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It's Father's Day Weekend, so Tom and David Scheidt are hitting the road to compete in the 2013 Tehachapi Chili Cookoff and Classic Car Show.
We've got tough competition, as our friend Jim Cyr is also competing! And from what I've been told...Jim cooks up a mean batch of chili.
Regardless of the outcome, we're looking forward to heading to Tehachapi and joining in on the fun, food, and festivities for Father's Day Weekend.
It's official, Mastro Scheidt Family Cellars will be participating in the Mammoth Lakes Food and Wine Experience 2013, July 5-7 in Mammoth Lakes, California. (Get tickets for the event)
Not only are we pouring our award winning wines at the Grand Tasting, Proprietor and Winemaker David Scheidt will be a featured presenter on food and wine pairings.
David has some other business in Mammoth to take care of while he's there...peak bagging. There might be a 14'er or two on the horizon.
First yields have come, in order, from:
Sweet 100
Lemon Boy and Druzba
The Unknown Plant. Unknown seems to be an heirloom variety because of its color and shape, red and conical.
Full View of Garden
Sun reaches my Sweet 100’s by 730am, with the patch of grass in from of it, out to the 4th row of N/S furrows also by 730am, as of June 6. If I have an opportunity to extend the garden in 2014, I would extend it to the early morning patch.
At this point, I have not added any supplement fertilizer to the tomatoes, except to the Sweet 100. As the Sweet 100 receive the most sun and first in the morning to see the sun, they are stressed because of their location, with only one furrow supplying water. I built a second, small furrow for hand watering since mid-May. It’s bone-dry in this area of the garden, but the plant is producing.
Druzba
My Peppers have also received a supplemental fertilizer treatment, same as the Sweet 100 tomatoes. They seemed undernourished to me and lacking vigor in Mid-May. They have produced two crops so far and looking healthy. The only observation here is, they could use more sun. The plant that receives sun last is the tallest and last to produce, thus, I believe, reaching to the sun for nourishment.
The Isis Candy has grown to an enormous size, both tall and wide. It impedes on every plant around it. Obviously vigorous, it is behind the other plants in terms of producing a large crop. As I recall, it produces very late in the season. Next year, Isis Candy will need to have its own stake/trellis systems and have any plant removed from its base by a minimum of 5 feet from the center in all directions. It’s growing into and on top of every other plant it’s around.
Isis Candy - taking over the area
San Diego, even though planted late, is a vigorous and healthy plant. Fruit is already present, leaves are healthy, no yellowing.
I have noticed yellowing near the base on the Italian Heirloom, Sweet 100, and Momotaro. I have resisted using any fertilizer to this point, as the plants are producing.
The Italian Heirloom has never looked vigorous, despite its size, or real green in color. Perhaps it’s the variety, it is doing its job, just doesn’t seem happy doing it. Probably misses Italy, like I do. I will honor Italian Heirloom with an exclusive all-Italian product feast as proper respect must be observed.
Italian Heirloom - Waiting to be picked
I haven’t strung up or added any stakes in the last 2 weeks. I did plenty of tying plants and stringing loose ends from overgrowth and crowding. I planted a bit wider this year, however the Druzba, Isis Candy, and Yellow Pear are all very crowded together.
Watering has been consistent at once every 7 or 8 days for 1 hour and 15 minutes per session. The hose doesn’t trickle, but doesn’t gush, let’s call it Low and Slow Watering. None of the fruit has split at the bottom, although some have large dark spots visible.
Two garden pets, birds, looking for Sweet 100 and a little worm that also happens to like my sage bush. I feed the worm to the ants. The birds, well, like Clemenza said, “you don’t have to worry about him no more”.
I spent a little time up at Rafanelli Vineyard and Gipson Ranch recently, reviewing each of the properties and the super-early prognostication on the 2013 grape harvest quality.
The early predictions look very good. If this heat keeps up, it could be an early season. Not a lot of rain and warm days have accelerated growth in 2013.
I've been looking to harvest Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Sirah in 2013 to widen my experience as a winemaker and broaden the audience of wine drinkers beyond Cabernet Sauvignon. I've always like Petite for its deep color and longevity. Naturally, I'm working my current vineyard partners and my bias for hillside fruit locations in Sonoma County.
