PIDWS = Exercise+Wine+Friendship

What do winemakers do in their free time to release stress besides drinking wine? For me, regular exercise is the best thing for releasing stress and keeping our body strong and healthy at the same time. I always feel great after exercising.

I am fortunate enough to have a group of friends who have been in the same aerobics class with me for several years. Our love for aerobics exercise and staying fit helped create a strong bond. Then, of course, our love for wines and each other's company helped seal the deal! One thing lead to another. One day, one of our classmates suggested that we should get together on a quarter basis to have a wine tasting party so we could enjoy each other's company in a more relaxed environment. What a great idea! Who could have said no to that? Our first wine tasting party was an instant hit! We had so much fun. Lorraine, who loved to entertain and had a perfect house and backyard for entertainment, even had a game night and invited all of our significant others to join. She was like a combo of Julia Child and Martha Stewart in one package! We were treated to a fabulous gourmet cookout and games! I felt like I was in one of those reality cooking/entertainment show. PIDWS was born and there was no turning back. PIDWS stands for Pumping Iron and Drinking Wines naming after our group's love for pumping iron and drinking wines. We have had many get-together's since then and also established our own annual Christmas get-together with a full-blown gourmet wine-food pairing and ornament exchange. It takes efforts and work to make these get-togethers happen as all of us lead such busy lives. But our love for one another keep these PIDWS get-together's going. I love the PIDWS. They have added much joy to my life. Life is short. Enjoy!

Year of the Tiger

Yesterday, we celebrated Tet, the Luna New Year, which fell on Valentine's Day this year! Our house was filled of red roses and red gladiolus flowers. For Valentine's gifts, besides the red roses, I also received a bottle of French champagne and a bottle of Italian Prosecco, along with a new treadmill machine, was it a subtle hint about my expanding waistline, I wondered.

We gathered at my aunt Lily's house in LA for the big family dinner. "Bring your best bottles of wines," was the marching order from Aunt Lily, not second best, but had to be the best, LOL. Since eating good food is the main reason for living in our family, our aunts and uncles created a great and healthy gourmet meal to go with our wines. Although it was an unusual pairing, but the eel and mushroom soup actually tasted great with our 2007 Zinfandel. Our White Zinfandel was an excellent choice with the green papaya and beef salad. There were so much food and so many wonderful and favorite homemade dishes that my taste bud was overworked, but very satisfied. Needless to say, our Red wine was heavenly with the red velvel cake that my cousin bought from her favorite French bakery.

So what should we expect in the Year of the Tiger? In the past, the year of the Tiger was often associated with turbulence and massive changes. I predict that the Year of the Tiger will be a wild year full of unpredictability!

From what I've read so far, well, 2010 is going to be a rather turbulent but exciting year, as Tigers are known to be unpredictable, volatile and dangerous. So be flexible for possible changes in your life and get ready for an exciting and wild rollercoaster ride in 2010! My personal advise is to stock up on good wines from your favorite winemaker for those times when you'd need a good glass of wine to calm your nerves. Cheers!

Good Luck and May the Year of Tiger bring you Love, Happiness and Exciting Adventures!

Pruning Season

This weekend weather could not have been more perfect for pruning our grapevines. Over the years, it has become an event we both dread in some ways and look forward to in others. It is a bit of an endurance test like running a marathon. You start out pruning one vine correctly then multiplying that times a few thousand. Each vine is similar in some aspects and completely different and unique in others. Pruning is a series of very quick decisions which cannot be undone, there is no ‘undo’ button and a mistake may take a few years to correct. Incorrect pruning can result in a severely reduced crop or a high volume crop which lacks many quality characteristics, and every variation in between.

Learning to prune is best started with a text book, then try your hand in the field and as my vineyard mentor John Schwaesdall says “Listen to everyone, then make up your own mind about how to proceed based on your conditions”, I’ve found this to be sound advice.

Pruning has basic principles which are true in all situations; however there are nuances which are specific to your varietal, microclimate, personal preference, wine-making technique and wine style. There are a few absolutes, but not many. Start out by speaking to someone in your area growing the same varietal successfully, this conversation and the peak at the freshly pruned vines is worth gold.

Here's to a Healthy New Year!

