Wynola restaurant, Jeremy’s On The Hill, will collaborate with local Star B Buffalo Ranch and the Pamo Valley Winery to offer San Diegans a unique evening of wining and dining in the back country.

On Tuesday, February 10, at 6:30 pm, Jeremy’s is teaming up with local Star B Buffalo Ranch and Ramona’s Pamo Valley Winery to conduct a special, 5-course gourmet dinner event that offers haute cuisine consisting of grass fed bison meat, specifically paired with local fine wine.

Jeremy’s On The Hill is creating unique menu items that use American Bison, commonly referred to as “buffalo”.  Jeremy Manley, the 22-year old Le Cordon Bleu graduate and proprietor of upscale restaurant, Jeremy’s On The Hill, in Wynola, believes in using local products for creating his fare whenever possible.  “I felt that working directly with Star B Ranch and Pamo Valley Winery to create a unique dining event was a great way to introduce people to what we can do back here in the East County,” said Manley.

In addition to the salad and dessert courses, the 5-course dinner will include 3 unique dishes prepared with grass fed buffalo meat.  Each course will be specifically paired with local wines that compliment the flavors and ingredients of that dish.

The price for this event is $50 per person, and advanced reservations are required.  Tickets to the dinner can be obtained at Jeremy’s, at 4354 Highway 78, in Wynola, or by contacting Star B Buffalo Ranch, at (760) 789-5767, or Pamo Valley Winery, at (760) 271-3090 or info@pamovalleyvineyards.com.

Jeremy’s On The Hill is a fine dining restaurant, featuring California fresh cuisine.  They serve lunch and dinner, Thursday through Tuesday, and a Sunday breakfast.  They are located at 4354 Highway 78, Wynola, CA, (760) 765-1587.  More information can be found at www.jeremysonthehill.com

Established in 1979, Star B Ranch produces top quality buffalo breeding stock and fine quality buffalo meat.  Recently Star B Ranch has partnered with other mid-western buffalo ranchers to produce a full line of grass fed buffalo meat.  Star B Ranch, which is family owned and operated, is located in the Witch Creek area of San Diego County.

Pamo Valley Winery is a small winery producing premium, award winning wines from local Ramona AVA wine grapes.  They have been producing wine since 2004, and are located at 2032 Black Canyon Road, Ramona, CA, www.pamovalleywinery.com.

Welcome 2008 Ellie Mae Rose!  On Christmas day we unveiled our first ever exempler bottle of blush wine.  These Syrah grapes (pressed on the skins to make a pink wine) were harvested from my grandma’s, mom’s and stepdad’s property.  The ranch is named Serendipity Ranch and Granny’s Vineyard in honor of Mrs. Ellie Whitcomb.  We harvested these grapes on August 23, 2008.  We picked a small lot of about 200 lbs at 24.5% brix.  This ended up making about 10 gallons or 4+ cases.  The Ellie Mae Rose was an experimental wine being our first “pink” wine to produce, which ended up turning out very nice!  We will continue in years to come to harvest and produce Ellie Mae Rose from this vineyard.  Also planted are Tempranillo which have a few more years of establishing before becoming of quality to make wine from.  A family bottling party is planned January 25, 2009 to bottle the remaining 4+ cases.  This small batch is intended for personal, friends and family use.  Eventually when the vineyard is able to produce enough volume, we will be able to sell this wine commercially.

Christmas Cheers to the 2008 Ellie Mae Rose!  Jeff made a 2009 calendar detailing the progress of the vineyard on the backside as well as the seasons of the ranch and special occassions for each month.  We also watched a picture video of the progress of the vineyard being built from start to finish, including the making of the wine.

Pictured left/Jennifer, Ellie, Don, Sharon and Jeff.

These are the grapes we harvested to make the Ellie Mae Rose 5 months ago!  It seems like yesterday.  We started picking around 7am and finished around 10am.  We didnt finish the crushing and pressing until well into the day.

Pictured are left/grandma Ellie, middle/stepdad Jeff, right/mom Sharon.  Also helping on this day were my boyfriend/Mike, grandmas boyfriend/Don and winemaker/John.

See you grapes next year!

Jenn

Every September the Julian Chamber of Commerce celebrates the harvest of the grapes with a real, olde-world style grape stomp and festa at the Menghini Winery. This grape stomp out-does all others by providing two barrels for stomping–one for adults and one for children.

Tons of grapes are blessed then poured into the barrels. The atmosphere is created by Italian music by Roman Holiday, dancing, Bocci Ball competitions, stomping, wine tasting, a Jumbo Jump for the kids and a variety of food and crafts for sale will keep you busy.  Situated in rolling hills covered with vineyards and apple orchards, the Menghini Winery offers an ideal setting for the Festa.

