Rebel Rose

There's no such thing as a stupid question. Some are just, well, difficult to answer. How would you answer the following questions? I'm looking for a buttery Cabernet. What's the bird netting for? Do your wines have steroids? Do people ever NOT find you? Will you marry me?

Busboy's recommendations are right on, but don't forget the wonderful wines made in your area, and don't be shy about serving them! Esquin Wine Shop in Seattle will have a nice selection and be able to guide you in your choice. McCrae Cellars, which I believe is near Rainier somewhere, is a small artisanal winery that makes great Rhones, especially Syrah and Viognier. If you can find a bottle of his wines (the 1999 Syrah was called "Amerique") it might be a pleasant discovery for your wine guest--a new secret find he can share with his friends. And I think the blueberry flavors of a nice Washington syrah would be great with your filet mignon.

Lisa, I ordered your book on Amazon today and I'm looking forward to reading it! Could you take a moment to tell us about the recipe testing? What was the most godawful/disastrous recipe to recreate?

Another vote for chicken soup. I add garlic, tons of ginger, leeks and shitake mushrooms, with a squeeze of lime before serving. Ginger is an appetite stimulant and shitakes are very restorative. Some of the other soups sound great, too, though, especially the hot tomato versions! I'll have to try making them next fall when our cold season hits, and we have plenty of preserved homegrown tomatoes.

Zinfandel grape clusters don't ripen evenly, so in order to achieve maximum flavor and pigment, winemakers pick somewhat late, resulting in clusters with, ideally, a few raisins, and plenty of ripe berries with toasty pips. The problem with exports may be that many, although not all, zins available in the UK are large production wines that have undergone layers of filtration to make them stable. Stability is tougher in a high alcohol wine like zin because the higher levels tend to suspend more particulate matter. So, you may not be getting our finest purple unfiltered, unfined, old vine, high pepper zins.

Thank you, Tana! I've heard about the Outstanding in the Field dinners. They sound marvelous!! We don't have an organized focus on our local produce, although chefs often like to highlight locally grown meats, dairy and produce at the winemaker dinners. A lady in Atascadero makes wonderful creme fraiche. I'll look forward to meeting you when you visit!

Lala: Her'es an excerpt from an article I wrote on sulfites. I hope it helps. Sulfites ~ Nothing to Sneeze At Sulfitesare a natural fruit by-product, actually found on the dusty skin of grapes before they are washed. Winemakers are allowed to use sulfur dioxide as a natural disinfectant and preservative. Sulfites are a natural by-product of the fermentation process and a necessary ingredient if wine is to age properly because they retard oxidation and microbial growth. Many people believe it's the sulfites that give them headaches when they drink red wine. Although this may in some cases be true, it could be the tannin content which creates a histamine reaction. Tannin, an aldehydic substance naturally found in grape skins and seeds, is also a natural preservative, and is found in greater quantity in red wine. (Remember Boris Karloff as "The Mummy," craving his daily dose of tanna leaves?) Red wines are macerated and fermented "on their skins" to extract color, flavor and tannin from the pigment-rich skins. As wines age, the tannin molecules connect in long strings, a sort of decomposition in the bottle. Therefore, we wine geeks say the tannins are "softer," or "earthy" in an older wine. Young wines with fresh tannins can taste very astringent. Compare it to eating a whole bunch of red table grapes. In spite of the wonderful juice inside, grape skins and seeds will leave a dry, abraded feeling on your tongue. People who are sensitive to products like nuts, tea leaves and cinnamon bark will often be sensitive to the woody taste of tannin as well. Sulfites got their bad name not from wine but from salad bars, where sulfite-laden water was used to keep cut-up greens from turning brown. Some of the overdosed vegetables were found to contain as much as 2,000 ppm, and people who were hyperallergic to the chemical went into shock after eating them. Other products which have been documented as having high sulfite contents include canned pineapple, fresh tomatoes and potatoes, tomato juice and some frozen juices. Consumer protection groups lobbied for laws banning the use of sulfites in salad bars and for warning labels on products containing more than 10 ppm, a level that often occurs naturally during fermentation. The legal limit for wine is 250 ppm; most winemakers add much less---about 80 ppm. Sulfur dioxide smells like burnt matchheads, and may elicit a sneeze or a slight burning sensation in the nose. Many people are sensitive to sulfur dioxide, and their reactions may range from a tingling nose to nausea when drinking wine with higher sulfite contents. Allergic individuals are those with hypersensitive reactions, usually asthma. According to the Canadian Medical Association Journal, wine drinkers may ingest up to 10 mg. of sulfites a day, while people who eat in restaurants, and who enjoy foods like fresh salads, potatoes, shrimp, or avocado dip, typically ingest from 25 to 100 mg. of sulfites during one meal.

Both votes for our household go to Sakai. I'm a fan of SW food, but Every Course was fish, corn and peppers. Heck, we do all that stuff at home. (Although I liked the yellow pepper-miso sauce.) While there were some interesting variations, they weren't really DIFFERENT. I felt Sakai's dishes were far more innovative, each course was unique from the others, and were truer to the ingredient. Trout-true? We felt the whole evening was bogus. Let's get some real judges up there! (And that one guy was just rude. He shovels his food in with raised elbows, yet talks like a gastronome? Learn some table art, dude!)

