"The killer salad dressing"

I was surprised this weekend when I received great compliments from friends Yvonne and Ken about the salad dressing.

Well, here it goes. In the blender put ½ cup of olive oil (make it your personal favorite olive oil), a clove of garlic, ¼ cup of wine vinegar, ½ cup of balsamic vinegar, some parsley,oregano, pepper salt, (at your taste level) and some of the tomato you were thinking of putting in the salad as well as one full tablespoon of apricot jam or jelly.

Shake it up to a smooth consistency and pour on the salad.   

Gira Polli in Mill Valley is a great place to dine. You can take out and stay home too, but with this parking lot and outdoor patio....it's the easy way and the great food that makes it a great place. Traditional dishes are great and the tiramisu is made with real mascarpone cheese! One of the best I've tried. 

Gira Polli is one of my favorite restaurants in the area. It is located at 590 Blithdale Avenue, in Mill Valley. The roasted chicken is cooked on almond wood flames and constantly smothered in citrus juices. You will not find a better chicken!. Michele, the owner, makes sure that every chicken is done just right. 

A favorite first dish: Polenta and Shallots. The shallots cooked in a wine sauce (note the leftover from previous week) and the polenta is brwoned in olive oil with a bit of ricotta cheese on top. It's quick, pretty, and light. 

peel and cook the shallots in a heavy pan. 

Slice the cold polenta tube in discs. 

Cook the shallots in a pan separate from teh polenta. First braise the shallots then add wine leftovers. Flip the polenta discs at least one and brown in both sides. If you like you can add garlic, pepper salt etc. 

I used some parsley sticks and tarragon leaves over the ricotta cheese to garnish. 

I shared the polenta and shallots with Bill and Ken. The main sich was roasted chicken and vegetables. 

A young plant for lateron this season and next. 

It's better to plant new parsley in late spring. The plants last two seasons, in the second season you will have flowers and stems but still quite a bit of leaves. If you cut the flowers it will last longer. 

My friend Bill visited me from DC. We went to Sebastiani. We had a simple turkey sandwich and a glass of Pinot. It was a Carneros 2002, dark, rich and full of blueberries. I highly recommend it. 

Weed and Grass Galore!

In Sonoma County the soils are very rich. The water is abundant in winter time. In February the sun rays arrive less oblique and more powerful. Then is when flora starts to awake and the light green of new growth is everywhere.

But [and there is always a but] a big portion of all that wonderful green comes from weeds and grass. Weeds do take over and they are everywhere. I do remember when I arrived for the first time (it was November) and I asked: “what do you do with all the grass?”

There are a few that are particularly obnoxious. And one should be very careful not to become obsessed with the compulsion of pulling them all. This time of the year is particularly bad because there is still quite a bit of moisture and the sun is strong. It’s weed time!

Let’s see ….in my short list of hated flora we find “crab grass” (Digitaria sanguinalis), wild oats (Avena fatua) and –my personal arch-nemesis Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense).

The previous owner of my property had planted bamboo in the field and for the moment I took over it was a mound of roots and canes covering a one hundred square yards. The war was merciless but I won that one. No more bamboo. With Johnson grass the situation is different: I will never win. The best I can do is to keep it down while I have the energy. I try to dig as much as possible to avoid using Roundup. Sometimes fury takes over and I spray some….

In comparison with Johnson grass wild oats and crab grass are a piece of cake, easy as pie, trivial.

Another war that I won was against blackberry (Rubus procerus). Yes, sounds delicious and wonderful until you realize that this plant has taken over the front lawn and killed most things in its path. The thing with blackberry is that not only spreads by root but also by branches. Wherever a branch touches the soil, it spreads roots. The discovery I made is that the best way to get rid of it is to cut it close to the soil and put a drop of Roundup on the cane itself. After a while the roots die and if they come back they are not as powerful as they used to be.

Johnson grass is different, if you try to pull it, it will brake leaving a rich bunch of rhizomes in the soil. It reminds me to the movie “Alien”. ARGH!

 

Feel free and volunteer in my quest: Pull some grass out!

Digitaria 

Grass Weed? 

Yours truly ... 

Mark explains... 

Ken, Tim and the Barberas 

Barbera, Barbera, Barbera

Last Saturday I had lunch with my friend Ken Knight, my vineyard manager Tim Schultz and my neighbor Mark Lyon. The menu was simple: Roasted rosemary chicken and Italian sausages, roasted eggplant and corn. We also had sautéed greens with shaved almonds. For dessert we had fresh fruit.

On the other hand we were very fancy on the wine side: We had three wonderful California Barbera bottles: “Il Gufo”, “Uvaggio” and our own Laughing Raven “Nuovo”. Sometimes business is a tough duty so we had to try them all. ;)

Il Gufo comes from Lodi and it has nice fruit but not as much as Laughing Raven. Uvaggio had more oak but less fruit than the other ones. It was also interesting to taste more alcohol even though the three of them were 14.5% alcohol.

