End of May Already!

Hello All,

Sorry I didn't get you that promised update last week on the dinner.  It went very well.  The food was excellent, the company fun and the wines behaved themselves.  The surprise pairing was the Marechal Foch with Red wine Braised Squid served with preserved tomatoes and harissa mayonnaise.  I think because of the high pH of Foch it often does well with tomatoes and it had enough body to balance the spice of the harissa.  It was not a typical pairing but it brought out the best of the wine.  Smoky and spicy with nice fruit and a good body.

As for what else I did last week I can't really remember.  I did have a tasting at the McMinnville Roth's on Friday and that went well.  I sold a nice amount of wine and got plenty of people to taste and talk.  I might be getting better at this selling wine thing who knows.  But don't tell Mary!  Speaking of Mary she just got back from traveling back east to the Maryland/DC area to sell wine with a new distributor.  I haven't touched base with her yet but it sounds like it went well.

Tomorrow Myron Redford, my old boss and mentor, and his wife Vikki Wetle are coming to lunch, we are going to have nicoise salad with some grilled salmon and fresh bread.  I am thinking about throwing some madeleines in as well.  I haven't tried Julia Child's recipe yet but interestingly her recipe has much less butter to flour than anything else on the internet except one from Food Network.  I'll probably stick with hers.  I am guessing that the higher butter in most recipes both makes them come out of the pan more easily as well as make them something richer and denser rather than more cake-like.  Besides these are supposed to go with tea and be my lunch dessert so I don't want anything to heavy.

We are also getting ready for Memorial  Weekend and everything is looking very spiffy.  The vineyard is at its most neat and everyone who has been by recently has mentioned how nice it looks.  The dogs just got their summer cut and the deck is open!  Come and see for yourself!  11-5pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday.