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Several early mornings, late lunches, and progressive eating evenings are the norm during the harvest. Eating a cup of chili or Cup O'Noodles on the crushpad spiked with one of the many hot sauces was a daily occurrence.
One of the surprise dishes was the duck fat popcorn. Hot duck fat was poured over a sage infused popcorn; add some salt and you're in business. Not a bad way to start the night in Healdsburg.
Another one of my creations at the house
I made Sausage and Peppers over pasta, a few on the fly frittata and a creamy risotto.
It seems that Instagram and cool people love fashionable toast pictures, so I took one of some toast I made
It's all about the grapes. Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Sirah, Syrah, Merlot, Barbera, Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Muscat Blanc was harvested by Mastro Scheidt in 2016.
No two seasons are the same and no two varietals are the same. My wines change with the seasons. Winemaking is not an exact science, it's subject to undiversifiable risk, known as Mother Nature. I'm showing the beautiful pics, the highlight reel. There's a lot, behind the scenes, the day in, day out unromantic reality of what I do with these grapes. There are a lot of steps to get raw grapes from the field to the bottle.
Enjoy the beauty of harvest.
One of the earliest vineyards we picked was Sangiovese
My family hand picked a vineyard of Syrah and Zinfandel
A view of the Russian River Valley vineyard from behind the bin
One of the most well maintained vineyards in the Valley
Hand picked and Hand sorted
Great looking Merlot from Dry Creek Valley
You gotta get in the vineyard and take your samples
Rose of Sangiovese
Hillside Cabernet came in to the crushpad at 6am
Dry farmed Cabernet Sauvignon in Dry Creek Valley. It's not easy, but the results are excellent
I may scare a few of you with this post.
Making wine and making sausage have something in common. They are both dirty. This post is about the realities of winemaking in pictures. If you want to continue to believe that being a winemaker is glamorous, a dream job, where all grapes are picked "at peak ripeness to achieve a perfect wine on the perfect day", this post will likely be a shock to you.
For disclosure purposes, all the pictures are mine, but all the processing in the pictures is not. I make wine at a facility with a wide variety of winemakers and styles. Each wine maker has responsibility for their own wine. This blog is a daily journal of my experiences in wine making..
Making wine isn't easy work. It comes with power outages, broken equipment, people who don't show up, late nights, early mornings, wine stained hands, a filthy car, tired feet, and plenty of uncertainty; a.k.a it's a job.
Not all the grapes make it and this is just one of the times they get washed down the drain.
Use this to spray on all manner of equipment or as a mouth wash
Grape must will stain everything it comes in contact with.
More wasted grapes, but it's ok. There are a lot of seeds in this must.
It's amazing that things get to me at all when my name is spelled wrong
Don't panic, it's just water.
Some wineries like to press their grapes really hard, this is the result. Moon rocks.
When this hit the floor it sounding like pea gravel. Dried up press grapes after a winery presses really hard for extra juice.
Grapes are found everywhere. Your car, home, lab, and on any flat space. Cleaning is essential.
While performing a punch down of the fermenting cap, it's highly likely that you will splash some juice. Your clothes will stain.
The farther away this waste is from the crush pad, the better. It's fruit fly bait.
This pile of stems shoots out the back of the destemmer (hence the name)
And now for the video. Sediment and lees are a fact of wine making. Period. They reside in all wines. What the end user sees in the bottle is the result of a long process to get a cloudy, sediment filled substance to market without flaws and wonderfully clear in the glass . To reiterate, this is not my wine. merely an example of cleaning after a barrel fermentation.
The 2016 Harvest marks the first time the entire family came out to pick some grapes and see the process, from start to finish. Three generations of family were on site to see what the harvest is all about.
I'm a traditionalist; white wine doesn't pair with rib-eye and Cab doesn't pair with shrimp, period. However, when an opportunity presents itself to pair my wines with hot dogs, I don't see much downside. It's a hot dog, I can drop the pretense.
The pairings were done on a working crush pad at the winery and I chilled my wines before eating the hot dogs (it's 100 degrees up in Healdsburg).
