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Napa Valley’s Summit Lake Vineyards Comes to Rhode Island with a Wine Dinner and Tastings

by David Dadekian December 2, 2014
written by David Dadekian
The vineyards at Summit Lake on Howell Mountain

The vineyards at Summit Lake on Howell Mountain

This week Napa Valley native Heather Griffin of Summit Lake Vineyards and Winery visits Rhode Island bringing her family’s wines to an exclusive dinner at Table in Barrington on Wednesday (a few reservations are still available, call 401-337-5830), The Savory Grape’s Holiday Open House in East Greenwich on Thursday and a tasting at Bellevue Wine & Spirits in Newport on Friday.

Summit Lake’s wines are distributed in Rhode Island by Sage Cellars, a family-own distributor of high quality beers and wines from around the world. Sage sampled some of their portfolio at the most recent Eat Drink RI Festival. Eat Drink RI had a chance to email with Griffin prior to her visit to learn about the winery where she was raised and now raises her two daughters. Full details on this week’s Summit Lake Vineyards and Winery events follow below, along with The Story of Summit Lake written by Griffin’s mother Sue Brakesman.

From Heather Griffin (edited to format):

Summit Lake was established in 1971 when my Dad, Bob Brakesman, purchased the property. He had recently graduated with a degree in engineering, but had fallen in love with wine and the wine making process his senior year in college. He started looking for property in the valley and was shown the property up in Angwin. It had been abandoned for about 30 years, but had some old pre-prohibition Zinfandel on it. I think he felt it was fate since it was the same dollar amount that he had just inherited.

We are a family owned and operated winery. My dad oversees both aspects of the business, both the vineyard and winery and has been the winemaker since the beginning. My brother Brian Brakesman is now the winemaker for our winery, in addition to several other clients he makes wine for, and is in charge of the daily operations. I am in charge of the wine after it hits glass and do all of the sales and marketing, as well as hospitality. My husband Mark is employed full time at another winery and vineyard in St. Helena, but also helps with our vineyards in his “spare time.” As with any family business we all do a little bit of everything, especially during harvest. We all drive the tractor, run the crush machinery and do whatever else needs to be done. Thankfully we all get along!

Bob Brakesman with Brian's daughter Sophia Lynn, with her first vintage of Petite Sirah

Bob Brakesman with Brian’s daughter Sophia Lynn, with her first vintage of Petite Sirah

The first acre that my folks planted on the property was Cabernet, and then they planted the rest of the property to Zinfandel since they knew that grew well in the area. We built our winery in 1985, it was an old fashion barn raising, and Summit Lake was born. We currently have 14 acres of vineyard planted on our 20+ acre estate on Howell Mountain and we produce 5 different wines, all from our vineyards.We are best known for our Zinfandel which is our largest production at between 800-1000 cases annually. Our second largest production is dedicated to our Emily Kestrel Cabernet Sauvignon, which is currently at about 300 cases. We also produce a small amount of Clair Riley’s Pirate Reserve Zinfandel Port (yes it’s Pirate, not Private)—200 cases on the years when the weather holds. Our smallest productions are our Blythe Susan Rose, a blend of Zinfandel and Cabernet, at 50-80 cases annually and our Sophia Lynn Petite Sirah at 50 cases. The wines are all named for my Dad’s grandaughters. He got four girls before he got any grandsons.

We first met Anne from Sage Cellars several years ago while she was visiting the valley on a food and wine trip. She and her husband Jesse Sgro have been true advocates for our wine since starting up and taking us into their book. I have only been to Rhode Island once before to visit but am really looking forward to being back in early December. As for what I am looking forward to the most . . . probably the food. I love to eat.

Dinner at Table in Barrington with Heather Griffin from Summit Lake Vineyards & Winery begins at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, December 3rd. Call 401-337-5830 for reservations, $80 per person for the four-course dinner paired with Summit Lake’s Rosé, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Port. Wines will be sold via Grapes & Grains wine shop. The menu is as follows:

Course 1
CAULIFLOWER, Roasted Mushroom, Apple, Herbs

Course 2
RABBIT TERRINE, Celeriac, Carrot, Pickled Mustard seed

Course 3
VENISON, Chestnut, Salsify, Roasted Venison Jus

Course 4
ALMOND and DEHYDRATED FRUIT BREAD PUDDING, Almond mouse, Fig

Table, 8 Anoka Ave., Barrington, RI 02806

On Thursday, December 4th from 5 – 8 p.m. Griffin will be at The Savory Grape Holiday Open House where they will be featuring Summit Lake Vineyards. The Savory Grape, 1000 Division Rd., East Greenwich, RI 02818.

