Category: General

How I miss New Orleans. When Paul brought home the head-on shrimp I knew right away I wanted to make BBQ Shrimp. Which, if you’ve ever been to NOLA, you know that BBQ Shrimp don’t go anywhere near a grill or bbq.

The ingredients for ~1 pound of shrimp are:

1 lb. whole shrimp (not peeled, with heads on)

Olive Oil
Butter

3 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 c. chopped yellow onion
1/4 c. rough chopped tomato

Dark Beer
Worcestershire Sauce
Liquid Mesquite Smoke*
Juice from 2 small lemons

Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Bay Leaf
Thyme
Cayenne
Paprika
Ground Jalapeno*
Salt/Pepper

Sautee garlic and onion in butter and olive oil, add tomato while the garlic is still semi-raw but the onions are starting to become translucent. Toss in and stir dry ingredients, then 1/2 cup of the beer, a couple of dashes of worcestershire sauce, a dash or two of liquid smoke and the lemon juice.

I use a 12″ skillet, and like the sauce to be about an inch deep and burbly before adding the shrimp. Adjust the amount of beer to your liquid preference — the whole bottle will leave you with lots of juice to soak up with crusty bread, use 1/4 of the bottle and you get a rich dense “dry” shrimp dish.

*The liquid smoke and jalapeno powder are not traditional, they are my “secret” ingredients.

The shrimp will cook up pretty quick, try to put then in a single layer and once they are showing signs of pink on the bottom, either turn them over or cover the pan with a lid.

OK, next on the New Orleans Agenda: JAZZ FEST, is this weekend and next.

And, if you do get to the Big Easy, please stop by and visit friends of ours: Ronda and Walt are the owners of Louisiana LoomWorks in the French Quarter just up the street from Jackson Square (where we got married!).

http://customragrugs.com/custrugs.htm

Ronda made a custom rug for me last year and it’s my favorite piece of usable art.

Monday Stefania put up a note on Facebook that I was returning from Ranch 99 with head on shrimp. It took a few days but I have an update on the evening menu.

Stef prepared the shrimp. She prepared them New Orleans style. I’ll leave it for her to comment on the recipe and technique.

I decided to make some red beans and rice to stick with the theme. It was kind of ironic as Stef had been doing laundry all day. Red beans and rice is traditionally served on Monday’s in New Orleans. It was the day everyone did laundry and the dish was an easy all day recipe that could be prepared with little fuss while laundry was done.

I had to cheat a little and use precooked beans, but it still came out well. I got the task of picking out the wine. Not an easy task for these two dishes. Both are very spicy and full flavored. A rich Chardonnay tends to get overwhelmed by the spice, and I’d rather save most of our Rieslings for Hot Pot. Stef wanted a red anyway so I searched through the cellar. I thought a Pinot Noir would be too light bodied, and a Cab would be too dry, so I settled on Syrah and was after something fruity but not jammy with a good nose and refreshing acidity.

I poked around for a little while pulling out bottles: Lagier Meredith, Copain, a Cotie Rotie, then went ‘duh’. There was a case of our 2006 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah sitting on the floor waiting to go into our ‘reserve’.

As I came back from taking the picture of the wine on the bar and the irony of the evening I snapped this picture:

Earth Day seemed like a good time to write a bit about our packaging and shipping.

Foils – We don’t use them. They serve no purpose and are 100% decorative. They are not generally recycled.

Corks – We are a drop off winery for Recork America:

http://www.recorkamerica.com/

You can either drop your used corks with us or at the winery and we will package them and send them in to Recork America to be recycled. You can also mail or ship your corks back to us. We’ll take any cork, not just ours.

Bottles – Are recyclable of course. We use the lightest bottle possible to cut on shipping costs and fuel use. They are smoke colored, not green, but they are as ‘green’ a bottle as you can get.

Packaging – We ship in 100% recyclable pulp and cardboard. Styrofoam is not recyclable. We don’t buy it. We will accept your used Styrofoam shipper from other wineries though to re-ship. At least it gets one more use and stays out of the land fills a little longer.

