Joe the Winemaker – The Official Blog of Oregon Winemaker Joe Dobbes

Thai Green Curry with Seafood paired with

2007 Dobbes Family Estate Pinot Gris

This light bodied white wine is fresh and fruity which is an excellent compliment the spice and seafood of this dish.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unrefined peanut oil

5 green onions, finely chopped, dark green parts separated from white and pale green parts

3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro, divided

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 tablespoons Thai green curry paste

1 1/4 cups water

1 13-to 14-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

2 small fresh red Thai chiles or 1 red jalapeño chile

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 tablespoon fish sauce (such as nam pla or nuoc nam)

1 large carrot, peeled, thinly sliced on diagonal (about 1 cup)

4 cups thinly sliced bok choy

8 ounces uncooked medium shrimp, peeled, deveined

8 ounces bay scallops

1 pound green or black mussels, scrubbed, debearded

2 tablespoons minced fresh basil

2 cups (about) steamed rice

Preparation

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat. Add white and pale green parts of green onions, 1 tablespoon cilantro, and garlic; sauté until tender, about 2 minutes. Add curry paste; cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add 1 1/4 cups water, coconut milk, chiles, lime leaves, and fish sauce. Bring to simmer. Add carrot; cover and cook until carrot is just tender, about 5 minutes. Layer bok choy, shrimp, scallops, and mussels in pan. Cover and simmer until mussels open and seafood and bok choy are cooked (discard mussels that do not open), about 5 minutes. Stir in dark green parts of green onions, 2 tablespoons cilantro, and basil.

Divide rice among 4 shallow bowls. Ladle curry over rice and serve.

Ingredient tips:

Unrefined peanut oil can be found at natural foods stores and Asian markets. Thai green curry paste, coconut milk, and fish sauce are sold at many supermarkets and at Asian markets. Look for fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves at Asian markets. If unavailable, use 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice and 1/2 teaspoon grated lime peel for each lime leaf.

Recipe contributed by: Epicurious.com

Come experience an intimate and relaxed approach to wine tasting at Crossings at the Riverhouse, Central Oregon’s #1 Steakhouse! Dobbes Family Estate will be partnering with the Crossings Steakhouse to bring wine expertise to your dining experience this month. Make your reservation for the “Dine with Wine Event” on August 19th and our hospitality queen, Mary Bellando will stop by your table, offer samples of the featured wines and help you with your wine selections for the evening from the award winning wine list featuring over 200 wines as well as over 25 by the glass!

Guests who wish to learn more about Dobbes Family Estate can arrive early and attend an informative and interactive “Wine Enthisiasts Tasting” which will include tasting notes, samplings of each featured wine as well as a tapas plate of artisans’ cheeses for only $20 per person. As an added bonus, a $10 gift certificate will be issued to each guest who participates in the tasting to use on any bottle or glass of wine from our Wine Spectator Award winning wine list that night or even on their next visit!

Make dinner reservations to dine at the Crossings on August 19th and then secure your place at the “Wine Enthusiasts Tasting” at 6pm on the same night by coming early! Tasting begins at 6pm. Call 541-389-8810 to reserve your seat at the table! Space is limited so call today.

Dobbes Family Estate wines will be featured throughout the month, so visit Crossings anytime and enjoy Central Oregon’s Best Steak and Dessert as voted by readers of Gusto Magazine as well as your favorite wine anytime!

Just want to share a big thank you to the Special Olympics volunteers who helped run the Wine By Joe booth at The Bite in downtown Portland last weekend. Especially to our amazing Dobbes Family Circle Wine Club Members, The Simmons Family! You guys are awesome!

The weather’s been quite nice lately, and the vines are growing happily. With the fruit set a few weeks behind us, the grape clusters are starting to take shape and the individual berries are still green and about the size of large peas. We are still as many as 3 or 4 weeks away from veraison, and until then every day the berries get just a little bit fatter with promise.

The work that we’re doing in the vineyard remains important to ensure a good harvest. We’re pruning away leaves and lateral shoots from the zone in which the fruit grows. By opening up the canopy we increase sunlight on the clusters, crucial to help the grapes ripen. By increasing the airflow we can avoid fungal diseases of the vine like powdery mildew and botrytis.

Now that we’re getting the fruit exposed, we’re also starting to get a good idea of how much fruit to expect. My preliminary estimation is that it’s hard to say. Last year was a bumper crop, and there’s quite a lot less this year. It’s nothing to be alarmed about, as there’s still quite a lot of fruit hanging. Much depends on the next few weeks, as we watch the grapes grow in size.

