wine – Riveted

Touring the Chianti Countryside

Laura Domela — Sun, 25 May 2014 08:44:35 +0000

So, there are a couple types of tours: (1) the tour in a giant brightly colored and tour-branded bus full of people, and (2) the small group tour in a nondescript van with a maximum of only 8 people. While in theory this smaller group tour might sound much more inviting than the giant bus tour, everything about the personality of the small tour depends on those other 6 people. The giant bus full of people does not have a personality (other than the "tourist" personality). You are anonymous and can float around chatting with different people who might match up with you nicely…and move on if they start talking about how much they miss a real pizza with freeze-dried parmesan on top.

Yesterday we did a small group tour of the Chianti area of Tuscany with 4 other people and our guide Giancarlo. Giancarlo was wonderful: soft-spoken, very informative, patient. Also, Giancarlo loves American tourists. He said that American tourists are his favorite, because they enjoy things the most and seem to have the most fun. Most other tourists seem unhappy or depressed and it's not as enjoyable to take them on a tour. (Clearly, phrases that make us bristle…like "All these Italian names are starting to sound the same!" don't seem to bother him.)

We began the tour from the Piazza Repubblica and headed out in our silver VW van with air conditioning into the Tuscan countryside. We stopped first in Impruneta, at a small family run terracotta studio called Forcace Masini.

We got to watch a work in progress:

Pots like this can only be added to in increments of about 12cm of terracotta at a time (structural reasons) and as you can see, the pots don't spin on a wheel/base, the artist walks around the pot and works in circles.

Until fired, the pots are a dark gray color.

The famous "terra di Impruneta" is a clay mixture of sand, calcium carbonate and iron oxide. It feels like a super fine powder in your fingers:

Outside the kiln:

Workspace:

Finished terracotta in the sun:

We left Fornace Masini and headed toward Montefioralle, a small village in Greve in Chianti said to be the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci. We wandered around a bit and took a few photos while Giancarlo talked to a local man who has lived in Montefioralle all his life. There are between 40-80 people who live in Montefioralle (Giancarlo said 40, the internet says 79…either way, it's not that many).

Next stop: the town of Greve in Chianti. It used to be just Greve until 1972 when the words "in Chianti" were added to many small towns in the Chianti region as a marketing campaign to increase tourism and awareness of the Chianti region (which totally worked, apparently).

Giancarlo dropped us off just outside the town center so we could explore the Saturday market for an hour or so. There were people in booths selling produce, fish, meat, clothing, shoes, tools, kitchen gadgets, and much more. It was fun to wander through here with the locals as they socialized with their once-a-week neighbors.

We stopped and had an espresso, then went into the Macelleria Folorni, a deli/butcher shop that Giancarlo said was one of his favorites.

Down in the cheese cave:

This is a beautiful shop and we ended up taking some goodies back to the apartment (prosciutto, salami, cinghale, bresaola, some pecorino, and more fresh eggs).

Next up was our first vineyard/winery: Castello Monterinaldi in Radda in Chianti.

We got to tour the cellar and learn some things we didn't know (which is fabulous after all the cellar tours we've been on). This is Vin Santo ("holy wine", a traditional Tuscan dessert wine usually made from Trebbiolo and Malvasia grapes), aging in these chestnut barrels since the 1980s:

Chianti Classico:

There's all sorts of stuff we never knew about Chianti.

The grounds of Castello Monterinaldi are gorgeous:

Can you believe this building (below) used to be a chicken coop? Like, you know, for chickens??

After our tour of the grounds we went inside and got to taste four five wines plus the vin santo, plus a little grappa (!!!), along with a light lunch of traditional Italian cold cuts, cheese, sundried tomatoes, bread, honey, estate-produced extra virgin olive oil, and this incredible pear/mustard compote that I must find jars of to take home before we leave. Spicy and sweet, it's perfect drizzled on Parmigiano-Reggiano (or probably on anything).

The owner (Daniele Ciampi) was informative and generous and everyone had a lovely time here. They have a nice saying: Chi ha furia, faccia piano, which basically translates to "Those in a hurry, slow down" (or as Google translate says: Those with fury, face up).

Our next stop was the town of Castellina in Chianti.

We wandered the narrow streets, stopped for gelato, and then headed to our second vineyard: Casa Emma.

Paolo was our guide and gave us a tour of the production and aging areas, and taught us a few more things we didn't know.

After the tour, we went upstairs onto the patio to taste some of Casa Emma's wines. This is Paolo:

And this was our view:

We tasted some Chianti Classico, a single vineyard Chianti Classico, a Chianti Classico Riserva (our favorite), and two Merlots. Very nice wines! We brought home a bottle of the Riserva. We now have 3 bottles to drink in 5 days. I think we can handle that!

