May 2011 – Stefania Wine

May 29, 2011

Memorial Day Tours Part II

Saturday morning we headed to the vineyards south of us outside of the town of Morgan Hill. That includes the Crimson Clover vineyard, source of our very popular single vineyard Cabernet. The vineyard had a little drama earlier with the gates being open and some deer damage. It looked though like the damage was limited to about 20 plants.

The view above is from the top of the vineyard out across the valley. It looks like we’ll need to do a new fertilizer sprays on the vines soon to make up for some low nitrogen. I’ve gotten to prefer using teas and sprays on the leafs to ground applications. I think the uptake is better with less waste. Fruit set looks low again this year. The wind in the little valley helps limit vigor and we usually get just about one to two tons of fruit per acre.

Our second stop was at the Peacock vineyard south of the city of Morgan Hill. This vineyard is doing very, very well. It will need to be thinned and suckered still, but overall looked really great. There is much more fruit than we figured the site could produce in its fourth year. A real rough guess at this time is about 1800-2400 pounds.

The owners were not 100% sure what they had in the vineyard. They thought it was Cabernet Franc, but also thought it might be Zinfandel as the crew lead who installed the vineyard told them Zinfandel. We’re 99% sure right now it’s Cabernet Franc and not Zinfandel. The leaf is wrong for Zin. We’ve only handled a little Cab Franc though in the past, just about 20 plants, so I won’t be 100% sure until we see some fruit bunches.

Cabernet Franc is an earlier grape to get ripe. There is already good flowering here and it would not surprise me to have this be the second vineyard we harvest this year. Maybe as early as September 15th or so. I’ll have to redo some winemaking plans for the year. We figured on 700-1000 pounds based on the 300 that were harvested last year. I had just planned to add that to the Haut Tubee.

With the potential though for up to 2400 pounds we could make three barrels of Cab Franc. I will replan to ferment and age this wine on its own if we can get three barrels. If it holds up we may release it as a single vineyard wine. I think more likely though is that we will use it to blend out some other wines. We can add up to 15% to our Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon and that wine always benefits from having some Merlot or Cab Franc to round it out and soften it. We may also consider a Santa Clara Valley Cabernet Sauvignon blend as a new wine. That would include fruit from a few new sources. There’s also the very good chance that it will go into the Haut Tubee though and I suspect at least some will go into the Haut Tubee.

May 28, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend Tradition

Every Memorial Day weekend Stefania and I go out and visit each vineyard and inspect it in detail. We do this so we can plan out the work that needs to be done over the next six to eight weeks. It really helps to see all the vineyard in a short time to see how they are doing relative to the others.

Our first stop was the ‘Church’. Just 20 vines at Santa Teresa Church that we take care of. The vines have started to flower as you can see below. This is the process of the hard green grapes getting pollen on themselves and turning to real grapes. This is a sensitive time in the vineyard and if the vines shake too much the flowers will fail in their efforts and the resulting clusters will have ‘shatter’.

Stefania did clean up some suckers in the little vineyard and tucked up the growth in the wires.

After a short stop at a wine store that wanted to try our wine we headed up to the Mount Eden area of Saratoga to inspect our vineyard there. This is a view across the little valley from our location. The vineyards on the far left are Mount Eden and Peter Martin Ray. In the center is Copper Garrod – Francville, George’s, Lone Oak and Valley View. To the far right is Kathryn Kennedy.

This is the view down the vineyard looking out at the Santa Clara Valley and downtown San Jose. The vineyard looked in pretty good shape. We need to handle a gopher outbreak and the vines need suckering and tucking, but that’s what we expect in June. There were no signs of mildew and the Cabernet was just starting to flower.

It’s a good hike to the bottom of the vineyard and back, probably a 150 foot drop. The rows look really nice though and will look even better once we get everything tucked up. One thing I’ve learned over the years is it is better to single task a crew rather than trying to do many things at once. So here we’ll start by sending out Jerry to weedwhack under the rows. Then we’ll send out a little crew to sucker the vines. Finally we’ll do thinning and tucking in another effort. I’ve found that if you have a crew out trying to do all those things at once, none of them really get done perfectly. It’s better to do one at a time, do it once, and do it right.

Next we checked on a little 40 plant Merlot vineyard outside of downtown Los Gatos we just took on. As I was inspecting the plants I heard a noise behind me. I went; “what the f… is that?” I turned around and this little hen was pecking at my leg.

We hadn’t had a name for this vineyard yet. We’d just been calling it the ‘Los Gatos’ vineyard. Now though we’ll call it the “Red Hen Vineyard”.

