May/June 2011 issue by Peter Szymczak

Swoon Worthy A Retro Kitchen Remodeled and Classic Recipes Remixed page 22

Food Fests from BC to Boise PAGE 8

New School Cocktails and Spirits PAGE 34

Farmers Market Shopping in Seattle

may / june 2011

$4.95 U.S. $4.95 Canada 0 5>

25274 80124

PAGE 30

trisaetum Tasting Room & Art Gallery Please visit us, Wednesday through monday, 11am - 4pm A unique winery/art gallery showcasing the exceptional talents of owner James Frey. Trisaetum is a must see. -Paul Gregutt, Wine Enthusiast

From its caves to its wine-inspired art gallery, Trisaetum elevates the grape. -Sara Schneider, Sunset Magazine

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Ribbon ridge ava newberg, oregon (503) 538-9898 www.trisaetum.com One of the “hottest ‘in’ wines of the area” difficult to find outside the state’s borders. -Harvey Steiman, Wine Spectator

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8 Volume 25, Number 2 | May/June 2011 | www.nwpalate.com

feat u r e s

22 Retro Redo

Cookbook author Ivy Manning takes us through the kitchen remodel in her 1940s-era house, and shares her riffs on classic recipes inspired by the historic Mallory Hotel in Portland, Oregon. By Ivy Manning /

dat e book spring 8

photos by David Lanthan Reamer and gregor torrence.

30 Shopping with a Chef

Come along as we shop at Seattle’s Ballard Farmers Market with Ericka Burke, chef/ owner of Volunteer Park Cafe, as she gathers ingredients for the evening’s Sunday Supper. By Peter Szymczak / photos by Geoffrey Smith

34 Spirits of the Northwest

With an emphasis on flavor rather than alcohol, the Pacific Northwest is rapidly becoming a leader in craft-oriented, small-batch distilling. Editor-in-chief Cole Danehower looks at a few of the new, interesting, and important products, producers, and people that are invigorating Northwest palates. By Cole Danehower / with contributions by Kathleen Bauer

d epa rt m en ts Beyond the Bar 42 The hallmarks of new school bartending, as practiced by Daniel Shoemaker at Portland’s Teardrop Lounge, are paying close attention to cocktail trends without losing sight of his customers. By Cole Danehower

Tasting Notes 46

Our tasting panel recommends the finest recently released Northwest wines for cellaring and food pairing. Compiled by Cole Danehower

Fresh from the Northwest 58 Arts-and-crafters from around the Northwest find inspiration in food and drink to create works of eye candy. By Shelora Sheldan

Plan your culinary calendar with our region-by-region overview of Northwest food and drink events. Get a taste of this… The Gem State’s culinary jewels shine brightly during Savor Idaho (see page 8), while Vancouver Island’s natural beauty and bountiful seafood—crab, spot prawns, and salmon—will be celebrated for the entire month of May in the picturesque, coastal fishing towns of Tofino and Ucluelet (see Feast BC! on page 13). Also, preview the stellar lineup of chefs on the menu at the Premier Chefs Dinner and Auction benefiting the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle (see page 10). Compiled by Peter Szymczak / with contributions by James Patrick Kelly and Judith Lane

In the News 20 Announcing the winners of the cooking and cocktail competitions recently held at the North Meets South Food & Drink Jubilee in Portland. By Jennifer Heigl and Peter Szymczak

On the cover: Cookbook author Ivy Manning kicks up her heels in her remodeled kitchen (Apron by www.jessiesteele.com). Photo by david lanthan reamer

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

s I write this, the Northwest is experiencing its first batch of sunny days since … well, I can’t quite recall when. Isn’t spring wonderful? For the culinarily inclined, spring’s birth is marked as much by the opening of farmers markets as the onset of warmer weather and the sprouts of green that peek through the soil in our potagers. The onset of spring is celebrated in the kitchen just as much as the garden. When Portland cookbook author and food writer Ivy Manning found herself unable to use her home office (read: kitchen) during an extensive remodel, she kept herself busy researching and writing. When she found a 1940s-era menu from the city’s famed Mallory Hotel, she knew just what she wanted to cook to celebrate the rebirth of her own 1940s bungalow kitchen. She shares her Retro Redo experience and recipes starting on page 22. Now is also the time when farmers markets are springing back to life. Follow editor Peter Szymczak as he shops with Seattle chef and restaurateur Ericka Burke at the Ballard Farmers Market to find just the right ingredients for her Sunday Supper. Burke’s neighborhood restaurant, Volunteer Park Cafe, serves 55 people as part of a monthly series of what she calls “mad family style” dinners. Shopping with a Chef begins on page 30. This spring the American Distilling Institute held its annual convention in Portland, recognizing the resurgence of small-batch spirits-making throughout the Northwest. Just as the craft beer and indie wine communities emerged out of the Northwest in the 1980s and 1990s, so the region is now home to a nascent scene of spirits, as well as creative cocktail-crafting bartenders. Peruse our roundup of interesting new Northwest artisan distillers beginning on page 34. And if all that isn’t enough to spark your spring spirit, just scan through all the Northwest food, drink, and travel celebrations described in our Datebook section beginning on page 8—there’s something to slake the thirst or satiate the hunger of every Northwest foodie.

photo by erin thomas

starters Here Comes the Sun

Join us for Dinner & Wine on June 25 Northwest Palate magazine invites you to join us at the Best of the Northwest Dinner & Wine Auction on June 25 at the Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington. Set on the Museum’s Grand Lawn overlooking the Columbia River, guests will enjoy an unforgettable evening that celebrates the season’s best locally grown foods and top regional wines. Host and emcee Cole Danehower will help guide the evening’s events and auction, with proceeds supporting the Maryhill Museum of Art. Visit www.maryhillmuseum.org to order tickets. CORRECTION: The photos at the top of page 47 in the March/April 2011 issue (“House of Higher Cooking”) were mislabeled. Chef Andrea Carlson is listed as number 7 in the text; her photo bears the number 6. Rhonda Viani was listed as number 8, however her photo is listed as 7, and the photo of Robin Jackson, listed in the text as number 9, is numbered 8.

Editor-in-chief

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

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Contributing Editors Tim Pawsey Shelora Sheldan

C o n t r i b u t o r s Kathleen Bauer, Jennifer Heigl, James Patrick Kelly, Judith Lane, IvyManning, Shelora Sheldan C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r a p h e r s Troy W. Folsom, Dana Hopper-Kelly, David Lanthan Reamer, Geoffrey Smith, Erin Thomas, Gregor Torrence, Nick Versteeg

T a s t i n g P a n e l i s t s Anita Boomer, Cole Danehower, Harry Hertscheg, Peter Szymczak Northwest Palate magazine (ISSN 0892-8363) is published bimonthly by Pacifica Publishing, Inc., 1321 SW Maplecrest Dr., Portland, OR 97219 and is available by mail subscription at the rate of $21 for one year, $39 for two years. • The Canadian subscription rate is $35cdn per year. The European air-mail subscription rate is $57usd per year. Send payment to: Northwest Palate, P.O. Box 10860, Portland, OR 97296-0860 Phone: 503-224-6039 or 1-800-398-7842. • Website: nwpalate.com • Subscriber Services: info@nwpalate.com • Letters to the Editor: editorial@nwpalate.com. • For advertising information and rate cards, phone: 1-800-398-7842. • Retail sales program available. • Periodicals Postage Paid at Portland, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to Northwest Palate Magazine, P.O. Box 10860, Portland, OR 97296-0860. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40035723. RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO EXPRESS MESSENGER INTERNATIONAL P.O. BOX 25058 LONDON BRC, ONTARIO, CANADA N6C 6A8 • © 2010 Pacifica Publishing, Inc. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner, including photocopying, without written permission.

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our contributors Jennifer Heigl is a writer, entrepreneur, and explorer. Originally from the Midwest, she now resides in Portland. As a former organic catering business owner, she published Career Diary of a Caterer in 2007. Though her work has appeared both online and in print, Jennifer focuses her time on editing and writing for www.dailyblender.com, where she publishes food and beverage news, coverage of national food and wine events, and interviews with award-winning chefs. See page 20 for her report on the cocktail competition recently held at the North Meets South Food & Drink Jubilee. It’s that time of year again when morels push their way through the forest floor and hungry trout jet around in streams as clear as vodka. So you won’t find Boise-based writer James Patrick Kelly working at his desk too much once the snow melts in the mountains. Kelly is the author of Moon Idaho, a travel guide recently released by Avalon Travel Publishing. See page 8 for his coverage of Savor Idaho, taking place in Boise this June. When he’s not zigzagging the Gem State with his wife and two kids, looking for enthralling stories to tell, you can find him online at his travel blog, gemstatejunket.blogspot.com. Photo by Dana Hopper-Kelly

Judith Lane, a Vancouver-based wine, food, and travel writer, is a

regular contributor to the Georgia Straight, TASTE Magazine, and Flavours. She’s an in-demand judge for wine competitions including the B.C. Wine Awards, Cornucopia Top 25, and the Vancouver Magazine Wine Awards, plus wine and food-pairing events, and cocktail competitions. She’ll go almost anywhere for a good story and a glass of wine, rain or shine. In this issue, she takes us to Vancouver Island to preview the upcoming Feast BC! Tofino–Ucluelet series of culinary events happening this May and June—see page 13.

Ivy Manning, who shares her newly remodeled kitchen and geeky love of vintage menus with us (see “Retro Redo” on page 22), is a Portland-based cookbook author, and food and travel writer who writes for Cooking Light, Sunset, and Bon Appétit. When she’s not in her new kitchen, Manning combs yard sales for antique cookbooks, walks her rescued greyhound and whippet, and tries to grow her own vegetables despite her “profound brown thumb.” Read more of her writings online at blog.ivymanning.com.

Evoking the carefree days of classic cocktails and crab Louie, David Lanthan Reamer took inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood in his photographs of Ivy Manning (see page 22). The Portlandbased photographer was a professional cook at some of the city's hottest restaurants for more than a decade, but now he solely focuses on food and drink photography. His work has appeared in Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure, Details, GQ, and Portland Monthly. See his portfolio online at www.dlreamer.com.

MEMORIAL WEEKEND IN WINE COUNTRY Memorial Weekend in the Wine Country, May 28-30, with more than 165 wineries and tasting rooms open to the public from 11-5. For a map and listing of participating wineries and their hours, visit us online at www.willamettewines.com. Don’t miss a variety of activities this summer during Willamette Valley by the Glass! Taste from the barrel with winemakers, tour vineyards or enjoy specialty food pairings. Look for more information online. GO WINE TASTING!

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

Datebook spring June 12

Savor Idaho Idaho Botanical Garden, Boise, Idaho

Savor Idaho has blossomed into the state’s finest food and wine festival. Like the Snake River Valley’s burgeoning wine industry, this annual event, in its third year, also builds momentum with each passing grape harvest. Nearly 30 Snake River Valley wineries and more than half that number of restaurants and food artisans will participate in this year’s event, again taking place at Boise’s Idaho Botanical Garden. Amongst the flora, sample wines from some of Idaho’s best wineries, including vintages from Cinder Wines, Koenig Vineyards, Bitner Vineyards, and Hells Canyon Winery, to name a few. While the focus is on tasting wines and noshing local food, this year Savor Idaho has added an educational aspect. Presentations on wine-related topics range from sustainability to successful varietals in the Snake River Valley. Around 20 food vendors will be on hand to dish out winecentric appetizers. Expect to taste everything from artisanal cheeses from Ballard Family Dairy to contemporary food truck offerings from Brick 29 Bistro’s new mobile kitchen. Tickets cost $40 and can be purchased at www.savoridaho.org or at area wine shops and tasting rooms. —James Patrick Kelly Photo courtesy Idaho Wine Commission

Modern Hotel out dining

Modern Hotel

Attendees to Savor Idaho would be wise to extend the tasting experience by making it a weekend and trying some of these notable Boise metro area restaurants.

Salt Tears Red Feather Lounge (246 N. 8th St., 208-429-6340, www.justeatlocal.com) has been a Boise mainstay since 2002. This stylish downtown restaurant and bar offers contemporary dishes made with local ingredients, hip cocktails, and plenty of Idaho labels to sip from the extensive wine list—more than 5,000 bottles from around the globe are displayed in a transparent wine cellar. Another dining anchor is Bar Gernika (202 S. Capitol Blvd., 208-344-2175, www.bargernika.com), a cornerstone of Boise’s Basque Block. The popular Basque pub and eatery serves lots of solomo (cured pork loin) sandwiches and ruby-red Rioja. Also

Places to Stay 8

must-haves include paella, chicken croquetas, and braised beef tongue in a peppery tomato sauce. Food is hardly an afterthought at the bar at the The Modern Hotel (1314 W. Grove St., 208-424-8244, www.themodernhotel.com) in Boise’s flourishing Linen District. New chef David King prioritizes local ingredients for his seasonal bar food menus: pair a perfect Martini with the apple cider-braised pork belly and heirloom tomato coulis. Newcomers to the Boise dining scene worth trying include Salt Tears Coffeehouse & Noshery (4714 W. State St., 208-275-0017, www.salttears. com). This neighborhood eatery in

northwest Boise has an industrial feel and a menu that speaks to simplicity and modernism in one breath. The pan con tomaté and bacon-swaddled shrimp with apricot chutney are good picks, especially paired with a glass of Idaho Chardonnay. Fork (199 N. 8th St., 208-287-1700, www.boisefork.com) is the latest Boise restaurant to join the local food revolution. Housed in the former Boise City National Bank building, this down-to-earth concept features dishes like fried chicken on cheddar waffles and pan-grilled trout drizzled with tomato vinaigrette. The tiny Twig’s Cellar (816 W. Bannock St., 208-344-8944, www.twigscellar.com) debuted last year. The wine list favors Northwest wines, which play well with a gamut of small plates. Plus, there’s live jazz on weekends. In Nampa, about 15 miles west of Boise, en route to Snake River Valley wine country, the Belle District boasts a multitude of fun coffeehouses and restaurants. Most folks come to this historic district for a taste of Chef Dustan Bristol’s Idaho-inspired contemporary fare at Brick 29 Bistro (320 11th Ave. S., 208-468-0029,

Modern Hotel 1314 W. Grove St., Boise, 208-424-8244, www.themodernhotel.com Leku Ona Hotel 117 S. 6th St., Boise, 208-345-6665, www.lekuonaid.com Bitner Vineyards Bed and Breakfast16645 Plum Rd., Caldwell, 208-899-7648, www.bitnervineyards.com

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

www.brick29.com). The restaurant takes up the bottom floor of the former Masonic Temple building, where Bristol presents his clever, ingredient-focused menus. In summer, don’t be surprised to see grilled king salmon striped with strawberry-basil salsa and pan-seared pork chops with rhubarb chutney. Just down the way, Messenger Pizza (1224 1st St. S., 208-461-0081) is a new joint that dishes up thin-crust pies. Try the “Drunken Goat” pizza, topped with Rollingstone Chèvre (farmstead artisan goat cheese sourced from Idaho’s Snake River Valley), black figs, and bacon smoked by good neighbor chef Bristol. —James Patrick Kelly

The Modern Hotel

Photos by Dana Hopper-Kelly

Brick 29 Bistro

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

datebook spring

may 22

Premier Chefs Dinner At last year’s Premier Chefs Dinner, attendee Brent Willems (center) won a “kitchen experience” auction package including a first-hand lesson in plating a dinner course with chefs Seth Caswell (left), of Emmer & Rye restaurant in Seattle, and Russell Lowell (far right). Photo by MORGAN KEULER FOR TEAM PHOTOGENIC © 2011

This year marks the 20th anniversary Premier Chefs Dinner and Auction, benefiting the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Organizers expect more than 300 people to bring their appetites (and their pocketbooks) to one of the Northwest’s main epicurean events in the fight against cancer. Making a special appearance will be visiting guest chef Grant Achatz, from Chicago’s renowned molecular gastronomy restaurant, Alinea. Chef Achatz will prepare one of the courses at this year’s Grand Dinner, but his presence is significant for another reason. Perhaps the cruelest fate for a chef would be to lose one’s sense of taste, and that’s almost what happened to Achatz: he was diagnosed with tongue cancer and documented his successful treatment in his recently published memoir, Life, On the Line. Joining Achatz in the kitchen will be some of Seattle’s top chefs. Premier wineries from around the Northwest will be paired with the evening’s multicourse menu. Overseeing the kitchen again this year will be Chef Russell Lowell, a supporter of the event since its inception. “It’s a way for me to give something back,” he says. Lowell owns two greaterSeattle restaurants: Molbak’s Garden Cafe in Woodinville, and Russell’s Dining and Bar in Bothell, Washington. He donates not only his time to serving on the Chefs Advisory Board and making sure that the kitchen runs smoothly during the event, but also to hosting some very special gourmet

camping trips. His “Elk Camp” excursion is one of the most competitively bid-upon items in the auction. The winning bidder and a group of ten fellow nature-loving epicureans enjoy a night in the great outdoors at a well-stocked hunter’s camp, where Lowell will prepare a gourmet meal including “wine, linen, and china.” Valued at $5,000, the trip usually fetches upwards of $10,000. “The goal here is to raise as much money for the Hutch, so that those researchers can save all of us,” says Lowell. Robin Leventhal, who appeared on the competitive cooking television series, Top Chef, is another Seattle chef who has been involved with the event for years. A former cancer patient herself, Leaventhal says she “would be there even if I was not a survivor. My father passed away from a brain tumor at the age of 63—he was a health freak and athlete his whole life! Clearly, we are all vulnerable to this disease in some way or

In the kitchen • Dalis Chea, Herban Feast Chef Grant Achatz

• Kevin Davis, Steelhead Diner and Blueacre Seafood • Jason Franey, Canlis • Daisley Gordon, Campagne • Christine Keff, Flying Fish • Brian McCracken and Dana Tough, Spur Gastropub and Tavern Law

another,” says Leaventhal. While attendees certainly enjoy the gustatory delights, they’ll savor the knowledge they’re helping to raise funds for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and its pioneering efforts to find a cure. Between sips and bites, guests learn about the strides in immunotherapy and other procedures being researched at the center. At last year’s dinner, a young patient recounted the emotional story of his sudden, dire diagnosis and courageous fight against cancer. In all, more than $428,000 was raised at last year’s event—the highest total since the event has been held. Guests left with full stomachs of fine food and wine and, more important, hopeful that a cure to cancer will soon be discovered.

• Scott Staples, Quinn’s and Restaurant Zoë • Jonathan Sundstrom, Lark and Licorous • Jerry Traunfeld, Poppy

Featured Wineries • • • • • •

Brian Carter Cellars Corliss Estates EFESTÉ Winery L’Ecole N° 41 Selvatica Smasne Cellars

• SUBSTANCE “I am touched by the support of the culinary community in Seattle,” Leaventhal adds. “It’s in our blood to want to make people happy via their bellies, so it is a natural leap that we also are passionate about individual health.” —Peter Szymczak/Leslie Miller

Tickets are $250–$350. The event will take place at Sodo Park in Seattle, WA. For more information visit www.fhcrc.org/chefs.

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Sodo Park by Herban Feast, Seattle, WA

washington MAY 13 & 14 PONCHO International Wine Auction for the Arts, Sheraton Seattle Hotel, Seattle, WA. Friday night’s

VIP Vintner Dinner will honor Dan Duckhorn of Napa Valley’s cult Pinot Noir producer, Duckhorn Vineyards and Wine Company. Bid on big bottles, unique and rare selections, verticals, and special collections at Saturday night’s auction; the evening also includes an elegant five-course dinner. Proceeds from both events benefit arts education programs in Washington. Call 206-623-6233 Ext. 205 or visit www.poncho. org/wineauction.shtml for more information.

