Dover Canyon Winery

'Rare, Reserve and Estate' Shipment

As many of you know, in addition to our twice annual wine club selections, we also offer an optional third shipment of 3 bottles chosen from our smallest and most select productions.

The 2009 'Rare, Reserve and Estate' shipment includes 2 bottles of our 2007 Reserve Zinfandel ($38), an exclusive blend of westside Paso vineyards, including our own head-trained, dry-farmed estate fruit.  Production of this special blend was only 200 cases.

This shipment also includes 1 bottle of the 2007 Carmenere ($36) from Colbert Vineyard.  Carmenere is a rare grape in the central coast, but this long-forgotten Bordeaux variety thrives in the mistral climate of San Miguel and produces layered wines with overtones of chocolate and garden herbs.  This gentle giant is also unfined and unfiltered.  Only 50 cases produced.

If you would like to receive this special offering or sign up for the annual RR&E shipments, please let us know!  We'll be happy to fill your order.  Shipping will begin on Wednesday.  Customers in CA, NV and AZ will receive their packages by Golden State Overnight.  All other states by UPS.  FedEx overnight and 2-day delivery are also available for an additional fee.  Please let us know if you wish to request a Weather Hold.

As always, you are welcome to add to your order and save on shipping!

Related article:  Interview with grower Denny Colbert

Love is in the Air

Katie Zelman sent us this photo of Katie swinging barefoot in her wedding dress on the swing under our 100-year-old black walnut.  Although the Zelmans did not get married here, Katie stopped by the day after the ceremony on her way to the beach, where she planned to jump in the surf in her wedding dress.  The wedding photographers were in tow, so Katie climbed on the swing, kicked off her shoes, and love was literally in the air. 

Wedding season approaches and we're receiving many inquiries regarding accomodations.  Dover Canyon does not host weddings, but you can get a comprehensive list of winery and vineyard venues by contacting our local wine alliance at info@pasowine.com.  To make sure your email is handled promptly, title the email "Winery Wedding Venue Request."

Bottling Montage: The 2009 March Bottling

Bottling day is very exciting.  Months and even years of preparation come together in a few short hours—the wines have finished primary and secondary fermentation, they've been racked, tasted and tested, the final blends and single vineyard choices have been made, the wines have been adjusted, lab-tested, and freshened with a little SO2.  Labels have been designed and ordered, glass bottles chosen and ordered, foil capsules chosen and ordered, corks tested for quality and ordered.  Large trucks have been pulling up to deliver our bottling supplies.  The generator needed to run the bottling line has been delivered and parked.  Everything is stacked in rows in the order in which they will need to be pulled.  The wines have been moved into tanks to make delivery to the bottling line fast and easy.  Hoses and equipment have been sanitized, and everything is in readiness. 

The night before our scheduled bottling date, the bottling service delivers the "truck"—the mini-factory that will bottle the wine.   A courageous driver backs the semi and trailer down our steep vineyard road and up to the wine barn.  Early the next morning, the line crew will show up before dawn to run water through the hoses and equipment, sterilize the line with hot water, and prime the fill bowl for the pump which will gently pull the wine into the bottles. 

Dan lifts pallets of glassware onto the back of the truck, delivers labels and foils to the side of the truck when needed, and switches hoses from tank to tank as the line segues from one release to another, in a tightly choreographed dance of attention and timing. 

After the crew leaves, there's cleanup to be done ... picking up the trash, washing the tanks, rinsing and putting away the equipment.  But in the quiet hours after the bottling line leaves, we also get to enjoy the deep satisfaction of opening a fully made wine—a wine that we have attended from conception to delivery.

Related articles:

A Rude Awakening

Bottling Day

Facebook Top 50 — Dover Canyon is #1!

 

For those of you on Facebook, check out the list of Facebook's Top 50 Blogs on Wine.

Yes, Dover Canyon is Number One!!  With a healthy lead on all the other wine blogs at this point in time.   And I'd like to point out that these are not just winery blogs—the list includes wine reviewers, industry insiders, wine-and-food blogs, and wine travel blogs. 

I'm sure the lineup will change, considering the other fine blogs coming up in the list—blogs like Wine Camp, Catavino, Justin Winery, McDuff's Food and Wine Trail, Good Wine Under $20, and Winecast.  Links are available on the list and I encourage you to visit some of them and find new, cutting edge, and thoroughly enjoyable wine reading. 

In the meantime, we'll be trying to keep our lead by writing regularly, posting photos of the winery and vineyard, adding more videos, and looking at life from our own uniquerky perspective.

Thank you for helping us become Number One!!

Charlie's Future

 

At Dover Canyon, we do not normally sell futures.  Futures are a commodity, in this case wine, bought for future acceptance or sold for future delivery.   For some wineries, this provides an advance cash flow, and for the consumer, a discount on the anticipated price of the wine.  However, selling futures on wine also locks the winery into its production plans.  Futures buyers normally select the vintage, variety and even the vineyard that they expect to purchase.  They may decide to buy the wine after tasting it from the barrel, and will expect to receive exactly what they tasted.

We like the artistic freedom of choosing our vineyard designated wines, creating blends, and perhaps holding back some lots for further aging and possible blending, which is why we do not offer a futures program.

Charlie Lepore is a big fan of the Benito Dusi Vineyard Old Vine Zinfandel.  Charlie, like some other Dover Canyon fans, asked for an opportunity to buy futures.  "Charlie, I don't have a program set up for that," I explained.  "We do take pre-orders a few months before release."  Charlie, however, was not to be put off so easily, and after some very creative wrangling on his part, I sent Charlie our first—and only—futures invoice for one case of Dover Canyon Old Vine Zinfandel, Benito Dusi Vineyard, along with a handwritten note of congratulations and a couple of labels signed by winemaker Dan Panico. 

Charlie framed the invoice, notes and labels, and his future hangs prominently on the wall of his office.  So I guess you could say that at any given time, Charlie can point the way to Dover Canyon's future. 

Charlie, you're the best!

 

Mikey and the Farm Cats

It sounds like the name of a band, but it's the name of my very first YouTube video.  I'd like to say that it's a video about vineyard technique, or cleaning barrels, or bottling wine--but it's not.  It's a stupid pet video, and it happened entirely by accident, from start to finish.

Somehow winemaker Dan got snookered into babysitting a 9 week old long-haired chihuahua.  Inexplicable, but there you have it.  So the poor little tyke arrives, unnanounced and unnamed, for a 2-week stay.  "I always wanted a little dog," Dan said.  "That's not a little dog!" I protested.  "That's a ... a... microdog!"  And so his temporary name became "Mikey." 

One day I was trying to snap a picture of Mikey biting the heads off of little daisies, but he was too quick, so I pressed the "video record" button.  At that moment, Mikey decided to playfully attack Nubbins, one of our farm cats.  You'll have to watch the video to see what happens next.

Mikey won us over with his bright curiosity and big heart.  We disposed of his silly collar and Barbie-doll coat when he arrived and informed him that for the next two weeks he would have to be a proper farm dog.  As you can see from the video, he seemed to enjoy life on the farm.

If you have a YouTube account, please give us a rating, drop a comment, and help Mikey become a star!

This was an interesting way to learn the Microsoft Movie Maker software, and some editing skills.  We'll be posting more videoss soon on wine-related projects.  But for now, here's a little additional raw footage I shot later of Rebel Rose playing with Mikey.  Cheers!

WindowWeather.com

We are enjoying some gentle April rains, welcome for several reasons.  As many of you know, our 2008-09 rainfall is about half of what we normally receive, at just 11" as opposed to our average of 22".  Another inch or two of rain will be gratefully accepted in the water banks that underlie our hills, and which supply our wells.  The cool, cloudy days encourage the ground moisture to leach downward into our water aquifers instead of burning it off as evaporation.  And most importantly, this warm, rainy weather means no danger of late killing frosts like the ones we had last year!

Our vineyards have been hand-hoed and are now clear of cover crop and weeds.  We've had to watch the weather closely so that our crew could finish the hoeing before the rain arrived.  Not only is it wet and miserable to work in the rain, but the ground becomes so heavy and wet that it simply isn't efficient to get a crew out there. 

We rely on several sources for weather forecasts, including Weather.com, Weather Underground, NOAA National Weather Service, and our locally-owned weather stations placed in vineyards throughout the AVA.  But our favorite, and most accurate, is what we jokingly call "Window.com"—our own common sense and experience.

Rain predictions on the major sites are frequently inaccurate for our region.  They are based on weather patterns moving into the Sacramento Delta or toward Los Angeles, so as wind currents change, rain will drift to the north or south, or is delayed by several days, or simply doesn't materialize. 

