As many of you food and wine blog readers know, Pim of the blog Chez Pim has sponsored f
or the last
couple of years a holiday fund raiser which this year benefited
the UN World Food Programme. Over $90,000 was raised and lots of great prizes were offered by wine and food bloggers all over the world. Two years ago I decided to get into the action by offering a day of work in the vineyards or winery followed by dinner here at the house with Matt and I and lots of delicious wine to go along with it!
The winner in 2007 was Emma Buls, who hasn't yet had the chance to come to visit, we're still hoping she'll make it over here one day! This year's winner was Kate McWiggins, a former San Francisco resident who now lives in New Zealand. She and her husband George Hingston were here over the weekend to redeem their prize.
We decided on Sunday so that Matt could participate too, and we spent the afternoon in the vineyards. We were so lucky to have an absolutely beautiful fall day, in fact we all complained that it was hot out there!! Matt had some plowing to do in our white vineyards and decided that we would put George and Kate to work sowing a winter cover crop in the Roussanne vineyard. Luckily for them, it's quite a small vineyard, so it really didn't turn out to be too much work, but we'll be sure to send them pictures as the "vetch" grows over the winter. The vetch seeds looked just like lentils, only a bit fatter, it's a nitrogen fixing
plant that is commonly planted, then mowed off and plowed into the ground in the spring.
After all that hard work, Matt took Kate and George on a tour of our other vineyards then we headed
back to the house to give them a tour of the "winery" (which takes all of 5 minutes). Then it was time to break out the wine. We started with a 2003 Fleur de Cailloux from Jean-Philippe Padié, then a 2007 Château de Vaudieu Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc, La Gramière 2005 & 2006 and finished with a 1986 Clos du Caillou Châteauneuf du Pape Rouge.
To go with all of that wine,we started with brousse and fresh herb crostini. Brousse is the Corsican version of ricotta which has found it's
way across the Mediterranean and into many Provençal recipes. We are lucky enough to have a local sheeps milk producer at the market in Uzès who makes an incredible fresh brousse 
in season. For the main course I spent two days preparing a delicious Daube Provençal, a slow-cooked Provençal beef stew with orange rind, cloves, bacon, white wine and all sorts of other yummy ingredients. It turned out to be delicious if I do say so myself, and we had a great evening together, topped off by an amazingly gooey, stinky cheese plate and a sumptuous Caramelized Orange and Rice Custard, one of my favorite recipes from my friend Joanne Weir.
We had such a great time with Kate and George, that I can't wait to see who wins the prize this year!
YAY! I'm so glad to see that this happened, and sounds like you had a great time.
Posted by: Alder | October 30, 2008 at 05:45 PM
Amy,it's our last day in Avignon,then overnight in Paris and then goodbye to La belle France! We are still thinking of our our wonderful day with you and Matt. It will be one of the fondest memories of our trip. Thanks for sharing a day in your life. The 2006 and 2007 are in our bags for travel to New Zealand, the 2005 is only a memory. Regards, Kate and George
Posted by: Kate McWiggins | October 31, 2008 at 04:02 PM
Amy,it's our last day in Avignon,then overnight in Paris and then goodbye to La belle France! We are still thinking of our our wonderful day with you and Matt. It will be one of the fondest memories of our trip. Thanks for sharing a day in your life. The 2006 and 2007 are in our bags for travel to New Zealand, the 2005 is only a memory. Regards, Kate and George
Posted by: Kate McWiggins | October 31, 2008 at 04:03 PM