Author: Wendy Taylor

Categories
Mini Tastings

Mini-Tasting Results

April 2024 Pinot across California Mini-Tasting Results:

The April Mini-Tasting was held at seven sites throughout the county, with 113 people enjoying 10 wines in a blind tasting. The attendees each contributed a dish, each site voted for their favorite dish and the chef was awarded a bottle of wine as Chef of the Evening.

The wines were served in five blind flights of two wines each and the attendees judged each wine, voted for their favorites and tried to determine the region of California where the grapes were raised. Each of the 10 wines placed in the top three or four at one or more sites and the top two wines did very well at five of the seven sites.

All 10 of the wines finished in the top four at one or more of the sites, with the top two wines finishing in the top four at six of the seven sites. The top three were all California wines, but the fourth and fifth favorites were from Italy and Spain.

The overall winner was Cuvaison Estate’s Cuvaison Pinot Noir from Carneros. It got first place at two sites and second place at three more sites. Second place overall was Black Kite from Kite’s Rest Vineyard in Mendocino. It got first place at three sites and fourth place at two more.  Third overall was Amici Pinot Noir from Amici Cellars in the Russian River Valley.

The three favorite wines across the seven host sites:

Place Wine & Winery YR PRICE DESCRIPTION
1st Cuvaison Estate

Cuvaison

 

Caneros, CA

 

92 points

Wine Enthusiast

 2021 $38.99 Effusive cherry and raspberry aromas are followed by warm, broad strawberry and cinnamon flavors in this full-bodied, smooth and generous wine.
2nd Kite’s Rest Vineyard

 

Black Kite

 

Mendocino, CA

 

94 points

Wine Enthusiast

 2016 $49.99 Good balance and a plethora of juicy, ripe fruit flavors highlight this full-bodied wine.  It has generous black cherry and light baking-spice aromas, plenty of cherry and sour cherry in the flavors and a moderately tannic texture livened by good acidity.
3rd Amici Cellars

 

Russian River Valley, CA

 

93 points

James Suckling

 2021 $39.99 Rich aromas of cranberry, black cherry and baking spice meld with flavors of lively red fruits and hints of cherry cola. This polished Pinot Noir offers silky tannins and precise acidity that add complexity to the long finish.

 

Attendees brought a delicious dish to share and then voted on a Chef of the Evening. The results of the Chef of the Evening at each host site are:

  • Hosts Chris & Hank Bruce:

Pam Carter — Beef Enchiladas

 Hosts Carolyn & Damian Christian:

Mary Ann & Don Mayer — Death by Chocolate

 Hosts Mike Del Medico:

Rich Skoczylas — Paella

  • Host Julie Good:

Jim Kerins — Cherrywood Smoked Salmon

  • Hosts Christy & Robert Hall:

Greg Brett — Neapolitan

 Hosts Steve & Kim Rizzuto:

          George Cravens — Pork Loin with Cherry Chutney

 Hosts Pat & Frank Solis

          Tie –

Eric & Carmen Kaines — Filipino Pork Adobo

Jim Burk — Kumquat Cheesecake

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to the hosts!

—George Cravens, OCWS Director

Categories
Members Corner

OCWS Scholarship Program: Spotlight on Orange Coast College

OCWS funds scholarships for eight California Colleges and Universities, including the culinary arts program at Orange Coast College. OCC is one of the few programs not focused on enology or viticulture but on culinary arts.  Students at OCC can obtain an associate’s degree in culinary arts and various occupational certificates. The. school typical has several hundred students enrolled in the various programs. Just recently, OCC added a wine component to their culinary arts program.

In May, I had the good fortune to attend the 66th annual OCC Honors Night Scholarship Ceremony and award OCWS scholarships to seven very deserving students. Over 300 scholarships were given to nearly 500 students.  The recipients for the OCWS Scholarships at OCC are:

  • Khoa M. To
  • Man-in Chao
  • Jasmine Tre Dagley
  • Morgan E. Downie
  • Blanca Michelle Granados
  • Shannon Michelle White
  • Madeline X. Ngyuen

Next month we will be highlighting another one of the colleges/universities supported by the OCWS scholarship fund. Just a friendly reminder there is always time to donate to the OCWS Scholarship Fund for 2024.  There are two ways to donate:

  1. Mail a check – Make your check out to OCWS and mail it to the OCWS office at OCWS O. Box 11059  Costa Mesa, CA 92627  Attn: Scholarship Fund  A donation letter will be sent to you.
  2. Donate Online – Logon to your account at ocws.org and go to the scholarship donation page: ocws.org/product/scholarship-donations/ You can make your donation online and print a receipt for tax purposes at the same time.

