When you’re headed out to Carlton for one our events, or just a day of wine tasting - why not make a weekend of it, and consider the following recommendations for B&B lodging:

Abbey Road Farm Bed & Breakfast

http://www.abbeyroadfarm.com/

The Allison

http://www.theallison.com

Black Walnut Inn

http://www.blackwalnut-inn.com/

Brookside Inn

http://www.brooksideinn-oregon.com/

The Carlton Inn

http://www.thecarltoninn.com/

Carlton Cottages

http://www.carltoncottages.com/

Inn At Red Hills

http://www.innatredhills.com

R.R. Thompson House Bed & Breakfast

http://www.rrthompsonhouse.com/

Youngberg Hill Vineyards & Inn

http://www.youngberghill.com/

We’re excited to announce our line-up of Burgundy Seminars for 2010. Once each month, January through June, winemaker/importer Scott Paul Wright teaches a fun 2-hour Burgundy class here at our tasting room in Carlton. You’ll learn to decipher Burgundy wine labels, understand the differences between the regions and villages, the unique history of the vineyards, and more about what makes Burgundy one of the most complex, fascinating, and compelling wine regions on the planet.

All classes are on Saturday evenings from 6-8pm, and feature 5-6 wines and a light meal of Charcuterie, Patés and Cheeses. Additionally, all of our Burgundies in stock are offered at 20% off for 12-bottle case purchases the night of the class. You may register for as many classes as you like. Seating is limited and classes tend to fill up quickly. To reserve your seats contact kellykarr@scottpaul.com or call (503) 319-5827 asap.

January 30th – Burgundy 101        Fee: $45

A great intro to the basics, which will lead to a good overall understanding of the region. The class to take if you’re new to Burgundy, or want to brush up before moving on to some of the more advanced material.
February 13th – The wines of Chambolle-Musigny   Fee: $65

This class will be entirely dedicated to exploring the wonderful terroirs, wines, and producers of Scott’s favourite Burgundian village, Chambolle-Musigny. You’ll sample top Village and Premier Cru wines from the tiny village that produces Burgundy’s most elegant, graceful, and lovely expressions of Pinot Noir on earth.
March 13th – The Graduate Class       Fee: $55

This is the class for those wanting to get deeper into the complex concentric circles of the Burgundian wine world. In-depth discussions of the top 1er and Grand Crus, along with an examination of the rules (and the thousands of exceptions to them) that are at the heart of Burgundy.
April 10th – Burgundy 101        Fee: $45

Another opportunity to get up to speed on the basics. See Jan. 30th class above for more info.
May 15th – Côte de Beaune Reds       Fee: $55

In this class we’ll focus on the great reds of Pommard, Volnay & Beaune – the three excellent, yet extremely different villages that produce the top red Burgundies from the Côte de Beaune. The difference in wines from these three  villages, each right next to the other – offers a great illustration in the concept of terroir.
June 12th – Grand Cru Burgundy     Fee: $79

Less than 2% of the vineyard land in Burgundy is classified at the Grand Cru level. These vineyards are simply the best of the best, and produce some of the world’s most profound wines. We’ll examine and discuss all 32 of the Grand Crus, and explain why all Grand Crus are not created equal. (And of course we’ll taste some too!)

Join us in Carlton on Saturday April 10th for the release of the stunning 2008 Audrey - quite simply our finest wine of the year, from an extremely fine vintage.

For the 2008 vintage, our Audrey bottling is once again comprised entirely of fruit from our blocks of Maresh Vineyard atop the Dundee Hills. This year we selected our favorite eight barrels from our old-vine blocks. Our wines from this outstanding site have proven year after year to be the best in the cellar, and they show their best when on their own. We feel this is one of the rare sites in Oregon truly deserving of “single-vineyard” status.

Maresh vineyard was planted by Jim Maresh in 1970, making it one of Oregon’s oldest (in fact only four vineyards are older.) We have a long term lease on 7.29 acres here, and we farm it Biodynamically.

Only 200 cases were produced, the majority of which were sold as futures last fall. If you missed out on futures, come join us in Carlton on April 10th!

On Saturday March 13th, 2010, from noon - 5 p.m., join us for the release of a new and very special addition to the Scott Paul Pinot Noir portfolio. Our first official release from Oregon’s outstanding 2008 vintage is a wine we have christened D122.

D122 is the name of the tiny two-lane road that winds through the great Grand Cru vineyards in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits, passing through the vineyards of the famous villages of Chambolle-Musigny, Morey-St. Denis & Gevrey-Chambertin.

The Scott Paul 2008 D122 is a selection of just six barrels from the Ribbon Ridge Vineyard, a pristine 9-acre site planted to a mixture of Pommard & Dijon clones in 2001. We felt that Ribbon Ridge produced something really special in 2008, and that it deserved to stand on its own. It has always been our philosophy to blend from our different vineyards - unless something from a single vineyard stands out as complete and unique enough to be bottled separately. And thus, the 2008 D122 - 132 cases of rich, blackberry-scented, velvety, pure Scott Paul Pinot Noir.

