la gramiere

A taste of home!

Saturday night after pruning we had the brilliant idea of making Carnitas burritos!  Oh, I can't even tell you how good it was to have a taste of home.  Brian, Matt's brother, who is visiting from Switzerland told us that they had discovered an easy recipe for flour tortillas and that gave us the idea to make carnitas thanks to David Lebovitz who posted a recipe on his blog a few months back...  (David is a cookbook author and former Chez Panisse chef who now lives in Paris, thousands of people live vicariously through his blog, it's one of my favorites - check it out.)   To add to the Amerifest we asked our fellow expats Denis and Kirstin to come on over and partake it the gluttony.

Browned, slow cooked pork, then shredded mixed with lots of delicious Mexican spices and then cooked again,  slowly for a very long time.  Closest thing to heaven I've ever experienced.  My sister Molly was here too, she made some delicious guacamole and fresh salsa while Bri made the tortillas and Matt mixed up his famous Blood Orange Margaritas.  Denis brought some good Mexican beer and we had all the fixins for a perfect burrito fiesta. I made my burrito so big, that it was impossible to roll up, which was disappointing since I had grand illusions of being able to roll and squish and roll and squish the tortilla into a perfect burrito, just like they do in the Mission.  I guess I'll have to practice some more. 

What a wonderful taste of home. It's funny, there's not too many things I miss, but good California Mexican food it one of the things that I long for from time to time.  Now that we know it's not so hard, and we have David's amazing carnitas recipe, we'll be able to indulge more often!  Thank you David.

New York- here comes La Gramière!- Thanks to Thirst Wine Merchants!

We packed up 28 cases of 2006 La Gramière and sent it off last week.  As usual, there were a few hiccups in our plans...

Remember when I posted the photos of us labeling and putting capsules on the bottles?  Well, that was all great, we were able to get out first shipment off to K&U in Germany, and since then we've even shipped a second order.  We were being so clever getting over half of our bottles ready for shipment.  Only I forgot that to ship to the US we have a different back label, a back label that hadn't been approved by the government organization formerly known as the BATF (they have a new name now and I can never remember it!) Hmm, so that means that we don't have any bottles labeled and ready to go to the US... The labels aren't that big of a deal, since you can, although it's not preferable, stick them on by hand.  But the capsules can't be cinched onto the bottles without a special machine.... Ugh.  Luckily our friends at Rouge Garance have a portable capsule crimper that they are willing to lend us from time to time.   So I borrowed that and we set out to label and capsule 300+ bottles for our NY shipment.  Ah, did I forget to mention that Matt's sister Melanie and her family just happened to be visiting from Seattle??  Lucky us, lucky them!  They got roped into helping as most of our family members are, each time they visit!  So, in the first round Mel's son Avery had the job of placing the capsules on the bottles, I used the crimping machine, and her husband Scott stacked up the newly capsuled bottles.  In the second round, Mel, Matt, Scott and Avery labeled the bottles and then packed them up into the boxes.  With all of us working on it, the whole process went pretty quickly...poor Mel, we didn't even give her the chance to get dressed!!

Now the pallet is en route to the Winebow warehouses in Ho-Ho-Kus NJ.  This order is largely thanks to the great people at Thirst Wine Merchants, an amazing neighborhood wine shop in Brooklyn.  This is my kind of wine shop, check out the owner Michael Yarmark's description of the store design:

Knowing that we were going to be spending an awful amount of the next period of our lives in the store, we wanted to make it comfortable, unique, personal, contemporary. The rather small wedge-shaped space was a challenge. We worked with Brooklyn-based designer-fabricators, known as 4-pli, who did a great job using eco-friendly materials, such as paperstone, bio-fiber wheat, and sustainably harvested birch, to build the display racks, cash counter, tables, glass rack, sliding door, sink area.

Amazing!  Michael and Emilia sound like exactly the kind of people that we would like to hang out with, the same eco-minded people that we are, or are striving to be.  Two summers ago, when we were just starting out and so were they, Michael and Emilia were on a trip in the region and we tried to meet up.  Somehow we kept missing each other, so we are hoping to get the chance to show them around the next time they come.  Since then they have been loyal fans of the blog and have been trying to get some La Gramière for some time now.  So, I'm sure it's largely thanks to them that the 2006 is now on its way to NY & NJ.  If you live in the NYC area and are looking to taste La Gramière, you should give Thirst Wine Merchants a call and have them save you a bottle or two!

Thirst Wine Merchants
187  DeKalb Ave @ Carlton
Brooklyn - In Historic Fort Greene - one block from Fort Greene Park
718-596-7643
Hours: Sunday - Thursday 12-9
Friday 12-10
Saturday 10-10 (Farmer's Market - what a fun way to spend a Saturday!)