On Friday, December 5th from 5 – 7 p.m. Griffin will be at an in-store tasting in Newport at Bellevue Wine & Spirits. Bellevue Wine & Spirits, 181 Bellevue Ave., Newport, RI 02840.


The Story of Summit Lake by Sue Brakesman

The story of Summit Lake Vineyards begins more than forty years ago when Bob and Sue Brakesman, the owners and operators of Summit Lake, met at Jordan Jr. High school in Palo Alto, California.  After graduating from school in 1964, Bob went to the University of California at Berkeley to study mechanical engineering, and Sue went to Foothills Jr. College in Los Altos to study biology.

Bob joined the Phi Gamma Delta house and Sue would visit on weekends, enjoying all the activities that made the “Fijis” famous-not protesting the war or burning bras or marching on the student union.  What they were famous for was their wild parties and their fraternity brother Bill Gamma.  When the chancellor realized he was a fictitiously registered student to whom all vehicles, library books, beer kegs, etc., were registered, the entire fraternity was asked to leave and never return to another U.C. Campus.

Soon after the “Fiji” fiasco, Bob and fraternity brother Tom Anderson took a year off.  They flew to England, purchased a Volkswagen van and traveled through Europe and the Middle East, as far as Afghanistan and Indian Nepal.  Upon his return, Bob enrolled in San Jose State.  While Bob finished his degree, he and Sue lived in a romantic cabin on a horse-boarding ranch in the foothills of West San Jose.  The Agees, their landlords, had extensive gardens, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, and of course, horses.  They loved their new home.  One afternoon, out by the north corral, bob met one of the neighbors, Peter Mirassou.  Peter had recently retired as CEO of Mirassou Vineyards.  Bob had begun making his own beer and invited Peter in for a taste.  In the course of their conversation, Peter suggested Bob trying “brewing” wine.  The Agee ranch was surrounded by vineyards and orchards.  That fall, late one evening, Bob liberated some of the local grapes.  Following the ancient tradition, they crushed the purloined fruit in open top fermenters (new plastic garbage cans).  Their wine-making days had begun.

Bob graduated from San Jose State in January, 1971.  To celebrate, Bob and Sue packed their Dodge van and took off for South America.  They drove to Miami and joined another fraternity brother Peter Downey, who was finishing a Peace Corp assignment in Chili.  They spent many hours sipping the luscious wines of small family-run wineries in Peru, Chili, and Argentina.  This led Bob to question whether he wanted to be an engineer or explore his growing passion for wine and wine making.  On their return, they moved from the San Jose cabin.  Bob went to Point Reyes to help his friend Tom Anderson build a house in the forest, and Sue went back to her family home in Palo Alto.  They would travel different routes through the Northern California wine country, looking for an affordable piece of land to start their own vineyard.  Bob was always drawn back to the Napa Valley

On November 12, 1971, Sue returned home from work.  Bob was there with birthday champagne for her, and her mother, acting a bit strangely, kept telling her to open her birthday card.  Inside the card was the deed to Summit Lake Vineyards! It described 28 acres of land, eight planted in pre-prohibition Zinfandel (their favorite varietal), fruit trees in the orchard, a chicken house, garage, a huge redwood barn, walnut groves, vistas in every direction, and a house built in the 1880’s.  Reading the deed, Sue thought Bob had purchased paradise.

On Christmas Eve of that year, they left their old life behind.  Having yet to see the ranch, Sue was giddy with anticipation.  When they finally entered the gate and drove down the muddy driveway, her heart sank.  It was paradise all right, after the fall.  The deed had failed to mention that the property had been abandoned for over thirty years and was completely overgrown with manzanita, poison oak, and coyote weed.  Only the house had been used, but it too had fallen into a woeful state of disrepair.  The house was filthy, it was freezing cold, and the fireplace barely worked.  After placing buckets around to catch the leaks, they went to bed listening to the storm.  The next morning there was snow on the windowsill and on the bedroom floor.  They dressed and rushed outside into their first white Christmas on Howell Mountain.  Sue’s anxieties vanished when she saw how a beautiful white coat of snow had transformed the land.  They rolled up their sleeves and went to work-a lot of work!

