I’ve mentioned it here before, but it is time to broadcast all the details and for you to book your seats if you can join us. It’s our dinner of the year - the annual pre-IPNC dinner, to take place in our cellars on Thursday evening July 22nd. (Click here for all the IPNC details)

Alain Meunier - J-J Confuron

This year’s line-up is simply stellar. We’ll start with the wine, as one of Burgundy’s brightest stars - Domaine J-J Confuron will be joining us. Husband and wife Alain & Sophie Meunier have taken her father’s estate to the pinnacle of quality and admiration, and we are honored to be their U.S. importer - and most importantly their friends. Also joining us is the winemaker who got me started in the business and was my first mentor, the semi-legendary Greg LaFollette. He rose to fame as the winemaker at Flowers on the Sonoma Coast (where I made the first Scott Paul wines), then started Tandem Winery, and is now launching his new venture LaFollette Wines - which will debut at this year’s IPNC festivities. (seemingly everyone who makes Pinot Noir in this country has a connection to Greg - he has mentored many of California’s and Oregon’s top producers. We call it “six-degrees of Greg LaFollette” - almost all of us can trace our lineage to Greg one way or another!)

And of course we’ll have some special Scott Paul wines for the dinner as well. All together that’s three of IPNC’s featured wineries assembled for one great night. And to top it off our special guest for the evening will be IPNC 2010’s Master of Ceremonies - Food & Wine Magazine Sr. Wine editor Ray Isle!

Oh, and did I mention the food? Portland’s most celebrated chef - James Beard award winner Vitaly Paley of Paley’s Place will be at the stove, preparing his hedonistic delights to pair with the evening’s outstanding array of Pinots and Burgs. This dinner is priced at $150 per person, and seating is limited. To book yours now, simply email Kelly Karr or call her directly at 503-319-5827.

Speaking of food, it is interesting how my relationship with it has changed since I started training for the Wine-Country Half-Marathon that I’ll be running on September 5th. I’ve noticed that I’m definitely thinking of food more, but eating and desiring it significantly less. (I’m 16 weeks into my training, and up to running a 10K at this point - which I find amazing, as prior I don’t think I could have comfortably made it around the block.) I haven’t stopped eating anything in particular - but my desire for larger portions has diminished, and I don’t feel the need to eat a whole chocolate cake these days.

But I do think and dream about food a lot. Always have, (nowhere near as much as Martha, whose every waking thought is likely food connected, it seems!) It used to be a popular exercise to name your “Desert Island” albums you’d take with you (the collected works of Joni Mitchell, Springsteen and Dylan would work for me) - but how about the “last meal”? What would you want to eat if you knew it was your last chance?

Not that I think about it a great deal, but I do go back and forth between a 3-star Michelin meal and the simplicity of a great cheeseburger and fries. I’ve had the great fortune to dine at some of the top tables on the planet - including Ducasse, Gagnaire, Troisgros, Thomas Keller - and if I were to go that route I think I’d have to go with Thomas Keller and a last meal at The French Laundry - no one has dazzled my senses like that, no one captures the purity, the essence of flavors like Keller.

The burger at Le Pigeon

On the other hand, a great burger - say in the hands of Le Pigeon’s Gabriel Rucker, might just be the perfect way to go out (with Paley’s fries & garlic aioli, a side of foie gras, and a perfect dark-chocolate pot-de crème, of course!) Of course we’d need a little wine to wash it down. If I could have any wine on the planet, it would be the ‘45 Romanée-Conti (if there are any legitimate bottles remaining. There have probably been more fakes than the real thing.) Absent that, a ‘45, ‘47 or ‘49 de Vogüé Musigny would do just fine (with a perfect magnum of ‘61 Krug to start, bien sûr.)

What would your last food and wine combo be? Let me know - I’ll be reflecting on your answers while I’m on mile 5 on the trail tomorrow…

Amazing scores, wonderful press, and a dream come true - it has been a landmark couple of weeks in the world of Scott Paul and I’m excited to share it all with you.