—Damian J. Christian, Scholarship Chair

 

Categories
Members Corner

Wine Wisdom

The ABC’s of Chardonnay

1. In what decade did Chardonnay suffer criticism leading to the ABC acronym, Anything But Chardonnay?

A.  1970s

B.  1980s

C.  1990s

2. Chardonnay has suffered criticism as a consequence of winemakers:

A.  using new oak and malolactic fermentation (MLF)

B.  using charred barrels for aging

C.  using malolactic fermentation (MLF)

3. The use of malolactic fermentation (MLF) to produce Chardonnay results in:

A.  A creamy flavor

B.  A buttery flavor

C.  Both a creamy and buttery flavor

4. Chardonnay wine can be a wine for all white wine lovers because this ubiquitous grape can provide any style of wine from dry still wines to sparkling wines to sweet late harvest wines.

A.  True

B.  False

5. The Chardonnay grape is a vitis vinifera cross of Pinot Noir and a Croatian grape that was brought to France by the Romans. The two grapes were planted in close proximity and subsequently interbred. What was the name of this Croatian grape?

A.  Gouais Blanc

B.  Glera

C.  Garganega

6. Grown in France, where did Chardonnay originate?

A. Chablis

B. Burgundy

C. Champagne

7.  A favorite with winemakers, the Chardonnay grape is easily cultivated, adapts to different environments and takes on the characteristics of its vineyard, making the grape easy to demonstrate and express the terroir and the winemaker’s style.

A. True

B. False

8. One of the best-known uses of the Chardonnay grape is:

A. Serving it to a first date

B. Using it in the making of sparkling wine

C. Eating it to provide digestive fiber

9.  In Italy, Chardonnay is used to make a sparkling wine called Franciacorta in which Italian Region?

A. Tuscany

B. Lombardy

C. Veneto

10.  In Italy, the Chardonnay grape is allowed in the making of Prosecco in what region?

A. Tuscany

B. Veneto

C. Umbria

11.  Chardonnay’s acidity accompanied by its other moderate, neutral characteristics seem to make it a favorite for sparkling wines. In Spain, Chardonnay is allowed to be blended in:

A. Roja

B. Cava

C. Sherry

Chardonnay—it’s dry, it’s sweet, it’s oaky, it’s buttery, it’s fruity, it’s complex, it’s acidic, it’s minerally, it’s sparkling. It gives a whole new meaning to anything but Chardonnay because it is anything BUT Chardonnay! So, ignore the alphabet, if you have the wine, enjoy it! Cheers!

Answers: 1. C, 2. A, 3. C, 4. A, 5. A, 6. B, 7. A, 8. B, 9. B. 10. B, 11. B

—CL Keedy, Linda Flemins and the Wine Education Committee

Categories
Courtyard

Join the 2024 OC Fair Courtyard Set-Up Crew

Every year, one of the BEST locations to meet and greet at the OC Fair is at The Courtyard, an attractive place to enjoy award winning wines while generating the largest source of OCWS scholarship funds. Our crew helps make sure the OCWS passes various OC Fair & Event Center requirements and other inspections the […]

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Categories
Commercial Competition

Book Now for 2024 Commercial Wine Competition

If you plan on staying at the Costa Mesa Hilton Hotel for the weekend of the Commercial Wine Competition, please make reservations no later than May 17. The OCWS has booked a block of rooms for its members at a discounted rate and this rate is guaranteed only until that date or until sold out. […]

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Categories
Commercial Competition Members Corner

Competitive Spirits

Who could have imagined that a small band of 16 like-minded, wine-loving people getting together 48 years ago could grow the largest competition of California-only wines in the world?

From that handful of passionate people and one small table at the very first competition, which had a whopping three varietals to be judged with a total of 49 entries, the OCWS continues to elevate the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition, which now finds entries of upwards of 2,500 California commercial wines each year being judged by a distinguished panel of nearly 100 renowned California winemakers and winery principals.

One can only further envision just what it takes to successfully pull off the competition year after year. The event is overseen by the Commercial Competition Committee, which is comprised of a number of people from the chairperson, who heads the rest of the committee, to the cataloging coordinators who catalog and handle upwards of 15,000 bottles of wine. There is the director of judges, who coordinates all the judges and their activities and the facilities coordinator, who handles the hotel arrangements, room bookings and meals. There is also a judges’ liaison, the judges’ scoring coordinator, the data entry supervisory and the volunteer coordinators and the bagging, moving and sorting coordinators.

And, lest we forget, the more than 300 OCWS volunteers working each year doing all other jobs to make the competition more successful than the one before.

The competition itself isn’t, technically, complete until the results have been tabulated, medals awarded, remaining duplicate bottles sorted and photographed for publication and posted on our results website, winecompetition.com, and put to bed for further sorting for various purposes, such as pouring to the public at The Courtyard at the OC Fair and the annual Wine Auction.  And then, after just two months of taking deep breaths after the competition is completed, it all begins again in preparation for the next one.

