BbbRRRRrrrrrrrrrrr!! Ok, so I grew up in Southern Cal. and we didn't get days like this! Mittens, scarves and boots a must!? Time to make soup, drink tea, build a fire and watch the grateful cat curl up in front of it. Last night the pipes burst in the garden, so the irrigation needs fixing. Doh!! However, we did remember to cover the orange tree - that little dwarf that we bought two years ago and it gave us three large and lovely oranges this week. I worked like a fiend yesterday to get caught up and today it looks like I'll make something with the Chantrelles and bake a banana bread loaf while doing laundry. Sometimes it's good to be at home.

'tis the season ...

to eat crab! Oh sweet dungeness, how I covet thy claws, Your tender appendages give me reason to pause, Between sips of Chardonnay and nibbles of crusty bread, an evening of aromatics that goes straight to my head. Many thanks to our dear hosts that shared their secret recipe of fresh cooked live crab - we can never go back to day-old crustaceans.

Northern California crab season begins around late November and continues for a couple of months with fundraising crab feeds around the area. The avid crab eater travels with wet-naps, a nut cracker, and a tea lighted butter melting ramekin. Oohhh so decadent!

The BEST use for Sauvignon Blanc

... is to wash down that lovely brineyness of fresh oysters. October 30th we went to the coast for the now annual oyster collecting mission. We bought 300, then ate two dozen on the lovely sunny bay with only the Pellegrino brothers, a happy Japanese family and a solo caterer for company. The usual bakery that we stopped at on our way to the coast had the usual warm fougasse bread waiting - but they also had apple-lavender marzipan scones - oh, so up my alley!!

I also had to ask myself why we do not come to the coast more often in October - the weather is divine!

First Storm of the Season!

... and boy is it a doozie!! I awoke to water, frenetic water, energized water flowing, running, gushing, trickling down window panes. The soft bed was never more cozy, the cats never more snuggly, the dim gray light never more soothing. That was at 7:30am, it's now 9:00am and I'm up, hot coffee steaming next to the computer.
I was half tempted to put on rain gear and try to rescue the last of the roma tomato crop and make hot soup - but ... it's cold and windy and still dumping buckets out there. We still have an acre of merlot to harvest and I wonder what this insane amount of water is going to do to the sugar levels and berries. Hmmm...
The first fire in the fireplace will be lit and it may be a good day to pack away all of the shorts and tank tops and bring out the fuzzy sweaters. Today is Tuesday but it feels like a Sunday - like a day that nobody could possibly have to go to work. But alas, 'tis a Tuesday, a wet one, we'll see what tomorrow brings

It's a cool blustery October evening - the official "summer is so over" indicator. Full moon lighting the leaves dancing across the black-blue road. As you can see in this photo, the winter squashes and gourds are aplenty. I have a small hill of acorn, butternut and spaghetti squash all awaiting the cool nights to be roasted in the oven. I'm ready for the cozy early evenings spent with my sweetie and a good movie. It's the fifth week now that he's worked seven days straight from 6:00am till 7:30 or 8:00pm. Maybe that's why we kinda hibernate through most of November.

sonoma county bounty personified

At the Saturday Farmer's Market in Healdsburg ... the visitor from out of town says... "wow, what are those?"
Farmer: "smell them ... yes, they are different,"
Visitor: "hmmm...yes ...
Onlooker: "they smell fragrant, but the flesh is delicate, yealding a kind of sweetness, subtlely floral but fruity, very good."
Visitor: "really? ... I've never seen a melon like this."
Farmer: "that's because you can only get them in Sonoma County." (Crane Melons)

At the market we bought "Huevos Rancheros" and "Agua Fresca" from Mateo while shopping for Dry Creek Peaches, artisinal butter, torpedo onions, huge lettuce heads and georgeous flowers. Now we can go home. But not before observing the chef in his chefs whites choosing bunches of gourmet radishes and such. Hmmm... sexy, yes.

Home now, to make pasta salad with items from the garden such as baby sun gold tomatoes, banana peppers, fresh parsley and basil and shallots - tossed with olive oil and aged balsamic.

At the BBQ next door, we began with two kinds of fresh figs - stuffed with chevre and topped with a candied pecan, then figs roasted in the oven with blue cheese. Then triple cream brie and aged gouda cheese.

A Williem-Selyem '07 Zinfandel popped out to accompany the slow roasted peppered pork ribs. Prior to that it had been two Oregon Willamette Valley Pinot Noirs - Lange and Belle Pente, both 2001. Not bad! We also had a Roederer sparkling, a homebrew Rose' and an interesting Red blend from David Caffaro and a Pinot Noir from George Wine, circa 2006.
Later we went backward for a Chardonnay from Napa and a Moshin RRV Chardonnay that was very
"Viognier"-like.
I forgot to mention those oh, so Southern - fried green tomatoes that we savored during the rosy sunset - fried in the bacon fat from that afternoon's BLT lunch. Damn! Wow, so good! 
The last course was the Dry Creek peaches, fresh raspberries and fresh whipped cream.
A Sonoma County bounty dinner- as most everything was home-grown or grown here within ten miles. Now that's a harvest party!

