Rebel Rose

I spent the morning suckering 3 acres of syrah. The syrah is only three years old, so the graft still throws out suckers. This is my second time through. It was warm, but it felt good to get some exercise and sun while actually accomplishing something. At the bottom of the syrah section there's an old pole barn with antique walnut hulling equipment, once used by Diamond when this was their local processing center. The walnuts still grown on the property are sold to Diamond, but the barn is abandoned and we use it for storing vineyard equipment and supplies. Lunch was a salad of greens, tomato, sliced anaheim peppers and sunflower seeds, with 2003 vintage olive oil from just down the road, and balsamic vinegar, accompanied by a very chilled glass of McManis Family 2002 Pinot Grigio.

Well, there's always some push-and-pull between the best interest of growers, who want to sell as much tonnage at the best price as they can, and vintners, who want low-tonnage fruit for the lowest price possible! But here in Paso we do not have separate associations for vintners and growers--it's all combined in one group, the Paso Robles Vintners & Growers Association. As a member of the board of directors, I can honestly say that it's not an easy juggling act anywhere, anytime, but in spite of sometimes disparate interests, we all hang together (pardon the vine pun) very tightly! Environmental concerns do not divide us--we are all concerned about the same things, and we're fortunate to have several associations and individuals who are knowledgeable and driven about staying on top of the issues and informing our members. So I would say the answer is c)!

Yes, all 80 wineries are Paso Robles vintners! Our appellation is geographically three times as large as Napa, although much of it is still open ranchland, so it's very pastoral, teeming with wildlife. Also close to nice surfing beaches and kayaking coves, although the water is much colder than southern California. Nevertheless, we have over 200 vineyards, and the "Big Boys," Gallo, Mondavi, Kendall Jackson, all own vineyards here and purchase fruit as well. Eighty percent of the fruit grown in Paso is sold to Napa and Sonoma wineries. We don't have a license to sell wine in the park, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea, anyway. It's a five hour tasting. I would say the average bottle price is about $20, although a few confident souls have wines up to $65. Hey, Seth. No the pizza wasn't whole wheat, just nicely toasted.

Good morning, all! Breakfast for Dan and the boys was leftover pizza, and Dan made LK another steak sandwich for his school lunch. Before the weekend Dan bought a 20 pound tenderloin at Ralph's Meat Cutting, a home-based butcher in Atascadero. BK cut it into steaks, including one three-incher for Dan, and marinated it in a combination of barbecue sauce, various pepper sauces, garlic, herbs and red wine. Breakfast for me is steel cut oats from Montana, with Maine maple syrup, milk, and a dollop of butter. I'm off and running. I think the pictures are taking too long to load, so I'll try toning down the resolution a little. Have a nice day, everyone. See you around lunch.

Ah, a productive day. This afternoon I took BK to San Luis Obispo to catch a plane back to Bellingham, Washington, where he's going to college. As I arrive home, Rod Stewart is singing "You're so far away," and I'm getting all sentimental. We were just settling in and getting ready to sear some steaks and caramelize some onions when BK calls. He volunteered for the bump in exchange for a round trip ticket. So a friend brought him home and they stopped in San Luis for a Woodstock's wood-fired pizza. Oh, yeah. The little kid, hereafter known as LK, had a steak sandwich at 6:30, but was more than happy to wait up for pizza! Dan snuck Rebel a big chunk as well. I'm having some Talley 2001 Pinot Noir. Mmm, gentle on the digestion but packed with flavor. Great with the pizza, too. Dan poured a glass of syrah, but I think he's more interested in his ice water. I believe he's a little, uh, dehydrated. To answer your question, Lucy, about the wine festival—we have three major festivals every year but the one in May is the largest. It starts on Friday night with winemaker dinners at the local wineries and restaurants. Saturday morning there's a golf tournament, and Saturday afternoon about 12,000 people gather for a grand tasting in Paso Robles' historic central park, with about 80 wineries pouring their wares. Sunday is open house at the wineries. We all do something different, but you're sure to find bands, barbecues, and barrel sampling. It's energizing and exhausting at the same time. Rebel and her dolly. 'Night night.

Yeah, I know the ad!! But what's really sad is that I remember the original Green Giant commercials--you know, for frozen peas and stuff? Every time I hear that wine rad-ad, I imagine a large green guy stumbling around with a glass of red wine, his voice booming off the canyon walls.

