For our March Winery Webinar with Cannonball Wine Company, winemaker Ondine Chattan invited every member to participate in a “Scavenger Hunt.” Ondine would award the winner of this “hunt” with a special gift. A series of questions were posed about her winery, with the answers to be learned from Ondine’s presentation or information to be researched and submitted online. Several members participated and found the answers about the Cannonball and Angels & Cowboys wine brands and related winery questions. Attendees also heard about the High Dive Napa Valley collaboration between Share A Splash and the Astrolabe brand from New Zealand, two exciting additions to the wine company.
One member’s knowledge came out above the rest—Kevin Coy. Congratulations, Kevin, we are confident that your special gift is on its way.
– Leslie Hodowanec, Director – Rich Skoczylas, Director & Winery Program Chair
The Comfort Food and Wine Pairings seminar presented on February 21st by Ed Reyes and Sara Yeoman had a lot of us salivating and ready to comfort eat our way through several days to come. For me personally, the highlight was watching and listening to Ed describe his Chicken Pot Pie recipe. By the look on his face and the tone of his voice, I knew this one was a winner, as it’s obvious that this dish is among his favorites and most soothing. For anyone who is fortunate enough to know Ed, you know he’s not only one of the nicest people in the world, but an accomplished home winemaker and cook extraordinaire. He has the innate sense of taste and smell that makes the world’s finest chefs stand out above the rest.
Ed Reyes
Many of us have had the pleasure of attending seminars presented by Ed on various wines and wine pairings. His understanding and explanations of what wines pair with what foods never ceases to amaze me.
For this recipe, Ed paired a Sauvignon Blanc for the herbal notes of the wine as the recipe is creamy and rich and the SB cuts through the richness. Ed further suggests a Pinot Noir, for red lovers, for the exact same reason. I’d wager that a lot of us will be trying this recipe soon. Thanks, Ed, for your willingness to always share your knowledge, love and enthusiasm for food and wine.
Chicken Pot Pie ala Ed Reyes
Makes 6 servings
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large shallot, finely chopped
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
½ cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio)
½ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
3 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 large sprig fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 medium carrots (about 6 oz), peeled, chopped
1 medium russet potato, peeled, cut into ½-inch dice
4 cups coarsely chopped or shredded rotisserie chicken meat (from 1 small rotisserie chicken)
1 ½ cups frozen pearl onions, thawed
1 ½ cups frozen peas, thawed
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed in refrigerator
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Preheat oven to 400°. Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add shallot and thyme and cook, stirring often until shallot is translucent, about 3 minutes. Add wine and continue stirring until wine is reduced by half. Add ½ cup flour and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is pale golden, about 5 minutes.
Whisk in broth, ½ cupful at a time, incorporating completely before adding more. Whisk in cream and dry mustard. Season with salt and pepper, add rosemary sprig and bay leaves. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thick enough to coat a spoon, about 3 minutes. Reduce heat as needed to maintain a simmer and add carrots and potatoes. Cook until vegetables are nearly tender, about 5 to 7 minutes.
Remove rosemary sprig and bay leaves. Mix in chicken, pearl onions and peas. Add Worcestershire sauce, taste and adjust salt and pepper, if needed. Transfer mixture to a shallow 2 quart baking dish.
Unfold pastry and gently roll out on a lightly floured work surface just to smooth out creases and, if needed, make it large enough to fit over dish. Drape over baking dish and trim pastry so it is slightly larger than the dish (you want a little overhang). Brush with egg and make 2 or 3 slits in the pastry with a sharp knife.
Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch any filling that may drip over) and bake until puff pastry is golden brown, and filling is bubbling through slits, about 20–30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350° and continue to bake until crust is deep golden and cooked through, 30–35 minutes longer. Let sit 10 minutes before serving.
The OCWS Board of Directors is pleased to announce the 2021 Scholarship Awards to our eight OCWS colleges and universities totaling $5,830.01. Since 1996, the OCWS Scholarship Account has generated $712,511.
We are thankful for the support from our members, and especially the BOD this past year, making sure that our scholarship students, on and off campus, have a reason to celebrate after extreme wildfires and pandemic challenges.
2021 funding is only a fraction of last year mainly because we lost our COVID-cancelled events which generated donations and also membership dues extensions. The Chris Cunningham Endowment gets the Gold as the OCWS did not miss any opportunity for scholarship allocations this special 40th year.
Also, the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Securities Act) from 2020 has been extended with specifics through 2021. The IRS now allows an above the line tax deduction toward charitable 501(c)(3) organizations, including the OCWS, for individuals up to the amount of $300 and $600 for those who file jointly. Please contact your tax professional for advice.
Members may officially make qualifying OCWS scholarship contributions on our website at the following link, https://ocws.org/product/scholarship-donations/ with the option to designate a donation to all or individual colleges of your choice. After your selection and payment, you can print a receipt for your records.
Any amount is appreciated! With the promising gradual re-openings and your continued support, another valuable goal of our organization this year is to encourage additional funding toward our Scholarship Account for 2022.
Cheers to 40 Years of providing OCWS scholarship awards and enjoying each of the many more award-winning college wines!
February has flown by despite most of us still being locked down from the COVID pandemic. The OCWS has been doing their best to keep our social connections by hosting not one, not two, not three, but FOUR different seminar tracks with our Sunday Winter Seminars, our Monday night Varietal Hours, our monthly Friday night Webinars, and the Winemakers’ Group seminars. We have several new and free “zoominars” coming up this month, so be sure to check out the Events page on our OCWS.org website, and the “Save the Date Calendar” at the end of this newsletter.
We also plan to start more of our Wine Education Webinars this month with our certified Sommelier, starting on March 24, Wines of Mexico.
As I mentioned in my last month’s President’s Message, after suspending OCWS membership renewal fees for the past 12 months, we will resume asking for annual membership fees next month. Your renewal will be two years since your last fee, so If you renewed last time on April 1, 2019, we will request you renew on April 1, 2021. If your renewal was May 1, 2019, we will request you renew on May 1, 2021. We appreciate all of you for helping to maintain the Orange County Wine Society during one of the most trying years of our lives.
Update on our 2021 Commercial Wine Competition, Home Wine Competition, and our Courtyard at the OC Fair—the OC Fair & Event Center (OCFEC) is still waiting for finalization of direction from both the State and the Orange County Health Department. We are making preparations for all of these activities, but we haven’t received the final “go-ahead” from the OCFEC. I will keep you all informed as we get updates.
The Los Angeles County Fair has been canceled for 2021, so we hope we do not suffer the same fate.
Hopefully, many of you have received your COVID vaccinations or have plans to do so in the near future. This will be the key to OCWS conducting more activities in conjunction with the OC Fair, and we all want to get back to work. (And by that, I really mean PLAY!)
The Commercial Wine Competition Committee is continuing to move forward with the planning of the 2021 Commercial Wine Competition. It is scheduled for the weekend of June 5-6, 2021. Of course, our volunteers are critical to its success!
We understand there is still uncertainty with the COVID-19 pandemic and we are working with the OC Fair and Event Center Administration, taking the necessary steps to prioritize the safety of all of our members. We want you to know that concern for our volunteers is at the forefront. We are developing plans to adhere to and follow all guidelines, rules and regulations as set forth by the national, state, and local government and health departments. Since we are in the early planning stages for the event, there will be many questions you may have – we only ask that you be flexible, as nothing has been etched in stone at this point in time.
This event offers many opportunities: meet the winemakers and winery principals, increase your wine knowledge, enjoy getting to know your fellow OCWS members, and experience some great California wines. There are many tasks where volunteer help is needed: stewarding, glass washing and drying, verification of scores and computer input. No training is necessary as newer volunteers will be teamed with experienced competition volunteers.
Allvolunteer sign-ups are now done online! The volunteer site identifies bagging nights, stewarding days, and other work tasks with dates and times. In order to qualify for stewarding, you will need to sign up for two additional work parties. We offer bagging, hotel setup, and moving of wine to and from the competition site. In addition, volunteers can elect to work the sorting and medal mailing crews in late June.
An email announcement will be sent late March notifying members when sign-ups begin. Please make sure your email address is up to date in the ocws.org website as we will be using your email to send you confirmations. If you have questions about volunteering, please email us at Robyn@ocws.org. We look forward to your participation in this very important event!
The OCWS is greatly honored to have Ondine Chattan, Head Winemaker of Share a Splash Wine Company’s Cannonball and Angels & Cowboys labels as our winery program presenter on March 12th. We are extremely proud to truly consider Ondine a member of our family, as she is a veteran judge for the OC Fair Commercial […]
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The four weeks prior to writing this column just seemed to get away from me and, to be honest, I didn’t prepare as well as I should have. So, in my haste to write this article, it dawned on me that I have a simple “best of” recipe that is often requested when I attend a gathering. I have made this salad on an exceptionally large scale for up to 200 people at OCWS events with the Cooks Caucus including a few barbecues, the Home Wine Competition and a home wine competition wrap up event, and I have made it as small as a half recipe when dining with just a few friends. It can be easily tailored to serve any number of people. I have shared the recipe with anyone who has asked for it over the years and it is so simple, that if it wasn’t so good, I’d almost be embarrassed to share it with you.