The first dog incorporated a Southwest or Tex-Mex flavor profile; the second is a spin on a banh mi Vietnamese sandwich.
The Tex-Mex style dog used a Niman Ranch uncured hot dog, a smear of paprika honey mustard on each side of a normal hot dog bun, some pickled jalapeno pineapple salsa, corn cotija salsa and finally a few pieces of fried chorizo on top. The acid and heat from the jalapeno pineapple salsa combined with the cotija cheese are what bring this hot dog to the next level. Sweet, savory, hot, pickled, cool and fat from the chorizo and hot dog for some reason all work with my Sangiovese. I'm not just saying it, it works, but I wouldn't have ever thought to pair all this stuff together with a Sangiovese.
Corn and cotija salsa
The minute I heard "banh mi" I thought of my white wine blend. Since the first vintage, my white wine, The Hunter, has always had citrus flavors which allow generally solid pairings with Thai and Vietnamese foods. With the addition of Muscadelle to The Hunter in 2015, a wider range of spicy flavors have begun to pair well with my white wine.
The Banh Mi hot dog had some lightly pickled hot red chili which added zing and heat to the hot dog and paired off with The Hunter well. Add the richness of a peanut sauce and the fat from the Niman hot dog, and the citrus flavors in the wine cut through, again harmoniously. The hot dog itself was fun because it plays on textures, heat, Thai/Vietnamese flavors that is so far away from a ballpark hot dog, I'm surprised more people don't demand more condiments at the ball game.
Chili and peanuts for my hot dog
I took some of my Sangiovese crop and bled off some juice just after it was picked. For those that like to read French words, Saignée or bleed in French is the technique and the word used to describe the process. The secondary benefit of this saignee process is the main body of the red Sangiovese concentrates flavors in the finished wine.
The Rose' has been fermented in neutral Sangiovese oak barrels, stirred in barrel using another French word, Bâtonnage, racked off clean and placed back in barrel to settle until bottling.
I've had visitors taste the unfined and unfiltered Rose' during the entire process. The nose is of strawberry and pink grapefruit but still has a little time to develop in barrel before the final product is released.
HARVEST 2016
After a brief period of cool weather in late August, the Sonoma County wine grape harvest has started for Mastro Scheidt Family Cellars.
The white grapes, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle, and Semillon are 100% in, while the Sangiovese, Zinfandel, Syrah, Pinot, Merlot and dry-farmed Cabernet are all coming in within the next 7 - 10 days. Conditions are very good and the weather is stable, all good news. The vineyard and Mother Nature did their work well.
If you are a follower or would like to follow on Instagram or Facebook, I'm posting behind-the-scenes videos and pictures of the harvest. Everything from broken down trucks to tasting press wine, it's not always glamorous, but it is real.
SAVE THE DATES
Save the Dates for November 4 and 5 if you are one of my Fresno / Central Valley customers. Those are the dates for our Harvest and New Release Party. I will send you an invitation as we get closer to the dates. The Bulldog football game is away that weekend.
David Scheidt
Proprietor / Winemaker
Released back in April of this year, the 2013 1TL D. Rafanelli Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, rated 90 points is now SOLD OUT!
Done! Finished! Gone!
Don't worry, the 2014 1TL Cabernet Sauvignon is already in the bottle and sitting tight, waiting to be released.
But it won't be released today.
If you want to be on the waiting list for your allocation of the 2014 1TL, please fill out the form below and press the SUBMIT button. I will contact you directly regarding release date and your allocation.
I love watching movie trailers. A good friend was at ComicCon updating me on what's coming out this year and next; lots of DC, Marvel and Disney (you know, the company that owns Star Wars) stuff.
Not to be left out of the trailer game, The Scheidt Brothers, in association with One Take Productions (what we call ourselves when we produce a goofy video) put together a Harvest Trailer for this season. My brother and I have been doing these fun little skits since we were kids. And like many trailers, I wasn't afraid to embellish... a lot! Please be kind, it's my first video production. Remember, goofy video, serious wine. Enjoy!