I think our wine showed how much work and caring Mark has put into this small Barbera plot. From the location (close to the river on gravely soils) to the pruning and watering the Cloverdale Enterpise’s Barbera is a showcase of terroir and meticulous maintenance. In the end it more than compensated for the oak and aging. “Nuovo” is fabulous  and the “Il Gufo” and Uvaggion do reflect the fun that Barbera wine can be.

Lyre Trellis/Vines with and without suckers 

Taming the beast

We need to keep our Sauvignon Blanc growing healthy but under control. Failing to do so will lead to wines with grassy tastes (“herbaceous” ) We use diverse techniques to tame the little beast. In the particular case of the Laughing Raven the fecund soil is our first challenge. We need to space vines and let them have a large canopy with sun light access. In this way a single trunk will feed a large canopy and will not be able to grow out of control. We have given to every vine a 7’ by 11’ parcel to grow and feed. That is rows are separated by 11’ and, in a given row, there is a 7’ space between vines.

We have also given the vines a very large “lyre” style trellis. This trellis exposes the double canopy to plenty of sun and gives plenty of room for the Sauvignon Blanc to grow in an orderly, controlled manner.

Sauvignon Blanc is truly a vigorous variety. In the pictures you see the vines after four weeks of growth. See those green branches! Also look at the suckers that cover most of the trunks. I cut all the suckers myself and although it was very satisfying…it was more work than I thought!

Let's talk about wine!

Let’s talk about wine!. As I said before making wine is cooking and cooking starts in the garden or in the vineyard in this case.
Laughing Raven is situated just west of a large, steep hill. This location provides less sun and lower temperatures (sun rises on the east and it is eclipsed by the hill until later in the morning.) At the same time the property is located on ancient river run (at about 9 feet deep, pebbles and sand) with a cover of very rich organic soil.
Vines are very vigorous plants. They grow fast and wild if not pruned regularly. Sauvignon Blanc is of especial aggressive growth (Sauvignon means small savage!) and in this location –left to its own means- the “little beast” would cover the place in no time.
It might sound like having big plants with tons of branches and many clusters of juicy berries would be a desirable thing but alas it is not so.
When a vine grows on its own as much as it can and has all the enzymes and other components flowing in its system to do so, it becomes very much like a weed. As it does so its berries are tainted with the color and taste of a weed. A herbaceous, “green” taste. Just to give you an example of green taste you can try one of those shakes with small wheat plants.
I really like the citrus mineral balance of a good sauvignon so I set to listen to what the experts had to say.
My neighbor is Mark Lyon and we have become very good friends since I moved to his neighborhood. He owns “Cloverdale Enterprises” a beautiful 100+ acre Bordeaux style vineyard next to the Laughing Raven. Mark is also a winemaker at Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery. He has so much experience in this business that I have only to hang around and I constantly learn.
So I listened …..
“That lot looks ideal for a white variety ….” He said …”Which one do you like?”
Well truth was I never had thought of a favorite white wine but …I drank a lot and I thought a lot about tastes…. Then I drank some more and I came up with Sauvignon Blanc. Chardonnay is nice but it is too mineral for me. I like “Sauv” Blanc laced with tastes of French Oak and a tiny bit of effervescence …Mmm…
So “Sauv” Blanc it was ….
And then came the story of the clones and the rootstock and the trellis and the water and the pruning ….

Mint,Rue and Sage for Tea

Besides wine....

My general interest is in cooking, especially fermented foods. Making wine truly is long term cooking and it starts in the garden, the vineyard. Adjusting the trellis, pruning the vines and preparing the land (terroir, in the wine vernacular) is where the cooking starts. Of course the picking, crushing and fermenting as well as the blending and aging are part of winemaking. From where I see it is all one big cooking adventure.
Since we are talking about cooking, let me give you my first recipe: Laughing Raven Herbal Tea:
1/3 Sage, 1/3 Mint (Mentha) and 1/3 Rue Grevolens (Rue). Its a great soothing infusion that has antiviral properties as well. The Rue Grevolens is easily acquired as a plant and grows well in sunny spots. Enjoy!

Iris

 

Yellow, Red and ...Sage

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Roses Galore

 

And then came the flowers (1)

 

The vines awakening from the long winter sleep

 

(no subject)

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Late rain

Hello, I am Jose Zero. I own the Laughing Raven Vineyard since 1999. Since my arrival to wine country I have been transforming this place into my home and second business. I wanted to tell you what's happening here and how I feel about it.
The Laughing Raven Vineyard is located 15 miles north of Healdsburg, California. This is the northern part of Alexander Valley and rain at this time of the year usually becomes less frequent. This year however the rains are continuing and with the last sunny late spring we are experiencing one of the most wonderful years for flowers.
The Laughing Raven is a small vineyard (1.1 acres of Sauvingon Blanc, .1 acres of Moscato Canali and .3 of Alicante Bouchet) and its motto is "If it is not fun it is not done".
We produce Sauvignon Blanc and Barbera wines. The Barbera comes from our neighboring property "Cloverdale Enterprises" own by Mark Lyon since 1980.
The Vineyard alkso includes my house (oh eternal renovation) and some gardens with irises, roses, sage, lavander and lots of rosemary plants.