2003 Parent Bourgogne

In my house, rotisserie chicken means Pinot Noir. And tonight's choice was the 2003 Parent Bourgogne. Medium-dark color with some brownish tints. A bit of dark cherry fruit on the nose, but it's mostly dominated by licorice and freshly-turned earth. Goes through a weird phase around the 30-minute mark where a lot of wet animal fur is evident, but that blows off rather quickly. At the one hour mark a really pretty mint and herb aromas appears. Quite interesting and ever-changing. Not a lot of fruit or oak and none of the sweet vanilla characteristics that lovers of California Pinot Noir might look for. To be honest, this isn't my favorite expression of this grape, but this was a nice pairing with the chicken and a Brussel sprout hash. About $18.

On a side note - anyone out there who owns a Weber grill, charcoal or gas (I own one of each), really needs to invest in a rotisserie. They run about $90 for the spit and electric motor, but they are versatile enough to use for whole chicken, leg of lamb or even a prime rib. If you are using the rotisserie with a charcoal grill, you will want to buy the rotisserie that comes with the ring that allows for more clearance for your large piece of meat. This kit is about $150.

2006 Vina Robles Suendero

Dinner tonight was one of our staples: grilled flank steak with chimichurri. But since I was fresh out of Malbec, I punted and went with a wine we picked up on our trip to Paso Robles last spring. The 2006 Vina Robles Suendero, Paso Robles is a blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and 47% Petit Verdot. Lord knows why, but I've always had a fascination with wines with a high percentage of Petit Verdot - clearly the red-headed stepchild of the Bordeaux grape family. (One of my favorites that fits this mold is the von Strasser Reserve, but that's another wine for a slightly more special occasion.) Anyway, back to the Suendero. It opens up with a lot of sweet raspberry and cherry fruit in the nose and on the palate and a good dollop of vanilla oak. This is aged in an unspecified amount of French and American oak. But as it opens up in the glass, it takes on a lot more weight and flavors of earth, iron and mineral start to come to the forefront - clearly the Petit Verdot asserting itself. Despite the high concentration of Petit Verdot, the wine isn't terribly tannic. I think it's great for current consumption so long as you have something well-marbled on your plate.

2008 Cantina Terlano "Terlaner"

The 2008 Cantina Terlano Terlaner Classico, Alto Adige is a delightful blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay from Italy's northernmost wine growing region. Pale yellow with green highlights, the nose gives off a lot of floral, citrus notes with an underlying yeastiness that reminds me of Alsace. Give it some time and a touch of herb/bell pepper makes an appearance. The palate is medium-full bodied with great minerality, acidity and more of that delicious yeastiness. Just a wonderful texture! Rich and full without a trace of oak.

A great pairing with a grilled filet of fatty salmon with a spicy, teriyaki-based glaze.

2007 Dunning Meritage

Seriously, folks, what else can I say about this winery? Everything Bob Dunning touches to gold. Why aren't you on his mailing list? Over the past 18 months or so, I've had pretty much every offering from this winery. But tonight was my first taste of his Meritage. The 2007 Dunning Vineyards Meritage, Paso Robles has a fantastic color. It literally oozes with sweet, jammy plum and black cherry fruit and new saddle leather. Is there a hint of licorice in there, too? The palate is massive with huge tannins and the acidity becomes more prominent as the wine opens. Pretty assertive with the French oak. Finishes with a dusty, herbal note which I assume comes from the Cabernet Franc. Drink now or hold this blend of 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc for 5-10 years. (As big as it is, it's considerably more approachable now than their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon is.) Lustily consumed with grilled KC strips liberally seasoned with *gasp* Montreal Steak Seasoning and cold green bean/tomato/mozzarella cheese salad.

2009 Feital "Auratus"

My partner-in-crime at work, Katie, has been talking up the 2009 Feital Auratus, Minhao, Portugal since the day I came on board. And for some odd reason, I've waited this long to give it a whirl. What a mistake on my part! This blend of Alvarinho (Albarino) and Trajadura is loaded with aromas and flavors of peach and flowers and has a tremendous minerally backbone. A great pairing with seared tuna steak with a homemade salsa/avocado topping. Great value at $17 or so.