When we started out and made all these packaging choices we were not really making a direct effort to be ‘green’. At each point we just tried to make what we thought was the right decision and making sure things are recyclable and the environmental impact was as important in the choice we made as any factor. The sum of little choices though has added up over the last 5 years.

A lot of what I’d call ‘winemaking’ is really an exercise in logistic management. You have to bring together a wide range of items at the right place and time.

In a way even harvesting is just a logistics exercise. You have to bring together the people, bins, and trucks, right when the grapes are ripe. Then you have to get them to the winery and make sure you have everything there you need; equipment, storage, barrels, ect.

Stefania is going through a logistics ‘hell’ right now. It’s her first time coordinating all the factors in running a bottling. She’s doing it on her own for the first time. Here’s the list of vendors to work with on a bottling:

Bottling Truck
Electrician
Delivery/Trucking Company
Glass Company
Foil Supplier
Cork Supplier
Fork Lift Rental
Gas Rental
Lab
Bentonite and Filter Supplier
Graphic Artist
Label Printer

Plus of course there is the TTB to deal with.

We also need to coordinate labor for the day which means 3-4 staff and 2-3 helpers.

Things have to happen in the right order too. The forklift has to show up before the bottles are delivered for instance and all that has to happen before the bottling truck arrives. If the fork lift arrives after the truck is set up, we have no room to drive it down to the pad and the hill is too steep for it to drive up from the bottom of the vineyard. In fact once the forklift goes down from the first driveway, there’s no way to get it back up. It has to wait until you are finished and then be driven to the bottom of the vineyard for pick up.

Then around this all the winemaking needs to get done. Sulfur additions made, and the wine prepped in tank before the truck starts. There is always some drama. One time there was an accident on Highway 84 the day before bottling. Somehow the truck with the bottles got through, but the truck with the forklift did not. We had a 28 foot truck with no way to unload it for several hours.

By the time she’s done with her checklist of things to remember and things to do and things to order, it will be over 100 items long. From major items like “Order bottles” to minor ones like “Make sure the bond stamp has ink”. I’ll help where I can, but it’s still a lot for one person to pull together.

I promised an update of the mini-home vineyard project. Below are recent pictures of the front yard. I’ll do the backyard in another couple of weeks when the roses are in full bloom.

The Crimson Clover is just starting to come up between the rows and I still need to plant an assortment of Lavender, Sage, and Rosemary to fill in the parking strip and up near the front of the house.

So far, no complaints or unwelcome commentary from the neighbors…as they quietly water their green grass lawns. I’ll ask Paul to comment on this blog about our water usage for our front “lawn” vs. how much we used to water when it was grass.

A couple of weeks ago the first signs of green cover-crop growth started to make an appearance.

I planted Crimson Clover between the rows with a wildflower mixture.

Taken today, 4/17. Signs of bud break in the Mourvedre. This is my front yard, the tract house is the same as the one in the next picture…across the street.

The view outside the living room window, through my arch looking at the neighbors matching arches. Signs of spring and green growth. The vines upper left are Syrah and Grenache. The vines in the parking strip are Thompson Seedless.

Below: One more close up of bud break on the Mourvedre, so far, all 25 plants show signs of life.

So I got a few emails asking what was up with the new flurry of local events we’ve been doing?

It’s official. As of April 1st we signed up with Central Coast Boutique Wines:

http://www.ccboutiquewines.com/index.htm

They will be representing us in Northern California and helping us get our wines into select retail shops and restaurants.

This was something Stefania and I targeted as a primary objective for 2009. It’s been frustrating for us to not be able to direct people somewhere when they want to try our wine. For our customers around the country who deal with mailing lists and order forms, it’s been no big deal, but locally most people are puzzled by the idea of having to sign up and wait to get wine.

Neither Stef or I are great sales people and we don’t have a lot of time to go knock on doors to sell wine, so we knew this was the best option. Now my Mom will be able to tell her friends where to go to get our wine 🙂

We evaluated dozens of companies starting late last year. By January we had it down to three that seemed like good fits. We finally picked Central Coast as the best match for us. Stef and I will be out helping the sales team get our brand launched. More pourings, more events, and maybe even a winemaker dinner or two.

