Wing Winery completed its first crush today. Special thanks to the Deshazer Family for helping harvest, crush and press…
Category: Varietal
A true Sonoma County classic wine pairing
2011 Sonoma-Cutrer Les Pierres Chardonnay, Gravenstein Apple Pie ala mode with Clover Stornetta Vanilla Bean ice cream.
The very best of Sonoma County!
Superb Syrah from Sonoma
Supple, silky, smooth three great attributes any beauty should have!
Little Vineyards, 2011 Sonoma Valley Syrah
Three Lab Cab
A doggone good spaghetti red!
Screen Door Cellars – 2012 Pinot Noir
If you’re lucky enough to find it, this Russian River Valley pinot should please even the most discerning palate.
Leather, clove and vanilla accentuate the bright red berry fruit. A velvety mouth feel leaves you craving another sip.
As I understand it this wine is limited in production so you may have troubles Finding it. The winemaker Bobby Donnell is a Texas native and has hooked up his kin back home sip it may be tough to come by around here.
I know Bobby used to run a Texas style BBC, so it’s no surprise this wine pairs perfectly with the baby back ribs I did up tonight.
Byron 2009 Pinot Noir – Santa Maria Valley
We had the good fortune to finally get down to the California Central Coast wine grape growing region this year and spent an awesome day in Los Olivos, tasting through some of the area’s best. While we were visiting all of the local spots, we asked around with some of the locals as to where were the “must visit” tasting rooms. Note: Los Olivos is a quaint little town with what is basically a cross-roads, down each leg of these roads is a multitude of winery tasting rooms (it’s insane how many there are in such a small town). Anyhow, Byron came up in many of our conversations so we stopped in. The tasting room staff were great and we took home a few of their offerings. This one is a great example of the Central Coast Pinot Noirs produced in the area.
Tonight’s dinner consisted of some grilled pork loin with a Pinot Noir & Cherry reduction/glaze. Obviously the wine complimented the dish famously. A supple Pinot with a great ripe red berry fruit character, would have been great on its own but married to pork and blended with cherries made it all the better.
I would suggest that you stop by the Byron Tasting room next time you’re in town, in the meanwhile, here’s a link to their website: http://www.byronwines.com/
Cheers
Norcalwingman
Hey! Finally getting around to some samples.
Apologies to the supplier of the sample for the late review, but hey… Sometimes you just got to lay down some wine!
That being said, this is a fine wine at a great price. Unfortunately it seems the ’09 vintage may be unavailable, but it was a good’n. A great fruit forward Cab, with balanced tannins and length. All-in-all, I’m going to give this one a solid thumbs up, let’s try the ’10 and see if they have a winning record.
On the up-and-up, this was provided as a sample (at some point in the past), regardless… it’s good.
Drink up!
Italian Nachos
Lovely tomatoes and basil fresh from the garden, good mozzarella, balsamic vinegar with extra virgin olive oil from our last vacation (Bella Cavalli Farms www.bellacavallifarms.com)
Mantra 2009 Zinfandel – Alexander Valley
Not Bad – Christmas Redux – Prime Rib
Ah nothing says holidays like drinking yourself silly to accommodate tolerance for extended family. Well that and huge cuts of meat cooked to perfection. And I’m an equal opportunist so a little of both makes for even happier holidays.
I had a revelation (no not in the biblical sense — you have to be careful what you say this time of year — ) rather a seasoning one for cooking one of the most glorious meals of the season. I recall that I saw some cooking show that touted the best seasoning for prime rib was a rather simple one, and I’m a sucker for easy. Four little ingredients to season up that chunk-o-meat.
1. Salt
2. Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
3. Garlic
4. Thyme
Wow, fortunately I have been thinking about cooking this roast beast for many months and started up a nice little herb garden including that little leaved wonder, thyme.
Additionally I am lucky enough to have a great grocer in town, Oliver’s Market, with whom I placed an order for a five-bone prime rib last week. I awoke this morning with visions of (no not sugar plums) but juicy, succulent, and mouth-watering beef! I reread the chapter in “Keys to Good Cooking, A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes” by Harold McGee on Meat. A very good book, not a recipe book, but a great reference in best practices on cooking in general. I highly recommend anyone who enjoys cooking pick this up! Anyhow, back to the beef…
My roast was delivered home by “the wife” at around 10:45 am and I immediately began the preparation. The butcher is awesome, the bone is already cut nearly through, but still attached and the roast is already tied. I have milled about 3 tablespoons of black pepper which I rub over the entirety of the roast. I have also cut a large bunch of fresh thyme from my herb garden and have separated out the leaves from the stems. I then rub about 5 tablespoons of kosher salt all over the roast. Now, the revelation…
Last time I prepared one of these I think I just used some oil and rubbed the thyme leaves on the roast with the oil to afix them to the roast. This time, I thought, why not make some paste with the thyme and garlic. So I cut up a cube of butter, placed three large cloves of garlic and the thyme into the mixer and blended them all together until it became a smooth paste. It was almost like icing a meat cake!
Into the oven which was pre-heated to 525F for a quick searing (NOTE: I wasn’t really thinking and didn’t have the hood fan blowing so the damn smoke detectors started screaming about 5 minutes after starting). After searing for about 10 minutes, I turned the beast down to 250 and will cook it 30 minutes per pound (11 x 30 = about 5 hours). I’ll keep tabs on the internal temperature of the meat and pull it out at about 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, which should leave me a great medium-rare roast!
I’ll report back on how well this endeavor turned out and update you on the wine pairing (yet to be determined, but I’m thinking Stags Leap Cab for me) let the uninterested drink the cheap plonk.
Merry Christmas to All, and to all a sharp knife!
NorcalWingman
Norcal Wingman 