2012 Alsace Festival Toulouse Open House

Hundreds of attendees turned out on Sunday, February 19th for the Toulouse Vineyards Alsace Festival Open House in Philo,California, despite that the weather report called for rain. As it was, Sunday was beautiful and sunny all day. The palate development and food & wine pairing workshop was conducted out of doors on the crush pad until chilly winds in the late afternoon forced us to move our venue indoors for the last few hours of the Open House (see photo above).

Attendees tasted the 2011 Pinot Gris, 2011 Rosé of Pinot Noir, newly released 2012 Gewürztraminer, and the three 2008 Pinot Noirs: the Lautrec, the Anderson Valley and the Estate. The line up for the day's pairing menu was as follows:

Lemongrass Ginger Coconut Reduction on Roasted Mussels on the Half Shell

2011 Toulouse Vineyards Pinot Gris

Silver Goat Cheese on Belgian Endive with Moroccan Preserved Lemon

and Fennel Fronds

2011 Toulouse Vineyards Rosé of Pinot Noir 

Abbaye de Bellocq Cheese on Grilled Bovolo Bacon Bread

2008 Lautrec, Anderson Valley and Estate Pinot Noirs

I recognized so many repeat attendees from the Pinot Noir Festival Open Houses as well as previous Alsace Festival Open Houses. All in the all, the mood was infectious as guests enthusiastically worked their way through the two tasting boxes of eight profile elements and three sample pairings. 

As always, I feel singularly fortunate to have the honor of working with Vern and Maxine Boltz's lovely wines. I am particularly excited about the 2012 Gewurztraminer. I hope their devout following learns from the 2009 vintage and jumps on cases of the 2012 Gewurz. I am still kicking myself not to have cellared a few of the 2009. Apparently, a notable speaker at the technical conference referred to that vintage as being of particular quality and perfection.

Finally, at 6pm, tired but happy, we shut down the workshop and said our goodbyes to this year's Alsace Festival...until next year.

Call of the Wild

I heard their little voices calling to me for days. It was several more days before I could go out mushrooming and even then, only a few showed signs of deterioration. Most of the chanterelles were Goldens but a few Whites were found as well. Here is a photo of the second wave of chanterelles. Big, beautiful and luscious. Nothing like the slightly sad ones I saw at the Ferry Plaza shop in the city last week.

This year, the Boletus came and went with a bang. It's definitely been a good mushroom season. Already, I have reports of hedgehog sightings on the south coast.

What is there to say? I am continually amazed and awestruck at Nature's generosity and largesse.

Wild crafted mushrooms are best after cleaning and holding for several days to a week in a paper bag in the fridge, particularly after a recent rain. My favorite chanterelle dish this winter is to slice them thinly, caramelize well in a searing hot pan with olive oil then add to a wild rice pilaf with the seasoned stock and chopped, toasted almonds. Bacon never hurts. If you are lucky enough to find a lot of mushrooms, you can either slice and dry them or slice and sauté them before freezing to use another day.

Porkapalooza

This was the starting point for Tuesday's Porkapalooza at the Bloodhound in San Francisco (thank you, Tim Varga).

As I walked across Folsom to the Bloodhound, a big john was lit with mesquite on the sidewalk with a line of people trailing out the door. Inside, the bar was quickly filled to maximum with passed hors d'oeuvres of hotdogs, head cheese and prosciutto. Folks were NOT shy about diving into bowls of fluffy, tasty, melt-in-your mouth chicharrones.

I had romantic visions of a whole pig hung from the rafters but in fact, the tabletop butchery demo by Ryan Farr entailed a side of pig and its head. Cuts were deft and sure. The head was deboned from the bottom up. Unfortunately, the loud music drowned out Ryan's commentary throughout the demo but the bacon infused bourbon Old Fashioneds almost made up for it.

I still have my preference for a longer contact with rubs or marinades to build up layers of seasonings to achieve maximum porky tastiness before grilling. Ryan used what appeared to be salt, paprika, julienned tangerine zest, and thyme for a quickie seasoning before laying all the pieces (some injected) on the grill outside. A build-your-own-taco event ensued using the grilled pork on corn tortillas.

Fakin' Bacon

First it was the Vosges Barcelona Bar -- hickory smoked almonds, grey sea salt, deep milk chocolate. No hesitation there. And then they came out with the Bacon Bar. I was mesmerized and drawn but not completely won over. And now, I just saw in the SF edition of Urban Daddy that the Pirate Radio Cafe has an espresso (De La Paz, no less) and bacon (organic Prather Ranch, to be sure) coffee drink on offer. And it's not just crispy bacon bits on top, the milk is actually foamed with bacon fat AND maple syrup.

When I try to imagine the combo, it FEELS like it should work...with chocolate. But coffee? They do share a lot elements in their flavor profiles. I find myself vacillating. There's something instinctively edgy about seamlessly morphing two opposite corners of the food arena. Will it be alchemy, or will it be a just an interesting idea badly executed?

Hey, I'm already on a pork mission to the city next week so I HAVE to check this thing out, right? Apologies to all you vegans and vegheads....