MAY 13 & 14 UnTapped Blues and Brews Festival, Clover Island Inn and Benton County Fairgrounds, Kennewick, WA.

Enjoy performances by local and national blues musicians while you sip brews from Deschutes Brewery,

datebook spring

Atomic Ale, and many more on tap, plus an assortment of local food and craft vendors. Friday night’s show costs $10, and tickets to Saturday’s concert are $25 in advance, $30 at the gate. For a complete list of performers and more information visit www.untappedblues.com.

Seminar tickets are $30 each. For a complete schedule of events visit www.seattlecheesefestival.com.

MAY 14 & 15 Seattle Cheese Festival, Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA. Sample artisan cheese

MAY 21 Northwest Corks & Crush, Puyallup Fair & Events Center, Puyallup, WA. Browse

as you stroll down the cobblestone street outside the Emerald City’s famous farmers market. Watch fresh mozzarella being made and other cheesy cooking demonstrations by top local chefs. Attendance is free, but admission to the adjacent Wine and Beer Garden is $10, which includes five drink samples. For serious fromage fans, seminars led by some of the world’s foremost cheese authorities will be held daily.

MAY 21–22 Savor Spring Wine Tour, Whidbey Island, WA. The

Whidbey Island Vintners Association hosts the second annual Savor Spring Wine Tour, featuring wine tastes from seven island wineries and celebrating local foods at farms and venues across the island. New spring release wines will be featured, along with cheeses, breads, seafood, and garden produce, all from local farmers and food crafters. It’s only a short ferry ride from Seattle to celebrate the tastes of the season, island-style! Tickets are $25 at the door or $20 in advance. For more information visit www.whidbeyislandvintners.org.

MAY 20–22 Spring Barrel Tasting, various wineries,Wenatchee, WA. Visit

Wenatchee Wine Country wineries including Saint Laurent, Martin-Scott, Stemilt Creek, and many others. Taste samples of future releases straight from the barrel and be the first to enjoy the wines of a new vintage. For more information visit www.wenatcheewines.com.

MAY 28 Revelry on Red Mountain, Col Solare Winery, Red Mountain, WA. Join 20

auction lots while sipping tastes from nearly 20 Northwest wineries, followed by a dinner, live auction, and afterparty. Tickets are $200, with proceeds benefiting Stroke Rehabilitation and Research at Good Samaritan Hospital. For more information call 253-697-2832 or visit www.nwcorksandcrush.com.

notable winemakers on the terrace at Col Solare Winery. Guests will enjoy a culinary feast prepared by Chef Frank Magaña of Picazo 7/Seventeen, along with exquisite wine. Enjoy panoramic views of Red Mountain, the Horse Heaven Hills, and Yakima Valley while bidding on items in a silent auction to benefit Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Washington Wine Education Foundation. Tickets are $95. For more information visit www.auctionofwashingtonwines.org/ events/revelry-on-red-mtn.

Best of the Northwest Dinner & Wine Auction June 25 | 5 to 8 p.m. Now in its third year, Maryhill Museum of Art’s annual dinner and wine auction is on its way to becoming the premier food and wine event in the Columbia River Gorge.

Dinner & Wine Pairings dishes created by invited chefs, each course paired with a featured Northwest wine

Set on the museum’s Grand Lawn overlooking the Columbia River, guests will enjoy an unforgettable evening that celebrates the season’s best locally grown foods and the Northwest’s top wines.

Host and Emcee: Cole Danehower co-publisher of Northwest Palate magazine

Silent Auction, Live Auction and Wine Toss

Proceeds from the event will support the museum’s diverse exhibitions and educational programs. Order tickets by phone by contacting Sandra Leibham at (509) 773-3733 or purchase them on the web at maryhillmuseum.org/auction.html

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

| JUNE 8, 15, 22, 29 Iron Vintner Challenge, Willows Lodge, Woodinville, WA. Find out

how well local winemakers can cook at this month-long culinary competition. John Bigelow of JM Cellars, Chris Gorman of Gorman Winery, Chris Sparkman of Sparkman Cellars, and Chris Upchurch of DeLille Cellars will compete. Tickets are $35 and include tastes from each winery competing that night. The dinners conclude on June 29 with a Championship Winemaker Dinner to benefit Little Bit Therapeutic Riding

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Center, whose mission is to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities through equineassisted therapy. The Championship Winemaker Dinner is $135. Attendees receive a 15% discount on room rates the Wednesday evening of the competitions. Visit www.willowslodge.com for additional information.

JUNE 16–18 Vintage Walla Walla & Entwine Grand Auction, Walla Walla, WA.

What a wonderful weekend of wine it will be. Winemaker dinners

take place at various locations on Thursday, June 16. Early in the evening on both Friday and Saturday, Vintage Pour receptions will offer tastes of older vintages from different local wineries. Friday night’s barbecue at Waters Winery will feature a grill competition and more than 30 wineries pouring. The Entwine Grand Auction caps the weekend’s events with an elegant evening on the beautiful grounds of Walla Walla Community College. Enjoy small bites and sips of local wines while bidding on an array of silent auction items, followed

by a multi-course dinner featuring wine pairings and local ingredients prepared by some of the area’s top chefs. Tickets are available for individual events or for a weekend package. For more information visit www.onewineweekend.com.

JUNE 19 Red Wine and Ribs Celebration, Desert Wind Winery, Prosser, WA. Munch on all-you-can-eat ribs, salad, sides, and dessert, paired with Desert Wind’s award-winning wines. For reservations or additional information call 509-786-7277 or visit www.desertwindwinery.com.

JUNE 25 Sunshine and Wine, State Fair Park, Yakima, WA.

More than 40 Washington wineries join forces with regional restaurants for a day of live music, a silent auction, and an announcement of the Washington State Wine Competition winners. For tickets or additional information call 509-248-7160 or visit www.sunshineandwine.com.

JUNE 25 Northwest Wine Auction & Dinner, Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, WA. Join Northwest Palate’s

Kirkland is an art-filled haven situated on the shores of Lake Washington with panoramic views of the Seattle skyline and the majestic Olympic Mountains. Sample elegant cuisine and fine wine, boating on Lake Washington, and sumptuous lodging accommodations.

co-publisher and editor-in-chief Cole Danehower as he emcees this evening of local food, wine, and art. Held on the museum’s Grand Lawn overlooking the Columbia River, this is one of the Columbia River Gorge’s premier events. On the menu are grilled lamb and Chinook salmon served alongside other dishes prepared by top local chefs. The silent and live auctions will feature wines, fine art, and travel packages, along with unique culinary and wine experiences. Proceeds from the event will support the museum’s diverse exhibitions and educational programs. Tickets cost $100 and can be purchased by calling 509-773-3733 or visiting www.maryhillmuseum.org.

future file JULY 9 9th Annual Ohme Gardens Wine & Food Gala, Wanatchee, WA. The garden party

explorekirkland.com 12

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

of the summer! Enjoy award-winning wines from premium estate-grown vintners, complimented by gourmet food, held at Ohme Gardens, one of the most picturesque locations in Washington. Cost is $45 before July 4, $55 after. Order tickets online at www.wenatcheewines.com.

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datebook spring

Tofino Nanaimo

UCluelet

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Vancouver island

Sidney

Sooke Neah Bay

Victoria

MAY 8–JUNE 4

Feast!

Tofino–Ucluelet, Vancouver Island, British Columbia

photos courtesy Tourism British Columbia, tourism tofino, feast tofino • ucluelet, sobo restaurant, and the Tofino Food and Wine Festival

There’s something otherworldly about Long Beach. Standing at the ocean’s surf-battered edge gazing westward, it’s a powerful thing to think the next landfall is Japan. Long Beach is an area on the west coast of Vancouver Island stretching 26 miles (41.5 kilometers) from the picturesque fishing villages of Tofino (population about 1,700 year-round residents) in the north, to Ucluelet (pronounced yew-kloo-let ; population about 1,900) in the south. The towns are connected by the mostly twolane Pacific Rim Highway that travels through the dense rainforests of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and hug 18 miles (30 kilometers) of rocky shores and sandy beaches. The area is home to the traditional territories of five Nuu-Chah-Nulth First Nations peoples who have lived here for an estimated 10,000 years. Long Beach’s natural beauty attracts travelers of all stripes. Some come to enjoy nature in all its guises. Others to surf—the beaches have some of the best waves on the planet—or to experience storm watching season (November to March when it’s windy and wet). Some come to enjoy tranquil resorts and inns, and explore the diversity of the area’s food scene. There are bakeries, casual cafés, seafood shacks, and distinctive dining rooms, all serving sustainable local cuisine. This has given rise to the Tofino-Ucluelet Culinary Guild (TUCG), newly formed to create awareness for area farmers, fishermen, and foragers, and provide “unique food experiences that rely on sustainable farm/boat-totable practices and the freshest local ingredients.” The guild is launching the first-ever Feast! Tofino–Ucluelet, a month-long celebration of local sustainable fare. Three weeklong segments celebrate salmon (May 8 to 14), crab (May 15 to 21), and spot prawns (May 22 to 28). Saturday Dock Festivals feature distinguished chefs

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demonstrating how to cook and offering free samples of that week’s featured catch. The fourth week reels in the 9th Annual Tofino Food & Wine Festival (May 29 to June 4), wrapping up with Food & Wine Festival Week. Highlights include the CedarCreek Winemaker’s Dinner at The Wickanninish Inn on June 3, and the main event—Grazing in the Gardens—which takes place, rain or shine, on June 4 in the joyously eclectic Tofino Botanical Gardens. It’s a magical afternoon with guests strolling, wine glass in hand, through the gardens dotted with white tents, tasting more than 75 Vancouver Island and Okanagan wines and microbrews and creative bites from local restaurants. Visit www. tofinofoodandwinefestival.com for more information. During the month, Tofino and Ucluelet restaurants are offering multi-course, set-price menus for $29 cdn to $49 cdn. Visit www.feastbc.com for a full schedule of events and special accommodation packages.—Judith Lane

places to eat If you haven’t filled up at the various special events, here’s a rundown of a few great places to eat in the area. SoBo, short for Sophisticated Bohemian (311 Neill St., Tofino, 250-725-2341, www.sobo.ca) began as a food truck and is now very much at home in snazzy new digs. The food is pure Tofino—freshly made from local ingredients, from fiddleheads to fish. The wine list is a fine balance of BC’s best bottles and a well-chosen global selection. Shelter Restaurant (601 Campbell St., Tofino, 250-725-3353, www.shelterrestaurant.com) has a bustling lounge downstairs and relaxed dining above. Seafood lovers come for fresh-shucked oysters and succulent Dungeness crab. Order a monster cinnamon bun or cheese scone and coffee at the Common Loaf Bake Shop (180 1st St., Tofino, 250-725-3915), a Tofino tradition dating back to the 1960s. 

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

datebook spring

Another long-time favorite, Tough City Sushi (350 Main St., Tofino, 250-725-2021, www.toughcity.com), in the eclectic Inn at Tough City, is chock-a-block with kitschy Asian and nautical decor and a pajama-clad Buddha. Enjoy meticulously crafted dishes—think marinated Pacific octopus salad and pan-roasted sablefish—at the Pointe Restaurant (500 Osprey Lane, Tofino, 250-725-3100, www.wickinn.com) in The Wickaninnish Inn. Dining is complemented by 240-degree ocean views and a soundtrack of crashing waves. Fetch restaurant, in the Blackrock Oceanfront Resort (596 Marine Drive, Ucluelet, 250-726-4800, www.blackrockresort.com), serves elegantly prepared, Ocean Wise-certified local salmon, Dungeness crab, and scallops. Don’t miss the wine cellar, built into rock and cooled by ocean waves. A wall of windows affords heartstopping views of the surge channel crashing below.

where to stay

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may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Accommodations range from modest to deluxe at B&Bs, motels, guesthouses, and inns—even a ship!—and dogs are welcome at many. Close to Tofino, the spectacular Wickaninnish Inn (500 Osprey Lane, Tofino, 250-725-3100, www.wickinn.com), perched on a rocky promontory overlooking Chesterman Beach, offers luxury at every turn, from its hand-adzed red-cedar-and-Douglas-fir entry to sumptuous rooms complete with fireplaces and ceilings with wave-washed sand details. Nestled at the forest’s edge on Cox Bay, Long Beach Lodge’s Great Room (1441 Pacific Rim Highway, Tofino, 250-725-2442, www. longbeachlodgeresort.com) offers soaring vistas of beach and ocean, complete with surfers from the lodge’s surf school. Opt for a room in the lodge or a woodsy cottage. Neighboring Pacific Sands Beach Resort (1421 Pacific Rim Highway, Tofino, 250-725-3322, www. pacificsands.com) is a mix of oceanfront suites and luxurious villas, complete with fireplace, kitchen, and deck or patio. If you like to cook, Curious Cove Guesthouse (Tofino, 250-725-3417, www. tofinocuriouscove.com) on Jensen’s Bay near Chesterman Beach, with its professional kitchen will knock your socks off. Snugged into a quiet forested spot, it backs onto Clayoquot Sound’s tidal flats known for wildlife and migratory bird spotting. Ucluelet offers a pair of polar opposites. Blackrock Oceanfront Resort (596 Marine Drive, Ucluelet, 250-726-4800, www. blackrockresort.com), a perfect mix of rustic elegance and West Coast cool, is steps from the ruggedly scenic Wild Pacific Trail. For something completely different, bunk in the Canadian Pacific Resort (Dockside, Ucluelet, 800-663-7090, www.canadianprincess.com), a historic West Coast steamship moored in Ucluelet Harbor. Staterooms have berths and shared baths.

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datebook spring

travel planner Driving: From the US, there are ferries from Seattle and Port Angeles to Victoria on Vancouver Island. From there, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a four- to five-hour drive, depending on how long you stop in beautiful Cathedral Grove, home to some of the oldest fir trees on the continent. There are ferries from both the Tsawassen and Horseshoe Bay Terminals on the British Columbia mainland, both taking about two hours to reach Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. From there, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about a three-hour drive to Tofino. BC Ferries BC Mainland to Nanaimo, www.bcferries.com Washington State Ferries www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries

Urban contemporary dining. Delight your senses at H5O bistro & bar. In Portland, where downtown meets the river. Check out special offers at HotelFifty.com.

Victoria Clipper from Seattle, www.clippervacations.com

Flying to Tofino Long Beach Airport: Orca Airways from Vancouver and Victoria, www.flyorcaair.com Kenmore Air from Seattle, WA, www.kenmoreair.com Tofino Air from Vancouver & Sechelt, www.tofinoair.ca

Perfectly Portland. 50 SW Morrison Portland, OR 877.237.6775

Elevated culinary experience. photo courtesy Tourism British Columbia

Excite your palate at Altitude. And savor The Spa. Less than an hour above Portland. Visit TheResort.com for seasonal packages.

resources Pacific Rim National Park Reserve www.canadianparks.com/bcolumbia/ pacfrim/index.htm Tofino www.tourismtofino.com, www.gotofino.com Tofino Botanical Gardens www.tbgf.org/gardens/

Mt. Hood. Naturally.

Tofino-Ucluelet Culinary Guild (TUCG) www.tucg.ca Ucluelet www.ucluelet.travel, www.ucluelet.ca Wild Pacific Trail www.longbeachmaps.com/wildtrail.html

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Just off Hwy 26 Welches, OR 877.439.6774

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

datebook spring

MAY 7 Wild BC Spot Prawn Festival, False Creek Fisherman’s Wharf, Vancouver, BC. photo by Nick Versteeg

With their subtly sweet flavor, spot prawns are one of the Northwest’s signature delicacies. The largest of the commercial species of shrimp found on the west coast of Canada, wild-caught prawns are available during a short harvest season starting in May and lasting about six to eight weeks. Fishermen spread baited traps along the rocky ocean floor, a method that has minimal impact on ocean habitat and very low levels of bycatch of other fish.

photo courtesy odfw

To celebrate and educate people about this local, sustainable seafood source, the Pacific Prawn Fisherman’s Association will host a day of cooking demonstrations from top BC chefs at the wharf, located just west of Granville Island. Attendance is free. The Vancouver Aquarium will also be on hand to entertain and educate the kids with family-friendly activities. Attendees

BRITISH COLUMBIA MAY 7 A Taste of BC’s Finest, Semiahmoo House Society, Surrey, BC. Help

raise funds for Semiahmoo House Society, a nonprofit organization

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

that provides support to people with disabilities and their families. Sample wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres while bidding on silent auction items. Cost is $65 cdn. For more information visit www.atasteofbcsfinest.ca.

MAY 13–15 Summer Night Market, Richmond, BC. This

open-air night market, held every weekend beginning in May and running through October, is the place to sample a world of cuisines, from Japanese stinky tofu and Cantonese dumplings, to Greek gyros and Korean rice rolls. Between bites,

can also enjoy a plate of fresh-offthe-boat boiled spot prawns with all the trimmings for $10 cdn, with proceeds benefiting the Chefs’ Table Society. At the end of the day, buy a bagful of spot prawns right off the fishing boats ($12 cdn per pound) and recreate the chef-inspired dishes at home. For as long as the season lasts, continue to buy direct shop at the Asian merchandise tables selling everything from cheap sunglasses and false eyelashes to stereos and pet goldfish—but be ready to bargain! Or watch a variety of entertainers and demonstrations on the main stage. Approximately 20,000 visitors go to the market every weekend, making it one of Metro

from the boats daily after 1pm. Similar events featuring chefs preparing wild BC spot prawns will be held throughout the Okanagan. The Kelowna Festival will be held on June 4 at the Manteo Resort, and in Osoyoos on June 5 at the Watermark Beach Resort. For more information visit www.wildbcspotprawns.com.

Vancouver’s biggest summer attractions. For more information visit www.summernightmarket.com.

JUNE 9–12 Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival, various locations, Osoyoos, BC. Rub shoulders with

stars from the film and television industry, such as Food Network celebrity chef Ned

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datebook spring

Bell, Jason Priestley from Beverly Hills 90210, Bruce Greenwood from Star Trek, and others. Taste regional wines and fare at the VIP Reception & Beach Party and Celebrity Wine Auction. Other weekend events include the Sunset Sabre Soiree, the Celebrity Wine Auction & Beach Party, and the Nota Bene Release Party at Black Hills Estate Winery. Proceeds benefit local charities. For more information, special hotel packages, and a complete schedule of events visit www. osoyooscelebritywinefestival.com.

JUNE 10–12 EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival, Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver, BC. Explore, taste, sample, and shop

at more than 250 vendors showcasing a huge variety of food, beverage, and cookingrelated products. Watch celebrity chef cooking demonstrations on the Food Network stage, including television’s Galloping Gourmet Graham Kerr. Learn about cheese, wine, and ethnic foods from international cuisine experts. Tickets are $15 cdn. For more information visit www.eat-vancouver.com.

JUNE 17 & 18 BC Shellfish Festival, Comox, BC. Visit Vancouver Island and revel in the local bounty of sustainably harvested shellfish. Top Canadian chefs, including Robert Clark of Vancouver’s C Restaurant, will be paired with BC shellfish growers at Friday night’s six-course feast, served outdoors along the banks of Baynes Sound among the beautiful gardens of the historic Filberg Heritage Lodge and Park. Tickets are $120 cdn. On Saturday, head over to the Comox Marina Park and enjoy live music, cooking demos, the BC Oyster Shucking Championships, and Comox Valley Best Chowder competitions. For more information visit www.bcshellfishfestival.com.