We've got a long way to go until harvest begins, but the early opinion polls show promise.
DS
Bad news first, unfortunately, there have been a couple casualties. The Champion had the purple leaf disease and was becoming brittle and dying. The second Pineapple heirloom also died, which makes both Pineapple plants casualties for the season. Garden Peach was the last to go, it was also stricken with the purple leaf/wasting disease.
Now good news, the 6 pack of Sweet 100 on the left row and progressing better than expected. They get all early morning sunshine and a sprinkle of water from the sprinkler system 3 times a week. The sprinkle lasts 8 minutes. The sprinkler regime will change to 6 times a week for 4 minutes.
Flood irrigation once every 7-8 days for 1.25 hours has been the watering schedule for the main garden. I have not used any fertilizer on the garden since my initial manure.
Druzba has once again taken off early, already yielding as of 4/25. Yield is also present on Sweet 100, Ace and my Unknown.
The two new plants Momotaro and San Diego are progressing without issue.
I moved the Early Girl from underneath the orange tree to where the dead Champion was planted. The original location for the Early Girl is bone dry and lacking sun. Bone dry to the point that I would have to spot water the plant because it was weak.
I've used a combination of cages and stakes just as last year. The skinny cages from most garden stores are not my favorite. I've staked all my Sweet 100s and have already begun to tie lines for support. I have three wide cages in use and prefer them over the skinny tapered cylinder cages.
Have changed the drip irrigation on the buckets for the pepper plants as well. The last bucket was saturated with water and the pepper plant was waterlogged. I transported the plant into the position where the Garden Peach was. It seems to be doing fine. The pepper plants in the ground are healthy and growing nicely. The Pepper plant in the smaller clay pot is yielding the first pepper of the season. That is the only pot that has received water from the drip from day 1. It seems to drain better than the oak barrels and is at the end of the line in terms of the drip.
After two solid days of preparation, the entire Mastro Scheidt Family pulled off a private Carnevale dinner, celebrating the "end of meat" just before the Easter Season.
The private dinner included nine (9) courses for each of the 12 guests. Wines were paired with each course, including our favorite Chardonnay from Bacigalupi Vineyards and a wine from David's personal cellar, a 2002 Rafanelli Zinfandel.
Sourcing the ingredients, like Community Grains polenta, Marin Sun Farms pork belly, ox tails, bone marrow, and veal, not to mention all the cheeses (yes, you Emily, they loved the Red Hawk) and various mushrooms was great fun.
John ran the front of house the entire evening and took care of all the wine service. My father made his first ever chocolate mousse (he learned how to "fold" properly) and made sure my outside kitchen stayed busy, and my mother interacted with each of the guests from beginning to end. Additionally, friends of my parents helped expedite and clean during the entire service and were crucial to the evening. Many thanks to them.
Naturally, I'd like to thank our gracious hosts and each of the guests for their participation, enthusiasm, and healthy appetites.
The results are in from the four wines we submitted to the 2013 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and Mastro Scheidt Family Cellars won 3 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal in our first ever wine competition! We're honored...
Gold Medal, 2010 Blueprint, Cabernet Sauvignon / Cabernet Franc, Dry Creek Valley
Gold Medal, 2010 Double Barrel, Cabernet Franc, Dry Creek Valley
Gold Medal, 2009 Double Barrel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley
Silver Medal, 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, Dry Creek Valley
The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest competition of American wines in the world. Wineries from Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles are heavily represented, as well as wines from the Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley in New York.
Photo Courtesy of Jessie Friedman, Eat Retreat October 2012
Proprietor and winemaker, David Scheidt will be pouring with his brother John Scheidt, all of our award winning wines at the public tasting event in San Francisco on February 16 from 2pm - 5pm at the Fort Mason Center. So come and meet The Scheidt Brothers and taste our wines!
“Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.’ Salvador Dali
The “Corner Table”, near the wine counter in the Hidden Villa Hostel dining hall on opening night of Eat Retreat was a special place for me to eat. I was meeting new people, drinking wine, and eating grilled lamb. The night was going well.