I haven't tried them, so I guess that dashes my hopes of being an expert! I will add them to my list of wines to try. Thanks!

Good morning, again. *groan* Monday morning after a three-day wine festival. First order of business, of course, is breakfast for Rebel Rose and Mario. I tried to get Mario to look up but he was only interested in the food. Dry food for both, but they'll get treats at dinnertime. There's no coffee in the house. In fact, there's no food. So, I'm off to Cider Creek Bakery for some java and pastries. And back home along Vineyard Drive. Aah, that's better! Today is a "recovery day," for everyone. The winery is closed until Thursday, so I'll have time for office work, filling orders, housecleaning and gardening. And blogging, of course. Now that I'm getting the hang of it, I'll post in the evenings so my east coast friends can read the blog with their morning coffee. I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get pics of the food as it came off the grill, but I did snap some photos of the post-event party. Everyone pitches in to help, with a different job and a glass of wine. Leftover lamb ribs, gorgonzola mashed potatoes, corn and bean salad, green salad, caramelized onions, fruit salsas, and Big Kid (hereafter known as BK) made some stuffed peppers with filet mignon strips that he'd marinated overnight then stuffed into anaheim and poblano peppers and grilled. They were gone in less than two minutes. See you at dinner!

Ah, a break in the action . . . arbuclo, thanks. We grill for customers several times a year on big weekends, but we don't charge, we just serve 'em up. Our winery is in a relatively secluded location and we don't allow buses, so the crowds are manageable. We enjoy doing it and I think it makes our customers more comfortable when they can talk to us while we're grilling. It's more informal. Although I've learned not to even buy paper plates! We also serve locally produced olive oil (Pasolivo), homemade bread, and homemade walnut pesto in the tasting room. About 70% of our wine is sold directly from the winery now, with the other 30% going primarily to restaurants in San Francisco, Atlanta and Orlando. We used to be in New York, including Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, but we're pulling back from the New York market to cover San Diego and hopefully Seattle. cynthia We had a bit of a mess, indeed. There are pictures here. (Although there seems to be a text bloop on the page that I will fix tomorrow.)

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I thought I should clear up a common misconception, so as to avoid confusion. Helen Turley's label is "Marcassin," and she specializes in chardonnay and pinot noir. She split with her brothers years ago, and has no association with the Turley label. Larry Turley's winemaker is Ehren Jordan, a very talented (and funny) young man.

Is this a Croatian joke? Because Rick Opolo is Croatian! So even if you don't like zinfandel, you should check out Opolo Winery. Seriously, though, zinfandel has a distinctive pepper character that many people just never warm up to. I've noticed that people either love it or hate it. S'okay. More for me!

Yes, I am from Dover Canyon Winery, and the party is today! "Dover Dan" and I will be grilling lamb ribs and duck breasts for oh, several hundred people. Not to worry, we've done it before and it usually goes pretty well, except for the time I set fire to the barbecue itself, a feat Dan didn't think possible. And, hathor has just tagged me for the next food blog, starting today! Come on over!

Good morning, everyone! Guess who's it this week? (Thank you, Judith! I'll try to do you proud.) Actually, I've had a very crazy week, getting ready for our annual wine festival. I was on the phone trying to deal with screwed up orders for stemware, cookbooks, t-shirts and supplies, and I was absent-mindedly lurking through eGullet (my favorite way to relax) when I received a message that I had a PM from . . . hathor ?? Oh no, that can only mean . . . And the little devil tagged me on the eve of a major wine festival! Quick bio: My real name is Mary. I live at Dover Canyon Winery and Vineyard in Paso Robles, California. It's a small winery in an appellation that includes 80 wineries and over 200 vineyards, including some old vine vineyards. I live with my SO, who is also the winemaker, and he loves to cook. (Life is sweet.) This morning we are cleaning up the debris in our home from a barbecue-party last night to celebrate the efforts of our volunteer staff after the grand tasting Saturday, as well as my son's 21st birthday. (It feels very weird to say to him What are you drinking, honey? and have that be okay!) Anyway, we will be grilling appetizers in front of the winery today—lamb ribs rubbed with a mixture of sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper, herbs de Provence, and duck breasts rubbed with a cayenne-cinnamon salt. We get our meat from a local butcher that operates a shop behind his home. He also processes wild game for local hunters—venison and boar mostly. The herbs de Provence come from an herb farm just down the road. I'll take pictures today and try to get them posted first thing tomorrow. As soon as I figure how to do it. We're expecting several hundred visitors today, so I need to scurry, but I will check back later!

