JUSTIN Food & Wine Blog

Staying in for Valentine's Day?

Perhaps you appreciate staying in for something a little more intimate on Valentines Day?  We have the perfect dinner for you to prepare.  You just need to hit the grocery for a few items (listed below).  I'd recommend also picking up some mixed greens for a salad and chocolates for a simple dessert.  This recipe is guaranteed to impress - especially if you serve it with our 2009 ISOSCELES. 

 

SEARED KOBE BEEF with Yorkshire Pudding and Horseradish Cream.
Recipe by JUSTIN's Chef Will Torres

 

FOR SEARED KOBE BEEF

Kobe beef or New York dry aged beef

1/2 bunch of chives, chopped

Sear Kobe beef to medium rare (125 internal temperature).  Can alternatively use a flat iron.

 

FOR YORKSHIRE PUDDING

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups milk

3 large eggs

Pinch of nutmeg

4 tablespoons canola oil

Preheat oven to 400.  Put eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg in blender.  Mix on medium high speed.  When combined, slowly pour in flour.  Let mix until thoroughly combined.  Let batter rest for 20 minutes.  Pour a thin layer of oil in a mini muffin tin, and place in oven until extremely hot.  Pour in the pudding mixture (one quarter to halfway up), and bake in the hot oven for 15-20 minutes and until golden brown.

 

FOR HORSERADISH CREAM

2 tablespoons horseradish

1/4 teaspoon black ground pepper

1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream

1/4 cup heavy cream, whipped to semi-stiff peaks

Fold heavy cream into creme fraiche.  Add in horseradish and black pepper  Add salt to taste.

 

TO ASSEMBLE:

Put Yorkshire pudding on serving piece.  Top with slices of Kobe beef, and add a dollop of horseradish cream and chopped chives. 

 

Winter is in the Air at JUSTIN (Part 2 of 2)

After thorough experimentation by our Vineyard Manager Paul Kaselionis, we have decided to switch over three vineyard blocks from the “cordon trained, spur pruned” methods (shown in yesterday’s post’s photos) to “head trained, cane pruned.”  The blocks we are converting are cabernet sauvignon, but the decision was not variety driven but rather based on the conditions present in each of the vineyards and the potential to grow even higher quality fruit.

 

To convert these vines from cordon trained spur pruned to head trained, cane pruned (also called Guyot training), we cut off the cordons to form a head from which all future growth will come.  As you can see in the photo, we left a few canes to provide the one-year-old wood for our next season’s growth as seen above.  The pink paint seen in the photo is used to seal the area where the cordons were cut to protect the plant from airborne disease vectors like fungal spores.

The next step is to select the two healthiest canes with the proper bud spacing, gently bend them down, wrap them around the trellis wire and tie them down.  This will properly space out the coming season’s growth and provide optimum competition between clusters for the plant’s resources, while giving good sun exposure and airflow within the canopy during the coming growing season. 

 

 

The stubby cane just above the former cordon on the left (see red arrow) is a “renewal stub” that contains the buds that will provide the mature canes to be tied down to the trellis for the 2014 vintage after we cut and remove the canes presently trained on the trellis wire.  Unlike the cordon method of training, the canes that form the vine’s “T” shape are removed each year and new one-year-old canes, from the renewal stub, are laid down on the trellis to replace them.

Like the cordon system, a cane pruned vine can be a unilateral (single cane), or bilateral (two cane) configuration based vigor of the plants and the soils they are in.  We use a bilateral, or “T” shaped configuration to match the vigor of our vines to the growing conditions of our vineyards and keep our yields in check by limiting the resources available to each cluster through the vine.

The major difference between spur and cane pruning has to do with how the new growth will get its sustenance from the plant.  With the spur trained cordon system, the older, thicker cordon supplies what the new growth needs to grow, through the buds on the small one-year-old spur.  With cane pruning, the buds on the one year old cane supplies the new growth, helping to control the cluster size and check vigorous growth.  The soil the vine is planted in, exposure to sunlight, climate and many other factors help us decide how to balance each vineyard block to produce the best fruit that will ultimately become our wines.

With all of this information, you see that there are a lot of decisions that need to be made even before our vines wake up in the spring.  Here’s to a great vintage for 2013!

Cheers,

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Certified Sommelier

Winter is in the Air at JUSTIN (Part 1 of 2)

During the late winter months, there is a lot of activity in our vineyards as the vines are pruned and readied to produce top quality fruit that will become JUSTIN wines in the coming vintage.  Pruning is the process where old growth is selectively removed from the vine, while the plants are dormant, in order to assure optimum growing conditions in the coming months.  The subtle smoky smell of the cuttings being burned in the chilly morning air around the vineyards is yet another reminder of our connection to the ancient annual cycle to which we are connected as we produce the 2013 vintage.