Yes, I know I never really told you anything about the other four people in our tour. Let's just say we had a little lesson of our own about patience and tolerance, and overall we enjoyed the tour very much.

A Birthday Surprise!

Laura Domela — Sun, 04 May 2014 15:58:19 +0000

Yesterday (May 3) was my birthday (yay, birthdays!). Kevin told me on Friday that he had a surprise planned starting the next morning. He also told me to pack a bag for a couple days that included biking stuff and something to wear to a nice dinner out, and to be dressed like I might be going on a hike (with shoes that could get muddy) — oh, and that we needed to leave the house by 4:30am.

!!!!!

We had an opening night play to attend the night before (where we were shooting environment/audience shots before the show and during intermission for their brochure and publicity stuff) so as soon as bows were taken, we hightailed it home and went to bed by 11pm, because, um, 4am.

Alarm sounded, espresso was consumed, and off we went into the pre-dawn darkness.

We ended up at Sportsman Airpark in Newberg, Oregon at 5am and we were apparently a little early. Well let's see…we were at an airport, but not OUR airport. (It had occurred to me we might be flying somewhere with the bikes, but we'd need to be at the airport where we keep our plane, and we weren't.)

Kevin: Any guessses?

Me: Hmm. A glider ride? No, they don't do gliders here. A helicopter?

Kevin: Nope.

Me: A float plane?

Kevin: Do you see any water?

Me: (stumped)

At some point a few other cars trickled in, and eventually one of them pulled up next to us on my side, looking like they wanted to chat. We rolled down the window and the woman driving said "Is this the place for the balloon rides?"

Aha! A balloon! I didn't know they did that here either! Sweet! Apparently we were going to help set up the balloons, go up for a hot air balloon ride over the Willamette Valley, land, help take balloons down, and then finish with a champagne brunch there on the field. How fun!! And what a great surprise!!!

We waited with the other cars for another half hour or so. Seems the balloon people were a bit late. After a little while longer, the same woman who chatted with us before came walking over holding her phone, looking kinda pissed. We rolled down the window and she informed us that (1) she was impatient and had called the balloon people, (2) they apparently weren't going to fly today, (3) they were supposed to have called us all the night before to tell us (!!!) and had not, (4) it was her daughter's birthday present and they'd gotten up at 4am too. She gave us the number so we too could call too if we wanted, then she walked on over to the next car to continue the stream of bad news.

Kevin called in and the balloon people were very nice and apologetic, but no, they weren't flying. They were very sorry no one had called to tell us the night before.

Well, shoot. So there we were at 6am on a Saturday, at a little airfield in Newberg Oregon, with nothing to do until the 3pm check in time at the B&B Kevin had reserved for us in the Willamette Valley wine country.

I figured Kevin was far more disappointed and frustrated that I would be (I wasn't, actaully…it was a very sweet thing to plan) so I got out my iPhone and looked around at the map and found what looked like a park along a river with some trails. Great! We could get in an early morning hike (since we were dressed for it and all).

This is Joe Dancer Park in McMinnville. There's a nice trail along the river, as well as giganic well-manicured soccer fields and other sports facilities. The river trail is 1.5 miles each way so we did a nice 3 mile hike.

We stuck to the trail along the river, with one exception: the skate park! This place was gorgeous in the early morning light:

And here's Kevin shreddin' sans skateboard:

We finished our hike, looked for a breakfast spot (Yelp) and settled on the Crescent Cafe in downtown McMinnville — good food, made fresh from scratch (delicious breads and house-made sausage).

Okay! Three-mile hike…check! Breakfast…check! Time…9am! Hmmm.

So guess what we did? We went down the street and had manicures and pedicures at Thumbs Up Nail Salon while we sat in massage chairs, watching The Incredible Hulk on a big screen television. After all that we still had a few hours to kill, so we decided to go over to the Airstream (in storage about 30 minutes away) to pick up Kevin's bike lock cable.

I was feeling pretty tired (I'm not the greatest on too little sleep) and so I thought (and said): "Hey, we could also…while we're at the Airstream…take a NAP!!" So that's exactly what we did. We got the bike lock cable, crawled into bed, and took a two hour nap (in the Airstream…in the storage garage). It was lovely!

Now we were rested and finally it was about time to head over to the Lobenhaus B&B! We arrived a little early (their office opens for check-in at 3pm) so we got out the iPad and sat in the car in the garden parking lot and watched the Kentucky Derby (via Slingbox and our cable box at home). Ahhh, technology!

Lobenhaus is in Carlton, Oregon. It's a lovely bed & breakfast with 6 rooms and a vineyard on 28 acres. Our room has a deck overlooking Millican Creek and the woods, and the owners Joe & Shari Lobenstein are wonderful. Here's the view from our room (yes, it's raining, but look how GREEN!):

We got all checked in and situated and decided we had enough time to do a little wine tasting before 5pm closing time for most wineries. We headed to The Eyrie Vineyards first, in McMinnville:

The tasting room was packed, and we liked the wine (we brought home two pinots). Next was Domenio IV Wines, not too far from Eyrie.