But by learning to "listen with your skin" we can tell by the smell in the air, the feel of moisture and temperature on our skin, and even the appearance of the skies when rain will arrive.  And we can do it with an astonishing degree of precision.  Of course, the easiest prediction of all is when rain arrives in the early morning, and we walk outside with a cup of coffee, look at the sky and say, "Yep, it's raining today."

Spring 2009 Wine Club Selections

 

We are very excited about the 2007 vintage wines!  Our spring releases include three new 2007 zinfandels and one syrah.  We hope you will visit the winery soon to try the new wines.

2007 Old Vine Zinfandel, Benito Dusi Vineyard $27

A velvety black-red color presents familiar Dusi aromas of briar, cane berries on a warm river bank, and freshly turned earth.  Classic zinfandel flavors abound in this selection from Benito Dusi’s 90-year-old vines—blackberries, cranberries, moist river earth, Jonathan apple, peppercorns, and star anise. 

Benito Dusi’s eighty-year-old vineyard is planted entirely to zinfandel, rare for a vineyard of that age.   His vineyard is located on the west side of the Salinas River in the cool and windy Templeton Gap corridor.  The heavy, gnarled, and head-pruned vines are visible from Highway 101, but don’t expect to see a sign.  Benito figures, if the vineyard’s been here for eighty years, who needs a sign?  These grapes were fermented in small open tops and punched down by hand. Dusi’s trademark spice and natural complexity are augmented by sixteen months sur lies in American oak.   “A unique Zin, very Dusi.” – Dover Dan

2007 Tre Noce ( 62% Zinfandel / 38% Syrah)  $36

Aromas of black cherry, plum and pepper lead into deeper flavors of black raspberries, kirsch and licorice in this rich, expressive release from our young, dryfarmed, headpruned vineyard.

Our estate vineyard, Tre Noce, is planted to dryfarmed, headpruned zinfandel and stress-irrigated syrah. The vineyard is planted on steep slopes in the calcareous soils of west Paso Robles, and sustainably farmed by hand.  Both the zinfandel and syrah portions produced just under 2 tons per acre in 2007. The vineyard is named for three English walnut trees that remain in the vineyard from the original El Paso de la Robles rancho plantings.  This wine was aged sur lies for 16 months, in 80% neutral, 20% new oak.

2007 Reserve Zinfandel  $38

A blend of westside zinfandel vineyards, aromas of blackberry, plum, and chocolate mirror the explosively westside zin flavors of plum, blackberry, smoky bacon, tar, and tobacco, followed by a lingering finish of licorice and blackberry, typical of the calcareous soils of west Paso Robles.  There is also a touch of pastry on the finish, due to the sur lies treatment of the wine in neutral oak.  The resulting smooth, gentle tannins and natural complexity are augmented by sixteen months sur lies in neutral American oak.

2007 Reserve Syrah  $32

Jimmy’s Vineyard, in the calcareous soils and wind-kissed evenings of Templeton Gap,  contributes flavors of blueberry, licorice, and bacon, highlighted with nuances of roast beef, and peppercorn.  Starr Ranch, in the rugged, limestone-rich foothills in Paso Robles’ Adelaida Hills range, contributes a floral minerality that balances and brightens the masculine structure of this 2007 syrah selection.  This wine was produced using small open top fermentation with Rhône-style yeast, and aged for sixteen months sur lies in neutral and 20% new French oak.

Visit our website for more information, order forms, and cellaring recommendations.

Grilled Oysters, Sushi and Sashimi

 

In January, we had a sushi party at our house.  The weather was gorgeous and warm and we were joined by an interesting mix of friends--my son Colin and his friends Marin and Cullen prepared the sushi and sashimi.  We were joined by the rest of the winery crew from Four Vines, where Colin works as cellarmaster.  Colin's girlfriend Kelly (a waitress at Villa Creek) brought her family, and my friend Linda Baehr, assistant winemaker at Peachy Canyon also joined the chaos. 

The food theme was sushi, and the dress theme for some inexplicable reason was Western but Marin forgot to tell us that in advance ... so the attire was a weird mix of surfer gear and cowboy getups, very Paso.  I got a lesson in how to properly set a cowboy hat down from retired Paso Robles police chief Dennis Cassidy, who is also an auctioneer for the Paso Robles and ZAP wine auctions.

We started the afternoon with oysters warmed up on the grill and served with your choice of melted butter, roasted pepper pesto, and/or wasabi or hot pepper sauce.  This is a great time of the year for oysters, and Colin picked up 3 dozen huge, firm oysters from Giovanni's in Morro Bay. He also selected some gorgeous blocks of salmon and ahi for the sushi and sashimi.

 

The rice was perfect--Marin prepared three batches of rice before she felt she had the perfect balance of sweet and sour flavor.  Preparing sushi rice is quite a project--the rice must be carefully steamed and then stirred to release moisture from the grains so the rice is sticky but not wet or gummy.  Perfect sushi rice also has a delicate balance of added sugar or sweet mirin wine, and a dollop of rice vinegar.  The food was great, a refreshing break from winter soups and red meat, and the company fabulous. 

Next up ... a cracked crab party.  Maybe some crab from Pier 46 in Templeton, which has saltwater tanks filled with live oysters, prawns, crabs, lobsters and even sea urchins.  They will clean and cook your crabs for free, so all you have to do is melt the butter and pour the viognier. 

Cover Cropping: Naturally Maintaining Soil Health

 

This spring, our early cover crop is an explosion of purple and yellow as mustard and pea vetch enjoy the soft winter rains and early warmth. 

Driving through wine country in the spring, you may see grass and clover growing between the vineyard rows.  Weeds?  Maybe, but more likely what you are seeing is a cover crop.  Many cover crops are annually reseeding grasses or clovers.  These are generally mown 1-3 times throughout the spring and the green thatch is left on the ground as a natural mulch and nutrient base for soil organisms.  In late spring or early summer, the crop is allowed to set some seed, and then the whole crop is plowed under so that it doesn't compete with the vines during the dry summer months.  Some vineyards, particularly those with erosion problems, may use perennial grasses which form a thick sward that holds the soil in place, and also provides traction for farm equipment in wet weather. 

 

At Dover Canyon, an annual cover crop of rye, barley, clover, pea vetch,and mustard is mown several times during the spring. We leave the mowings on the ground as mulch and green manure to improve the tilth, biodiversity, and moisture-retaining properties of the soil. The cover crop is then tilled under in the summer after it has gone to seed, and the ground is neatly ring-rolled. Bare summer earth prevents moisture competition while the grapes are developing, and keeps the vines warmer. A lack of summer vegetation also discourages gophers. The cover crop begins growing again during the fall rains—the new growth prevents erosion, and by spring provides ready habitat and nectar for predator insects, when many insect pests are at their most prolific.

Every spring the composition of our mixed cover crop changes a little, depending on growing conditions for that spring and which plants reseeded most vigorously the previous year.  This spring, our early cover crop is an explosion of purple and yellow as mustard and pea vetch enjoy the soft winter rains and early warmth. 

Mustard is known for its ability to absorb excess salts and return them to soil in organic mineral form.  Clovers and vetch are nitrogen fixers, and add high volumes of nitrogen-rich biomass back into the soil.  The cereal grasses—rye and barley—anchor the soil, are drought tolerant, and provide high quantities of lightweight fiber.  Blossoming plants like the mustard and vetch attract beneficial insects. 

By returning green matter back to the soil each year, we maintain the diversity and health of the soil and its water retaining properties. 

Our taste testers approve.

CQ3: How will California's drought crisis affect you?

Today's customer question is:  How will California's drought crisis affect you?

Pictured below: Lake Nacimiento March 2009

 

As many of you may already know, the Governor of California has declared a state of emergency.  This is the third year that CA has been significantly short of rainfall and snowpack, parching inland grazing land and affecting the state's supply of natural water resources.  University of California economists estimate that the state will lose 40,000 agriculture-related jobs—without water, livestock operations will have to reduce production, many older 'hardwood' plantings (fruit and nut orchards, cane berry crops) will be torn out, and our 'salad bowl' crops like greens, celery, tomatoes—all of which are very dependent on irrigation—will also have to be reduced.  The beef and dairy industries have been particularly hard hit, between a 70% reduction of CA range grass, and the higher fuel costs of 2008—many cattle operations truck their livestock to states or regions where pasture is available, and then to the mid-West for stock sales.  And once a herd has been reduced, it takes years to re-establish. 

The San Joaquin Valley, a warm inland region whose top ag industries include raisin grapes, almonds, dairy and beef, calves for resale, pork, cotton, peaches, and tomatoes has suffered the most and over 20,000 acres of land prevoiusly planted to row crops have gone unplanted or simply abandoned.  Also in 2008, a lawsuit based on the Endangered Species Act prompted a federal judge to order a severe reduction of pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which supplies water to the 450-mile long California aqueduct.  The order reduced water supply to inland and southern California communities, ranches and farms by 75%!   Losses to California farm industries were pegged at $308 million by 2008, and are increasing this year as more and more reductions take place.  The state is losing product, revenue, businesses and jobs along with its water.

