A Lazy Afternoon

We haven't had a lazy afternoon at home with a bottle of wine in months. And boy was it good to be lazy on Monday afternoon! I was off fairly early, Ann was home early, we were both tired from our long hike on Sunday, and we just needed a break.

I had already brought home a goat cheese from Cherry Glen Goat Cheese Co over in Boyds MD (near where I used to live in Germantown) on Saturday. Ann asked me to bring wine, bread, and some salame. I grabbed a bottle of the fabulous 2013 Gary Farrell Russian River Valley Pinot Noir from Costco on the way home. 2013, a cooler vintage in California, turned out some phenomenal wines and this is no exception.

Pinot, Salame, Focaccia, and Goat Cheese

Our figs are just starting to ripen in quantity. Although we have a huge crop of figs, none were ripening and I was worried that we wouldn't get them in before frost in another 4 weeks. So about three weeks ago, I cut the tops out of each of the major branches to stop vertical growth and to focus the bush on ripening its fruit. It appears to have worked well. These figs fresh off the bush are so much better than the fresh figs that have been coming in from California. They have an almost peach undertone that is fabulous. A fig bush in our climate here in northernmost Virginia is quite a luxury. I planted the 7-year old bush five years ago and we are just now reaping the reward for our patience.

Ann Brought in Some Figs From the Garden

What to do while lounging around noshing on cheese, salame, and figs all while drinking remarkable Pinot Noir? Why, play old school Battleship, of course! Ann kicked my butt two games to zero, payback for the last time I beat her 2-0.

I Lost 0-2. Boo.

I went on to make udon with chicken, ginger, pickled stem mustard, shiitakes, and snow peas later for dinner. What a great way to end our lazy afternoon than with a great soup!

Ashby Inn

Sunday, I wanted to take Ann out for a nice lunch to celebrate our anniversary, which quite naturally given my business, falls on a work night this year. There's a new chef at the Ashby Inn in Paris, Virginia and I wanted to go meet him and see what his food is all about, professional curiosity if you will. Moreover, customers ask me daily about his food and whether they should dine there and I wanted to be able to finally answer their incessant questions.

A couple of my former employees work there so I asked one of them to set up a lunch for us. I had asked that we not order, that the chef send us whatever he thought was a fair representation of dishes, so that we could get to know his cooking style. Also, knowing that it was Sunday after a hard Saturday night, I sent word to keep it simple.

We arrived about 1:45, just before the close of their brunch seating at 2:00pm. I let them choose the hour of our dining to best fit their reservation book. Despite it being a rainy Sunday, the parking lot was nearly full when we arrived.

St. Innocent Pinot, A Gift

No sooner than we had sat down than Stuart Brennen, the sommelier, appeared at our table with a bottle of St. Innocent Pinot as a gift from Rory, the former employee who set up our lunch.

Smoked Salmon, Avocado Mousse, Egg, Pickled Ramps

The first course was this smoked salmon plate which was mainly fine, but the avocado mousse tasted to me to be made from overripe avocado.

Chanterelles, Braised Chicken, Frittata

The second course was this goat cheese frittata with a sauté of chanterelles and some pieces of braised chicken. It was plated with a sauce that was entirely too sweet.

Crepe, Goat Cheese, Honey, Walnuts

This crepe filled with goat cheese came next and was so sweet it could have been dessert. It should have been in retrospect, even though it is offered on the menu as a savory course.

My Lovely Annie

The Star of our Meal

After the Pinot, which was a very young fruit forward wine typical of Eola-Amity and the 2012 vintage, we started talking to Stuart about another wine to follow. I mentioned that we have been drinking a lot of Nebbiolo recently and we discussed the local Virginia producers. We ultimately decided to go Italian (never any question in my mind) and Stuart returned some minutes later with this bottle of Marchesi di Barolo Barbaresco, a very fine choice. It was the best thing we had all day.

Dessert

The prior "savory" crepe course was sweeter and more dessert-like than this almond sponge, meringue, and lemon curd dessert. Although this dessert looks pretty, it certainly is not the kitchen's best work, the cake being tired and a touch dry and the figs being underripe.

Relaxing Outside, Barbaresco in Hand

Because of the timing of the second bottle of wine and the dessert course, we had plenty of wine left. Not wanting to keep them from turning the dining room, we asked if we could take our wine outside and finish it, which we did. The rain had subsided and it was pleasant enough, in a soupy kind of way, to sit out back and peer through the mist.