Stoughton, WI

Spent last week at the Crown Point Resort in Stoughton, WI. The beds were a bit uncomfortable, but otherwise, we had a wonderful time there. Apparently, the fishing is a bit off this year as Lake Kegonsa is having some issues with algae. But that didn't stop our crew from catching a whole mess of smallmouth bass, a couple of northern pike, a largemouth bass, a bluegill and even a drum.

We drank an obscene amount of wine, but I'm not going to bother commenting on any of it as it was, by design, mostly of the pedestrian variety. Mostly $10-15 Malbec, Torrontes and red blends that can already be found in the notes of this site. Grilled brats, burgers, fish tacos, catered BBQ, etc. just isn't the time to break out the really good stuff.

But I did want to mention a couple of local beers that I tasted that really stood out from the competition. The Mad Hatter IPA was quite nice with intense citrus and pine aromas and flavors. But as nice that was, the Ale Asylum Satisfaction Jackson IPA was a truly profound experience. Intensely hoppy on the attack, but finishes with a glorious malty sweetness that I admire in a great IPA. Sadly, not available in Kansas.

We also spent an afternoon at the New Glarus Brewery in nearby New Glarus, WI. This was a favorite brewery of mine when I lived in Milwaukee a few years back and I was glad to finally be able to see where the beer comes from. The facility is a stunning sight. It's huge, brand new and no expense has been spared. The outside is visually impressive with lots of stonework and the manufacturing floor is a bewildering maze of what seems like thousands of miles of gleaming stainless steel tubing. I haven't seen a more impressive sight in any California winery. My favorites there were the Stone Soup (a sophisticated Belgian style ale with cherry, bitter almond and aromatic spices), Spotted Cow (a slightly sweet, fruity farmhouse ale) and the hoppy/malty Moon Man "No Coast Pale Ale." If you're ever in Central Wisconsin, this is a must-see operation.

Brief notes from a weekend of wine

A couple of friends came by last weekend and we opened a number of nice and not-so-nice bottles. I didn't take any specific notes on the wines, but here are a few brief impressions of a couple of them:

1999 Pride Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley - I've been lucky to have had a couple of 96-97-98 of this wine but I always had them in their youth. This was the first time I'd had one of these with any age on it. What an odd bottle this was. No fruit. No chocolaty, over-the-top oak that I usually associate with this winery. Just some weird sun-dried tomato flavors and acidity that was really out of balance. Tried it again on day two and the additional time on air didn't help.

2006 Eaglepoint Ranch Grenache, Mendocino - Probably my favorite wine of the weekend. All of the raspberry fruit, herb and spice of a good Cotes-du-Rhone but with that extra kick of California fruit. This wine never fails to impress. Sadly, I'm down to my last two bottles.

2007 Flock Old Vine Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley - Call me crazy, but I really enjoyed this inexpensive, value-priced Zinfandel from Sebastiani. Lots of blackberry and black pepper; just how I like my Zinfandel.

2007 Dunning Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Paso Robles - Oh, mercy, the tannins! What a brute! Really hard to even evaluate this wine's potential as the tannins and acidity are completely overpowering the fruit at this point. Two more in the cellar and I won't be opening either one any time soon. Check back with me in about 10 years.

2006 Trenza Tinto, San Luis Obispo - Another perennial favorite around here. Waves of black olive, new leather, dark fruits. Good structure, but certainly ready to drink now. A rare Tempranillo-based blend from California's Central Coast.

2006 Ambullneo Howling Syrah, Santa Maria Valley - Sadly, corked. I'm pretty sensitive to TCA and I was the only one who found the wine approaching undrinkability. Everyone else felt it was an "off" bottle, but managed to drink it anyway. The wintergreen and white pepper harkens back to a bottle of this I enjoyed a few months ago. But the TCA taint was just too much for me to be able to enjoy this particular bottle.

A Tale of Two Riojas

I rubbed a whole chicken down with salt, pepper, Spanish smoked paprika and dried parsley tonight and smoked it over charcoal spiked with cherry wood chips. Rioja seemed like an appropriate choice so I opened two. Both wines were quite tasty with the food:



The 2006 Heredad Ugarte Crianza, Rioja, offers rich, classic flavors of porcini mushroom, saddle leather and mint. Drinking at or near its peak, the leather and dusty cherry flavors shine on the palate.