First, we received the news that in Wine & Spirits magazine’s annual poll of top restaurants around the country, we showed up in the list of most popular Pinots in the U.S.! That really blows my mind - for our little 2,500 case winery to show up on that list with the big guns - I never would have imagined that happening. I am hugely thankful for the support of the sommeliers and restaurateurs around the country who so passionately support our little wines. (I say “little”, because we don’t make “big” wines - the kind that usually attract all the attention these days. Perhaps elegance and finesse will ultimately prevail after all! And, we must certainly be the smallest producer on that list, in terms of overall production volume).

Big kudos to all our Oregon friends and neighbors on the list - Oregon scored an amazing 15 of the top 30 slots (overtaking California who had 14 slots, and Burgundy with 1). High on the list of Oregon producers was my old stomping grounds - Domaine Drouhin Oregon. Congrat to Véronique Drouhin and the entire Drouhin family, and GM David Millman for continuing to be the class of the field.

In the same issue of Wine & Spirits we are also prominently featured in an article on the use of the so-called Dijon clones of Pinot Noir, by esteemed writer John W. Haeger (author of North American Pinot Noir and Pacific Pinot Noir - the reference books on the finnicky grape that we so love.) The magazine’s on news stands now (their website unfortunately does not publish the contents of the print magazine.)

Then came the even more amazing word that our “little” wines had just received some “monster” scores. Our wines are certainly not made in a style to chase the big scores, but it sure is wonderful when the reviews are good! Paul Gregutt, who covers Oregon & Washington wines for Wine Enthusiast (as well as his own excellent blog) - has given our 2007 La Paulée 93 points and the 2008 Audrey a whopping 95 points! These scores will be in the forthcoming June issue of the magazine - and we will certainly be framing them for display in the tasting room… “95″ is one of the highest scores ever given to an Oregon wine in any major publication, to my knowledge. (The legendary 1994 Broadley Claudia’s Choice got a 97, and there have been a few other 95s, but I think that’s the “glass ceiling” for Oregon Pinot these days…)

Chambolle-Musigny

And thirdly, a major dream of mine is about to come true. We will soon be importing the wines of Burgundy’s legendary Domaine J-F Mugnier in Chambolle-Musigny! Jacques-Frédéric Mugnier (”Freddy”, as he’s known) quite simply produces some of the most elegant, ethereal, enchanting, graceful, beguiling, and jaw-droppingly stunning wines on the planet - including his legendary Musigny and Chambolle-Musigny les Amoureuses. (And the secret weapon in the arsenal is his Nuits-St. Georges 1er Cru monopole Clos de la Marechale. Keep your powder dry and stay tuned for all the details…)

And there are more killer Burgundy surprises on the way, not to mention details on the Audrey release party coming up on April 10th, and all the scoop on our pre-IPNC dinner this summer, with chef Vitaly Paley at the stove! More soon…

I taught three Burgundy classes in the space of eight days last week, one in LA, one in Portland and one here at the winery. A great question that came up a couple of times was from attendees wanting to know where to find the best resource material to study and learn more about this complex and endlessly fascinating thing we call Burgundy.

First and foremost, the most valuable tool to help you navigate through the Burgundian maze is a subscription to Allen Meadows’ Burghound.com - which is billed as the Ultimate Burgundy Reference, and it indeed is. It comes out four times each year, covers many hundreds of producers and thousands of wines annually, and is undoubtedly the most in-depth, thorough, and informed coverage of the wines of Burgundy on the planet. Allen knows and understands Burgundy more completely than many if not most of the Burgundians themselves, and arguably has tasted more great old vintages of Burgundy than anyone alive. He is an exceptionally talented and experienced taster, and an intensely passionate student/scholar of the genre. I’ve been studying the region for nearly 40 years, and continue to learn from Allen with every new issue. (He also has a great book scheduled for publication later this year - an in-depth study of the terroir and wines of Burgundy’s greatest village, Vosne-Romanée).

