As promised in my last post, I cracked an ‘03 Cuvée Martha Pirrie this week to see where it’s at prior to our “Something Old, Something New” event coming up on Valentine’s Day.

The ‘03 CMP was from younger-vine parcels of Shea, Stoller, and RIbbon Ridge - in fact ‘03 was the first crop from Ribbon Ridge. The wine, now 5 1/2 years down the line, is nicer than it was in the beginning. I had not really harbored much hopes of this wine ageing, but to be honest I think it may still have a number of years of good life ahead of it.

The ripe, rich ‘03 fruit is much in evidence, but it is more balanced than I remember it. It doesn’t have the concentration or the power of the ‘03 La Paulée - due mostly to the younger vine age, I would think. Amazingly, there is nothing that tells you that it’s 5 1/2 years old - it seems very young and vibrant and just really coming into its own. Again. I would think there are a few more years of uspide development still to come - there just aren’t any of the secondary flavors or aromas emerging yet.

At any rate, we’ve pulled a limited amount of both of the ’03s out of the library and they’ll be available for tasting and purchase on Valentine’s Day, along with our current releases and of course some bubbles - in this case the Champagne Marc Chauvet Brut Selection, with which I am absolutely in love these days.

I’m looking forward to kicking off this year’s series of Burgundy seminars tomorrow night with the Burgundy 101 class - there’s not much I enjoy more than de-mystifying the world of Burgundy for folks and opening up some doors (so you can then go down the rabbit hole and never come back, like the rest of us Burg geeks!)

If you couldn’t get in to the class, check out a mini-version of the seminar in our podcasts - Parts 1 & 2 of three are now up here.

In the meantime, your assigment is to memorize this map of the lieu-dits of Clos Vougeot…

That’s a big promise, I know.  Well, this chili gets raves from the cheering section in this household and that’s what counts.  Despite the longish ingredient list, it is incredibly easy.  This is based on a recipe from Sunset Magazine.  Hope it is a hit in your household, Superbowl weekend and all winter long.  What to drink?  Cold, cold beer!

Serves 6 (by all means, double it!)

2 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
1½ lbs lean ground beef
1 T plus 1½ tsp chili powder
1½ tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp smoked Spanish paprika
½ tsp to 1½ tsp cayenne pepper
about 1 tsp salt
1 can (14.5 oz) crushed fire-roasted tomatoes
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup beer (ale, amber, whatever)
1 tsp Worcestershire
1 can (14.5 oz) pinto or kidney beans, drained
sour cream, sliced green onions and grated cheese for topping

In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat, cook bacon, stirring until it just begins to brown, about 4 minutes. Add onion, lower heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally until translucent, 4-7 minutes. Uncover pan, stir in garlic, and cook 1 minute.Increase heat to medium-high and add ground beef; break it up with a spoon and stir gently until browned, 6-8 minutes. Stir in spices and 1 tsp of salt and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, beer and Worcestershire and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover partially and cook 30 minutes.

Add beans and cook 10 minutes, uncovered. Season to taste.

Based on a recipe from Sunset Magazine.

With Martha’s birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, and Valentine’s Day a few days after,  the first half of February is always a season of amour around our house. Daughter Pirrie has informed that I will indeed be her valentine again this year. It’s nice to know that I haven’t yet been replaced - that will come all too soon, I’m sure…

Love means many things to me. Near the top of the list of those many things would be Champagne and Pinot Noir - not just because I love those things, but because I associate those things so much with romance. You don’t have to ply me with Champagne to seduce me, as somebody famous once said, but it sure can’t hurt!

So this year for V-Day at the winery we’ll be pouring the delicious Marc Chauvet Brut Selection (one of the great deals on grower Champagne on the planet), and what we’re calling “Something Old and Something New” - our current releases, alongside the 2003 vintage of both our Cuvée Martha Pirrie and La Paulée Pinot Noirs. I opend up a bottle of the ‘03 La Paulée over the weekend - I hadn’t checked in on it in quite some time.

What I found was pleasing indeed. 2003 in Oregon was a hot year, with ultra-ripe grapes and big, rich fruit the norm for the vintage - even in the hands of usually more restrained producers. Some wines from that vintage can be simply over-the-top ripe and jammy, verging on syrah-like characters. At 5 1/2 years of age, I found the ‘03 La Paulée to be more balanced than I expected. There was plenty of big fruit to be sure, but in the context of the vintage it wasn’t that terribly monstrous. Come check it out at our tasting room on V-Day and see what you think. If you like the bigger end of the spectrum in terms of fruit, while still retaining some semblance of acidity and overall balance, this one’s for you. (I haven’t tasted an ‘03 Cuvée Martha Pirrie recently - I’ll grab one this week and post my notes here.)

Valentine’s Day marks the official kick-off of Oregon’s 150th birthday celebration, with events happening all over wine country and everywhere else in the state. Click here for all the info.