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

datebook spring

OREGON MAY 1 Taste Washington!, Pure Space, Portland, OR. Washington

wineries travel to Portland to share tastes of their wares alongside samples from 25 Portland restaurants. Tickets are $55, or $100 for two. Visit www.tastewashington. org for more information.

MAY 1–31 Aqua Plate Special, various restaurants, Portland, OR.

For the month of May, several Oregon restaurants will offer sustainable seafood menu selections to increase awareness around the vital connection between healthy wetlands and Oregon’s iconic and beloved seafood. Without thriving estuaries and wetlands there can be no thriving local seafood industry. Visit www. oregonwetlands.net for more information and a complete list of participating restaurants.

MAY 2 Taste of the Nation, Luxe Autohaus, Portland, OR. Odd as it

may sound, this evening of eating and drinking around stations set up by 75 of the Pacific Northwest’s best restaurants, wineries, and breweries is one of the best ways you can help raise funds for the hunger relief non-profit organization, Share Our Strength. General admission is $85, VIP tickets cost $135, and Luxe passes are $185, with proceeds benefiting efforts to end childhood hunger in Oregon and across the country. For more information visit www.strength.org/portland.

MAY 6 Mountains to Metro, Governor Hotel, Portland, OR.

Formerly known as “Pinot in the Pearl,” this event brings together premier restaurants and 30 members of the Chehalem Mountains Winegrowers Association for an evening of fine dining and artisanal wines. Sample excellent examples of Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, and Pinot Noir from the Ribbon Ridge and Chehalem Mountains AVAs. Tickets are $40. Visit www.mountainstometro.com for more information.

MAY 14 Indie Wine & Food Festival, The Bison Building, Portland, OR. This year, festival organizers asked Northwest Palate’s Cole Danehower to conduct a blind panel tasting to help select 14 of the best up-and-coming, small-production, craft wineries from Oregon to showcase at this annual gathering. Also pouring will be 30 Indie alumni wineries, making this a can’t-miss

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

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| tasting event. This is a unique chance to sample a wide range of hard-tofind artisan wines, and then buy the ones you like directly from the winemaker. Between sips, graze on food offerings from some of Portland’s top culinary talents. General admission is $75; VIP tickets are $125. For more information call 503-595-0891 or visit www.indiewinefestival.com.

MAY 20–22 Brewer’s Memorial Ale Fest, Rogue Ales Brewery, Newport, OR. Held in honor of

Brewmaster John Maier’s faithful black lab, Brewer, the fifth annual dog-friendly event brings together more than 50 microbreweries for a fun day of tasting, live music, celebrity dog look-alike contests, dog wash, and other canine activities to howl about. Admission is $10, with proceeds benefiting the Central Coast Humane Society and Oregon Coast Therapy Animals. For more information visit www.brewersalefest. com or call 503-803-6857.

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datebook spring

MAY 21 Winery Barrel Tours, various locations, Umpqua Valley, OR. Enjoy the tastes of

the Umpqua Valley as you meet local winemakers and sample their wines. There are three tour options covering six wineries apiece in the north, central, and south regions of the Umpqua Valley. Cost is $50 per tour. For more information call 541-673-5323 or visit www. umpquavalleywineries.com.

MAY 28–30 Memorial Weekend in the Wine Country, various locations, Willamette Valley, OR.

Take part in a longstanding Oregon wine country tradition as more than 150 area wineries, including many rarely open, small boutique wineries, open their doors and offer tastes of new releases, older vintages, and barrel samples. Winemakers will be on hand to tell the story of their labels and look ahead to vintage 2011. For more details visit www. willamettewines.com.

JUNE 3 Zoo Brew, Oregon Zoo, Portland, OR. Enjoy beers from more than 20 Northwest microbreweries and live entertainment on the main stage. Tickets are $25, with proceeds benefiting

JUNE 11 Farm to Fork “Season Premiere,” Fry Family Farm, Medford, OR.

Kick off summer at the first in this season-long series of dinners held at small family farms around the state. Each meal will feature a local food producer—for starters, Rogue Valley Brambles Poultry, a small-scale family farm producing pasture-raised, organically fed meat and eggs—and will be prepared by a local chef, with wines provided by a local winery (Abacela Winery will be pouring at the premiere dinner). It’s a great way to support the local food economy and enjoy great local food and wine. For a complete schedule of dinners visit www.farmtoforkevents.com or call 503-473-3952.

zoo programs and exhibits. For more information visit www.oregonzoo.org/ Support/Zoo_Brew.htm.

JUNE 17 & 18 Sisters Wine & Brew Festival, The Village Green, Sisters, OR. Against a

beautiful mountain backdrop, spend the day enjoying locally crafted wine, beer, cooking demonstrations, art, and music. For more information call 541-385-7988 or visit www.sisterswineandbrew.com.

JUNE 24–26 North American Organic Brewers Festival, Overlook Park, Portland, OR.

Sample organic brews and ciders while enjoying live music, organic foods, and sustainability-minded vendors including onsite composting and solar generators— all in a beautiful tree-lined setting that overlooks downtown Portland. Admission is free; tasting fees vary. For more information visit www.naobf.org.

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

in the news This past March, the North Meets South Food & Drink Jubilee brought together wineries, distilleries, and restaurants from around the globe to Portland’s Benson Hotel. The three-day event included tastings, seminars, and two competitions. The risotto “throwdown” featured top Northwest chefs, and some of the country’s top mixologists competed against local favorites in a cocktail “shakedown.” Both competitions ended in exciting neckand-neck finishes. Who took home the titles? Read on to find out…

winners

of the north meets south food & drink jubilee By Jennifer Heigl and Peter Szymczak

Milwaukee Mixologist Takes the Tequila

artender Mathias Simonis of Distil, a cocktail bar in Milwaukee—that’s right, not –ie, as in Milwaukie, Oregon, but –ee as in Wisconsin—took home the top prize at the North Meets South Food & Drink Jubilee cocktail competition. In front of hundreds of cheering attendees, the mixologist from Milwaukee won the title and a trip to Jalisco, Mexico, for a distillery tour sponsored by Herradura Tequila. A trio of cocktail judges, including Northwest Palate’s Cole Danehower, Imbibe magazine’s Tracy Howard, and Sean Bigley from the Mélange Beverage Group in Las Vegas, Nevada, taste-tested five drinks made by the competing bartenders. “It was an extremely difficult choice,” said Danehower, “because all of the drinks were so balanced and well-made. In the end, the beauty of Simonis’s tall glass, rosemary sprig, and taste won out.” Hot on the heels of his win at the annual Las Vegas Nightclub & Bar “Shake It Up” competition, Simonis served the judges his “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” a drink inspired by one of his favorite movies.

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Photo by Troy W. Folsom

“The name came from Zoolander,” the Wisconsin native explained. “[In the movie] there’s a spoof drink of an orange-mocha Frappuccino, so it’s a play on that. It started out as a chocolate-and-orange goodness, and I tweaked it a bit with the bitter cherry.” For Simonis, the visit to Portland was a chance to compete against local and national bartenders. He and Max Solano of Emeril’s Restaurant in Las Vegas were the out-of-towners competing against Portland bartenders Jeanette Napier of Aloft Hotel, and Nathan Gerdes of H5O Bistro. Jonah Kobayashi of the Benson Hotel also competed and won the People’s Choice Award for his drink, the Chupacabra—a blend of jalapeño, cilantro, lime, Hornitos tequila, and a splash of citrus liqueur. But when all the scorecards were tallied, Simonis won by the razorthin margin of one point. What elevated his drink to the top shelf was its complex flavor profile and silky texture (thanks to frothy egg white), while allowing the base spirit, Herradura Blanco Tequila, to shine through.

Simonis’s approach to cocktails meshes well with the Northwest’s culinary ethos. He honed his craft while bartending at a farm-to-table restaurant where fresh ingredients were plentiful. “It was a chefowned restaurant, and the chef had a 70-acre farm, so most of the produce and herbs came right off the farm. Through the winter, we also had a five-foot trough behind the bar where we were growing fresh mint. We were really known for mojitos because of it,” said Simonis. “It was the kind of place where the chef would show up with a bushel of quince and hand it to me and say, ‘Here, do something with this!’ So, I started really creating cocktails based off his dishes.” Now leading the bar at Distil, Simonis mixes the new with the time-honored. “We’re a place focused on crafty cocktails, where we’re doing fun things like foams and funky infusions, but we also have a separate list of classics done the way they were intended,” said Simonis. —Jennifer Heigl

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Courtesy of Mathias Simonis, Distil, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Makes 1 cocktail

• 1 ½ ounce Herradura Blanco Tequila • ¾ ounce Aperol • ¾ Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur • 1 ounce Bonne Maman Fig Preserves • Dash of Fee Brothers Aztec Chocolate Bitters • 1 ounce lime juice • 1 egg white • Sprig of rosemary Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker and dry shake (without ice) vigorously for about 10 seconds. Add ice and shake for 30 to 45 seconds until egg white is frothy. Strain over fresh ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and serve.

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Butternut Squash & Bacon Risotto with Maple Syrup Gastrique

Risotto Champion Crowned

Courtesy of Pascal Chureau, Allium, West Linn, OR. Serves 4

“I

’m a risotto maniac,” said Pascal Chureau, the chef who won the “throwdown” at the North Meets South Food & Drink Jubilee. “Whenever I go out to a restaurant, I always order the risotto. I have to have it. I have to try it and see what the chef does with it.” Chureau proved he’s not just a maniac, but also a master of preparing the traditional Italian simmered rice dish. His winning plate featured a palette of seasonal flavors—Granny Smith apple, fava bean shoots, Oregon hazelnuts, and last-of-the-season butternut squash. “My idea was to try to match the weather in early spring,” Chureau said. Chureau is the chef/owner of Allium, a neighborhood French bistro in West Linn, Oregon, about 30 minutes south of Portland. Previously, he was the head chef at Fenouil and Lucier, two fine dining restaurants (now closed) in downtown Portland. Here’s hoping the third time proves to be the charm: he’s set to reopen the landmark Brasserie Montmartre in mid-May 2011. Also competing were Andy Arndt, chef at Aquariva Italian Kitchen on Portland’s westside waterfront, and Roy Breiman, executive chef at Copperleaf Restaurant, located in the beautiful CedarBrook Resort south of Seattle. Winner of the People’s Choice Award was Serge Selbe, chef at the elegant historic hotel, The Benson, in downtown Portland. Hailing from the other side of the Willamette River, in Portland’s Eastmoreland neighborhood, and coming in a close second, was chef Gabe Gabreski of A Cena Ristorante, who www.nwpalate.com

Photos by Troy W. Folsom

plated a delicious ode to spring—a dish of shaved asparagus over luxurious, lemony risotto with morels. In the end, however, Chureau’s risotto scored highest. “His rice is done perfectly,” said head judge Matt Talavera, culinary research and development specialist at Whole Foods Market. Portland food writer Kerry Newberry thought the dish looked and tasted great: “It’s really beautiful, and the flavors are really well balanced,” she said. Northwest Palate’s editor Peter Szymczak also gave the dish high marks for presentation and use of ingredients: “It’s a tour de force,” he said. “All the components complement the rice.” The rice used in the competition was an organic Riso Carnaroli, available through Seattle-based Italian artisan foods importer, Ritrovo Selections. The chefs also had to incorporate a secret ingredient into their dish— bacon!—sourced from Carlton Farms, one of Oregon’s primary suppliers of pork and other meat products to restaurants around the Northwest. Chureau rendered the bacon fat and used it to sauté chunks of butternut squash. But the star of the dish was the perfectly cooked risotto. “Some people like it very al dente; I don’t. I like a little, tiny bit of crunchiness in the middle, but very slight,” said Chureau. What’s his key to cooking the rice? “My only secret is tasting,” said Chureau. “I think I taste the risotto 20 or 25 times during the preparation of it. You have to keep trying it, otherwise you’ll either under or, even worse, overcook it.”

There’s a mélange of flavors in every bite of Chef Chureau’s winning risotto. The squash and bacon give it smoky, savory, and salty notes, and the maple syrup gastrique adds sweet and sour, while Szechuan pepper adds a wisp of spice. • ½ cup Maple Syrup Gastrique (see recipe below) • 7 cups chicken stock • 3 Tablespoons butter • ¼ cup onion, finely chopped • 1 Tablespoon garlic, finely chopped • 3 cups Carnaroli rice • ¼ cup white wine • ½ cup Parmigiano cheese • ¼ cup crème fraîche • Szechuan pepper and salt to taste • ¼ pound bacon, diced • 2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced • ½ teaspoon thyme • ¼ cup Granny Smith apples, cut into matchsticks • 1 cup fava bean or pea shoots • ¼ cup hazelnuts, chopped

Maple Gastrique Makes about ½ cup

• ¼ cup muscatel vinegar • 1 cup maple syrup Pour the vinegar into a saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Add the maple syrup, and reduce by half again until the mixture is thick. For the risotto: In a saucepot, bring the chicken stock to a simmer. In a separate saucepot over medium-high heat, add the butter. When melted, add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent and aromatic, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes. Add the rice, then the white wine and 2 cups of the chicken stock. Stir slowly and constantly until all the liquid has been absorbed, then add 2 more cups of the chicken stock. Repeat. Keep tasting the risotto constantly to be sure to get the desired texture from the rice. The grains of rice should have a slight crunch in the middle. When the rice is cooked, add the cheese, crème fraîche, Szechuan pepper, and salt. Mix well and keep warm until ready to serve. For the butternut squash: In a sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon slowly until crispy, and then strain from the pan, leaving the bacon fat in the pan. Cook the butternut squash in the bacon fat, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. When the squash is done, add the thyme and bacon. To serve, place the sautéed squash and bacon mixture on the bottom of the plate in a ring mold, and then fill with the cooked risotto on top. Drizzle the maple gastrique around the risotto. Garnish with apples, pea shoots, and chopped hazelnuts.

—Peter Szymczak

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

o o r d t e e R R By Ivy Manning

photography by david lanthan reamer and gregor torrence

hen I first saw the kitchen in the 1940s bungalow I was soon to move into, I honestly got a little queasy. There were buckling vinyl floors in cafeteria-beige, faded gold-specked Formica countertops with jagged silver edging, and clunky cabinets with huge chips revealing layer upon layer of sea foam, peach, and pink paint beneath. It was a great disappointment in an otherwise charming home. As a food writer and recipe developer, I had no time to bemoan the lemons I was dealt. I had lemonade to make. So, I overlooked the rusty, rickety ventilation fan, the almost complete lack of storage and counter space, and the years of grime, and put that regrettable kitchen to work. In my first five years in that room, I wrote two cookbooks (The Farm to Table Cookbook and The Adaptable Feast), a weekly food column, and countless recipes for national magazines. I made do, but every day as I did

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

dishes and gazed out the off-center window, I wondered how on earth a housewife could have managed to make three meals a day, every day, in that awkward 120-square-foot space. In high heels, no less! Then came the final straw. It was Thanksgiving and we had a house full of people. I spent the whole day closed off in the sweltering kitchen slaving over dinner while my friends and family relaxed and enjoyed their holiday in the other room, where I couldn’t see them. They’d venture in once in awhile to ask if they could help, but the heat and lack of space chased them away. When I finally emerged from the kitchen, a sweaty mess with yet another sliver from the crooked cupboard door jammed in my finger, I plunked the turkey down on the dining table, looked at my husband, and said, “We’re gutting that damn room and starting over.” 

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photo by david lanthan reamer

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

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photos by david lanthan reamer

continued from page 22

We found a great contractor, came up with a plan (including tearing out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room so I could actually talk to others), and got started. We spent countless hours researching kitchens online, wandered around appliance stores in awe, and had ourselves more than one “disagreement” in the towering aisles of big box home improvement stores. Finally, we gave the goahead, wrote a (big) check, and the deed was done: our little shop of horrors was reduced to a barren shell in one day. We danced and sang. Within a few weeks, though, I became just a little unglued. I live to cook. I also cook to earn a living. It’s my stress relief, my hobby, and my career. To fill the void cooking had left, I began to pore over everything food-related I could get my hands on. I stumbled upon the Los Angeles Public Library’s menu collection (www.lapl.org/resources/en/menu_col-

lection.html), a vast database of historic menus that was a jackpot for the pent-up food geek in me. Out of idle curiosity, I searched for the parameters “1947” (the year our house was built) and “Portland” and it found just one menu. It was for L’Abbé, the restaurant in the Mallory Hotel, now the Hotel deLuxe (see sidebar “From Dowdy to Deluxe” on page 29). Meticulously center-spaced and written with a no-nonsense abruptness typical of the era, the menu was laughably kitschy. Fruit cocktail or Sauterne wine were offered as appetizers, potato rissoles or creamed cauliflower were the only vegetable options, and a “baked premium ham steak” was offered as an entrée, perhaps paired with a 1929 Nuit St. Georges for a mere $8 a bottle! The menu was charming in its oldfashionedness, but I was fascinated to find that it featured a lot of the 

Ham and Pickled Onion Canapés Serves 4 to 6 as an appetizer

Canapés or tomato juice were often served as a predinner nibble at finer establishments. Blending ham and butter to make “ham salad” was a common (and delicious) practice that has gone out of fashion because of health concerns. All things in moderation, these little canapés add an elegant touch, especially with the tangy help of quickpickled onions.

Phoebe Snow Cocktail

Dungeness Crab Cocktail with Green Goddess Dressing

Makes 1 drink

Serves 4 as an appetizer

Named for a fictional star in an advertising campaign for an East Coast Railway, the Phoebe Snow was a popular aperitif in the 1940s. Phoebe gets a Northwest makeover here with locally made brandy and absinthe.

The L’Abbé menu offered a “Crab Cocktail ‘Supreme’” for 75 cents, but there is no explanation of what “supreme” meant. My guess is it was served with green goddess dressing. There’s lots of theories on where the herby dressing came from. The most popular theory is that it was the invention of a chef at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in the late 1920s in honor of a The Green Goddess, a popular play being put on around the corner. Green goddess dressing continued to be popular with the ladies-who-lunch set well into the 1940s.

• 1½ ounces Clear Creek Brandy • 1½ ounces Dolin Red Vermouth or Dubonnet Rouge • ½ teaspoon Trillium Absinthe Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the brandy, vermouth, and absinthe and shake vigorously. Strain into a cold cocktail glass and serve.

• ½ cup mayonnaise • ½ cup crème fraîche • 2 green onions, green part only, finely chopped • 2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon • 2 Tablespoons finely chopped chives • 1 Tablespoon Champagne vinegar • 1 pinch cayenne pepper • 3 cups shredded romaine lettuce • 1 pound Dungeness crab meat, picked over • ½ lemon, cut into wedges An hour before serving, combine the mayonnaise, crème fraîche, green onions, tarragon, chives, vinegar, and cayenne in a blender. Blend until smooth, season with salt and pepper to taste, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Divide the lettuce among coupe glasses or chilled salad plates. Divide the crab among the glasses or plates. Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of the dressing over each salad and serve with a wedge of lemon.