Why prune?

Vines have their own ideas about what they should do, and left to their own resources they would send out shoots to touch the ground and sprout roots to form new plants.  This “layering” process would fulfill the vine’s natural tendency to produce as much fruit as possible and perpetuate their species, but leave us with less than optimum fruit from which to make our wines.

Winter pruning provides us with a way to “train” the vine to provide the best fruit for winemaking and assure good plant health.  The best fruit is grown from buds that sprout on one-year-old wood, so every winter while the plants are “sleeping”,  the vines are cut back to optimize the quality and quantity of the fruit we will grow in the coming year.

Spur or Cane?

There are two basic types of pruning methods for grapevines, spur and cane pruning.  We incorporate both methods in our vineyards, depending on soils, aspect (direction the vines face), grade (angle of the vineyard on a hillside) and other factors, to help us meet our objective of growing the highest quality fruit for our wines.  There is no right or wrong, just a continual gradient of balance that needs to be revisited and interpreted from time to time.

 

When you look at one of our spur trained vines at the end of the growing season, shown in the photo above with all of the leaves off, you see a “T” shaped plant with a thick central trunk and two slightly thinner arms or cordons extending horizontally about three feet above the soil. The tan colored  vertical canes (now one year old) are the full growth from the 2012 season. 

 

After pruning, this same vine after it has had the one-year-old canes pruned down to “spurs” with two buds that (red arrows) will sprout the shoots that will bear fruit during the 2013 growing season.  This configuration is referred to as cordon trained, spur pruned, sometimes called Cordon de Royat.

Tomorrow, I’ll going to discuss how we are improving some of our cabernet sauvignon vines by trying a different pruning technique.

Cheers,

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Certified Sommelier

Holiday Celebrations... Returning to our Roots

At this special time of the year, we find ourselves going back to our roots by gathering with family and friends in the celebration of at least one of the cluster of holidays celebrated by various traditions at this time of the year. 

Holiday traditions abound within families- favorite heirloom ornaments for the tree, or a Menorah handed down for generations - these holidays themselves are often tied to ancient traditions be it Hanukkah, Christmas, or even a Solstice celebration giving us hope that the daylight will soon start increasing.  As ancient as these celebrations may be, we find that wine has always had a part in their celebration. 

Just recently, an article was published by two prominent scientists, one an expert  in genetics of grape varieties the other with the archaeology wine, which confirms that domesticated grapes and wine have been with us at least 7,000 years and possibly longer.  Wine’s religious significance just within the Judeo-Christian tradition alone is well accepted and is still used, whether actually or symbolically, in worship services around the world.

 The reason for this ancient precedence is actually very simple; grapes are the only fruit that naturally contain everything you need to make wine, provided the conditions are present to start the process.  Long ago, some lucky person happened upon a container of grapes that had been overlooked and partook of the lucky accident, the first wine tasting.  Liking what they experienced, they passed the word along to others and the rest is, well, literally history.  In times when water supplies were suspect, and struggling peoples needed a caloric supplement  to their meager diet in order to give them the energy to labor for their existence, wine appeared as a gift that also helped ease their mind at the end of a long day.

In ancient times, like today, there was also a great demand for premium wines.  The Egyptian kings  used  their “bearers of secrets in the wine-hall” an ancient precursor to modern sommeliers, to select which wines were worthy of the Pharaonic court, while the Greeks and Romans had their own favorite legendary wines that still live, if only by name, through the texts of Plato and Pliny.

In climates were grapes could not be grown, wine brought by land and sea spawned some of the first major import /export commerce, whether from Syria to Mesopotamia, or from Portugal to England. In some cases this trade even influenced the way some wines were made in order to make them transportable for long periods without spoilage.  In a few cases the wines actually arrived in even better condition than they left and to this day we still enjoy wines like Madeira, Sherry, Port, and Commandaria which were made for long transport.

While the style and quality of the wines we now make may have changed considerably over millennia, the process of making a quality wine pretty much remains the same.  We at JUSTIN are committed to making wines that maintain that long and ancient tradition and that will put us in “in the company of the finest wines of the world”.  Our wines are hand harvested to select the finest fruit and each vineyard is fermented separately with great care and the resulting wine is placed in barrels for aging like many of the finest wines that have been made for millennia before them. With the last of our wines from the 2012 vintage going from tank to barrel, we add yet another vintage to the ancient chain that started with that first taste of those fermented grapes long ago.

This year as you sit at your holiday meal with your loved ones and contemplate your own roots with a glass of ISOSCELES, JUSTIFICATION, or JUSTIN Cabernet Sauvignon in hand, we wish you the best for the future with our gift from the past… the finest, finely crafted wines we can make and share with you at this special time.  Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones.

Cheers,

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Certified Sommelier

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like... Winter!

