Today Jeff and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. On Saturday we’ll be dining at Le Bernardin, but tonight we enjoyed a perfect evening at home together – Jeff cooked a wonderful dinner and we indulged in one of our favorite bottles of wine, Peter Michael Ma Belle-Fille Chardonnay.
We started with some cheese…
…and some meat.
Our favorite cheese accoutrements – honey and fig jam.
And we opened a bottle of 2007 Peter Michael Ma Belle-Fille….
…this wine is delicious, each sip is full of layered flavors.
And for dinner, Jeff made roasted cauliflower…
…corn and chorizo…
…which garnished the salmon with reduced balsamic vinegar and mashed yukon gold potatoes.
A wonderful night with my wonderful husband.
On Saturday of our July 4th weekend, Jeff was inspired to cook up some fantastic food for all of us – 10 people! We decided on grilled pork tenderloin along with Jeff’s roasted corn salad. Thanks to Jeff’s hard work in the outdoor kitchen and a wonderful selection of Pinots from my dad’s cellar, our Pork & Pinot night was a hit!
We started off with some cheese and Chardonnay and a beautiful view of Vineyard 511 -
pretty much how we started every evening!
Aged Gouda…
…and La Tur, one of our favorite cheeses. This creamy goat, sheep, and cow’s milk cheese from Piemonte becomes a runny piece of heaven as it warms up.
Jeff’s Roasted Corn Salad – always a crowd favorite!
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
marinated in mustard, honey, brown sugar, vinegar, and olive oil
Grilled to perfection…caramelized marinade on the outside and moist on the inside.
And the Pinots…
2004 Alfieri San Germano Pinot Noir
2007 Chasseur Freestone Station Pinot Noir
2008 Kesner Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
2007 Michel-Schlumberger Le Fou Pinot Noir
2006 Michel-Schlumberger Le Fou Pinot Noir
All of these Pinots were great, but the Chasseur was our favorite.
I think Pork & Pinot night should become a permanent addition to our July 4th family reunion.
We decided to change things up a bit during our July 4th visit to Napa and head over to Sonoma for the Kendall-Jackson Farm Stand. This event takes place the first Saturday of each month from May to October and boasts “the finest fresh produce straight from our culinary gardens…cooking demonstrations, wine and food pairings, and gardening seminars” – we were really looking forward to this event and were hoping to pick up some great ingredients for dinner that night. Turns out it was pretty disappointing – there wasn’t much wine or food or cheese or fresh produce. And since there wasn’t much to see or do at the Farm Stand, we didn’t feel like waiting around for an hour for the next garden tour to start. Oh well.
So, we grabbed some lunch in Healdsburg and then visited some wineries.
Kendall-Jackson Wine Center and Farm Stand
Nice presentation, but not much produce
Lambert Bridge Winery
Michel-Schlumberger Winery
I enjoyed the La Brume Chardonnay quite a bit, but the reds were dry…really dry.
$100 million…
4,000 acres…
and 20 years in the making…
Last Friday we visited Kenzo Estate, Kenzo Tsujimoto’s newly debuted winery in Napa Valley. You may recognize Tsujimoto as the CEO of Japanese video-game publisher Capcom Co. (Street Fighter and Resident Evil). Tsujimoto has teamed up with winemaker Heidi Barrett (responsible for some of California’s most notable cult wines such as Screaming Eagle), esteemed vineyard manager David Abreu, as well as chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry. In fact, Kenzo Estate wines will be available in the U.S. exclusively at Thomas Keller restaurants.
Upon arrival at the Kenzo Estate tasting room, we were given a glass of the 2008 Asatsuyu, a Bordeaux style Sauvignon Blanc, to taste as we toured the wine caves and fermenting rooms. While I’m not a huge fan of Sauvignon Blanc, I thought this one was quite good, especially on a hot summer day – though I’m not sure it’s worth the $60 price tag.
Along with the usual stainless-steel fermenting tanks, Kenzo Estate also has a room full of experimental concrete vats which have not yet been used.
After the tour, we headed to the patio to continue our tasting and enjoy lunch catered by Thomas Keller’s Bouchon Bakery.
We started with a cheese plate to accompany the wine…
Selection of local farm-fresh cheese with dried fruits, wildflower honey, and candied walnuts
Our overall opinion of the reds – we could tell that the vines were young (not much evidence of the fruit itself) which was offset with really good wine making. We think the vintages will be better in a few years – and we look forward to trying these wines again later.
2006 Ai, Cabernet Sauvignon
2006 Murasaki, Proprietary Red Wine
2006 Rindo, Red Wine
Next came our sandwiches which did not disappoint. Bouchon Bakery is one of my favorite restaurants – Jeff and I can often be seen at the Columbus Circle location for brunch on the weekends. Our only complaints have been the location (basically in a mall) and that they don’t serve chips with the sandwiches – both were remedied at Kenzo Estate…
Location – beautiful vineyard in the hills of Napa Valley
Chips – fried in duck fat (yes, duck fat) – so good!
Tuna Nicoise on Palladin
Tuna salad, Bibb lettuce, red onions, black olive tapenade and aioli
Beef Brisket on Pretzel Brioche
Horseradish and Dijon aioli, red mustard greens, Fontina, house pickles and pickled red onions
And a beautiful view.
Definitely a great way to spend the afternoon.
Yesterday we did a barrel tasting of the 2009 Vineyard 511 cabernet. The wine is aging in 7 French oak barrels at Folio Winemakers Studio. Wine from the core of the vineyard is being aged in 4 new barrels and 1 used barrel – more refined than the wine from the edge of the vineyard, it can stand up to the oak flavor imparted by a new barrel.
So, how is the wine tasting? The core vineyard cabernet is quite good – it has rich blackberry notes and is soft with very subtle tannins. The cabernet from the edge is also nice, though not as soft as the core wine.
Vineyard 511 cabernet aging in French oak.
Our winemaker, Rob Lloyd, siphons out some of the cab for us to taste.
Tasting wine from the vineyard edge stored in barrels once used by Raumbauer.
Jeff and I love visiting Napa Valley – which is why we decided to get married here four years ago this July 22nd. This weekend we are back in Napa for our annual July 4th family reunion. It’s great to spend time with family in this beautiful place – our days consist of some combination of tennis, golf, wine tasting, picnics, barbecuing, and enjoying the lovely and peaceful surroundings of my dad’s house in Calistoga.
Remembering our Wedding Day – July 22nd, 2006
After a long day of travel from NY on Thursday, we enjoyed the scenic view of Vineyard 511 from the house…
We started dinner off with a few appetizers – a steamed artichoke and roasted figs with goat cheese and balsamic glaze.
Then we headed down to the outside kitchen to cook up some steaks and corn on the cob.
We also got to taste the wine from the 2008 harvest of Vineyard 511 in preparation for barrel tasting the 2009 the next day. The grapes from this harvest were sold to another wine-maker with the condition that she bottle a case or so of a single vineyard cabernet from Vineyard 511′s grapes. I thought the 2008 was quite good.
We ended the day by relaxing in front of the fire while enjoying some more time with family.
