Dry Creek Valley

Remember when you were a kid at the table on Thanksgiving Day and you just let the cranberry sauce platter keep passing you by (that gelatinous stuff that sliced like beet colored congealed gravy and wiggled)?
Things have changed-now YOU’RE the adult who cooks Thanksgiving Dinner or at least contributes to it. You can make any kind of turkey sauce you want! Wait for it: It doesn’t even have to be cranberry. It’s true.
Fruit and Meat. They are 2 wonderful food items that really do great things for each other. I didn’t know this as a kid-but as a wine drinking adult who loves to concoct new and better twists on old classics in order to pair them with well….. more wines..I’ve seen the light! For instance, I soak my favorite Turkish Chicken in dried fruit and water overnight, I make apple compote for my pork loin, and I even use marmalade or jam on certain duck dishes. As mentioned in preceding blogs-fruity meat items are often incredibly good with pinot. If they are heavier meats-they can also be amazing with the right Syrah (and yes-ours is the right kind of Syrah).

Maggie-one of our blog followers, mentioned in an earlier post a delicious sounding tangerine cranberry sauce with port. I’m sold-but the question is: which one do I make this year? Will everyone like it?

What are your favorite twists on the old classics? Are your efforts to improve mediocre (and just plain bad sometimes lets be honest) holiday foods unanimously applauded or simply subjected to the suspicious and squinchy eyed inspection by the old school family members who ask ‘why you can’t just be normal for godsake and go open up a can of the real stuff already……? ‘

I am a wine salesman. I travel the countryside of life chatting with folks about Michel-Schlumberger Cabernet. I dine at the finest restaurants. It is a wonderful life. Sometimes, in the middle of a weary day, I look forward to home cooking – my own. To execute this escape from the wine wars, I book myself into an aging motel room with a kitchenette at the edge of some hinterland village. Before checking in, I shop for simple ingredients at a local store and buy a newspaper – a real one. On-line news can be two dimensional after too many road days. I enjoy re-reading a newsy paragraph after shaking a real page a few times. My dad used to read his paper the same way. Habits, I think, can be genetically transferable. Bet you can’t shake the page you are reading now.  

Somewhere around 6 P M. on a recent Tuesday, high in the Colorado highlands, my dinner became toast. Inattention at any altitude can lead to remorse. Smoke poured out of the oven door. Fire alarms bleeted overhead. There was, indeed, a fire in the hole. It’s out now. So am I. After a nasty clean up of hearth and pot, hungry Jer headed to the diner at the edge of town before looking for another room. I ordered wine. We don’t serve wine, the cook told me. I ask, “why not?” No one ever orders it. Hmmm. I went outside and pulled a sample of Cabernet from the car trunk. A wine salesman can have a lonely night or two far from home, but rarely has a day without a glass of wine.

 Back at the counter, I sat the bottle down with authority, scanned the dining room, and appreciated the silence. No one was in the place except me and the “chef”. I ask if I could enjoy a glass with him while I waited for my mushroom burger. “Gotta keep it in a paper cup,” he suggested. Good. That’s good. I was gleeful and asked, “Is it illegal to have wine in here?” It wasn’t. Not if I was selling it and offering it to the proprietor. I asked for another paper cup, poured us both wine, waited for my burger, and knew that I was in the perfect place at that moment in my life. Wine and Jer can have higher life moments, but I doubt it.

Jerry Craven

I talk quite a bit about our vineyards each day, educating our customers about how we farm these benchlands on western edge of Dry Creek. One of the most interesting things going on here is block specific farming.  We have roughly 80 acres under vine and we’d be crazy if we tried to manage those acres in the same way.  So we split them up into small subsections, called blocks. A block can be just a quarter of an acre as is the case with some of our Pinot Noir, or it can be as large as 2 acres. We have 65 different ones in all and growing 15 varietals, each block has its own unique requirements.  

One thing is for sure: Benchlands have some of the most diverse soil types, sun exposures, and elevation differences of any vineyard type.  Our job is maximize the benefits of each block while minimizing any deficiancies.  The best way to get a feel for what we do is to walk the hillsides. We offer a Green Tour where we go for an extended hike through the vineyard and actually taste out at a picnic bench high above the rolling hills west of the winery.  It can be a little strenuous and you’ll certainly be glad when we get to the top and taste the 2006 La Brume Chardonnay. 

Benchland farming is about farming diverse parcels. As our vineyard ages, we are now starting to find special block and produce “block designate” wines that showcase some of that diversity and uniqueness.  As with our Deux Terres and Coteaux Sauvages, we are showcasing Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Viognier.  It’s exciting to see some of these varietals break out of the blend!

