JUSTIN Food & Wine Blog

The best wines are well balanced. So are the best wine events!

For this Saturday’s, ISOSCELES 2009 Pre-Release Party, we are focused on creating an event that symbolized the balance and vigor of the wine we are all celebrating! Every year, the JUSTIN Team is challenged to recreate and expand on an already seasoned event. For the 2009 ISOSCELES Pre-Release Party, we are going to be doing this through a number of ways, all of which balance our traditional experiences with new features.

Personally, in my group of friends being first to do something means one important thing; that you get to shamelessly brag about it to the rest of the group! JUSTIN Winery is extremely fortunate to have such devoted fans and this Saturday we are offering you the opportunity to be among the first people in the world to try the 2009 ISOSCELES! To really provide you with irrefutable evidence that you were here, we will be taking  pictures as you savor and enjoy the 2009 ISOSCELES that will then be featured on our Facebook page with a resounding proclamation of “I Liked It First”! I will be keeping mine in my wallet and bring it up to strangers in casual conversations!

Wine is always going to be at the core for all of our events. However, there is no reason we can’t find balance in the food we present as well. As always, our own Executive Chef Will Torres from The Restaurant at JUSTIN will be providing an exquisite array of appetizers to allow our partygoers to experience foods that flawlessly compliment the JUSTIN wine lineup.

I hope you can all join us on January 28^th!

Cheers!

Brian Connor, CSW

Wine Society Lounge Coordinator

JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery

Pour a glass and join our Facebook community!

 

Happy New Year!

At the beginning of  2012, the pace of life at JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery has changed from the fermentation activity of the 2011 harvest, to more deliberate zen-like activities in our cave cellar.  With the last of the 2011 red wines finishing their malolactic fermentation our cellar crew is now concentrating on topping up barrels. 

As wine develops while being stored in a barrel, there is a small amount of evaporation that takes place through the wood of the barrel.  This  concentrates the wine slightly, but it also reduces the amount of wine in the barrel a little.  To avoid excessive oxygen contact from the air that has found its way into the barrel, we visit each barrel about once a month and add a bit of wine from the same batch of wine to displace the air and keep the wine in optimum condition. 

This “topping off”  is all done by hand and in the case of the  barrel “pyramids” lining the walls of our cave, this means a lot of climbing around with flashlights in hand.  From the JUSTIN Cabernet to the ISOSCELES, our red wines spend 16 to 24 months in barrel and topping them every month makes for a lot of work.  This attention to detail and “going the extra mile” is needed to produce a quality wine that will “belong in the company of the finest wines in the world”.

Jim Gerakaris, CSW

Certified Sommelier JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery

 

Long before winery dogs became a trendy industry accessory, there was Sunny. If you have ever visited our winery, you’ve probably seen him—he’s hard to miss. And while Sunny may be slowing down after so many years, his legacy at JUSTIN is still going strong.

We picked Sunny up at a local breeding ranch about 15 years ago. He was so cute. He fit in the palms of your hands and was the most athletic of his brothers and sisters. He had all the right breeding papers but they were lost long ago as we mostly wanted him to play with Morgane and Evan when they were young, and we never had plans to show him. He has always been good with children.

Sunny lived outside from the get-go. He was never a house dog. He spent the day in the vineyards with workers who dutifully fed him tacos and enchiladas. As he grew, he became an adept hunter. I watched with amazement as he and his canine compadre Minnie tracked and captured (and ate!) rabbits and gophers. He is also a good swimmer. We often found him in the pool cooling off but he was equally interested in recovery ponds and fountain basins.

As he got older and the restaurant got more popular, he stayed closer to home, gobbling up leftovers given to him by the chefs at the end of each evening. Weekends became his time to shine. When we moved into our home on the other side of the property in 2001, we took him with us. Day after day, he would rise early and walk back to the tasting room. He never said anything to us, but I suspect the attention and the leftovers were an irresistible draw. After months of unsuccessfully trying to get him to stay at the new house, we gave in and let him reside full time at the tasting room under the watchful eye of Katherine Wiebe, our caretaker, the tasting room team and the wait staff at the restaurant.

Sunny loves to be petted, and I estimate that more than 250,000 different people have enjoyed the privilege. He has never been mean. You can tie his tail in a knot, pull his ears, dress him in Halloween costumes, ride him like a horse or kiss his lips without fear or trepidation!

He is very curious, which hasn’t always worked out in his best interest. Twice he was bitten by rattlesnakes. He swelled up double in size and just sat there looking at you! Each time we took him to the vet for an anti-venom shot. After the second bite, I guess he learned his lesson.

