PlumpJack at Squaw Excels at Food & Wine Pairings

One of the best wine lists on the lake, paired with one of the best kitchens: that describes PlumpJack’s Café at Squaw Valley Inn. No matter how many times you treat you dine there, or attend one of their great winemaker dinners, you always walk out astounded at how good the wines are and how well they pair foods.

Mike Kirk, food and beverage manager, knows his way around the wine list, and working together with Tim Crockett, chef de cuisine, the food-wine pairings presented the evening I went to taste were incredible. Steve Lamb, Food and Beverage Director, is responsible in part for the great wine list, and the PlumpJack blog notes that long-time wine buyer Paul Birman, who has been with PlumpJack’s wine store in San Francisco for more than 15 years, scours the world for interesting wines and many of those end up on PlumpJack Café’s wine list. It really is an unbeatable team.

One of the nicer things too, is that great wines are on their wine-by-the-glass list. They pour a 6 ounce glass – quite generous – and you can order a half-glass too.

We started with a Werner Schweicher Annaberg Riesling “Kabinett” 2009 Mosel, from an old well-known German winery. It has a bit of sweetness that makes it perfect with spicy dishes. Tones of pineapple, citrus, and with a light minerality and a bit of fizz. Perfect with the Korean Spiced Seafood Cones, a dish that is like a little sushi delight, augmented by pickled cabbage (kimchi), ginger and Tobiko caviar. A mouthful of that, a taste of the Riesling…divine. The Riesling is $9/glass. 9.5% alcohol.

The Bouchard Pere & Fils 2008 Pouilly Fuisse was a great pairing with the Seared Diver Scallops. I’ve personally always been fond of Pouilly Fuisse, since it was my first “aha” wine experience when I was 21. This Burgundy is typical of the type, with aroma of fruit and flowers, perfumey, silky, elegant. I enjoyed the Wine Spectator description: "A white with a sense of place. Acacia, lemon blossom, apple and mineral aromas and flavors abound, all matched to an elegant frame. This is balanced, lingering on the long, mineral-tinged aftertaste.” Drink it now through 2016 to get the freshness you should enjoy with this wine. Only 250 cases imported! $10/glass. 13% alcohol.

And then, my favorite Grenache Blanc a 2009 Skinner Vineyards- Stoney Creek Vineyard, Fair Play, El Dorado County. This was paired with the chef’s special, a Seared New Zealand Queen Snapper with Santa Barbara mussels, Berkshire pork belly, horseradish crème fraiche and herb gelee. This recipe was created by Ben “Wyatt” Dufresne, Executive Chef. The Skinner Grenache Blanc is available only in restaurants, so make it a point to try it. “This wine has aromatics of lemon zest, granny smith apple, and grapefruit, with hints of straw and wet gravel. The mouth feel is racy, with a medium bodied mid-palate and an element of minerality on the finish. This wine is unfined and unfiltered to retain its purity,” notes Ryan Skinner, General Manager. Chris Mascias of the Sacramento Bee raved about this wine recently too. $11/glass.

To end, a Saracco Muscato D’Asti 2008, Piedmont. This was paired with a Tome des Recollets, a cheese that contains five herbs and spices, two milks and a Sauternes wash. The wine has a crispness with a nice acidity, a pear-like sweetness, and a bit of frizziness. $19 for a 375 ml bottle. 6% alcohol.

PlumpJack Café at Squaw Valley is located at 1920 Squaw Valley Road, Olympic Valley, CA. Call 530 583 1576 for reservations. Evening dining starts at 5:30.

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© 2011 Barbara Keck

For more information on dining and the wide range of activities around Lake Tahoe, see the online version of The Tahoe Weekly. This article appeared in my column "Wine Adventures" in April 2011.

Book in Process: "Mountain High Wine: The Sierra and Its Foothills".

Corkage Fees and Deep Deep Snow: The Sufferings of Mountain Restaurateurs

"Too much snow," declared my friend H, who owns a restaurant at Tahoe that has a wonderful wine list. "That, and so many people bring their own wine now."