I'm so glad you enjoy Central Coast wines. I'm partial to the handsome winemakers as well. We are on Vineyard Drive, one mile north of 46 West. The junction is just a few miles before the York Mountain turn. Unfortunately,Twin Hills, which produced a flor sherry from their Palomino grapes, is for sale, and York Mountain now belongs to Martin & Weyrich Winery. I just checked with them and they are not producing a sherry. They said Max and Steve Goldman purchased the grapes from another vineyard. Sorry!

Jaz, this year the 22nd annual Paso Robles Wine Festival will be held on the third weekend of May, the 14th through 16th. The grand tasting in our historic park is attended by about 12,000 people. There are also a round of winemaker dinners, a a pretty competitive golf tournament, and of course, open house at the wineries all weekend. You can find maps, lodging info and winery event descriptions at our area website, Paso Robles Wines As you can see by the attendance, the event is popular, so accomodations can be hard to come by. I recommend the Cavalier in San Simeon. It's a pleasant 30 minute drive away, but it's right on the ocean and far removed from the madding crowd. Very restful. Otherwise, our local Chamber keeps tabs on last minute hotel cancellations. If you come for the festival, I hope you will stop by and say hello. I've just discovered eGullet and am enjoying the forums very much. I just read Lucy's entire food blog from France on Sunday morning after skipping dinner and bfast. I nearly expired from vicarious ecstasy.

Wow. I just read this blog from start to finish. Lucy, it's beautiful and sooo interesting. We have a new market in town that sells rabbit, and I can't wait to try it with the mustard sauce. In fact, I'm going to try everything!! It's Sunday morning. My boyfriend and I went out to dinner last night but ran into some friends at a wine bar and ended up being too late for dinner, so I am STAAARVING this morning, and reading this blog is exquisitely painful. Thank you for sharing your wonderful and interesting life and insights!

My experience as well. Generally I've learned that if I'm going to get to taste it at all, I should grab some before the rush and let it air in the glass, but on a few occasions, I've noticed something interesting about open Burgundies--some will improve, and improve, and then suddenly hit a downward slide and turn to sawdust. I like to wait a little while just to see what will happen with the wine, because sometimes it improves and often, as has been pointed out, they can be just a little tight at first. I like a stinky aroma and Burgundies sometimes taste a little overly mineral to me when they're first opened. I always have a problem with my glass being kidnapped, however, so I never get to wait very long.

Our winery, Dover Canyon, is a small artisanal winery in the Paso Robles appellation. We're very tiny, with a mere 2500 case production, but Dan ("Dover Dan") and I have both worked in the wine industry here for 15 years. We're not macro-managers at heart, however, so about seven years ago we opted to buy our own small slice of heaven and do the artistic wine thing. There are pictures and more info at www.dovercanyon.com We both love to cook and grill, and our home is a popular stop for starving bachelor winemakers, so we often have impromptu wine-and-barbecue parties. During crush, local winemakers share equipment and bring wine, and growers like to stop by and watch their fruit being processed, so it's not unusual for me to look around and realize it's 7 pm and I've got 10 hungry people on my hands. During local wine festivals, Dan and I personally grill and serve appetizers to hundreds of people. (Hence our fondness for our sturdy Weber kettle.) We generally serve lamb ribs and duck breasts with a cranberry-Tequila salsa because they go well with zinfandel and syrah. The cookbook is a compilation of our favorite fast recipes, what my son approvingly calls "grub." Every recipe had to be easy or fast, and I had lots of hungry volunteers for recipe-testing. It's a print-on-demand paperback, no pictures, just 90+ recipes with wine pairing suggestions. I don't mind sharing recipes and ideas, so please feel free to ask. I hope you don't mind if I lurk and learn as well, since I did set fire to the barbecue. The lamb turned out well, though.

Yum on the clams. I love grilled oysters, but we could do a lot of clams in each batch. Great idea for a party. We like our trusty Weber kettle, too. It gets hot quickly and stays hot in cold, windy conditions. We've had ours for five years now and its served hundreds of winery visitors on festival weekends, as well as our crush crew every night during harvest. Our neighbor, an old Italian farmer, makes huge bags of oak charcoal in a pit--it's fabulous stuff. (But we don't use it when we rotisserie because it spits and gets black stuff on the meat.) Here's a recipe for a fruit salsa I like to serve with salmon. Peach-Ginger Salsa The Tequila gives it a nutty flavor and quickly extracts heat and flavor from the other ingredients. 4 fresh peaches, or one 16 oz. can of cling peaches, chopped 2 tablespoons Tequila 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine or pressed 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root 1 yellow Hungarian wax pepper, seeds removed and chopped fine 4-5 green onions, chopped fine 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped Makes about 1 pint Put the chopped peaches in a small serving bowl. In another small bowl or cup, combine the Tequila, garlic, ginger and pepper, and let the mixture steep for at least five minutes. The alcohol extracts flavor and heat from the garlic, ginger, and pepper, so the longer you let it steep, the “hotter” your fruit salsa will be. Combine all ingredients with the peaches and serve. From our cookbook: Fresh from Dover Canyon

