We sliced white peaches and spread Toasted Hazlenut and Frangelico Torte on them. We brought along our trusty camping wine glasses and sat sipping Sokol Blosser Rosé. This was a flavor match made in heaven. We sat in the sun, watched the surfers brave the chilly Pacific Ocean and ran our dogs. After a long day of relaxing, we finished in Cannon Beach by grabbing some fresh chowder at Doogers. Perfect day.

Do yourself a favor and pick up some of the 2007 Rosé of Pinot Noir. It is honestly one of the best Rosés that I have ever tasted. If you want to step it up a notch further, race to New Seasons, get some of that goat cheese and a fresh white peach. Then get ready to head to the store to pick up some new socks, because the ones that you are wearing are going to get knocked off.

They say a photo speaks a thousand words. And, these were just too good not to share!

This past Saturday, was our Wild Boar Pigout Party…a small gathering of devoted fans coming together to eat, drink and be merry. And, boy did we sure have fun! Wine club members came from as far away as Florida, Virginia and Arizona to dine on succulent roast pig and southern style side dishes. We had a taste off of sorts to see which pig was preferred, the wild one that The Husband had hunted down earlier this year or the domestic cousin purchased at the local meat market. While no consensus was achieved, it was wholeheartedly agreed that both paired particularly well with an abundance of Zinfandels! Nobody seemed to notice the havoc our newest family member has created around here (our 10 week old yellow lab named Holly) and a good time was had by all.

Who says wine dinners need to be stuffy and boring?! Not I, said the pig.

After a couple of weeks of seasonably warm weather (days in the 90s or low 100s and nights in the 50s) we had a break in the heat from a cut-off low and a resulting deep marine layer.  Sunday and Monday we had fog in the morning, breezy, cool days with highs topping out in the low 70s, and chilly, breezy nights in the mid-40s.  When I got into the vineyard on Monday morning, I was struck by the crispness of the day and headed out into the vineyard to catch the last bits of fog lingering over the vineyard.

I didn't make it in time to get any good photos of the fog, but had a nice walk through the Grenache Noir, Mourvedre and Vermentino blocks on the hill behind the winery.  A few of my favorite shots are below; check out the complete photo album for more.  First, some Grenache vines silhouetted against the sky:

A Grenache Noir cluster, still a few weeks away from veraison:

Looking west over our Grenache block, you can see a block of Syrah as well as (further west) the new section of vineyard we just finished planting:

A look north-east through two Vermentino rows shows Adelaida Road and Halter Ranch in the background:

And finally,  a closeup of a Vermentino vine with the sunlight shining through it:

The Shirt Hits The Holy Land

The first pic is of some folks very close to my heart, my parents and my pastor and his wife on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. Besides being the largest fresh water lake in Israel, some cool stuff happened there in antiquity including a little water walking.

My Dad is on the left next to my Mom. Pastor Jim and his wife Mary are on the right. Motley crew all around. I’m not exactly sure what wine they are rockin’ in the photo, but I’m told it was a Cabernet blend and that it went down easy.

The Shirt Catches Big Fish

This second pic is from noted photographer and vineyard owner Alan Campbell near La Paz Mexico. Alan was there last week on a fishing vacation, and the shirt apparently brought him good fortune. Check out this absolute heifer of a dorado Pez Gallo.

Good times.

And thanks for the photos! Keep ‘em coming in.

But that's not the point of this post. The point is to complete a match made in, well, someplace.

If you have seen Mr. Ramsay's TV work, you are probably well aware of his favorite word. We at Twisted Oak Winery feel that if is his favorite word, couldn't also be his favorite wine?

So Mr. Ramsay, I'd love to send you a couple bottles of for you to try. I just need a shipping address. Email me!

This Thursday, July 24th, Anne Amie welcomes Troy MacLarty of Lovely Hula Hands as guest chef for a Pre-International Pinot Noir Celebration dinner.  Troy spent four years at the world renowned Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California before moving to Portland where he spent time with Ripe Family Supper, Saucebox and Simpatica Dining Hall.  Troy is passionate about local products and we are excited for his culinary creations at this special winemaker's dinner.

