This potato recipe using Chardonnay is from Tomahawk Mill Vineyard & Winery in southern Virginia. This boutique winery offers a delightful combination of southern hospitality, vineyards, winery, history and gristmill with a large pond and space for enjoying a picnic lunch. The winery is located in Chatham, Virginia. Travelers to the winery will enjoy scenic views of Virginia’s southern countryside on the way to the winery as well as at the winery.
Don’s Tomahawk Mill Potatoes
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients
2 lb. Redskin potatoes, sliced, peeled and soaked
1 large onion, sliced
2 T oil or bacon drippings
¾ c Tomahawk Mill Chardonnay
1 t season salt
½ t garlic salt
Dash paprika
Directions
- Wash, peel, slice potatoes and soak in water a few minutes.
- Sauté onion in the oil or bacon drippings, add potatoes, sauté and stir for about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Reduce heat and stir in ½ c Tomahawk Mill Chardonnay, season salt, garlic salt and cover.
- Cook on low heat 5 to 6 minutes. Add a dash of paprika and cook uncovered for 4 to 6 minutes (If dry, add ¼ c more Chardonnay.)
- Then stir and dash with Chardonnay, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot with fresh basil, parsley or paprika for garnish.
Recipe provided by Tomahawk Mill Winery, Virginia
I noticed a discussion on LinkedIn in the winemaker’s group about people that have perfume or after shave on when attending a winery for a tasting. Most of the comments pointed to not wearing perfume or aftershave because it can interfere with the wine tasting experience. Perfume is only one example of tasting room etiquette. There are many others. Brushing your teeth with toothpaste just before a tasting is another. Tasting room staff should know proper etiquette and if they do not, etiquette should be part of their training. But where do wine travelers learn about tasting room etiquette?
Tasting room etiquette is not a topic covered in school curricula. Few winery/vineyard tasting rooms have a list of rules posted in their tasting rooms. Visitors are left to their own common sense or articles that discuss the topic. Wine Trail Traveler wrote an article about tasting room etiquette that has had thousands of views since its publication. Should tasting rooms teach etiquette? Perhaps wine writers should broach the topic every now and then so there readers are informed.
Early spring brings more visitors to winery/vineyard tasting rooms. The number of visitors will grow steadily throughout the spring and summer reaching a high from August through October before trailing off for the remainder of autumn and winter. Now is a good time to inform the public about proper behavior in a tasting room. All wineries claim that they provide a great experience for their visitors. Many of these wineries also believe in providing edutainment for their visitors. Etiquette, however, is often left to trail and error.
Cheers,
Terry
On April 21 to April 22, almost half of Maryland’s wineries and several food vendors will be at Pimlico Race Course under the Turfside Terrace tent. Participants at the Decanter Wine Festival will view horse racing while sampling wine produced by Maryland wineries. Artisans, arts and crafts related to wine and equine will also be available. In addition, people will be able to bet on horse races during the day.
The Decanter Festival is a great opportunity for Baltimore area residents to taste wines from around the state. Think of it as promoting Drink Local Wine. For information about drink local wine, visit the Drink Local Wine website.
Ticket prices vary but in another effort to support Maryland wineries, attendees who have a Maryland Wine Passport with six stamps receive a five dollar discount off the price. Tickets for the Decanter Festival at Pimlico are available online.
Be sure to save the date and attend the Decanter Wine Festival at Pimlico.
Cheers, Kathy
Lots of events are taking place this weekend. Check out the Wine Trail Traveler events calendar. A wide variety of events are available. Events for this weekend include: live music, barrel tastings, wine seminar, artist reception, festivals, and tasting Washington wine. If you can’t be at one of the winery events on the calendar, then check the wineries in your own backyard.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheers! Kathy
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What’s in a Wine Bottle Is Important but to What Extent?
Last year numerous people were talking or writing about the necessity of knowing what’s in a wine bottle. We visited one winery that noted the harvest date, pH, TA and Brix level on the label. We asked how many people asked what TA (Total Acidity) meant. The staff member noted that we were the first to ever mention TA. At least three different reactions to this include: 1) People in a tasting room do not want to embarrass themselves by indicating their lack of knowledge 2) People know what TA is and don’t need to ask or 3) People do not care they just want to taste the wine.
In my opinion, visitors to tasting rooms are looking for a great experience not reading the details. Wine lovers are concerned about the quality of the wine and perhaps want to know where the grapes for the wine were sourced.
Numerous wine enthusiasts are aware that designations for wines are dependent on where the grapes are grown. Many designations also include what grape varietals may be used in the wine. Some of the designations include AVA, IGT, DOC, DOCG, DOK and AOC.
These designations do not necessarily refer to quality but rather to where the grapes are sourced and percentage of varietal grapes in the wine. Wines produced in Napa Valley from Napa Valley grapes will be labeled with Napa. Other countries have similar regulations. For the most part, wines from Napa Valley will be more expensive because of the Napa label. So what happens if unscrupulous people produce a wine with grapes sourced from areas outside of the designated area and purposely mislabel the wines? Wine buyers and enthusiasts are duped into buying a wine thinking it’s one thing but getting something else.
In the past this has occurred with the mixing of wine grapes from different regions. Each time it is discovered there is big uproar and then penalties are assigned to those who are perpetrated the fraud. It seems that wineries would know that with the technology available today, eventually they are likely to be caught and suffer terrible publicity. But the fraud never stops completely.
A recent news article notes that two DOK wines from a Republic of Malta winery were tested and found to have been produced with Italian grapes. The article is available at http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/national/Delicata-wines-investigated-over-alleged-use-of-Italian-grapes-in-Maltese-DOK-wine-20120409 .
Several questions come to mind. Do the wines taste as good as they should? Do the wines cost less because they have been compromised? Buyers should never be misled about what they are buying with their hard earned money.
I believe that the wine industry and wine lovers should be more concerned with the accuracy of the current labels and designations rather than adding details that wine enthusiasts may not care about. For those wine drinkers who do want the technical details of the wine, a link to that information should be made available.
Cheers! Kathy