The Grape Stomp Festa is a Julian Chamber of Commerce fund raiser and has been for the last nine years.  The festa draws approximately 1800 people each year.  The proceeds from the event pays for marketing the town, cleaning the streets, maintaining the public restrooms and funding historic preservation projects and events.

Dates: September 6, 2008
Times: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Location: Menghini Winery
Admission: $10 adults 21 and over (includes a commemorative wine glass and 4 free tastings), $5 ages 20 to 6, 5 and under free
Contact: Krisie Morgan, Julian Chamber of Commerce (760) 765-1857

“Well I looked up to the sky and noticed a full moon this past week and then looked down into a Merlot vineyard and observed that they were ripe indeed and ready for harvesting. But, it’s only the middle of August I said to myself, what’s going on?”

“Well, Global Warming is going on and it’s pushing the ripening curve of all of the varieties that I grow at high elevations. So, four days later and the Merlot vineyard is picked and the sugars of three other varieties are now ready. This harvest season is off and running. So goes the harvest of 2008!”

Alex McGeary
Shadow Mountain Vineyards & Winery
Warner Springs, CA

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.  You probably get to mingle with an industry expert, which is an opportunity you don’t get every day.  There’s also the opportunity to network with other folks in your industry, potentially making some really great relationships.  There’s the marketing opportunity that comes from attending the event - probably a good year of campaigns built around the knowledge and insight you gained at the event. 

Finally, funds will go to a good cause with the event providing “…scholarships for the Culinary Institute’s Rudd Center for Professional Wine Studies”.

What a beautiful setting, located in the Plaza del Pasado in the heart of historic Old Town. Music was playing, the sun was out, people where about, bright flowers blooming. You couldn’t have picked a better day. Although I understand it’s like this often. The ambiance is inspired by 19th century San Diego life with costumes and products from that time period.  William was decked out in a costume fitting right in the theme of things.

His lovely wife Tammy met him on her lunch break to help greet and serve the customers.  I can tell you this, the tasting room had a constant flow of people and William and Tammy treated every guest equally with gracious attention. Their enthusiastic passion for the business and its guests was infectious. They were both eager to show us their huge custom hand-carved pine bar, absolutely beautiful. 

Off to the right of the tasting bar was a seating area of tables made of wine barrels with skins of snakes (?) on top of the wine barrels covered by a piece of heavy round glass.  Very interesting, a conversation piece to say the least!  This was a nice bright area with lots of windows to sip on your glass of wine and do a little people watching. 

Off to the left was another quaint room - their artist gallery and wine accessory gift area.  William was quick to show me the archway leading from the tasting room to the art gallery, “Look up, my daughter painted the mural of grapes and vines you see on all sides of the archway.”  It was nicely done and very feminine, definitely artwork of a female.

The wine was presented in such a way that you receive a tasting flyer, which gets a red stamp each time you’ve tasted each of your five choices of wine. Our favorites were the 06 Rosa Blanca (yes, a pink wine) and the Princessa champagne. When ordering the Romance (sauvignon blanc) Tammy says her husband makes her ask for this wine “with attitude” as she proceeded to pronounce R-O-M-A-N-C-E with a sexy rolling RRRRR. We purchased a bottle of wine, complete with two complimentary Hacienda de las Rosas wine souevenier glasses, our tasting flyer with a history of the california missions on the back all put into a nice gift bag.

Another item of interest is that they welcome other local San Diego County wineries once a month to showcase their own wines.  They call it “Guest Wine of the Month”.  What a fabulous way to expose and support other local wineries! This month’s guest winery was Woof N Rose Winery of Ramona.

We had a very pleasurable experience with William and Tammy and are very happy for them and their new venture. We’ll be back with friends and family in tow!

Hacienda de las Rosas is located at the Plaza del Pasado, Juan Street Entrance in Old Town, San Diego CA. They are open Mon-Thurs 11:30am – 7pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am – 9pm and Sun 10am-7pm. For more information about Hacienda de las Rosas visit www.haciendadelasrosas.org.    

Wine, Upside Down?

Around my winery, visitors have noticed that I store my cases of wine right-side up. They wonder why I don’t store them upside down to keep the liquid wine in contact with the corks to prevent them from drying out. After all, any wine cellar, from the 6-bottle home counter top fridges to large caves in Bordeaux, will have bottles laying on their sides to keep the corks moist, right?