For a good, basic reference book there are a few good choices, though none of them are either entirely current or totally accurate. Your best bet right now is “The Wines of Burgundy’ by Clive Coates, as it is the most recent one of the bunch, having been published in May 2008. It is a good update from Coates’ 1997 book Côte d’Or, with new maps, tons of older vintage tasting notes, and good basic information on each of the villages and top domaines. You may or may not find yourself in tune with his palate, and I enjoy this book much more for the fairly solid reference information than for the tasting notes.

“The Great Domaines of Burgundy” by Remington Norman is another good bet - it was originally published in 1996, but will soon be replaced by a new version now slated for release at the end of August. The original version is now quite out of date, but I will certainly be lining up to grab a copy of the new edition this fall.

Other top books include Anthony Hanson’s “Burgundy”, which has been revised multiple times, most recently in 2006. Matt Kramer’s “Making Sense of Burgundy” is an excellent book from 1993, and is surely due for an update in the near future. If you pick up any of these older books, just know that much of the producer information is likely out of date. That said, the appellations and the terroir of course remain essentially unchanged, so there’s still a lot of good information to be had in these pages.

If you read and understand French, there are all sorts of additional options to pursue, depending on how far you want to go go down the “rabbit hole”. A tremendous resource for all things Burgundy - books and publications in all languages - is the wonderful shop Athenaeum in Beaune - a virtual treasure-trove of wine books and magazines from all over the planet. Their vast stock is available on the internet, and they ship anywhere on the globe. After all these years, I never walk out of Athenauem without having found something new I simply must have. (They are also your best source for those famous vineyard maps of the Côte de Beaune and Côte de Nuits you see everywhere - they come as a set rolled in a tube at 39 Euros and ready to ship. These are simply a must-have for any student of the game, imho…)

Another tip for French-speakers is the excellent magazine Bourgogne Aujourd’hui, which is published every other month and does a great job of keeping you up to date on all the happenings in the region, along with a good set of reviews, producer profiles, restaurant reviews, and terroir-focused articles. A foreign-delivery subscription will run you 42 Euros a year, and it comes with four free issues of Bordeaux magazine (which I hear makes excellent bird-cage liner or puppy-training paper…)

Nothing makes a better teacher than experience, of course. Tasting and comparing as many different wines and producers as you can is the activity that will ultimately teach you the most. That and a visit to Burgundy to see it for yourself - you truly need to see it with your own eyes to fully understand how it all fits together. You can drink and study the wines for years, but it takes the on-site experience for that last puzzle-piece to fall into place. Here’s to a lifetime of discovering the glories of Burgundy!

You need the 2008 Mercurey Vieilles Vignes from Domaine Ninot. You may not yet know you need it, but you do. Trust me on this one.

This may just be the best red burg around under $50. Even better is that you can get two bottles of this for under $50 (with our new 10% 6-bottle discount). Hooked yet? Good - here’s more…

Smack in the heart of the village of Rully lies the funky warren of ancient buildings that have been cobbled together over the centuries to house Domaine Ninot. Make that over many centuries. Domaine Ninot traces its beginnings to the early 1300s! The estate is now in the hands of young Erell Ninot, who took over from her father in 2005, and has now been joined in the vineyards by her younger brother Flavien. They farm organically, and own some 29 acres throughout the villages of Mercurey, Rully and Givry in Burgundy’s Côte Chalonnaise (adjoining and directly south of the Côte de Beaune.)

The village of Mercurey

In the right hands, wines from these villages can be of very high quality, and when they are, they are also exceptional values. Erell is an energetic dynamo, in full charge of all viticulture and winemaking for the estate. She keeps her yields extremely low for the appellation (averaging 2.5 tons to the acre for the reds), and has proven to have a deft touch in the cellar. New oak is kept to 10-15% at most, so it is the beauty of the fruit and the terroir that show through, not the wood.