In the meantime, on a totally unrelated note - here’s a shot of J-J Confuron’s “Les Vignottes” vineyard in Premeaux - a mind-blowingly delicious Côte de Nuits Villages that is consumed with great regularity chez nous…

It happens only four times a year - the day the new issue of Burghound is released. It’s a day that quickens the pulse and brings great joy to Burgundy geeks/lovers/afficionados around the world, and today is one of those days! Issue #33, covering the 2007 & 2006 reds from the Côte de Nuits was just launched a few hours ago - if you’re not already a subscriber you really need to check it out.

Over the past 8 years Allen Meadows (Mr.”Burghound” himself) has earned his spot as the pre-eminent Burgundy writer/critic/authority on the planet, and the depth and insightfulness of his coverage is simply superb. And much to my great pleasure, starting with this issue he has added live links to the importers and agents of the hundreds of Burgundian estates and domestic Pinot wineries he reviews, allowing readers an easy path to find the wines they’re looking for. Bravo and my sincere thanks to Allen.

In the new issue we are the beneficiaries of some lovely reviews for a number of our domaines, including J-J Confuron, Jean-Marc Millot, Taupenot-Merme, and Hervé Sigaut - with some wines singled out as the ”Don’t Miss” or “Sweet-Spot” wines of the vintage. We’re honored to represent these fine producers and their wines, and thrilled that they’re being recognized for the quality they produce.

So here’s the lovely and talented Mr. Meadows, hard at work tasting a ‘47 de Vogüé Musigny at the Paulée in Beaune in November 2007…

Allen & a '47 Moose

After an extended Xmas break, with a week’s worth of snow days and a schedule that was anything but normal - it is finally starting to feel like we’re back in the groove and fully back in action. It was great to see a lot of folks in our tasting room on Saturday - which brings up our new hours and our new tasting program for 2009.

We’ve made one significant addition - we are now offering tastings by appointment, in addition to our open tasting hours. This will allow us to put together a guided tasting for you, and tailor it to your specific desires. For example - if you’re interested in exploring a particular producer, or a certain village in Burgundy, or maybe do a comparison of vintages, or if you’d just like to taste under more private conditions - you are now good to go. Tasting fees will run $10-$25 for these guided tastings, and we’ll be offering one appointment at 11am on each of our tasting days. Just call Kelly Karr at 503 319-5827 to make your appointment, or email kellykarr@scottpaul.com

Days and hours have also changed for the new year - in January and February we’ll be open on Saturdays only. Then March thru December we’ll be open Friday, Saturday, & Sunday, with tasting appointments potentially available on Wednesdays and Thursdays. We remain closed Mondays and Tuesdays year-round.

Open tasting hours will now be 1-5pm, and we look forward to seeing you soon (and often!) here in Carlton.

We were clicking through the channels looking for some inauguration festivities tonight, and happened on the Mario Batali/Gwyneth Paltrow cooking/travel/road-trip show on PBS - which follows them on an eating and drinking pilgrammage around Spain. Which led me to what I thought was a great idea - we should try to put together a similar show, with me, chef Gabriel Rucker from Portland’s Le Pigeon, and perhaps French actress Julie Delpy - and the three of us would eat and drink our way through Burgundy and Provence. Somehow Martha wasn’t quite as hot on it - “over my dead body” I believe was the quote. Maybe I should have suggested a less attractive actress…

At any rate -here’s the sun shining on the tasting room this weekend. We hope to see you soon…

Since yesterday’s Oregonian Food Day section included a piece about favorite new techniques the staff had learned in 08, I decided it is not too late to continue with a short list of favorite dining experiences in the year that passed.  Scott’s summer birthday meal with our wonderful friends and business partners, Cameron and Suzy, at Park Kitchen was a restaurant highlight of the year.  All of my meals there over the years have been delicious and exciting.  Park Kitchen and chef/owner Scott Dolich will always be at the upper end or very top of my list of favorite places in Portland.  Even before he opened his own place, I loved the food when he was cooking at Ricardo Segura’s Tapeo on NW Thurman.  Scott’s birthday meal began with the hard-to-resist Fried Green Beans and Bacon with Tarragon Aioli (delicious, just don’t fill up; too much great food to come), an intriguing Chilled Cucumber Soup with Almonds, Chilies and Shrimp, and a Flank Steak Salad with Blue Cheese and Sherried Onions.  I ate Sliced Duck with Squash Gratin.  Cameron’s Salmon with Green Bean and Sea Bean Ragout was so enticing I had to take a picture.  Alas, I can’t even remember what the birthday boy had but I know he was happy.  For dessert we had one of everything.  You’re very likely to run into Scott Dolich at the Portland Farmer’s Market and he’s incredibly active and generous with organizations that feed the hungry and promote locally grown and produced foods.