Photo by Jessie Friedman of Andrew Plotsky, Butcher
The Corner Table of Tina, Kristen, Andrew and I begin to dig a little deeper into food and philosophy, as the Napa Zinfandel I poured lubricated the wheels of thought and conversation.
At some point, Andrew asks Tina “What does a food stylist do?” (I find the most innocent of questions to be the best). With numerous follow up questions from Andrew in an attempt to define “food stylist” with the specificity and exactness of, well, a skilled butcher cutting up a lamb.
Photo by Heather Irwin of Andrew Plotsky, Butcher
My gut said that defining a food stylist might not have an easy answer. Like asking an abstract painter to define their profession. How does the abstract artist describe their trade or skill? How is a food stylist described and where do I apply for that job?
If someone asks Andrew what he does for a living; the answer is both obvious and practical to both the butcher and the by-stander. Butchers cut up lambs, pigs, and cows into edible cuts of meat for people to consume. The job of Food Stylist probably wasn't around 4000 years ago.
Tina did her level-best after the initial question salvo from Andrew to describe the challenges of “styling food". At this point, I didn’t know if I should have felt sorry for Andrew or Tina.
I’m a numbers guy, not an artist. I’m logical. I like process. As the by-stander in this question and answer period to define a food stylist, I tend to side with Andrew by asking basic questions, cutting to the bone, if you will, on how to define the process and expose the edible muscle of the food stylist.
Then Tina said something that helped me (I won’t speak for you Andrew). It was Mathematical. Tina talked about dimensional space. Not only did Tina speak of the dimensional aspect of plating food, but translating color and atmosphere to the 2-dimensional observer. Taking photographs of a 3-dimensional product in the kitchen and translating dimension and depth into a simple, flat picture in a magazine or on the internet.
Eureka!
Arrangement on a plate, light, shadow, and color.
That's physics! All tangible, all mathematical.
So part of the answer on what a food stylist does is mathematical (thank heaven!). But part of it is art. Look no further than to Justice Potter Stewart regarding (food) pornography “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it.”
I suppose we all know what well styled food porn is these days…we know it when we see it. And no manner of questions or answers will begin to explain what we see. But, I thank you Tina for saying, indirectly, that mathematics has something to do with it. And since I looked at your website when I got back home, your food is styled very well because it makes me, well...hungry.
Photo Below from Teaspoon Styling, Tina Bell Stamos
My second story is entitled, Ninjas, Knives, and Cameras.
Gipson, Lencioni, Rafanelli.
ALL Hillside Vineyards.
ALL Dry Creek Valley.
ALL Sonoma County.
All vineyards Mastro Scheidt Cellars have been using since the 2007 Vintage.
It will be an early start tomorrow, but we're excited to pick.
Check this out, because we're excited to participate:
Eat Retreat is a weekend workshop dedicated to good food and innovative thinking. Created for leaders in the food community, the objective of this invite-only event is to celebrate a shared joy for food. Attendees selected for their zeal, creativity, and collaborative skills will spend the weekend sharing meals, exchanging ideas, and being inspired. It’s summer camp meets the farmers’ market. The coordinators and organizers of the event Kathryn Tomajan, Emily Morgan, Nate Keller, Laura Brunow Miner have all been contributing to the foodie / restaurant / sustainable community for a number of years. Check out all the 2012 retreaters here.
I'm humbled and honored to represent the winery in such a prestigious event! WAY COOL!
My brother and I were very happy to participate in the Children's Hospital Fund Raiser at a well known Animation Studio in Emeryville (they're touchy about security) last Thursday. It's also flattering to have people give us praise for our wines when they're tasting well-known Napa Cabs at the table next to us.
We poured all of our 2009 new releases as well as a barrel sample from 2011.
We'd personally like to thank everyone involved in the event, ESPECIALLY our event sponsor!
Only two wines were featured at an exclusive dinner party of 100 guests; Mastro Scheidt Proprietor's Reserve 2007 and Hostage Wines Sauvignon Blanc 2011.