Those of you that know me well know that I am not known for my culinary talents. Although I can cook and bake well from recipes, I do not have that innate sense of what flavors go with what that true chefs have. Although I have a good palate and genuinely appreciate the creations of others, I am merely a cook and, much in the style of Sandra Lee from the original Cooking Network, I create semi-homemade dishes.
This particular salad came from my frugal upbringing in that I just could not allow myself to continue to expend the money on the exorbitant cost of the original salad from a local restaurant (shhhh…..Stonefire Grill) for the quantities that I wanted to serve, so I recreated what I thought was their recipe and, low and behold, it has been a winner ever since. I keep the canned and bottled ingredients on hand at all times and, becoming lazy in my later years, now buy the fresh ingredients already shred, if available.
I hope this finds its way onto your easy, to do list and that you enjoy it with whatever wine sounds good to you at the time.
BBQ CHOPPED SALAD
Shredded lettuce – As much as you like, just pack the lettuce into the bowl as the base
Place equal lines on top of the lettuce in your desired amounts of:
Shredded Red Cabbage
Black Beans (canned, rinsed and drained well)
Corn (canned, rinsed and drained well)
Shredded Carrots
Scallions and Cilantro (diced and mixed together)
Shredded Cheese
Tortilla Chips (crumbled to use as topping)
*BBQ Sauce
*Ranch Dressing
(*Use good name brands, as it does make a difference, serve separately and drizzle equally on the salad on individual portions)
Additional Hints (from years of trial and error):
· A protein such as chicken or thinly sliced beef can be added to serve as a main course
· Serve the crumbled tortilla chip topping on the side, so they don’t get soggy on top of the salad
· Put squeeze containers of dressing and sauce on the table and allow guests to dress the salad to suit their tastes, also the salad doesn’t get soggy by serving on the side
· Play with ingredients to suit your taste (suggest not deleting cilantro/scallions)
· It’s easiest to dig down and serve the salad with tongs
January has sure started off with a “bang,” and not just with New Year’s fireworks! We have a new United States President, and time will tell how this will all play out over the next months and years.
During the past 10 months, the Wine Society has been paying a lot of ongoing expenses, which has tapped into our financial reserves. We understand that since we have not had in-person activities, members have not had the usual events that our membership offers. Last March, the Board of Directors chose to suspend membership renewal fees starting April 1, 2020, and as a result, we have retained all of our members. The Board has now decided that after 12 months, we will resume requesting renewal fees starting April 1, 2021. If your renewal was April 1, 2020, we will request you renew on April 1, 2021. If your renewal was June 1, 2020, we will request you renew on June 1, 2021.
The Wine Society continues to have our social events virtually since we are still under pandemic restrictions. We know that several of our OCWS members have contracted COVID-19, and we wish them all fast and complete recoveries.
We have several Sunday sessions planned, which are always entertaining and well attended. In January, we added new events, our “Varietal Hours,” which are conducted as Zoom meetings (as opposed to Zoom webinars), allow us to see everyone on the screen. Our first two Varietal Hours were on January 11 and January 18 and were well received by everyone. We can all use more social interaction in these trying times, and we hope to see a lot more of you in the coming weeks!
We are still making preparations to conduct our Commercial Wine Competition and Home Wine Competition in June, pending opening up our environments as we approach these events. The Orange County Fair & Event Center (OCFEC) is making their plans for the 2021 OC Fair, and we plan to be fully involved, so keep the dates open. I will keep you informed as we hear more information from the State and the OCFEC for any updates to the situation.
The vaccinations for COVID-19 are now available for many people, with more of us becoming eligible every week. We hope that as more and more people get vaccinated, the OCFEC and the whole world will start opening up, and we can begin to resume our OCWS activities.
In the meantime, I hope everyone stays healthy and safe in these trying times.
Though likely invented decades earlier, the world’s first corkscrew patent was filed in 1795 by English Reverend Samuel Henshall. To make a firmer fit with the cork, he added a flat button of metal to the helix. His corkscrew was so useful that it has been widely utilized for over 100 years.