Another summer highlight was a meal shared at Le Pigeon with our friends/Burgundy producers, the Millot’s from Vosne-Romanée and the Hubers from Volnay.  The meal more than passed muster with them.  They were impressed…with the foie gras, the lobster salad (pictured), the Painted Hills beef burger and more.    In 2008, we ate at Naomi Pomeroy’s Beast for the first time.  I won’t describe the whole meal, but I remember thinking that the charcuterie plate was one of the prettiest, most artful things I’ve seen in a restaurant without being silly and remaining wholly appetizing.  It included a foie-gras bon-bon with sauternes gelée, a steak tartare and quail egg toast, a duck and pork liver with cracked olive paté, a chicken liver mousse, a house-made cracker and artisanal salami.

In October of this year, I had a very memorable food moment when, at the world-class Audubon Institute Insectarium, I ate a fried dragonfly with portobello mushroom and dijon mustard soy butter.  (I just had to ask her and yes, Pirrie remembered the exact make-up and description of this dish).  That same trip, I relished a plate of fried-chicken from Willie Mae’s Scotch House, in New Orleans, not too far from the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward.  And I lapped up the buttery goodness of my friend Kate’s home-cooked barbequed shrimp with some great New Orleans French bread.

I’ve already written about our meals with friends in Burgundy this summer.  I will treasure those.  Glad I took notes.  I am also happy with some new skills and recipes acquired in 08.  I jammed, I canned, I gardened…I worked with puff pastry, and stirred a roux until it was the color of dark chocolate. 

After all the meals and memories and kitchen adventures in 2008, there was still one thing to do…purge.  Purge the cupboards, that is.  Scott and I carted huge bags to the Thrift Shop.  I’m not a pack-rat but was stunned by the excess of unused gadgets, unmatched cake pans and the like. 

With the clutter cleared, I’m looking forward to more new skills and adventures in 2009!  We start tonight by eating at Sel Gris in Portland for the first time, a place that has been on our list.  Happy birthday Meri Kemp!

We’ve got a couple of nice dinners and events coming up that I wanted to be sure to mention here. First, on January 29th we’re doing a winemaker dinner at the Arlington Club in Portland - it’s a private club, but if you happen to be a member (or know one who can invite you as a guest) we’ll be pouring a great group of wines from Oregon and Burgundy. I look forward to seeing you there.

Then on February 5th I’ll be in Seattle for a full-on hedonistic wine dinner at Crush and an afternoon tasting at Cellar 46 on Mercer Island - again an excellent range of Burgs and Pinots and Bubblies, not to mention the mind-blowingly great food - we will be in for a treat. Check out the menu and all the info here.

If you’re in the Denver area - some of our wines will be featured at a tasting and book-signing presented by author John Haeger - he’s showing some of our wines and signing his new book “Pacific Pinot” on Jan. 22nd at Z Cuisine - check it out.

And a quick reminder - we sent out an email last week announcing the dates of our series of upcoming Burgundy seminars for this year, and many of the classes are filling up already. Contact Kelly Karr at 503-319-5827 or kellykarr@scottpaul.com to book your seats. I’m excited to offer some new classes this year, including a special focus on Vosne-Romanée, a new class devoted exclusively to White Burgundy, and my insider’s guide to touring and tasting in Burgundy. I look forward to seeing you in class.

And here’s a nice view from our Block 12 at Maresh (in sunnier times!)

That it can already be four days into 2009 is nearly incomprehensible to me. Life is simply going by too fast. It truly seems like a matter of months ago that we left L.A. to head up to the Napa Valley and try our hand at “something in the wine business”. Well, that was a full ten years ago. Since then we’ve had a daughter who’s now  8 1/2, moved to Oregon, managed Domaine Drouhin Oregon, built a new winery and planted a new vineyard, and started a national importing busniness that now features 17 producers in Burgundy and Champagne. Oh yeah, and we’ve built up our little brand to the point where we have thousands of loyal mailing list customers and great distributors in key markets around the country and we’re consistently getting nice national press. How did all of that happen? It all seems like a blur at times. More than anything it reminds me to be very thankful, and I offer my heartfelt gratitude to each of you.

We’ve enjoyed some great meals over the holidays, at home and out. A tremendous dinner at Paley’s Place, a new neighborhood brasserie called Café Nell, wonderful wines and nibbles at Bar Avignon, and a killer chicken & sausage gumbo that Martha made for New Year’s Eve. (See Martha’s blog for all the in-depth foodie updates.)

Now it’s back to some semblance of reality. Since the first snow storm hit back on December 13th, we’ve basically been off of any semblance of a normal routine. With school starting back up tomorrow, we’re actually looking forward to the structure and “normalcy” that comes with rejoining daily life - whatever that may be!

It’s going to be an exciting year in the ongoing evolution of Scott Paul. Thanks for joining us on the journey - there’s never a dull moment…

And while we’re in the middle of a few weeks of what looks to be endless grey skies and rain, here’s a reminder of what it looks like in the sun! And don’t forget, we’ve finally got Part 2 of our Burgundy 101 Podcast up and running - check it out!

Maresh Vineyard - Block 10