People often ask us how we stay fit and not become alcoholic, considering the fact that we are afterall wine drinkers who also love food and love to pair our wines with food.

On the one hand, we are thankful for having good metabolism and a certain amount of will power that helps keep us from over indulging ourselves too much. On the other hand, we believe that the physical aspects of grapes growing, maintaining a vineyard, harvest work, grape processing and winemaking work are plenty to keep us in good shape. Working on wine and pruning the grapevines during this winter season hopefully would help us take off some of the weight gained during the holidays.

Some diets do not allow wines. We would never go on those diets! We believe that having wine with dinner in moderate amount is a healthy habit, unless one has medical conditions that prohibit alcohol consumption.

Here is our final secret for staying fit in 2010: Keep eating wholesome and natural food grown by local farmers and drinking good wine made by your favorite local winemakers from locally grown grapes!

Salut!

Mahogany Mountain wine-food pairing event

Our Winemaker's Dinner at Barona Steakhouse was a huge success. It was sold-out! We had almost double the number of guests than originally planned for the private dining room. The gourmet dinner that Chef Duncan prepared to pair with our wines was excellent. Our wines received rave reviews from the dinner guests. The food was beautifully presented with artistic flair. I was too busy with the guests to take pictures of each course, now I wish I had because each course looked like a piece of art. I am thankful for the pictures that Holly, Michael's sweet and beautiful cousin, took for us while we were busy.

Let me savor one more time the delicious meal that was served. For a muse bouche, we had a salmon mousse in a puff pastry. It was paired well with our white wine and white zinfandel.

Then we had a surf-and-turf carpaccio of Ahi steak with olive tapenade and avocado. We paired it with our 2007 Zinfandel. The Ahi was fresh and delicious. The spiciness and rich fruit flavor from our Zinfandel went down so well with the rare Ahi and the olive tapenade. I will definitely take a bottle of our Zinfandel next time we go to Hawaii.

While I was still savoring the Ahi with our Zinfandel, the mixed green salad with warm St. Andre cheese was served. I still had some white wine left in the other glass and decided to drink with the salad. It was a perfect choice.

Then the server started to pour our 2007 Merlot. I had a sip of the Merlot and remembered why it has repeatedly been a sold-out wine at the Barona Steakhouse. The richness of the Merlot fruit blended beautifully with the natural oak flavor, as a result, the wine is balanced and smooth on the palate. I need to save a few bottles for next year wine competitions. Maybe, it will win some medals.

I hope I can find a similar recipe for the Roasted Buttersquash and Heirloom Apple soup. We all loved it so much. Surprisingly, it paired so well with the white Zinfandel and the Merlot too.

By the time, I finished the soup. I was half-full already. It was time to get up and started the raffles and prizes. The two tables in the main dining room kept winning all of the prizes! Teri and Sherry were two lucky ladies as they celebrated their birthdays together.


We were then served with the main course of our choice. I had the NY steak because I remembered how good the steak was last time we ate at the steakhous. It was perfectly prepared as I had requested: Medium with bright pink in the middle and no running blood. It was divine with our 2007 Syrah and 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon even though we had intended to pair with the 2007 Zinfandel. I told Shari and Mike who live next door to us that our Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon were planted right next to their property line. The rest of the guests loved our 2007 Zinfandel. Two tables each asked to order one bottle extra to have with their dinner. All of the red wines that we featured at the dinner had really nice color, nice leg and their aromas were beautifully released as I inhaled the fruit character of each wine.

Even though the servers were kept busy the whole evening pouring one wine after the other and exchanging wine glasses continually, we only allowed 1-oz pour for each wine and a moderate amount of wine during dinner. So nobody in our party had too much to drink. Everyone tried to keep their head clear for some chance at the slot machines or blackjack tables after dinner.

I had to get a doggie bag for the rest of the steak with the incredible baby potatoes, carrots and winter vegetables because I wanted to save some room for the dessert. The chef had informed me that he would use a bottle of our Port wine to make the grilled fig tart.