Another year, another Mammoth Food and Wine Experience in the books.
Rock Creek Lake
I look forward to this event each year. The Experience benefits the Mammoth Lakes Foundation. From their website:
Mammoth Lakes Foundation is dedicated to supporting higher education and cultural enrichment in the Eastern Sierra. Successes include:
There isn't a day that goes by where I'm forced to hear about another person that's on some kinda cleanse. 3-day cleanse, 5-day detox, juice cleanse.
I've got a suggestion, have a classic "cleanse" for dinner and make fresh gazpacho. It involves going "old school" with your mother's blender or modern day with a Nutri-Bullet or Ninja mixer. You'll get all the same satisfaction of telling your friends that you're on a cleanse, but this will actual taste good.
3 garden fresh tomatoes, de-seeded
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup red onion
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
A few cracks of black pepper
Fresh Thyme and olive oil to garnish
Put everything but the thyme in the blender and blend until smooth. Done. Pour into a bowl and garnish. Eat.
If you're still inclined to tell people you're on a cleanse, put the gazpacho in a glass and take a selfie.
Tomato Gazpacho
My friends and I have been sous vide crazy this summer. We've even tried to sous vide an artichoke (not that I'd recommend it).
I didn't do much cooking for this dinner, I have childhood friend John to thank for the sous vide lamb. Lamb leg was the next logical candidate for the sous vide machine. Leg of lamb generally has a long, slow cooking time anyway, so it makes sense to use a little science and cooking together. There is no real recipe for sous vide leg of lamb, other than cooking time, which was 9 hours. We finished it on a charcoal fire for some color and additional flavor.
Sous vide lamb leg with roasted peppers
For me, what made the entire meal pop were the green beans. Chinese influenced green beans were the contrast to all the richness in the meal. The salty umami heat in the sauce made me want to have another bite of lamb and another sip of Zinfandel. It was a virtuous circle of eating.
I can't take credit for the green beans, John's wife Falina prepared the dish, in addition to the roasted potatoes, one style with feta the other with proscuitto.
1 package Fresh green beans (you know, the ones that come in the bag, cleaned)
1 tablespoon Fresh chopped garlic
1/4 cup Shaved almonds
3 tablespoons Soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chili paste
3 tablespoons Canola or Peanut Oil
Blanche your green beans in boiling, salted water for about 30 seconds.
Have a large, hot saute pan ready to combine all the ingredients above for a quick, high heat saute (unless you're lucky enough to have a commercial wok in your house). The saute pan should NOT be overloaded with green beans. It's better for this dish to split the green beans in two or three batches, so that the pan stays screaming hot and the cooking process stays hot, this is wok-style cooking in a non-commercial home kitchen.
I've been on a bit of a risotto kick since I got back from Italy in February. My experience at the Risottoria in Vicenza made me think outside of the box with regard to risotto. Why can't risotto be as varied as pasta?
At the start of the night, the risotto was going to be a plain, straightforward style that paired well with the main star, filet mignon. But as the risotto sat there, waiting to be finished, it struck me that normally we'd have a baked potato with all the fixings with our steaks.
Why can't I make a risotto with the customary garnishes of an American baked potato? Finish the risotto with sour cream, a heavy hand of chives and some fresh proscuitto.
My wine pairing suggestion? With the combination of filet and risotto, I'd favor straight-up Signature Cabernet Sauvignon or Superstrada, to give it the Italian influence the meal deserves.
Finished dish of risotto, filet mignon and grilled red onion and squash
Recipe:
5 tablespoons of butter
1 cup Arborio rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup Chardonnay
6 slices of prosciutto di Parma
1/3 cup of chives
1/3 cup of sour cream
salt and black pepper to taste
Add the butter to a medium high-heat saute pan and melt. Add the rice and cook, while stirring, for 5 minutes until the rice becomes translucent. Add the wine, increase the heat to high, and stir constantly. When the wine has been absorbed, lower the heat to medium and add a 1/2 cup of the hot chicken stock. Once the stock is absorbed, add a little more; repeat this process, stirring constantly (will take in upwards of 45 minutes), until the rice is nearly cooked. Remember, risotto is not meant to be mushy in texture, but have a hint of resistance.
