Wine and Cheese Tasting

Thanks to a friend, a very small group gathered at a mountain rental cabin near the Blue Ridge Parkway for the weekend before Thanksgiving and an early Thanksgiving Dinner. Almost everyone there (except me and maybe one other person) will get to have another Thanksgiving Dinner on the "proper" day with Family, but since I basically live alone, I appreciated being able to share in the traditional "turkey day meal" with friends, and Giving Thanks for all we have.

It was a great time away from home and everyone brought great food... in fact, an abundance of foods! I may post about all the foods if others send me photos they took, but for now, here's our Saturday adventure...

We loaded ourselves into a couple of cars and went over to the Blue Ridge Parkway on Saturday to both a winery and a cidery I've wanted to visit for 2-3 years. The Château Morrisette wine tasting was really quite lovely, and very entertaining thanks to our bartender. Other than the omission of any palate cleansers for 12 different wines (including 2 ice wines), it was both professional and great fun.

One wine I would normally have never tried actually surprised me by being quite tasty; it was made from Scuppernongs, aka Fox Grapes. I generally shun sweetish wines but this was nicely complex rather than sickeningly sweet. (The winery gave us the glasses with their name etched on them that we used for tasting and several of our group bought multiple bottles of wines to take home, so their excellent presentation and marketing paid off!)

The Foggy Ridge Cidery (hard ciders) tasting was disappointing. Being just 3 miles down the Parkway from Château Morrisette, they probably need to do a better job of marketing at the cidery site itself if they continue to be on the "tour". You never know just who may drop in for a taste!

It was the same cost to taste 5 hard ciders as 12 wines from Château Morrisette, but the cider samples were barely a teaspoonful and the bartender was not fully educated on the products (at least not on the fortified ciders, nor did she present how any of the ciders could be served or used in recipes)... also she was not very personable. I will excuse her as she may have been having a bad day from many tastings earlier, but if that's the case they should have a back-up plan.

I did like the Pippin Black, a brandy-fortified cider made with Arkansas Black apples and Newtown Pippins.

The Thos. Jefferson / American style cider was tart but not dry, but I liked the English-style cider better as it was dry and not too tart. I wouldn't even taste the sweet cider one. The fresh raw cider I bought and fermented last fall was too sweet for my taste after it fermented, even with no sugar added. To be fair, that fresh cider I bought was made from eating apples whereas good hard cider is a mix, but other than sweet, it was good. I just don't like sweet drinks as a rule. (We didn't get a cidery glass etched with their name to keep, either.)

 

Once back at the cabin, we had our own private cheese tasting with wines everyone had brought along for the weekend. All three of my homemade cheeses (gorgonzola, farmhouse cheddar and a young Caerphilly) were well-received, plus we had about 8-10 imported cheeses our friends had ordered online.

I have to brag a tiny bit and say I finally made an edible blue cheese... the gorgonzola dolce shown above, which the blue cheese lovers deemed a success. (Remember I had to toss out my first 3 attempts at making a blue cheese?)

The imported cheese varieties (which I had helped choose from a short list of cheese specials) were tasty and interesting but not great, excepting the very stinky and well past it's prime Tomme Crayeuse we had to re-wrap quickly... but the selections didn't contain any cheese that I think any of us would particularly order again except possibly the 2 year old Avonlea Extra Sharp raw milk Cheddar from Canada (very dry/crumbly almost like Parmesan because of the age, but would be lovely grated on certain dishes). 

I guess it's my fault for not knowing the vendor who is not a cheesemonger... nor did I know anything of the creameries/artisans for each cheese. I take full responsibility since several were cheese types I wanted to try in case I wanted to try to make one.

One of the imported cheeses was a Welsh Caerphilly [cheddar], and VERY different from the ones I've made so far. It was a lot softer, creamier and not as traditionally salty; it was rather more like an American mild cheddar. But at leasdt now I know I need to work on "creamier" in general when I make more cheese.

 

As a surprise gift for me personally, our organizer had ordered a wedge of Rogue River Blue straight from the Creamery because I had said rather emphatically I wanted to try it sometime. (Is that a great friend or what??) I put it out to share along with the other cheese, and everyone who liked blues raved over it. If you like blues at all, you really need to try this cheese sometime when you have a special occasion; IT IS OUTSTANDING!!! No wonder it won Best in Show in combined American, Canadian and Mexican competitions for 2 of the last 3 years.

Using Up Zucchini Overload!

I don't know what possessed me to plant FOUR zucchini plants to feed my household of one. (Probably because if I planted fewer, they'd die and I wouldn't have any?)

