McMinnville Food and Wine Classic

One of my favorite wine festivals, this is held every March at the Evergreen Aviation and Space museum in McMinnville. This year it was held in their new Space Museum building in among the historic spacecraft and other artifacts. In addition to wine, they have a large number of food and craft booths, as well as guest chef demonstrations and live music. Rachel and the boyz were at a swim meet in Astoria, so I was on my own. I attended Friday and Sunday.

This year they held the cooking demos in the museum restaurant which was much better than the back room they used last year. Unfortunately the sound system was not ideal, and it was difficult to hear the chefs speak over the live music. Another nice addition to the cooking demos was the wine tasting. Each chef was paired with a winery to supply tastes of an appropriate wine to accompany the food. Nice touch!

Cooking Demos:

Cielo Blu: I have eaten at this restaurant only once, and while the food was pretty good, the service was terrible. I prefer to call it “Glacial Blue.” So the fact that the cooking demo started 20 minutes late didn’t improve my opinion at all! It wasn’t the chef’s fault; his was the first demo of the festival, and the staff hadn’t quite finished setting up the demo kitchen. When executive chef Bonifacio Solarzano finally got started, I was thrilled to discover that he was making lamb! He took racks of lamb and rubbed them with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, then seared them in a hot pan and put them in the oven. He made a sauce for them by reducing port with rosemary, then adding a good amount of demi-glace. Tasty! For a side dish, chef Solarzano accompanied the lamb with a basic polenta (with rosemary of course!). He had prepared some lamb in advance and served it with the sauce and polenta. Now, I’m used to getting a small taste during these demos, but he served us each 2 lamb chops! Zenas Wines served their ’07 Merlot with the rosemary bread (forgot to mention that) and the ’06 Cab Franc with the lamb. It was a good, but not inspired pairing, although we like and have purchased both wines.

Joel Palmer House: This restaurant is mushroom heaven. We’ve eaten there once, and will definitely go back. The food is designed around wild mushrooms which the owners gather and dry themselves. Recently, ownership passed from parents to son as Jack Czarnecki turned the restaurant over to his son Chris. Chris has been the chef at Joel Palmer for the past few years, so very little should change.

Chris was on hand to demonstrate their famous mushroom risotto which is served as an amuse bouche every night. The first thing he did was let us in on a little secret. When we had eaten there in the fall, we noticed that they were fairly liberal with their use of salt. It turns out that they use a mixture of soy sauce, salt, and sugar in nearly all of their mushroom dishes to bring out the flavor in the mushrooms. Chris then proceeded to make the risotto. He brought about 3 quarts of water to boil in a large sauté pan, along with 1 lb. of butter and some of the soy/salt/sugar mix. He then added about ¼ cup of dried wild mushrooms and some dried onion. He uses fresh onion at the restaurant, but said that dried onion really doesn’t alter the flavor much at all, and is much easier. Finally, he added a quart of long grain white rice. Why long grain? Apparently it doesn’t get mushy as fast as Arborio rice, and this is important in the restaurant when you have a batch that might sit around for an hour before it is completely used. He then did the usual constant stirring while fielding questions from the audience. Once the rice was al dente, he checked the seasoning (adding more magic mix) and served with a little truffle oil and parmesan cheese. Very tasty stuff. Terra Vina was on hand to pair their ’07 Cab Franc.

Cuvee: Another fairly recent addition to the Carlton restaurant scene, Cuvee offers a mostly traditional French menu paired with Oregon wines. We have eaten there once and thought the food was quite good, but not spectacular. I’d certainly eat there again sometime. Chef and owner Gilbert Henry demonstrated a basic chocolate mousse starting with 72% cacao chocolate melted over a double boiler. To this, he folded in whipped egg whites, whipped cream and a little liquid cream. It was simple, but very well executed. Our friend Dyson DeMara, owner and winemaker at Hillcrest Vineyards, was on hand to talk about his wines and serve us a new Syrah blend called Up Under 15 (a play on down under Aussie Shiraz). When I first tasted the wine, I had my doubts about the pairing with the mousse. However, when the mousse was served, the pairing was inspired. The soft mouth feel of the wine was a perfect match to the rich mousse. I like all of Dyson’s wines, and had actually already bought a bottle of this wine on Friday.