The Ashby Grounds are Beautiful

The grounds certainly are beautiful and there are many times when I wish my restaurant were situated in such a lovely setting, but then I think about the upkeep and shudder. Annie and I had a great time and truly enjoyed the Barbaresco: that part of our mission was a great success. My mission to meet the new chef and understand his food was pretty much an utter failure. I still really don't know any more about him and his food than I knew before we ate there.

Anniversary Paella

In the restaurant business, we celebrate our personal milestones on days off. Work days are for helping others celebrate their milestones. I wish it weren't so, but it is the nature of my occupation. This past Sunday was the day closest to our actual anniversary and to celebrate we invited a dozen or fourteen friends over for tapas, paella, and a case of Tempranillo, which our friends, who are not shy about wine, promptly emptied!



Paella Mixta

We really had a beautiful day and I kicked the hardwood fire off about ten minutes to four in the fire pit out on our patio. At 4:30, I started the chicken, which was followed by the chorizos, the tiny Salvadoran ones called tuzas (gophers), and my mirepoix of red peppers, onions, and hard Spanish chorizo. After this, into the pan with a spoonful of pimentón and my picada (parsley and garlic). Then a gallon of mixed stock (chicken, pork, mussel, and saffron), right up to the bottom of the handle rivets.

Once the stock came to a boil, a kilo and a half of rice went into the pan at 5:00 and was done by 5:25 or so. After 15 minutes of resting under a couple of towels, we all dug in, scraping big hunks of the crunchy socarrat off the bottom of the paellera.

Rear to Front: Chicken Wings, Salvadoran Chorizos, Red Prawns, Mussels

I thought I had lucked out and got some amazing red prawns. They sure look good, but their texture was pasty and the flavor very fishy. Not again for me. They are a new product that I was checking out for my seafood company. No bueno.



Figs, Goat Cheese, Jamón

For starters for our guests while I was out back tending the fire and the paellera, I made two tapas: these halved figs topped with local goat cheese and wrapped in ham. And I threw together some sautéed onions and red peppers from the garden with some thyme and eggs for a tortilla. Finally, as Spaniards will often do for a quick tapa, we raided the pantry for some marinated olives, peppers, and lupini.

Mixed Olives, Peppers, and Lupini



Red Pepper and Onion Tortilla

For wine, I picked a really smooth Tinta de Toro crianza from Finca Sobreño. It's a ripe Tempranillo that tastes of darker fruit, blackberries and cassis, without a lot of aggressive wood and with tame tannins. A great party wine.

A Nice Tempranillo (Tinta de Toro)

Blind Tasting

Yesterday after we got back from our very brief stay at Valerie Hill winery, my lovely wife had arranged a surprise—a blind tasting. We were outside continuing to eat her marvelous rosemary bread topped with local goat cheese, her fig and grape jam, and prosciutto when she went inside and returned with two brown-bagged bottles of wine and four glasses. Poor, poor, pour, pour me! ;)

Ann's Rosemary Bread with Goat Cheese, Fig and Grape Jam, Prosciutto

I tasted both wines and guessed right off that wine B was Hedges 2009 Red Mountain, but after pondering wine A, I thought it might have been the very wonderful and very local Glen Manor Hodder Hill 2008. It proved to be Hedges 2008 Red Mountain, a wine that I just love. The 2009 is a very good wine. The 2008 is an outstanding wine. What a great surprise!


Battle of the Hedges, 2008 vs. 2009

Valerie Hill Winery

We finally got the time to make a trip to our new local winery, the first to open in Frederick County. Valerie Hill winery is situated in the western part of the county about midway between Winchester and Stephens City, about a 15-minute drive from downtown. It opened this past summer.

The concept for the winery is fairly unique in my experience; the closest I can think of is the Winery at La Grange where the vineyards have been planted around a historic property. The 1807 brick farmhouse has been lovingly restored and must have been very sumptuous in its day. The wines are being made at Veramar in Clarke County from grapes sourced from wherever they can be found. The first vines, Norton, have been planted on a small, low-lying plot behind the house.

The Stone Chimney; Norton behind

I have to wonder at the choice to plant Norton, never one of my favorites, and I especially wonder about planting the vines in a low-lying bowl that is sure to be one of the coldest sites on the property. But if any grape can tolerate cold weather, surely it is the fairly bulletproof Norton.

We tasted through the lineup and the star was the 2010 Chardonnay which was very well done indeed. The two reds are, unfortunately, from the 2011 vintage, the 2010 having sold through in the last couple of weeks. 2011 was unkind to everyone in Virginia and without long-standing grape contracts, Valerie Hill was not in line to get good fruit in 2011. I do have to say that despite being very light-bodied and missing a lot of stuffing, the 2011 Cabernet Franc has quite a beguiling red fruit nose. The signature Stone Chimney Red was just another 2011 red, another victim of the horrible rain in September 2011.