Their first step was to befriend the local farm advisor, Jim Lider, who quickly became their guru.  He helped them define the soil, told them the history of the vineyard, and recommended rootstock.  Well into the third month on the ranch, they discovered a pre-world war II tractor hidden in the brush.  After several trips to the tractor graveyards in Petaluma, Bob worked his magic and the work became easier.  It took a little over two years to clear the land and resurrect the old eight acre Zinfandel vineyard.

After restoring the old Zinfandel vines, Bob and Sue needed to expand and improve the rest of the land.  When they needed vines, they both went to work at a nursery in St. Helena that produced bench-grafts (baby grapevines).  They worked the 6pm to midnight shift, staying a couple of hours more each night grafting their own vines.  They planted them in milk cartons and lined them up behind the house with overhead sprinklers to keep them healthy.  On weekends, friends with white-collar jobs would come up to the ranch and help plant the new vines, enticed by the promise of a six-pack of cold beer upon the completion of a row.  It took three years to plant thirteen acres of new vines, eleven of Zinfandel and two of Cabernet.  During this time, Heather, their first daughter was born.  She spent time strapped to Sue’s back or sitting in a big canning pot, playing with the water dribbling from a hose, happy to watch her young parents work.

When the vines needed water, Bob went to work for a company that installed drip irrigation systems.  It was the company’s policy to bury leftover pipes and fitting because it was too costly to return them to the warehouse.  Soon the leftovers began to come home on the back of their flatbed truck.  Within a year their irrigation system was complete.  It was then time to let the vineyards mature.

When Bob needed to perfect his winemaking skills, he took a position as cellar foreman at Freemark Abbey which, in the early 80’s, was considered one of the best of the 13 wineries on the valley floor.  Owners Chuck Carpy, Bill Yeager and Frank Wood were legendary.  Their winemaker, Jerry Luper, became a friend and mentor to Bob.  Freemark developed many innovative techniques, producing one of the first Trockenbeerenauslesen in California (a sweet late harvest wine).  Bob was in heaven for the next six years.  During the crush of 1975, their son Brian was born.

Before 1985 all harvests were parties.  Friends would begin to arrive on Thursday night and the fields would begin to look like an ad for The Whole Earth Catalog.  Bright and early Saturday morning everyone would invade the vineyards with assorted trucks, lug boxes, grape knives and first aid kits.  Soon the fruit would start arriving at the crush pad behind the house.  The men would flex their muscles and begin pitch-forking the grapes into the stemmer crusher.  During crush, Sue would act as queen bee in the kitchen directing all the gals in preparing the nights feast.  Dining, dancing, and hot tubing would last well into the night.  The following morning, those that could crawl out of their sleeping bags, would come down into the basement and help bottle the wine from two harvests ago.  The old hand corker made a wonderful rhythm. Music and laughter filled the basement as they worked and talked about the crazy activities of the previous evening.  Everyone left with a “free” case of wine.

When they outgrew the small cellar under the house, it was time to build a winery.  A sight was cleared and leveled and a massive cement pad was poured.  Their three children’s handprints can still be found in the Northwest corner.  Their youngest, Danny, born in 1979, and their old dog blue, left many additional prints.  The walls were constructed and raised with the help of friends and neighbors and their tractors, in the true “barn-raising” style.  With the rafters in place, Sue’s cousins Mark and Russell skillfully laid the roof.  A couple of coats of paint on the walls and a beautiful mural on the big front doors painted by Sue’s Uncle Ralph completed the job.  Bonded winery #5255 was finished in 1985.

Bob’s engineering degree kicked into full throttle when the winery needed equipment.  He began working for the Complete Winemaker in St. Helena.  Bob was soon traveling to wineries springing up in Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino, designing and installing their new bottling lines.  He also kept a sharp eye on the equipment ready to be replaced.  A filler from here, a labeler from there, tanks, barrels, pieces of this and that, lots of stainless steel, and the winery was ready to go.

Summit Lake Vineyards first commercial release, a 1978 Zinfandel, won the coveted double gold medal at the California State Fair.  It sold out in just eight days.  They had done it!