If I have not provided enough information yet to have your heads spinning, I could continue to bore you with more statistics, positions and lists of people who, out of their passion for the OCWS, and the goodness of their hearts, take on all manners of positions.

This is truly just the beginning wherein you hear about volunteers running this organization. It is the hearts and minds of the OCWS members who bring everything we do to fruition in an amazingly competent and successful way.  All that can truly be said at the end of the day is that there is no organization, nor group of dedicated volunteers, anywhere that can rival the Orange County Wine Society!

Fran Gitsham, Chair, 2024 Commercial Wine Competition

Categories
Members Corner

President’s Message

Heart from pouring red wine in goblet isolated on white

This month I am reminded about how much we have to celebrate as an organization.  With over 1,000 members, we are one of the largest groups of wine enthusiasts in the nation.  And with 48 years of history, we have seen so much change and growth in the wine industry, especially in California.

In 1976, the same year OCWS was founded, the Judgement of Paris catapulted California into the vino stratosphere with a majority of the winners coming from familiar California wineries, rather than their French counterparts. You might recognize some of the wineries: Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Ridge Vineyards, Heitz Wine Cellars, Clos Du Val Winery, Maycamas Vineyards, Freemark Abbey Winery, Chateau Montelena, Chalone Vineyard, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Veedercrest Vineyards and David Bruce Winery. May 24 is the anniversary of that famous showdown.

California has a long tradition of exceptional wine-making that is reflected in the winners at the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition, which our organization has hosted for 48 years. The founding of our organization coincides with an explosion of wineries throughout the state.  Starting with only a few categories in the 1970s, the competition has grown to dozens of new wine categories for both varietals and blends and thousands of entries.

Wine is a very universal language and is almost always associated with celebration. Here are a few dates that you can use this month to celebrate:

  • May 3 – International Sauvignon Blanc Day
  • May 9 – World Moscato Day
  • May 23 – International Chardonnay Day
  • May 25 – National Wine Day

But honestly, do we really need a designated day to celebrate?  We, as an organization, celebrate throughout the year with dozens of events and activities that pair wine education and fun!

I personally would like to toast many of you who put in hours of volunteering to make this these events and this organization such a huge success. From the board of directors, to committee members and event volunteers, we literally have hundreds of people helping make this organization what it is today. In April alone, we had over 11 events and hundreds of attendees and volunteers …  and we are just moving into our busy season.

If you are new to the organization and haven’t volunteered at one of our events yet, I highly recommend it. Each of our events provides a number of volunteer opportunities that include a whole range of activities, from more sedentary jobs on the computer or with paperwork to very active jobs lifting wine, setting up tables and more. I cannot think of any other organization that provides so many interesting opportunities for everyone to participate at some level.  And we do it all while increasing our knowledge of wine and having a ball. Don’t miss your opportunity to work directly with winemakers at the Commercial and Home Wine Competitions (in June) or with the general public at The Courtyard at the OC Fair (in July and August). If you are interested in helping organize our amazing events, committees are often looking for new members to train.

So whatever day you wish to celebrate this May, raise a glass to the remarkable wines of California and the accomplishments of this incredible organization. We are living proof that you can pair knowledge and fun any day. Cheers to you all!

By Carolyn Christian

Categories
Recipes

Chef of the Evening

Based on his last name, you can tell Chris Ouellette is French. This recipe comes from a long line of Ouellettes back in New Hampshire and even Quebec (yes, the French part). It was a favorite of Chris’ dad. Feel free to use your favorite Burgundy, though Chris prefers a Petite Sirah.

“My dad says, ‘This is better made a day before, refrigerated and reheated gently,’” Chris says. “I feel it’s mandatory.”

If necessary, add more wine to thin the sauce while reheating or, if you prefer it thicker, that is what the potato starch is for. Finally, this is cooking (not baking). All measurements are merely guidelines. Chris advises: try it, tweak it and make it your own.

Boeuf Bourguignon
Ingredients
3 lbs. boneless beef chuck
1 stick butter or margarine
3 Tbsp. brandy
1 medium onion (yellow or red)
chopped to 1/2” pieces
2 lbs. fresh crimini mushrooms
chopped in quarters
2 1/2 Tbsp. potato starch
1/8 tsp. pepper
3 cubes beef boullion
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
2 cups Burgundy
1 cup dry sherry
1 cup ruby port
1 10 1/2 oz. can condensed beef
broth, undiluted
3 bay leaves
Parsley