We loved the wines at Dominio IV, and came home with two bottles each of two different temperanillos and a pinot. Ryan (our pourer, and also the wine club guy) was pouring to a pretty full tasting room there as well. He was super helpful and gave a great amount of information about each wine to everyone. 5pm in the tasting room is usually a little…um…rowdy (or can be, anyway). We were some of the only patrons who hadn't been tasting wine all day.

We headed back to Lobenhaus to hang out a bit and shower, and then it was time for dinner. Kevin had a 7:45pm reservation for us at The Joel Palmer House.

From the Joel Palmer House website: "The Joel Palmer House is on the National as well as Oregon Historic Register. Joel Palmer was one of Oregon’s preeminent pioneers leaving Indiana in 1845 to make his long way west. As leader of one of three wagon trains headed for the Northwest, Palmer soon exhibited the leadership qualities for which he became famous.

Joel Palmer co-founded the town of Dayton in 1848 and built this home in 1857. It is said that it is named after the hometown of Chris Taylor, a close friend."

View into the back door of the kitchen:

The service here is wonderful, and spot-on. It's formal and elegant, while at the same time being completely friendly and down-to-earth. We arrived early so our table wasn't ready (no big deal) but they apologized and brought us a glass of sparkling wine to sip while we waited, and we were seated about five minutes later at the same lovely table by the window where we dined the first time we visited. We opted again to do the "mushroom madness" tasting menu (so good!)

The sommelier showed us the wine list and pointed out a section called "Orphans" — these are wines where there is only one bottle left. The bottles on this list are crossed out by hand as they are ordered. Love this! We chose a 2008 Monks Gate pinot noir and it was delicious and went well with all of the courses (minus the palate cleanser of dueling gazpacho soups). This fabulous meal ended with an extra dessert of some kind of chocolate truffles, and they were good but what was far more interesting to me were the accompanying candy cap mushroom POP ROCKS (because I'm 12!) Mushroom-flavored pop rocks!! I need a jar of those.

Such a fun day!!

Last Day in Calistoga

Laura Domela — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 22:00:13 +0000

Today we rode our bikes over to Chateau Montelena.

If you've seen the movie Bottleshock, or if you know about the 1976 Paris blind tasting upset (also known as the "Judgment of Paris") when a California Chardonnay won first prize over its French competitors (unthinkable!), then you'll probably have heard of this winery.

The Paris Wine Tasting of 1976 or the Judgment of Paris was a wine competition organized in Paris on 24 May 1976 by Steven Spurrier, a British wine merchant, in which French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines from France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California). A California wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best wines. Spurrier sold only French wine and believed that the California wines would not win. [Wikipedia]

The grounds are spectcular.

The Chardonnay they make today is apparently made in the same style as the 1973 Chardonnay that won the Paris tasting, and it was very good! We also really liked the 2010 Montelena Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cute sticker on the bike rack:

From there we headed back to camp, worked some more, then went to our 2pm tour appointment at Reverie, up on Diamond Mountain.

Reverie is one of Napa Valley’s smallest estate wineries. The vineyard is nestled on a steep, 40 acre parcel high up in the Diamond Mountain appellation (we did not ride bikes up here), and the wine they produce is wonderful. We started our tasting outside with Sara (She's awesome! Hi Sara!) and then headed into the caves.

A French oak barrel. These cost about $1200 and can be used once or twice:

Kevin in the caves with oak and temperanillo:

Our favorite wines of this tasting were the Petit Verdot, the 2008 Cabernet, and the Reserve Cabernet. The tour was fun and educational and I would highly recommend making a reservation here at Reverie if you're in Calistoga. It was one of our favorites!

Next was a wine and cheese pairing/tasting at The Von Strasser Winery (right next door to Reverie, also up on Diamond Mountain).

John was our guide and gave us a nice tour and took us into the caves and to a small table for our tasting.

It was just the three of us so we had a time for some fun casual conversation, as well as learning about the Von Strasser wine and winemaking. Our favorites here were the 2009 Sori Bricco Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2009 Spaulding Cabernet Sauvignon.

Back at the Airstream now. I think we're going to grill some salmon and some veggies, and then ride bikes to the market later to get some groceries before heading out tomorrow morning. We've had such a nice time here in Calistoga and it definitely feels like it's going to become of the "regulars" now. (You know, the places you return to over and over again.)

Happy Friday everyone!