By Molly Dow, Viticulturist

It can take some time for the typical winter weather to arrive here on the Central Coast, but we welcomed it with open arms in early December. A series of storms ripped through Paso Robles and after receiving 4.85 inches of rain and 20mph winds – we are reminded that winter does exist in California and how incredibly important it is for our vineyards. Now is the time for our grapevines to go dormant, or “shut-down” if you will. Grapevines are annual deciduous plants that require cold weather or even below-freezing temperatures to transition the plant from an active to an inactive state. Prior to the grapevine’s dormancy, the plant conserves energy and begins storing carbohydrates in its root system which will then be used for new growth the following spring.

Currently, the grapevine leaves are transitioning from those luscious autumn colors, with many already going ‘Full Monty’!  As our vines go dormant, our focus turns, keeping a close eye on what’s sprouting next: our cover crop! The season never stops when you’re a farmer. Yes our priority is tend to the vines and grow incredible fruit but these beautiful ‘green carpets’ growing down our vine rows and avenues share an equally important role to the vineyards’ health and success. Our cover crop, which is drill-seeded down the vine row, is sprouting and right on schedule. Due to our proximity to the ocean, we typically receive the majority of the coastal weather influence and storms, often doubling or tripling our annual rainfall totals in comparison to the City of Paso Robles, just 13 miles east. A mix of dwarf barley, oats and bell beans each have a particular purpose in our cover crop program. We depend on their growth to aid as a form of erosion control throughout our vineyards as well as acting as a buffer strip to protect our creeks.  Come springtime, we will disc the tall cover crop back into the soil and use this as a green manure-like-compost. In our case, the cover crop we grow becomes the only nitrogen input the vines see for the year.  So the next time you visit us or take one of our tours, watch where you step! That’s no ordinary landscaping, that’s our cover crop! Take a closer look at the different leaf blade shapes and see if can remember which is which!

Winemaker Scott Shirley Reflects on the Harvest

     Apples?  Bananas.  What is the first word which comes to mind when I say, “Up?”  Down.  And “Simple Eukaryote?”  Saccharomyces cerevisiae.  I learned to associate these words while studying Genetics in college; as a Pre-Med student, I had no idea that my eventual career would depend so heavily on this yeast’s ability to convert sugar to alcohol.  These laborious little organisms will literally work themselves to death, producing alcohol until they are no longer able to survive (usually around 15% alcohol, but the designer yeast Uvaferm-43 is tolerant of alcohols up to 18%!)  All of the grapes may be picked, but we still have a full house of fermenting tanks waiting to be drained and pressed.  So, while I reflect on my first vintage in Paso Robles, these busy bodies are still hard at work.

 Last Friday, I thanked all of our seasonal cellar workers for their work in making this harvest a success.  Their tireless efforts and seemingly unending days of sorting berries, pump-overs, and shoveling tanks have resulted in the best wines I’ve tasted during my past 16 years in the wine industry.  A warm summer and nearly ideal growing conditions, with relatively ineffectual frost and rain events, created fantastic potential in the vineyards.  Growers from whom we purchase fruit are committed to the same quality that we expect from our Estate fruit and I enjoyed learning the unique personalities of their sites.  I’m particularly impressed with the Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot this season, varieties which take advantage of Paso’s heat by attaining ripe, dark-fruit flavors while maintaining spice and complexity.

As our harvest interns say goodbye and the wine-grape growers praise the recent storms for replenishing the aquifer, the 2012 vintage draws to a close.  This was the most prolonged Crush I have worked, stretching from the first pick of Sauvignon Blanc on August 21 to the very last Cabernet Sauvignon berry picked on November 16. 

I raise a toast to all those involved during the amazing transformation which occurs from berry to glass, especially to my humble co-worker Uvaferm-43!

Cheers,

Scott Shirley
Winemaker

Let’s talk Turkey…or not

When it comes to wine pairing for that special Thanksgiving meal, everyone goes searching for the perfect wine to pair with turkey. It got to be a white, right? Is it Chardonnay, Viognier, or maybe Sauvignon Blanc? In reality, that beautiful turkey sitting at the middle of the table of your holiday feast is a bit of, well, a red herring! Let me explain myself a bit.

If you look around that holiday table, I think you will find some dishes that will change your mind about the kind of wine(s) you might want to have on-hand. For instance, how about that stuffing all herbed up with sage, rosemary or thyme and possibly even with some sausage mixed in? Probably not a great match for the white wine you picked to go with the turkey. Cranberries as well, can offer some challenge since they are tart and have a flavor intensity that requires some thought when it comes to pairing with a wine. Those glazed carrots would take us in a totally different direction.

I don’t mean to make things even more complex, but let’s add another variable to the mix; your guests’ taste in wine. Remember, your Aunt Sue only drinks white wines and Uncle Mike only drinks reds. It’s just as important to consider matching the wines you serve to your guests’ taste is as it is to match them with the food you are serving.