The 2009 Montebuena Cosecha, Rioja, is a completely different animal. Although the sweet raspberry fruit and spice speak more of Spanish Garnacha than Rioja, I really enjoyed this wine. Not terribly complex, but the purity of fruit is something to be appreciated. Well done; albeit a bit atypical for this region.

2006 Lindaflor "Petite Fleur"

Opened the 2006 Monteviejo Petite Fleur, Mendoza tonight with my stand-by meal for Argentinian red wines: grilled flank steak with chimichurri sauce. What a tremendous wine! Fantastic color. Intoxicating nose of blueberry, blackberry, coffee grounds and black pepper. Might even be a hint of cured meat/salami (from the Syrah, perhaps?) hiding in there, too. Loads of dark fruits and spice on the palate. Big tannins and acidity. My only criticism of this wine is that the 14.5% alcohol seems pretty intrusive. Drink now or cellar for 5 years. A blend of unspecified percentages of Malbec, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Chimichurri Sauce

2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup (packed) Italian parsley
1 cup (packed) cilantro
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Simply puree all ingredients in food processor. Serve over grilled beef, pork or chicken.

2003 Martin & Weyrich Nebbiolo

I pulled the cork on my last bottle of 2003 Martin & Weyrich Il Vecchio Nebbiolo, Paso Robles tonight with dinner. Typical, washed-out color of Nebbiolo and throwing lots of sediment. Pretty, perfumy notes of sweet cherry, vanilla and an earthy, mushroomy note that borders on truffle. Aged in French oak for 18 months. Still has nice tannins and acidity. Could probably age into something even more complex with another 5-10 years in the bottle.

Dinner was lamb shanks from our CSA that I smoked over hickory for an hour and then braised in chicken stock, some leftover tomato sauce and aromatics. After about 5 hours, the meat was shredded off the bone and piled high on a mound of sun-dried tomato risotto. A gremolata of parsley, garlic and orange peel completed the package. Pretty special dinner and it went really well with the wine.

Baking Bread

I've recently tried my hand at baking bread and I've been pretty satisfied with the results. Through the years, I've always been more of a "cook" and less of a "baker" as I generally prefer to add a pinch of this or a splash of that rather than precisely measuring out 1/8 tsp. of this or 1 5/8 cup of something else. I recently saw someon on one of those TV cooking shows explain the biggest difference between cooking and baking is that when cooking, you can constantly make adjustments. You're free to add more spices, more liquid, another pinch of salt, etc., etc. during or after the cooking process. But with baking, you have to get it perfect before you put it in the oven. Once it goes in, you're pretty much stuck with what's in the oven. And I find that kind of scary.

But I made two different bread recipes last week. My first one was a round loaf with olive oil, rosemary and Italian herbs. The recipe was very easy to follow and I thought it turned out pretty well. I just wish the loaves had been a little bit larger. I decided to put a couple of decorative slashes across the top right before putting it in the oven and when I did, the risen loaf sort of deflated itself. And it never did rise back to its original size. Next time, I'll try slashing it before the final rise.

The other bread I made was a pretty standard honey wheat loaf that was used for breakfast toast and lunch sandwiches. This was fantastic! Better than the best whole grain bread you can buy off a grocery store shelf.



Today I made three loaves of cinnamon raisin bread. This recipe had a few more steps than the other breads, but it was still pretty easy to make. And it's so delicious! The triple loaf recipe was a bit much for the KitchenAid (as the author warns us) but it pulled through. And I highly recommend Penzey's Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon for any recipe that calls for cinnamon. So strong, so sweet.



So don't be afraid to break out the measuring spoons and loaf pans and bake some homemade bread. It's cheap, it's easy and it's pretty rewarding. And while I'm no food crusader, I like the fact that my bread isn't loaded with preservatives and a whole laundry list of ingredients I can't pronounce.

2007 Renwood Viognier and 2006 Tablas Creek Mourvedre

Opened the 2007 Renwood Viognier, Lodi as an aperitif tonight. I've had this a few times recently and it's always been an enjoyable wine. Notes of orange blossom, vanilla, white flowers on the nose and a thick, sweet palate. Perhaps a bit too sweet for some, but I like it. Quite nice with homemade rosemary bread dipped in Blood Orange Fusion olive oil from The Tasteful Olive; a new olive oil specialty store in Overland Park.