Also joining us are very special guests Leslie Mead, winemaker from Talley Vineyards on California's South Central Coast & Michael Richmond, winemaker from Bouchaine Vineyards in Carneros, Napa Valley.  Troy's menu will be paired with an assortment of Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling and Pinot Noir from

Anne Amie, Talley and Bouchaine Vineyards.

Join us at 6:30pm and enjoy hors d'oeuvres on our terrace overlooking our vineyards and the Pacific Coast Range.  Reservations are required and only a few spaces are still available.  For more information  contact us at 503-864-2991.

A couple of months ago we asked Cellar Club members to submit a BBQ sauce recipe to be featured at the big event. We then narrowed down the entries to two. We used this as an excuse to have a killer staff lunch. I prepared both the recipes and then accepted votes from everyone. The winner was Joe Valente of Ft. Collins, Colorado. GREAT JOB, JOE!

The weather started off quite chilly for a July summer day, but soon turned in to one of the nicest days of the year. Clear blue skies and sun provided us with ideal weather. Bluegrass music from Josh and Rachael Cole of the Josh Cole Band added to the atmosphere. Thanks Josh and Rachael!

We had the opportunity to meet and catch up with new guests and long time Cellar Club Members. Thanks to all who joined us in the festivities. We are all looking forward to next year!

PS - We are now accepting reservation for our Summer Vineyard Hikes & Lunch on August 9th and 23rd. Give me a call to reserve your spot!

Jeff Knapp
503-565-2308

As far as I’m concerned, there are only two real drawbacks to drinking Abadía Retuerta’s rich, and complex red wines: one is that they always disappear too quickly; and two, is that these powerful wines can sometimes leave their mark on my decanter (especially when I’m lazy and leave it until the morning to wash). Faced with one of these decanter crisis´ last week after a fortunate night spent enjoying Pago Valdebellón and the winery’s Petit Verdot, I resolved to delve into the world of decanter cleaning to figure out once and for all the best technique.

More than actual cleanliness per se, the thing that actually worries me the most is not that the Queen of Spain might drop by for a glass of wine and find a smudge on my decanter, but rather that whatever I use to clean the glass might leave a lasting scent which could in turn effect the natural aromas of the wine. I consulted a number of web pages and on-line forums visited by wine and glassware enthusiasts, and found that the variety of decanter cleaning advice ranged from gluing sandpaper on the back of a wasp and setting it loose inside the decanter, to using little stainless steel beads sold on a number of web sites including the Wine Enthusiast, which are covered with water and swished around the inside of the decanter for a couple of minutes. The advantage of these small pellets is that they can be rinsed and reused over and over again and sell for around 20 dollars.

As far as using solutions to wash the decanter, I found all of the following recommendations, all of which should be mixed together and swirled around the container before rinsing:

• rice mixed with mild dishwasher detergent and water
• crushed ice and salt
• lemon juice and salt
• straight vodka or rubbing alcohol (which will evaporate quickly and not leave spots)
• white vinegar and salt

For drying, there are a number of possibilities that range from a paper towel wrapped around a wooden spoon, or buying or building an upside-down looking decanter drying rack.

Aside from these solutions, there are also different types of cleaning brushes available on the market, in different shapes and sizes, and with ranging amounts of flexibility.

In order to try out the veracity of these different techniques I forced myself to drink more wine from my decanter and give one or two of them a try, with the following results:

Both the white vinegar and the lemon juice mixed with salt seemed to work to lift the wine stain, but both solutions had to be left for a while in the decanter, and both of them left faint (although not unpleasant) smells which could later be transferred to the wine – not to mention that I diluted the vinegar heavily with water. I decided that using vodka to clean a wine mark would be just a tad too eccentric and so I opted finally for the rice (uncooked) mixed with detergent and water). Much in the way that I imagine the little stainless steel balls to work, the texture of the rice when swirled in the decanter lifted the stain right off, and the mild detergent rinsed clean with no apparent lasting odor. I dried the decanter first upside-down on a paper towel, and then on its side so that the remaining water could evaporate, although I am sure there is a better technique. I suppose I´ll have to start the experiment from scratch, sigh!