Carolyn, beautiful pictures! However, I'd like to point out that bird netting is very dependent on location. Here near the Santa Lucias we have thick oak and bay forests covering much of the appellation. Vineyards in east Paso Robles on the Estrella Bench get less bird damage because of the open riverbench terrain, and as you pointed out, birds like the security of nearby cover. But on the westside where vineyards are tucked up next to rocky, forested hillsides, and where many vineyards are head-trained, we can lose a significant portion, or even, as my neighbor experienced once, the entire crop. At $700 per acre, netting is definitely a wise investment here! And there's the bees--if swarms puncture ripe grapes, the juice will infect entire clusters with mold. Coyotes like to chew on the drip irrigation and yank off sections of it to play tag. Woodpeckers stuff acorns inside the drip irrigation lines, effectively blowing them up. Every day brings a new surprise!

I agree that to date much California Sangiovese has been too light and overpriced, but (aside from prices, sigh) I think the tide is just starting to turn. I look for depth of flavor and complexity in this varietal as in others, although I would not necessarily look for the same flavor profile. After all, I'm a complex woman, but I don't dress like a Frenchwoman, and I don't cook Italian! I think it's too early to write Sangiovese off as a "failed experiment" because in talking with growers, I'm hearing that until recently they have tried to crop Sangio like Pinot Noir or Cabernet, when in fact it responds positively to a much warmer climate that Pinot, but cannot be trellised or grown like Cabernet, mainly because it needs more leaf canopy to prevent sunburn. Growers have not been interested in developing the grape much because of a lack of grass-roots interest, which in turn affects winery sales, which in turn affects distributor interest. That trend is just reversing now. Tasting room customers who couldn't pronounce it a few years ago now ask for it and love it. Americans are just starting to enjoy a variety of wine flavors and are letting go of the concept that everything should look and taste like Cab. Except for maybe Mr. Laube. (Was that a dig? Ooh, sorry.) I've had good luck with a local eastside vineyard with Los Osos soils working with a stress-irrigated Enrico Prati clone, a slow-maturing rootstock bred and selected in Sicily and used in Italy, southern France, and North Africa. The wine falls between the tobacco-styles and the mint-styles of Riecine. It actually tastes much more like a classic Zin, than Italian sangiovese productions. I like it a lot and I feel complimented when local winemakers mistake it for Zin. I agree with Rich on the Atlas Peak. I used to love Atlas and Seghesio, and in fact they are the ones who sparked my fascination with Sangio, but I haven't enjoyed the recent vintages as much. I recently ordered some more and plan to do a Cal Sangio tasting this summer. (Research!!) (Edited to correct spelling booboo.)

The info and comments here are interesting. Actually, we're not serving beef this weekend. Interesting everyone assumes so. But no, we're serving racks of lamb and duck breasts. It's easy that way to keep serving small appetzer-size portions that are freshly grilled and hot. It's a leetle hard to use a meat thermometer on smaller portions, but we're pretty accomplished at using the "jelly test!" Works well when you're turning over several hundred portions in the course of an afternoon. I make a rub for the lamb of sea salt, Tellicherry peppercorn (coarsely ground in an old coffee grinder), and herbs de Provence with extra culinary lavender. On the duck we use a cayenne-cinnamon salt, also homemade. We set bowls of the rubs out on the grill so visitors can see, taste, pinch and ask questions. It's a nice conversation starter. Not that we have much problem with that around here! Dccd, I'm going to memorize the myoglobin info, thanks! Now I'll sound like I know what I'm doing.

