucky. And everything was picked before the cold and rain started in November.

Roussanne at Sumu Kaw Vineyards, November 2011

I’m now thinking the rains in early in October were a mixed blessing. The problem with a late spring, a cool summer and a light crop is that the grapes don’t get the hang time they need. The sugar levels were increasing quickly, but acid levels in the grapes weren’t dropping quickly enough. (And making a high-alcohol, high-acid wine with elegant flavors just doesn’t work.) But the rains were picked up by the vines, putting the water into the fruit, and thus giving the grapes more hang time to get better balance.

Where we were lucky was after the rains, we had three and a half weeks of wonderful weather. Without this, the season would have been a loss. Instead, the fruit was slightly acidic, with slightly lower brix levels (sugar) with uniform ripening levels and very interesting characters.

The Wines

Ironically, the biggest concern for many wineries in California this year was the lower sugar levels in the grapes. This ultimately impacts the alcohol levels in the wines (less sugar means less alcohol) and may make the wines leaner. So the grape concentrate part of the industry has been hopping as wineries buy up concentrate to add to the fermenting musts. For us, our sugars were at a level that would give us alcohols of 12.5%-14.5%, and I wouldn’t mind seeing alcohol levels a hint lower than “normal” anyway.

Instead our concern with the shorter growing season was the possibility that the tannins in the skins were under-ripe. Thus long fermentations on the skins would produce aggressive wines with “green” tannins. We needed to prepare for shorter fermentations to maximize the extraction of color and flavor during this period. The way to do this is to make sure that fermentation temperatures are warm from the start.

Our new glycol warmer!

I’d like to introduce you to my new best friend for challenging vintages. It’s my G&D Chiller glycol warmer. We’ve always had the ability to cool our tanks, but never to warm them. But with this glycol warmer, I could warm four tanks at a time, bringing fermentation temperatures up to 84 degrees very quickly.

What I got in return was positively unbelievable color in the reds (whites are fermented cool). The higher acid of the vintage combined with the warmer fermentation temperatures produced amazingly black, opaque wines. Even the Nebbiolo has pretty impressive color (for Nebbiolo!).

However, we were still nervous of the potential tannins. We did press cuts on each of the red varieties and most of the whites, separating out the higher-pressure pressings from the free run. Although the higher-pressure pressing often brings out more flavor and intensity, the wines can also be much harsher. By separating out this portion, we can work (fine) these wines while not touching the free run.

So our biggest fear, the tannins, are not a problem this year. For that, we are thankful.

As of yesterday (when I was last tasting the 2011 vintage in the winery), the reds are more elegant than say the 2009 vintage. It’s a bit premature to make too many judgments on their bodies as I expect the secondary fermentation (malolactic) to shift the richness of the wine quite a bit. This combined with the brighter fruit (more cherry and raspberry than blackberry and blueberry) and the lower alcohol levels  will give us more claret-styled of wine, ageworthy and exciting.

Jeremy pumping over the 2011 Cabernet Franc

This vintage, 2011, I think, will be a year for the Bordeaux varieties. The Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are particularly exciting right now, fruity and intense. And on the whites, the Gewurztraminer showcases the body and fruit I love in the variety.

All in all, I think the foothills fared better than other regions (especially after hearing some of the horror stories of vineyards in the coastal regions). It could have been really bad, but we may just end up smelling like roses (at least the Gewurzt will). And although any winery can make good wines in a great vintage, I think the truly exceptional wines come from the challenging vintages. And 2011 definitely qualifies as a challenging vintage!

A few years ago, I wanted to learn more about cooking soups.  I picked up Mastering Soups and Stews by William Sonoma.  To this day, it is one of my most treasured cookbooks.   We have several favorites from here, but the Chicken Soup and the Roasted Butternut Squash recipes get made over and over again.  Unfortunately, chicken soup does not pair so well with wine, but the Butternut Squash soup is fabulous.  Layers of flavor with hints of coriander, nutmeg and cinnamon match up perfectly with Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc, or even Barbera.

Enjoy this recipe, it takes only minutes to make and will freeze beautifully.  The recipe is shown as it is presented in the cookbook.  However, I adjust the ingredients all the time based on what I have.  I like to add more chicken stock than they suggest as I like it a little less rich.  And I add all the squash even though it is almost always more than 3 cups!