For the onions: • ¹/³ cup white vinegar • 2 cups water • 1 Tablespoon kosher salt • 1 Tablespoon sugar • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds • 1 bay leaf • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns • 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced For the canapés: • ¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature • ½ pound black forest ham, rind discarded, finely chopped • Salt and ground white pepper • 4 slices white bread, crusts discarded • 1 Tablespoon capers • 2 Tablespoons chopped chives At least a few hours before serving, combine the vinegar, water, salt, sugar, coriander, bay leaf, garlic, and peppercorns in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and set aside for 10 minutes. Place the onion slices in a medium glass container and pour the hot vinegar mixture over. Set aside for at least 2 hours. (The onions can be made ahead and refrigerated in an airtight container once cool for up to 2 weeks.) In a small bowl combine the butter and ham until well incorporated. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Cut the sliced bread into quarters and then cut the quarters in half diagonally to create triangle-shaped pieces. Spread the bread with a thick layer of the ham mixture. Chop a few slices of the onion into ½-inch pieces. Top each canapé with a bit of onion, capers, and chives. Serve at room temperature. recipes continued on page 26

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

Halibut en Papillote with Asparagus and Anchovy Butter Serves 4 as an entrée

Though L’Abbé pan-fried their halibut and served it with anchovy butter, I opted to use the less oily and more flavorful en papillote method of cooking. Folding the fish, vegetables, and compound butter in parchment packets and baking them in a hot oven bathes the fish and vegetables in their own steam, sealing in their juices. The packets can be made a few hours ahead and kept refrigerated until you’re ready to bake them. • ¹/³ cup Italian parsley leaves • ¹/³ cup fresh dill • 5 oil-packed anchovies • 1 small garlic clove, peeled • Zest of ½ organic lemon • ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature • 2 teaspoons lemon juice • 1½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning • ½ teaspoon salt, plus more for seasoning • One 8-ounce bunch thin asparagus, tough ends snapped off • ½ red bell pepper, thinly sliced • Four 6-8-ounce halibut fillets On a cutting board, mound the parsley, dill, anchovies, garlic, and lemon zest and finely chop. In a small bowl, combine the butter, herb mixture, and lemon juice. Season with black pepper and salt. Stir vigorously to combine and chill until ready to use. 1 Preheat the oven to 450˚F. Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper into 15-inch lengths. Fold each length in half crosswise; starting at the fold, cut each piece of folded paper into a large half-heart shape, as if you were making a valentine. 2 Open 1 piece of parchment on a clean work surface. In the center of the half closest to you, mound about one quarter of the asparagus and one quarter of the red pepper. Top with a fish fillet. 3 Season the fish with salt and freshly ground pepper and dot with a generous tablespoon of the anchovy butter. 4 Fold the other half of the paper over the fish so the edges of the paper heart meet. Make small overlapping folds in the paper to seal the edges together. Crimp the folds with your thumbnail to tightly seal the folds and prevent steam from escaping. Carefully transfer the packet to a baking sheet and repeat with remaining ingredients to make 4 packets. Bake for 12 minutes, or until a paring knife comes out hot when it is inserted into the thickest part of a fish fillet. Serve the packets sealed, inviting guests to cut open their own packets with scissors at the table so they can inhale all the delicious herby steam. recipes continued on page 28 photoS by david lanthan reamer

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

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continued from page 25

same local ingredients chefs tout today—halibut with anchovy butter, grilled Chinook salmon, bouillabaisse with mussels. It seems Portlanders were locavores even back then. After two months of daydreaming over old menus and wistfully dog-earring pages in nearly every cookbook in my collection, our kitchen was finally complete. We danced and sang, with many praises to the excellent work of our designer/contractor, our careful appliance choices, and our customized everything. Then it hit me. Now that my dream kitchen was finally done, what on earth was I going to cook for my inaugural meal? I could do something complicated and worldly, but what if it made a big mess? Or should I fix grilled cheese sandwiches, for irony’s sake? No, it seemed more fitting to look to the L’Abbé menu circa 1947 for inspiration. It was an epic meal. I modernized the old-school dishes from the menu: ham canapés with homemade pickled red onions, Dungeness crab cocktail with herby green goddess dressing, halibut baked in parchment with asparagus and anchovy compound butter, and to finish, a light-as-air citrus chiffon cake, a recipe that debuted in 1948 and took the country by storm. It was a fitting salute to a bygone era, and a (thankfully) bygone kitchen.

Designer/Contractor/ Custom Cabinets: RC Belt Construction (www.rcbelt.com)

Backsplash: Mayfair AS8925 Beveled Subway Tile in Alabaster

Faucet: Kohler Simplice, Pull Down Kitchen Sink Faucet, K-647 CP (polished chrome)

Stovetop: DSC CTD-365 36” Stovetop

Sink: Blanco Performa 1-1/2 Bowl Undermount Sink, Model 513-634 Dishwasher: ASKO DQ5233XXLCS Refrigerator: Bosch Counter-Depth Side By Side B22CS80SNS

Floor: Wecork Naturals Series, Porto (Medium Grain)

Oven: Electrolux Icon E30EW75GSS designer series

Countertop: Pental Chroma BS120P Mesa Polished

photo by gregor torrence

Microwave: Sharp Drawer Microwave KB-6001NS

photo by david lanthan reamer

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photo by gregor torrence

photo by david Lanthan reamer

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

Lemon Chiffon Cake with Lemon Glaze Makes 1 cake

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For the cake: • 2 cups cake flour • 1½ cups granulated sugar, divided • 2 teaspoons baking powder • 1 teaspoon salt • ³/4 cup water • ½ cup canola or other high-quality flavorless vegetable oil • 7 egg yolks, room temperature • 2 teaspoons lemon extract • 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract • 7 egg whites, at room temperature • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar For the lemon glaze: • 2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar • 2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest • 2 Tablespoons milk For the strawberry compote: • 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced • ¹/³ cup sugar • 1 Tablespoon Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

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photo by david Lanthan reamer

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Invented by insurance man (and sometime baker) Harry Baker in 1927, chiffon cake was a secret recipe and all the rage with the Hollywood glitterati. Baker sold his “secret formula” in 1947 and the cake became very popular with home cooks. The big secret is the use of vegetable oil instead of shortening or butter and a generous amount of whipped egg whites. Be sure not to grease the angel food cake pan before baking; the dry pan allows the cake to climb up the sides and yields an airy cake. Cooling the cake inverted on a funnel or bottle insures that the cake will not fall while cooling. The lemon glaze is optional. Local strawberries or ice cream are perfect accompaniments.

Preheat oven to 325° F. Place the flour, 1¼ cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine. Add the water, oil, egg yolks, lemon extract, and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium speed until the batter is smooth, about 1 minute. In a clean mixer bowl, beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment on low speed until frothy. Add the cream of tartar, increase the speed to medium, and beat until soft peaks form when the mixer is shut off and beater is lifted. Turn the mixer on low and gradually add the remaining ¼ cup sugar. Beat until very stiff peaks form when the mixer is shut off and the beater is lifted, about 6 minutes. Gently fold a third of the egg whites into the cake batter. Add the remaining egg whites and continue to gently fold them into the batter until just incorporated. Pour the batter into an unsprayed 10-inch angel food cake pan and place on a rimmed baking sheet in the center of the oven. Bake until the cake is golden brown, springs back a little when lightly touched, and a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Don’t open the oven door until at least 45 minutes have passed or the cake may fall. Remove the cake from the oven and immediately invert the pan so that the hole in the center of the pan rests on a large funnel or wine bottle. This looks scary, but don’t worry, the cake will not release from the pan and the inversion insures that the cake won’t deflate as it is cooling. Let the cake stand inverted in the pan until it is cool, about 2 hours. Run a long thin knife around the edges and the inside tube of the pan, invert over a plate, and rap the pan gently on the side to release the cake. For the glaze, sift the confectioners’ sugar into a medium bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, and milk and whisk to make a thick glaze. Pour the glaze over the top and edges of the cake. Allow cake to sit for 30 minutes. For the strawberry compote, combine the strawberries, sugar, and liqueur in a medium bowl and let the mixture sit for 30 minutes. To serve, cut the cake into 8 to 12 slices using a serrated knife and serve with strawberries.

www.brookswines.com 28

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

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R O T S A O R E G O NIA Mallory Hotel

From Dowdy to Deluxe While her new kitchen was under renovation, Ivy bided her time anxiously by retooling recipes inspired by a 1940s menu she found online from the restaurant L’Abbé at Portland’s historic Mallory Hotel. Located on the western edge of downtown Portland, the Mallory Hotel was built in 1912 by Rufus Mallory, former U.S. attorney for Oregon and a U.S. congressman. Bought in the 1940s by Albert Gentner, a Portland attorney, the Mallory was owned and managed by the Gentner family until 2004 when it was sold to Portland-based Provenance Hotels. Specializing in high-end boutique hotels, Provenance renamed the hotel for the vintage Hollywood color lab “deLuxe” and committed $10 million to a total renovation of the hotel in 2005. It reopened under the new name Hotel deLuxe in May 2006. A showcase of Art Deco and Art Moderne styles, the hotel today shines with chandeliers, mirrors galore, and gilded accents to create an air of glamorous grandeur and elegance. There are also more than 400 black-and-white photo stills from Hollywood films ranging from the 1930s to the 1950s decorating the lobby, hallways, and rooms. L’Abbé was rechristened Gracie’s, and today remains one of the poshest dining rooms in the city, while the hotel’s bar, the Driftwood Room, serves up cocktails to the swank set.

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open every day • lunch . dinner . sunday brunch 503.325.6777 • bridgewaterbistro.com • 20 basin street, astoria or

For more information visit www.hoteldeluxeportland.com.

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

[ S hopping with a C hef ]

12:30 pm. Arrive at Ballard Farmers Market

of Seattle’s Volunteer Park Cafe By Peter Szymczak • photos by Geoffrey smith

It’s your local farmers market. The corner convenience store. The coffee shop where you don’t need to place an order anymore because the barista knows exactly what you want every morning. The neighborhood restaurant that you can count on for a comforting meal with a walletfriendly bill on those nights when you don’t feel like cooking, or when you want to show off your nabe to friends or family visiting from out of town. The Northwest is home to many of these “third places,” or homes away from home. They’re extensions of our living and dining rooms, places where we feel comfortable spending time outside our own four walls. Surrounded by others, suffused with communal spirit, we come to converse in the shared language of food and drink. Volunteer Park Cafe, “VPC” for short, is one such place, tucked away amid the grand historic houses in Seattle’s North Capitol Hill neighborhood. Since opening on a snowy day in January 2007, the café has quickly become the community’s food hub. The early spring Sunday I arrive to meet with VPC’s chef/owner Ericka Burke, the eatery is bustling. The sun is making a rare appearance and people are out in droves. It’s noon, prime time for brunch, and a crowd is milling outside, waiting for tables to open up. Couples and families, young and old, some showered, some scruffy, all parishioners at the church of Sunday brunch, are soaking in the rays of scarce sunshine while sipping mugs of Stumptown coffee.

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Ericka’s day is just beginning. Between now and this evening, she will shop for ingredients, prepare them, and serve dinner for 55 people as part of her monthly Sunday Supper series. Diners will partake of a set menu served “mad family style,” as she describes it. Big bowls of salad will be passed around the tables, followed by baskets of bread, and plates of vegetables picked yesterday and bought today from vendors at the Ballard Farmers Market. For the little ones, there will be bowls of homemade “Mac Daddy” macaroni and cheese. Jars of the cheese sauce are available for purchase, and folks who live in the neighborhood have been known to swing by on their way home from work just to pick up a jar for a quick weeknight meal—just add pasta. While the café’s morning crew soldiers on, Ericka and I jump into her hybrid SUV and head to the market. While driving, Ericka tells me about tonight’s main course: stuffed and roasted whole chickens and a few undetermined side dishes—it all depends on what she finds at the market today. It’s early spring, so she’s not expecting to find a lot to choose from, but she knows what’s in season and has a mental shopping list: “We’re going to find potatoes, beets, maybe a few carrots, braising greens,” she reels off. We arrive at the Ballard Farmers Market, a year-round market held every Sunday, and Ericka immediately homes in on cheesemaker Mt. Townsend Creamery. “This will be great on the flatbreads,” she says. The vendor offers us tastes of plain fromage blanc and another flavored with truffle salt. The flavor of the truffled soft cheese is pleasantly subtle, but it will likely be overwhelmed by the caramelized onions that will also top the flatbreads. Ericka opts for two packages of the plain and we move on. The next stop is potato vendor Olsen Farms. The stall is filled with neatly stacked boxes full of potato varieties like yellow-skinned Binjtes, Red Norlands, and Viking Purples. Ericka buys ten pounds of mixed-variety, golf ball-sized new potatoes. She says she’ll roast them drizzled with some of the same garlic and herb oil that the chickens have been marinating in.

www.nwpalate.com 2 pm. Back at VPC, the joint is s

“I just like the idea of bringing people together at a table and enjoying conversation and food. It’s one of the most fundamental things of life that we’ve lost sight of. We eat in our car, we text, we don’t talk.”

1:30 pm. loaded with goods and ready to go

www.nwpalate.com still jumping.

Now that the load is ten pounds heavier, Ericka thinks strategically out loud: “Let’s go to Full Circle Farm before anyplace else, because they’re holding some things for me.” We wend our way to the other side of the market, where baby carrots in shades of pale yellow and Chinese lantern orange await her. “We’ll just wash them with the back side of a sponge, not even peel them. Here, taste one,” she says, dangling a carrot in front of my nose. I take a bite. “Isn’t it sweet?” she asks. Yes, it is, and incredibly earthy too. They’ll go great with the aioli dipping sauce she’s planning to make with eggs laid by the chickens in the coop behind the café. “This looks kind of fun,” she says, pointing to a basket full of bunches of bok choy rabe, the flowering shoots of the wintered-over plants. She’s never cooked them before, so she asks the vendor if they’re spicy. No, he shakes his head, so Ericka starts loading up—eight, nine, ten bunches, and counting. “I think 15 will do it,” she says. Cooking from the hip comes naturally to Ericka. She’s largely self-taught, except for the six months she spent at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. The educational opportunity arose after she was awarded a James Beard Foundation scholarship. While still in her twenties, she opened three cafés in New York City and another dining space in San Francisco. After moving back to her hometown of Seattle, she developed recipes for a major restaurant chain and was a chef at Carmelita, the Seattle restaurant that gained early renown for showcasing locally sourced, vegetarian fare. Today she’s back home in the very neighborhood where she grew up. VPC was a corner store called Volunteer Park Market & Cafe Grocery & Delicatessen from 1905 to 1995. “I used to go there when I was a kid,” Ericka recalls. “I was in daycare and I used to get penny candy there. I went to high school on Capitol Hill, and that’s where we used to buy beer. So I had a place in my heart for this joint!” In 2006 she took the opportunity to lease the building. “We remodeled for four months and during that time everyone got to know all the neighbors and dogs and the kids. When we were still under construction we had a pumpkincarving event, which now we do annually. The farm brings in pumpkins and the kids carve them, and we make cider and cookies.” In addition to her restaurant responsibilities, Ericka is also the mother of a 14-month-old son. “I’m older now, and the community thing obviously interests me. It extends from the community to the staff, to the farmers.” Which brings us back to the market, where the vendor at Four Seasons Gourmet Foods is hawking some fruitbased vinegars. He coaxes Ericka into trying some. She takes a taste from a small Dixie cup. “Wow! It’s fruity,  may/june 2011

4:30 pm. The CafÉ shuts its doors. now, time to clean and prep for the sunday supper

but not cloyingly sweet. This will be perfect for dressing the salad greens,” she says. Perhaps fueled by the jolt of vinegar, inspiration strikes her again. “Maybe we should do a stuffing for the chicken?” she says with a gleam in her eye. “Have you tried the milk from Sea Breeze Farm?” she asks. “It’s raw, unpasteurized—so good, and they have amazing meats too.” So, off we go. Tending the meat counter at Sea Breeze’s stall is Dustin Calery, who pulls double duty as the chef at the farm’s restaurant, La Boucherie. Ericka asks him about one of the sausages made from the farm-raised pigs: “I’m thinking about using it to stuff some chickens,” she says. “That’ll be great,” Dustin says. “I once boned out a chicken and stuffed it with the sausage and wild mushrooms.” “Yummm,” she says and buys four pounds—she’s stuffing 18 chickens for tonight’s dinner, after all— plus a pint of the milk to drink on the way back to the restaurant. Back at VPC, the joint is still jumping. It’s 2 pm, and brunch service hasn’t let up. After hauling in the goods, Ericka goes over the menu with one of her cooks, Jeff, who will be working beside her tonight in the café’s shoe box-sized kitchen. There’s a lot to do in the next couple of hours, but Jeff seems unphased. “It’ll be fun,” Ericka says. She and Jeff plow through the prep list, making the stuffing for the chickens and the aioli for the appetizers, roasting the potatoes, and on and on. Occasionally, Ericka is drawn out into the dining room to bus a table, cash out a customer, or serve a plate of food. At 4:30 pm, the café shuts its doors for a mid-day break, leaving just an hour and a half to clean up after the brunch crunch and get the place ready for the Sunday Supper, which starts at 6 pm. Ericka’s energy doesn’t seem to wane. “I just like the idea of bringing people together at a table and enjoying conversation and food. It’s one of the most fundamental things of life that we’ve lost sight of,” Ericka says. “We eat in our car, we text, we don’t talk.” That certainly isn’t the case at the Sunday Supper. Like most get-togethers, some people arrive before all the settings have been placed, while others stroll in half an hour late like it’s nobody’s business. If Ericka

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

6 pm. dinner is served! stuffed roast chicken is the star of the meal is flustered by all the hustle and bustle of the day, she doesn’t show it. “It’s just amazing the relationships that are formed here,” she says. “It starts with, ‘You know so and so?’ I know so and so too, and it goes from there—before you know it people are discussing whatever. It’s just so much more interesting to me than whatever the next cool thing is that doesn’t have any sustainability. I think this is sustainable, not just from a food aspect, but from a community aspect.”

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All recipes courtesy of Ericka Burke, chef/owner, Volunteer Park Cafe, Seattle, WA.

Stuffed and Roasted Chicken Volunteer Park Cafe

Really, this chicken recipe is great any day of the week. Keep in mind, though, it takes two days to prepare. But, like most good things, it’s worth the extra time and effort. Day 1, massage the chicken with a marinade of roasted garlic and fresh herbs. The following day, make the stuffing and roast the bird. More than a few Sunday Supper diners were overheard praising this chicken as the most delectable, flavorful, and moist bird they’d ever eaten. This bird is the word. Chicken Marinade

Sausage & Sweet Potato Stuffing

Makes enough to marinate one 4-5 pound chicken

Makes enough to stuff one chicken, plus extra

• ½ sweet onion (such as Walla Walla), peeled and roughly chopped • 3 whole garlic cloves • ¼ cup roasted garlic purée (recipe follows) • 1 bunch parsley, including stems, cleaned and roughly chopped • 2 Tablespoons fresh rosemary, leaves only, roughly chopped • 2 Tablespoons fresh oregano, leaves only, roughly chopped • zest and juice of 2 lemons • 1 cup canola oil Roasted Garlic Purée • ¼ cup whole garlic cloves • ¼ cup canola oil Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Place the garlic cloves in a small baking dish and cover in oil. Cover with foil or lid and roast in oven for 20 minutes until golden brown and soft. When done, strain garlic cloves from oil and set both aside to cool. Once cooled, remove and discard the skin around the garlic cloves and place roasted garlic in a food processor. Purée, slowly adding in the reserved oil until thickened. Refrigerate until ready to use. To make the marinade: In a food processor, add all ingredients except canola oil. Purée to make a paste. Remove paste from food processor and place in mixing bowl. Whisk in oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Place chicken in a roasting pan and massage about half of the marinade onto chicken. Place the remaining marinade in bottom of pan, cover and refrigerate for 24-48 hours. Every 8 hours or so, baste the chicken with the marinade.