We chose the Cabernet Franc to take out back to enjoy with our little picnic. Our friend Boo Snider was playing guitar and singing out on the patio; we sat in the shade of a black walnut tree overlooking the baby Norton vines. Ann made an incredible loaf of rosemary-lemon bread to go with goat cheese, prosciutto, and a jar of fig and grape jam that she made just recently. I kicked in a mini-terrine of Berkshire pork, bacon, pistachios, Port, porcini mushrooms, and green peppercorns.

2011 Cabernet Franc: Great Nose!



Ann Digging in to her Fig Jam

Pork, Porcini, Port, and Pistachio Terrine

We wish Frederick County's first and so far only winery all the best!

Picnic at Sky Meadows

Sky Meadows State Park is a jewel of a small park about 20 minutes from Winchester and nestled up on the eastern flanks of the Blue Ridge in Fauquier County. I had intended to take Ann there on our very first date three years ago, but the weather did not cooperate and we enjoyed our picnic at the island in her (now our) kitchen. Ann's been on some meds recently that preclude her drinking any alcohol—poor dear—so I decided that this just might be the weekend to go to the park, where alcohol is prohibited.

View from Overlook, Just Below Appalachian Trail

We hiked from the parking lot, proving to ourselves just how out of shape we are, up to the overlook just below the Appalachian Trail. Two days later, my calves are still sore!

Splendid Dogwood, the Only Trees Turning Color

On the way up through the cow pasture, we took breaks at opportune locations including by this gorgeous dogwood. Dogwoods are the only trees turning color now, though some persimmons in other locations were showing a flash of red. Poison ivy is turning red now as are sumacs, but there are no sumacs up at this elevation.

Bumper Crop of Persimmons This Year

The chef in me is always excited about wild edibles and I couldn't resist showing Ann all the good things to eat on the way up to the top. Persimmons were everywhere and the crop of pawpaws is good as well. We've been serving pawpaws at the restaurant for about three weeks, but none of these at elevation were yet ripe. We also saw lots of rose hips, black walnuts, and hickory nuts just screaming to be foraged.

Lots of Pawpaws This Year Too, Alas None Ripe

Ann and Mystery Flower

During our drive out, we passed big fields of goldenrod in all their fall glory and as we got closer to the park, big fields of another golden flower that I couldn't recognize from a distance. We got up close and personal with it at the park and it looks for all the world like a Helianthus, a sunflower, similar to a Jerusalem artichoke, but with a different flower.

Olive Oil, Focaccia, Olli Calabrese, Boerenkaas, Figs

A Rainy Glen Manor Sunday

With all due respect to Mark and Kelley with whom we were slated to go kayaking this past Sunday, last week beat me up incredibly. To the point where I slept in Sunday morning until 9am for the first time in months. To put it in perspective, I am up every single day between 6 and 6:30am. And so we reluctantly called off kayaking for another time when I will actually give a damn. Guys, I'm sorry. I just felt so broken last weekend.

Sunday (I was going to use the verb "dawn" but then I wasn't conscious at any time near dawn, was I?) was overcast and threatening rain, which from our perspective was a good thing; we've had hardly a drop of rain in August and all the thunderstorms (nearly every day) would roll up to the yard and hang a hard left and scoot to our north, leaving us high and dry. Or they would tease us by sliding just to the south.

But I get really antsy about rain this time of year. I have way too many friends in the wine industry to be excited about rain during harvest season. I will cringe reflexively each time that it rains between now and mid-October. Still, I must admit that the prospect of a rainy, sleepy Sunday was just what I wanted: no agenda, no pressure, no deadlines, no place to be at no time in particular.

And while I was sitting in my chair (yes, I have appropriated a chair in the sunroom as my own) Ann came over and said, "Hey, let's go to Glen Manor today, just you and me, and sit and drink a bottle of wine and talk!" She was just so damned enthusiastic and beaming from ear to ear, so how could I deny her? And the prospect of sitting at the winery watching the rain stream down with a glass in hand? How bad could that be?

And so I went to retrieve Carter from a friend's house where he spent the night and stopped in at the restaurant for a few picnic supplies and some fixings for dinner. Then we hit the road for Front Royal and points south with me riding shotgun in a semi-comotose state. The rain started pretty gently as we were heading down 522, but I could see a line of squalls in the distance and could see where the road was obscured about a half a mile away by the teeming rain.