I chalk up his longevity, in spite of his “ginormous” size, to his years of running in the vineyard and the endless attention he has received from so many admirers. He gets emails; has had his photo taken thousands of times; is the subject of most of the inquiries I get at JUSTIN events; has attended weddings and celebrations; is the star of winery events; and has appeared on postcards and winery promotions. But none of it has gone to his head.

He is simply Sunny. He is loved universally and has become synonymous with JUSTIN for anyone visiting the winery. His name says it all…

Thank you for all your wonderful stories, pictures and kinda words about your experiences with Sunny.

-Justin

First Impressions

We were happy to host Wine Enthusiast Senior Editor and Tasting Director Joe Czerwinski at JUSTIN Vineyards and Winery last Thursday.  Joe was in town for the landmark Hospice de Rhone event and he confessed to us that this was his first time to Paso Robles.  Not that he had deliberately shunned us, but in his duties covering the wines of Australia, New Zealand, the Rhone and Germany for the Wine Enthusiast, Joe has just not been able to make it out here and see what the buzz is all about. 

It did not hurt that we were enjoying a beautiful Central Coast California Spring day when he arrived (straight off the plane from blustery New York, I might add), but Joe was wowed by the now green rolling hills on the drive out to the winery.  

After a walk around through our Tasting Room, Restaurant and the JUST Inn, Joe went on a tour of the vineyard with Paul Kaselionis, our Vineyard Manager.  Joe was very interested to find out more about the soils and regional growing characteristics of Paso Robles, so his time in our vineyards with Paul was welcomed and Joe had plenty of questions.  Paul is meticulous with his treatment of our vines, tending to think less about whole vineyards and blocks and more about individual vines so it was a good opportunity to better understand our vineyards with the eight or more different soil types on the property and difference that elevation can make even within a block of vines.  Paul is a tireless proponent of more natural farming techniques incorporating elements of Biodynamic, Organic and Sustainable farming, and he explained to Joe how we were able to eliminate the use of chemical weed control in our vineyard through careful planning, mechanical weeding, and dry farming.

When we arrived up the hill from the Tasting Room at the production side of the estate, Fred Holloway, our Winemaker, took Joe through the winemaking facility explaining our high quality, detail oriented winemaking style.  Fred explained that many of the winemaking techniques that we use here at JUSTIN are derived from Justin’s love for the first growth Bordeaux estates; multiple passes when picking, extensive sorting of the grapes by the berry, careful and slow skin contact in the tank as well as use of the best French Oak barrels in the cellar, are all standard practices at many of the best producers  in Bordeaux and highlight what Fred likes to call the “blood, sweat, and tears” that form the foundation for quality wines like ISOSCELES, JUSTIFICATION, Reserve Cabernet  and our other wines.

I took Joe on a walk-through of our caves, highlighting our ISOSCELES Library, 120 feet underground where we store our reference collection of ISOSCELES from past vintages before we began our tasting in our Evaluation Room where we do our blending trials.

For the tasting, we picked out three flights to show Joe the range of our wines:

We started with our 2008 JUSTIFICATION and Reserve Cabernet.  Fred explained the philosophy of each wine with JUSTIFICATION showing an elegant Cabernet Franc based wine in the style of Pomerol or St. Emilion.  I pointed out that our estate Cabernet Franc has some great Cab Franc tobacco and herby varietal characteristics that help make this wine a complex, more elegant, but substantial red wine that pairs well with pork, veal and game birds with complex sauces.  The second wine in this flight was our Reserve Cabernet, which is fundamentally the other end of the range of the Bordeaux-styled wines, more appropriately the California style.  Big, bold fruit forward, with a firm tannin structure that steals the show every time.

Joe Czerwinski, Wine Enthusiast's Senior Editor and Tasting Director tasting through JUSTIN wines with Winemaker Fred Holloway and me.

The next flight was appropriately Syrah themed in honor of the Hospice du Rhone.   We started with our 2008 SAVANT, a wine that steals a bit of the Aussie Shiraz/Cab style, with some great depth of spice and fruit, but with a more restrained, Bordeaux-like structure that makes it a great pairing wine with food like game meats; think wild boar or venison with mustard-cream sauce or peppercorn-wine reduction.   The other wine in this flight was the 2008 FOCUS, our bold, spicy tribute to the new world style of Syrah here in Paso with 96% barrel fermented Syrah with 4% Grenache.