2014 marks our 43rd year at Summit Lake Vineyards, and we are proud to still be Family Owned and Operated.  In addition to our Zinfandel, we are now producing Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel Port, Petite Sirah, and Rosé.  All of these wines are named for Bob and Sue’s granddaughters; Emily Kestrel, Clair Riley, Sophia Lynn, and Blythe Susan.

A big “THANK YOU!” to all of the family and friends that have made Summit Lake Vineyards what it is today, we couldn’t have done it without you!  Please feel free to stop by and see what is new, and what isn’t, at Summit Lake.

December 2, 2014 0 comment
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Interview with Michael Greenlee, Wine Director of The Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival, September 21 – 23, 2012

by David Dadekian August 24, 2012
written by David Dadekian

Michael GreenleeThe 7th Annual Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival returns on September 21st through 23rd and this year it has a new company, Plate + Decanter, producing the event with The Preservation Society of Newport County. To help coordinate the most important aspect of the Festival—the wine—long-time wine professional Michael Greenlee has been brought in as Wine Director for the event. Coincidentally, Greenlee was raised in Rhode Island and has ties to the restaurant industry here as well. “Al Forno is an old favorite,” Greenlee told Eat Drink RI. “I’ve known George [Germon] and Johanne [Killeen] since I was a kid, back when they had the restaurant [on Steeple Street] before they moved down to the waterfront.”

This year’s Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival features the return of Chef Jacques Pépin who will not only be presenting a cooking demonstration with his daughter Claudine during Saturday’s Grand Tasting, but is also hosting a brunch, paired with wines by Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte, in the Gold Room at Marble House. It is the first year that Chef Emeril Lagasse will be appearing at the Festival, doing a cooking demonstration and signing books at Sunday’s Grand Tasting.

Also appearing for cooking demos are local favorites Chef Matt Jennings of Farmstead & La Laiterie, Chef Karsten Hart of Castle Hill Inn, Chef Jake Rojas of Tallulah on Thames and Chef Kevin King of Fluke Wine, Bar & Kitchen. Other cooking demos are being presented by Intermezzo magazine’s Roseann Tully and Chef Jonathan Cartwright of White Barn Inn Restaurant and Muse at Vanderbilt Grace. In addition to the now traditional Wine & Rosecliff event on Friday evening, there will be a Collectible Wine Dinner on Saturday night at The Elms.

There are also seven wine seminars being given by some of the most accomplished names in the wine industry: Jerome Hasenpflug, Suzanne Pride Bryan, Stuart Bryan, Leslie Sbrocco, Sam Ramic, Sandy Block, Laura Maniec and Jordan Mackay. The full schedule of events can be found at newportmansionswineandfood.org. These exclusive events and seminars have limited availability, so it is highly recommended to purchase tickets in advance online.

Greenlee discussed some of the more wine-centric events and seminars when he took time for a phone interview last week. He talked at length about what to look forward to at this year’s Food & Wine Festival. Greenlee’s excitement for the growth and development of the event, now in it’s seventh year, was palpable, even over the phone. It was truly an interview where we could ask very few questions and just let Greenlee go on speaking. His passion and commitment to putting on a great event was evident.  This sounds like the fall wine event not to be missed.

Eat Drink RI: Please tell us about your role with this year’s Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival.

Michael Greenlee: The Preservation Society [of Newport] has been producing this event for a while and had been looking for something a little bit of a change of pace, a little of a different look. They reached out to a couple of different groups. One of which is Plate + Decanter, which is a company that I’m working in conjunction with under the Preservation Society. We went up and met with the whole team at the Preservation Society and really talked about how to improve upon the event and continue to grow it. I grew up in Rhode Island so I have a connection to the community up there, to the sensibility to the people up there. In a unique way, there’s this summer colony [in Newport].

We wanted to take the Festival and improve upon it and make it a little more intimate: really put more wines under the tent, create the ability for winemakers to have more intimate relations with the consumers that are there, to help better build the sort of relationships where they can capitalize on them later. People will remember them being at a seminar, being under the tent, being at Wine & Rosecliff, being part of the Collectible Wine Dinner. Help them [the wineries] create a memorable experience to create customers. Making the sort of strategy that if the winemakers and the wineries are happy, and successful, and participating, then the consumers that come will have an equally richer more intimate experience with the wineries.