Getting through the very narrow but violent squall line, we drove through a few more sprinkles down to Glen Manor. On the way, I was thinking that there would be a very good chance that we could catch Jeff at the winery on a rainy day when being out in the vineyard was not an option, or at least, not a good option. And sure enough, his truck was parked outside the winery when we arrived.

Bird Netting: White on Original Vineyard; Black on the New Vineyard

Because of the rain, traffic at the winery was very light and I hate that for Jeff and Kelly, but it let us spend the afternoon chatting with them and catching up, something that none of us get to do with any regularity. We got a couple more good blasts of rain before the front moved through and although we were pretty light on rain in Winchester, Jeff said that they had got an inch and a half already before we arrived. But you can see that the site has good slope and good drainage, so hopefully this is a non-issue. Only the Sauvignon Blanc is in play right now and most of that is already in the cellar.

Hmm. The '11 Franc is not yet Released. Go Figure.

Reds are scarce now at the winery because demand is a bit higher than production, always a good problem to have. Jeff was kind enough to let us have a bottle of the 2011 Cab Franc a couple days before its official release date and we thank him for that. It really has come around very nicely. The last time I tasted it was in barrel back in April. Some of the knees and elbows that were sticking out back then have come back in. In a crappy year, this is a good wine. It's not a great wine, but then, the weather gods didn't give anyone great red wine in 2011, giving us instead rain each day of September, a vintage nobody will forget.

Olli Calabrese and Ubriaco del Piave

2012: Banner Year for Virginia Figs!

I just love this time of year: fig season! 2012, for whatever reason, has produced the best fig crop that anyone can remember and we have them coming out of our ears right now, an awesome problem to have. I brought some figs, an Olli Calabrese, and a wedge of Ubriaco del Piave cheese along with some bread for our lunch. Poor, poor, poor us!

Good to See Kelly Laugh!

Telling Dumb Jokes!

The (rightly) Notorious Ghost Chiles, the Naga or Bhut Jolokia

Once the rain blew off, we moved outside to enjoy the day and the view, especially of all the butterflies on the twin butterfly bushes just outside the tasting room. Kelly also has herbs and some vegetables growing in the beds and you can see where the deer have clipped the tomato vines way back. But for some reason, they aren't touching the ghost chiles; go figure! Kelly gave me a bunch of ghost chiles to bring back to the restaurant to turn into sambal. And speaking of deer, we saw a young 4-point buck, antlers still in velvet, standing beside the driveway on the way up to the winery. I don't guess he will last long once hunting season opens.

Two Great Wines

Back at the ranch, we sat out on the patio and drank some really nice Sancerre before heading inside to make a pasta for dinner. This time of year, we have tomatoes coming out of our ears and almost always have leftover mozzarella from the night before. I cut up one of the red Abraham Lincolns from our garden, a pink Mortgage Lifter from Mark, and a Black Trifele from Beth, along with a couple balls of leftover mozzarella. Then I caramelized a large onion and several cloves of slivered garlic and browned a bit of buffalo-chipotle sausage. In went a pound of strozzapreti pasta and a big handful of shredded basil from the garden. Awesome!

With the pasta we had a most delicious Easton Zinfandel from the old Rinaldi Vineyard in Amador County. Zin would not be your first guess if you tasted this blind. Yes, it has big plummy dark fruit, but it is a very transparent ruby wine with excellent acidity and firm, but very supple tannins. This wine is the finest expression of Zinfandel that I have ever had and is miles away from the bulk of the Lodi crap that saturates the market. Bill Easton, bravo!

Pasta, It's What's for Dinner

PS. I just love the so-called black tomatoes. They are none of them black, but rather a greenish to purplish red. The endearing quality in them for me is that they are all high acid tomatoes and that acidity is the key to a great tomato.

Glen Manor Vineyards Barrel Tasting

Sunday morning April 1st came way too soon and not soon enough. Way too soon in the sense that I wanted to sleep a lot longer than I did after being crushed at work the week before. And not soon enough in the sense that I couldn't wait for the crush to be over and behind me.

What crushed Tony and me at work was two catering jobs on top of two different tastings, a workload from hell. I feel bad for Ann who had to deal with me all week, half zombie, something less than half human. She's a good woman for putting up with me and my job, my other wife. The thing that most crushed us: providing tasting pairings for 250 people at the Glen Manor Vineyards barrel tasting, plus a bunch of cheeses, salume, and terrines.

But how awesome was it Sunday morning trying to get going and smelling this fantastic loaf of roasted garlic bread that Ann was baking? What a beautiful loaf of bread!
Here is the lovely lady responsible for that tasty loaf. She's just learning how to make bread, but is doing quite the amazing job at it already. Here she is out back of the Glen Manor tasting room: when she smiles, she lights up the entire room!