Flight three was a real treat; a four vintage vertical of ISOSCELES (2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008) with commentary by Fred, the person who made the wines!  All of the wines are drinking well with the two oldest vintages showing some wonderful notes of forest  floor, licorice and other spices.  Fred explained that the 05 was a wine that was all about mouth-feel and richness with some exceptional aging potential, while the 06 is a very elegant, balanced and showy wine that shows the grace that ISOSCELES can show.  2007 stands out on its own.  This is a wine that rewards cellaring and is only just starting to open up in the glass.  Rich and complex with beautiful cinnamon/chocolate-like spice highlights that Joe described as being similar to Mexican Chocolate.  The 2008 was the pup of the group, but considering its youth, it is already showing beautifully with nice black fruit and spice apparent.

Unfortunately time passed all too quickly, and with Joe eager to check out the highly recommended Paso dining scene, we said our goodbyes on the stairs of the ISOSCELES center.  Joe’s parting comment was that he was sorry he waited so long to visit Paso Robles and if his first few hours were any indication of what was to come in the next few days, he would definitely be back here for next year’s Hospice du Rhone!  See you then Joe!

Drink wines you like, but understand why you like them!

Jim

Of Bananas, Wine and Vintage Charts

  
In every JUSTIN Times (our Wine Society Newsletter), we publish a chart which offers recommended times on when our wines are showing well.  These charts are, by their very nature, flawed (more about that later) but in the case of our Spring/Summer 2011 Newsletter, we found some serious clerical errors that had some of our members panicking about when to drink some of their wines.  Rest assured, these wines have not gone bad just because the chart mistakenly says they are “too late”.  Below is an article on how wines change over time, and why your personal taste, as well as wine’s general disregard for being commodified, defy the whole concept of a “perfect moment” on when to open a particular bottle.

I happen to like bananas as a quick, healthy snack.  Like wine, bananas can only be grown well in certain regions and require some logistical planning to get them to you in good condition.  Like wine, they also change over time.  We all know that the green-skinned  bananas that we buy in the store, will in time turn yellow, then a speckled black, eventually turning black on the outside and soft on the inside with the flavor and texture changing as well .  Wines share some similarities to bananas in respect to their evolution through time, and like bananas, people tend to have some strong, but differing, opinions about when in their life wines should be drunk.

Wines, both red and white, have components that not only affect taste, color and texture, but also affect how wine changes in time.  The relationship between these components is often referred to as balance, and this changes while the bottle sits in the cellar over time.  In red wines, these would include tannins (compounds that cause that dry, almost chalky feeling in your mouth), acidity (causes that lively, mouthwatering feeling), as well as flavor, color and aromatic components that contribute to a wine’s body and intensity that affect your general perception in reference to your personal taste (hopefully in a good way, but sometimes not so good when they are not working together). 

In a young wine, fruit characteristics are very pronounced and those chalky tannins can be very aggressive.  Most of the wine purchased in the United States is consumed shortly after purchase and since most people do not cellar wines, many have acquired a taste for this more aggressive flavor and tactile profile.  It’s a shame in a way, since most red wines, and some whites, can really get much nicer with even a year in the cellar.  This situation only points out two obvious things about wine and how we look at it.  By its own ever changing nature, fine wine defies becoming a commodity and the more we consume rather than enjoy wine, the more we miss one of the most attractive aspects of this beverage that has been appreciated for millennia.

Over time, the tannins in a red wine join up with color and flavor components in the wine and form really long molecules that get so heavy that they fall to the bottom of the bottle in the form of sediment.  This is usually apparent after about four or five years in most red wines.  The tannins have physically linked up with color and flavor molecules (some of the most apparent contributors in a young wine) and since they are sitting on the bottom of the bottle in the form of sediment, they are no longer contributing to a wine’s palate and aroma intensity.  These components (anti-oxidants) have come together after reacting with the very minute amounts of oxygen that permeate the cork in a bottle of wine and actually help protect the wine over time. 

If we look at how this affects the flavor, texture, color and aroma of the wine, we find that, like the  bananas mentioned above, the wine has “softened” and instead of the obvious “in-your-face” fruit and tannins, the wine is much more delicate and complex.  In fact, while we refer to a younger wine’s aroma, a wine cellared for four or five years often takes on a quality we refer to as bouquet due to its more delicate and complex aromatic and flavor elements.   And like those bananas, we will be at odds with each other on when to drink them, based on our own personal tastes.  The more earthy elements of a ten year old ISOSCELES may not be to everyone’s liking, but if you are a fan of older wines from Bordeaux, they may just be what you are looking for!  I will say, however that based on tastings I have conducted  here at JUSTIN, everyone who tasted ISOSCELES in that five to eight year range(after the vintage date) enjoys them much more than when it is first released, even though we receive great reviews on the newly released wines.

