Fall Food & Wine Pairing of the Day: Gruyère and J Vineyards' 2011 "Hoot Owl" Viognier

"Who are you, October," asks poet Al Young, and we'd really love know the answer. The nights grow crisp and our appetites sharper during this mysterious month, so for the next few weeks we'll be featuring food and wine pairings that celebrate the unique alchemy of autumn.

One of our favorite pairings this fall is a nice Gruyère with our 2011 Viognier from the famed Hoot Owl Vineyard in the Alexander Valley. 
 
Gruyère, of course, is a Swiss cheese with a mild nutty flavor that perfectly rides the line between subtle and distinctive. It plays beautifully against the fresh fruit aromas of the Hoot Owl Viognier and the wine's lush mouth of silky vanilla mingles seamlessly with Gruyère's gentle earthiness. 

Gruyère is one of the best cheeses for baking, so we love it in a gratin like this Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin from Smitten Kitchen or this Wild Mushroom and Onion Gratin by Epicurious. A bubbling layer of Gruyère would make the perfect topping for this delightfully dark French Onion Soup from The Kitchn and we've even been known to succumb to the guilty pleasures of this Gruyère Spinach and Artichoke Dip.

Gratins make great party fare because many of them can be prepared the day before and popped in the oven just before guests start arriving. Serve with thinly sliced toasted baguette and you have an easy, mingle-friendly first course. If you'd like to step up the celebratory atmosphere, serve your gratin with some J Cuvée 20 Brut, too. Enjoy!

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Dan Berger's Wines of the Week: J Viognier & J Pinot Gris!

Volume XVI, Issue 6, March 22, 2012

Wines of the Week

2011 J Viognier, Alexander Valley, Hoot Owl Vineyard

Terrific floral/spicy, tropical fruit aroma, exactly what the variety offers; dry entry, but rich texture moderated by great acid.

2010 J Pinot Gris, Russian River Valley

This estate-grown wine has an aroma of mint/lime and tangerine; the taste is enhanced by lees contact for added texture. The flavors are lush and long.

Both available only at the tasting room and at jwine.com.

J Visitor Center

The topic arose the other day when I tasted two superb wines from J’s new winemaker Melissa Stackhouse that were consciously made so their textures would add to the character of the wine.

Melissa Stackhouse, J Winemaker

Both are in our Wine of the Week feature, and both have been made carefully so each has a slightly higher textural element that adds to the wines.

One is a Viognier, a wine that is usually rich and oily. To deal with some of this, Stackhouse made sure the texture was moderated with good fruit acid that leaves the wine with a brilliant “grapefruit pith” texture.

By contrast, a Pinot Gris offers more extract of fruit and “middle-of-the-grape” flavors from having been in contact with the lees, adding a bit of weight to the finish.

When evaluating wine, failing to “see” the texture as a part of the wine’s overall quality is a common failing among novices.

The two J wines are available only through the winery. There will be no retail visibility because of scant production.

ABOUT J

Founded in 1986 by Judy Jordan, J Vineyards & Winery is an independently-owned Sonoma County winery. The Winery continues its 25th Anniversary celebration.

J Vineyards & Winery focuses on non-vintage Brut, Vintage Brut, and Brut Rosé sparkling wines, as well as Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Gris Estate varietal wines, all produced from grapes farmed primarily within Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley appellation.

The J Vineyards & Winery Visitor Center and Bubble Room is located at 11447 Old Redwood Highway, south of Healdsburg. To learn more, or to join the J Wine Club, go to www.jwine.com.

You can also follow us on Facebook.

J’s Tasting Room Stands Among the Best in the West, by Kasey Wilson of The Dish

Tasting Temptations

Sonoma’s J Vineyards takes the guesswork out of food pairing

Wine Access - The Dish, by Kasey Wilson

October / November 2011

At J Vineyards, food and wine go hand-in-hand.  J’s tasting room stands among the best in the West.

The winery’s owner, Judy Jordan, has been a Sonoma pioneer in her efforts to create an elegant food-and-wine experience for visitors. Touting both sparkling and traditional Burgundian still wines, Jordan offers guests a luxurious take on Sonoma County hospitality.

Judy Jordan, J Founder & President

In 1996, she purchased the former Piper Sonoma winery in Healdsburg, in the heart of California’s Russian River Valley. A few years later, in 1999, she opened J Vineyards’ tasting room. Going beyond basic wine tastings, staff  members offered small food items to complement each wine, showing how what’s in the glass marries with what’s on the  plate.

Eight years ago, Jordan hired Mark Caldwell as executive chef. His job: to create a variety of “ahhh-inducing” dishes to partner with her wines.

Mark E. Caldwell, J Executive Chef

The Signature Bar in the tasting room has art as cool as its bubbly. It’s backed by an impressive 18-by-24-foot, floor-to-ceiling, metal-and-glass installation by Napa Valley artist Gordon Huether. It’s washed with acid and mineral dusts to give it the warm hues of copper. Embedded in it are sparkling nuggets of glass lit by fiber optics, evoking the bubbles in a flute of sparkling wine.

J Signature Bar

On weekends, an enhanced tasting is offered in the Bubble Room, overlooking the gardens and lily pond. As part of this experience, Caldwell prepares several courses to go with a half-dozen wines, all served in the luxuriously appointed salon. Jordan believes Caldwell’s cooking is a perfect match to J’s wines; both wines and dishes have balance, elegance and subtlety.