• 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter • 1 sweet onion, diced • 2 stalks of celery, diced • 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced (about 1½ cups) • 8 ounces bulk sausage (optional) • 2 cups brioche (or bread), cut into small cubes • 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, leaves only, chopped • 1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, leaves only, chopped • 1 Tablespoon fresh oregano, leaves only, chopped • salt and pepper to taste Melt butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and sweet potato. Stir to coat with butter and cook until veggies are softened, 8–10 minutes. Add sausage and stir occasionally. When sausage is browned and cooked, add bread and herbs. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and let cool. When cool enough to handle, spoon stuffing into the cavity of the marinated chicken. Pack firmly but do not overstuff. Place any extra stuffing in a baking dish and cook with the chicken. To cook the chicken: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Place stuffed chicken (truss it, if you like) in a roasting pan. Place the chicken in the oven and cook for about 1½ hours. Remove and let rest for 15 minutes before carving.

is located at 1501 17th Avenue East (at Galer) in Seattle, WA. For more information visit www.alwaysfreshgoodness.com or call 206-328-3155. Ballard Farmers Market is open every Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm, year round. It’s located in Seattle on Ballard Avenue NW, between Vernon Place NW and 22nd Avenue NW. For more information visit ballardfarmersmarket. wordpress.com. For more information about the vendors mentioned in this article, visit their websites:

Lemon Aioli

• Mt. Townsend Creamery www.mttownsendcreamery.com

Makes about 1 cup

“Look at how orange these egg yolks are,” Ericka exclaims as she cracks open the eggs for this recipe. “Commodity eggs just can’t compare,” she says of the eggs that were laid out back in the café’s chicken coop. The honey-hued aioli makes a great dip for all manner of vegetables fresh from the farmers market—raw radishes, roasted beets, and tendercrisp baby carrots. • 2 egg yolks • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped • 1 Tablespoon lemon juice • ½ cup canola oil • salt to taste Place garlic and egg yolks in a food processor. With the motor running, add the lemon juice, and then slowly drizzle in canola oil until mixture is smooth and creamy. When the desired consistency has been achieved, season with salt to taste and puree for a few seconds to combine. Taste again to adjust seasoning. Store aioli in refrigerator until ready to serve.

• Olsen Farms www.olsenfarms.com • Full Circle Farm www.fullcircle.com • Four Seasons Gourmet Foods www.fourseasonsgourmet foods.com • Sea Breeze Farm www.seabreezefarm.net

Recommended wine pairing To pair with this Sunday Supper, Ericka suggests two Washington wine blends that complement the entire meal: the 2009 Rosé by Syncline Wines, primarily cinsault, with lesser percentages of grenache, mourvedre and counoise; and Owen Roe’s Abbot’s Table, a blend of zinfandel, sangiovese, cabernet sauvignon, syrah, and five other grapes.

8 pm. apple and pear galettes for dessert www.nwpalate.com

may/june 2011

Spirits Northwest

With an emphasis on flavor rather than alcohol, the Pacific Northwest is rapidly becoming a leader in craft-oriented, small-batch distilling. by Cole Danehower

Clear Creek Distillery

ust as the Northwest pioneered craft brewing in the 1980s, and as our regional wine scene developed during the same period, so today the region is home to a rapidly growing population of indie spirits crafting. Artisan Northwest distillers are employing locally grown grains, fruits, and herbs in culinary-focused, spirits-based products that are finding favor with craft bartenders, home cocktail creators, restaurant bar programs, and in the kitchens of adventuresome chefs. Far from being mundane booze, many of these products are expanding the characteristics of traditional spirits, while others are pushing out into entirely new realms of spirits production. Here’s a look at a few of the new, interesting, and important products, producers, and people that are invigorating Northwest palates.

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Stephen R. McCarthy started it all. In 1985 he began the Pacific Northwest’s first modern craft distillery to produce Old World-style eaux de vie (fruit brandies)—indeed, he was the second such distiller in North America. Based in Portland and using only Oregon-sourced fruit (and much from his own family’s farm), McCarthy crafts his spirits in traditional European pot stills drawing on both techniques he has learned in Alsace and Switzerland and his unparalleled 26 years of craft distilling experience. “I had a long interest in French wines, eaux de vie, and obscure local and regional spirits,” says McCarthy. “In the 1980s I saw how the Northwest beer and wine people were starting small and being really creative. Like them, I wanted to use the local fruits and help create more of a market for agriculture by distilling the fruit into high-quality brandies.” It was the success of his skills

and the quality of his products that brought national attention to what was then a little-known specialty: small-batch distilling. Throughout the years, and a move to a larger and more efficient production facility, it has been McCarthy’s products that set the standards for artisan spirits. “We got a lot of national attention, but the market was still very small,” he recalls. “About the year 2000 people began popping up doing distilling, and now it’s a

thundering herd! A lot of these new folks have the right ideas: use local products, create very high-quality products, and build their markets carefully. The trend is great, but it is still very challenging.” Though best known for his seven fruit brandies, especially the Williams Pear Brandy (with the pear in the bottle grown on McCarthy’s own orchards), McCarthy’s range of more than 20 products is eclectic. He produces an often sold-out Islay-style Oregon Single Malt Whiskey made from peat-malted barley imported from Scotland and fermented into a wash by Widmer Brothers Brewing, a range of grappas, brandies, and liqueurs, and even a unique Eau de Vie of Douglas Fir, which delivers an unparalleled Alpine aroma and flavor. “When I began, eaux de vie were a hard sell until people tasted them,” McCarthy says, “but today people know so much more and they are more ready to seek new tasting experiences. We focus on craft and quality ingredients so we can create the best products we possibly can.” www.clearcreekdistillery.com

Woodinville Whiskey Company With large-scale gleam-

ing copper and German-made stills (including, as their website says, “two dephlegmators for amplified rectification”), seductive packaging and marketing, and the assistance of a Kentucky distilling master, the recently opened Woodinville Whiskey Company is an impressive new presence in the Northwest distilling scene. Founded by Woodinville-area residents Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile, the distillery focuses on small-batch production using organic grains grown in Washington, and is guided in their distilling by David Pickerell, former master distiller of Maker’s Mark. As is typical for any new distillery, the first products are white (unaged) spirits. Their Peabody Jones Vodka is made from all-organic Washington soft winter wheat, while the Headlong White Dog Whiskey is a bourbon-style whiskey made from corn, wheat, and malted barley. The distillery is currently ageing whiskeys for future release, but are also offering an Age Your Own Whiskey Kit consisting of two bottles of 110-proof unaged whiskey, a two-liter ageing barrel, pouring funnel, tasting glasses, and step-by-step instructions. With an enthusiastic style and an appreciation for both quality of product and message, Woodinville Whiskey Company makes for an intriguing new destination amidst the wine-centric tasting rooms of this Seattle suburb. www.woodinvillewhiskeycompany.com

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Coffee Gives Booze Extra Buzz By Kathleen Bauer

ith Stumptown Coffee Roasters making national news and a slew of smaller microroasters keeping locals buzzing, Portland is known for its devotion to artisan coffee. Gaining fame is the city’s cadre of craft distillers, bottling everything from whiskeys and gins to vodkas—and now, coffee liqueurs. Cross-pollination, as they say, happens, so it’s no surprise that Portland’s drink-meisters were inspired, perhaps one hung-over morning, to blend their booze with coffee beans. If the words “coffee liqueur” conjure that thick, brown, syrupy stuff served with a float of cream, six of Portland’s premier craft distillers have a surprise for you. 1

1 Deco Distilling Longtime coffee enthusiasts Lenny Gotter and Bill Adams at Deco Distilling— Adams worked for years as a barista in various coffee shops—used Arabica beans roasted in Portland to create a smooth, rich coffee-flavored rum with just a hint of sweetness. Don’t just take our word for it: it just won a Silver Medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

www.decodistilling.com 2 Edgefield Distillery Oregon’s McMenamins has been making a coffee liqueur from their Edgefield Distillery since 2005, using coffee from their own McMenamins Coffee Roastery. Distiller Clark McCool says that 70 pounds of house-roasted Ethiopian Sidamo coffee goes into each batch. The coffee is coldsteeped, strained, and blended with grain spirits that have been infused with vanilla beans and sweetened with natural sugar. McCool likes the fruity aroma and medium body of the Sidamo coffee, and the silky texture imparted by the sugar.

www.mcmenamins.com www.nwpalate.com

3 Highball Distillery A believer in supprting sustainable and organic farms, Highball Distillery’s owner Michael Heavener produced his Vanilla Espresso Vodka with the same organic soft-white wheat grown in the Pacific Northwest as he uses in his flagship spirit, Elemental Vodka. Infused with organically grown vanilla and espresso beans, it’s delicious consumed straight or as an aromatherapeutic addition to cocktails.

www.highballdistillery.com 4 House Spirits Distillery The coffee liqueur made by House Spirits Distillery started as a neighborly series of conversations between owner Christian Krogstadt and Jeremy Adams of Cellar Door Coffee Roasters, a small café and roastery just blocks away from the distillery. Originally released in 2010, the liqueur combines double-distilled, un-aged rum made from organic Hawaiian turbinado sugar with cold-brewed organic Guatemalan coffee roasted by Cellar Door, plus cinnamon and orange

peel. The apothecary-style bottles and labels and red wax seal give it a classic, handcrafted look.

www.housespirits.com 5 Bendistillery Not quite in Portland, but in reach of the aroma of a good brew, Bendistillery in Bend, Oregon, offers their Cofia Hazelnut Espresso Vodka. A Best of Show and Platinum Medal winner at the World Beverage Competition in 2006, Cofia is appropriately rich brown in color and full of coffee and nut flavors. Great on its own, Cofia also proves its worth as a culinary ingredient or a mixer for making cocktails, or just add a shot to your morning cuppa for a special pickme-up. www.bendistillery.com 6 Stone Barn Brandyworks Owners Sebastian and Erika Degens of Stone Barn Brandyworks believe in creating spirits that bring out the essential characteristics of their ingredients. Their coffee liqueur, a blend of estate-grown “Nombre de Dios” El Salvadoran coffee and a Yemeni coffee from the Sanani

region, both roasted by Stone Barn’s neighbor, Marigold Coffee, fits this belief to a T. Infusing a housedistilled Pinot Noir brandy and pear/ apple spirit with the fresh-roasted beans, it offers complex hints of vanilla, cinnamon, chocolate, citrus, and tobacco.

www.stonebarnbrandyworks.com 7 New Deal Distillery New Deal Distillery created a series of coffee liqueurs in collaboration with several small coffee roasters in the Central Eastside Industrial neighborhood that the distillery calls home. Each liqueur features a different coffee origin, roast, and roaster technique, and is brewed and blended with batch-distilled spirits, then sweetened with cane juice and agave nectar.

www.newdealdistillery.com

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

spirits of the northwest

Edgefield Distillery Better known for its beers, it surprises many to learn that Oregon’s funky McMenamins is home to one of the Northwest’s oldest artisan distilleries. Edgefield Distillery opened in 1998 in Troutdale, Oregon, and today offers guests a range of spirits that includes four brandies, three whiskeys (one of which is available for sale only on St. Patrick’s Day—and sells out in a matter of hours), a coffee liqueur, and their first herbal liqueur, mysteriously named Herbal Liqueur No. 7. Distillery Manager Clark McCool is proud to note that their Hogshead Whiskey just won Best of Class for Whiskey at the 2011 American Distilling Institute’s conference (and Bronze Awards for their Alambic 13 Brandy and Pear Brandy). Not content to rest on such laurels, McCool tells Northwest Palate that they will be releasing a unique new product in early May: a hop-infused (how Northwest-y!) Hogshead Whiskey called Monkey Puzzle. “We have infused it with a local, organically grown hop called Teamaker that has no alpha acids, so we are able to capture all of the aromatics without adding the bittering component found in most hops grown here in the Northwest,” says McCool. “We slightly sweetened the product with some blackberry honey that came from the hives we have here on the property at Edgefield.” Later in the year McMenamins will also be opening a second distillery at their Cornelius Pass Roadhouse property, near Beaverton. They will fire up a 264-gallon Alambic Chartene still from Cognac, France, that has been in storage at Edgefield for 12 years. Lots more spirited products would seem to be on their way from McMenamins. (Note: Edgefield Distillery products are only served at McMenamins pubs and can only be purchased by the bottle at the Edgefield and Old St. Francis School; or at the new Cornelius Pass Roadhouse Distillery when it opens.) www.mcmenamins.com

Bull Run Distilling

By the time you read this, one of the largest artisan distilleries in the Northwest should be open for business. “We’re just waiting for license approval,” says distiller Lee Medoff, who with partner Patrick Bernards have created Bull Run Distilling in Portland, Oregon. The name pays tribute to one of the most important ingredients in their product plans: the crystalline water of the Bull Run Watershed in Oregon’s Cascade Range. “We will be focusing on primarily rum and whiskey,” Medoff says, “and in sufficiently large volume to achieve wide distribution and strong market penetration.” Bull Run has installed two 800-gallon stills capable of producing roughly ten barrels of whiskey a week. That’s not Jim Beamsize production, but it is much larger than most artisan producers. Two key products will be a white rum, aged for around two months in barrel and scheduled for a spring release, and a dark rum with a year’s worth of barrel ageing that should be available in the fall. “Our crown jewel is Oregon straight whiskey,” says Lee, “and our big vision is to create and define a regional style for Oregon whiskey.” Drawing on his brewing background, Medoff will be producing his three-year-old whiskey from 100% two-row malted barley to reflect the same kind of big, rich flavors Oregon brewers have produced in their craft beers. “Our goal is not to have a me-too whiskey,” says Bernards, “but to create an Oregon original whiskey that helps define what a Northwest-style whiskey can be.” And even though they will be a large-volume producer, they won’t sacrifice true small-batch creativity. Under the Temperance Hall name, Bull Run will offer various small-run products as well as a planned aquavit, amaros, and other sweet and bitter liqueurs sold only on premise. Bull Run also intends to offer “found spirits.” When they come across particularly interesting and high-quality spirit batches from others that they can purchase and bottle— much as a wine négociant does—they will offer them to their customers. Which brings up one final point of distinction for Bull Run. With a distillery and tasting room on the edge of Portland’s tony Northwest shopping and dining district, they hope to attract more visitors than the typical artisan distillery. Already, before they can officially open, curious people are knocking on their door to find out more about this new venture. “We want to become a destination distillery,” says Bernards, “where people can come to taste and learn about spirits, and make distilleries more a part of the city’s fabric.” www.bullrundistillery.com

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Koenig Distillers Idaho seems an unlikely location for a small distiller to find success: the state ranks close to the bottom in per capita wine consumption. But Koenig Winery & Distillery is changing that perception with one of the finest lineups of craft spirits and award-winning wines made anywhere in the Northwest.

www.nwpalate.com

spirits of the northwest

Lavish Life By Kathleen Bauer

“Koenig macerates hand-picked, wild huckleberries in vodka and then distills it to produce an elegant, aromatic berry-influenced vodka that is turning heads.”

Drawing on an Old World tradition of fruit brandy production, brothers Andy and Greg Koenig saw a future for craft distilling amidst the fruit orchards of the Sunny Slope in southwest Idaho. Koenig’s fruit brandies reflect the essence of handsorted ripe Idaho fruit distilled in German-made copper pot stills and aged in glass carboys for two years before bottling. Apricot, Pear, Plum, and Cherry are the distillery’s standouts, along with a grappa made from local Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Zinfandel grapes. It’s only natural that in Idaho, top-quality vodka is made. Koenig vodka is distilled in handhammered copper pot stills using Rocky Mountain water and prime potatoes. While vodka itself may not be very exciting, it is a highly popular base for cocktails, and sells very well. Adding their own twist, Koenig macerates hand-picked, wild huckleberries in vodka and then distills it to produce an elegant, aromatic berry-influenced vodka that is turning heads wherever it is tasted, including a bronze medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. www.koenigdistilleryandwinery.com

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“I’m a stay-at-home mom who makes booze in my barn,” says Meghan Zonich of Northwest Distillery.

On a trip to Bend opportunity to in 2002, Meghan make a splash in Zonich and her the flavored vodka husband, Cory, got market. Meghan into a conversation began experimenting with Jim Bendis of with mint oils from Bendistillery about I.P. Callison & Sons, making their own a supplier that Cory vodka. The casual chat found in nearby took a more serious Lacey, Washington. turn, and in 2003 She discovered that the couple began adding a combination making Liquid Vodka Lavish Mojito of essential oils from in partnership with peppermint and Courtesy Bradley Dawson, the Central Oregon spearmint to their Bluehour restaurant, distiller. At just vodka along with a Portland, OR. under $20 a bottle, touch of lime added Makes 1 cocktail it filled a niche for a depth of flavor • 2 oz. Lavishmint Vodka an inexpensive, highthat made mint• 1 oz. lime juice quality Oregon-made based cocktails extra • 1 oz. simple syrup vodka. delicious. She named • 2 oz. club soda In 2004, the couple the resulting vodka • 1 sprig of mint bought the farm that Lavishmint. Cory had grown Local bartender In a tall cocktail glass filled with up on in Warren, Bradley Dawson of ice, add all ingredients and mix. Oregon, and, with no Portland’s Bluehour Garnish with mint. intention of becoming likes the fact that farmers, they decided Lavishmint is to convert the unused naturally flavored, barn into a distillery. With two without the unpleasant chemical small children at home, Meghan taste found in many artificially chose to take over the duties of flavored vodkas on the market. head distiller and began producing Meghan says her favorite it exclusively on the farm in 2007. refresher is a splash of Lavishmint Validation for her decision came on the rocks with soda and a twist that same year when it won a of lime. It also adds a minty oomph bronze medal in the San Francisco to a steaming mug of hot chocolate. World Spirits Competition. Personally, I can’t wait to try it this With a fondness for mojitos Derby Day in an icy mint julep— made with their vodka and no muddling required! homegrown mint, it occurred For more information visit to them that this might be an www.northwestdistillery.com. Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

spirits of the northwest

Victoria Spirits

“We’re working on a top secret whiskey from a grain we’ve discovered that grows really well here and that we believe nobody is making whiskey from.” — Kent Fleishmann

Dry Fly Distilling While on a fly fishing trip some years ago, Don Poffenroth and Kent Fleishmann found themselves with a bottle of the purported “world’s best vodka” and no mixers. So, they added some ice and sipped the vodka neat. “It was truly disappointing,” says Fleishmann. “Vodka seemed to have devolved into just a base for drinks with little consideration beyond a fancy bottle.” From that experience, Dry Fly Distilling was born. While Washington has been slower than Oregon to support the resurgence in craft distilling, the state is rapidly making up for lost time. In 2007 Spokane’s Dry Fly Distilling became Washington’s first smallbatch distillery since Prohibition, and worked hard to reform the archaic liquor laws that had hampered growth in artisan distilling. A 2008 law they helped draft lowered the barriers to entry for craft distillers, and even included a provision that 51% of their ingredients had to be sourced within the state. Rapid growth has followed. “We have amazing resources in eastern Washington,” says Fleishmann, “and we pride ourselves in using locally grown wheat and corn.” Dry Fly Gin uses winter wheat, dried apples, mint, and hops, plus other ingredients—all from Washington—for a smooth and aromatic gin. Their Washington Wheat Vodka is made from ingredients obtained within 20 miles of the distillery. In 2009 Dry Fly Vodka was given a Double Gold Medal and Best in Show award at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition—earning the title of World’s Best Vodka. And there’s more to come. This summer Dry Fly will release a bourbon made from 51% Washington corn and the balance malted Washington wheat. “And we’re working on a top secret whiskey from a grain we’ve discovered that grows really well here and that we believe nobody is making whiskey from,” says Fleishmann. It will be out in about two years. It is going to change how people look at small-batch whiskey.” www.dryflydistilling.com

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Victoria Spirits, located on the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island, has been producing their signature Victoria Gin since 2006. Using a special formulation of nine botanicals (plus a tenth secret ingredient), distiller Peter Hunt works with wood to fire his German copper pot still, taking nearly a full day to produce one batch of 120 bottles. Remarkably smooth and richly aromatic, Victoria Gin is redolent of juniper forests, cinnamon bark, and citrus groves. It has won numerous awards, including a silver medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, where it tied with the far better-known Hendrick’s Gin.