Now you can understand why our aging chart, published in our bi-annual Wine Society Newsletter the JUSTIN Times, is only meant to be a recommendation, and will change periodically to reflect how the wines develop.  To provide more meaningful information about our wines and how they change over time, we are changing the format of this chart.   In the spirit of our social media leanings, we are also now posting a regularly updated chart on our website.  These updates will be based in part on our Reserve Tastings series that we will be conducting on selected Saturdays throughout this summer.

Serving wines that are aged require some special handling as the chalky components of the sediment can negatively affect your ability to taste the wine.  For more information about decanting older wines check out my previous article on when and how to decant, which is posted along with our popular aging chart.

Stay tuned for future articles on starting a cellar, making wines that age, collecting larger format bottles and more in future posts.  To taste first-hand how wines age over time, join us for a Barrels and Bottles Tour in our cave.  This tour which tastes younger wine from barrels as well an older bottles, is available every day at 3:30 or on weekends at 11:30 and 3:30 with 24 hour advance reservation.

And for the record, I do keep a personal cellar with wines going back a few decades.  And yes, I do like my bananas softer and speckled .

Drink wines you like, but understand why you like them!

Jim
Jim Gerakaris, Certified Sommelier, CSW
Wine Educator, JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery

Springtime at JUSTIN

With all the rain we had this winter, JUSTIN is looking absolutely beautiful. There is an abundance of wildflowers around every turn, especially California Poppies, Lupines, and Mustard. 

In many areas, our cover crop is as tall as the vines!

Pretty flowering tree overlooking our Chef’s garden and Cabernet Sauvignon vines. If you peek out the side door in the tasting room, this is the view you’ll get to see!

 

April 2011 Vineyard Update: Grafting

JUSTIN has recently expanded our vineyards with the purchase of DeBro Vineyard. Located adjacent to JUSTIN, we have been sourcing their superb Cab Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot for years. With the sale finalized, we have 22 vineyard crew members working to get the ranch ready for the growing season.

Our biggest preparation task is grafting a 9+ acre block so that it will produce Cabernet Franc. Grafting, in relation to grapes, is the process of fusing a scion (the “budding” part of the grape vine that produces fruit) and a rootstock (the root system of the vine). There are many reasons that vintners choose to graft their vines, such as disease prevention or changing demand in the marketplace.

Several weeks ago, the vineyard team harvested Cabernet Franc buds from the adjacent block. These were stored in the refrigerator until the team needed them for grafting. To prepare the rootstock of the vines that were being grafted on to, a five-man crew removed the old cordons and stripped the bark away so that this week, the entire crew was able to go through and “chip bud” the vines to the Cabernet Franc. The chip bud method of grafting is where a cut is made at a node in the rootstock, the new bud is slipped into the cut and then tightly wrapped with grafting tape, and then coated with a tree treatment. 

The “black goo” on the vines is a tree treatment that helps stop the vines from bleeding and helps the graft unions establish. Not very pretty, but necessary!

The newly grafted Cab Franc will not be harvested this year. We will get some fruit next year, and will be in full production by 2013 (it takes some time for the new plants to fully establish).  

 

Far Out Wineries Zinfandel Summit 2011

Each year, the Far Out Wineries (Paso Robles’ Westside wineries) host a Zinfandel Summit in the JUSTIN Barrel Caves. Guests are invited to wander our caves and taste Zinfandel from each of the participating Far Out Wineries – this year, we had seventeen different Zins!

In addition to wine, the event was catered by local restaurant Thomas Hill Organics. Guests enjoyed Open-Faced Smoked Duck Sandwiches, Mini Vietnamese BBQ Pork Belly Sandwiches, and Braised Short Rib Tacos, which were all a hit! The Thomas Hill crew couldn’t keep the food coming fast enough…yum!

There were also four seminars offered at the event: "Oak in Zinfandel: Yay or Nay?", "Diversity of Wines Made From the Zinfandel Grape", "Alcohol: Friend or Foe in Zinfandel Wines?" and "Dryfarming Zinfandel Vines." 

For more information about the Far Out Wineries and their annual events, visit their website: http://www.faroutwineries.com/. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook!

Photos in this post by Jamie Foster Photography.

 

 

Guest Chef Kent Rathbun

Justin Baldwin presents Chef Kent
with a Barrel Head Plaque

Another successful Zinfandel Festival weekend and Guest Chef dinner are behind us! Zinfandel Festival is one of Paso Robles’ busiest weekends, and the JUSTIN tasting room and event staff always ends the weekend tired but satisfied. We had a lot going on this weekend, but I’m going to start with our Guest Chef Dinner.