We are in that time of year that the Ancient Romans called the Dog Days, when the star Sirius merges into the corona of the Sun and can’t be seen. We should expect another period of long, hot days until the star reemerges in the sky, around August 24. In ancient Egypt, its reappearance in the night sky coincided with the Nile beginning to rise, which then signaled the subsequent grape harvest. It’s obviously not the same climate in Egypt as it is here in the Willamette Valley, and our harvest is still more than two months away. Until then, in the heat of the summer sun, we’re doing everything we know how to hasten the maturing of the grapes and bring in this year’s crop.

Hello, my name is Andy McVay and I am the Assistant Winemaker for Dobbes Family Estate. When given the opportunity to choose a charity for the next quarter I jumped at the chance to support Schoolhouse Supplies. Schoolhouse Supplies is an award-winning nonprofit that supports public education in Portland by giving students and teachers free classroom supplies. Their mission, “to serve classrooms in need by operating a volunteer-run Free Store for Teachers, which is stocked with supplies donated by the community,” is based on the belief that every child deserves school supplies and has the right to a quality education. Read more….

Do you want to support this cause?

Click here to purchase Grenache Blanc.

 This heat spell we’re having this week might set record high temperatures, just as this spring set record low temperatures, and everything is great in the vineyard. One the clouds parted two weeks ago, the vines who heretofore been thin and lacking in vigor exploded in growth. A few days ago, the flowers started unfurling and the period known as fruit-set began during perfect climactic conditions for a vintage year.

We’re working around the heat, trying to keep up with the rapid growth of the vines before the heat of the afternoon weighs too heavily. Starting at 5:00 and ending at 2:00, we avoid the worst part of the day and work as quickly as we can in the cool morning air.

This sudden spike in temperatures couldn’t have been more perfect after a dismal, dreary sort of spring. Crisis seemed to lurk, but whoever’s in charge must have listened to the prayers of every vineyard worker in Oregon. The vineyard looks great and everything so far makes 2010 look like a great vintage.

Cheddar Burgers with Balsamic Onions and Chipotle Ketchup paired with

2006 Dobbes Family Estate Griffin’s Cuvee Pinot Noir

This Pinot Noir is bold and fruity with enough smoke and oak to stand up to grilled meats.

Ingredients:

Onions:

1 pound red onions, cut crosswise into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick rounds

Olive oil

3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Chipotle ketchup:

1 cup ketchup

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chiles from canned chipotles in adobo* plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can

2 teaspoons (or more) balsamic vinegar

Burgers:

2 1/4 pounds ground beef (15% to 20% fat)

Coarse kosher salt

6 thick slices aged white cheddar cheese

6 large hamburger buns, split,  grilled

6 tomato slices (optional)

2 cups fresh spinach leaves 

Preparation for onions:

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat): Arrange onion rounds on baking sheet. Brush with oil; sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt and pepper. Transfer onion rounds (still intact) to grill rack; close cover. Cook until grill marks appear, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat or move onions to cooler part of grill. Close cover; cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Toss with vinegar. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; chill.

For chipotle ketchup:

Mix ketchup, chiles, adobo sauce, and 2 teaspoons vinegar in small bowl. Season with salt and more vinegar, if desired. do a h e a d Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.

For burgers:

Shape beef into six 1/2-inch thick patties. Sprinkle patties on both sides with coarse salt and pepper. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place burgers on grill. Close cover; cook burgers until bottoms start to darken and juices rise to surface, about 3 minutes. Turn burgers; cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes longer for medium-rare. Top with onions and cheese. Close cover; cook until cheese melts. Place muffin bottoms on plates; spread with ketchup. Top with burgers, tomatoes, if desired, spinach, and muffin tops. Serve, passing remaining ketchup separately.

*Ingredient Tips:

Dried, smoked jalapeños in a spicy tomato sauce called adobo; available at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores and Latin markets.

Recipe contributed by: Epicurious.com

Safety is very important around here. Our Safety Committee meets monthly and the Chairperson presents the meeting minutes and action items to the rest of us at our All Staff meetings. The company hosted a CPR training class a few months back and this month, staff members attended a fire extinguisher class. Now our employees not only know where each of our extinguishers is located, they also know the steps to take in case of a fire and how to properly use the extinguisher to put a fire out. Here are a few pictures of our Wine By Joe fire fighters in training.