“ Using American oak barrels, the Oaken Gin takes on a soft amber color and an aroma that is distinctly gin, but with softer undertones.” Taking their flagship product one step further, Hunt is now one of a very few distillers in the world who are ageing their gin in oak. Using American oak barrels, the Oaken Gin takes on a soft amber color and an aroma that is distinctly gin, but with softer undertones. On the palate the power of the gin remains, but there are nicely integrated caramel and toast accents, giving the gin a unique character. And that’s not all. Victoria Spirits also produces a distinctive vodka product called Left Coast Hemp Vodka, using hearts of hemp (shelled hemp seeds) to obtain a mildly nutty nuance and silky texture. There is also their orange bitters under the Twisted & Bitter label, and a wine grape-based eau de vie (available at their tasting room). And in the future, Victoria Spirits will be releasing a whiskey (tentatively titled photo by erin thomas Craigdarroch) made from barley grown, malted, and made into a beer wash entirely on Vancouver Island and aged in Garry Oak barrels. Now that will be something to toast! www.victoriaspirits.com www.nwpalate.com

spirits of the northwest

Bainbridge Organic Distilling

Currently, the distillery offers three products. The Legacy Organic Vodka uses Washington wheat and water from deep island aquifers to produce a pure and crisp vodka that is 100% organic. Their Heritage Organic Gin is also based on local wheat, as well as a profusion of Northwest-grown botanicals. Battle Point Whiskey is the product that has caused the most stir. Using wheat grown amidst the salt air of the Olympic Peninsula, Battle Point Whiskey (named after an historic battle on the island) is aged in ten-gallon charred American oak barrels to impart color and subtle tones of vanilla and caramel. Batch No. 3 of this whiskey was just released in April, but with a production of only about 20 cases of hand-filled bottles, the whiskey is strictly limited. www.bainbridgedistillers.com

Keith Barnes and son Patrick are pretty much the sole workers at the still-young, but impressive Bainbridge Organic Distillers. Their strategy is to “re-envision the farm-distilled products of our agricultural heritage by creating spirits that have a tangible connection to the land on which our organic grains grow.” Accordingly, Bainbridge sources their grain from small family farms in southern Washington and on the Olympic Peninsula that are certified organic and sustainably manage their crops. The distillers feel this gives them greater control and traceability, produces a much better product, and helps economically support family farms.

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

spirits of the northwest

Bakon Vodka

House Spirits Distillery

You knew it had to happen: bacon-flavored vodka. Seattle-area co-founders Sven Liden, Stefan Schachtell, and Chris Marshall formed Black Rock Spirits in 2009. After spending nearly two years testing various infusions, they decided on a formula that seemed to result in the perfect savory bacon flavor they were looking for. Bakon Vodka—the self-proclaimed “first meat-flavored spirit”—was born. Using potato vodka columndistilled (so the alcohol doesn’t get “bruised” by multiple heating cycles) in Idaho, the partners are able to impart subtle flavors of smoke and umami that are distinctly reminiscent of fried bacon before they blend and bottle Bakon Vodka in Cottage Grove, Oregon. “What’s been interesting about Bakon Vodka,” says co-founder Liden, “is that the flavor of bacon doesn’t have to be the dominant element to make a fantastic cocktail. We knew it would make for an amazing Bloody Mary, but the amount of variety and interesting cocktails you can make with it has surprised even us.” The company even talks about a class of drinks they call “carnivorous cocktails.” After just over a year in the market, the popularity of Bakon Vodka seems to be taking off. The product is winning press accolades and tasting awards, and their initial Seattle-area launch is soon to turn into a national product introduction. Recently, the Beverage Testing Institute gave Bakon Vodka a Gold Medal, rating it “Exceptional” at 92 points. Their description of the product sums up its appeal: “Convincing aromas of fatty smoked maple bacon with a supple, dryish medium body and a caramelized bacon, fig, and limestone finish.” www.bakonvodka.com

“Working with the extracts was a revelation and opened my mind to many possibilities.” —

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

One of the early sparks that set off the firestorm of new school craft distilleries was the creation of House Spirits Distillery in 2004 in Corvallis, Oregon, and move the next year to what is now dubbed Distillery Row in southeast Portland. Today co-founder Christian Krogstad, spirits savant Ryan Magarian, and stillmasters Matt Mount, Colin Howard, and Erich Fisher have become mainstays of the Northwest spirits renaissance. Their flagship product is Aviation Gin, one of the first of the so-called American-style gins—though it is made in a Dutch Genever-inspired style that had been out of fashion on these shores. Distinctly richer and bolder in flavor than many of the mass-produced gins, Aviation uses, among other ingredients, juniper, cardamom, coriander, lavender, anise, sarsaparilla, and dried orange peel. Perhaps the most distinctive product they make is the Krogstad Aquavit, created out of respect for Christian’s Scandinavian roots. One of the first (perhaps the first) domestic aquavit, Krogstad uses the traditional formulation of star anise and caraway seed to create a bold but well-balanced spirit that when consumed ice cold is a wonderful accompaniment to food, a flavorful mixer, or as a bracing shot. The Limited Release Line is a specialty collection of House Spirits small-batch products that reflect the diversity of the distillery’s skills. So far this specialty line has consisted of Oregon Ouzo, a couple of different rums, two rice-based shochus, a number of white dogs (unaged whiskey) and aged whiskies, a Hungarian-style unaged plum brandy (called Palinka), a coffee liqueur, and perhaps most interesting of all, a barrel-aged aquavit called Gammal Krogstad. www.housespirits.com

patrick taylor

Cana's Feast Chinato An intriguing entrant in the herbal liqueur category comes from Patrick Taylor, winemaker at Cana’s Feast Winery in Carlton, Oregon, with his Northwest interpretation of a rare Italian infusion known as Barolo Chinato. In its traditional form, chinato is a class of digestifs made by steeping the bitter-flavored bark of the cinchona tree—a source of quinine—in aged Barolo wine. An array of other herbs and aromatics are added and the whole is aged in oak for many years. In its Northwest form, Taylor’s Chinato d’Erbetti uses Nebbiolo grapes (the same grape that produces Barolo) from the Coyote Canyon Vineyards in Washington’s Horse Heaven Hills AVA, along with gentian, a well-known medicinal bittering agent, in place of cinchona. Extracts of 18 different botanicals, including mace, fennel, coriander, black pepper, rhubarb, elderflower, dried orange peel, rose, clove and cinnamon (plus a few secret ingredients, naturally) are added to the wine, plus an eau de vie made by Clear Creek Distillery. “I tasted my first chinato a year ago and it was a real game

changer for me,” says Taylor, “it really inspired me to think about making my own.” It helped that Cana’s Feast was one of the very few Northwest wineries already making one of the key ingredients: Nebbiolo wine. Enlisting the help of the executive chef for Cana’s Feast, Lisa Lanxon, the pair began working with extractions of different herbs and experimenting with formulations. “Working with the extracts was a revelation,” says Taylor, “and opened my mind to many possibilities.” After long hours of blending trials and formulation experiments, the final product emerged as Chinato d’Erbetti (Italian for “herbs”). The first release was only 31 cases, and the next will be double that, so production is very limited. But demand has been high, and Taylor’s aspirations are growing. He’s working on new formulations to extend the line, and new ageing techniques that he suspects will add different flavor qualities to future products. “This whole project has been fantastic,” he says. “It has almost become an obsession, it occupies nearly all my gray matter, and it is so much fun to make and to have people enjoy.” www.canasfeastwinery.com

photo by erin thomas

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spirits of the northwest

Calisaya Liqueur The next logical step in the progression of Northwest cocktail-focused ingredients surely must be the production of herbal bitters and vermouth-style products. One of the most interesting comes from Eugene, Oregon-based Italian cooking instructor Andrea Loreto. A few years back he became smitten with the idea of producing a liqueur that was, in his words, “very Italian, and very good.” After much research, including studying antique recipes in libraries in his native Florence, he homed in on a cinchonabased recipe that he felt was both authentic to the traditions of Italian bitter herbal liqueurs (called “amaros” as a class), yet also appealed to a more modern palate. “It took a good couple

of years of development to make (the recipe) palatable,” he says, and in 2010 he released his first batch of Calisaya Liqueur, an orange-colored bitter drink that has caught the attention of bartenders and consumers. “It is very cocktail-friendly because it mixes so well with most any other spirit, from gin to rye,” says Loreto, “yet it is also very enjoyable to drink by itself with ice.” Named after its primary ingredient, cinchona

calisaya, the bark of the cinchona tree which was imported to Italy from Peru in the 1600s because of its medicinal properties, this Oregon-made product also contains Seville oranges, agave nectar, and a secret blend of botanical infusions. Finding a reliable purveyor of quality cinchona was not easy. And securing all his ingredients, some of which are seasonal, took plenty of additional work. But Loreto is happy with the outcome. “It has to be made very carefully and it requires a great deal of time and attention,” he notes, “but I simply cannot settle for anything less.” Success breeds success. Loreto is about to open his own distillery in Eugene so he can better control all facets of production for Calisaya. www.calisaya.net

Imbue Vermouth For too long vermouth has been ignored by American tipplers. Often thought of as a pale-colored, somewhat weak-kneed cousin to more traditional spirits, most people are unfamiliar with how it’s made, or the richly flavorful qualities it is capable of. In fact, vermouth can be highly aromatic and satisfying, both as a drink on its own or as a mixer. After all, vermouth is wine fortified with spirits to which various herbs and botanicals are added as an infusion—lots to smell and taste. Typically, vermouth is made as dry (white) or sweet (red). Well, now you can add “bittersweet” to the categories of vermouth thanks to the efforts of Oregonians Neil Kopplin, Derek Einberger, and Jennifer Kilfoil. Using Oregon Pinot Gris as their wine base, and adding brandy from Clear Creek Distillery that they aged in barrels with a mélange of infused herbs, they introduced at the end of 2010 their own boutique vermouth called Imbue. They purposefully strove for a product that had bold flavors— ”not your grandmother’s vermouth,” as they like to say—and which they found simply delicious. After months of testing different herbs soaked in wine (including in their final mix elderflower, coriander, clove, sage, and others) to discover what seemed to work best, they settled on a formula, gained federal approvals, and launched Imbue. Just as regional Northwest distillers are beginning to redefine the flavor profile of many classic spirits, like gin and whiskey, so the creators of Imbue seem to be re-jiggering what traditional vermouth is all about. How Northwest of them! www.imbuecellars.com

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

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Teardrop Lounge rthwes

It’s early one evening and Teardrop Lounge is not yet busy. Daniel Shoemaker is composing a cocktail for me—on the fly, à la minute, no recipe, not on his bar’s menu. It’s dealer’s choice, the drink not yet fully existing in his head, morphing by the minute as he contemplates the myriad bottled ingredients at his disposal. A Motown melody plays in the background, meshing with a movie playing silently through a translucent drape like animated wallpaper high on the wall behind him. Daniel’s shoulders pitch to the tune as he deliberates. “Do you like Cynar?” he asks.

Beyond the bar

New School Cocktail Culture by Cole Danehower photos by david Lanthan reamer

Cynar, a bitter liqueur based primarily on artichoke (yes, the prickly thistle of the Cynara genus), plus 13 other herbs and plants, is usually taken as an apéritif or digestif in the European style. By itself it is an acquired taste, but in the right combination with other ingredients, it can add complexity and an intriguing herbal quality to a concoction. He pulls down a green bottle from the teardrop-shaped back bar

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

and pours a measure into his glass mixing beaker. He pours in some apricot liqueur, then a skosh of Benedictine. His eyes run down the twin banks of cobalt blue bottles on the bar, each topped with a black eyedropper and hand-labeled with black type on white strips of tape. These are Daniel’s hand-made bitters—some 45 in all. He employs this retinue of exotic flavorings as seasonings to impart a subtle but

essential distinction to each drink. He stops at a bottle of cherry hibiscus bitters and swiftly unscrews the top. He portions out a specific number of drops into the beaker. “One, two, three, …” he counts, and halts. Anticipation has become my middle name. He gathers ice cubes in a metal scoop, cups the scoop in his crooked arm, and starts breaking the cubes into smaller pieces

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with a stout muddler. Dissatisfied with the quality of standard ice machines, Daniel purchased, at considerable expense, a special cube creator that met his meticulous standards for clarity, freshness, and surface texture—the better to manage desirable ice dilution in his drinks, a vital element in a cocktail's formulation. The ice is heaped into the beaker, he grabs a twist-handled bar spoon and with remarkable fluidity speedily swirls everything, finally looking up to gauge the status of his customers and the other bartenders as he steadily stirs, as if on autopilot. He stops, turns, opens a refrigerator behind the bar, and pulls out a chilled stem glass. He tops the beaker with a strainer and pours the dark amber liquid into the glass. He selects a lemon from a bowl and in a blink cuts a clean swath of peel from the fruit and twists it over the top of the glass. Before serving it, he dips a small black straw into the drink to gather a sample, clamps a finger to the top end, and removes a few drops to test its taste. Satisfied, he gracefully delivers me the drink— finally. I sniff it, then sip it. It’s delicious, I tell him. “Too much apricot?” he asks. “Maybe next time only half an ounce.” Daniel, owner of Teardrop Lounge in Portland’s Pearl District, is emblematic of a modernist generation of bartending that is sweeping the Northwest and the nation. This New School of so-called “mixologists” (most of whom dislike that moniker) honors the values of the classical bartender while adding a fresh enthusiasm for exploring the flavor frontiers of mixed drinks. “For us, it’s about two things,” Daniel explains. “It’s about flavor and making people happy.” While crafting drinks with taste combinations most people haven’t experienced before is the blood of his business, the soul is in providing patrons a pleasurable www.nwpalate.com

experience. “You have to first like people, and like serving them,” he says, “and then what wellmixed flavors and the careful consideration of cocktails adds on top of that is making someone happier in a way they didn’t know. Often you can see in their eyes when they try one of these cocktails: ‘I didn’t know a drink could taste this way!’” The satisfaction of seeing such a reaction is what keeps Daniel excited about cocktail creation. Which is why, when the bar is slow and he knows the predilections of a customer, he is able to take the time to tease out a new drink. Or why he and his staff spend hours developing new drink recipes, sometimes going through dozens of slight variations in each formula before finding the final preparation for the bar’s ever-changing menu. The menu at Teardrop Lounge is a virtual roadmap to today’s new cocktail scene. A cocktailian triptych, it’s one-third housedeveloped drinks; one-third arcane quaffs, mostly from pre-Prohibition recipes that were popular 75 to 125 years ago; and one-third modern creations developed by friends, fellow mixologists who bartend across the country.

Building cocktails, Daniel maintains, is not a random act of creativity. “There are first principles that provide a gateway for the creation of new drinks,” he explains. Like a chef who creates new dishes, bartenders must understand how ingredients work in a drink. “You have to taste religiously, so that you understand intimately how the ingredients you are working with function with one another. You have to know how citrus, syrups, bitters, spirits, and liqueurs interact. You have to understand what cane sugar does, versus honey or agave nectar, and then you have to understand balance and how each ingredient can contribute to that.” 

“You have to taste religiously, so that you understand intimately how the ingredients you are working with function with one another. You have to know how citrus, syrups, bitters, spirits, and liqueurs interact. You have to understand what cane sugar does, versus honey or agave nectar, and then you have to understand balance and how each ingredient can contribute to that.” — Daniel Shoemaker

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

| Silver Medal • 89 points Highly Recommended The Journal of Beverage Testing Institute "Smells of berries emanate from the glass . . . " Spirit Journal

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beyond the bar

To illustrate how this works, Daniel describes a drink called “The Search for Delicious,” from a New Orleans bar called Cure. The ingredients seem at first strange, but in combination they produce a delectable whole. “It’s basically two ounces of Cynar, two ounces of Punt e Mes, orange bitters, and lemon peel, so you have bitter, bitter, bitter, and bitter. But the recipe also calls for two dashes of salt. Salt leeches bitter, so in total you get a drink with more sweetness and subtlety than you might otherwise expect. The ingredients all operate well together.” For the home bartender venturing into the world of cocktail creation, Daniel offers some basic templates that can be employed as guides.

“Always try to figure out what works well together. Find some key flavor note, say in the spirit, and then try ingredients that will highlight that note, pull it out even further.” — Daniel Shoemaker “A citrus model is two ounces of your choice of a base spirit, one ounce of lemon or lime, half an ounce of a sweetener plus a dash of bitters. Experiment around that— it’s pretty hard to screw up a drink with that formula.” A more spirit-driven drink model uses two ounces base spirit, three-quarters of an ounce of an apéritif-style bitter such as Dubonnet or Lillet, half an ounce of an herbal liqueur, a dash of aromatic bitters (such as Angostura or Fees), and a dash of absinthe. Daniel offers additional advice. “Always try to figure out what works well together. Find some key flavor note, say in the spirit, and then try ingredients that will highlight that note, pull it out even further. Never add an ingredient or change a proportion to try and mask a flavor note or to get rid of something. If you’re trying to get rid of a note in a spirit you’re working with, then you’re working with the wrong spirit.” One thing helping spur the enthusiasm around creative cocktails has been the concomitant blossoming of a Northwest craft distilling movement, giving professional and amateur mixologists a rapidly widening palette of regional spirits to work with. Everything from absinthe and herbal liqueurs to gin and vodka are being produced somewhere in the Northwest. Just as local ingredients have inspired local chefs, so local spirits are a catalyst for local cocktail enthusiasm. “It’s a very vibrant community, and

there are a number of local distillers in Portland and Washington that I love and have huge respect for,” says Daniel. “That’s led to a lot of enthusiasm in the cocktail community, which is a good thing, but I sometimes worry that much of it is just unfettered experimentation without any respect for the craft’s history—no technique, no balance. You have to understand the history of anything before you can honestly move it forward.” The true New School bartenders honor the history of their craft, they hone their technique, they seek innovative flavors, but not at the expense of balance and nuance. And they strive to provide service to their customers. Harkening back to the Nineteenth Century, Daniel points out that bartenders then were at the crux of their community— “every bit as respected as the mayor and the pastor,” he says—and their bar was a vital cultural locus where citizens gathered, discussed, and bonded. The bar as a place of community, craft, and creativity was as respected an institution as the town library, bank, even church. Prohibition may have destroyed that heritage for a couple of generations, but if Daniel and his cohorts in the modern craft cocktail movement are any evidence, it would seem that a culture of thoughtful and creative cocktail concocting and serving is not just returning, it’s thriving.