 

Rayas Meets La Gramière...

We had another great visit to Chateau Rayas this year.  Rayas, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, is one of the legendary properties in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  It has a unique terroir and setting in Chateauneuf, all it's vineyards being surrounded by woods.  There's often more humidity and "fraicheur" which leads  to the creation of a very special wine, unlike any other in Châteauneuf du Pape.  The property is now run by Emmanuel Reynaud, nephew of the late Jacques Reynaud whose fiery personality was almost as legendary as the wines he made.  Emmanuel is quite a character in his own right, not mincing words, and often skeptical and wary of the people that come to visit.  Once you break through the surface though, he is quite charming.   The first time I met him, I was with Thierry Desseauve and his wife Nadine.  As we stepped out of the car, he quickly scanned us and said; "I hope you're not wearing any perfume." 

This is one of those situations, where being blond, female, fairly young, and an American are serious counts against you, and one where being able to say that I am a fellow vigneron, tend to wipe all of those doubts away.  I think for Emmanuel Reynaud, that was the only way I would really ever be accepted as someone who might taste and write about his wines.  Of course,  it's Thierry Desseauve who will write about Château Rayas, but it's me who will write about  Emmanuel's own winery Château des Tours in Vacqueyras.  Château des Tours makes excellent wines, very different from other Vacqueyras wines. They are often released much later after several years of barrel aging.  As barrels are decades old,  you are benefiting from the slow oxidation process and not at all from a new oak influence.  The winemaking at Rayas is much the same.

We first took a walk around the vineyards.  It was late afternoon, and the light was just beautiful.  Emmanuel has taken great care to replace a lot of the missing vines that have died off over the years and the state of the vineyards was impeccable.  We then went into the winery to taste.  As a test, Emmanuel always starts the tasting with a barrel of Cinsault, not exactly what one expects at Rayas.  It doesn't have the complexity and depth of Grenache, and that usually throws people off.   As we proceeded through the tasting, I would often ask questions about the vineyards or vinification and Reynaud would often say things like; "Well you should know, making wine yourself, you've had the same experience at your place."  Or he would ask me how we did things at our place, or how our wine was tasting, or what varietals we had.  At one point I can't remember why, I was making some comment about our wine and said that I'd like him to taste it.  He said he would be glad to taste it and that I should bring it by sometime.  Well, here I had to open my big mouth and say that I had a bottle in the car, and would he like to taste it.  He said sure, we'll taste it at the end before we taste the whites.  Oh boy.

We finished tasting through all of the reds in barrel and then the reds in bottle.  I was secretly hoping that he would forget about tasting La Gramière, and secretly hoping he wouldn't.  But in the end what did I have to lose.  Sure enough he remembered, so I ran out to the car to get of bottle of our wine, and thought to myself, geez! What were you thinking??? Tasting La Gramière at Château Rayas, one of the greatest wineries in Châteauneuf-du-Pape??  It started off really well.  He said, " Hmm this is good.  It's a good wine.  The best thing is that there's no oak!"  Then we got down to the nitty-gritty.  He asked me a bunch of detailed questions about when we harvested and how we made it.  He gave me some really great insight about what we could do next year to make it better.   It's clear that we're very far from being in a league with Rayas, but that's not really what I ever dreamed of.  Like I told Kermit Lynch when he was visiting, we're not trying to change the world, we're just trying to make a wine that we like to drink.  I think we've done that, but I think that there's so very much we can learn from people like Emmanuel Reynaud.  Hopefully, our wine will progress over the next few years and Emmanuel will like it even better the next time he tastes it.

Three Cheers for City Wine!!!

The folks at City Wine in Denver, Co have been real supporters of La Gramière.  They've sold more of it than anyone else in Colorado, and possibly more than in the entire US of A.  I have a confession to make though, it might be due to the fact that I used to work there!  After we left San Francisco, Matt and I spent a year living in Denver before we moved to France.  Steve Heinz, one of the co-owners of City Wine,  also happens to be the distributor for Kermit Lynch wines in Colorado.  We became good friends with Steve and his wife Anne, and enjoyed a lot of great wine together over our year in Denver.

I suppose that's why Steve and City Wine have been such great supporters of ours, and that's why Steve sent me an email the other day asking why City Wine had never been mentioned on the blog.  Oops! That's a huge over-sight and I'm correcting it now.  So, if you live in Denver or anywhere nearby, go check it out.  City Wine has a great selection of wines from all over the world, often eclectic.  You'll find wines there that you've maybe never heard of.  The staff is great, and will steer you in the right direction.  Believe me, I know, we tasted lots and lots of wine while I worked there, that was what made it such fun! 

Merci, Merci, Merci to City Wine and it's great team of La Gramière supporters!