Guilty as charged. We make a couple of huge zins, but we also produce some gentler, spicier, food-friendly styles, including a brick-red old vine zin from Benito Dusi's 80-year-old vines. Your comment has been haunting me because it's so typical that zin releases from our local old vine vineyards like Dusi, Martinelli, and Bianchi are either subsumed into larger productions, or are very tiny productions that cannot be distributed, or shipped to felonious states such as yours. Since zinfandel clusters ripen unevenly, it's become an industry standard to pick later, ensuring that the pips will be toasty, since green seeds make for harshly astringent wines. It takes an exceptional zin vine to produce a lighter, yet full-flavored and balanced wine. Oh well--many people love the big zins, and for those looking for more food friendly wines, I recommend Pinot Noir and Sangiovese. I don't agree at all with the Wine Spectator that California Sangio is a failed experiment. In fact, I am so passionate about it that it's the only wine I personally produce. (After all, we can't let the in-house winemaker think he's the only one who can do this!)

Yes, they're crayfish! And the blueberries would freeze into a sort of icy lump inside the white tupperware (not packed tightly, wet and all) so the contents appear as just a frosty lump of something with dark blobs. However, even we kids were aghast that Mom didn't lift the lid to look before thawing, or dumping!!! How absent-minded can a person be? Never mind. The rest of her cooking wasn't a great improvement. Canned, cooked peas--blech! Canned corn beef hash--salty! We lived for the days Nana would come by and cook, or Dad would take over--which he rarely did so as not to insult Mother. He put his foot down, though, when she started studying German and decided to make wienerschnitzel--her way. "I don't care what you call it," Dad groused. "You are not pounding my grass fed steaks into pancakes!"

My mom freezes and recycles everything, too, although I've never had salad-into-soup. ( Guh-ross! ) My brothers once put their leftover crawdad tails into a small tupperware box and froze it for a future fishing expedition, but then forgot all about it. Mom thought it was blueberries and thawed it for pancakes. (Mom cooks absent-mindedly because she's always got her nose in a book--usually a murder mystery.) You shoulda heard the shrieking!

This will be fun. Great food, a peek at NY, wines, and it sounds like hathor is into healthy food, too! What a great combination.

A comment in the "sending restaurant food back" thread made we wonder . . . My mother considers anything underdone that isn't cooked to death. Her chicken is solid white, even next to the bone. Steaks are grey and fibrous. She's even been known to take Dad's grass fed beef and pound it into wienerschnitzel and fry it. (Dad stopped that practice awhile ago.) My DA (domestic associate) and I grill often, and we usually take the meat off while the juices are still running pink, then set it aside under foil and kitchen towels to finish warming through. We like our meat juicy, with tender flesh, but hot all the way through. Do other people consider red juice to be "blood"? I'm just asking because we entertain so often (this coming weekend is a big one) and I want to be sensitive to how others like their meat.

I rarely, rarely send food back, but sometimes the dish I ordered is not what I get! An attentive owner or chef will make sure the menu thoroughly describes the dish, but sometimes it just happens that the menu description is misleading or inaccurate. While I would probably scarf it anyway, I understand that some diners have been looking forward to their dining experience all day and would be severely disappointed if the dish isn't as described. Then I think it would be appropriate to send it back. I don't think it's appropriate to refuse a dish just because it contains one ingredient you don't like that could be easily removed, like nuts or olives. Can't imagine it myself. I even eat the parsley. Excuse me, can I have yours too?

I grew up on a farm but my parents always used bottled dressing, so it never occured to me that I could actually make the stuff! Now I make my own from locally produced olive oil, balsamic or wine vinegar, and fresh herbs. It's so easy--bloop, bloop, pinch--and voila! A fresh, tasty vinaigrette made to my own taste. I don't understand why more people don't make their own, but perhaps it's just a lifestyle habit. (I also grew up thinking that mayonnaise was a secret formula that only two companies knew.) Bottled dressings taste harsh to me now, even the best brands--I prefer less vinegar and more oil. Sometimes I use orange or grapefruit juice, or a dash of raspberry vinegar, depending on the salad ingredients and main course.

Yeah, I order it on the side in cafes and whistle stops, but in a fine restaurant I trust the kitchen to dress it appropriately. I suppose a lot of people just do it out habit, though. I have had some horrible salads where the greens were just slimy with acidic dressing. While you're making effigies, make one for all the restaurant cooks who just dump bottled dressing all over some iceberg and a tomato wedge.

Check out Matt Kramer's book, A Passion for Piedmont. He spent a year eating himself silly in Piedmont and collecting local recipes. I can't find my copy right now. (Where did it go? Did I loan it to someone? Is it under the couch?) I enjoyed reading it, and I seem to recall that he discusses the local cheeses as well as the wines, olives, etc.