For dinner I rubbed some grass-fed, hormone-free Kansas City strips from Homespun Hill Farm with dried rosemary, dried orange peel (notice a trend here?) salt and pepper and grilled them rare over a charcoal fire. The beef we get from our CSA is so dense and flavorful it could easily be mistaken for lamb. So I thought the 2006 Tablas Creek Mourvedre, Paso Robles would be a good choice. We picked up this particular bottle at the winery just over a year ago. The wine is incredibly dense with aromas and flavors of grilled meat, saddle leather, plum and black pepper. The 14.5% alcohol is also quite apparent on the nose. One sip of this impeccably balanced wine and it's easy to see why the Perrin Family is the undisputed master of this Rhone grape. It's very acidic and tannic; I'd go so far as to say it isn't particularly pleasant to drink on its own. But it really shines with the earthy flavors of the steak. Finishes with a pleasant note of bitter orange pith. A beautiful wine from an absolutely first-rate winery.

2007 Clayhouse Adobe Red

I've enjoyed numerous bottles of the 2007 Clayhouse Adobe Red, Central Coast and it has always over-delivered in terms of flavor and enjoyment. Brimming with grapey, blackberry and spice flavors this blend of Zinfandel (41%), Petit Sirah (32%), Syrah (16%), Malbec (5%), Grenache (4%) and Mourvedre (2%) is a perennial favorite in the value department. A touch sweet, I would be willing to bet this is bottled with a bit of residual sugar. A great choice for grilling, pizza or tonight's bronzed pork chops. About $13.

Farm Stuff (part deux)

Oh, how depressing and frustrating yesterday was! Tried to start digging our first hole with some old school post hole diggers and quickly ran into layer upon layer of rock. Not sure if it's the same thing, but back in Texas we called this stuff "caliche stone." I actually bent a pick axe trying to get through this stuff. So I drove across town and rented a gas-powered auger. And even that proved unworthy; and extremely dangerous as it would only start if you pulled the string while holding the throttle open! So I went back to the rental center and paid for a day's worth of jack hammer. And while this thing excelled at busting up the rock, the damn auger still wouldn't dig through the ground.

So now we're $700+ into fencing equipment and almost $200 into rental equipment and we haven't even been able to dig a single stinking hole to sink a post into. Ugh. Took the rental stuff back today and the guy suggested renting a Bobcat with an auger and jack hammer attachments. That's another $400. Not sure if that's worth it or not. As it stands, I think I'm just going to put the whole project on hold and see if I can return some or all of the fencing supplies.

At this point, I wonder just how many carrots and onions we'd have to grow to ever recoup our $1000 investment in a $%#& garden. I have huge bruises on my thighs now from that auger torquing into my legs on start-up and whenever it hit a rock that wouldn't budge. {sarcasm alert} At least the kids got some entertainment value out of seeing dad getting tossed around like a rag doll by this torture contraption.

UPDATE: The good folks at the Family Center have agreed to take back all the unused supplies that we aren't going to be able to use. Still kind of bummed at our lack of a fence, but at least we'll recoup most of our expenses.

Farm Stuff.....

Finally got started on some honest-to-goodness farm stuff today! Bought all of the supplies for about 1500 square feet of welded wire/utility fencing. Wood posts, t-posts, fence stretcher, post hole digger, two gates, 400# of concrete - you get the picture. We're building the fence strong enough to put a pig or two in there for a few months to get the ground ready for a garden in the spring of 2011. We've also laid out trellising for a couple of blackberry and raspberry bushes and we're looking at moving some fruit trees from the back of the yard (where it's too wet) to line the driveway. I'll be sure to post some pictures of the progress. I expect to be very sore by this time tomorrow night.

2006 Il Nero di Casanova Sangiovese

Opened another of my stash of 2006 La Spinetta Il Nero di Casanova, IGT Toscana tonight. Just a beautiful, modern take on Sangiovese. Has all the color, dark blackberry fruit and licorice of previous bottles. But this one seemed to have even more tannin and acidity than other bottles. Great pairing with homemade lamb meatballs in tomato sauce, soft polenta and a side of crusty, homemade rosemary bread. Great bottle of wine for under $25.