Instructions
WIPE beef with paper towels.
With sharp knife, cut into 1” cubes.
SLOWLY heat 5-quart dutch oven
with light fitting lid.
ADD in 2 Tbsp. of hot butter. Over
high heat, brown beef well all
over—do about 1/4 at a time, enough
to cover bottom of dutch oven so all
cubes cook evenly.
TURN beef with tongs. Lift out as
it browns. Continue until all of the
beef is browned, adding more butter
as needed (takes about 1/2 hour).
Once done, return all cubes to the
dutch oven.
HEAT 2 Tbsp. brandy in small
saucepan just until vapor rises.
IGNITE and pour over beef (this
part is optional and I usually skip
after nearly burning my house down
… twice). As the flame dies (if
you’re brave enough to have ignited
it), remove beef cubes to another pan
and set aside.
ADD 2 Tbsp. butter to dutch oven at
medium heat.
ADD onions and cook over medium
heat, covered, until onions brown
slightly, stirring occasionally.
ADD mushrooms and cook, again
stirring occasionally, roughly 5 minutes
or enough time to fully sweat
the onion/mushroom combo.
REMOVE onions and mushrooms
with slotted spoon to a separate
bowl, leaving the “juice” behind.
REMOVE dutch oven from heat.
STIR in tomato paste, red wine,
sherry, port, boullion cubes
and beef broth using a wooden
spoon or whisk.
PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees.
BRING wine mixture in dutch oven
just to boiling then lower heat to
low. While stirring, add beef, pepper,
bay leaf, onions, mushrooms and
remaining brandy; mix well.
PLACE a large sheet of waxed paper
over top of dutch oven; place lid
on top of paper.
BAKE covered, stirring occasionally.
COOK 2 hours or until beef is tender
when pierced with a fork.
SPRINKLE with parsley and let
cool a while (usually an hour for me)
then put in the refrigerator overnight.

Categories
Scholarship News

OCWS Scholarship Program: Spotlight: Napa Valley College

OCWS funds scholarships for eight California colleges and universities including Napa Valley College. Napa Valley College has two locations, one in Napa and a second upper campus in St. Helena. As a community college, they offer the standard two-year associates degree and a one-year wine production certificate. Their Viticulture and Winery Technology (VWT) program is one of the largest in the country with an annual enrollment of 800 to 1,000 students, a five-acre vineyard and a commercial winery.

The certificates in viticulture and winery technology consist of production-oriented courses in viticulture and winemaking. Many of the students at Napa Valley actively work in the wine industry while taking classes. This month students in the wine program are getting ready to bottle their 2023 Sauvignon Blanc. All the wine produced is made from grapes grown on their five-acre vineyard located on the Napa Valley College campus. They produce between 500 and 700 cases annually. You can even join their wine club featuring student-made wines.

Next month we will be highlighting another one of the colleges/universities supported by the OCWS scholarship fund. Just a friendly reminder there is always time to donate to the OCWS Scholarship Fund for 2024.  There are two ways to donate:

  1. Mail a check – Make your check out to OCWS and mail it to the OCWS office at OCWS O. Box 11059  Costa Mesa, CA 92627  Attn: Scholarship Fund  A donation letter will be sent to you.
  2. Donate Online – Logon to your account at ocws.org and go to the scholarship donation page: ocws.org/product/scholarship-donations/

You can make your donation online and print a receipt for tax purposes at the same time.

—Damian Christian, Scholarship Chair

Categories
Education Wine Education

When and Where Did it all Begin?

Before Thomas Jefferson planted 24 European varietals at Monticello in 1807; before the first American commercial winery was founded by John Dufour in Kentucky in 1799; and before the American Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the Franciscan Friars in 1769 planted California’s first vitis vinifera grapes at Mission San Diego de Alcala.

And in 1771 they planted the same varietal that was to become known as the Mission grape at Mission San Gabriel Arcangel. Centuries later the Mission grape, through DNA testing, would be identified as Listan Prieto, a red grape from the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha. But that’s a topic for another time.

By the mid 1860s, as the Civil War ended and German, Italian and French immigrants moved from the East Coast to San Diego, bringing vines and viticulture with them. The San Diego area wine industry grew for the next 50-plus years. However, a combination of events, which included the great flood of January 1916 caused by two weeks of rain from an El Nino storm, prohibition and Word War II, overwhelmed San Diego’s wine industry.

The recovery of San Diego’s wine production was marked by the creation of the San Pasqual Valley AVA in September 1981 as the fourth AVA established after Augusta, Missouri (June 1980), Napa Valley (January 1981) and Santa Maria Valley (August 1981). The San Pasqual Valley AVA has a total area of 9,000 acres along the banks of the San Dieguito River near Escondido with a Mediterranean climate conducive to growing Grenache, Merlot, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Viognier.

In December 2005, San Diego was approved for a second AVA in Ramona Valley. Surrounding the town of Ramona, this AVA added 89,000 acres to San Diego County’s viticulture lands. And there are now more than 115 wineries in the county. So whenever or wherever it began, if you have the wine enjoy it!

—CL Keedy, Wine Education Committee