Personally, I was pleased with being able to recommend the Sauvignon Blanc from Hostage. I only met Jeremiah and Elizabeth about a year ago at a blind wine tasting group in Healdsburg. Jeremiah's no-nonsense style of evaluating the wines he was tasting was similar to mine, up-front and blunt. Elizabeth's evaluation was deeper, less given to whim or her "first sip".
So when I finally tasted their 2011 Sauvignon Blanc, my initial reaction was one of delight. This is really tasty! But it was more than that. This is the style and type of Sauvignon Blanc I remember drinking years ago, before we were inundated with Kiwi Blanc. I'd almost forgotten how good a Sauvignon Blanc from California could taste on a 90 degree day. How complementary it could be with food, rather than just a pre-dinner wine.
The Hostage Sauvignon Blanc was an expression of both the up-front, no-nonsense style from Jeremiah and the complexity from Elizabeth.
It got me thinking about Sauvignon Blanc again and that's why I recommend it.
Here is a little background on the wine. Paraphrasing a bit from their website, Jeremiah and Elizabeth purchased a unique clone of Sauvignon Blanc, called Sauvignon Musqué, from a vineyard in the Russian River Valley Appellation. This particular clone has to be picked at optimal maturity in order to capture its incredible tropical aromas and flavors. On a cold morning, right before a storm rolled in, we harvested the fruit and put it straight into the press. From there, we racked the juice into neutral French oak barrels to ferment. It remained in barrel until bottling last February.
Thanks to everyone who purchased our 2007 Double Barrel Cabernet Sauvignon aka The Black Label. The wine sold out in roughly 6 months, so we're really happy about that.
Rest assured, we have the next vintage just about ready to release. The next Double Barrel offering will be coming from Lencioni Vineyard (they're next to Ridge's Lytton Springs Vineyard in Healdsburg). The flavor is intense blackberry fruit with a nice balance of tannin and mouthfeel.
In addition, we're down to about 15 cases of our Proprietor's Reserve aka The Red Label from Doug Rafanelli Vineyard. You won't see Rafanelli's vineyard again until the 2011 release. I've tasted through the 2011's and the flavors are developing nicely. We blended new French and American oak in the 2011 along with our standard barreling program of neutral oak.
Thanks again for your support.
Over a month ago, I was up in Portland, Oregon. A couple highlights of the trip included Cana's Feast and Archery Summit.
The Archery Summit tasting was fantastic. In addition to the wines included in the picture, we tasted some library wines as well. The 2000 Red Hills Estate showed the longevity of this fabulous Oregon estate. After a full day of drinking Pinot, the Archery Summit wines really stood out as, dare I say, the best.
Another standout was Cana's Feast. I've spoken about Cana's before, specifically their Chinato. I haven't checked luggage domestically for 10 years. I checked 3 bottles back home to California. It's that good.
I'd like to express my appreciation to the Enology Department, the students, and the Enology Society for hosting me at CSU, Fresno. It was a pleasure to participate as a wine maker and alumni. On a personal note, I'd like to thank Kerry Fitzgerald for setting everything up for me and the personal tour around the Enology Department.
I've attached a few pictures from the evening both here in the blog post and in our Gallery on the website. Thanks to Cousin Marco for taking pictures at the event and T.L. for showing his support and our new Mastro Scheidt Hats (ask me if you want one, they come in different colors).
Let's get something clear...I hate yard work.
Mowing the lawn, raking leaves, raking the other neighbor's leaves and pine needles pretty much all sucks. The smell of freshly cut grass does nothing for me because I can't smell it over the lawn mower exhaust to begin with. If I want to smell freshly cut grass, I'll open a bottle of Sav Blanc.
However, I'm willing to put in good labor for fruit. Makes sense, I make wine. So I'm willing to put in whatever effort it takes to have great tomatoes all summer long. I'm reasonably hard-core about NOT buying tomatoes in December or any other month in California other than the summer months. Canned tomatoes are just fine for sauces and stews in the winter anyway.
So planting 18 tomato plants this season, along with 4 basil plants, should allow me to get my fix in for the season. For those that care, I have included a diagram of the plantings as well as a picture of the garden area. The other two trees on the right are Apricot and Orange. The Apricot tree has bloomed and I will take measures to eliminate any bird/critter threats to my plants and trees.
