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

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.

 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.

Spring is here, and the wildflowers are abloom in the upper pastures of the vineyard. The geese, who overwinter in the grass fields nearby, are starting to leave, flying North for the summer. The grapevines, dormant for the winter, have woken up and are starting to grow.

We finished pruning and tying the vines a few weeks ago, and since then, its mostly rained. We’ve been busy finishing the final and yearly repair work on our trellis system, and we’ve been perfecting our gopher hunting skills. While most people anxiously await the warmer temperatures, I for one, will miss the winter. It is cold, and we are often wet, but it is the calm time of the year, when things are quiet and there isn’t much to worry about except the calm work of forming vines with pruning shears.

Now, tractors are once again making their way through the vineyard, mowing, disking, and spraying to prevent mildew. There are new insect pests on the horizon to learn about and monitor. The vines now growing, and a late season freeze could cripple our vines. You see, from bud break to harvest there’s all sorts of things to worry about, and it’s true that it’s warmer and sunnier, but I’ll miss the cold and the rain of the winter.

This weekend, we’re going to start preparing the soil in front of the winery to seed with wildflowers. Poppies, daisies, and sunflowers will be among the many pretty flowers beckoning wine country visitors to stop and maybe sip a bit of our wine. It is springtime and we are busy, but when the labors of your work are dedicated towards wine and flowers, it is easily worth the sweat and strain of it all.

BEFORE

So, picture this: You’re driving down 99W and you’re looking for tasting rooms. You see a couple blue signs that read, “Wine By Joe” and “Dobbes Family Estate Winery”. And you think, “Wine By Joe, that’s pretty catchy,” and “Dobbes Family Estate, I’ll bet they have some great Pinots.” You decide to stop. Once you figure out where the tasting rooms are located. You look right, see an elementary school and assume, much to many of the teaching staffs’ dismay, that there is not wine being served there. Look left and see two very large metal production buildings and wonder what kind of canned goods are produced inside. So, you keep driving and wonder where in the world you can taste those wines, but don’t know at that point, you’ve already passed your opportunity because you missed the turn a mile ago. And that canned good production facility was really a wine production facility with a great little tasting room tucked behind it.

Well, I am happy to report that passing the Wine By Joe and Dobbes Family Estate tasting room will soon be ancient history and here’s why- reclaimed wood. Yes, that’s right, the outside of our not-so-pretty metal building is getting covered in barn wood from a local barn as well as the flooring from an old tobacco plant in Kentucky.  Check out the progress so far.

AFTER

Just want to remind everyone who hasn’t made plans for Valentine’s Day yet to stop by the Dobbes tasting room for aphrodisiac and wine pairing. We’re holding the event both Saturday, February 13th and Sunday, February 14th. You can expect delicious gourmet goodies like espresso brownies, baklava and lemon squares with a  raspberry drizzle to be paired with our sumptuous wines.  All of the desserts contain several aphrodisiac ingredients so you’ll be sure to leave with a smile on your face!  The event will be held during normal business hours- 11 am to 6 pm. RSVP with Charles: charles@winebyjoe.com or call 503-538-1141.

We continue to prune all day, and have finished more than sixty percent since the start of the year. Pruning is a dialogue with both the past and the future. By cutting away and reforming each vine, we’re working with those who did the work before. By thinking of the work to be done in the future, we’re making decisions to facilitatethe work of growing future vintage’s wines.

Ours is a vineyard not grafted to American rootstalks, which makes for both challenges and opportunities. One of the most amazing things about working with ungrafted grapevines is the ability to propagate a new vine by “layering” a new vine in. That is, we select and grow a long cane during the previous year, and once pruned, we bury it in a way that it’s still connected to the mother vine and growing towards and up into a new vine position. The cane will begin to self-root in a matter of days. Within a year, we’ll have established the production of two vines where once we had just one. In another year, we’ll cut the new vine away from the mother vine, thus making two distinct vines.

February 14 isn’t just St. Valentine’s day, but is also another wine Saint’s day, that of St. Trifon the Pruner, patron saint of wine growers. Celebrated mostly in Bulgaria, at the end of the day the women join the men who’ve been pruning all day to feast and dance. So next Sunday, there are two saints who would very much like you to drink some pinot and celebrate wine and love.

Look who is featured on the “Powered By Orange” website this month! We are so proud of our new mama and amazing VP Gretchen Boock.

“When you think about Gretchen Boock’s background, it’s unsurprising she chose a career in the wine industry. She grew up in Mt. Angel, Oregon, a beautiful, hilly town known for its proximity to some of the most fertile agricultural lands in the state. She spent her summers helping her family tend to their strawberry and broccoli fields, and spent the rest of her free time outside.”   Read More…

We held our first Vino & Vinyasa event on January 16th and are so excited about how well it went. Everyone had such a great experience that we are still getting positive feedback on it and have decided that it will now become a regular event here at the winery! Blogger Renae Walter posted a great write-up on the event, portland-and-one-of-the-best-winery-experiences-ever-thank-you-dobbes-winery. Check it out and then email: nicci@winebyjoe.com to reserve your spot at the next one on February 27th!