It's summertime in Oregon and that means visitors a plenty.  A few weeks ago we were paid a visit by Dr. Jay Miller from eRobertParker.com.  Jay is from Maryland so we waxed poetic about east coast restaurants and blue crabs (yes people I like them better than Dungeness).  We tasted through our 2007 white wines which were perfect for this warm day before taking him through our barrels from beginning to end of harvest.  Good timing because now our blends are finished and there's no more messing around in the cellar.  Dr. Jay paused for a quick photo with Thomas and I before heading off in his appropriately rented convertible.  Jay currently covers the wines of Oregon, Washington, Spain, Australia, South America and Greece.  It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it.  Cheers to you Jay!

Back to the fava beans and morels, I thought this was such an interesting combination I thought I would try to put my spin on this wonderful summer pasta dish. So the adventure began on Saturday morning with my wife Debbie as we were on our way to the Portland farmer’s market. We found everything we needed and of course more at the farmers market….

I took a stab at what I remembered this dish tasting like and did my best to recreate it.. Well I came really close to hitting a home run out of the ball park! We both loved it…. It was really close to Chef Mark's dish but by no means the same…. I dug out a bottle of 1999 Sokol Blosser Twelve Row Pinot Noir to have with this dish and they complimented each other very well!

Here is what I did to make this dish…
Ingredients: fava beans, morels, garlic, cherry tomatoes, pasta of your choice.
1. Start off your pot of water to cook your pasta in.
2. Blanch off the fava beans and peel both shells off.
3. Sauté up your morels with olive oil & butter and small amount of garlic. When they are close to being done add your Fava beans and cook for 5 minutes and add cherry tomatoes, salt & pepper to taste and then toss in your cooked pasta and add a twirl of olive oil.
4. Cook and toss for 3 – 5 minutes till it’s done. Serve up and garnish with a sprinkle of shredded parmesan and fresh basil or any other fresh herbs. I served this with a caprese salad.

Cheers!
Lee

I want to thank you for your creative spirit and creating a wine named “marry me?”

My boyfriend Patrick and I recently went out to dinner for a lovely evening since he was going to be moving. After we finished the fine dining cuisine the waitress brought a second bottle of wine.  I looked quizzically at Patrick because I didn’t recall ordering a second bottle of wine. The waitress presented the bottle of wine to me and required that I read the entire label, with a dramatic gesture of her hands. I got to the bottom of your Roshambo Roussanne 2005 label and it had written on the label “marry me?” At that same time I was reading and trying to figure out what I was reading Patrick was getting down on his knee and that’s when he asked me to marry him. I said an enthusiastic yes and we are planning to get married this coming April.

It was so special for Patrick to propose with your bottle of wine because he is a huge fan of your wines and is a part of your wine club. That is in fact how he received this wine marry me? last year.

Patrick, now my fiance’, and I are planning to turn the bottle he used to propose to me into a lamp to keep on our bed stand table when we get married.

It was really special and I just wanted to share how you were a part of our proposal story.
Thank you very much for your time.

All my best to you and your company,

Emily Cable

If you or someone you know needs a little help popping the question, follow Patrick’s lead and ask over a bottle of “marry me?” Roussanne.

I usually hate it when wineries use their blog just to tell people where to find the wines, but I haven't done this in awhile, and we've been shipping to lots of different states, so I thought you might enjoy seeing where in the US our wine has gone!  I will post them in chronological order so as not to favor anyone!  If anyone who is reading this has pictures that we can add to the post, send them to me!  Unless otherwise indicated you'll need to call the distributor to find out where you can buy the wine retail.

Hawaii -  Southern W&S   318 Kamani Street Honolulu, HI 96813     (808) 591-8825

New York -  Thirst Wine Merchants  187 DeKalb Ave @ Carlton, Brooklyn (718) 596-7643 www.thirstwinemerchants.com  Our EXCLUSIVE NY retailer!  (First two photos courtesy of Thirst Wine Merchants)

Washington State - Cavatappi Distribuzione 5118 14th Avenue N.W. Seattle. WA 98107  (206) 282-5226 www.cavatappi.com

Maryland - Chesapeake Beverage Co.  3000 Waterview Avenue Baltimore.  MD 21230   (410) 576-7776
Chesapeake first ordered 15 cases and then re-ordered another 30!!  Thank you!

California - Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant 1605 San Pablo Ave, Berkeley, CA 94702  (510) 524-1524
www.kermitlynch.com

Louisiana - Purveyors of Fine Wines PO Box 30308 New Orleans, LA 70190  (504) 523-5230

Michigan - Veritas 32185 Hollingsworth Warren, MI 48092   (586) 977-5799

 Oregon - D’Vine Wine Inc. 3315 NW 26th Avenue Portland OR 97210 (503) 228-9450

Florida - Opici Wine Company P.O. Box 530275 Lake Park FL 33403 (561) 842-3113

Colorado - Baroness Distributing 2475 W. 2nd Avenue, #36 Denver CO 80223 (303) 934-1300

Tennesee - Best Brands Inc. P.O. Box 290155 Nashville TN 37229 (615) 350-8500

Kentucky - Heidelberg Distributing 101 W. 13th Street Covington KY 41011 (859) 261-5830

Vermont - g.housen - North -  100 First Street Rutland VT 05701 (802) 773-4707

There you have it!  That's where 2006 La Gramière has been shipped!  If you call one of the distributors, be patient as they often have hundreds of wines on their list, and though it may shock you, not everyone has heard of La Gramière.  Be sure to mention, Kermit Lynch as the importer, the region: Rhône, and then maybe the name : La Gramière (gra - mee - air)

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful distributors, retailers and restaurant accounts!!  We are so greatful for your support!

(Photos: Above: tasting with the Kermit Lynch staff, Second: Guillaume & Luc of Terroir - Natural Wine Bar& Merchant)

First, the Sacramento Bee today has a major travel section article all about Calaveras County. It's available online:

• Main article on Calaveras
• Feature on Murphys
• Feature on Angels Camp
• Feature on Copperopolis

Next, a really great blog post by Michelle on the "To Serve Mankind" blog (I think it is not a cook book) about a visit to several Calaveras wineries called "Why you need to check out Murphys, CA," with a nice mention of The Fricken (pictured, from last February.) Thanks Michelle!

My younger son told me yesterday he was climbing Half Dome in Yosemite last night. Yes, at night. I took a slight amount of comfort when I saw the route, which is called "Snake Dike." Hopefully he'll send me some pictures to share with you (hint hint!)

Not apropos travel, but if you are interested in the changes that have occurred in the direct shipping of wine, here's a comprehensive post on the subject over on the Tablas Creek blog.

By the way, if you just can't get enough El Jefe (and trust me, there's plenty for everyone - but I need to work on making a little less "plenty") you can "follow" me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/eljefetwisted. And speaking of Twitter, I've got a few Twitter searches running, including a search on some of our favorite grapes - here's one that popped up:

H heeft heerlijk gekookt, we drinken de Tempranillo die ik van Justitie heb gekregen, terwijl Blof het huis vult met melancholieke klanken.

Which translates, according to BabelFish, thus:

H has deliciously cooked, we drink the Tempranillo which I have got of justice, whereas Blof fill the house with wistful consonances.

I know that when I drink Tempranillo, I too get full of wistful consonances.

Tonight we were thrilled to attend a Kinkead Ridge white wine vertical tasting at the home of David and Jan Lazarus. From their cellar, they opened a 2007/2006/2005/2004 Riesling; and a 2006/2004/2003 Viognier/Roussanne; and a 2005 River Village Cellars White Wine (Viognier/Rousssanne blend). No one more than us appreciates how extraordinary this is; because we don't have a library of our wines in our own cellar (for two main reasons: we sell everything because we need the money; and every year the wines get better!)

David and Jan, who were the first people to ever taste our wine in Cincinnati, have probably the most comprehensive collection of our vintages, bar none. From our first vintage, they understood our vision, predicted our success, and had almost more confidence in our future than we had in ourselves!*** Descriptions of all these wines are on our Archive wine page at our Wine Archives

Also at the tasting, we were happy to chat with Mike, whose blog is The Naked Vine, and a lovely group of people who are regulars at the Pinot Noir club tastings. IMHO, my chicken satay and Jan's Vietnamese roll-ups were fabulous with the Riesling.

David, wine aficionado and blogger (Too Many Good Wines/Not Enough Time) and Jan purchased our first ever silent auction basket at A Taste of Duveneck, Cincinnati Art Museum. This basket included the first three wines to leave the winery, the first vintage 2001 Cabernet Franc, 2001 Syrah and 2001 Revelation. Rumor has it that Chuck W. from the Dilly Deli battled it out with David for this basket!

