JUSTIN Food & Wine Blog

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!

JUSTIN Vineyard 2011 Cover Crop Report

Our lush cover crop awaits impending showers

I know I promised you a report on our Pellenc Sunflower Weed Abatement Program, but due to the recent and forecasted rain (and snow!), Vineyard Manager Paul Kaselionis and the rest of the vineyard team has put that program on hold for about a month. Instead, I’m going to tell you all about the cover crops we use at JUSTIN.

Cover crops are a very important part of vineyards in the winter months and through the following growing season. Not only do they protect the hillsides from erosion during the rainy season, they also add an extra root system to help with water penetration into the soil and add nitrogen to the soil.

It’s been a good rainy season so far; the early rains established the cover crop (and its root structure), which set the stage perfectly for the later rains (happening now) to soak into the soils.

This photo was taken in January, when the cover crop was first starting to sprout

There are many different types of cover crops (and strategies for planting them); at JUSTIN we use barley, beans, and oats. Dwarf Barley is planted between every other row. We use Dwarf Barley because it grows quickly to help with erosion control, and it has a specialized root structure that is perfect for helping the soil absorb any extra water from heavy rainfall. 

Beans and oats are both “nitrogen fixers,” which are plants that, when incorporated into the soil, add nitrogen that the vines will use during the 2011 growing season (Oats also provide erosion control while the beans establish themselves). Later this year, the vineyard team will mow, rip, and disk the cover crops during a three-day period. This grinds up the cover crops and incorporates them (and eventually, their nitrogen) into the soil. 

Even on dreary days, the cover crop lends vibrant color to our hillsides

So far this season, we have gotten 24.47 inches of rain. Paul is expecting another three weeks of rain, which will finish out the season near our 30 inch average. The right amount of rain this time of year supports our dry farming practices, and the storms we’ve gotten the past couple weeks have been perfect!  When the rains have 2-3 days of sun in between, the water has time to penetrate and filter through (thereby replenishing) the soil.

You may know that parts of Paso Robles got snow this past weekend, including here at JUSTIN! While this was very exciting for our staff (as well as guests who never thought they’d see snow while visiting Wine Country), some wondered if this would have a negative effect on the grapes. Fortunately, in the words of our winemaker, Fred Holloway, “snow equals water, and it’s all good this time of year.” 

Snow at JUSTIN!

(Click to enlarge any of the above photos)