Well, here’s the theory I subscribe to: unless you’re aging a 20 year classic, direct cork-to-wine contact is not necessary to maintain the integrity of the closure. I have three reasons for this belief and for why I just stack my cases onto pallets right-side up.
 
The first is that our wines, like 90% of the wines on the market, are made to be enjoyed sooner rather than later. As we sell out of inventory, our wine sits right-side up for a maximum of a few years. The reality is that our release are not cellared by the buyer for a significant period, but is consumed not long after purchase. We do have a big cab that I recommend to cellar for 7-10 years, but everything else is pretty much good to go out the door.

The second reason is that if you look at the ullage, the little pocket of air between the wine and the cork, you can see that there is a lot of moisture in there. I see little beads of condensation on the sides of the bottle and on the underside of the cork. Also, considering the surface area of the wine in relation to that confined space, there is a high ratio of liquid to air. Depending on ambient temperature, this creates a condition of very high humidity in the ullage, probably above 90%. Things (such as corks) do not dry very well in such humid conditions. Anyone who was ever been on a tropical vacation and hung a bathing suit on a patio chair to dry knows- that sucker is still a little damp even after hours. The fact that our location is near the coast so the outside humidity is a little higher helps, too.

And the final reason is for safety. Upside down cases of wine are very unstable. They are top-heavy and topple easy. With our humble winery space, I don’t need any more factors contributing to the mayhem of winery operations (operations at our place are like a tiring game of tetris—schlepping pallets and equipment around to make space for work).

So, while it doesn’t hurt to keep wine in contact with your corks, it is not needed for most cases, especially in considering efficiency of winery operations. I do admit that in my own home cellar, I keep my nicer bottles on the side—then again, I know that they’re going to be sitting there for a while. Enjoy your right-side up wine!

Erik Humphrey, Winemaker
San Pasqual Winery

For more information on Erik and his winery visit www.sanpasqualwinery.com.

Australian researchers say it only takes a few hours of dense smoke to change how the grape tastes. The country has gone though several years of major wildfires which have affected their wine grapes.

For the full story, check out KTVU’s site.  Also, watch the movie (to the right of the story) - very interesting!

FORUM: New ordinance benefits backcountry

Last month, my colleagues and I voted 4-0 to approve an interim ordinance that relaxes the permit requirements faced by small vintners who wish to open tasting rooms and retail outlets at their vineyards.

Answering the concerns of residents, we also approved commissioning an exhaustive study to determine the environmental consequences of a Boutique Winery Zoning Ordinance.

The study could take up to two years to complete, and I expect it will conclude that a tiered-winery ordinance will have no significant negative environmental impact.

We’re not envisioning massive operations, with tour buses and traffic choking the public and private roads of our backcountry. Our intention, rather, is to provide an incentive for agriculture and business to succeed.

Thanks to modern irrigation techniques, grapes are a low-water crop. During some months, the vines require no watering at all. In our agricultural zones, that’s good land use.

For some potential winemakers, however, county requirements are understandably sour grapes.

In the past, land use regulations have required small vintners to obtain permits through a public hearing process that can take a year to complete, with an initial deposit of nearly $15,000. Additional environmental analysis could increase that cost by thousands more. Those fees alone are tough for small vintners who are just starting out.

Under our new interim ordinance, the same, thorough review process takes place, but vintners producing less than 12,000 gallons per year can obtain permits from the county planning director at a fraction of the time and cost. Larger operations would face higher levels of regulation.

The new ordinance allows smaller wineries to sell their products directly to the public. All the wineries could sell by direct mail, telephone and through the Internet.

Wineries on private lanes would be obligated to pay their share of road maintenance.

Neighboring counties have seen tremendous benefits from the expansion of wineries. As it has expanded in recent years, wine country of the Santa Ynez Valley has contributed significantly to Santa Barbara’s economy and regional identity. The impacts, by and large, are positive.

I support a resurrection of the once-thriving wine industry in San Diego County’s agricultural zones for various reasons. Wine country can provide another convincing reason for tourists to come to San Diego County. Our tourism industry needs that diversity.

Also, if growers can’t make a living off their land, the acreage becomes vulnerable to development. And if agriculture is gone, I can guarantee you the next crop will be houses.

To conclude, I understand the worries of backcountry residents, who rightfully cling dearly to undeveloped space, peace and privacy.

But turbulent economic headwinds are bearing down on our agricultural community. To keep agriculture and the resultant open space a part of San Diego County’s future identity, we must take action now to help growers thrive and prosper.

The actions we took are the seeds of the future.

Pam Slater-Price is county supervisor for District 3.