Thanksgiving and Pinot

We are in the right business this time of year because no other wine goes better with turkey and savory side dishes than Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  While our Chard is not ready for release (darn!,) our award-winning Pinot can grace your Thanksgiving table this year:

• Our elegant Silver Medal winner 2010 Russian River, which is almost sold out, will complement the heck out of the turkey.

• Our 2009 Corona Creek will stand up to the hearty mouth watering sausage-stuffed mushrooms we recommend below.

• Our versatile, well-balanced Silver Medal winner (and excellent price/quality ratio per Prince of Pinot) 2010 Unhinged is perfectly suitable for dinner but also an excellent casual partner for next day turkey and stuffing sandwiches.

A couple of our favorite Thanksgiving recipes:

• Ina Garten’s mouthwatering Sausage-stuffed Mushrooms
• Sweet Potato Buttermilk Rolls from Pinch my Salt

 

Holiday Winery Pop Up Saturdays in December

Join the winemakers of Stomping Girl for a holiday

Winery Pop Up

Complimentary wine tasting and gift bottles available for purchase

Saturdays in December

3:00 – 5:00 pm

@

1820 Fourth St, Berkeley

 

Thanksgiving and Our 2009 Pinot

We released our 2009 Pinots before the holidays this year for you to enjoy at the holiday dinner table and to be able to give as a gift.  They are young but very drinkable now, if you don’t want to wait.  If you happen to drink them side by side, here’s the order in which we recommend you enjoy them:

1) Lauterbach Hill, RRV–a delicate, lighter-bodied, food-friendly Pinot that pleases the palate with bright cherry and strawberry notes

2) Beresini Vineyard, Carneros–an elegant, medium-bodied, deep garnet-colored Pinot perfumed with cherry and a bit of spice

3) Corona Creek, Sonoma Coast–a fuller-bodied Pinot displaying darker fruit and a hint of roasting coffee and chocolate

Drink now or put in the cellar to enjoy a few years down the road.

 

2009 Release

Announcing our New Release now available on our website:

2009 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir, Beresini Vineyard, Carneros

2009 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir, Lauterbach Hill, Russian River Valley

2009 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir, Corona Creek, Sonoma Coast

Thankfully, it is ready just in time for Turkey Day because what goes better with that bird than Pinot Noir?  And we’re not just saying that because we make Pinot–it’s a tried and true, classic combination.  Good old American Pinot with a good old American bird.  So why not give Stomping Girl a try with your turkey this year?

Because we want to offer first dibs to our mailing customers, this wine is not yet available in restaurants or retail stores.  It is only available on our website–which is newly designed, by the way, check it out.

If you want to ensure your wine arrives in time for Thanksgiving, be sure to place your order by November 17.

If you’re local, or will be in town visiting, then order on the website and choose to pick it up at the winery–no shipping charges!

Order a case of one wine or make it fun and mix and match 12 bottles–either way you automatically get 10% off.  No coupon required.

 

Passover Wine

You may be familiar with our story and the inspiration for our name–Stomping Girl–and already know this:  Uzi’s Grandmother Esther grew grapes on their property, his sister Michal took off her shoes and stomped them and Esther turned the grapes into wine.  The wine was primarily for their Passover celebration each year.

Officially, kosher wine is served for Passover.  For a wine to be kosher, there are many rules that must be followed, such as:

1. The vines on which the grapes are grown must be at least 4 years old and left unharvested every seventh year.
2. Only kosher, non-animal ingredients may go into the wine (i.e., only certain yeasts may be used and egg white, a common fining ingredient, may not be used.)
3. Only male, Sabbath-observant Jews are allowed to handle the wine through the entire winemaking process from the harvesting of the grapes, through fermentation, to bottling.
4. One Percent of the wine must be discarded.
5. Barrels must cleaned 3 times before use.

The Cohen family Passover wine enjoyed by them every year in Israel was not officially kosher, being that Esther and Michal handled the grapes and the wine.  But it was close enough for Grandmother Esther.

For us here in California, the # 1 rule for Passover wine is that it must taste great.  After all, you are supposed to drink four glass of it every night.  And, though not Sabbath observant, our chief winemaker is Jewish and from Israel…and that makes Stomping Girl Wine pretty close to being kosher.  Passover starts next week, and I bet you know what wine we’ll be serving.

 

Stomping Girl Holidays

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!  We had a great 2 week break starting off with a road trip to Seattle.  On the way, we spent 2 days in Oregon seeing a couple of friends and wine tasting in the Willamette Valley.  We wish we had had more time to spend in the Willamette Valley but we had just enough time to taste some impressive Oregon Pinots at the incredible Domaine Drouhin; the serene, indeed, Domaine Serene; and the beautiful Stoller Vineyards.

Domaine Drouhin vines in winter

Domaine Serene

Stoller Vineyards

After a fun, relaxing and indulgent Christmas week with family in Seattle we rushed back to spend the 2nd week with our big, “stomping girl” who was home from college for a short break. I know it’s cliche but all I’m going to say about that is they grow up way too fast!!

Now it’s back to work and we are in high gear preparing for the release of our 2008 Pinot Noirs–putting the final touches on our online ordering site, printing up tasting and technical notes and planning the February Release Party.  Stay tuned and we hope to see some of you there!

 

Wine with Thanksgiving…or pork

Berkeley turkey

Everyone this time of year seems to be either writing or wondering about what wine goes with turkey.  Personally, we always serve three types of wine for Thanksgiving at our house — a bottle of bubbly, a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir.  We open the sparkling wine to drink with appetizers while the turkey finishes in the oven.  Then the Chardonnay (which goes well with traditional side dishes such as sweet potatoes) and the Pinot (which goes well with turkey) are opened and served with dinner.   But you can find articles in the Wall Street Journal, Wine Spectator, SFGate, etc., to tell you what wines to serve at the Thanksgiving table.

What I want to tell you about is what went really well with Uzi’s famous spit-roasted pork loin seasoned with rosemary and garlic the other night–Pinot Noir.  We opened a special bottle of premier cru Chambolle Musigny to go with it.  And just to gauge our winemaking expertise against this Burgundy benchmark, we also opened a bottle of our 2007 garagiste Carneros Pinot Noir.   Though they are very different wines and I almost hesitate to mention the two together in the same breath, they were both fantastic and both went splendidly with the pork.

So go cook one of these later this week when you’re tired of turkey and open up a bottle of Pinot Noir.  And next year, when you’re planning your Thanksgiving dinner, consider a 2008 Stomping Girl Pinot Noir to go with the turkey.

Pork roast and Pinot