Rainy Day Reading: Practical Demonkeeping

Desperate to rid himself of his demons, or in this particular case a people-eating demon named "Catch," Travis O'Hearn arrives in the sleepy coastal town of Pine Cove, looking for the talisman that will finally allow him to finally banish Catch to hell.

The sleepy village of Pine Cove is nestled in a evergreen grove on California's Highway 1.  Just north of a college town called San Junipero, Pine Cove bills itself as the "Gateway to Big Sur" as it is the last food/gas/hospitality stop until at least Gordo.  Its eclectic and very fake Tudor facades decorate a main street filled with kitch, art, sculpture and very little in the way of practical goods.  Shopkeepers may open at 10, or 11, or after lunch, or not at all.

Pop quiz:  What 'real life' central coast town inspired the village of Pine Cove?

When Travis and Catch roll into town, their very presence sets off an epidemic of lust and chaos.  It falls to white-haired Augustus Brine, the cabernet-drinking owner of Brine's Bait, Tackle, and Fine Wines, to assemble his lustful and confused townspeople, control a djinn with an agenda of his own, find the talisman that will send Catch to hell, and rescue the damsel, all while avoiding a very confused but determined undercover narc.

The characters are colorful, yet so well drawn they'll feel like someone you know, and even Catch himself is strangely endearing in spite of his bad habit of eating people.   At just 250 pages, Practical Demonkeeping is a fast and easy read--perfect for a rainy winter weekend.

Wine Berserkers

About two years ago, I discovered the small universe of online wine boards.  These are forums where wine denizens gather to share tasting notes, arrange offline parties, and discuss all manner of wine topics.  For wine professionals, it's a good way to stay informed on customer trends, such as what consumers want in terms of pricing, customer service, shipping, and other issues.  I try to check in on several boards at least once a week, and I generally choose one board on which I participate more frequently.

My favorite wine forum is Wine Berserkers.  It's a friendly, well-moderated board, with a wine subforum, a food subforum, an offline planner section, and a silly section called 'The Asylum' .  What makes Wine Berserkers unique is that there is also a subforum called 'Cellar Rats' created specifically for winemakers, cellar rats, and wine marketing mavens.  Here you can watch and participate in discussions about wine with wine professionals.  There are also unfolding vintage threads in which winemakers from around California's central coast and north coast report in on weather conditions and what's currently happening in the vineyards.  We hope to add some vintage threads from other international and US wine regions as well.

Some other popular wine boards include:

• Wine Lovers

• Wine Library

• Wine Spectator

• Mark Squires' Board

• Chowhound

• eGullet Society of Culinary Arts & Letters

Some boards have a 'real names' policy requesting that you register using your legal name, or a spelling variation of your name.  Other boards allow inventive monikers like 'winemom'.  If you have a favorite wine board haunt and moniker name, please let us know.  I'll be sure to stop by and say hello.

Abalone's Revenge, Revisited: Cayucos Abalone on FoodTV Monday Night!

Our avid readers may remember our article on the abalone farm in Cayucos, California:  Abalone's Revenge.

On Monday night, the Ocean Rose Abalone Farm will be featured in an episode of FoodTv's new series, Will Work for Food.

Brad Buckley, who has managed the ab farm for 20 years, will put series host Adam Gertler to work raising abalone, from harvesting kelp to sorting the mature abalone by size.

Monday February 16
 
Will Work for Food
 
Adam works alongside sustainable mollusk expert, Brad Buckley, as an abalone farmer. From harvesting kelp to sorting out abalone by size, Adam grills off and enjoys this costly seafood delicacy with a new appreciation.
 
Tune In:  Check your local schedule.  Viewing times vary between cable and satellite providers.
 

•       Feb 16, 2009     9:30 ET/6:30 PT
•       Feb 17, 2009     12:30 AM ET/PT
•       Feb 22, 2009     4:30 PM ET/PT

2009 Vintage Begins: The Soft Blessings of Rain

Our fall and early winter vacillated between warm, springlike weather which encouraged the cover crop, and crisp, cold, dry weather which is subsequently hard on the tender cover crop. The dry weather made it easier for workers to cut canes and clear the vineyards in anticipation of pruning, but we really need water. We were glad to hear the soft patter of rain all night. 

It was only half-an-inch, according to our rain gauge, but when added to the 3.5 inches we received earlier in the fall that gives us 4 inches so far on Vineyard Drive.  Still a ways to go to reach our annual average of 22-26 inches, and our rainy season usually ends in mid-April, so we have only two months in which to make up the deficit.

Fortunately (or wisely, as we picked our site precisely for this reason) the soils of the central coast are calcareous, with lots of underlying limestone. Limestone provides superior drainage during rains, and has the unique property of wicking it back up during hot weather. Our zinfandel vineyard is head pruned and dry farmed. That means there is no irrigation suppy at all. And our syrah, which is leggier and thirstier,  needs only a gallon per vine before heat spikes.

We are not too concerned about the vineyard as we have planned and planted for drought cycles. Our farming practices incorporate mulching, composting and the use of cover crops to sustain the health of our soil and conserve water. But we are worried about the house, lawn and garden. (I will change the selection of my garden plantings this year, and probably move the tomato plot down to the creekbed, where the topsoil is deeper and there is a little ground moisture.)

In normal years, our property receives 22-26 inches of rain, which equals over 5 million gallons of water. Our estimated annual usage for our dryfarmed walnut orchard and vineyard, including home use, is less than 400,000 gallons. The remaining 4.5 million gallons fill a seasonal creek and pond, and contribute to our local water table.

2009 Amgen Tour of California

For the first time, Paso Robles will be a featured city in the 2009 Amgen Tour of California.  Scheduled over nine consecutive days from February 14-22, 2009, the race will visit 16 host cities for official stage starts and finishes, with communities along the route getting the chance to see, firsthand, a lineup of some of the most elite, recognizable teams and athletes in the world.   The 2009 race will once again have a world-class field of competitors, including two-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer and seven-time Tour de France Champion Lance Armstrong. 

On Thursday, February 19, 2009 the fifth stage of the race will leave Visalia and follow a challenging route toward Paso Robles.  At more than 130 miles, Stage 5 is the longest stage of the race. A new course for the 2009 Amgen Tour of California, Stage 5 will begin in Visalia. Winding its way back to the coast, the route, which will include two sprints, will pass by vast cattle ranches and farms. The final 30-mile run into Paso Robles will be a fast sprint to the finish.

Justin Winery & Vineyard is sponsoring a coordinated ride, the Wellness Community Central Coast Inaugural Tour of Paso.  A maximum of 100 riders will be allowed to participate.  The course is a 15 mile ride from Justin Vineyards in northwest Paso to the Amgen finish line in downtown Paso Robles, ending slightly before the Amgen race.  Tour participants are invited to a wine and cheese reception after the race, with the possible attendance of Lance Armstrong.  For more details, contact Justin Winery at 805-238-6932 ext. 300.  Entry Form.   The Justin ride also has a Facebook page:  Inaugural JUSTIN Tour of Paso Robles Bike-a-Thon.

Wineries along the race route will be sponsoring Watch Parties, everything from private, invitation only deck affairs to grandstands made of hay bales.   Television, print, radio and internet media will be in attendance.

We hope you will join our entire community in welcoming these athletes to our wine-growing community!

The Season We Call Crush: The Book

For those of you asking if I am working on another cookbook, the answer is, "no, but . . ."

I am working on a couple of book projects in my spare moments.  And one of them is a compilation of essays called The Season We Call Crush.  The manuscript is a collection of essays divided into three parts:  101 Other Uses for a Vineyard (vineyard and viticulture), The Magic of Crush (harvest and winemaking), and ... an as-yet-untitled part on wine enjoyment and evaluation.  I'll also be throwing in a good deal of autobiographical anecdotes, mostly humorous I'm afraid, about learning the wine business, the colorful people we've met, and working in our vineyard and cellar.

Some of the posts are featured here on the Dover Canyon blog.  The finished book will be 90,000-120,000 words.  It's currently about 30% finished.  I'm also puttering along with other writing projects (excerpt coming up), so I write on this one whenever I need a break from fiction or feel inspired to emulate Wendell Berry or E.B. White. 

Accuvin Wine Analysis for the Home Cellar

I recently ordered some Accuvin test strips to play with. These little strips test wine for pH, sugar, acidity, lactic acid, malic acid, and free SO2. They don’t display an exact number, but a color that is matched to a range of measurements. I tested some against wines from our production and they were reliably accurate. They’re designed for the home winemaking market, but I also recommend the pH, residual sugar, and acidity test kits to serious wine aficionados.