A person who collects corkscrews is a Helixophile.
A Few Worthy Wine Movies to Consider
Let’s get serious:
A Year in Burgundy (2013) – watch on Amazon Prime
A Year in Champagne (2014) – watch on Amazon Prime
Barolo Boys (2014) – watch on Amazon Prime
Decanted (2016) – watch on Amazon Prime
A little romance with wine:
A Good Year (2006) – watch on Amazon Prime/Hulu
A Walk In the Clouds (1995) – watch on Amazon Prime
Brett met future wife Andrea Henkel in 1993 while working at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley. Brett was not much of a wine drinker back then, but Andrea cured him of that, introducing him to red wine. Andrea’s family had just planted a small vineyard, and after Brett and Andrea were married in 1995, Brett decided to forgo his college studies for Hospitality Management and changed majors to Enology and Viticulture. As he worked his way through college, Brett continued to work as Sommelier and/or manager at several upscale restaurants while attending Fresno State University, earning his degree in Viticulture and Enology in 2003. Upon moving back home to the small gold rush town of Angels Camp, Brett assumed management of the family’s four acre Cherokee Creek Vineyard, which originally grew exclusively Merlot grapes. When a movie with an unmentionable name decimated demand for Merlot grapes, Brett grafted three acres of the vineyard to Roussanne, Viognier, and the specialty of the vineyard, Petite Sirah. These are the grapes that now define the Mineral Wines’ brand! For the first three years of business starting in 2012, wine tasting was offered on the patio overlooking the grounds of the estate. In winter, room was made to taste inside the barn among the barrels. It was a very small operation and has grown to now making about 1,800 cases a year.
About the Winemaker—Brett Keller:
A Unique Philosophy of Winemaking:
Brett’s lovely wife Andrea loved to travel to the Napa Valley to taste the great Cabernets back in the day. She always encouraged Brett to make 3 or 4 wines that were always top quality, in the tradition of Caymus and Silver Oak. Brett’s answer to this was to make no less than a dozen different varieties, all small production between 40 and 150 cases of each. You will hear him say “I did not spend six years in college to only master a few wines—I worked to master every wine I could make!”
Brett’s style of winemaking focuses on two things: First, EVERY wine must taste as the variety should. Therefore each wine has to be made in a way that the varietal character speaks loudly. Barbera should NOT taste like Zinfandel. This means that every wine must be made individually. Yeasts, barrels and different vineyards are selected for each variety according to what it will do for the characters of the wine. Many vintners just do not understand that to give wines their individual identity you cannot make them the same way with the same barrels, yeasts, and cellar treatment.
The second key to the success of Mineral Wines is to make these wines distinctively California in style. California makes arguably the best wines in the world. In Calaveras County, we have a predictably long, dry harvest season which yields fully-ripe grapes with rich fruit flavors that make big, fruit forward wines. The thought is this … to make a great wine memorable it takes time. Yup, the longer you can taste it the better impressed is the wine lover. Big, rich wines that carry varietal character inherent to the grape are our specialty.
Is it Science or Art?
One other thing, it takes an artist to make great wine. An artist has tools to make something beautiful. Whether a painter with their art palette of colors to mix and different media to make a beautiful painting—or a chef with their spices and different techniques to make great food. Science is the language of the art of making wine. Different yeasts, barrels, grapes, clones of grapes, climate change, smoke during harvest, viticulture practices, and too many more tools to mention all contribute to the essence of great wine. These all interact to make something beautiful, to create an experience like no other, when the fruit of the vine is crafted and nurtured to give pleasure in its enjoyment.
Wines:
· 2017 Cabernet Franc $32
· 2016 Meritage $32
· 2016 Merlot $28
Log in to Mineralwines.com and use Promo Code OCWS20 at checkout for 15% off the tasting package above. Brett is also offering discounts as follows: 20% off for 6-11 bottles of current releases and 25% off for a case or more bottles purchased, including “Library” wines. All shipping is half-price. Remember, members will have to sign up on the OCWS website for the Winery Webinar to watch via Zoom. Buying the wines does not automatically sign you up for the webinar. If you have any questions, contact Les@ocws.org.
We have adjusted the content of this presentation to three bottles. A five-bottle blending webinar viewed at multiple households online present certain challenges in judging the winner. Brett is creating a blending video available for future viewing and will be presenting a blending demonstration at a Courtyard Seminar at the OC Fair in the future.
Cheers! Looking forward to seeing all of you online.