City Wine
347 South Colorado Boulevard, Denver, Colorado 80246
Phone: 303-393-7576 ~ Fax: 303-393-1725

Visiting Tavel

Well, I can't tell you about all of my tastings, and not all of them are all that interesting to tell about, but my visit to Tavel was particularly interesting last week. 

Funny,there was a nice article in the NY Times yesterday about Tavel,  all except for the picture that was posted on the "front page" of the website and at the header of the story.  It's an article about Tavel, which to anyone in the wine world means Tavel Rosé, a very dark rosé,  in a distinctive tall skinny Alsatian style bottle.  The lead picture they used was taken 100km away at a beach side town and the rosé on the table was clearly not Tavel.  The bottle was a squat Bordeaux-style and the color of the rosé was far from what a Tavel would be.  Although the producers of Tavel were surely thrilled to have an article about their appellation in the NY Times, they were most certainly disappointed that they chose that photo, which for them has nothing to do with their wine.  Every time I see that picture it drives me nuts!  I can't believe the editor approved it.  It's very disappointing.   He/she obviously knows nothing about Tavel!!!

Ok, I'll stop ranting.  I spent a wonderful morning tasting in Tavel.  I have to say it's one of the most difficult tastings I do.  It's very hard to taste 20 Tavel rosés in a row, most of which are good to excellent quality.  How do you select the best ones?  I admit I have a hard time with this, so I choose more than I should and wait to taste them a second time with the big cheese, Thierry Desseauve.  Yes, a cop-out in a way, but I prefer to rely on someone with more experience rather than eliminate some potentially good wines because I want to look like I know what I'm doing.

After the tasting,  Vincent De Bez of Château d'Aquéria and Guillaume Dugas of Prieuré de Montézargues took me on a little visit around Tavel.  We visited the Prieuré de Montézargues which is an absolutely amazing property with views of the Mont Ventoux that will take your breath away.  Then Vincent took us into the village to show us the old gardens of the villagers.  There was a time when most people in the village had a small plot of land just outside the village.  They were separated by stone walls and water was brought to them by a series of canals that led from the village "lavoir" or washing basin.  It was so interesting to see these ancient gardens, some of which are still in use today. 

It's funny,  last year I wrote about my visit to Tavel too.  I think it's because Vincent de Bez is so passionate and well-informed about the history of the area that he makes it come alive.  Since I love to hear stories and historical information about the places I visit, Vincent is the prefect ambassador of Tavel! 

Our missing Menu for Hope Winner~!

Has just surfaced!  Some of you may have been disappointed not to win our prize of "hard labor" ;-) at La Gramière, and may have even begun to wonder if anyone really did win!!??  Well,  just this week I received an email from our winner, Kate McWiggins!  I had actually been thinking about contacting Pim to see if we should re-draw a winner since I hadn't heard anything from Kate since the prize winners were announced.  But lo an behold, there she was in my inbox!! How exciting.

Here's what Kate had to say about she and her husband and their adventurous lives!:

My husband and I are Americans who immigrated to New Zealand from San Francisco 2 years ago.  So, it sounds as though we have both embarked on new journeys in our lives.  We live in a small town on the North Island about an hour outside of Wellington, the New Zealand capitol and close to the Martinborough wine area which specializes in Pinot Noir. We are just enjoying a slower pace of life here in New Zealand and have not embarked on any new careers after hectic lives in the Bay Area.  We bought an old cottage and have worked on fixing up the house and the garden.  We enjoy good food and wine, of which there is an abundance here.  Although my husband is always in sticker shock at the cost of wine here, there is no equivalent of the Wine Club in San Francisco.

How exciting for them, and for us!  I can't wait to meet them and hear all about their adventures.   I have dreamed of visiting New Zealand and have never had the chance yet, so we'll look forward to their visit this fall.  I'm already thinking about what fun things Kate and George will get to do while they are here!

For the last 10 days straight I have been pruning, trying to get as much done as I can.  My good friend, Anne-Elizabeth Peyroche d'Arnaud,  amazingly spent the whole week with me pruning.  This is a picture of her and her dog Cannelle (cinnamon) when we finished pruning the Syrah.   The weather has been beautiful.  My face and hands now have a nice winter sun-tan.   The rest of me is as white as snow... it looks kind of funny when I'm not wearing a turtle neck!

A Weed Badger update for those who are curious about that.... Well, there's still lots of pieces and parts laid out on the table.  Matt spent the last two weekends pruning with us, so there's not been a great amount of progress. This week may be the week, we'll  see.

I am starting my tastings for the wine guide, so please bear with me.  It's going to be a very busy, but very interesting 2 weeks.   I'll do my best to keep you up to date.