The Accuvin tests are fairly expensive. They range from $40 to $49 per 20-unit kit. This means it costs the user $2 to test for RS, $2 for acidity, and $2 for pH. So to test one wine sample for all three measurements costs $6. Still, if you are spending some serious cash on wine acquisitions, they are a useful tool for evaluating wines with an eye to cellar aging.

What is "balance" in a wine? Perhaps it is indefinable, and a point of balance different for each individual. Learning about the relationship between acidity, pH and sugar in a wine helps a serious taster learn exactly which ratios he/she gravitates toward and prefers. A good number of today’s heavily extracted, purple powerhouses have significant sugar (+/- 1.5%) in order to balance the high alcohols. A little sweetness and a high pH will give wines viscosity and softness to buffer the "hot mouthfeel" that would otherwise result from high alcohol. This results in a wine that is inky, seductive, and impressive at a young age and in mass tastings. But for anyone serious about cellaring their wine acquisitions, a cautious review of a wine’s pH and sugar is advisable.

The Economy and Sound Decisions

This year has been a roller coaster for our local economy, which is very dependent on tourism and wine trade. The year started off well, and our March Zinfandel Festival weekend, which coincides with the release of our spring wines, was the largest sales weekend in the ten-year history of our business. Summer foot traffic dropped with the escalating prices of gas, but at the same time we enjoyed a higher percentage of first time visitors to Paso Robles from both northern and southern California. It seems people were adventuring closer to home and staying in the state, rather than driving or flying out of state for their summer vacations. Now gas prices have plummeted again, but news of a recession is tightening wallets.

On the wine discussion boards, where wine geeks and collectors gather, attitudes toward buying triple-digit bottles of Napa cabernet have veered sharply from last winter’s aggrandized boasting over rare and Veblun-priced acquisitions, to cautious consideration of quality-to-price ratios.

What does this mean for you?

A Letter to Santa

I grew up on a Christmas tree farm, and my father was born on Christmas Day, so Christmas has always had an extra-special place in my heart.  This week as I was going through some boxes of photos to make a family scrapbook for my son, I came across a letter I wrote to Santa when I was about eight.

Dear Santa Claus:

I suppose you are very busy this year.  I just want to drop in a friendly letter.  I hope that you are fine.  I am.  Just last year I heard of the poor starving children in Vietnam and India.  I suppose you have too.  It really bothers me.  I looked at one of my school magazines once, and my heart almost broke in two.  There was a picture of a little girl crying.  Her mother and father had deserted her at a railroad station.  She was only a little tyke.  All I'm asking Santa is to give all the children what they need.  Or just a little toy to make them happier.  My little sister is depending on you to bring her a tyke-size kitchen with dish set and plastic food.  I guess she's trying to be a good girl (not trying very hard, though).  My little brother wants an airplane that really flies.  As for myself, I'll just let you pick out what's best for me.

I guess I do believe in Santa, because as I count my blessings this Christmas Eve, I can see that he has given me everything I ever dreamed and wished for.

This Christmas Eve I wish for you a glowing fire, warm hugs and laughter.  And here is a toast to our past, present, and future.  May we each, in our own small way, bring peace and comfort to at least one other in the coming year.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

Tyler Florence's "Classic Clam Chowder"

With rain in the forecast, and Dan gone to Santa Cruz for a few days, I decided to build a roaring fire and make a big pot of hearty clam chowder.  I used FoodTV chef Tyler Florence's Classic Clam Chowder recipe but with a few adds of my own.

First, a couple of dozen littleneck clams went into the pot, along with some Italian parsley and bay leaves from the garden, a whole bulb of garlic, sauteed onions and a slurp of white wine.  When the clams were steamed open, I pulled them out and coarsely chopped them.  Into the broth went  some half and half cream, more diced and sauteed onions, cubed Yukon Gold potatoes, lots of fresh Italian parsley and garlic chives (I love garlic chives), and some sweet oven-roasted corn.

Served with some garlic-Parmesan baguettes and Dover Canyon viognier.

Customer Comments and Reviews

I'd like to share some recent comments from our fans and customers.  Thank you so much!

From Rich Lappo in San Diego:

"Just wanted to pass along some props.  We had our monthly foodie cook-fest Saturday night.  One of the guests this time was a chef-friend that originally trained and worked New Orleans, so he obviously knows his stuff! Among other things, I brought a bottle of the 2005 Tre Noce.  There were several "heavyweight" wines during the evening including a 1999 Brunello di Montalcino,  2000 Chateauneuf du Pape, and a 2000 Barolo.  Our chef friend proclaimed the Tre Noce his wine of the night and praised it effusively.  It WAS really good!  Great combination of black raspberry and pepper with a nice but not overpowering heft to it."

From John Moon in Honolulu:

"Just thought I would tell you that last nite my friend Harry opened a 2003 Dover Hansen's Vineyard cab and it was just fabulous!  Still wonderfully earthy and spicy with a beautiful smoky finish...thank you!"

 

Tom Hill, aka Zorro of Zin, Joins the Pepper Rebellion

Tom Hill, known for his stream-of-consciousness tasting notes, is the newest member of the Pepper Rebellion, the secret society of pepper partisans who celebrate and defend pepper and spice in zinfandel.

Tom, a self-confessed wine geek, is a computational physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, doing numerical neutron transport and large scale code development.  Tom has been tasting wines seriously since 1971, and has been an early and outspoken proponent of Paso Robles wineries.  Other serious passions include competitive sport fencing (foil and epee), biking, cooking. basketball, skiing, backpacking, and mountain climbing. Tom has a grand vision in life of becoming Superman, but has settled for now to just be Clark Kent, a mild-mannered computer jock at LANL! 

Tom has a Los Alamos tasting group of about 60 people, and they recently tasted through a comprehensive line up of Dover Canyon wines.  Tom's notes are posted on the Mark Squires Bulletin Board.

Here's an excerpt:

"DoverCanyonWnry Reserve Zin PasoRobles (15.2%; 16 mo. sur lies/neutral AmOak;
4 brls) 2006: Dark color; very strong blackberry/boysenberry/Zin some Am.oak/toasty/vanilla very spicy/perfumed bit dusty/old vines nose; soft ripe/blackberry/boysenberry/Zin bit earthy
some vanilla/toasty/oak very spicy/perfumed flavor; very long/lingering soft ripe/blackberry/
boysenberry/Zin very spicy bit peppery slight vanilla/toasty/oak some complex finish w/ some
tannins; still needs several yrs; much like the Dusi but a bit more oak, more spice, more
complexity; lovely very spicy Zin w/ no overripe character & very/very spicy. $38.00"

Using the word "spicy" five times to describe one zin? That's an automatic qualification.  Thank you, Tom, and welcome to the Pepper Rebellion!

CQ2: What does it mean to 'filter' or 'fine' a wine?

 

Today's customer question:  What does it mean to 'filter' or 'fine' a wine? 

What is filtering?

Filtration makes a wine brighter and clearer by removing excess sediment and haze. Some wineries may decide not to filter their wines because they feel that the unfiltered wines taste better and have superior mouthfeel. There is no single correct answer; winemakers decide for themselves what is right for their product. Some of our red wines are filtered; some are not. Our wine labels and our website wine profiles indicate when a wine is unfiltered and unfined.

Filtering can also remove microbial problems and bacteria that might multiply in the wine after bottling, causing off aromas or secondary fermentations. Wines containing residual sugar should always be sterile-filtered to prevent fermentation as should any wines containing malic acid—both sugar and malic are high energy food sources for microbes. This means that pretty much all white wines should probably be sterile-filtered before bottling, and sterile-bottled (sterile filtration on the bottling line).

Modern cross-flow filters are extremely gentle and cool, efficient (you can walk away from them while they’re operating and they don’t break down as often) and they are a great choice for "green" and sustainable-model wineries. Unlike the old pad filters, where wine is forced through a filtration medium like a paper pad or a cake of diatomaceous earth, cross-flow filtration moves the wine across a ceramic membrane, where it is essentially "pulled through" as filtered product. There are no used cellulose pads, DE (a hard-shelled algae), or crystalline silica to dispose of.

Tasting Room Bread Recipe: Safflower-Coriander Loaf

We've gotten several requests for our tasting room bread recipe.  People even want to buy loaves from the tasting room!   We provide our fresh-baked loaves strictly as a palate cleanser, but we're happy to share the easy recipe.