Chef Kent works on his Scallop Ceviche Appetizer

Five times per year, JUSTIN invites an award-winning chef to display his or her culinary talents away from their restaurant. We have been hosting guest chefs for the past twenty-one years! We started off 2011 with a bang, featuring Kent Rathbun of Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen in Dallas, Texas. Chef Kent is a James Beard Nominee, and his restaurants are highly rated by Mobil and Zagat. My favorite of his accomplishments, however, is that he and his brother beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America: Battle Elk! 

Spring Beet and Creamy Goat Cheese Salad with Gulf Crabmeat and Arugula Sprouts

Although the rest of the event staff and I don’t get to sit down and eat the meal, there are usually extra plates that we all share. What I loved about Chef Kent’s meal was that his culinary and regional influences were clearly visible in his cooking.  His first course, a Goat Cheese, Beet, and Gulf Crabmeat Salad, illustrated his ties to the Gulf Coast – one of his early cooking jobs was at Mr. B’s in New Orleans. 

Grilled Pacific Ahi Tuna, Crispy Mango
Rice Blocks, Yellow Curry Butter

Chef Kent has spent a lot of time in Thailand – in fact, he was there the week before he visited JUSTIN – and you can easily see the Asian influences in his food. For example, his second course was an Ahi Tuna with Mango and Curry. The Crispy Mango Rice blocks were so innovative that the JUSTIN Wine Staff had a hard time pairing the dish with a wine! (They decided on our Reserve Tempranillo). 

Garlic Crusted Lamb Ribeye with Rosemary Jus and
Roasted Fingerling Potato, Asparagus, and Shaft’s Blue Cheese Hash

Of course, we were all expecting a hearty Texas-influenced dish as well, and Chef Kent’s Garlic-Crusted Lamb Ribeye certainly delivered! The lamb was fantastic, but I really loved the Hash and was thrilled to have the pleasure of watching them make it: it was as simple as mixing hot roasted potatoes and asparagus with Shaft’s Blue Cheese and julienned basil and spinach. Definitely a side dish I can’t wait to recreate at home!

Chocolate Caramel Crème Brulee,
Citrus Sea Salt, Candied Orange

And what’s a fantastic meal without a fantastic dessert? During the Q&A session that followed dinner, several of the guests raved about the Citrus Sea Salt that topped their Caramel Crème Brulee. Chef Kent revealed that the Falksalt is made by a friend of his, and there is a large variety of flavors available on his website.

We have four more Guest Chef dinners this year, and we’d love to see you at one! The dinners each feature a different chef and coincide with Festival weekends. Please check out the JUSTIN Winery Guest Chef page for more details, and call me (Laura) at 805-591-3223 to make a reservation.

Photos in this post by Jamie Foster Photography

The Most Memorable JUSTIN Moment

 
We are pleased to announce that “She Said YES!” won the JUSTIN Most Memorable Moments contest! As a prize for having the best story, Jen and Dave Schelling will be joining us for a stay at the JUST Inn, Dinner in Deborah’s Room, couple’s massage, a private barrel tasting, and more!

The winner was chosen by votes from the public - our Facebook fans! (Read my older post for a more detailed reminder of how the winner was chosen).

Tell us about your “Most Memorable JUSTIN Moment”…

We had visited 6 wineries that day but none of them felt right to me, then we found Justin for the first time and I knew this was the place where I would make my move. I saw the white gazebo that looked perfect. Justin was preparing for a wedding that day and for some reason there was a very quiet moment where I needed to act fast. I got down on one knee and asked Jen to marry me. She said “YES” Just-in time because the wedding party was beginning to arrive.

As amazing as that Justin moment was, it was not my “Most Memorable Justin Moment." That moment came 6 years later when we came back to celebrate not only our wedding anniversary but that fact that Jen was cancer free after being treated for stage 3 breast cancer.  Almost an entire year of chemo, radiation and multiple surgeries to get through and we were incredibly blessed to make it to the other side. We decided to spend a weekend in the Bordeaux Suite and enjoy the incredibly serene surroundings of the Justin Winery to appreciate the journey we had been through and remember the place where Jen said “YES.”

In addition to this story being an example of the ultimate JUSTIN experience (wine, dinner, and a stay at the inn!), a cancer survival story is a very fitting choice if you know the history of JUSTIN Winery – and Justin Baldwin himself.  Justin is also a cancer survivor and founded cancer support community The Wellness Community of the Central Coast, which is one of the charities that JUSTIN Winery supports the most.  

Thank you for sharing your incredibly moving story, and Congratulations, Jen and Dave! We look forward to hosting you!