Dehydrated zucchini; the rest have been vacuum-sealed already

Anyway, excess zucchini is always a problem. This year I learned that if I sliced them about 5/8" thick, I could dehydrate them for winter soups and other dishes. None of the dried slices came out any thicker than 1/8 inch. In the past I have tried drying thinner slices, and just ended up with zucchini 'smears' I had to peel off the trays.

I dried mine in the electric dehydrator, but here's a method by Hank Shaw that uses sun power to dehydrate. On that same page is a delicious sounding recipe for Sicilian Sun Dried Zucchini sautéed in olive oil with mint and chiles. I also found in my recipes one for  marinated grilled zucchini with feta cheese, which may be grilled and some frozen for winter.

I've thought about making fried zucchini blossoms (Fiori di Zucca) after reading this recipe, but just haven't gotten around to it.

I don't make squash pickles because I prefer the more nutritious lacto-fermented pickles, and summer squash just turn to mush if you lacto-ferment them. Typical squash pickles have too much sugar, and taste pretty much like sugared vinegar to me. Of course, I've also grated and frozen a bunch of zukes in 2-cup batches for winter zucchini bread... and I've cooked them for supper every way I can think of (my fav is partially steamed then fried in coconut oil with some dried coconut)... but that still leaves an overload of zucchini.

Then I discovered a recipe for zucchini wine that winds up tasting like a dry white wine! The recipe is from Jack Keller's site, along with several other 'unusual' wine recipes. (For giggles, I may try more than just zucchini wine.) I figure all I have to lose is some sugar, a bit of fresh ginger, a can of frozen grape juice concentrate, and my time... so why not?

Zucchini Wine
 * 5-6 lbs fresh zucchini, chopped
* 2-1/2 lbs finely granulated sugar
* 1 11-oz can Welch's 100% White Grape Juice Frozen Concentrate
* 1-1/3 tsp acid blend
* 1/2 oz fresh ginger root thinly sliced
* 1 crushed Campden tablet
* 6-1/2 pts water
* 1 tsp yeast nutrient
* Hock, Sauternes or Champagne yeast

Instructions:

Bring 3 cups water to boil and dissolve sugar in it completely. Set aside.

Meanwhile, select, wash and chop the unpeeled zucchini cross-wise into 1/2-inch pieces. Thinly slice enough fresh ginger to make half an ounce. (That was about half of a knob the length of my thumb.)

Straining Bag filled with zucchini and ginger; additives ready to add to fermenter

 

Mix all ingredients except the yeast in primary, cover, and set aside for 10-12 hours. 

Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir every 6-8 hours for 3 days, then strain off solids and transfer liquid into secondary. Press solids lightly and reserve the liquid from them, covered.

When vigorous fermentation subsides, add reserved liquid, top up if necessary, and attach airlock.

Rack after 4 weeks, top up and reattach airlock. Rack again after additional 4 weeks. If wine has not cleared, add amylase according to manufacturer's instructions and set aside additional month.

Fine with Bentonite if desired, rack 10 days later, stabilize and sweeten to taste.

Wait 3 weeks before bottling to be sure wine is indeed stable and not still producing fermentation bubbles. Wine should be aged 3 months after bottling. [Jack's own recipe]

Here's the brew after 3-4 days of fermenting with the zucchini and grape concentrate. I strained the pulp out this afternoon, transferred to a gallon jar and put on an airlock. The smaller jar is the squeezings from the pulp. There's a lot of sediment, but that will settle to the bottom with time.

(I won't post more photos of the process as it would take weeks and months. I will post results about whether it's really drinkable when it gets to that point!))

From Keller's comments section on this recipe:

Question: So tell me, what would you say it tastes like?

Answer: Even banana wine doesn't taste like bananas after the fermentation process. I would say it would end up being a dry table white wine.

Damson Plums

Local Damson Plums from Crozet, Virginia

I am out of town, house-sitting for a week, and visited the local farmer's market Saturday. One man had Damson plums, and I bought 2 gallons. They look like wild Damson's (size and shape) but taste sweeter, like the tame ones. (I didn't think to ask him while I was there. Duh!)

I found some really interesting Damson chutney recipes online and I LOVE chutneys! I'll have to decide if I want to make Damson and Ginger, Spiced Damson, or a more traditional plum chutney with a bit of orange Juice & peel plus lemon juice & peel. I may be able to make two runs if I have enough plums after I get home and weigh out enough for a gallon of Damson Plum wine!

I will post photos and recipes when I make whatever I decide. For now, they will go in the freezer.