We bake our tasting room bread in an upright-style bread machine.  We prefer an upright model to the horizontal pan machines because it consistently produces a more thoroughly mixed, fluffier, and uniform loaf.  The basic recipe is for a large 2 pound loaf of white bread, but we add two secret ingredients:  coriander seed and safflower.  Coriander seed gives the bread cubes a citrusy crunch.  Reddish-orange safflower petals from the thistle-like safflower plant (also known as "poor man's saffron) give the bread a deep yellow color and a subtle tobacco-like aroma.  We find safflower in the bagged displays of Mexican spices at our local grocer.

Here's the recipe, which you may want to adjust depending on your basic bread machine recipe . . .

Food & Wine: Top Regions, Top Red Wines

In the Holiday issue of Food & Wine Magazine, F&W chose just TWO red wines and producers from each of their "favorite" regions—wines and producers that they felt illustrate the best and most interesting red wines from that region.

Their choices for Paso Robles are (drumroll, please!):

Basic Wine Picks

2006 Dover Canyon Winery Cujo Zinfandel ($19): Big, dark, juicy black raspberries.

Benchmark Wine Picks

2005 Turley Wine Cellars Pesenti Vineyard Zinfandel ($38): Mocha and blackberry, with plenty of peppery spice.

Both the Cujo and Pesenti case productions hover around 500-700 cases per year, so both of these zinfandels are discovered by only a few diehard zinfanatics devoted to varietally correct, raspberry-peppercorn zins.  We were pretty amazed to be chosen alongside Turley, as their overall production is much larger than ours, and Turley has national distribution while our tiny production is not enough to satisfy coastal California! 

I was pleased to notice other small productions in their lineup as well, like Paraiso Vineyards pinot noir from Monterey (which resides in my own personal cellar) and Saviah Cellars Syrah from Walla Walla.  A welcome departure from the usual nationally-distributed brands, and I think F&W deserves some kudos for supporting small producers and for helping their readership discover them!

Thank you, Food & Wine!

Porsches and Picnics

Every year on the third weekend of October, the wineries of Paso Robles host a Harvest Wine Tour.  For us, it is a pleasant break from the routines of crush, a chance to get together with friends and customers.  As usual, we fired up the coals and grilled some lamb ribs and duck breasts as appetizers.

We were joined on this warm October weekend by the Porsche Club of Loma Prieta.  It was pretty amazing to watch 22 pretty Porsches all pull up to the winery at one time.  Their full adventure was published in their ezine at http://lpr.pca.org/post/post-next.pdf.  (The HWT weekend coverage starts on page 24.)  They arrived at Dover Canyon around 2 pm and spread their blankets on the lawn for a quick lunch, which made them extremely popular with Rebel Rose.

 

Also in late October, lovely Siobhan, waitress extraordinaire at Hoppe's Bistro, celebrated her birthday at the winery.  They brought a picnic spread of delectable salads, homemade hummus, stuffed figs and other delights.  Dan McCraw, our Friday tasting room host, grilled up the remaining duck breasts and basked in the glory of being the only man at the picnic.  And of course Rebel Rose, far right, employed all her most endearing tricks, but decided she really didn't like hummus or stuffed figs. 

 

Our Goose is Cooked!

For Thanksgiving, we decided to cook a goose.   Dan stuffed the bird with coarse chopped white onion, carrots, celery, whole cloves of garlic, and fresh bay.  The skin was rubbed with grey French sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, then dusted with paprika.

I snapped another picture when the goose was half-done, but failed to get another snap in at dinnertime—it smelled too good and we just served her up, with the roasted vegetables and garlic, and a side of Cranberry Tequila Salsa. 

The grand old bird also gave us goose frittata and later in the week, homemade goose stock, simmered with more mirapoix (onions, celery, carrots), caramelized onions for darker color, garlic, ginger root, asparagus ends and Italian parsley. 

The goose broth then became the base for a hearty meal of French Onion Soup (although I don't know why we call it that when everything in it was grown in America ...) made with caramelized sweet white onions,  topped with a thick slice of our homemade safflower-coriander bread, and melted Mozzarella cheese.  We added a tiny dollop of white truffle oil to the soup before topping with the cheese and broiling it, and another tiny drop to finish. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

The Ins and Outs of Tank Cleaning

The other morning I was cleaning out the last tanks of the season, which involves clambering into the stainless steel tank barefoot by worming through an 18" opening, and then water-blasting and scrubbing the walls, seams, fittings and ceiling of the tank.

 

It's boring but satisfying work. (By the way, that's not me in the photo at left.  This is Linda Baehr, assistant winemaker at Peachy Canyon.)   With a water rifle in hand, one's imagination runs toward Star Wars scenarios, so I was gunning down my enemies with the pressure washer.  And then for some reason, I began thinking about how other winepeeps get in and out of a tank. I had good reason to consider this because while I was cleaning, Dan came by and wanted to ask me something, so he turned the noisy powerwasher off. We had a brief conversation and when he left, I started scrubbing the wet walls with a long-handled brush. When I next picked up the powerwasher, nothing came out but a thin stream.  He'd left without turning the powerwasher back on!

 

This meant I had to sit on my butt in the wet puddle in front of the door (our tanks are slightly tilted toward the doors), grab the triangular strut over the door, slide halfway out, flop into the puddle on my side/elbow, and then twist onto my belly and slither the rest of the way out butt first, flailing blindly for the ground or a stepstool with my frozen bare feet.  Find solid ground.  Turn the PW on. Slither and twist back in and resume cleaning. When it comes to going 'in and out', I guess I am a corkscrew:  in on the belly, twist to the left, grunt-lift butt in, scramble to feet. Reverse to exit.

Other winemakers have more elegant entry/exits ...

 

CQ1: Attack of the Drosophila! Do Fruit Flies Ruin the Taste of Wine?

Welcome to the first in our 'Customer Question' series.  Today's question:  Do fruit flies ruin the taste of wine?

Indeed they do.  And quickly.  If you find a fruit fly in your glass, fish it out or dump the wine immediately.  Aside from the unpleasant prospect of swallowing a bug, the alcohol in the wine softens the fly's body and it releases a nasty-smelling enzyme into the wine.

If you have never recognized the smell of drosophila melanogaster, just pour 2 oz. of wine into a glass, set it out,  and wait for the little buggers to fall in.  While they are drowning, pour another 2 oz. into a fresh glass.  Smell and taste the fresh glass.  Then smell the drosophila glass.  Once you learn to detect that aroma, you will know it anywhere.  I can smell one fly in a bottle of wine, in the dark. 

During harvest, wineries are heavily populated with fruit flies.  Thousands of them will congregate around fermentors, tanks, and equipment.  According to LiveScience (How Fruit Flies Find Your Wine), they can find wine or fermenting juice from half a mile away.   This is one of many reasons that constant hygiene is important in a winery.  The CO2 rising off fermenting must provides a blanket of gas that deters fruit flies from setting foot on fermenting fruit, but few winemakers trust that to last long—as the wine approaches dryness, the fermentation slows, and the blanket of gas decreases.  Our fermentation tanks have custom built covers that fit tightly and can be quickly open and closed.  Macrobins, which wineries use for picking and fermentation, can be ordered with covers, but the covers do not fit tightly at all and are, in our estimation, worthless for keeping drosophila at bay.   Our choice, and one that is popular at many wineries, are simple cotton sheets.  They provide a fly-proof seal, are easy to remove and replace during the interminable thrice-a-day punchdowns, and can easily be cleaned and stored at the end of the season. 

When visiting a winery during harvest, there a couple of things to watch for ...

Return to Wine Blogging

My apologies for the lack of current articles this fall.  It's been a busier harvest than usual.  First, our harvest was even more time and labor-consuming than usual (see post below).  Second, our wine club is close to full capacity and as always, we try to improve our customer service and customization of every order.  I personally 'wrapped and strapped' over 650 wine orders.  I also picked our 2008 syrah harvest myself, which in its own way is a very sad comment on how much crop was left ...

In spite of the long days, I've begun articles that I was unable to finish until now.  Some of these articles are half-written and just need a few more notes or a photo to finish up, so over the next few days and weeks you will see posts showing up frequently, sometimes in batches.  

Also, I have some great ideas for 2009 that I am anxious to implement!  We will soon have a Featured Customer series, customer polls, an adopted vine, instructions on how to make your own aroma kit, and other activities. 

End of 2008 Harvest

The end of the 2008 harvest brought glorious, warm weather which made working outdoors a joy.  Left, a half-ton bin of syrah is dumped into a fermentation tank.  You can see the blue spa covers we had custom built for our tanks—they are great for punchdowns because they are sturdy enough to walk on, easy to fold back for access to the fruit must, and they provide a tight seal around the top of the tank.