We’ve budgeted in an allocation amount going forward for Central Coast so that they will be able to keep accounts stocked. Right now they will not be selling some of our lower production wines as those are already 100% allocated. Our Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Stefania ‘Chaine d’Or’ Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon will only be available via mailing list.

As we get information about placements in restaurants and retail outlets I’ll try to get those posted up.

Friday night from 6 PM until 9PM we will be at Vino Locale:

http://www.vinolocale.com/location/index.htm

We’ll be pouring the 2006 Chaine d’Or Chardonnay, 2007 Eaglepoint Ranch Syrah, 2006 Uvas Creek Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains Cabernet Sauvignon. Cost is $10 and that is refunded if you purchase a bottle.

This is very late notice, but we are filling in for Grey Wolf Cellars who had to cancel at the last minute.

Saturday we will have the winery open for Pick Up Day. The winery will be open from 11 AM until 3 PM. Come join us for wine tasting featuring our Spring Releases: 2007 Syrah Eaglepoint Ranch and 2007 Pinot Noir Santa Cruz Mountains. If you placed an order from our Spring Release your wine will also be available for pick up.

Directions can be found at: http://www.chainedor.com/directions.html

We will have light snacks available and please feel free to bring a picnic. The vineyard is just starting to bloom and the hill will be open for picnics. We will also be giving away free Thompson Seedless grape vines. I will provide a planting demonstration to get you started.

TTB ID: 09099001000132
Basic Permit: BW-CA-5631
Serial Number: 090502
New Status: NEEDS CORRECTION
Previous Status: ASSIGNED

That’s the message I got from the TTB.

So what needs correction? Take a quick look at each label:

Find the problem?

Saturday morning we headed to Chaine d’Or to start the process of getting our 2008 Chardonnay ready for bottling. Actually the process had started Thursday when the internal tank was turned on to lower the temperature in advance of Saturday.

The day started with the introduction of a new member of the Chaine d’Or family. Anne Anderson brought down ‘Ghillie’ for us to meet for the first time. She will join Sophie as a new vineyard dog. Sophie was just about this size the first time I worked at Chaine d’Or. Sophie is adjusting well to having a new sister and playmate and was much less interested in hanging out with us in the winery with a new friend upstairs.

We divided up the tasks as usual. My first job was to sweep out the winery. Stefania got the lab ready for the readings we’d need. We wanted to measure free and total sulfur in the Chardonnay so we could make any needed additions now as the wine went into tank.

I then pumped the 4 barrels of Chardonnay into the waiting tank. It’s a bit of a tricky process. I always try and not let any air get in the hoses but it’s more critical with a white wine to keep oxygen out. I also can’t just stick the regular racking wand in the barrel. The bottom of the barrel is full of the fine lees (muck) that the Chardonnay is aged on and you don’t want that in tank. I used a small bamboo rod that I taped on the wand as an additional block to keep the wand from hitting bottom and that way only clear juice was put in tank. Controlling the speed is crucial for the pump. Too slow and air will get in the hose. Too fast and the wine will slosh around going into the tank.

Even though the tank has a chilled jacket around it we still add additional insulation to make sure it gets cold enough. This is the tank almost wrapped all the way. We added one more layer of insulation to the bottom after this picture was taken.

Everything went smoothly and we are on schedule to bottle on May 7th.

Stef and I are both almost over our colds and fever now. It was a pretty rough week with at least one of us out of commission at all times.

Stef did manage to get most of the shipping out last week. All the California, Arizona and Nevada orders went out GSO and have been delivered. About 50% of the UPS orders went out to the rest of the states. More will go out Monday and the final bit should go out Tuesday.

Today we will be in the winery working on the 2008 Chardonnay. We will be transferring it into tank for cold stabilization and a light fining with bentonite. I’ll take pictures of the process and get a blog up today or tomorrow.