Our Holiday Was All About Food (and wine)

Laura Domela — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 16:06:44 +0000

Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a lovely holiday. We spent ours with friends and family and boy did we have a great time. We visited, played games, hiked, cooked, laughed, shopped, got pedicures, and had an overall fun and mellow break from it all.

But mostly, we ate.

Kevin's mom arrived from San Antonio on the 18th of December and we immediately took her up to The Herbfarm in Woodinville, WA for her birthday celebration. The place was decorated full-tilt boogie for the holidays, complete with Dickens Carolers. The food was delicious and expertly presented, as usual.

Then, back in Portland we did our version of kicked-up Southern BBQ for Christmas dinner (pulled pork, baby back ribs, hot links, chicken, salads, homemade BBQ sauce, cornbread, maple bacon bourbon cookies, candied bacon, truffled truffles, etc.). Fun, casual, and something for everyone.

On the 26th, as a holiday gift to our family, we took everyone out to Noisette for the chef's tasting menu. Lovely time and fantastic food.

On the 27th our friends Jake and Patti arrived from San Diego, and on New Year's Eve Jake and Kevin and I cooked up a doozie of a meal: six courses with wine pairings. I can't believe I didn't take any photos (I was busy), but here's our menu:

1. STARTERS (Jake & Laura)

Sweet piquanté peppers stuffed with Borsin garlic herbed cheese, chives

Cave-aged gruyere

Wild boar salami

Marcona almonds

Dibon cava brut reserve, Spain

2. ROASTED ASPARAGUS SOUP (Laura)

Roasted asparagus soup garnished with tiger prawn and truffled balsamic

Pavi 2011 Pinot Grigio, Napa Valley

3. FOIE GRAS (Jake)

Pan-seared foie gras, balsamic/loganberry liqueur drizzle
Lady apple, shallot, maple syrup relish, radish sprouts

Jackson-Triggs Vidal Icewine, 2011

4. TENDERLOINS WITH RISOTTO AND SALAD (Kevin & Laura)

Harris Ranch tenderloins, Oregon white truffle butter

Shrimp and chanterelle risotto, shaved fresh Oregon white truffles, chives

Arugula, Parmagiano Reggiano, white balsamic, olive oil

Vincent Arroyo Entrada, 2009, Napa Valley

5. CHEESE (Laura)

Anton's Red Love, washed-rind brie

Brie du Pommier

Sour cherry preserves

Salty date and almond cracker

Cypher 2008 "Strange Attraction" dessert wine, Paso Robles

6. DESSERT (Jake)

Puff pastry cups with guava jelly, lime cream and ginger creme Anglaise

Yalumba Muscat, Museum Reserve, South eastern Australia

Pretty fancy, eh? We rocked it, too! (Oh yeah, and a few days before this, our dishwasher quit, so for the full picture, imagine us doing dishes between each course!)

On New Year's Day, Jake made us a beautiful mushroom and cheese soufflé. I did manage to get a photo of that one.

I've been wanting to try making ramen at home (after going to Ippudo in NY), and Jake was game to help, so we headed over to Uwajimaya for supplies (after a TON of research). I read and read and read about all the different broths (shio, shoyu, miso, tonkatsu), and although the ramen I had and loved at Ippudo was a tonkatsu broth, that was the most difficult and time-consuming, so I opted to just wing it with a combination of my 24-hour chicken stock with some fish stock and miso. The broth was good, and solid for a first shot (if not traditional), but I have to say the toppings were the most fun. We did a braised pork belly, sliced fish cake, marinated soft-boiled eggs, sauteed corn, scallions, pickled ginger, sprouts, spinach, Tokyo negi, maitake and enoki mushrooms, wakeme, and bamboo shoots. (We quite possibly went a bit overboard with the toppings, but whatever.)

Here's what it looked like:

Luckily, we still managed to squeeze in regular hikes in the arboretum to burn a few calories. Here's a nice shot from the trail one foggy morning:

Tell us about your holiday meals! If you've got any good recipes to share, or want any of ours, just let us know!

*Oh yeah, the first shot at the top of this post is from Sauvage in Portland. I forgot to mention…we took Jake & Patti there on the 2nd. So. Much. Good. Food (and wine).

Sun, Winter, Wineries

Laura Domela — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 22:38:30 +0000

The sun came out today (SUN!!!!) and so this afternoon we all piled into the car and headed out for a Sunday drive to a couple of the wineries West of Portland. We needed to pick up some wine club shipments that we missed while on the road and today seemed like a perfect day to take in some sunny crisp weather (34 degrees). While we were at it, we picked up some local bubbly for New Year's Eve (two bottles — including one sparkling rose — both from Apolloni Vineyards).

David Hill's farmhouse tasting room:

We tasted at David Hill and Apolloni, and just picked up our wine club shipment at Willamette Valley Vineyards (it was crowded, and we've tasted there recently). Great afternoon!

Happy New Year everyone!