Here's Ron thinking about these vintages.Ron was VERY pleased with how the wines are holding up; for him it was a technical exercise; as he remembers in excruciating detail what SO2 additions he did, what fining he did, etc. for each wine; and he pondered the relation of the winemaking techniques to the longevity in the bottle.

I personally loved the Rieslings tonight. Even though the 2003 Viognier/Roussanne was rated one of the Top 100 Wine Finds in the World by Tom Stevenson, I was so delighted with the second label River Village Cellars (same blend) that retailed at $9.95.

A huge thank you to David and Jan for this experience. David may do a red vertical in the fall... again with wines that are long gone from our own cellar. So Robert Parker or Gary Vaynerchuk or Jancis Robinson if you're in the neighborhood let us know! :-)

***Note: With our small production, David has always predicted that our wines would be on allocation. This was certainly true for the 2005 Petit Verdot, and this year's small quantity of white wine due to the Easter frost.

So how is the vineyard, you may be wondering! The vineyard looks better than it ever has... very even bud break, and with a lot of labor tying up vines, and Ron hedging, it is immaculate. Emily decided to decorate her hairdo with some of the grape clusters! We are so grateful to Emily, Gretchen, Judy and Meg, who got this job done in brutal heat, and even one short torrential downpour, so heavy, it ruined Judy's cell phone. We'll hoping it will eventually come back to life after it dries out!

The winery is closed for the summer, since all wine is sold out, but will reopen August 30 and September 1 for the release of the 2006 reds and the annual vineyard tour. Also open September 6. Then we will close for harvest, please see the www.KinkeadRidge.com for information about our Annual Barrel Tasting and holiday shopping days.

And what has Nancy been doing since the wines are sold out? How about 7 days of Kaufman Acoustic Kamp in Tennessee, my instructors included Gary Davis, three time national banjo champion! In addition to banjo (which I play), there were dobro, guitar, bass and fiddle instructors. I'm so motivated, I'm now joining the Friday night jams at the music store in Bethel, Ohio.

We have a large garden this year, and I'm catching up on house projects, like interior painting. It's my first summer off since we moved here in 1998. Hard to believe we've been here 10 years!

Your friendly wine blogger,
Nancy Bentley
Owner/Managing Partner

Eddie Murphy, in his stand up routine, referred to his Mom’s homemade burger as a “House Burger”. His friends were all having McDonald’s and he had the “House Burger”. Nothing against McDonald’s, Wendy’s or Burgerville here in the Pacific Northwest, but a good “House Burger” is hard to beat! That is what was for dinner last night.

Preparation
Burger: Add ground beef to a glass mixing bowl with some finely chopped shallot or onion, fresh chopped rosemary, couple of shakes of Worcestershire Sauce, spoon full of Dijon mustard, and salt and pepper. Mix together and form into patties. Do not over work the meat when mixing and forming the patties, it makes the burger meat tough and it cooks unevenly.

Burger Topping: In a pan caramelize a sweet onion. Walla Walla onions are in season now, the Pacific Northwest’s Vidalia. When brown add some finely chopped garlic, rosemary and drizzle with Meditrina. Let cook a couple of minutes, then add sliced cremini mushrooms and this time we added some oven roasted tomatoes. These were on the olive bar at our supermarket. I’m sure fresh tomatoes would work nicely as would sun dried. You can oven roast your own tomatoes if you like, it just takes about 12 hours at a very low temperature.

Grilling: Our Big Green Egg, Mac, cooked up these big and juicy delights. Set up the grill to direct cook at 550˚F. Oil the grates with olive oil and grill on each side for about 3 minute or until done to your liking. Top with a slice of provolone cheese. Place the open-faced roll on the grill to toast, if you like. Then simply assemble your burger with the topping and enjoy.

Wine: Meditrina IV; Egg, Grilled “House Burger” topped with caramelized onions, mushroom, roasted tomatoes and provolone cheese; absolutely made my mouth very happy! Meditrina and your favorite burger, a winning combination. Try it tonight!

I was out and about yesterday in the Salinas Valley. This is the so-called “Basin Complex Fire” that is burning in the Los Padres National Forest. This was taken east of Highway 101 near Chualar looking south, and the hills you see to the right are the Santa Lucia Highlands.