When the rice is cooked, still hot and bubbling, but OFF HEAT and just before serving, add the chives, sour cream and prosciutto and stir together. Risotto is ready,
It's hot in Fresno all Summer. Real hot. 100 degrees plus. Fresno is all about backyard parties, cold beer and white wine (generally white wine, some Fresnans will put ice in red wine during the summer, I usually just pop the whole bottle in ice).
A simple cream cheese and salmon (cooked and cooled salmon, not a tartare) based dip, kept cold, is an easy appetizer to wash down with beer and wine all summer long.
The proportions in the picture below, outline the entire recipe and ingredient list. Rather than write everything down, I just shot a picture instead. Remember to juice the lemon and chop the taragon for those that take things literally. Stir everything together until incorporated.
You can scoop the dip with vegetables, such as celery or carrots, or serve with toast points or crackers. If you want your salmon dip to have a creamier texture to it, add sour cream and/or mayonnaise and a bit more salt and pepper to taste.
Cooked salmon, cream cheese, lemon juice, red onion,taragon, capers, salt and pepper - stir all ingredients vigorously until combined
Finished product, salmon dip topped with taragon
The Hunter and the salmon dip are a natural pairing
There is such a place. It's just off Highway 395 nestled in at 5,200 feet. I've been to a few patio parties there in the last couple years. For this party, I prepared a couscous salad, along with my tri-tip beef skewers.
Here's the recipe for the couscous salad:
Cooked Couscous
4 cups Couscous
4 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup olive oil
Follow package instructions for the cooking of the couscous.
After couscous is cooked, let cool on an oiled large sheet tray so that the couscous can be worked over by hand. Using your hands (kitchen gloves make this easier and less messy), make sure the couscous is coated in the olive oil. Break up any clumps of couscous with your hands. This will prevent it from clumping up later if you are making your couscous in advance and it sits. Couscous should be “light and fluffy” not clumpy and starchy.
For the dressing
1 small handful of fresh mint, chiffonade
4 red bell peppers, minced
10 green onions, minced
½ cup Olive oil
½ cup Rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons Ras el Hanout (to be found at places like Trader Joe’s and Cost Plus)
1 teaspoon salt
Combine all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and allow ingredients to marinate together for an hour. This will help soften the edge of the bell peppers and green onions.
Combine Couscous and Dressing
Combine the cooled couscous and the dressing together in the large bowl. You can serve immediately or hold for a couple hours at room temperature.
If I may be so bold, grilled tri tip skewers and couscous salad pair really well with my Cabernet Cuvee. Yes, that is a picture of several red wines kept cool on ice. It's 100 degrees in Paradise at 5pm in the summer, I wouldn't want to drink my red wine either if it were "room temperature"!
As I mentioned, more 90 point ratings in the pipeline.
The 2013 1TL bottling is a very special selection of vineyard designate fruit from D. Rafanelli Vineyard and is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. It's a bit of a monster early, but given time in cellar, will show wonderfully over the next 10 years.
I've received plenty of questions in the last couple days about the Signature Cabernet since the 2013 received 90 points.
The overwhelming difference between each of the Signature bottlings is the year harvested. 2011 was a leaner year, with more rainfall and less warm temperatures and longer hang time. 2012 was the “perfect” vintage, with virtually zero anomalous weather, plenty of warm sunshine and an abundance of fruit. 2013 was a drought year with significantly lower yields in every vineyard, thus higher concentration of fruit and flavors and picked a month ahead of the 2011.
With regard to vineyards used, in 2013, 100% of the Rafanelli crop was bottled into the 1-T-L series. The 1TL has always been a hand-selected lot of vineyard designate fruit since the first vintage in 2007 and therefore was not blended in the Signature bottling. Both the Signature and 1TL bottlings in 2013 received 90 points. The 1TL bottling is more concentrated and powerful than Signature in 2013, is pure Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley and a true example of terroir within a vineyard.