Stef loves chickens. She had to play with these ones as we cleaned up the vineyard. Stefania and I will go back and do the suckering, thinning and tucking here on our own. No sense sending the crew for 40 plants. We’ll have some after pictures soon to see the changes that happen as a vineyard is cleaned up in June.

Our final stop was at the Gurr vineyard in suburban San Jose. There are about 40 Syrah and Zinfandel vines here that go into the Haut Tubee blend each year. There’s a new house under construction in the background.

Today we will go out and check on the southern vineyards and have pictures of those tomorrow.

May 26, 2011

New Website and Blog!

You’ve probably noticed we haven’t been posting blogs for a few weeks. We’ve been working on getting a new website and blog site together and didn’t want to complicate the data import more than we needed too. We’re now ready to go live with the new sites and this will be the last post here at this URL!

First the website address will not change.

Stefaniawine.com

There are many changes on the site and new colors and pictures. The biggest thing though and a key thing we wanted to accomplish was to integrate the blog with the website. We’ve done that! The blog will now show up on the front page of the website and can also be accessed at:

New Integrated Blog Site

All of the old blog posts will still be available here and they will also be available on the new site. All new postings though will be on the new site. We like the blog changes a great deal. You’ll now be able to see previews of the latest blogs, the top blogs, and we’ve added categories and tags to make searching the blog easier.

There are still lots of editorial changes Stefania and I will be making over the next few weeks. We’re updating all of the background information and making it crisper. The section on our wines will be made easier to follow and all of the information there will be updated and put in a common format. In general we’re trying to focus on keeping the content in the blog section where it is ‘fresh’ and information elsewhere on the site will be more concise and basic.

For instance there will no longer be an Events page (which we could never keep updated anyway), instead there will be a category called Events in the blog. We’re also hoping that it will be easier for people to interact with us and ask us questions through the blog and website. Let us know what you think and look for blog postings on the new site to start showing up over the next few days.

May 10, 2011

Enchilada Pablo

When we were in Miami there was a restaurant that had ‘stacked enchiladas’ on the menu and claimed they were a ‘unique invention’. I was seriously insulted. Layered enchiladas are traditional in Northern New Mexico and the only way I’ve ever seen my aunts make them. I never saw Aunts Isabel, Loyda and Alyce make them any other way and in any good restaurant from Espanola north to the Colorado border, including Sante Fe, when you order enchiladas this is what you’ll get.

I have to warn you, this is not Rachel Ray – ‘Easy Breeze’ or ’30 minute simple’ meal. It takes some work to pull off. Stefania will need to chime in too and share with you how to make the sauces. You can of course use canned sauces and save 2-3 hours of prep time.

Ingredients:

12 smallish corn tortillas
1/2 cup of oil
4 cups of red enchilada sauce
2 cups of green enchilada sauce
1 pound of cooked turkey
1 can of refried beans
8 oz of Jack Cheese
3 green onions
1/4 cup Crema Fresca

A note on the red and green sauces. Usually I just make this with red sauce. Normally in New Mexico you are asked if you would prefer red or green. If you want both that’s called ‘Christmas’ or ‘Christmas Tree’, so you don’t say ‘both’ you say ‘Christmas’ to get both. This last time I made some red and some Christmas. As the green sauce is generally much hotter, it’s a good idea to cut it with some red sauce.

Chop your turkey into small bits. You can also use ground beef, ground game (I’ve had elk and venison), chicken or shredded pork, what ever you prefer. Turkey is kind of traditional in my family as these are usually served on the day after Thanksgiving or day after Christmas. Add the turkey to a small pot and add just enough red sauce to cover. Heat on low.

Heat the beans with a small amount of water in a second pot.

Heat the oil in a large fry pan. Fry the tortillas lightly for 8-10 seconds on each side and then drain on paper towels.

To assemble:

In a large baking dish lay two tortillas flat on the bottom of the dish. Add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of beans and spread them out with a spoon to coat the tortilla. Add 2-3 tablespoons of meat and spread that out over the beans. Scoop out 1/4 cup of sauce and cover the meat and beans. Add a small bit of cheese then cover with a tortilla. Repeat the process.

To top the enchilada add one more tortilla (each enchilada will have three total). Cover with sauce until fully coated, some will drip down the sides. Then add a generous amount of cheese. The cheese inside should be just a small amount, most will go on top. Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and add chopped green onions and a tablespoon of Crema Fresca.

This recipe will make four enchiladas and they are VERY filling. Count on one per person. Another note on the Crema Fresca. Any recipe that calls from Creme Fraiche you can use Crema Fresca. The only difference is Creme Fraiche is sold at Whole Foods for $9.95 a quarter cup and Crema Fresca is sold in Mexican markets for $1.25 a quarter cup.