We started by taking a look at the list of the people that have participated in the past, going through it and honoring those relationships that the Preservation Society has had over the years with those wineries, and increasing the talent a little bit by bringing in wineries that are part of my fold, or relationships that I have, or personal connections in the wine business, whether domestic or international. And starting to look at opportunities in 2012 where we can . . . curate a really high-end collection of wineries under the tent and really focus the event back on wineries. Still create a place in the tent for the spirits, but a lesser role in the future than they had in the past. Really give those spirits brands an opportunity to shine and focus them in things like Wine & Rosecliff and other ancillary events. So that it [the Grand Tasting] really becomes a high-end wine and food experience.

EDRI: What have you added new this year?

MG: With the Collectible Wine Dinner the idea was to create something high-end that would attract a higher-end consumer and also help to connect to the summer colony. So that’s something that we added this year. We’re doing a dinner for 40 people with 8 wineries at The Elms. We’re putting a winery representative or winemaker at every table so that people attending really get an opportunity to interface with the winery owners or principles to really understand more, get a richer experience for the consumer. Bringing in someone like Jacques Pépin to do a brunch, and bringing in a champagne producer to really pair [with the brunch] to create a celebratory brunch experience prior to the grand tasting. We’re curating it for 20 people—small, intimate, experiential.

That’s some of the things that we’re looking to do this year that are a little bit different. For me it’s like a restaurant experience or the Dean & DeLuca curating experience. [Greenlee was Dean & DeLuca’s Executive Vice President of Wine, see his complete bio.] Everything in the store at Dean & DeLuca was hand-picked by someone who had a tremendous level of expertise in their field so [consumers] didn’t have to wonder [about products]. We’re creating an event where there are 100 really well selected, hand-chosen wineriers under the grand tasting tent that represent a really broad palate, and give people the opportunity to have really great high-end experiential time.

This event is amazing. The raw materials are there. The clientele is there. The spaces are ridiculous, these beautiful, historic facilities. I’ve attended it in the past and it’s always been a really nice event. The idea is how do we make it nicer? What do the clientele want after doing this for so many years? The buyer today is a different buyer. The attendees have different needs, wants and desires. The millenials that are coming in, the 25, 30, 35 year-old people that are really passionate about wine and food. They’re very experiential. They like experiences, they like to discover things on their own. They don’t want Parker to tell them what’s good. They want to find out what’s good on their own. So you have to create a different environment.

You’ve got to also create opportunities for people that want to learn about wine that don’t know very much. There are neophytes. They’re very excited about it, very passionate, but really are still learning that Chardonnay is a white grape and Cabernet [Sauvignon] is a red grape, that Cabernet and Merlot are different and why. And you should be able to produce something that gives them the opportunity to grow at the event and learn something. But then you’ve also got a group of people that know a lot about wine. What sort of opportunities do you give them? [So there’s] the Collectible Wine Dinner. “I know a lot about wine, what’ve you got for me?”

EDRI: Can you tell us about some of the wine seminars you’ve helped put together?

MG: We’ve got some seminars like Leslie Sbrocco with “Thirsty Girl’s Wine 101.” Very basic, very simple, very introductory, but really, really great. She’s super dynamic she’s got tons of energy. She does a really great job of “this is the way you go through a tasting” and “how do you pace yourself” and all that sort of stuff, so people can have a really rich experience. Then you have someone like Jerome Hasenpflug, a Rhodes scholar, he got his PhD at Cambridge, a Masters from Harvard in History and Anthropology, leading us through Burgundy. Who better? I had to cut him back from 18 wines to 12! You could spend a lifetime on just studying Burgundy. So how do we give somebody that wants to understand it better an opportunity to do that?

Laura Maniec, a Master Sommelier, lives in New York and co-owns Corkbuzz Wine Studio, ran all of [B.R. Guest Restaurant Group’s Wine and Spirits Director] for years. [She’s] the youngest person to get her Master Sommelier in the history of the Master Sommelier program. [Laura’s] leading a champagne seminar, [“Bubbles for Breakfast”], on 10 a.m. on Sunday. That’s where I’ll be! Jordan Mackay is doing a seminar “NXNW: New by Northwest” wines, an area that’s really emerging and really dynamic and really exciting. Jordan has been writing for The New York Times and Food & Wine magazine and wrote Secrets of the Sommeliers with Rajat Parr and won a James Beard [Foundation] award for his writing. [Jordan’s] coming and talking about an appellation that’s really interesting and emerging and gets the geek factor going a little bit. People who really want to learn something new about a place that’s not Napa Valley. I’ve been to Napa Valley. I know all about Napa Valley. This is about something different and unique.