All three Signature wines are available, but with limited quantity, as I hold a certain portion back for retrospective tastings on development of each vintage and for wine dinner exclusives.
The Results: The 2011 wine shows more like a French styled Bordeaux wine, leaner with minerality and tobacco but without green characteristics. 2012 is the richly flavored California Cab so many people have come to identify with, while 2013 has become generous and velvety in style. Each wine will continue to develop in the bottle over the next 10 years.
I showcased three vintages of my Signature Cabernet Sauvignon at one of my tasting events recently to highlight the differences Mother Nature can impart on Dry Creek Valley Cabernet.
2011 was from the summer that never came, 2012 was the "perfect season" and 2013 was an early harvest and a warm, dry growing season. The Signature is always Dry Creek Valley fruit. It can come from various vineyards and since 2011, has been 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Three years of Signature Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley
These three Cabernet's are remarkably different. From lean in 2011 to plush in 2013; there's something for every Cabernet lover in this line-up.
While tasting the vertical of Signature with customers, I was asked more often than not, "Which is your favorite?". Signature has always been my project; blending from various fruit sources in Dry Creek Valley, trying not to be just another Cab that tastes like blackberries and spice. I don't think I have a favorite, what I have are three very different wines:
2011 Signature: For my palate, the 2011 tastes best with beef, plain and simple. When I'm having steak, be it rib-eye or New York, the 2011 shines brightest. Lower alcohol and higher acid is the perfect pairing with rich beef. The 2011 has been showing better each year since release, gradually maturing with its peak still a few years off. Think Bordeaux, not Napa or Sonoma Cab.
2012 Signature: The 2012 pairs best with lamb. Where the 2011 is more about minerality and austerity, the 2012 is more about macerated fruit, plums and roasted nuts. The 2012 has gone through the most changes since bottling, a moving target of flavors that have paired well with pasta initially, to burgers and pizza last year, to grilled and stewed lamb today. Something about the pronounced flavors of lamb are hitting the spot with the 2012 Signature.
2013 Signature: The 2013 is all about elegant, sexy, smooth drinkability. The 2013 seems to get consumed before dinner hits the table. I picked the 2013 fruit several weeks earlier than 2012, and not all at the same time. Layering of flavors, chewy tannins, full palate smoothness and a lingering palate have contributed to the early drinkability of this wine.
The Signature Cabernet is the only wine I hold back in inventory and release date. I want to show the evolution of style, the effects of weather, and what cellar time does to change the wine. The 2014 is already in the bottle, the 2015 is in the barrel and I'm looking to my trials on the 2015 as the 6th vintage in the series.
I'll continue to write about the evolution of the Signature wine from personal tastings and interaction with customers.
I've been hinting at this project for a while. 100% Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel from the 2014 vintage.
Before I was a Cabernet drinker, I was a Zinfandel zealot. I couldn't get enough of the stuff. Verticals of Zin took up my cellar. But around 1995, things began to change. I was buying less and less Zin, sometimes no Zin at all. Zinfandel was morphing into an alcoholic fruit bomb of a wine. Riper and riper with each passing year to the point I couldn't drink the stuff anymore.
So, I took matters into my own hands and made Zinfandel in 2014.
I decided on first pass French and American oak for the Zin; a difference from what many do in Sonoma County, favoring more neutral Hungarian and American oak. Hungarian oak is known for spice characteristics. Likewise, Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel has pronounced spice as a matter of terroir. I saw no reason to double up on the spice character of my first release of Zinfandel.
Secondly, I extended the Zinfandel aging process from a more typical 9-12 month program in oak to just over 12 months. That additional time in oak smooths out the corners, rounds the edges, and builds complexity.
I'm craving elegance in my Zinfandel. A Zinfandel that shows power, but not alcohol; rich fruit but not cooked fruit, spice but not heat.
I want to drink Zinfandel again...my Zinfandel!