I'm fortunate to have my finger on the pulse of on-premise wine sales in this high-income resort area of California, by virtue of my weekly wine column in The Tahoe Weekly. A glass of wine, a loaf of bread, and a look at the wine list late at night when most customers have gone home: that's the dynamic that lets those risk-takers in the restaurant industry let their hair down a bit and tell you what's really going on. I don't care what bean-counting firms follow wine offtake in the bar and restaurant business, their numbers can't give you the accurate up-to-date reading that such chats allow.

So the restaurants and ski lodges are packed on snowy weekends this winter. Except if there is too much snow. Snow like the snow last weekend, and black ice, which caused that truck to jack-knife on Route 80 and crush a car and its occupants. That will keep the skiers away! And it did.

Regardless of snow ice traffic and so on, H's wine list is a wonder to behold. I've enjoyed food & wine pairings at his restaurant that are astounding. But he says he simply is not buying any wine. His cellar is full of good wines ... but so many customers bring their own these days. What's a restaurateur to do?

I understand that the economics of the business are tough. But my recommendation (which I keep to myself late at night) is this: Don't mark up your wines so much. Consumers/diners are not stupid. And now, with a two-second touch of their smartphones, they can find out what a wine sells for at retail and do the math. Corkage fees help the bottom line a bit... but that few extra dollars and moving your inventory and thus eliminating your carrying-cost ... simple B-School principles say, REDUCE YOUR PRICES.

MOVE 'EM OUT, COWBOY.




(This is a repost from my new blog, www.mountainhighwines.blogspot.com.  There, you'll have an ongoing look at the Sierra Foothills... or, more properly, the Sierra-and-Its-Foothills ... wine scene)

My Rant About Alcohol-Level Labeling Issues

Well, goodness bless Jon Bonne for opening this topic again.  I couldn't resist making a comment on his great blogpost (http://tinyurl.com/4l2pf36) and here goes:

"Absolutely, alcohol percentages should be prominently printed on wine labels, and in a type size that does NOT require a magnifying glass to read and a type color that does NOT fade into the label color, requiring a laser flashlight to find. Consumers have a right to know this information and to find it quickly and visibly.

I write a wine column for The Tahoe Weekly, at http://www.theweeklymagazineonline.com/din/wine.html , and it is pet peeve of mine that I often have to call wineries to get this information ... which I include on every wine I note in my column.

In my opinion, if you want to call down the ire of MADD and other organizations... then keep your alcohol percentage information hidden, let your guests drive home after a few glasses of a high-alcohol wine, and create a nightmare for all responsible wineries, winemakers, restauranteurs and dinner hosts. WAKE UP!"

Malbec Release: Bodega Del Sur does it Right

There is a lot of buzz about Malbec, and that's all good. It gets even better when a progessive small winery like Bodega Del Sur, Murphys, CA (Calaveras AVA), produces a nicely balanced wine and a lot of hoopla to introduce it.

The '08 Malbec created by winemaker Chuck Hovey uses grapes sourced from the new Alta Mesa appellation in the Silvaspoon Vineyards. It's fruity, smooth, and pairs wonderfully with traditional Argentine BBQ.

Bodega Del Sur owners Victor and Evelyn Reyes-Umana chose to debut their Malbec at Villa del Sol restaurant in South San Francisco. A great idea, since the restaurant brought out platters of BBQ beef, pork and poultry done in the authentic style... accompanied by live music, a Bondolon musician and Victor himself crooning a few Latin American ballads.

At the event, Evelyn presented the new 2008 vintage of Carmesi , a red blend with a purpose. Portions of the sale of each bottle of Carmesi are donated to charitable organizations that assist needy women and their children. This year, The Resource Connection of San Andreas has been chosen to receive the donations from the sale of the 2008 vintage of the Carmesi.

About the winery (a nice backstory in their own words): Bodega del Sur is the culmination of a dream of Evelyn and Victor Reyes-Umana. Victor began his love affair with wine in his native El Salvador. Moving to California and later in life, traveling around the world, solidified his appreciation for wines and increased his curiosity for the various wine styles of the different regions of the world.