After a couple of errands including dropping by the restaurant to pick up some things, we finally got on the road to Glen Manor. Our foray to the restaurant netted a couple of cheeses, some olives, a few grapes, a big hunk of veal terrine, and a chorizo.

As soon as we arrived at Glen Manor, we met up with friends Donald and Terry. I believe Donald is saluting the chef who is probably harassing him about being a pastry queen:


Donald needn't worry about a little friendly teasing when he puts out product like this! Tiny chocolate cupcakes filled with raspberry jelly, precious little jewels they were!
And soon after, we saw Cristophe and Michelle Perini relaxing in the sun out back while waiting for our turn for the cellar tour. We collected Cristophe and Michelle at Linden once upon a time and reconnected with them just recently. We have a habit of collecting interesting people who like to eat and drink, our favorite sport.

After an introductory sip of 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, already bottled some weeks ago and already selling in my restaurant at a brisk pace, we headed down into the cool, dark cellar to taste the new wines and a couple of 2010s for contrast. Unfortunately, there are no photos from the cellar: it was too dark and I didn't want to be that obnoxious guy blowing everybody's eyes out with the flash.

We tasted the 2011 Cabernet Franc with a piece of pork belly topped with a dried cherry and red grape olivada on a tortilla chip. The Franc has a nose that seems to be consistent from vintage to vintage, one that I would call beefy. The Franc is pleasant enough and the pairing was pleasant enough as well.

From there, on to the 2011 Vin Rouge, which is very soft and supple this year, but with more acid structure than the Franc, no doubt due to the Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend. I paired rabbit and pork rillettes with the Vin Rouge. We used a lot of bacon fat in the rillettes, trying to amplify the smoky aspects of the wine's nose. I thought the pairing was pleasant enough as well. For contrast, we tasted the 2010 Vin Rouge, which had more of everything, just like the vintage. 2011 sucked; 2010 was really hot and produced huge wines.

Next up was the 2011 Petit Verdot, the grape that Jeff says did the best of all in 2011. This is a really big fruit bomb with not too much in the way of structure. It nees to be drunk sooner rather than later. I did a chocolate, ancho, blueberry, and pecan pain d'épices to pair with it. Our friend Jorge (Randall was at choir until just about the time we left) was pouring the Petit Verdot and he had already come up to me earlier saying how good he thought the pairing was. Jorge is a little prone to hyperbole so I reserved judgement, but I did know that the cake was pretty amazing. After tasting though, I gotta say that I hit this one out of the park. It is very difficult to imagine a better pairing with this wine.

Then on to the 2010 Petit Manseng, which is about as delicious a big dessert wine as I have had in years. Big alcohol, 15% plus, big dried and tropical fruit, and big acid, plus some herbaceous and petrol complexity thrown in. Next came the monster 2011 Petit Manseng made from juice that averaged 45 Brix. 45? You have got to be kidding! It is huge in every sense and not a wine that I can take more than a few sips of. And because it is so sweet, I wanted to pair it with something very savory and salty: gorgonzola cheese and apricot-mango-ginger-chipotle chutney on a thyme-pecan-pecorino romano shortbread.

The final tasting stop had moved out of the cellar and onto the crush pad, where we could see what a gorgeous day it had turned out to be, despite starting off threatening rain in the morning. We headed around back and comandeered six adirondack chairs and three small tables on which we spread our feast. There was so much food that we could have fed a small army. I am pretty sure that I only got photographs of part of it.

Donald and Terry brought this amazing fig jam to go on a creamy fig-flavored cheese and on a rum-raisin cheese. Wow, what fun!

Here are some of the things that we liberated from the restaurant: a 4-year old farmhouse Gouda (boerenkaas), a really stinky Valfino cheese from Wisconsin, a veal terrine, and a hard Spanish chorizo.
Dolmades and olives from Donald and Terry. I love dolmades!

And finally Terry shows off his tart skills once again with this sun-dried tomato and artichoke tart. Despite his so-called "difficulty" with the crust, it was an amazing creation!
As the sun was getting too hot (especially for my hair-challenged pate), we moved up under the awning off the tasting room where we were joined by good friend and wine sales rep Bill McKenney and Bill's big boss Peg Downey of Downey Selections, which distributes the Glen Manor wines. Stay tuned for our annual adventures with the Downeys at their portfolio tasting in a few weeks!


Finally, here's a picture of Kelly and her nieces, horsing around on the berm just outside the tasting room.