The 2008 D122 is priced at $35 per bottle, and will be available only direct from the winery - either from our tasting room, via our website, or by phone order. A limited number of Magnums of the D122 will also be available.

Don’t forget, our case discount is now 20%! Also, there is still space available in the Burgundy Seminar that Scott will teach that night.

I’m getting fired up for a big weekend here at the winery, starting with the release of our new D122 Pinot Noir tomorrow. Please join us for the release party from 12-5 for your first chance to taste. We selected our six best barrels from Ribbon Ridge Vyd. - which performed outstandingly in 2008, and truly deserved to stand on its own. Only a few folks outside of our team have had the chance to check it out, but the feedback has been monumentally positive - I think we’ve got a major winner. $35 a bottle, and only 132 cases produced, so it won’t be around too long. This one is only available at the winery (or online) - so you won’t see it at restaurants or in the shops…

In addition to the the D122 release we’ll have some new Burgs to taste tomorrow as well. A new container from Burgundy has just arrived, and we are stocked up with new arrivals from Domaine Buisson-Charles, Taupenot-Merme, Ninot, Frédéric Gueguen, Jean-Marc-Millot, more Crémant from Huber-Verdereau, and a brand new addition to our portfolio - Chateau des Rontets in the Mâconnais village of Fuissé. Fabio & Claire Montrassi own this magnificent property at the top of the highest hill overlooking the village and the valley, where they produce some stunning Pouilly-Fuissé as well as a deliciously slurpable Saint-Amour - produced in the 100% natural fashion with zero sulfur and no additions of any kind. We’ll definitely have this one on the flight tomorrow - a yummy steal at $22…

Chateau des Rontets in Fuissé

Then tomorrow night I’m teaching the Graduate Burgundy Class, and am looking forward getting deeper into the complexities and conundrums that make Burgundy so endlessly fascinating. Not to mention all the rockin’ 1er and Grand Cru wines we’ll be pouring!

We just heard this week that we’re going to be featured in the upcoming April issue of Wine & Spirits magazine. It’s their annual restaurant poll issue, and apparently America’s restaurateurs have named us as one of the “most popular Pinot Noirs” in the U.S.! Never in a million years did I think we’d ever show up in something like this - we’re a small, 2,500 case brand, with limited distribution - so it’s pretty amazing we snuck in there somehow. It all comes down to you - if you didn’t like what’s in the glass, we’d never show up anywhere. Huge thanks for supporting pure, authentic, non-mucked-with, low alcohol, elegant Pinot Noir! It’s my mission in life, and we’re thrilled to have you with us.

OK, enough with the endless teasers for “D122“. As you may know, it’s the name of the two-lane road that runs through the Grand Cru vineyards in Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits - starting in the village of Gevrey-Chambertin in the north and running south through Morey-St. Denis and into Chambolle-Musigny. It stands for “Départemental 122” - Départemental being the third tier in the French road system, coming after the Autoroute and Route National. It’s sort of equivalent to a state road in the U.S. Most importantly, it is the inspiration for the name of a special micro-bottling of Pinot we made from the 2008 vintage.

Over the years most of our wines have been blends from multiple vineyards, as with the younger vines we most often feel we can make a more complete wine by bringing together different characteristics from two or more of our very different sites. However, when a wine in the barrel tells us that it is complete and special enough to stand on its own - we’re happy to bottle it separately. That is usually the case with our Audrey bottling, which generally comes from a single block of our oldest vines at Maresh vineyard in the Dundee Hills.

From the outstanding 2008 vintage we not only produced the Audrey and La Paulée bottlings, but two additional small-lot wines that we thought were clearly special on their own. The first of which is the 2008 D122 - six of our best barrels from Ribbon Ridge Vineyard. There are only 132 cases of this baby, but oh what a baby!

Ribbon Ridge Vineyard

There’s an intriguing combination of red and black fruits on the nose and palate, with a round, ripe, richness in the mouth and flavors that keep building and building as the finish flows on and on. Come taste for yourself on Saturday from 12-5, for the official release party and your chance to grab a few bottles or twelve before they disappear. The D122 is $35 per bottle (and with our 20% case discount that knocks it down to $28 each by the case). I’m really excited to have you check out this wine, so join us on Saturday if you can.

We’ll also have a bunch of new arrivals from Burgundy for you on Saturday - new vintages from Taupenot-Merme, Jean-Marc Millot, Domaine Ninot, Buisson-Charles, Frédéric Gueguen, Violot-Guillemard, and a brand new addition to the portfolio - Chateau des Rontets in Fuissé (details later in the week).