What do Winemakers do on their nights off?

Have some sparkling wine of course! Bubble night was a blind tasting of eight different sparkling wines with a potluck to follow. Well, really it was seven different sparkling wines as wine number 4 and wine number 8 were the two bottles of the same wine - which also happened to place in first and 3rd place. Hmmm... must be a winner! It was a nonvintage Anderson Valley Sparkling Rose' by Roederer. Darn tootin! Rick and I will have to get some more on our next Mendocino outing as now we only have one bottle left. Notes: Great acidity, just a hint of appealing yeast, dry but nice fruit quality, fresh clean finish.

What to eat? Roast beef and goat cheese crostinis with tomato olive tapenade, quiche lorraine, home grown vegetable ratatouille, tomato caprese salad, mixed seafood cakes on grilled portabello mushrooms and grilled duck breast. All made by the foodies that participated. What we did not do is decide on the next tasting date and varietal. There was talk of doing "Grenache" and it would most likely be after Crush in November. But ... there is that Halloween party we were all talking about: the "Exotic and Erotic Ball" taking place at a little community hall in Healdsburg. Cool! Wigs, coats, fishnets ... Yeah baby!!

The last concert on the Square

It was crowded, but not necessarily in a bad way. The showing of how we live in this are was wickedly good. Each grouping of picnicking enthusiasts was impressive - the table set ups, the fresh flowers, the passing of appetizers - smoked salmon on puff pastry with creme fraiche and chives, poached shrimp on glass noodles and fresh basil - oh, with so many wines to choose from!
This is wine country living - a Tuesday night outside on the grassy square listening to blues by Roy Rodgers and the Delta Rythm Kings surrounded by friends all toting foods and beverages.
Then there is the farmers market that preceeds all of this decadence. The most beautiful produce you have ever seen.

Add to that orange scones, rock cod fish tacos, paella, watermelon mint agua fresca, fresh flower buckets - the sensory gamut is abundant! I can't believe that I live here sometimes.

Breakfast on a Saturday morning ...

Maybe the last blossoms of the season ... but oh, so yummy! 

The rest of the day was spent working at the winery in the tasting room and office. Dinner at our neighbor's house with tri-tip, broccoli from the garden, fresh sourdough bread and assorted cheeses. Then a jaunt up to the top of the vineyard for a lesson in grapepicking for tomorrow's early AM harvest. (with three bottles of Moshin Pinot to enjoy - 05 Lot 4, 06 Lost Ranch and 07 Russian River)

Raid the Vineyard and put it on the BBQ

It wasn't a joke. 100 gophers in the freezer - six of them ended up on the BBQ on a beautiful August evening. The bane of the winegrowers' farming efforts - gophers can kill multiple vines by eating the roots. Here's one winegrower's solution to the problem.

 

Grape Harvest Pending - Tomato harvest ongoing!

But first a moment from our sponsors ... well, uh ... maybe a sponsor for our moment. And that sponsor is a fine chocolate producer whose chocolate bar I am enjoying right now. Here is how the wrapper defines this bar: "gently scented ylang ylang essences from Madagascar in a mild cream ganache in dark chocolate." Sometimes it pays off to browse the shops in the airport terminals in Europe. My God! - this is one shamelessly sexy piece of chocolate! 

Whew! ... ok, back to the post at hand. We will be harvesting grapes the day after tomorrow! The first ones in this crush and from our little 2 acres right next to the house. They were planted when the winery was built in the spring of 2005 and this will be the first official harvest from this vineyard. Rick is gleefull and will look much like this photo in a day and a half. (taken during Crush of 07)

Meanwhile, the tomatoes continue to ripen faster than we can eat them. Last night we had probably our fifth Caprese salad with heirlooms and fresh mozzerella. For brunch we had BLT's, and as we speak, we are drying the first batch of romas in the dehydrator. The sungolds have overwhelmed me with their sugarplum sweetness and abundance. 

Camping before the Storm 2009

We were rained on after six days of gloriously perfect weather and lots of swimming, squirrel watching, hammock napping, reading, photographing, wood gathering, gin & tonic drinking and eventually coming to the conclusion that co-habitation with the jellow jackets is really just a microcosm of human existence: "they'll only get your lunch if there are more of them than you."

Holy Moley ... where did the summer go?

... probably by the way of the many zucchini blossoms which we ate with abandon this season. Really, any of you that have grown zucchini plants must ask yourself - "have I ever run out of zucchini?" No? ... then eat those blossoms while they are here. I figured out a nice mixture of goat cheese, cottage cheese, some diced chives and a little bit of grated manchego to stuff them with. We like the panko bread crumbs to roll them in after they are stuffed with the cheese mixture and dipped into egg. Then fried in grapeseed oil till lightly browned and served with some fresh fruit for breakfast. YUM!

3 day dinner streak plus weather update

It's May. But we are experiencing February  ... well, sort of. It's not as cold as February, but it's wet - and February this year was not wet ... which is unusual.  The rain has been coming down now for three days. I'm glad because everything will stay green for awhile and I have not had to water my vegetable garden. 