While visiting some friends in Chile in 1993, Victor and Evelyn had the great opportunity to visit many of the small, family owned wineries, and it was then that Victor uttered the fateful words, "This is what I would like to do when I retire". His remark took Evelyn completely by surprise. She thought it was a pipe dream, and mentioned something about him being out of his mind. After all, Victor was already a successful electrical engineer in California's Silicon Valley, and Evelyn was busy raising their sons, Victor Manuel and Luis Edgardo, with a full-time job teaching Spanish at Saint Matthew's Catholic School in San Mateo, CA. What did they know about making wine? But this "nutty" idea started to flourish.

During their visits to Spain and France in 2004 and 2005, they visited various wine regions, spending some significant time in La Mancha, where wines and dreams come together. They spent time talking to the winemakers and gathering information on the production of fine, elite wines. Then, in the spring of 2007, the opportunity arose to purchase a winery in Calaveras County, and they decided to take the plunge. This was the perfect location. Not only was it near their summer home in Arnold, but also, Victor realized the grape growing region of the Sierra foothills mimicked those of Chile, Argentina and Spain, among others. Through the years, Victor had learned to appreciate and admire the wines the region produced, and particularly liked the consistent quality and style of the wine produced by Chuck Hovey for another local winery. It was through Chuck's wines that Victor learned that great wines could be made from Spanish varietals grown locally. It was an incredible thrill for Victor and Evelyn to be able to team up with Chuck, to produce the Bodega del Sur wines. Truly a dream coming true.

On a personal note, I was delighted to help Evelyn and Victor celebrate their new vintages. They are among some of the most interesting winery people I've met while doing research for my forthcoming book, Mountain High Wines: The Sierra and Its Foothills. Drop me a note if you'd like to be on the book party release list! (barbara at winebizpr dot com)

Exceptional Wine at Manzanita Restaurant-Ritz Carlton Northstar

Just simply walking into the lobby at the Ritz-Carlton at Northstar is a delight, and that feeling of luxe starts from that moment. It’s fitting that Traci des Jardins, the celebrated San Francisco master of French-California, would be comfortable lending her reputation and skills to Manzanita, the exceptional restaurant with an exceptional wine list at the Ritz.

The Manzanita restaurant at the Ritz–Carlton is known for its culinary delights, but don’t neglect the wine list when you go there. It is extensive. Many of the wines also are part of the restaurant’s half-glass program, which started as part of the “flights” or carefully-chosen tastes of three or four wines, generally served at the bar with light appetizers. Enjoying three or four different wines in the course of a meal is a pleasure, and the half-glass program will not break your budget.

A nice way to start is with the Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut. It’s a nice minerally sparkler, with tart apple and lemon aromas, and flavors of vanilla, citrus and anise. It’s a great champagne experience, as this winery is the California outpost of Champagne Louis Roederer, and it benefits from that centuries-old tradition of fine winemaking 12% alcohol. $12 glass or $6 half-glass.

The Domaine Laporte Sauvignon Blanc Le Bouquet is a Loire lover’s delight, full of bright and vibrant fresh fruit. 12.% alcohol, $10 glass or $5 half-glass. It paired perfectly with the Agnolotti pasta with ricotta and corn filling in a chicken broth base.

The duck confit, a classic that Manzanita prepares several different ways, is a great pairing with pinot noir. The 2008 Calera Pinot Noir Central Coast is a blend of grapes from Monterey, San Luis Obispo, San Benito, and Santa Clara counties. Slightly herbaceous, with flavors of cherries, strawberry, blackberry, cassis, a bit of orange and a hint of black pepper. Wine Enthusiast gave it 91 points. It’s easy to find in stores (in case you want to fix duck confit or try other pairings at home), and is smooth and delightful. 14.4% alcohol, $12 glass, $6 half-glass.

A slightly lighter-in-style pinot also paired well with duck: Freeman Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. You’ll experience spicy, slow-ripening Pinot Noir aromas, with hints of violets and roses. A nice acidity and firm tannins differentiate this from Russian River Valley pinot. 14.1% alcohol, $16 glass, $8 half-glass.