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a shot of the hedonistically delicious charcuterie board at Portland’s Metrovino, where we had a rockin’ great meal on Friday night…

Hello unpaid garden helper!  I am so happy to see you and your friends.  So many of you!  With a rare few hours on a Sunday all to myself, I sought you out.  Thank you so much for munching all that dead green matter, aerating my soil and generally getting everything ready for my summer vegetable garden.  I hope I didn’t hurt you with the shovel — it kind of looks like you have a wound, but I was trying to be very careful.  I’m working on my computer all week, but I’ll be back on Sunday with some nutrient rich compost.  Hope you like it.  I got the good organic stuff.  Only the best for you.

15-hour leg of lamb with a turnip gratin at Bluehour

We’re off to the Classic Wines Auction tonight (at the Convention Center - 750 people!) for the first time in many years.  I appreciated Executive Chef Kenny Giambalvo’s refreshingly honest remarks at our more intimate pre-Classic Wines Auction winemaker dinner Tuesday night at Bluehour.  We were honored to be asked to participate, and it was a pleasure to reconnect with the owners of De Lille Cellars, a Washington winery focused on Syrah and Bordeaux-style blends, with whom we were paired years ago for a dinner at Oba.

When given the chance to say a few words, Kenny didn’t give himself even a minute in the limelight, but rather, thanked his team, and thanked Classic Wines Auction and its patrons for providing a forum for a little creative outlet — allowing the chefs to invent dishes to complement the wineries’ latest releases.  Last year wasn’t fun, he admitted.  He’s right.  It was more a year of counting beans than cooking them up creatively.  And while those of us in the food and wine industries do indeed get asked to donate until we want to cry  “Uncle,” it is still a privilege to be able to do it, and to take part in the fabulous evenings.  Yet, our donations of wine and wine adventures would be valueless without the good-hearted wine-lovers who bid on them!

Please check back soon…no-knead bread, and open-faced chicken pot pie, with lots of photos…coming up!

Ace in the hole cake?  Beyond Great Chocolate Cake?  In the time it will take me to come up with a moniker for this cake, you can bake it!  No matter what you call it, this is a new home run, go-to recipe for our family collection.  Scott is the chocoholic, while I dream in almond, lemon or raspberry, but I can honestly say that this cake sends me.  It is ridiculously easy, and each forkful is better than you remembered from the previous one.  Each of us kept remarking on the outstanding chocolate.  Since Scott used Scharffenberger 70% this first time, we’ll stick with that.  It was exceptional.  The only barely sweetened, softly whipped cream was a nice counterpoint.  The recipe comes from Clotilde Dusoulier’s Chocolate & Zucchini blog, where she attempts to credit the recipe’s provenance.

Melt-in-your-mouth Chocolate Cake

- 200g (2 sticks minus 1 Tbsp) butter
- 200g (7 oz) dark chocolate
- 200g (1 C) sugar
- 4 eggs
- a rounded tablespoon of flour

Note: like all dark chocolate cakes, this cake is best made a day ahead (or at least in the morning if you serve it for dinner).

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Line an 8-inch round cake pan with parchment paper (no need to if you’re using a non-stick pan).

Melt together the butter with the chocolate (in a double-boiler or in the microwave slowly and for just a few seconds at a time, blending with a spoon between each pass). Transfer into a medium mixing-bowl. Add in the sugar, stir with a wooden spoon and let cool a little. Add in the eggs one by one, mixing well after each addition. Finally, add in the flour and mix well.

Pour the dough into the pan, and put into the oven to bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center is set but still a little wobbly. Turn the oven off but leave the cake inside for another ten minutes, then put the pan on a cooling rack on the counter to cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate, and take it out about an hour before serving.

First off, I am happy to report that the Clotilde Dusouliers‘ recipe for “melt in your mouth” chocolate cake was a huge success. Pirrie and I worked on it together, and we are thrilled to have discovered what will now be our go-to cake when entertaining at home (or when we have that “I just need a whole chocolate cake” moment…) You can see the results on Martha’s Blog here…

Perhaps even more exciting is the way the English Premiere League race is shaping up. My Arsenal boys have moved within three points of Chelsea, and just a point behind Manchester United - and with ten games left Arsenal seem to have the easiest remaining schedule. Anything can and will happen - it is way too close to call, but I’m predicting a race to the wire that will down to the last day. Squeeky-bum time, as they say in the U.K…

In the cellar with Champagne maestro Clo Chauvet

Martha made the most excellent roast chicken on Sunday night, and we paired it with the Marc Chauvet Millésime 2002 Brut - which reminded me to remind you how wonderful Champagne is with food. Too often pigeon-holed as an apéritif or a celebration beverage, the great bubblies are a fabulous complement to food - you really should try it. We love it with sushi, almost all asian dishes, as well as salmon, chicken, and all sorts of fish and shellfish. I grew up drinking Champers with dinner, so it seems perfectly normal to me. If you haven’t experienced this combo yet, check it out soon, and let me know what you think…