Although it was a balmy autumn and the quality of fruit was exceptional, it was a grim vintage for growers.  As we reported last spring, nearly all the California winegrowing communities were hit with killing frosts in April, late enough that most canes had pushed and were exposed to the burning cold.  Many vineyards had to reprune to encourage new growth, or simply cut off the burned growth and wait for more buds to push out. 

A few weeks later, Napa was hit with triple-digit hot, hot, hot temperatures.  Early heat like this shocks the vines because the new growth is still tender and the canes are thin—the plants are growing quickly and somewhat leggy.  While we were sympathizing with our friends in the north, those of us in the central coast were also, selfishly, hoping that this "freezer to fryer" weather pattern would not drift south.  Alas, it did. 

Between the late freezes, searing spring heat, and unforgiving Mojave heat in August, vineyards across much of California suffered crop losses of 30% to 50%, sometimes even more.  According the wine press, what this means is the quality of the remaining crop was very high.  But this is not entirely true. 

Just Desserts: Serving Stickies for the Holidays

Dessert wines - Many people just pour them over high-quality vanilla bean ice cream with fresh berries or shaved dark chocolate atop. But a quality dessert wine is so much more than just a sweet pick-me-up or a syrup for frozen milch. During the holidays you should have a few bottles on hand.  Don't be shy about using them as after-dinner digestifs enjoyed in a tiny glass, as the basis for meat marinades and vinaigrettes, to splash into Spanish cava or champagne for a festive flair, and to accompany holiday desserts.  At the end of a meal, a complex, layered dessert wine is both dessert and digestif, particularly if you serve it with some crisp fruit and mellow cheeses. Some dessert wines, particularly whites, are mellow enough to be served with roasted quail and other savory treats. During the holidays, a good dessert wine makes an instant course for a quickly pulled together dinner, and can even be used as part of the preparation.

Some easy pairings for late harvest and port-style reds:

• Dates stuffed with cream cheese and topped with a raspberry
• Small puff pastry circlets topped with cream fraiche, berries, and shaved chocolate
• Sesame glazed walnuts
• Slices of pear and apple
• Savory cheeses—Gorgonzola, Stilton, Manchego

Quick pairings for white late harvest and dessert wines:

• White chocolate brownies
• Puff pastry cups with fresh peaches, crème fraiche and toasted almonds
• Baklava
• Fruit and cheese quiche
• Tapioca or pudding topped with fruit and crème fraiche

While most people instinctively pair a sweet with a sweet, the oils and sugar in chocolate and dessert dishes coat the palate and subdue the layered flavors of a great dessert wine. When I want the wine to star, I serve nuts, cheese, and savory bites.   

Try basting a quail with a dessert white or red while roasting, and prepare a long-grain rice stuffing with fruits that have been steeped in a cup of the wine—dark fruits for a red dessert wine, white fruits like apricots and blood oranges in white dessert wine. The savory elements of the fowl and rice are a great marriage with dessert wines. Look for dessert wines that are not too rich and pruney—they should have lifted acidity and clearly definable varietal flavors.

A Great Affair: 10 Steps for Easy Entertaining

The key to entertaining is to plan ahead. I have organized wine affairs for almost twenty years—intimate dinners for six, winemaker dinners for fifty, and open house hors d’oeuvres for hundreds. I also love impromptu dinners with family and friends, so I’ve refined my entertaining preparations to the following ten steps, and the most important is number ten—have fun.

1. Do a walkthrough

The first step in pulling off a well-organized affaire, whether it’s a simple dinner with friends or an elaborate wedding, is to do an imaginary walkthrough. Imagine you are the guest. Tick off on your fingers everything you would or would not enjoy as a guest, and plan every detail with your guests’ comfort in mind, from the moment they enter the front door to bidding them good night.

If it’s a mingling affair, set up comfortable centers of interest, and place appetizers in separate areas.

2. Sit in the comfort zone

Once your guests have arrived, will they be comfortable? Warmth, attention, and comfort are guaranteed to make a good impression, whether your event is casual or elegant. If you're seating your guests at a table, actually sit at the table yourself. Wiggle your elbows. Will you have room to sit down or get up without climbing over your neighbor? Will you be able to eat without bumping elbows? Can you talk to other guests without having to dodge tall candles and flower arrangements?

3. Create special touches—quickly and easily

Indulge in a flower arrangement, candles, or pull out some old linens. Look around your own backyard or turn to your local market for inexpensive decorations.

One of my favorite centerpieces is a simple arrangement of 3" clay pots holding variegated ivy, with 2" high candles sprinkled throughout the vines, interspersed with Bosc pears, variegated apples, and walnuts from our orchard.

A few swipes of gold leaf paint across the belly of a Bosc pear transforms it from market produce to art. For a harvest theme, you can swipe gold leaf on apples, Bosc pears, or walnuts; for Christmas mantels, use pomegranates and pine cones.

If you have a garden, put potted herbs in clay pots at each table setting, with the guest’s name written on it in metallic ink. At the end of dinner, pass around the metallic pens and let everyone add their signatures, so your guests can take home a living souvenir of the evening.

Herbs are a beautiful and fragrant way to decorate. Tie napkins with raffia and sprigs of bay and thyme, or surround candles with small sprigs of herbs for a centerpiece, or place tiny sprigs of herbs in ice water or next to teacups.

Harvest Pizza

Homemade pizza is one of our favorite harvest dinners.  We start a batch of fresh dough in the bread machine, frequently peppered with herbs from the garden.  We let it rise while we finish up on the crushpad, and then collect some heirloom tomatoes and baby squash from the garden, and the last few leaves of basil before a frost.  A few vegetables and odds and ends from the crisper, we can assemble a loaded up, homemade pizza that is hot, fresh and quickly prepared. 

Color, flavor, and texture piled high on a cheesy pizza.

• 1 prepared 12" pizza crust
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped or pressed
• 1 teaspoon cornmeal
• 3 roma tomatoes, sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped, pre-cooked ham
• 1/2 cup fresh asparagus tips
• 1/2 cup fresh or grilled mid-season yellow corn
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped mandarin orange bell pepper
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated

Serves 4

In a small bowl, combine the garlic and olive oil. Heat the oven to 425º, with a pizza stone inside.

Brush the pizza crust generously with the garlic-infused olive oil. Sprinkle the pizza stone with cornmeal, lay the pizza crust on top, and bake for 5 minutes, until the crust begins to sizzle.

Remove the crust and brush on the remaining olive oil and garlic. Arrange the tomatoes, ham, asparagus, yellow corn, peppers, and basil over the crust. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over all. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the crust and cheese begin to brown. Remove and allow to cool until cheese is set. Serve immediately.

Gazpacho Cordobes with Chilled Dessert Viognier

Chef and customer Ilya Zarkhin promised to send us this link to a recipe for Gazpacho Cordobes which he paired at home with a chilled Dover Canyon 2001 Dessert Viognier "The Terraces."

Ilya says, "The freshness of cucumbers and tarragon in the soup will couple nicely with the nuttiness and almost sherry-like quality of the aged viognier dessert wine.  Let me know how you like it."

Traditionally, Gazpacho Cordobes is served with a glass of Manzanilla Sherry.  We mixed up our fresh tomatoes and used fresh yellow, red, pink and purple heirlooms; whatever was available in the garden, and substituted one yellow bell pepper for a red.

Unfortunately, it was gone before I got a picture.  Please send us yours!

How to Cook Without a Plan

With the advent of the 2008 harvest, time both expands and compresses—long hours of crush work and not enough time for errands, groceries, and leisurely dinners.

Dan and I have certain basic dishes that we always fall back on during harvest. Risotto, pasta and bruschetta sauces are our diehard favorites.

We love risotto for nights when we need something healthy, satisfying and comforting. Once you’ve made a basic risotto successfully, you will never need to look at a recipe again. The technique is simple and ingredients can be scavenged from the garden or vegetable crisper. We’ve included a basic recipe for risotto, but we also want to share a few simple tips for making risotto the Dover Canyon way.

Risotto

Risotto is an Italian rice dish made by slowly stirring hot chicken, beef, or vegetable stock into rice, generally the small, round arborio rice. The result is a creamy, soul-satisfying glop to which you will add condimenti—vegetables, herbs, and possibly cream or cheese.  Although the dish is amazingly simple, you will want to start with a high quality arborio or carnaroli rice.  Grocer-discount brands of arborio are tasteless and never really soak up the broth (maybe the rice is fossilized) resulting in a dusty, gritty texture.  So a good quality arborio makes all the difference.  We order enough to see us through harvest from A.G. Ferrari Foods.

The Dover Canyon Pantry

During our harvest season, which begins in early September and extends into November, we are hit with a double-whammy—no time and lots of visitors.