Jay Kell

Q:  Why did the bee sting the beekeeper?

A:  Wouldn’t you be mad, too, if somebody took your honey and nectar?

That corny (but sublime) joke was told to me many years ago by a professor in a graduate level Biology class.  It’s weird how I don’t remember actually learning much in that class but I vividly remember that bit of questionable humor.  Anyway, after I told this joke to a friend recently (it was sadly under appreciated, by the way) it occurred to me that, other than passing mentions, I haven’t blogged about our bees.  This, I think, is partly because I am still very much an amateur beekeeper with a lot to learn and partly because there is just so much immensely cool stuff to say about bees that it’s tough to find a starting point.  Since I gotta start somewhere it seems logical to start at the start with a brief history of the honeybees of Michel-Schlumberger.

It wasn’t exactly an auspicious start.

It seemed easy enough, though.  In late Summer of 2007 April Lance, a friend of Jacques, offered to give us a hive of honeybees.  All we had to do was pick it up.  Jacques, who had some bee keeping experience, was busy that day and told us simply to drive the five miles down to April’s house, load the hive into the truck, and drive it back to the winery.  Brunson and I, who had zero beekeeping experience at the time, hopped into the truck, thinking such an activity would be both fun and easy.

Now a quick word on honeybees.  Though they certainly pack a mean punch with their stings, this weapon is very rarely used.  Honeybees are generally extremely passive critters.  A foraging honeybee will almost never sting, even if provoked.  Even nesting bees in the hive are shockingly mellow.  We typically tend our hives with bare hands (many keepers work in shorts and a t-shirt) and only suffer the occasional sting in the event we work too slow and wear out our welcome.  But if one upsets a hive by, oh, say, disassembling it and moving it - then the story is a bit different.

So back to our fun and easy bee run.  When we arrived at April’s she suited up head to toe and quickly began taking apart one of her many hives and moving the frames of buzzing bees to the truck bed.  It was then I learned my very first lesson in apiculture – bees don’t like that much.  Barbara Schlumberger had stopped by earlier to share in the fun and the three of us stood in t-shirts and jeans about 100 feet from April and the hives.  I guess maybe the bees realized that April was invincible in her suit and looked around for others to vent their fury.  Those others would be me & Brunson and Barbara.  First I noticed quite a few bees swarming around our heads.  A second later Brunson cried out “OUCH!” and slapped the side of his neck.  Then it was on.  Brunson and Barbara ran to nearby cars for safety.  I took the less complicated tact of sprinting about 100 yards up the road, screaming and waving my hands frantically around my head.  By the time things calmed down the three of us had suffered a total of around 12 stings and Barbara was rushed to the hospital for a severe reaction. 

But that seems like such a long time ago now.  Barbara, thankfully, recovered and went on to found the Melissa Garden dedicated to honeybee conservation.  Brunson and I finally got the hive back to the winery, where it sits today with two additional hives we created by capturing a swarm and splitting the original hive.  And our honeybees are the mellowest, friendliest, happiest bees on earth.  Just don’t try and move them. 

With that bit of history officially recorded, stay tuned for future blogs on the beyond-incredible honeybee.

Mike Brunson wants you to try a bottle of Merlot and so do I.   To help you enjoy this taste challenge, I offer up this delicious beef stew recipe.   A perfect pairing for a rainy November evening.  Let me know what you think about the Merlot, the stew and the pairing.   I loved it a little to much, but that is a story for another day.

Thank you winemaker Mike for the wine and wife Bethany for the stew recipe.  Enjoy.

Beef Stew with Michel-Schlumberger Merlot.

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil
2 lbs stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces

6 large garlic cloves, minced

6 cups beef stock or beef broth

2 cups Michel-Schlumberger Merlot

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

5 sprigs thyme

1 1/2 Worcestershire sauce

4 bay leaves

1/4 stick butter

3 lbs russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups 1/2 pieces peepled carrots

salt and pepper

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp Maggi sauce (Worcestershire if you can’t find)

Method

1. Marinate beef in 2 tbsp of Maggi sauce, 1 tbsp salt.  Combine ingredients into a zip lock bag and set aside while you prep.

2. Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat.  Add beef and saute until golden brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic and saute 1 minute.  Add tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire and bay leaves.  Stir to combine,  cook about 3-4 minutes.  Add beef stock and wine, bring mixture to boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

3. While the meat and stock is simmering, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat.  Add potatoes, onion and carrots,  Saute vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes.  Set aside until beef stew in step 2 has simmered for 1 hour.