Talk about great!
I will be the featured speaker and pouring wine at the CSU, Fresno Enology Society on Thursday, March 15 at 6:30pm in the main Enology Building. I'll be pouring my current line-up of 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon's and SOON TO BE RELEASED 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon's. It's open to the public for $10, so drop in if you want to get a sneak peak on an upcoming release.
It's sort of funny (and a bit strange) that 20 years ago I graduated from CSU, Fresno with a degree in Finance and I'm being asked to speak about wine. But maybe it's not so strange. While chemistry is obviously a big part of winemaking, so is the business of winemaking.
Since I was first asked to speak, I've had a hard time deciding what it is I'm going to speak about. Sure, we'll try all the wines and I'll answer questions about the wine technicals, but making wine to me was only part of why Mastro Scheidt Cellars was formed. It's such an honor to speak, luckily I have a couple weeks to think about.
Go Dogs!
It was such a pleasure to get into the kitchen with Chef Tommy Chavez again. It was a fun night, but certainly not an easy one. Everything was cooked to order and from scratch. I even baked fresh fennel bread for the event. Chef Tommy and I were challenged by the glass cook top (not induction), but it was 10 times easier to clean up after than a gas range. Otherwise, things moved quickly and smoothly.
Long-time friend John Marihart made sure our eight special guests always had their glasses filled, their plates cleared, stemware polished and of course, gave the kitchen feedback on how the evening was progressing. Special thanks to Falina Marihart for taking all the pictures that night, cleaning dishes, utencils, stemware, and tasting all of our food before it was sent out. Non-stop for everyone and everyone did their part to make sure our guests had a great evening.
For your viewing pleasure, we've attached a slide show below, a brief history of the evening in the kitchen.
We would like to thank everyone who was a part of a wonderful night of food, wine, and celebration. Here's the menu and the wines for the event (And yes, I favored some Dry Creek Valley reds that night, but I'm biased). The Gruet, the only non-California wine, was served because one of our guests has a special connection to New Mexico. I have links to all of the wines and the wineries in the menu below, just hover over the wine for the link.
CRAB CAKES
CREOLE MUSTARD BUTTER SAUCE, DRESSED GREENS
Gruet, New Mexico Blanc de Noirs NV
ESCARGOT MAITRE’ D
GARLIC HERB BUTTER, GRILLED CROSTINI
BLACKENED BEEF
WHITE GRITS, TOMATILLO SALSA, FRESH LIME, CILANTRO
SPINACH SALAD
CANDIED PECANS, GOAT CHEESE, STRAWBERRIES, RUM VINAIGRETTE
Pine Ridge 2010 Chenin Blanc/Viognier
HAND-MADE RAVIOLI
RICOTTA, PROSCUITTO, PINE NUTS, GRANA, OLIVE OIL/BUTTER
Lago di Merlo 2009 Dry Creek Valley Sangiovese
CREOLE BBQ SALMON
SWEET POTATO PUREE, HOUSE MADE CREOLE BBQ SAUCE, GREEN BEANS
A. Rafanelli 2004 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel
FILET DIANE
COGNAC MUSHROOM SAUCE, BACON ROASTED POTATOES, CREAMED SPINACH
Mastro Scheidt 2007 Proprietor’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
TOMMY’S SIGNATURE BREAD PUDDING
WARM PRALINE SAUCE, BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM
The 2011 Harvest is in the barrel and it's time to wait. I'm happy with the results so far in what was a challenging harvest. I've got more wine to work with in 2011 because of quality farming practices.
Patience has its advantages in the wine business. We won't be bottling this 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon from Doug Rafanelli's Vineyard for a couple years. Continue to develop and age gracefully please.
An exciting two days in the vineyard above Dry Creek Valley with Doug Rafanelli. Tons and tons of grapes were picked, sorted and hauled for processing down in the Valley.
I was fortunate enough to take part in the entire two-day process. I learned a tremendous amount and was actively driving a pickup with a gondola attached to it most of the day. It's too bad it takes at least 24 more months for these wine grapes to be released into a finished product some time in 2014.
Here's to more patience and looking to the future.