Braised shortribs call for good hearty red wines. The Jules Melange red blend from Barrelhead Wine Company, Napa, was created by winemakers Julianna and Chris Corley. It brings together Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah in a slightly offbeat way that results in a juiciness with flavors of black berry and black cherry, and a touch of white pepper. Nicely balanced, and silky tannins add to its great structure. 14.2% alcohol, $16 glass. We also tasted 2007 Mauritson’s Rockpile Zinfandel "Rockpile Ridge", a big bold zin with great richness, balance and structure. 15.5.% alcohol. $19 glass, $8 half-glass.

Just thinking about the dessert list adds inches to the waistline, but do indulge. There are plenty of dessert wines to choose from too. I am a pushover for Moscato, and the Moscato d’Asti Saracco from Piedmont just wowed me with its honeysuckle and jasmine essence. For those who love fig newtons, be sure you try the Domaine du Mas Blanc Banyuls Rimage 2006, made from Grenache grapes. Yum. 17% alcohol.

Let wine director Jessica Norris and sommelier Gail Oversteg guide you in your wine selections. They do a fine job!

Manzanita is at 13031 Ritz-Carlton Highlands Court, mid-mountain in Northstar, Truckee, CA 96161. Absolutely call for reservations 530.562.3050 or book on Open Table.

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© 2011 Barbara Keck

For more information on dining and the wide range of activities around Lake Tahoe, see the online version of The Tahoe Weekly. This article appeared in my column "It's Grape" in March 2011.

Book in Process: "Mountain High Wines: The Sierra and Its Foothills".

Perfect Pairings in Wine and Cheese

What’s a wine writer doing, writing about cheese? Talk about perfect pairings…I had a great educational session over-the-counter at the Cowgirl Creamery store in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Cheesemonger Adam Smith patiently looked at my list (Marsanne, Pinot, Red Blend, Malbec, Syrah) and painstakingly gave me tastes and explanations until we found perfect pairings. Here they are…

Montagne du Jura cheese comes from the Jura Mountains, the same region as does Gruyere cheese. This is a full bodied cheese, with a nutty flavor. The high fat content helps to mellow the mouthfeel of high tannins in wine such as Syrah.

The Coolea cheese is hand made from pasteurized cows milk, imported from the mountain farm of Dick and Sinead Willems in Coolea, County Cork, Ireland.. The cheese has flavors which are carmelly and toffee-like, and a lovely richness. It will pair magnificently with a Red Blend wine and also with a Malbec.

The Humboldt Fog cheese, a ripened goat’s milk cheese made by Cypress Grove Cheve in Arcata, California, is an elegant, soft, surface ripened cheese. The texture is creamy and luscious with a subtle tangy flavor. Each handcrafted wheel features a ribbon of edible vegetable ash along its center and a coating of ash under its exterior to give it a distinctive, cake-like appearance. It will pair perfectly with Marsanne.

Marsanne also pairs well with California Crottin, made in Sebastopol by Redwood Hill Creamery. This enterprise started as a farmstead, and was a pioneer in goats milk cheeses. This artisan cheese is made in the traditional French-style . It has a wrinkly, geotrichum candidum rind, a fluffy texture and robust, earthy flavor.

The Appalachian cheese from Meadow Creek in Galax, Virginia, has a supple straw color paste and a white mould rind with glimpses of pink showing through. The flavor is mild and buttery with a spicy finish and just a hint of mushroom. Meadowcreek Dairy, perched in the misty, cool emerald reaches of the Appalachian Mountains, operates a seasonal Jersey dairy at an elevation of 2,800 feet where the water is pure, the air is bright and clean, and the soils are rich and untainted. A great pairing with Pinot.

Another great Pinot pairing is Vermont Ayr, produced by the Crawford Family Farm in 1 and 4 pound wheels using French cheese vats and slow aging. The edible rind gives an earthy contrast to the creamy sweetness of the interior of the cheese. This cheese is named for the Ayrshire cows from which the milk comes. I enjoyed the information from the website, which talks about “terroir”, a term that’s usually reserved for discussions about wine: “We succeed in revealing the complex flavors of our “terroir”—the land that the animals graze. “

By the way, if you want to do your own wine-cheese pairing party at home, cut fresh baguettes into ½ inch pieces, and purchase quince paste as a tasty spread under the cheese. Make the pairing special by adding marcona almonds! You can use regular almonds of course, but marcona almonds are worth the extra price. Marcona almonds solo are a perfect pairing with sherry, too.