Lee: I'll look forward to meeting you soon, and although I'm always about good food, I'm afraid all we offer on most weekends are homemade bread and locally produced olive oil. Justin Winery has a fabulous selection of cheeses and as they are at the far end of Vineyard Drive, many visitors start there and wend their way back toward town, stop for lunch at a favorite winemaker hangout like McPhee's or Alloro, and then continue their afternoon on the east side of Paso. Odyssey Cafe, in town next to the historic Park that is our main square, makes incredible rotisserie chicken picnic boxes, but they sell out well before noon, so if you're staying town, stop by early for a cappucino and get your picnic box.

Paso Robles is indeed an AVA, and geographically the third largest in California. We don't have as many acres planted as Napa or Sonoma however, so much of Paso Robles is still open ranchland, populated by black bear, deer, wild turkeys, and badgers. And wild boar—we get lots of really fresh boar sausage around here. Although we have no formally declared sub-appellations, those in the know have favorite microclimates: Adelaida Hills, Willow Creek, Templeton Gap and Estrella Bench to name a few. Writers refer to us as the "new Napa," but we prefer "the Rhone Zone." The AVA is divided vertically in half by Hwy 101. To the west are the green foothills of the Santa Lucias and the deep gorge of Estero Bay—lots of dryfarmed vineyards here due to 22" of rain a year, limestone Linne Calodo and Santa Lucia soils, and strong afternoon breezes redolent of bay and surf. To the east are the riverbed terraces of the ancient (and mostly underground) Estrella River, looser soils and long warm days with cool nights. Dover Canyon is on a northwest strip near the Adelaida Hills called Vineyard Drive. Larry Turley recently purchased the 80-year-old Pesenti Vineyard one mile south of us, and Turley has a tasting room there. To the north, the Perrin family of Chateau de Beaucastel purchased land and established their American winery, Tablas Creek, where they also propagate CdB vines. And about eight miles north is Justin Winery, long a darling of the Wine Spectator. Dan and I spent over a decade working for larger wineries here, and while our bosses were indescribably fun, and the perks were insane, we're not macro-managers at heart. Soft-spoken Dan is particularly shell-shocked from monthly formal winemaker dinners where he had to wear a tux and actually speak. He's become highly allergic to them, although we do donate private luncheons or dinners to auctions. We love our little vineyard and farm and prefer to actually make the wine ourselves, and we each have our own quad. Did you really post these questions at 12:20 am?

Oh dear, that's a point for Dan! Although our grill gets very charred because of the sticky marinades we occasionally use. One favorite is late harvest zinfandel on tri-tip, with a rosemary and black peppercorn crust. We also like spicy peanut prawns, which are pretty gooey. I attack his grill with a wire painter's brush, which I find works better (and lasts longer) than the fussy grill brushes sold as barbecue accessories. I do love a great filet of fresh salmon! I'm from the PacNW, and grew up on trout and salmon. Ever try gravlax?

It's spring, and I'm ready to light it up! Is anyone interested in swapping unusual seafood recipes for the grill? I am SO tired of ribs, tri-tip, lamb and steak. (Yeah, yeah, poor me.) And can someone please explain the proper State of the Grill? Dan says a "little char" keeps food from sticking, and I say congealed half-life grease looks nasty on seafood. We have "His" and "Hers" grills.

Give me rice and pasta every day!. Is there anyone else here that doesn't thrive on a low-carb diet? A lack of good carbs makes me feel tired and um, digestively inefficient. Our winemaker, Dover Dan, reports good effect from the Atkins/South Beach diet, but when it's time for his "one glass of wine a day," I notice he gets out the 24 oz. super-size wine glass!

Brad: Thank you for the warm welcome! We've had a lot of new wineries and tasting rooms open up here in the past decade, but in Paso there's a lot of respect for artisan productions, and Shannon O'Neill has made quite a splash here with some very nicely crafted wines, in spite of burgeoning competition and the difficulty of being a new kid on the block. He's also a genuinely nice guy with an irresistable smile--one of my favorite new wineries.

Carolyn: Thanks for your response! We haven't had any problems with Pierce's Disease in the last decade, but we have very proactive grower groups here who are constantly watchful. Glassy-winged sharpshooter is our biggest threat in recent years, as the little buggers sneak in on nursery items, like hostas and other landscaping plants, shipped into our area from outside the county. Neil Roberts of Mondavi and Jerry Lohr (J. Lohr) spend an incredible amount of time and money on pre-emptive education and research.

Greetings, everyone. I've recently joined eGullet and I'm enjoying the wine and food forums very much. I'd like to introduce myself--I am co-owner and marketing mistress of a small, family-owned winery, Dover Canyon, in Paso Robles. I'm also on the Board of Directors of the Paso Robles Vintners & Growers Association. If you have questions about our up-and-coming wine area, or any of the wineries here, please feel free to ask! I love talking about our area, wine in general, and food pretty much anytime. Mary Baker Dover Canyon Winery