J Bubble Room

“There’s a lot of experimentation and playing with flavors at J,” says Caldwell. “I reduce down sparkling wines to  make different vinaigrettes, or to make a sauce for oysters on the half shell; or I’ll marinate strawberries in a reduction of our rosé and mint. I’ll also pour sparkling wine on dessert, so it foams up at the last second.”

His experimentation has led to one answer to the ongoing challenge of pairing asparagus with wine. “What I’ve learned,” says Caldwell, “is that steamed asparagus brings out a metallic flavor with wine. If you sauté or roast asparagus, it caramelizes, and shows nicely with the earthiness of a pinot noir.”

His impeccably wine-friendly recipes vary from succulent lobster-shellfish cakes with saffron aïoli (paired with J  Cuvée 20 and the 2009 California Pinot Gris), to chilled carrot-curry soup (see recipe; best with the 2008  Chardonnay and J Vintage Brut). He uses two ’08 pinots — the Russian River Valley, and the Nicole’s Vineyard — in a  reduction to accompany pan-roasted beef sirloin. Even sweets are deserving of pairings, with a dessert of citrus olive-oil cake with rose petal parfait matched to J Brut Rosé.

With an owner intent on upholding gracious wine country hospitality and a chef crafting unforgettable wine and food pairings, J’s tasting room stands among the best in the West.

Chilled Carrot-Curry Soup Recipe

 Photo by Lenny Siegel

Here, Mark Caldwell shares his recipe for a silky, Madras curry-spiked carrot-curry soup. It’s wonderful chilled, but can also be served warm.

2 Tbsp. butter
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 lb. young fresh carrots, scrubbed then chopped
1 bay leaf
3 Tbsp. Madras curry powder
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 can (14 oz/398ml) unsweetened coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock

In a heavy medium-sized saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onions and garlic; cook until onions are softened, but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add carrots and 1 tablespoon of curry powder and cook for 5 minutes. Add bay leaf and chicken stock. Bring to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer soup for 15 minutes. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat olive oil. Add remaining 2 tablespoons of curry powder and cook, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir in coconut milk and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes.

Pour coconut-curry mixture into soup and stir well.  Purée (in batches) in a blender until smooth. Adjust seasonings to taste.  Cover and chill thoroughly, at least 2 hours. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

J Wine Match: 2009 J Vineyards Viognier, Hoot Owl Vineyard

 

 

Lobster Bisque & Viognier @ J Winery: Two of a Perfect Pair

Lobster Bisque & Viognier @ J Winery: Two of a Perfect Pair

by Proximal.Kitchen

January 26th, 2011 08:48am

Forgive the hackneyed analog, but I’ve just eaten a Lennon-McCartney harmony of food and wine over at J Winery; OK, maybe that’s too much, but a solid Bee Gees, at least! Seriously, if we wore socks on our teeth, then Chef Mark Caldwell’s Lobster Bisque, together with winemaker George Bursick’s Hoot Owl Vineyard Viognier, would knock them clean off. And I don’t even like Viognier, as a rule.

Eight-Flavor Local Duck, Tamarind-Orange Glazed Pork Belly, and Yuzu Royale; a vertical of single-vineyard Pinot Noirs, a late-disgorged vintage sparkler. For breakfast, no less. Not that one necessarily needs a special occasion to have wine for breakfast when one lives in wine country, but it helps, especially if you’ve got school pick-up, or anything else marginally productive to do. Fortunately, I had neither, so I got to enjoy all of this at a “Chinese New Year”-inspired pairing of food and wine in J’s Bubble Room; the menu, and the wines, will be featured through February 6th, a great call if you’ve been looking for a something-special to do in Healdsburg.

As good as it all is – and it’s all very good – it’s that Lobster Bisque and Viognier that makes you forget about the door levy. To be sure, $65/head for a 7-course menu hardly qualifies for a budget-oriented visit to the tasting room, but to be fair, it’s a meal more than a tasting (7 substantial plates of very tasty vittles), and ends up as much a miniature course in wine education as it does a tasting (including 8 different glasses of J’s top-shelf offerings); really, my only gripe is that I had to write this review, instead of taking a nap. But back to that bisque: Chef Mark serves it as a “cappuccino”, the “foam” delicately laced with coconut, an intriguing note of lime adding just the right balance to the sweet-spicy decadence of the soup and coaxing a range of citrus flavors from the wine.

 

Now, I don’t know about you and Viognier – with the notable exception of a few of the better examples from the Condrieu region of France, I generally won’t touch the stuff – but I’ve just been converted. The honeyed texture, the white flowers and stone fruit, and, above all, that mysterious note of lime zest in the wine do a little tango with the soup, each getting more from its partner than either had alone, the ultimate goal of all wine-food pairings. I’m going to try to convince Mark to give me his recipe for that bisque, but in the meantime, I’m headed back to J for another bottle, and then to pick up some Thai food to-go, something with coconut and lemongrass, maybe…

About The Proximal Kitchen Blog

The Proximal Kitchen is the bastard lovechild of Scott Kerson, a recovering hedge fund addict, husband, father, and dedicated home cook with a passion for food, wine, and the natural affluence of Sonoma County soils. Since trading in the avenues of Manhattan for the vine rows of the Russian River Valley, Scott has hit upon a simple philosophy: Purchase the best ingredients you can directly from the people who farm them, prepare them with care, and you will eat better and learn something about life in the process. Scott puts this idea into practice with seasonal shopping tips, foodie factoids, classic and original recipes, and observations on everything from getting your kids to eat real food to the importance of sharpening your knives.