football season

The University of Wyoming website has a countdown clock, ticking off the seconds until kickoff on September 1st. As a Cowboy groupie, everytime I see that getting closer and closer I am thrilled to be so close to footabll season once again. Following a team around the country means I will be in at least 7 different states in the next couple of months and that means a different style of cuisine indigenous to each of those states. What am I looking forward to? The San Diego State game means a trip to Carino's pizza in La Jolla. The Air Force game means champagne on the deck of the Cheyenne Mountain Resort. The Ohio game means I've got something new to find. The Boise game means some of the best vegetarian foods in the country. All of the games in Laramie mean only one thing in a state where they take their beef seriously and the prime rib is beyond belief. The games themselves offer a variety of hot dogs, hamburgers, nachos in various formats and, because they are college games, no beer! Which makes the pleasure of a glass of wine following the games that much more enjoyable. What is your favorite football stadium memory?

porcini mushrooms

One of the best things I found on a recent trip to Italy was Porcini mushroom bouillon cubes. The brand was called STAR and they came just like the type of bouillon cubes we buy here in a small box of eight cubes. Just smelling through the box at the store promised the richness that each cube held. I tried many dishes with them while in Italy and then brought two boxes home, wondering if the drug sniffing dogs would ravage my bags. Last night they came out again - perhaps it was the bottle of Italian Pinot Grigio we were drinking that induced the memory - So into the saute pan went a pound of chopped mushrooms along with a chopped onion to soften in butter. Then added a large package of fresh baby spinach, a big splash of the 2003 GustavoThrace Chardonnay that was open, a cup of half and half and a porcini mushroom bouillon cube and some s&p. Cooked a bag of papardelle noodles till just al dente then threw them into the sauce to absorb a bit of the liquid. We ate, legs curled up on the couch, out of warmed bowls, savoring the flavors and memories of Italy.

Family Winemakers

Today is the first day of the two day marathon Family Winemaker's pour at Fort Mason. Some 350 wineries will be pouring their wines, trying to somehow differentiate themselves from the other 349 that surround them. We are always on the other side of the table, the ones there smiling, pouring, teaching and meeting new consumers and business partners. How do you, on the other side of the table, make the decision to stop at an unknown, to you, table to taste? Being a tiny winery we watch as the crowd approaches: What are they looking for? Their favorites? The most famous? The winery owned by friends? The unknown? The most rewarding time of a huge pour like this is the last couple of hours when our table becomes crowded because,"I was told you had the best - name a wine varietal - here." That means so much more to us because as the crowd becomes 'friends' over the duration of the pour they freely offer advice to anyone standing around them. So, out of the sea of wines available we love it when they come to our table because someone else at the show has sent them to us. If you've never gone you don't want to miss this event.

figs and wines

It seems that you either love or hate fresh figs. I think it's more of a texture thing than a taste preference, I mean who didn't eat Fig Newtons growing up? The tree in the garden is laden with them now and I waiver between letting them get one day riper and plumper or risk letting the birds get to them. So, I've been picking them when they are dark purple, heavy and still firm to the touch. So what to do wtih them and what wine to drink with them - which is always the question when dealing with any food I am presented with. The choice of wine will, of course, be determined by the way in which the particular food is prepared. In this case we fired up the grill, split the figs in half through the stem, slathered the cut halves with a meyer-lemon olive oil and grilled them, cut side down until hot and then plated them with a heavy drizzle of a balsamic glaze. This was one of those 'lick your plate' dishes - the next time I would crumble a fresh goat's cheese over it as well just for a bit more of an acid balance. We were drinking bubbles when we started (which, in my opinion, goes with everything) but switched to our red table wine, The 3rd Bottle, to finish up the figs. The 3rd Bottle is a blend of merlot, cabernet and zinfandel and that melding of flavors really complimented the variety of flavors on the plate. If you have a fig tree or know someone who does try the combination above and let me know your thoughts.

it's always something!

well, here goes...........Gustavo wanted the winery to have a blogspot which, of course, meant that I was going to be the one doing it. Having not done this before I will attack it with the same approach that I used to learn to drive the forklift at the winery, just get on and do it!

As the grapes turn color and become sweeter I am excited for harvest and all of the excitement that brings but it also means that the birds are attacking the grapes on my arbor at home and dropping purple bombs all over the place. I have vines at home just so I can watch the progress of the season on a daily basis, progressively tasting as they become sweeter, a race to get into the bottle that they don't even know they have entered.