For the grand finale, the servers brought out tiny dessert wine glasses. These people really know how to get to my heart: they use the correct glasses for our Port wine! When the dessert plate was presented, I was in heaven. The fig tart was so fresh and with perfect sweetness from the fruit and the Port wine. The fresh fig halves were delicious. The vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce that was drizzled around the fig tart completed a picture of perfection in food artistry. I didn't detect any extra sugar in the tart. Its sweetness was so natural without any hint of added sugar. Do you think the pastry chef would be willing to share the tart recipe if I asked?

The evening flowed like a dream. Before we knew it, it was almost 10 pm! We started at 6 pm. Time flied when we had so much fun. It was simply the best wine-food pairing dinner that we ever participated. We pinched ourselves to make sure it was our OWN winemaker's dinner featuring our very own Mahogany Mountain wines.

I feel extremely humble and grateful for the excellent efforts that the Chef, Sous-chef, pastry chef, the restaurant manager and the three servers have put into the dinner. They represented the finest and the best in their profession. What a team! They made the evening a magical culinary and wine tasting event for all of us. I am so glad we have such a fine-dining place to go to in the back country!


Have a Happy Holidays! May you have a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year surrounded with lots of Love (and good wine!).

Winemaker's Dinner featuring Mahogany Mountain wines!

The winemaker's dinner that we are planning is coming along nicely. The chef finalized his wine-food pairing selections. The menu reads like a culinary dream! The chef is going to make a dessert using our Port wine. I know I will be in heaven when I taste the dessert knowing that our Port wine is one of the ingredients!

We are gratified that our dearest friends, co-workers, fellow winemakers, Ramona's vineyard association members, neighbors and Michael's cousins are all coming! It will be a huge turn-out! A lot more people have RSVP'ed than I had imagined in my wildest dreams. I told the chef and the restaurant's manager at Barona that I have built up their expectation and that everyone was so excited and they could hardly wait until next Friday. The chef calmly assured me that everything would be fine and they would be ready for us. Wow! I am so excited!

Field Trip to Sonoma

In early November, we went to Napa and Northern Sonoma to visit vineyards, buy winemaking supplies/equipment and do wine tasting. We met some winemakers and tasted limited-production wines, new releases and wines that were only available to wine-club members. The wineries that we visited paired their featured wine with just the right food in their cozy barrel rooms. The weather was perfect, sunny and clear. The vineyards were absolutely beautiful displaying vines in magnificent colors in various shades of gold, yellow and red. In Sonoma, Russian River and Alexander Valley, the winemakers and winery staff were especially down-to-earth, friendly and gracious to us when we introduced ourselves as winemakers from San Diego county. They shared with us their hospitality and traded secrets on winemaking techniques. Their wine-food pairing was divine. We loved the lamb meatballs paired with a hearty Russian River Zinfandel. They were very generous in pouring their best wines. We tasted excellent Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet and Zinfandel that were only available directly from the wineries ranging from $70+ to $150 per bottle. We loved the pork sliders paired with the mellow red wine at one winery and a delish slow-cooked pork paired with Pinot Noir and polenta at another winery. At one winery, the winemaker generously gave us a barrel tasting experience of their wines as he shared his thoughts on winemaking techniques. His wife served us an excellent coq-au-vent dish with polenta to pair with their Pinot Noir and then chocolate cake with their port wine. As a foodie, I could go on forever about the wine and food pairing experience. However, the trip was also an educational event. So, with all the will power that we could muster, we dragged ourselves away from tasting rooms, from the wine and food pairing to tour winemaking facilities and check out winemaking equipment. We enjoyed chatting with winemakers, equipment sales people and vineyard managers. I remembered a nice chat with a husband and wife winemaker team as they pressed their estate Zinfandel with the help of their two young two sons. We’ve learned so much how established wineries set up their winery facilities and tasting rooms, equipment that they use, fermentation techniques that they practice, etc.

As we’d plan to convert to solar energy as a main energy source for our winery in the future, we noted that many wineries in Napa and Sonoma have gone green, lots of solar panels everywhere we looked.

It was a very enjoyable fact-finding field trip. I went home with a great sense of humility and compassion for all of the winemakers and winery owners whom we met during those three days because I know how hard they have worked to build their winery business and how much time, efforts and money that they have poured into these wineries. As an old adage has said, “It’d take a big fortune to make a small fortune in winemaking business”. But winemakers like us do it for the love of wine!