4. Add vegetable to beef stew.  Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves.  Tilt pan and spoon off some fat.  Transfer to serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

5. Serve with a glass of Michel-Schlumberger Merlot, fresh bread or biscuits.  Go ahead and open another bottle of Merlot right about now.  Enjoy.

And we’d appreciate more Merlot recipes if you’d like to share!  Post yours below.

The word terroir may seem a bit pretentious to some. This may be because of it’s perceived affected “Frenchy” pronunciation or because initially the only people who talked about terroir were in the wine industry or were wine snobs showing off their substantial knowledge of all things wine related.

However, there is something to say about the terroir of each different appellation and even further, of each individual vineyard. In the past years, many different appellations have been classified in California due their unique terroir, which proves that their soil, weather, conditions, etc are different enough from their neighbors to warrant their very own growing region. While this makes it harder and harder for the general public to figure out a wine bottle-it also speaks for some of the different qualities we find in wines from these areas.

As far as I’m concerned-I don’t NEED to know about the terroir of a vineyard where the grapes were grown for the wines I drink most nights at home. But I do WANT to know.  And if I were attending a wine tasting for a certain region or country, I might want to delve a little deeper and get to know exactly what differences in ‘nature’ (think nature vs. nurture) were present for these wines before they became, well….. wines. How much does the nature vs the nurture (winemaking procedures, oaking, ageing, etc) differentiate these wines when they are the final product?

I can taste the difference in a wine that has been French Oaked vs. American oaked. I can taste the difference in high alcohol/low alcohol and sugar content. But-can I taste the difference in how the grapes were grown?
At Michel-Schlumberger we think: Yes. Terroir definitely plays a major role in our wines quality and it’s taste once in the bottle. In fact, we have quite our own little unique terroir on the estate. There are so many variations in our 100 acre vineyard sites. Some places are a little cooler or warmer, some are a higher elevation or different soil or mineral content in the soil…….. How do we choose where to grow what, and what effects are we looking for in the wine when we make these choices?

We’ll have more information on this in the next blogs…in the meantime, what are your thoughts?  Is the concept of terroir relevant or unimportant?

Chef Ralph Tingle is a good, earnest guy who could put several reams of typing paper to use whipping out a few chapters of his bio about his well-lived life-to-date: stints at Taillevent in Paris, Le Cirque in New york, Le Fetzer in Hopland, to name a few. Fortunately for Ralph, typewriters are in upstairs attics waiting to be hauled to local museums. Besides, he doesn’t have time to write – just yet - because he is too busy keeping his eye on the bistro ball he put in motion back in ’92 when he opened Bistro Ralph on the Healdsburg Plaza - and this is fortunate for us.  

When Ralph found this ideal place to hang his chef’s shingle and attempt just the right balance of hard work, innovation, relaxation, and celebrity required for a small town restaurant, we were ready to embrace his effort. We are still embracing. We all eat at Ralph’s. We all hope he is there when we go in for lunch or dinner. We all hope he gives us some time. We like Ralph because he is incredibly human, remarkably peripatetic – difficult in our little town, passionate about his kids, politics, and his food – which is also some of our favorite food: lamb burgers, chicken livers, frites, good sole or barely cooked yellow fin, and a proper chicken paillard. Plus, he still starts us off with those little seasoned bread balls that we eat like popcorn while we’re waiting for our glass of wine.  

I mention the bread balls because I have spent time at Ralph’s occasionally calculating the number of these things I have eaten in sixteen years – about 3,786 to date. I mention the wine because currently we can enjoy a glass or two of the 2005 Michel-Schlumberger Maison Rouge – the perfect Bistro wine to have when we dine at Ralph’s Bistro.          

As many people know-the 1st weekend of November is when the annual Food and Wine Affair event goes on in Sonoma County. For those of you that do not make up part of the 3500 people who did buy tickets for this event this year-here’s what else is going on:

BIG Cellar Stash Sale here at Michel-Schlumberger. 11-4pm Saturday and Sunday in the Cellar Barrel Room. First come-first served. The best deals go fast. You can only buy these wines in person this weekend (no online or phone orders).  $5 of every case sold benefits the Healdsburg Education Foundation.

Paella and Wine Dinner in the cave at Robert Young Winery

Beginning Bird Walks, at Lake Sonoma. For more information please email Ranger Michael Carroll or call 707-431-4535

Day of the Dead Celebration at Gundlach Bundschu Winery: call 707.939.3019 for more information.

Lots to do — lots going on — have fun!