Wine Tastings:

Barking Frog: Another winery that we enjoy very much from their visits to Forest Grove. Ron had new vintages of a couple of our favorites. He had 2 Sangiovese offerings: his standard ’07 is a little too restrained for me, but his ’07 Elerding is quite deep, dark, and fruity. The newly released ’06 Cab is good, but a bit more subtle than the ’05. He’s also trying to move his ’05 Syrah (very peppery) at $18 each. Bought a couple of Syrah and the Elerding Sangio.

Bradley: Very nice farmers who now produce some of their own wine. Good Baco Noir, so-so Pinot, and a decent Riesling.

Cana’s Feast: Had a nice long talk with their winemaker. Decent Sangiovese, a very nice almost-Rhone-style Syrah that was still just a little too fruity for me. Several Bordeaux blends that were OK.

Cathedral Ridge: Decent but forgettable Merlot, pretty good Cab and a very good Syrah. The Syrah was spicy and peppery and I was going to buy a bottle until I saw the price. $44 is just too much for an Oregon Syrah.

Coure de Terre: Pretty good 1% RS Riesling. Pinot Noir was so-so, although they had a Rennelle’s Block Pinot that was very nice, but overpriced.

David Hill: Again, our local winery up the hill from us, so I didn’t do much tasting, but had another nice chat with Will. Their Tempranillo was just released and it rocks! Deep and rich without being overly oaky. I’m going to have to taste it head to head with Purple Cow’s ’04 reserve which has been my gold standard for Oregon Tempranillo. Both leave Abacela in the dust.

EdenVale: A very pleasant surprise, this Medford winery has a huge lineup of good wines. Standouts for me were a very good fruity Tempranillo, elegant Claret, and Syrah. Would be worth a visit if near Medford.

Hillcrest: Dyson gave me his usual warm greeting and said that he’s released several new wines since Newport. The first was a Pomerol-style Bordeaux blend called Right Bank. Deep flavors and still quite tannic. Best to age this one. The second was a Syrah/Merlot blend called Della Terra Up Under 15. This one had subtle fruit with some spice. Finally a very nice Riesling. Very floral and crisp with 0.8% RS. Ended up buying a bottle of Right Bank and Up Under, and Dyson threw in a bottle of the Riesling.

HV: Lots of fruit wine (which I didn’t try). A very interesting Syrah with heavy licorice flavors, apparently due to the kind of yeast they used. A fairly mediocre lineup of other red wines.

Johan Vineyards: Hadn’t heard of them before. Chardonnay that was too oaky and buttery. Pretty good ’06 Pinot, and a very nice earthy ’07 Pinot Reserve (not yet released).

KathKen Vineyards: Decent Merlot, ordinary Pinot, good crisp Pinot Gris.

Kramer: It’s always fun to see Keith and Trudy. Tasted some of the new vintage Cardiac Hill from Keith on Friday – it’s very good, and I’ll need to head up to their tasting room to get some soon. On Sunday I was tasting at a neighboring booth and Trudy came over to talk to the folks in the booth. She mentioned to them that I’d helped out at Kramer during the harvest, and the folks at the booth said “Oh, you’re industry” and refunded my tasting fee. I love the people in the Oregon wine industry!

Methven Family: Very good dry Riesling, good ’05 Pinot Noirs. The reserve Pinot is very good, but not worth the $55 they are asking.

Panther Creek: One of the first wineries we ever visited, so we are quite fond of them. ’07 winemaker’s cuvee was good with subtle fruit and minerals. They were getting rid of half bottles of the ’05 Shea, so I bought a couple for $10 ea. Not my favorite vintage of their Shea, but still quite good.

Ribera: I’d forgotten that I tasted them at Newport, but my notes are pretty consistent: nice Merlot, pretty good Pinot Noir.

WildAire: Very friendly family winery that makes some pretty good Pinot. Their ’06 Reserve was very good, and I would have bought some if we needed Pinot.

Youngberg Hill: Nice lineup of Pinot Noirs. Their Jordan Block was very good and I would have bought some if we weren’t already drowning in great Pinot.

Zerba: Usually a favorite, we were disappointed with them at Newport. Their ’06 Cab took best of show this time, so I wanted to try it again. It was showing much better and has the big, bold flavors that we like. Dan thinks maybe it was too cold at Newport.