EDRI: You sound very excited about the event.

MG: We’ve got lots of great ideas. This is 2012. Wait until ’13, ’14, ’15. It’ll all be really, really fun to watch this thing evolve and grow. It’s really fun to be part of.

EDRI: How do you feel about an event like this in Newport?

MG: This is our first year producing it. We’re trying to engage the local community on the restaurant level and on the wine distributor/supplier level as well. Weekends are still very busy in Newport into late September. The Preservation Society has always been really excited about the fact that of the 3,500 or 4,000 attendees, there are lots of fresh faces. It’s not the people that they normally see at the rest of their summer events. Saturday we get a lot of out-of-town [attendees], a little broader demographic, and then Sunday they tend to be more local. More local Rhode Island people, more people coming down from Massachusetts. So it’s a bit of a mix. We’re starting to watch that happen this year with ticket sales. And this is our invitation to the summer colony to stick around a couple extra weeks and come support this event with us.

EDRI: So what’s your connection to Rhode Island?

MG: I grew up in North Kingstown and graduated high school there. My parents moved away when I went to college but I really consider Rhode Island my home. All my close friends are there. I go back two or three times a year. For Amedeo‘s business [Greenlee’s wine consulting company] the accounting team is still in Rhode Island. It’s an excuse to go up and spend some time. I spent a good part of my youth there. I brought Marissa [Ain], the owner of Plate + Decanter, up for a meeting in February. On the way out I took the local road down through Narragansett to go eat lobster and clamcakes at Champlin’s and I was disappointed it was closed. Champlin’s is always on my cruise when I’m in town.

Last couple of visits I’ve been checking out some of the new spots. Jeff [Callaghan, co-owner of Fluke Wine, Bar & Bistro] is an old friend of mine so I went there the last time I was in town. It’s sort of surprising to see how much even downtown Newport has changed since my time there. I spent a lot of time in Newport when I was a kid. I used to work on sailboats and race sailboats. So it was a big part of my youth. There’s good food in downtown Providence. It used to be you went to Federal Hill and had the Italian red sauce spots. I’m really excited to go to Aquidneck Lobster Bar, so that’s high on my list of things to do when I come up for a site visit. I ate at Tallulah. It’s exciting. There was none of this stuff when I grew up.

August 24, 2012 0 comment
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Jonathan Edwards Winery 2012 Culinary Showdown

by David Dadekian June 5, 2012
written by David Dadekian
Jonathan Edwards 2012 Culinary Showdown, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Jonathan Edwards 2012 Culinary Showdown, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

On May 20, Jonathan Edwards Winery held their second annual Culinary Showdown between five restaurants from Rhode Island and five from Connecticut. Each of the ten dishes, as well as each state, was voted on by the over 300 people in attendance. Chef Mike McHugh of Julian’s in Providence, Rhode Island won favorite overall dish. The Connecticut team took the grand prize which was $1,500 for their charity, Connecticut Farmland Trust. The Rhode Island team’s charity, Chefs Collaborative, was given $1,000.

The participating restaurants, each paired with a local farm, and their dishes were:

From Rhode Island:

  • The Dorrance, Chef Benjamin Sukle & Bomster Family Scallops and Aquidneck Farms – Bomster Family Scallop and Aquidneck Beef tartar, with Pickled Crudites, Sorrel and Togarashi
  • Eat Drink RI at Blackbird Farm, Chef David Dadekian & Blackbird Farm – BBQ Blackbird Farm Brisket and Kimchi Slaw Taco
  • Julian’s, Chef Mike McHugh & Schartner Farms and Blackbird Farm – Maple Cured Blackbird Farm Pork Loin, Schartner Farms Rye Biscuit, Chili Creme Fraiche Ice Cream with chocolate balsamic reduction
  • Local 121, Chef David Johnson & Narragansett Creamery – Narragansett Creamery Panna Cotta with Strawberries, toasted almonds and micro basil
  • Ocean House, Chef John Kolesar & Narragansett Creamery – Ocean House cured pastrami, pickled ramp relish, spicy mustard, Narragansett Creamery Atwells Gold cheese and caraway brioche bun

From Connecticut:

  • CW’s Chops ‘N’ Catch, Chef Cory Wry & Bomster Family Scallops and Beltane Farm – Bomster Family Scallop, Bacon and Beltane Farm Goat Cheese / Sweet Potato Croquettes
  • Daniel Packer Inne, Chef Chaz Paul & Curtain Farms and Lighthouse Bakery – Curtain Farms Beef Tenderloin with creamy gorgonzola and walnut demi glace served on a Lighthouse Bakery crouton, accompanied by red bliss potato croquette and black truffle butter English peas
  • Kensington’s, Chef Dennis Anderson & Wildowsky Dairy – Honey hoisin glazed Wildowsky Dairy pork confit on a blue corn tostada with micro herb salad and blood orange vinaigrette
  • Morton’s Steak House, Chef Kris Lincoln & Stonington Lobster, Frim Fram Farm and Farm to Hearth – Stonington Lobster, black truffle aioli, Frim Fram Farm microgreen salad, chive and lobster roe oil, served on toasted Farm to Hearth polenta bread
  • Octagon, Chef Paul Krawic & Bomster Family Scallops, Cato Corner Farm and Maple Lane Farms – Pan seared Bomster Family Scallop Sliders with Cato Corner Farm Womanchego Fondue and Maple Lane Farms Bibb Lettuce

Jonathan Edwards Winery was pouring five of their wines to accompany the dishes: 2010 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, 2010 Russian River Pinot Gris, 2010 Estate Connecticut Chardonnay, Stone Table Red, 2009 Napa Valley Petite Sirah.

Congratulations to Chef McHugh, Julian’s and all the Connecticut chefs.

Chef Mike McHugh of Julian's plating his Maple Cured Blackbird Farm Pork Loin, Schartner Farms Rye Biscuit, Chili Creme Fraiche Ice Cream with chocolate balsamic reduction, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Chef Mike McHugh of Julian’s plating his Maple Cured Blackbird Farm Pork Loin, Schartner Farms Rye Biscuit, Chili Creme Fraiche Ice Cream with chocolate balsamic reduction, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

The tent at Jonathan Edwards Winery, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

The tent at Jonathan Edwards Winery, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Chef Mike McHugh of Julian's accepting the Best Restaurant prize. To his left is Julian's Catering Manager Reddick Vaughan and to the right is Jonathan Edwards, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Chef Mike McHugh of Julian’s accepting the Best Restaurant prize. To his left is Julian’s Catering Manager Reddick Vaughan and to the right is Jonathan Edwards, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Jonathan Edwards 2012 Culinary Showdown, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

Jonathan Edwards 2012 Culinary Showdown, photo courtesy of Josh Behan www.behanimage.com

June 5, 2012 0 comment
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wine & drinks

Interview with Winemaker Joseph Carr

by David Dadekian March 29, 2011
written by David Dadekian
Joseph Carr

Joseph Carr

Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro is welcoming Joseph Carr, the eponymous owner and winemaker of Joseph Carr Wine, to Foxboro for a reception and four-course dinner showcasing five of Carr’s wines. I had the opportunity to speak with Carr from his winery in Napa about how he got started, his growth as a winemaker and his strong connection to New England.

Eat Drink RI: How did you get interested in wine?

Joseph Carr: I worked my way through college as a wine steward and then I had been a sommelier. I worked for a lot of really nice hotels and restaurants in New York City, upstate New York and eventually Florida. Some where I built wine programs. I had a pretty cool career being that young, in my twenties, and back in the 80’s no one knew what a sommelier was, not like today. I grew up around all these great French wines and drank a lot of French wines when I was young.

EDRI: What brought you to Napa and starting your own winery?

JC: [Eventually] I was running Mildara-Blass [merged company of several Australian wineries, now Treasury Wine Estates, part of Foster’s Group]. We had purchased Beringer and I spent the next year traveling all over the world and watching merger after merger after merger. After a while I thought, this wasn’t really for me. I’m more interested in the wine side, not this acquisition and selling of assets side. I had always had this dream that I could do it myself and I thought Napa Valley would be the best place to do that. I came home one day—I had been to Australia, my dog didn’t recognize me, my wife was a little upset—and I said it was time to make a change. It wasn’t for me. I come from a small town. We are proud of our core values and things that are precious to us and the corporate world is not really one of them.