So, at this point, you’re probably mumbling to yourself about life being too complex, and thinking about switching to beer for your holiday meal, but hang in there, I am about to make life real easy for you.

Because of the broad selection of dishes on the table, Thanksgiving presents the perfect opportunity to present a selection of wines that key in on a range of dishes and then allow your guests choose for themselves. Also, because this dinner is typically served family style, in other words not served in separate courses, there is less of need for specific pairings. Of course, you want the wines you serve to generally match the selections you have chosen for your meal, and to be of a quality level that reflects the care you put into a great meal, but now you can relax let your guest choose the wines of their liking based on their taste and what they put on their plates.

OK, I have made my point about how to pair wines with this special meal, but you are probably still wondering about specific wines. Well, I just might have a few JUSTIN wines that would be great a variety of dishes that might be on your table on Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving Trio is comprised three of our best food pairing wines; JUSTIN 2011 Chardonnay, 2010 JUSTIFICATION and the very limited 2010 Reserve Malbec, or now that we have cleared up the Thanksgiving pairing question, you can choose your own favorites from our portfolio of great wines like ISOSCELES or Reserve Cabernet for your meal.

The quality of these wines speaks to the care you took in preparing your holiday meal and the variety of styles will please even the most particular wine connoisseur in your group. 

Happy Holidays!

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Winery Sommelier

 

JUST the crush pad

We have been working hard this harvest.  Here's a behind the scene look at what happens on our Crush Pad.  All of our grapes are hand harvested.  When they arrive at the winery, every lot of grapes get the same treatment.  Thus, all of the grapes are treated like they are destined for the ISOSCELES Reserve on the Crush Pad.  

 

Harvest Update from Viticulturist Molly Dow

We are still deep in harvest here at JUSTIN.  We grabbed this quick video of Viticulturist Molly Dow a few days back giving us an update on harvest.  She's at one of our Cabernet Sauvignon Vineyards in Paso Robles.

 

“The Art of Blending” by Winemaker Scott Shirley

Field blends were common before DNA profiling allowed growers to correctly discern whether a vineyard was interplanted to two or more different grape varieties.  Zinfandel often shared ground with Petite Sirah or Carignan, and all the fruit was merrily mixed together in the picking bin for sake of convenience.  As finicky winemakers became more concerned with fine-tuning the finished product, however, a closer attention to detail was required. Now, if vineyard managers want to customize their plantings to tailor fit a patch of soil, then they need to purchase cuttings of irrefutable identity from a reputable nursery and further, to select specific clones.

Subtle differences between clones of the same variety arise when cuttings from a “mother” vine (with identical genetic material) are planted in a new site. Mutations inevitably occur and the vine may naturally adapt to a particular set of growing conditions, so that certain characteristics (such as berry / cluster size, yield, aromas, flavor, and ultimately, quality) differ from the parent vine.  When a viticulturist assesses a plot of land for development, they will usually choose several clones in order to increase the likelihood that one of them will be a perfect match to the microclimate.  Consequently, even a vineyard designated 100% varietal Cabernet can be a blend of clones.

During harvest at Justin, each vineyard block is hand-picked and fermented separately, so that each can be evaluated on its own merit.  Each tank is barreled down separately, resulting in over a hundred distinct lots to taste and blend.  This inventory tasting is sorted by variety and block (our Estate vineyard blocks range from 0.8 - 18 acres.)  Detailed tasting notes along with instinctual first impressions help guide the blending process.  Some barrel lots lend themselves to the desired flavor profile of the Isosceles Reserve – the darkest, most intense fruit with both power and finesse – while others seem better suited to Justification, with elegant red fruit and complex spice components.

After harvest, I assemble a series of trial blends, each varying slightly. Tasted blind, my favorite then advances to the next round of blending, where minor adjustments are made.  With a cooler vintage like 2011, I found myself using more Merlot since it’s an earlier ripening variety and brings a perceived sweetness and better texture to the mid-palate as a result of higher sugars at harvest.  Once a final blend is decided on the bench-top, barrels are pumped into tank for cellar-scale blending and then returned to a mix of various coopers’ barrels for 18-24 months.

Extensive barrel trials each year (in ’11, there were 19 unique barrel treatments!) guarantee that we are getting the intended contributions from the oak and toasting regimens.  It is possible to request the same forest, same toast, and same tightness of grain from a dozen coopers and get a dozen different, nuanced barrels.  Making a barrel is as much of an art as winemaking. So, even a “finished” blend will exist as separate cooper components.  The final bottling blend is not created until the last pump-out, when oak notes of molasses, vanilla, or graham cracker are integrated.  Ideally, the resulting blend is greater than the sum of all its parts!