Now then, the three day dinner streak. Yeah, we lead a quiet country life sometimes. But here it is Monday and we have another dinner party. Saturday it was guests from Florida and San Jose with Wild Boar Rack of ribs, spaghetti squash from the fall garden, foccacia bread and spinach salad with orange-shallot dressing and almonds. We had rose, chardonnay and pinot noir. They asked: "do you drink wine every day?"

Sunday was Scotty's Birthday. I wanted to make him an all American delicious meal that he would enjoy. We bought the biggest blackest shiniest dense chocolate cake we could find, then slow roasted three big racks of baby back ribs for 3 and a half hours, made fresh cornbread and iceberg wedge salads with bleu cheese dressing and diced tomatoes. We polished off a bottle of Iron Horse bubbly for the toast, then a magnum of zinfandel. He loved it!

Monday. Our pal George was blessed with a surprise box of beef steaks from Kansas - good corn fed beef! He brought that over with a magnum of Roederer sparkling wine and we had a lovely meal of grilled steaks with baked potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, carmelized onions, fresh broccoli from the garden and an assortment of cabernets. (one petite sirah thrown in for good measure). 

My hubby poured me a shot of Maker's Mark before heading over to the winery with the bottle to refinish the tasting room bar after everyone went home. Work is never done, but who says you can't have a good time doing it. Even on a school night.

Wine ... whooaa.... nelly!

I'll try and recap before my memory fails me. Rick and I had an opportunity to have some amazing wines over the last two days - thanks to our gracious hosts in Florida opening their cellar to us. WOW! ... what a ride!

'02 Chardonnay - Kistler, Catherine's Cuvee'

'05 Pinot Noir - Dehlinger Russian River Estate

'05 Syrah - Dehlinger

'04 Pinot Noir - Dehlinger Russian River Reserve (tasted against '04 Pinot Noir, Moshin - Family Reserve) - nice, both were drop dead georgeous, the Dehlinger having just a tad more acidity and alchohol, beautiful red fruit aromas.

'07 Chardonnay - Moshin, Russian River

'99 Sassicaia 

'98 Cabernet - Schafer  Hillside Select, Stags Leap

'94 Cabernet - Schafer Hillside Select, Stags Leap

'97 Cabernet - Pahlmeyer

'94 Cabernet - Pahlmeyer

And a second growth Bordeaux that I cannot remember the name of ... a shame since it was so good, but after 8 bottles of wine ... well, would you remember?

Oh Dear! How long has it been...

 ... since my last blog entry! WAY too long!

I recently saw a facebook entry from a friend regarding her own facebook activity.

It said: "facebook is killing my blog!"

I have to agree.  But, it's not just facebook's fault. I have been on the road schlepping wine for almost four weeks now - up early, meeting with wine buyers during an insane recessionary business climate, then driving with my hubby to the next city where we fall into bed in a new hotel and start over again the next day to do the same. Please buy our wine!

Our wineclub fans are our saving grace - god bless' em, every one!

I'll put up a picture here from one of our rare recreational outings. Can you figure out where it came from? A special prize awaits the individual that can figure it out.

At home - I am not there but I know that spring is doling out a few lovely fair days where one would love to stroll amongst the vibrant yellow mustard fields before taking an afternoon nap in the soft spring sunshine. The grasses are almost waist-high and succulent green - cows and sheep couldn't be more satisfied. Where is my hammock?

I tried to find a photo of a haggis, because I did not take one ...

However, the evening was great anyway. There was lots o' scotch - maybe ten different single malts. This was my first haggis dining experience - in the wine country - with about sixty other folks, some of them in kilts. Wow, and the dancing ...
The best t-shirt of the evening was worn by our gracious hostess, which read: "If it's not Scottish, it's crap!"
http://www.worldburnsclub.com/begin/address_to_a_haggis.htm

Ahhh... tranquility.

In Oahu, I visited this Bhuddist temple.
Very relaxing.
Breathe ...
The koi are very happy here, well fed and surrounded by beauty. I picked up a music CD of tranquil Japanese music to take home the experience.
While I was here, Rick was 20 miles out on the ocean catching a mahi mahi for dinner. It was yummy.

Wassail the Apple Trees

A lovely winter eve for this activity. Totally new to me, we wassailed the apple trees with neighbors. First we all enjoyed a potluck feast, then bundled up, took our hot cup of spiced cider from the hearth and headed out to the orchard - crisp, full moonlit and sparkling winter night. A bit of cider is sprinkled around the heartiest and oldest tree (a Gravenstein said to have been brought here from Fort Ross), then an apple cake is placed in the boughs as an offering. We chanted the following song:
"Here's to thee, old apple tree!
Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow
And whence thou may'st bear apples enow! -
Hats full! Caps full!
Bushel - Bushel and sacks full!
And my pockets full too! Huzzah!

A bonfire was lit as we finished our cider and listened to Joe tell stories. Terry mentioned that there is a group of farmers that are propagating heirloom fruit trees - they use the tree we are wassailing for the budwood. We sang a song about Hobos - what a beautiful evening.