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beyond the bar

Another Time, Another Place Courtesy of Daniel Shoemaker, Teardrop Lounge, Portland, OR. Makes 1 cocktail

In creating his cocktails, Daniel Shoemaker likes to play to the strong points of the spirits he uses. For this drink he starts with WhipperSnapper Oregon Spirit Whiskey, produced by Tad Seestedt at his Ransom Spirits in Sheridan, Oregon. True to its name, WhipperSnapper is a young whiskey. “I wanted to work with its peppery and fiery character,” says Daniel, “so I start with peppercorns to highlight that attribute in the spirit.” To round out the fire, he coats them with a touch of maple syrup before he muddles them together. Amaro Nonino is an Italian grappabased herbal liqueur that provides both bitter and sweet qualities, while Aperol is a low-alcohol apéritif that adds orange and citrus overtones. A dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters #6 plays up the citrus elements of the drink, while a dash of Xocolatl Mole Bitters from The Bitter Truth highlights the spicy tones. The final touch of lemon zest, stirred into the drink instead of twisted on top, integrates the citrusy aromatics into the drink more completely. “It’s a remarkably different effect than zesting on top,” notes Daniel. “It’s a little touch that just changes the structure of the drink from the ground up.” C

CMY

• 2 teaspoons whole peppercorns • dash of maple syrup • 2 ounces Ransom Spirits WhipperSnapper Oregon Spirit Whiskey • ½ ounce Aperol • ½ ounce Amaro Nonino • dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters #6 • dash of The Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole Bitters • 3 lemon zest strips

Place peppercorns in the bottom of a glass beaker. Pour a light dash of maple syrup, enough to coat the peppercorns. Muddle the peppercorns thoroughly. Add liquid ingredients, one strip of lemon zest, and ice. Stir thoroughly with lemon zest in liquid. Double strain through a fine mesh to remove all pepper and pour into chilled coupe. Twist the remaining two lemon zests over the top of the drink and discard. Serve.

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

tasting notes wine views & reviews Cathedral Ridge OR

Recommended

Exceptional Highly Recommended

Tasting Notes provide readers with descriptive reviews of Northwest wines as an aid to finding wines they may like. All wines are reviewed blind (we do not know the producer). Well-made, pleasing-to-drink wines that display good varietal character and balance are Recommended. Wines that offer additional complexity, character, and persistence of flavors are Highly Recommended. The Exceptional rating is given to memorable wines that display varietal or stylistic purity, have seamless balance, and display profound character.

w Chardonnay

The classic white grape of Burgundy, Chardonnay is one of the world’s most traveled and adaptable vinifera varieties. It seems to prosper in the distinctively coolclimate regions of the globe—such as the Willamette Valley—just as well as it does in indisputably warm-climate areas—like the Yakima Valley or Horse Heaven Hills. And while it remains one of the globe’s most popular wines, it is a grape that is often described as having little distinctive character of its own, instead taking on a personality very much influenced by the hand of the winemaker.

Buried Cane WA 2009 Chardonnay, No-Oak, Whiteline, Columbia Valley

2008 Chardonnay, Snake River Valley Muted scents of green melon

scents lead to a palate of plush buttery citrus notes. Broad in the mouth, with soft and appealing flavors of peach, lemon, and caramel-coated apple, this Chardonnay avoids the sense of overt oakiness while maintaining the silky softness of lees contact and malolactic fermentation. A touch on the soft side, this wine would pair best with a dish that offers some zing, perhaps filet of sole in lemon butter and capers sauce. (379 cases made.) $18

and oak are at first timid, though with some warmth open more fully. In the mouth flavors of Rome apple combine with mint and minerals to produce a somewhat spicy characterization of Chardonnay fruit. The acidity gives the flavors some energy, but they are not overtly fruity. Notes of apple skin and pear become more apparent toward the finish. A great Chardonnay to pair with warm apple pie and cheddar cheese. (1,290 cases made.) $9

Ganton & Larsen Prospect Winery BC

vintage value

2008 Chardonnay, The Census Count, Okanagan Valley, VQA Richly golden color with tinges of lime green. Somewhat closed aromas of apple and pear fruit also have a pleasing sense of dried herbs. Supple on the tongue, clear apple and pear flavors are complemented by subtle tones of lemon curd, butter, and mint. Bright and fresh in style, yet with a creamy texture and weighty character, this attractive Chardonnay should be served with roast chicken and polenta. $15 cdn

Kestrel WA 2008 Chardonnay, Estate Old Vine, Yakima Valley Unusually opulent golden color and lavish aromas of pear, melon, and apple fruit, along with touches of mint and a sense of nuttiness. Plush on the palate, washes of apple and melon flavors are potent, and ringed by a distinct minerality, notes of butter and vanilla, and herbal nuances. Though the texture is quite round and ripe, plenty of fresh acidity imparts a distinct tart edge. The finish is long and complex, with lemony accents ringing on the tongue. A complex and distinctive Chardonnay whose bold flavors make it a little difficult to plan a proper pairing. Try an herb-roasted chicken dish with lentils. (886 cases made.) $20

Kramer Vineyards OR

vintage

Forthright aromas of Chardonnay fruit with hearty melon and fig overtones are fresh and appetizing. Lean and energetic on the palate, flavors of melon and pear are concentrated and forceful. Accents of lemon and lime appear on the mid-palate, along with a touch of mint and talc. Though the acidity is quite fresh, there is also a weighty and supple texture that helps give the wine a sense of substance. The wine finishes with long-lasting freshness. (3,460 cases made.) Good value $14.

value

Sawtooth Estate Winery ID

2009 Chardonnay, Columbia Valley Clean and lightly lemony

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

2007 Chardonnay, Dijon, Willamette  Valley Subtle scents of toast, yellow fruits, and peach blossoms take some time to warm up. In the mouth a lean body conveys bright sour lemon flavors with accents of buttered toast and dried nuts. There is plenty of acidity in this wine, yet it is balanced by a gentle, round aspect. While oak exposure is apparent, it is well controlled. Serve with basil fettuccine. (218 cases made.) $15

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w Riesling

Coeur de Terre Vineyard OR

Washington is one of the world’s greatest Riesling-producing regions; indeed, the largest Riesling producer on the globe is Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. Much less Riesling is produced in Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho, but often what is made is of very high quality. Wonderfully adaptable as to style—from bone dry through intensely sweet, Riesling is also a tremendously versatile and food-friendly varietal.

Brooks OR 2009 Riesling, Sweet P, Eola-Amity Hills Medium sweet. Rich aromas of broiled grapefruit and freshly cut grass characterize the nose. In the mouth sweet flavors of caramelized pineapple and candied lemon are light and lithe, made fresh by sufficient acidity. Distinctly sweet on the midpalate, the flavors are straightforward and simple, yet quite satisfying, and the finish is persistent. A perfect pairing would be clove-studded ham. (150 cases made.) $22

Brooks OR  2008 Riesling, Willamette Valley Dry. Sweet-tart scents of nectarine and dried grass have energy and force in the nose. Tart and dry lemon-lime flavors are powerful on the palate, along with a punch of petrol-spice and citrus zest. An assertive Riesling that offers bright flavors in an appealingly high-acid style. Serve with a plate of mixed soft-rind and aged cheeses. (780 cases made.) $18

Chateau Ste. Michelle WA 2009 Dry Riesling, Columbia Valley Dry. Attractive mixed aromas evoke thoughts of fresh fruit salad on the inviting nose. A tasty potpourri of apricot, peach, tangerine, and a touch of lemon curd are clean and rich on the palate, inviting repeated sips. Good acidity and pointed dryness give the flavors a lively zing. A gentle touch of white pepper imparts a delicate astringency on the mediumlong finish. Serve with roasted lamb and apricots. Good value $9.

vintage value

Chateau Ste. Michelle WA 2009 Riesling, Columbia Valley Medium dry to sweet. Weighty aromas of tropical fruits deliver a sense of clean sweetness to the nose. On the palate sweet flavors of pineapple and grapefruit are predominant, with a zesty acidity providing an uplifting sense. Additional notes of tart, almost sour, apple and Asian pear give additional verve. Serve with sashimi or a Thai lemongrass soup. Good value $9.

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2009 Riesling, Willamette Valley Dry. Wonderful and complex aromas of slate, grass, white peach, and dried flower blossoms are fresh and bright. On the palate the wine has a medium-to-light body, but plenty of tart dry flavors that at first feel steely and desiccated, but which quickly transform into a fruity mélange of green apple, white peach, unripe pear, and white flowers. There is high acidity to the wine, which gives it a strong sense of minerality and distinct force to the flavors. The back label indicates a small amount of residual sugar, though on the palate I detect none. Fresh and vibrant, this is the style of Riesling that will age well—but if you choose to drink it now, consider pairing it with poached halibut in a creamy sauce. (176 cases made.) $19

Saint Laurent Estate Winery WA 2009 Riesling, Estate, Columbia Valley Medium sweet. Full and juicy aromas of baked apple, peach blossoms, and honey are warm and alluring. Sweet peach and apple flavors wash across the tongue, with honey tones surrounding the fruit core. Plush on the mid-palate, it is only after the wine has been in the mouth awhile that the acidity begins to balance the lush sweetness. A full and warming wine that would well complement sole with beurre blanc and roasted root vegetables. (400 cases made.) $12

Trisaetum OR 2009 Riesling, Estate, Willamette Valley Tastes off-dry. Complex and forward aromas offer a mixture of dried potpourri, honeysuckle, talc, straw, and pear blossoms. Rich flavors of sweet peach and apricot are ringed with more brittle tones of lemon and lime—tastily fruity with floral overtones. Though there is good acidity, it remains in the background, allowing the lush quality of the fruit to show front and center. The finish is persistent and continues to deliver citrus tones long after the wine is gone. Complex and rather dense, this is a wine that will age well, but could be paired now with shellfish, especially Dungeness crab or lobster dipped in drawn butter. $24

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Willamette Valley Vineyards OR 2009 Riesling, Willamette Valley Medium sweet. Subtle scents of honeysuckle and crushed green apple are fresh and appealing. On the palate lively flavors of lemon, lime, and a hint of pineapple dance on the tongue thanks to ample acidity. The sweetness is distinct, offering a honeyed character to the fruit, but never overwhelming the flavors with sappiness. Drying notes of minerality and grass add complexity, while the finish is rich and long. A dynamic and tasty Riesling that is enjoyable by itself, or paired with canapés on a spring afternoon. (24,000 cases made.) $14

www.youngberghill.com www.youngberghill.com/blog Youngberg Hill on

and

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w White

Blends

There are great discoveries to be made among Northwest blended white wines. Particularly in some of the cooler-climate regions of the Northwest (Willamette Valley, north Okanagan Valley, Vancouver & Gulf Islands) the so-called “aromatic white grapes” can produce remarkably complex and satisfying wines when skillfully blended. Which is not to say that warmerclimate grape varieties, especially the Rhône varietals, can’t be great too. And one additional bonus to white blends: they tend to be very reasonably priced!

Hester Creek BC 2010 Character, Okanagan Valley VQA Off-dry. Diverse apple, citrus, and melon aromas and flavors throughout, accompanied by fresh herbal nuances. Medium-bodied, well-balanced, and lingering savory notes ensure easy sipping. Imminently quaffable with calamari. (Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Trebbiano.) $20 cdn

JoieFarm BC 2010 A Noble Blend, Okanagan Valley Medium dry. Fresh and fragrant first impressions signal a potpourri: honeysuckle, grapefruit, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors. Lively acidity swirls around the rich, intensely fruity mid-palate weight. Expansive mango strikes the finish. Pure pleasure with stir-fried pork or duck dishes. (43% Gewürztraminer, 38% Riesling, 14% Pinot Auxerrois, 5% Pinot Gris.) $24 cdn

Quails’ Gate BC 2010 Chasselas-Pinot Blanc-Pinot Gris, Okanagan Valley VQA Off-dry. Delicately intriguing scents of a floral bouquet and a fruit salad bowl. This light, pleasant quaff gushes with orchard fruit and appetizing citrus peel flecks. The tangy minerally finish refreshes. A staple for salads on the patio. (60% Chasselas, 30% Pinot Blanc, 10% Pinot Gris.) $18 cdn

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w Other

Whites

One of the most interesting recent trends in Northwest winemaking is the rise of “new” white wine varieties—at least newly planted in this region. Oregon, in particular, has been in the forefront of adding diversity to the region’s white grapes with the arrival in recent years of such wines as Grüner Veltliner, Vermentino, Auxerrois, and others. Washington is a pioneer with Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, and Marsanne. In British Columbia there has been experimentation as well, with Auxerrois, Chenin Blanc, Chasselas, and others.

JoieFarm BC 2010 Muscat, Naramata Bench, Okanagan Valley Medium dry. Intoxicating grapey fruit explosion in the nose. Sweet peachy fruit on the front palate, vibrant citrus and melon fruit on the mid-palate, and a surprising dried blueberry finish. Try with prosciutto-wrapped melon aside the salty tang of pecorino cheese. A brilliant expression of the Okanagan. (100% estate-grown Moscato Giallo, a.k.a. Yellow Muscat.) $23 cdn

Quails’ Gate BC 2010 Chenin Blanc, Okanagan Valley VQA Honeysuckle and lemon meringue pie aromas lure. The balanced attack of fruity and savory captivates. The focused lemony acidity upfront broadens to a waxy-textured finish. Delicious with a fritto misto seafood platter now, but will become more honeyed with 3-5 years of cellaring. (Includes 10% Sauvignon Blanc.) $19 cdn

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w Dessert

Wine

Intensely sweet and full of varietal character, late harvest-style wines are commonly consumed as dessert wines (and sometimes called “stickies” because of the amount of residual sugar often present). Particularly in British Columbia, where the northerly latitude helps increase the incidence of freezes, Icewine has been a mainstay of this category.

Quails’ Gate BC 2008 Optima, Totally Botrytis Affected, Okanagan Valley VQA Sweet. Intense, riveting

Mercer Wine Estates Our patio awaits... Soak up the sun, while sipping on one of the many highly acclaimed wines from Mercer Estates Tasting Room open Wed-Sun 10am-5pm 3100 Lee Road, Prosser, Washington 99350 | www.mercerwine.com

aromas blast the nose: peach, pineapple, tangerine, ginger, honey, and sultana raisin. In contrast, the softly-textured palate offers gentle flavors of stewed peach with hints of caramelized pineapple. Spicy marzipan and dried apricot linger. A welcome post-dinner palate cleanser. (1,069 cases made.) $30 cdn/375ml

Quails’ Gate BC 2008 Riesling Icewine, Okanagan Valley VQA Extremely sweet. Delicate aromas of floral, fruit, and spice tease the nose. Then, the palate unleashes exhilarating acidity balancing jawdropping richness and unctuous sweetness. Features intense flavors of preserved lemon, candied orange peel, and crab apple jelly; and a long spicy finish. A delicious post-brunch sipper. (542 cases made) $35 cdn/200ml

w Rosé

As the weather warms in spring, so many wine lovers turn their imbibing attention to Rosé wines because of their easy quaffability combined with refreshing character. Even so, too many consumers still shun “pink wine,” sometimes out of the misguided idea that they are a blend of red and white wines. Varietal Rosé wines are layered and complex, with a satisfying freshness and elegant varietal character. Refreshing on their own, they are also versatile accompaniments to many types of food.

JoieFarm BC 2010 Rosé, Okanagan Valley Off-dry. Watermelon red color. A red fruit explosion on the nose gives way to more subtle spice notes. Mouthwatering juiciness begets red berry flavors and a tauntingly tannic tug on the finish. Sweetfruited and versatile enough to pair with spicy fusion fare. (53% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier, 12% Gamay, 10% Pinot Gris.) $21 cdn

Quails’ Gate BC 2010 Rosé, Okanagan Valley VQA Dry.

9200 Ramsey Road Gold hill, Oregon 97525 5 4 1 - 8 5 5 - 2 0 1 8 ~ w w w. f o l i n c e l l a r s . c o m 50

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Salmon red color. Earthy berry fruit aromas waft from the glass. Firmly textured with a juicy core of raspberries and red currant. Finishes with a duo of sweet fruit and light, dry tannins. Pairs wonderfully with smoked salmon. (90% Gamay, 10% Pinot Noir.) Good value. $15 cdn

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w Pinot

Noir

The elegant Pinot Noir grape has its home in Burgundy, but it has also found hospitable climes in Oregon, California, and New Zealand. In the Northwest it thrives best in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and the northern reaches of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. Though it reaches its most natural ripening in a distinctly cool climate, it is often planted in much warmer regions where it can ripen rapidly and with more ease—but at what cost to varietal correctness can be much debated.

Amalie Robert OR

David Hill Vineyards OR

2008 Pinot Noir, Vintage Debut, Estate Bottled, Willamette Valley Lightly hued,

2008 Pinot Noir, Blackjack, Willamette Valley Soft aromatic notes of crushed red fruits

crystalline rose color introduces spicy fresh scents of crushed red fruits, cinnamon, and dried herbs. Light and lithe on the tongue, tasty cherry and cola flavors are well balanced by lively acidity and subtle but present, fine-grained tannins. The finish shows plenty of lingering fruit with notes of tea and gentle toast. A bright and fresh Pinot that delivers plenty of satisfying punch. Pair with duck confit on a bed of Washington lentils for a true Northwest treat. $30

and toasty oak are balanced and pleasing on the nose. Initially soft-seeming on the palate, the fruitiness develops slowly, showing black raspberry and dark cherry flavors at first, with layered notes of cranberry, molasses and— intriguingly for a Pinot—ground white pepper. Noticeable oak influence adds toasty accents and provides tannic dryness. This is a densely textured wine with plenty of lush softness and concentrated flavors. The finish is medium in length with a pleasing note of rose petals. A meaty Pinot to pair with grilled lamb chops. (150 cases made.) $45

ArborBrook Vineyards OR 2009 Pinot Noir, Heritage Cuvée, Chehalem Mountains Classic aromas of brambly red cherries that offer an inkling of sweetness on the nose as well as a whiff of dried earth. Clean red fruitiness suffuses the palate with flavors of cherries and strawberries married with a touch of vanilla and tea. There is a pleasing bite to the fruit, reminiscent of cranberry, and at the same time an airy floral quality that echoes of rose blossoms. The tannins are remarkably fine, and while the overall feeling of the wine is generally soft, there is ample acidity and everything feels well integrated. While this is a perfect match for grilled salmon, it is also a worthy cellar candidate, and should develop further for 3–5 more years—at least! (777 cases made.) $35

Dobbes Family Estate OR 2008 Pinot Noir, Youngberg Hill Vineyard, McMinnville Intense crimson color is quite appealing, while aromas of black cherry fruits with accents of dried herbs dance on the nose. Distinctly lean on the palate. Flavors of tart raspberry are pleasingly forward, with additional notes of cherries and red plum in the background. There is a high-toned acidity that gives zest to the fruit, but drying tannins and a sense of dried garden soil and minerals help ground the wine. Bright and lively, but with a somewhat meaty quality as well, this is a Pinot to put away for 2–3 years for further development. (126 cases made.) $65

Helioterra OR 2009 Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley  Pretty, lightly hued rose red color. Pure Pinot aromas of crushed red cherries and strawberries with background notes of dried herbs and gentle toast. Lively and wellfocused cherry fruit has an appealing dryness at the back of the palate, but with a gentle sweetness as a top note. There is an attractive floral lavender tone throughout the tasting experience, and a tartness reminiscent of ripe cranberries. Bright acidity lends a fresh aspect, while the fruit is corseted by well-controlled tannins. The finish is long and vibrant. A tasty Pinot Noir to pair with mustard-glazed pork loin. (248 cases made.) $22

vintage value

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

w Merlot

Despite an unfair unpopularity in America generated by the now backlist movie Sideways, the international popularity of Merlot has never really waned. One of the classic noble vinifera varieties, it is the mainstay of many of France’s most famous Bordeaux wines, especially those from the Pomerol and Saint-Émilion. In the Northwest, eastern Washington, southern Okanagan Valley, and southern Oregon have so far proven to be the best places for Merlot.