[While] I was running this really large company Mildara-Blass, I met a lot of great winemakers in California, as well as Australia. Ted Edwards, the winemaker at Freemark Abbey, is a really good friend of mine. We go back a long, long time. So when I started my own company, I went to those people and worked with them. They introduced me to growers. Subsequently, I brought fruit via this networking. I don’t own vineyards, I’m a négociant. I buy grapes from some really great growers.

EDRI: Tell me about your wines.

JC: Once I started my wine company I really did try to model my wines after French wines, despite them being made in California. My Cabernet Sauvignon, what I’m kind of known for, is a really classic Bordeaux style blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. I try to make these wines that are Bordeaux in shape and style, which is a little different from some of the other things that are coming out of California stylistically. In the last few years you’ve had these cult, boutique wines coming out that are really super-high and extracted, high in alcohol. Robert Parker probably really likes them a lot. I tend to go to more of a classical, level approach of balance. I try to make wines that have a beginning, a middle and an end, wines that go well with food. I don’t personally think high alcohol wines go well with food. I pick a little earlier and try to balance things out. [In addition to] Cabernet Sauvignon, we make a tiny bit of Merlot and a little bit of Sauvignon Blanc blended with Sémillon. Again [the Sauvignon Blanc is] a more Graves approach, not that grassy, herbaceous, high-octane New Zealand style, which are fine wines.

EDRI: You’re the primary winemaker?

JC: I’m the winemaker. I work with two other winemakers that help me make sure I don’t screw it up. I didn’t go to UC Davis or anything like that, I just learned on the job. The first year I did a pretty good job of wasting a lot of money, but now I think I’ve got it figured out. It’s always a learning experience. I work with some really good people. We produce about 20,000 cases total [of all Carr Wines] each year. We’re pretty small. It sounds like a lot, but in the wine industry it’s pretty tiny.

EDRI: How do you feel about the recent vintages, 2007 getting a lot of big press?

JC: 2007 got all the press. 2008, for me, was a little bit better. From a wine-making perspective, each year I try to get better at it. Despite the vintage of 2007 being hailed, I think over time 2008, for me, will be better. 2009’s are coming out in another 2-3 months, and it was really great. We age our wines like a lot of Bordeaux’s, 13-18 months in oak. No more than that. Anything more than 18-22 months then you’re talking something that will probably be really tannic and is going to need some time to open up and evolve. We’re trying to make wines that are very food friendly and approachable.  We don’t want something that’s so tightly wound that we’d have to wait 7-8 years for it to really come into its own. Our wines aren’t $75-$100 a bottle, and with my lifestyle I don’t know if I’m going to live 10 years so I want to make sure I have it!

EDRI: How do you feel about those price points? I find no correlation between quality and price in wine.

JC: If you get to know the producer and trust the producer, that’s where you can find values. I think that’s kind of where we’ve reached. We do really well in the northeast in a lot of restaurants. These beverage managers, these sommeliers, they drink our wines, they taste them, they look at the price value and go, hey, wait a minute, this is a really good deal. [Joseph Carr] are not big, commercially made wines, these have boutique attributes to them without a boutique price. I think if you can get a reputation for that, call it “luxury-value,” that’s what we’re trying to achieve.

The dinner we’re doing at Tastings is a great example of that. The restaurant has looked at our wines pretty closely and they think it works in their program, and they’ll make a nice event. [Tastings is serving the Joseph Carr Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Joseph Carr Chardonnay Reserve 2008, Joseph Carr Pinot Noir Central Coast 2008, Joseph Carr Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 and Joseph Carr Merlot 2008.]

EDRI: How often do you get to this area?

JC: I’m from New England originally. I was born in Vermont and grew up in upstate New York. We keep a home on Cape Cod so I’m involved in a lot of local things. [Joseph Carr Wines] have a pretty good following in Boston and New England. I always do the Newport Wine & Food Festival. [Newport’s a] great town. Johnson & Wales is a great culinary school. We [my wife and I] love Rhode Island, Providence and Newport. Last summer we drove up to Federal Hill and bought a live chicken!


With the live chicken comment our conversation turned to how great the Rhode Island food scene is. Carr said he plans on being at the Newport Mansions Wine & Food Festival again this fall and perhaps have a wine dinner at Newport restaurant Tallulah on Thames, as they offer his wines. The dinner at Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro (menu available to view here), scheduled for Thursday, March 31, is currently sold out. There is a waiting list in case of are any cancellations.

March 29, 2011 0 comment
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