You can find Cowgirl Creamery cheeses at good local wine bars in the Tahoe area, such as Uncorked in Squaw Valley and Tahoe City. Cowgirl Creamery has several retail stores: Pt. Reyes and San Francisco, CA, and Washington DC. You can visit the Cowgirl Creamery cheesemaking facility in Pt. Reyes, and a second creamery in Petaluma, California opened in 2008, where you can take a tour. Or, order on the internet at http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com/, where they offer both individual cheeses as well as a selection as Party-in-a-Box.

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© 2011 Barbara Keck

For more information on dining and the wide range of activities around Lake Tahoe, see the online version of The Tahoe Weekly. This article appeared in my column "It's Grape" in February 2011.

Book in Process: " Pioneers in Wine in the Sierra and Its Foothills".

How To Use Your iPhone to Enhance Your Wine Knowledge: GUEST BLOG

How To Use Your iPhone to Enhance Your Wine Knowledge

Drinking wine and using your mobile phone is rarely a good idea. You might dial an ex-girlfriend and mouth off about why you left her, or drunkenly roam the internet for hours searching for that elusive answer to the debate that you and your friend have been squabbling over and end up with a huge bill at the end of the month. However, with the development of the iPhone, there are now iPhone apps that can help you enhance your knowledge of wine and enjoy the experience of tasting your favourite tipple.

For example, Pocket Wine, ($3.99) is a fantastic new app that encourages you to expand your knowledge of the wine world, whilst simultaneously matching your tastes to specific wines. By listing all of the main Table Wine grape varieties of grapes and blends, Pocket Wine offers you a clear understanding of these wines, allowing you the opportunity to learn a great amount about the world of wine at a fraction of the price of a sommelier course or ten years of drinking in wine bars. The good thing about this app is that it never pushes any wine on you or tries to sell you individual bottles, but rather it matches potential wines to your palate through a series of questions aimed at identifying your preferred tastes in the My Taste section. It also matches and pairs different foods to particular wines and grape varieties, meaning that you will never again have a meal that doesn’t match your wine.

The Wine Enthusiast Guide, ($4.99) is based on the popular wine magazine of the same name, and lists thousands of professional reviews of individual bottles, constantly updated by a panel of experts. As well as being able to search for every wine regarding to grape variety or blend, style, price, variety and region, you can also enjoy the twenty illustrated tutorials that guide you through the art of unlocking the secrets of wine. If you like the lesson, you can follow links to hundreds of pages of web content that will help further your wine knowledge. You’ll never be embarrassed by a snooty waiter in a restaurant ever again!

Now, anybody who has been a tourist or a long-term visitor in the wonderful world of wine is bound to have come across a wine snob. These guys can be pretty unpleasant at the best of times, let alone when they’ve had one too many and they are bubbling with arrogance and disdainful sniffs. However, the iPhone app that shares the same name as these haughty characters provides you with enough ammunition to challenge them when they try to disparage your best efforts in wine-based conversation. Wine Snob, ($1.99) is a particularly sophisticated iPhone app that allows you to track and rate each wine that you try, whilst searching for recommendations, definitions and food pairings. The descriptions of the wines are the apps strong point, separating it from other apps of the same ilk; sometimes its like reading a wine-based novel, giving plenty of vernacular to impress and defeat you snobby opponent.

There are plenty of apps out there for you to collect and select, but these three are an excellent starting point. Above all, the most important thing is that you enjoy your wine, and take pleasure in recommending wines to others; if your iPhone can help you expand your knowledge of wine, then you should utilize this tool and treat your taste buds to the technological advances in the wine world. Now, who said that technology had to be boring?!

Guest author David Harfield blogs at iphoneappcafe.com about iPhone apps, accessories, and also provides tips to get the most out of your iPhone.