Harvest, or crush as it’s referred to in the wine industry, involves long hours. Working sixteen hours a day for ten days straight is not uncommon. If fruit ripens all at once, the hours can be even longer, and the weather can be brutal.  And on some evenings we may have a group of people hanging around at 7 pm--vineyard owners, other winemakers, family and friends--and we'll suddenly realize they all need to be fed.

So maintaining a well-stocked pantry, freezer and fridge is critical to our personal well-being and health, and really handy if we want to do some spontaneous entertaining.

One chilly October night we finished cleaning the press at one o’clock in the morning. Frozen to the bone, exhausted, and hungry, we went home and made an omelette, because it was the only thing we could think of that would be fresh, hot, and ready in ten minutes. We kicked off our boots and fell asleep on our sofas in front of a roaring fire, fully clothed.

Whether you’re a stock broker, a software engineer, or a vineyard owner, we all experience seasons of stress and effort that can be invigorating, but also exhausting. Getting together with friends is a gentle respite from pressure—but who wants to spend that rare free afternoon running around town collecting groceries and supplies, and then preparing an elaborate and time-consuming meal?  A well-stocked pantry makes preparing impromptu dinners much easier. In fact, quite a few of our favorite classic, one-dish meals call for basic ingredients like chicken broth or chopped tomatoes.

Here are some good pantry basics for fresh, quick dishes. If you stock your cupboards with these items, you will always be able to concoct a delicious meal with any simple cut of meat and a handful of vegetables.

Fall Wine Selections Ready for Pickup!

As many of you know, we release mainly zinfandels in the spring, and Rhone-style wines in the fall.  Which means it's time to Rhone up on your wines!  This fall's selection includes a grenache blend, a silky syrah, and another rendition of the Barbarian, a zinfandel-petite sirah blend.

Each of these wines is a production of only 6 barrels.  All three wines were barrel-aged for eighteen months and bottle-aged for six months. For evaluation purposes, we recommend decanting  and leaving the wine open for 1/2 hour to an hour, or splash decanting the wine prior to serving. 

To order, check out Current Releases, and splash open our Order Form.

Weather Update:  We are trying to get orders out as rapidly as possible, but there will be weather holds when temperatures rise.  So far, we have managed to squeak out a few dozen orders to the foggy, cooler coastal communities.  The bulk of our wine shipping will leave in October, when the weather is cooler.  If you have questions about your wine membership, please email us at dovercanyon@tcsn.net. 

Yellow Jackets and the Sting Pain Index

Yellow jackets are a common pest during harvest. They swarm thickly over the bins of arriving fruit, and explore odd crevices in the winery equipment.

Spring through summer, yellow jackets (a species of wasp, not a bee) bring insects, meat and fish to feed larvae in their rapidly growing colony. The larvae in turn give off a sweet nectar that fuels and satisfies the adults. By late summer or early September, the larvae are all grown and the result is about 5,000 hungry adults. Without the larval love juice, an occasional flower nectar or sip of tree sap is no longer enough to fuel their full-flight metabolisms. They are looking for meat and sugar, which is why they are common pests at summer’s end picnics.

Yellow jackets are considered beneficial insects for most of the growing season because they prey on soft-bellied beetles, whiteflies, aphids, and other insects that can plague vineyards.  However, it's estimated that 1% of humans are allergic to yellow jacket venom, and yellow jackets can sting more than once, so exercise caution when visiting wineries during harvest.  Eradicating nests does not solve the problem as yellow jackets can travel a mile or more in search of food sources.  Sometimes they swarm over half tons bins of ripe fruit while the fruit is on the trailer in the vineyard, and they will latch on and ride all the way to winery.

Slow movements prevent annoying and frightening the swarming jacks, and the occasional well-aimed flick gets rid of the most curious. This season, however, the wasps seem to be arriving earlier, and they are voracious and insistent. Today one landed on the bridge of my sunglasses, while both hands were busy, natch. We’ve seen swollen lips, ears, faces, and fingers from the angry stings of yellow jackets. Once, a jack was hiding inside the handle of the crushpad pallet-jack and when I squeezed the handle to pump it up I got stung. They also hide under the lever of the hose sprayer, under tank handles, and under the forklift pedals.

On the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a yellow jacket sting is a respectable 2.0:  "Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. ImagineW. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue. "

2008: The 'Limited Vintage' Syrah

Our 2008 vintage began last spring with killing frosts. Two weeks later, extreme heat waves.

The first reports of killing weather trickled out of Napa and Sonoma, where many vineyards lost over 30% of their spring growth and potential crop. Ho, we thought, at least we’re safe. But two weeks later, Paso was also visited by extreme cold, with a heat wave to follow. Although the damage in Paso Robles was not as widespread as to the north, many crops were affected by the frost. Our syrah crop was reduced by about 30%—and that is just the start of this season’s saga.

If spring weather is cool, an occasional frost does very little damage, because fewer fruitful buds have developed. But in a spring with fluctuating warm and freezing weather, more fruitful buds and canes have already started their spring growth and will be burned off by freezing temperatures. Some varieties are picky about where they will push fruitful canes out. Zinfandel is not picky and will push fruitful canes out of basal buds and even overlooked wood from the last pruning.

May followed with heat waves in the 90’s to low 100’s. While a May spike is not unheard of, heat waves continued into June, which is very unusual. Early waves of heat affect berry development—first, the heat may cause the flowers to drop off before the berries are fertilized, resulting in half-fertilized clusters; and secondly it impacts the budding plant’s health and the amount of sugar in the vine for developing berries, resulting in very small berries. In the early season, the vine is pushing outward and it needs a steady supply of moisture and nutrients in order to provide carbohydrates for new shoots, leaves, flowers and berries. By the time August heat arrives the plant is well established and accustomed to steadily warming temperatures. An awkward spring, with vascillating cool and hot temperatures, encourages rapid growth and then cuts off the carb supply to support it. This may result in leaves drying off early and underdeveloped clusters and berries. Our headpruned zinfandel has less leaf mass, shorter canes and shoots, and it’s "hut" style leaf canopy shades the roots and protects much of the vine from hot winds and transpiration loss. The syrah, which is leggier and more vigorous, was more affected by the swings in temperature.

Recent Mentions

Wine with Asian Food: New Frontiers in Taste

This gorgeous hardbound book by Patricia Guy and Edwin Soon suggests Dover Canyon sangiovese among the US wines to be paired with rogan josh, an Indian lamb casserole (page 70).  A wine's fruit, says the authors, should "enfold the spices" which in this recipe include saffron, chilies, ginger, cloves and cardamom. 

The recipes are sorted into five chapters:  fresh and herbal, savory and rich (that's us), mildly spicy or light-smoky, spicy and smoky, fiery and sweet.  There are also chapters on 'Asian finger food for wine tasting' and pairing wine with Asian food in restaurants.   Wines are sorted into categories for quick mix and match shopping by style over variety.  Each recipe has a sidebar with Old World, New World, and Alternative wine recommendations.

Full color, full page photos illustrate how colorful and succulent a single dish can be. 

What's Stopping You?  Shatter the 9 Most Common Myths Keeping You from Starting Your Own Business

Author Bruce Ballinger—an associate professor at the College of Business Management in Orlando, FL—sent us this note with a copy of his just-published book: "The success of your blog, which I read occasionally, is a remarkable story."  In the chapter on "Getting Noticed", our winery is mentioned on pages 151-152, right there at the start of the section on blogging as a way to bring attention to a small business and to engage its customer base. 

It's a well-researched book, with plenty of anecdotes and lessons from established businesses and industries, as well as stories of entrepreneurs who made the leap from other careers or studies.  The "myth-busting" chapters have lessons for all of us, newly launched or not, on risk management, budgeting, the value (or not) of advertising, using  new ideas, and growing your business.

Los Gatos Mercury News

Writer Laura Ness covers the Paso Robles wine scene, and says, "Make sure you get to Dover Canyon Winery . . . here, winemaker Dan Panico and partner Mary Baker make some of the finest hand-crafted wines in Paso, from their unctuous viognier to the robust and jammy Cujo Zinfandel, plus outstanding old vine zins and a zin-syrah estate blend."

Are You My Friend? Find us on Facebook!

We now have a profile on Facebook. 

See our mutual friends, check the latest Dover Canyon twitter, get updates on current activities at Cellar Rats, and send us a wine toast or virtual garden plant.

I have also posted "TooDooz" project deadlines for the two books I am currently working on.  You can ask questions about my books-in-progress or just check up on me to see if I am meeting my self-imposed writing deadlines.

August Pasta Salad and Old Vine Zin

And not just any pasta salad.  Customer Cheryl Dean enjoyed her husband's creative pasta salad with a bottle of Dover Canyon 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel.