Abacela OR 2007 Merlot, Southern Oregon  Forward scents of plum, toast, earth, and pencil lead are complex and satisfying. Big and even punchy flavors of black currant fruit are ringed by notes of dark earth, espresso, and minerals, giving the wine a brooding character. Spicy tones of cinnamon and earthy notes of mushroom add to the overall dark sense in this wine. Good acidity, though, adds a lift to the flavors, while distinct but nicely fine-grained tannins provide ample structure. This is a broadly flavorful Merlot that seems to want 2–3 more years in the cellar to show at its best. (862 cases made.) $19

Chateau Ste. Michelle WA 2007 Merlot, Canoe Ridge Estate,  Horse Heaven Hills A complex swirl of cinnamon, tar, crushed black fruits, and smoke greets the nose. Lush blackberry and cherry fruitiness fills the mouth with easy quaffing flavors, while balancing acidity gives a lift to the wine. Touches of vanilla and oak complement the ripe fruit, while dusty and fine-grained tannins add a pleasing structure. Serve this with braised rabbit and prunes for a great taste combination. (9,000 cases made.) $25

Hightower Cellars WA 2007 Merlot, Columbia Valley Authoritative aromas fairly burst from the glass, offering up an addictive mixture of dried autumn leaves, shaved unsweetened chocolate, graphite, and a gentle note of bramble, all surrounding a core of blackberry and blueberry fruit. On the palate the wine is dense and full of dried blackberry and black currant flavors, framed by dark garden soil and toasty oak tones. There is also an interesting leafy quality in the mouth, with subtle accents of tobacco mingled with dried thyme. The tannins are very finely tuned and never poke out, while the finish delivers a subtle sense of blueberry fruit that lingers nicely. A complex and serious Merlot that would complement a rich and hearty cassoulet. (336 cases made.) $25

stellar

selection

Over 30 wineries. Top Portland restaurants. One night.

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

www.nwpalate.com

w Grenache

Grenache (the French name of the grape, also known as Garnacha in Spain) is one of the world’s most widely planted grapes. Yet in the Northwest, Grenache is still a fairly new variety. It is a late-ripening grape and so needs warm and dry growing conditions. Though it likely originated in Spain, it is perhaps best known in America as the main variety in wines from France’s southern Rhône region, and is the dominant grape in wines from Châteauneufdu-Pape. It is to be hoped that more Grenache/Garnacha gets planted in the Northwest!

Abacela OR 2008 Garnacha, Southern Oregon Bright carmine color is clear and appealing, while bright aromas of raspberry and red fruits are tinged with a gentle violet perfume. In the mouth a supple texture delivers well-focused flavors of red raspberries, ripe strawberries, and a hint of cooked rhubarb. A light, loamy quality grounds the flavors well, while a top note of dried rose petals adds airiness. The finish shows ample tannins, but also persistent floral and fruity tones. This very tasty wine would pair well with roast game hens. (221 cases made.) $22

Seven of Hearts OR 2009 Grenache & Syrah, Chatte d’Avignon, Columbia Valley Full and forward aromas of plummy red fruits have a distinctly vinous quality, with added notes of dried earth, spice, and lavender. Concentrated plummy flavors form the fruity core on the palate, with ancillary tastes of strawberry compote and raspberry pastilles. There is a subtle earthiness underneath the fruit that provides a base for the flavors, which linger long on the tasty finish. Pair with leg of lamb. (119 cases made.) $25

Spangler Vineyards OR 2009 Grenache, Southern Oregon Pretty light rose color. Soft scents of red fruits and rose blossoms need some strong swirling to incite. Soft in texture, yet spirited in flavor, wafts of candied strawberry and raspberry fruit fill the mouth, with soft tones of minty basil and lavender hard candies providing added layers of flavor. Bright with acidity, and firm tannins, the fruitiness nevertheless has a slightly cloying quality thanks to the intensity of its flavors. The finish is long, has definite drying tannins, but sustains the fruitiness well. A boldly flavored Grenache that would be great with spit-roasted squab. (122 cases made.) $35

Seven of Hearts OR 2009 Grenache, Chatte d’Avignon, Avery Vineyard, Columbia Valley Light rosy red color and youthfully pink rims introduce a pretty nose of crushed red fruits, dried potpourri, and subtle tones of earthiness. Light on the tongue, this softly styled wine delivers plush flavors of strawberries and cherries, with a building sense of acidity adding brightness as the wine warms in the mouth. Notes of dried herbs and dusty garden soil form an earthy foundation to the freshness of the fruit. Soft tannins and a drawnout finish give the wine great appeal. Serve with chicken and wild rice. (47 cases made.) $29

stellar

selection

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

w Syrah

It’s about the experience...

Syrah (known in Australia as Shiraz—and completely unrelated to Petit Sirah) is the great grape of the Rhône, and has become in the Northwest a grape of great promise. Thriving in warm and dry regions, it has only been since the late 1980s that any significant amount of the variety has been grown in the Northwest. In particular, the variety has proven successful in the warmest reaches of the Okanagan Valley as well as in the Walla Walla Valley, Horse Heaven Hills, and parts of Southern Oregon.

Abacela OR 2008 Syrah, Southern Oregon Richly

With hundreds of wineries to choose from, pick the one that stands out. 

Award-Winning NW Red Wines | Bocce Outdoor Terraces | Coastal Range Views (Open Daily 11am-5pm) Enoteca Lunch ~ Chef’s Supper Thursday Night Casual Bocce Menu Wine Country Sunday Brunch (Seasonal Hours, RSVP Suggested) 415 Ferry Street Dayton, OR 97114

750 West Lincoln • Carlton, Oregon CanasFeastWinery.com | 503-852-0002

inviting aromas of blackberry and black cherry fruit are complemented by notes of spices and dried flower blossoms. Velvety in the mouth, ripe tastes of blackberry and boysenberry fruit are surrounded by dried herb and brown spice tones. There is ample acidity, and notable tannins appear on the midpalate, but the fruit continues to shine on the sustained finish. Serve with grilled sausages. (292 cases made.) Good value $19.

Amalie Robert OR 2008 Syrah, Satisfaction, Estate Bottled, Willamette Valley Complex and forward aromas of smoky meat, black plum, olive, and spices are intriguing and inviting. In the mouth taut flavors of raspberries and damson plum are concentrated on the mid-palate, backed by a controlled amount of delicate tannins. There is plenty of acidity pushing the fruit forward, yet the wine feels young and compact. The finish is clean and long, with a final pucker of gentle tannins. A tasty and rather elegant Syrah that could be enjoyed tonight with a terrine of rabbit, or put away for a few more years to develop additional weight and complexity. (50 cases made.) $35

Amavi Cellars WA 2007 Syrah, Walla Walla Valley Densely hued magenta color leads to a medley of aromas consisting of blackberry, raspberry, humus, and pie crust. Similarly close-packed flavors of blackberry and plum jam spread across the palate with a pleasing balance of sweet/tart qualities. A distinct earthiness is conveyed by a sense of dusty wood and fresh-turned garden soil, along with notes of pencil lead. Balanced acidity and muted tannins help give a seamless quality to the tasting experience. The finish is delightfully fruity and floral, leaving echoes well after the wine is swallowed. Pair with wild boar ragù. (1,736 cases made.) $28

stellar

selection

5 4 5 4may/june march/april 2011 | Northwest 2011 | Northwest Palate Palate

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Bergevin Lane Vineyards WA 2007 Syrah, She-Devil, Columbia Valley Rich plummy hue leads to a nose full of ripe red fruits with hints of baking spices, smoke, and dry earth. Concentrated flavors of red and black berries are dense and focused on the palate, delivering a stand-up-and-takenotice kind of fruitiness. Yet plenty of elegant acidity gives the wine a lively feel, and so avoids the sense of ponderous weight that is often associated with larger-styled Syrahs. Complementary accents of mocha and dusty earth, as well as mint and dried basil add a layer of interest. Silky mouthfeel and a powerful finish make this a Syrah to savor. Cellar for 2–4 years. (650 cases made.) $24

New Wines

New Look

not So SeriouS PeoPle.

Visit us in the Chehalem Mtns, only 30 min from Portland.

Bridgman WA 2007 Syrah, Columbia Valley Pleasing scents of ripe blackberry combine with subtle tones of spice and leather on the nose. Smoothly textured on the palate, ripe flavors of blackberry, blueberry, pepper, and spice are warming and pleasing. Additional layers of chocolate and coffee speak to oak ageing, while furry tannins provide good structure. The finish is long and fruity. Pair with flame-grilled, fresh-ground hamburgers. (700 cases made.) Excellent value $10.

SeriouS Pinot.

Open Fridays & Saturdays 11 am to 4 pm and by appointment

www.BuriedCane.com (509) 522-7724

9995 N.E. ParrEtt MtN rd. NEwbErg, Or 97132 • 503-554-0721 JKCarriere.Com

Columbia Crest WA 2008 Syrah, Reserve, Coyote Canyon Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills Exceptionally saturated purple color with fuchsia-pink rims leads to a rich nose of violet-tinged blackberry fruit with accents of spice and earth. Initially silky on the palate, bold flavors of boysenberry are surrounded by dusty tones of earth, toast, mocha, and minerals. Distinct tannins emerge on the mid-palate giving notable structure to the wine and a puckering impact, but lingering notes of violet flowers and hints of espresso and chocolate on the finish make for a powerful and complex Syrah. Cellar this wine for a further 3–4 years for greater integration of fruit and structure. (400 cases made.) Good value $20.

WOOD WARD CANY ON WOODW CANYON Est. 1981

tasting room open daily Celebrating 30 Years!

Come try our newly released 2009 Shea Vineyard Pinot Noir Open Memorial Day Weekend Fri-Mon May 27-30 12-5pm

ALSO OFFERING PRIVATE TASTINGS BY APPOINTMENT

11920 W. Hwy 12, Lowden Walla Walla Valley

WildAireCellars.com 503.851.3689

www.woodwardcanyon.com 509-525-4129 www.nwpalate.com

Northwest Northwest Palate Palate | march/april | may/june 2011 2011

Otis Kenyon OR 2007 Syrah, Walla Walla Valley Emphatic aromas of plum

“2009 Washington Winery of the Year” Wine Press Northwest

“Best destination winery”

Seattle Magazine

The Ultimate Wine Country Experience Tasting Room Hours April-October: Daily, 11am-5pm Memorial Day Weekend: 11am-6pm 26830 NW Olson Rd Gaston, OR 503.662.4545 • kramerwine.com

Come taste our nationally acclaimed wines and enjoy the stunning views on our extensive arbor.

Join us for our 10th Anniversary Celebration Memorial Day weekend May 28, 29 & 30th

Live music, Bar-B-Q & new releases www.maryhillwinery.com

1-877-MARYHILL

9774 Hwy. 14 Goldendale, WA

and blackberry fruit are clean and mouthwatering, with hints of dried mint and chocolate. Similar flavors appear in the mouth: dense and ripe plum and black fruit pie filling, along with almost sweet-seeming notes of chocolate, raspberry, and pie spices. An undercurrent of black pepper courses across the palate, while a higher-toned sense of violets fills the nasal cavity. Bright acidity makes for a bold style, while ample fine-grained tannins provide good structure. A bit on the rambunctious side, this wine would work well with elk loin and olives. $30

Seia Wine Cellars WA 2007 Syrah, Alder Creek Vineyard, Horse Heaven Hills Attractively sweet red fruit aromas rise easily from the glass, accented with subtle tones of rose blossoms. Weighty on the tongue, flavors of plum and cherry take a moment to develop, blooming into a pretty floral sweetness with a touch of molasses, pepper, and spice in the background. Good acidity and tender tannins are well balanced, and the finish is exceptionally bright with a potent, dying note of violets and roses. An excellent wine to serve at a summer backyard cookout with Moroccanspiced lamb burgers. (367 cases made.) Good value $20.

Seufert Winery OR sm all pr od u c tio n wi n e s o f great character made using traditional methods 2 0 0 9 & 2 0 1 0 R E L E A S E S F RO M SEVEN OF HEARTS & LUMINOUS HILLS

AWARD WINNING

Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, pinot gris, rosÉ, Viognier, Roussanne, Grenache, Syrah, port and ice wine Pairing with custom wine tasting chocolates by Honest Chocolates

fresh handmade chocolates

2008 Syrah, Columbia Valley Assertive and appealing aromas of plump and plummy fruit are complemented by brown spices and gentle toastiness on the layered nose. Rich, dark plum flavors on the palate are ringed with notes of dried herbs, a touch of mint, molasses in the background, and violet flowers. Good acidity lends a lively edge to the flavors, while wellcontrolled tannins make for easy sipping. A tasty and straightforward Syrah to drink with a black-andblue T-bone steak. (85 cases made.) $20

217 W. Main Street, Carlton

971-241-6548

WWW.SEVENOFHEARTSWINE.COM

5 6 5 6may/june march/april 2011 | Northwest 2011 | Northwest Palate Palate

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A R E G I O N A L G U I D E T O F O O D , W I N E , A N D T R AV E L R E L AT E D B U S I N E S S E S

local goodness

cheese

ai Av

l ab

ow eN

115 SW 7th St. / DunDee / redhillsmarket.com

essential wines and wineries of the pacific northwest

A Guide to the Wine Countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho

by Cole Danehower photography by Andrea Johnson

Discover the riches of Northwest wine in the pages of this beautiful new guide to the wine countries of Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Idaho. Written by Northwest Palate copublisher and James Beard Foundation Journalism Award winner Cole Danehower, this book takes you through the viticultural riches of the Pacific Northwest. Photography by Andrea Johnson conveys the full beauty of this amazing wine region.

ISBN: 978-0-881920966-9, $24.95 • Published by Timber Press • 503-227-2878 • timberpress.com

Coming Soon Essential Wines of the Northwest Quarterly By Cole Danehower

apr i l – Jul

y 2011

E s s E n t ia

Wines l

of t hE n orth wEs t

A unique, in-depth survey of fine wines from around the Northwest, complete with thorough wine reviews, illustrated winemaker and vineyard profiles, winery features and maps, along with astute market analysis and insider commentary from one of the most experienced wine writers in the Northwest. Augmenting and complementing the Tasting Notes that regularly appear in Northwest Palate, this new quarterly journal will give wine lovers unprecedented depth of information about our region’s fine wine, as well as the insightful buying guidance you need to get the most from of your Northwest wine purchases. Washington A Guide to the Best fro , Oregon, Id m Available soon for purchase as an electronic download or a perfect-bound aho, & Briti sh Columb ia printed journal. Free Notification! To be alerted when the Essential Wines of the Northwest Quarterly becomes available for purchase, simply send an email to: essentialnwwines@nwpalate.com

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Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

Fresh

from the Northwest

Craft Service By Shelora Sheldan

Move over tacky knick-knack. Crafting has evolved since the days of the crocheted beer can hat. A new generation of artists and artisans has emerged, taking the art of sewing, crocheting, and felting to a whole new creative level. Browsing through online communities such as Etsy.com and independent boutiques, we’ve spotted some of the choicest crafts in the Northwest, ones that focus on the domestic arts, and food and drink as inspiration. Whether it’s a gift for Mother’s Day (May 8) or Father’s Day (June 19), or an addition to a budding collection, these cool crafts are sure to make the kitchen, bar, or home a happier place.

Stylish Threads Barbara Pence sews up retroinspired, one-of-a-kind aprons. Affordably priced hostess half-aprons with ample strings have a ‘50s feel, while the chef-style bib aprons inspire grill mastery. If you want that family brownie recipe immortalized, Pence can scan any handwritten recipe card and transfer it onto an apron. $20–$30. www.etsy.com/shop/ topdrawerthreads

Crafty Snacks In

Edible Wearables Name

Bottle Cap Charms

addition to felt cupcakes and sandwiches, Carrie Hutchings crafts reusable snack bags for a green option to environmentallyunfriendly plastic wrap. Fashioned out of cheery cotton print fabric, the bags have a food-safe nylon liner with Velcro closure and are machine washable. $6. www.etsy.com/shop/ gracebaby

your favorite garnish, snack, or dessert, and Vancouver jeweler Susan Townsend most likely makes them to dangle from your ears. From martini olives and s’mores to iced cupcakes and tiny grilled cheese sandwiches, her realistic-looking earrings are created by hand in polymer and clay, then glazed and set with sterling silver hooks. From $10. www.etsy.com/shop/oneelf

Seattleite sisters Leah Idler and Penny Yriondo put a twist on the classic wineglass charm. Their “Culinary Entendre” line has nine different themes to choose from; for instance, from the You Little Tart theme, “cream puff” could identify more than just your flute of Champagne. Sold in sets of four, eight, ten, or 12, starting from $17.

Sweat Protection Leather

Optical Food Art Portland

Meat Dreams At Kristen Rask’s Seattle boutique, Schmancy, consider cuddling up with the oh-so-cute rasher of felt bacon, or the snuggle-worthy T-bone steak pillow from Sweet Meats. $18 each. www.schmancytoys.com

Tea Hotty Smoking Lily

worker Ken Diamond handtools and stitches everything from shoes, belts, and dog leashes, to a skull-stamped “coozy” that fits snuggly around an icy-cold can of beer. $24. www.kendiamond.com

artist Tripper Dungan paints 3D cartoon-inspired characters on salvaged wood. An endearing piece of thick-cut toast with big eyes and rosy cheeks would look right at home in a breakfast nook. $24, includes 3D glasses. www.etsy.com/ shop/tripperdungan

may/june 2011 | Northwest Palate

Cool Canvas Inspired by vintage and industrial aesthetics, Craig Pearce creates sturdy items for the man in mind. Dad will be suitably attired in his workshop or outdoor kitchen with an apron repurposed from vintage green US military tents, or a limited edition Father’s Day model in brown canvas $90–$120. www.unionwoodco.com

www.etsy.com/shop/clinks

has the art of silk-screening sewn up with her line of tea cozies. Amply-sized to keep even the biggest Brown Betty pot snug, the silk Duppioni cozies with quilted satin lining are screened-to-order with your choice of images from squirrels and dragonflies, to jellyfish and bicycles. $49. www.smokinglily.com

www.nwpalate.com

Strong Legacy Sure scores aren’t everything, but with our pedigree we’ll brag anyway. Wine Spectator, The Wine Advocate and Wine Enthusiast Magazines, have all consistently given us 90+ scores over the last 5 years.

Join a family of achievers. D

ating back to our 2005 vintage, we have been blessed with great wine ratings and great friends. As our wines continue to score in the ninety’s, our club members have reaped the rewards of our achievements. Our wine club is an opportunity to bring people together. Throughout the year we offer several members-only functions. Surrounded by friends, as part of the Arborbrook family, every event is a mini-reunion. With all the benefits of wine club membership and our award winning wines, we’d love you to join our little wine family.

Member benefits: Your membership brings you our premium wines direct to your doorstep. And that’s just the beginning: • Preferred access to pre-release & limited production vintages • 15% discount on all additional wine purchases • Never pay a tasting fee • Invitations to special events

17770 ne Calkins Lane, Newberg, Oregon tel 503-538-0959 fax 503-538-0104

• Gift orders accepted and shipped at your membership prices

To join Club Grand Vin or learn more, visit our website: arborbrookwines.com www.nwpalate.com

Northwest Palate | may/june 2011

Naked wines from washington state’s columbia valley are made with certified 100% organically grown grapes. Naked Gewürztraminer and Naked Riesling are pure expressions of the vineyards in which they are grown fresh and clean, with all the flavor nature intended. ENjoy ThE ElEGaNcE aNd puRiTy of vaRiETal flavoRS fouNd iN all SNoqualmiE WiNES.

Winery & Tasting Room Open Daily 10 to 5 660 Frontier Road, Prosser, WA 800-852-0885 snoqualmie.com

Big Wines with Small Town Roots www.nwpalate.com