Ingredients:

2.5 lb Butternut Squash
2 tsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 granny smith apple, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp. kosher or sea salt
1/4 tsp. white pepper
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

Pour 1 1/2 cups water into a baking pan. Cut squash in half lengthwise and discard seeds. Rub the cut sides with 2 tsp of olive oil. Place squash, cut side down, into the pan and bak until the tip of a knife pierces the skin easily, 45-50 minutes. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the pulp, you should have about 3 cups of squash.

Next in a 3qt saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tbsp unsalted butter. Add yellow onion and granny smith apple and saute until softened, about 10-12 minutes. Add garlic cloves and saute for an additional minute. Add chicken stock, squash, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.

Roasted Butternut Soup pdf

Last night’s dinner (September 21, 2011), was wonderful. The first thing we did right was to get a fabulous chef, Sandra Simile. This type of dinner is challenging for chefs in that they will not know exactly what is in season until days before the event. The other challenge for any chef at Madroña is our kitchen…a set of burners and a BBQ for cooking. So, not only do you not know what type of food will be available, you also have limited cooking arrangements! Thank goodness for Sandra’s skill and rock solid personality, as we came up against several of such hurdles within hours of the dinner!

In getting ready for the dinner, Sandra visited in Mid-August, where we were able to provide fresh blackberries, plums, and peaches for a chutney. We were also able to procure onions and carrots for stock. Finding locally-grown meat in El Dorado County was more challenging than we thought it would be. On our previous dinner, we had a bit more advanced notice in that we were able to attend the El Dorado County Fair and purchase a 4H steer. In this case, we found that many of the local meat purveyors got their meats locally, but further than 25 miles from our winery. We did finally find a chicken, port tenderloin and bacon from Stony Farms Meats.

The next challenge was sourcing all the other ingredients for the meal, which Sandra had provided a nice long list! We found these foods from wonderful growers all over El Dorado County. And if we couldn’t find them at the Farmers Market or from a local grower, usually someone’s back yard spice garden would work just fine! And finally, a wonderful new addition to El Dorado County is Jollity Farms, a goat cheese producer.

The day before the event, we hit a couple of snags! First, the wrong meat was delivered (pork loins instead of tenderloins). Although the butcher offered a couple of other options, the quantities and cuts just couldn’t work for 24 people.  And there were no other available local tenderloins to be had. The challenge here was that pork tenderloin can be done on a grill, while pork loin needs to be roasted. oooops. The next challenge was that although we thought we had lined up butternut squash for soup, it was not ripe yet! Yikes, switch gears, find corn and chilies locally, add some walla walla onions (for sweetness), and we have an amazing soup! For this process, we can not thank Sandra enough for being so flexible and inventive!

Our final menu was as follows:

First Course
Roasted Corn and Walla Walla Onion Bisque
with Poblano Chili Cream

(2010 Signature Riesling)

Second Course
Mixed greens with heirloom cherry tomatoes, fresh goat feta,
and red-haven peaches with citrus dressing

2010 Gewurztraminer

Main Course
Herb encrusted, bacon-wrapped grilled loin and tenderloin of pork
with apple, plum, peach chutney
Steamed fingerling potatoes with parsley and chives
Grilled summer squash and eggplant

2008 Signature Cabernet Franc

Cheese course
Jollity Farms Farm House Cheese and fresh-goat-cheese
stuffed figs with wild-flower honey and walnuts

2007 Signature Zinfandel

Dessert Course

Madroña Select Harvest Riesling
Poached Pears with
Riesling-Pear Caramel Sauce
and Candied Orange Peel

2008 Select Harvest Riesling

So add to this menu a long banquet table set up out in the vineyards while watching a beautiful sunset turn into bright sparkling stars, and you have a amazing evening compliments of El Dorado County.

However truly we could not have done it without these local growers!  Please support them next time you are at the Farmers Market or looking for farm fresh produce!

Gold Bud Farms, Perez Red Shack, R&P Farms, Cardanini Pumpkins, McGee Christmas Tree Farm, Hooverville Orchards, Stony Farm Meats, Peters & Peters Farm, Jollity Farms, Smokey Ridge Ranch, California Olive Oil, Coloma Gold Honey, Boa Vista Orchards, Bob Mann Farm, and Fudge Factory.

Also, a great big thank you to Mary Dedrick of Dedrick’s Cheese Shop on Main Street, who helped source so many of the items and hours of driving on our behalf!  We could not have done it without you Mary!