On her blog, Wine, Food and Photographs, Cheryl reports:

Sorry, no pics of the pasta! I just forgot! And, we ate it so fast, it was GONE in no time! Hubby made a great pasta salad last night: sliced up radishes, cucumbers, red onions, added small tomatoes and GIANT black olives. Marinated it all in an Italian dressing, then added a sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese and pine nuts and VOILA! Served with hot pita bread. YUM, YUM! Oh, and some 2006 Dover Canyon old vine Zinfandel! WOW! Here's a pic of the Dover zin!~Wonderful!

This crunchy, summery pasta salad sounds like just the ticket for our warm August evenings.

The Tannin Factor

Wine is such a mysterious beverage. We sniff it, quaff it, swizzle it, and then come up with all these wild descriptors: cassis, meadow, leather, mushroom. Where do all these elusive aromas and flavors come from? Partly from the grape, partly from aging in oak, (partly from our imaginations) and partly from tannin.

Tannins are a group of chemicals that occur in the bark of many trees, cinnamon is an example, and in fruits, including grapes. Tannins are also present in black tea, and cause the astringent, drying effect that you experience after several cups of strong tea. You'll also notice a dry, sandpapery effect in your mouth after eating a whole bunch of table grapes. The tannins in grapes are a woody substance in the skin and seeds.

The pulp of a grape is mostly juice, as you can see if you slice a grape open. This is why wine grapes are generally small and round. Table grapes seem to get larger, longer and more seedless every year (and in my opinion, a little more tasteless.) Wine grapes, unattended in rich soil, can also become quite large. I have seen bunches of zinfandel grapes as long as my forearm and as heavy as a small salmon. But this is exactly what winemakers do not want. Smaller grapes have a higher skin-to-juice ratio, resulting in wines with color, flavor and tannin.

Some grapes, like syrah, nebbiolo and cabernet sauvignon have naturally higher levels of tannin than other grapes. Winemaking styles also preserve or delete some of the tannins in wine.

Tannins, which are insignificant in white wines, quite strong in young reds, and softened in older red wines, have a drying effect on the palate. I've often encountered wine tasters who claim that a completely dry wine tastes "sweet" to them. What they are tasting, however, is a dry, fruity wine with very little of the drying astringency contributed by young tannins.

First Big Crush

First Big Crush: The Down and Dirty on Making Great Wine . . . Down Under

Author:  Eric Arnold

(Join us at Cellar Rats for a Q&A discussion with Forbes lifestyle editor Eric Arnold. Eric has posed a question: "What are the best and worst wine books you've read, other than mine, and why?" Registration on Cellar Rats is free! Come on in and enjoy the discussions.)

In First Big Crush, Eric Arnold combines a nine-year-old’s disgust for females with the sex drive of an orangutan and the intellect of a potentially brilliant and funny journalist, in a raunchy, high energy adventure in New Zealand wine country.

Arnold hires on as a crush intern at Allan Scott Wines & Estates in Marlborough, New Zealand. Throughout his experience Arnold reports on the inner workings of an internationally distributed winery. Arnold’s journey is arranged more by topic than as a journal, and his story is a progression told in three stages: harvest, winemaking, and then the vineyard. His personal journey also takes him from buoyant, obnoxious, clueless crush help to a more settled and professional outlook. Although Arnold uses his innocent curiosity as a springboard to explain the issues of crush and harvest, he never dumbs down the material, and manages to convey a lot of information and insight in few words, seriously peppered with collegiate language, colorful characters, and hilarious anecdotes.

Being myself a veteran of having to endure crush interns, I am familiar with the "winemaker’s buddy." Generally they suck as interns, showing up to run the equipment or drive the forklift, and then disappearing as soon as it gets cold, dark and wet and it’s time to clean, scrub and sanitize. But Arnold apparently embraces his position as low man on the totem and works energetically throughout wind, rain and crush distemper. This gives him an accurate insider’s perspective on the emotional demands and rhythms of crush.

Working closely with the winemaking team of Josh Scott and Jeremy McKenzie, Arnold learns the ropes, frequently the hard way. After nearly imploding a tank on his first day, greeting a grapefruit-sized gonad, and breaking his toe, he begins to grasp the logic and language of crush. In addition to some phonetic portraits of New Zealandese, Arnold includes a footnote or two on popular crush slang. "In case you’re American and don’t know what ‘wank’ means, it’s British slang for a daytime nap. When an English person seems tired or yawns, it’s generally considered polite for you to ask him if he could use a good wank. Especially if he’s a stranger."

How to Smoke a Duck: Viognier-Saffron Smoked Duck

The Fourth of July is a quiet day for wine touring . . . people are usually heading to the beach or the lake with kids and grandparents in tow, so Dan and I made our first cooperative smoked duck.  I have used the Weber smoker before to smoke duck, and I have a total of four smoked ducks under my belt (literally).  But this was Dan's first time to be involved in the process since the Trinidad Turkey.  Although it turned into a Chinese circus ("You're in charge!" he kept saying.  "But I totally disagree with the way you are doing this.") the duck survived in all its smoky, juicy radiance.

Our cooperative recipe goes something like this . . .

The Pepper Rebellion

Zinfandel—a mysterious vine, a flirtatious wine, versatile with food and satisfying on its own. For too long, zinfandel has been the poster child for pizza, a wine regarded by critics as less than noble, a peasant primitivo good only for Tuesday night burgers, a wine lacking in chateaus, royal bloodlines and moldy caves.

In its struggle for market share, it has been overcropped and overextracted, diluted of spice, and hyped as an everyday drinker. It rarely commands the prices of even the most plebeian California merlots. So why do producers bother with it?

Zinfandel is a challenging wine to grow, to produce and to enjoy. It is an intellectual wine, layered and complex, with a fruit and spice dichotomy. It is a winemaker’s wine, full of mystery, challenge and rebellion. It is the James Dean of wine.

If you would like to join our viral rebellion, just write a brief treatise on why zinfandel is deserving of respect, or in support of its peppercorn qualities, publish it on your website, blog, or an online forum and we will list you as a member of the Pepper Rebellion.

Zinfandel: King of the Gypsies

Syrah is a barbarian king. It offers roasted game, smoke, dense blue berries, sweat and saddle leather, hay, blood and iron—like a meal around a Hun campfire.

Cabernet is a queenly wine. Royal purple flavors, essences of social and political ink, jeweled daggers and kid leather tannins, a background of carved oak furniture and a rustle of silk.

Zinfandel is a gypsy king. Brightly colored and layered, using peppercorn, wild red berries and herbs to divert one’s attention from studying it closely. A wine of complexity and contradiction—brash yet deep; a wine that seems simple and rustic, but reveals aromas of white flowers and yellow fruits; a vine considered a peasant and a wanderer, yet its bloodline flows from the mists of time; and a thief of many hearts.

For years, zinfandel has been considered the bastard child of the wine world, a pretender to the throne, incapable of elegance or intrigue.  Zinfandel is recommended as a marriage acceptable for pizza, tomato sauces and rustically charred meat.   Wine critic Robert Parker recently said online that blending zinfandel with syrah gives zinfandel a "nobility" it wouldn't otherwise have.

I would like to introduce you to the "new" nobility—wines that are a favorite of chefs and gourmands, wines which are intellectually stimulating, vibrant, and satisfying.  Wines with charisma, balance and intrigue.

In our next post, we will launch The Pepper Rebellion, and we invite you to join us.

Quick Bright Things

"Momentary as a sound, swift as a shadow, short as any dream; brief as the lightning in the collied night . . . so quick bright things come to confusion."

Shakespeare was referring to love . . . but as many of our readers know, we are a certified wildlife habitat, and we can now add to our list of cohabiting critters the long-tailed weasel—a spritely rodent hunter with dramatic markings—swift as a shadow, hunting by sound and scent, quick and bright. A band of weasels (which is rare as they are solitary creatures, always hunting) is called a "confusion."

Dan and I were shuffling around in the tasting room early on Saturday morning of Wine Festival, gearing up for the crowds, when he looked outside and said, "Hey, look! It’s a mongoose!" I disagreed . . . the mongoose lives only in India. I thought it might be a ferret, but my guess was also wrong—a ferret is a domesticated cross that has little chance of surviving in the wild. Today, with the cordial help of www.ferret.org, I learned that our visitor is a long-tailed weasel, and a surprisingly striking animal.    She has shiny chestnut fur, a black brush at the end of her tail, a black and white mask and a bright white blaze on her head.  Our pretty weasel ran across the picnic area toward us, and bounced around the flower tubs outside the French doors, completely ignoring the curious humans and dog on the other side of the glass. Finding no food, she bounded away toward the lavender and rosemary bank along the driveway, and slid like a squid into a gopher hole.

This is whelping season for weasels, so there may be a litter of kits in the rosemary bank.