Martha & Pirrie in the cellar with Erell Ninot

The 2008 Mercurey Vieilles Vignes (MAIR-Kyoo-ray Vee-ay VEEN-yuh) comes from several parcels in the village, the average vine age being 60 years+. There are pretty notes of red berries and hints of underbrush on the nose, and in the mouth it’s all ripe, rich black cherries and blackberries - mouth-coating, long, and just plain delicious. At $26 a bottle it’s a steal, even better at $23.40 when you buy 6, and a staggering $20.80 per when you buy 12. It’s totally ready to drink, although I’d recommend putting some down to drink over the next 2-3 years as well. Delicious red Burgundy does not have to break the bank!

The entrance to Domaine Ninot

On another subject entirely - the quarter-finalists for the Champions League are now set  - with Arsenal, Barcelona, Inter-Milan, Manchester United, Lyon, CSKA Moscow, Bayern Munich and Bordeaux all surviving to play on. The draw will be announced on Friday, and I’m praying Arsenal get Bordeaux, Moscow or Lyon. More as it happens…

I was down last week with a particularly virulent head cold.  Boy, did that bug pack a wollop.  And I was caring for an sick 9-year-old.  So I did what anyone in that situation would do.  I baked bread, made White Wine Coq au Vin from Sunset Magazine and made green goddess dressing (I couldn’t taste it mind you, until days later, but I couldn’t resist.  Sick 9-year-old and I saw it on Barefoot Contessa.  We watched a lot of tv and are now experts on paranormal activity in old buildings across America).

Back to the bread.  What if I told you that this recipe is easy enough that you can accomplish each of its very few steps on your way to or from the bathroom to slug down another fizzy cold remedy?  Really.

Much more importantly, what if I told you that the recipe requires no skill, no technique and no special equipment (no bread stones, no sprayers, no special pans), yet it results in a great looking and tasting loaf, with a thin crispy crust and a soft, chewy center?  I guess I’d say it’s a cross between a loaf of ciabatta and good old country white.  I know this is hard to believe, but it’s a forgiving recipe too.

I’m late to the party on this one.  It swept the Internet in 2006.  It is the no-knead recipe developed by Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York.  It was written about by columnist Mark Bittman, but please please please don’t call it Bittman’s Bread.  I’m sorry I even typed that.  It is Jim Lahey’s technique, and I feel certain some ancient peoples cooking in clay pots would like some credit too.

I’ve got several photos to share, but to want to be sure that it doesn’t make it look more complicated than it is.  Basically, this recipe is a matter of mixing some flour, salt and yeast with some water, letting it sit for a long while, and then flopping that dough into a hot dutch oven. In a nutshell, that is it!  And with a recipe this simple and yielding such delicious rewards, this is a recipe that should last a lifetime.  Scott proclaimed it the best homemade bread he’s ever eaten.  I tried it both dusted with cornmeal, and dusted with white flour.  Both were delicious and I suspect that other variations - rosemary, olives, etc, will be equally delicious.

Whisk flour, salt and yeast...

Then…

add the water and stir, and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours...

…then….

the surface is covered with bubbles...

In one version, I put the dough on a marble slab and found the pastry scraper helpful because it is a sticky dough, but another time, I didn't bother. I just left the dough in the bowl and added a little flour and folded the dough over on itself and let it sit for 15 minutes...

then, according to directions, you shape it into a ball and place on a floured towel (either cornmeal or regular all-purpose flour.  I tried it each way and both were delicious.)  Note, both times, my dough didn’t look or feel like ANYTHING that would position itself into a ball, but that didn’t matter.

The dough rises for two hours on a well-floured cotton cloth.

Yum!

Here's the second version, coming out of the oven. This time, the dough had risen in a white flour-dusted cloth, instead of the cornmeal. My team liked this better than the cornmeal one, but they were both great. You place (or gently flop) the dough into a preheated Dutch oven with a lid, and bake 30 minutes with lid on, and another 15 or more without the lid.

Cooling...

Get that butter at room temperature ahead of time so you're ready for the warm bread!

aaaahhhhh.....

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!