Join me tomorrow, December 6th for a truly festive way to check off each name on your holiday list.  The French American International School Holiday Market is hands-down the best bazaar or market I’ve experienced, with high-caliber vendors and a spirited bustling atmosphere.  Petite Provence will operate a small French Café, sponsored by the Alliance Française.  For me, it’s hard to imagine a more pleasant way to shop, cute kids’ choral performance, croissant and café au lait in hand, a little hard-cider or wine-tasting, maybe sitting for a slice of quiche, or crêpe drizzled with the school’s signature chocolate sauce!  Local artisans sell a wide array of things — silk screened tees, jewelry, home decor, soy candles, bamboo apparel (very soft!!), children’s language cds, and gourmet foods and wines!  Hope to see you there!

French American International School, 8500 NW Johnson St, Portland, OR 97229, www.faispdx.org, 503-292-7776.  Market hours:  Saturday, Dec 6, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

I got an email yesterday from Jerry Murray – winemaker at Oregon’s Patton Valley – informing me that I’ve been “tagged”. I have since come to find out that this is apparently the modern cyber-version of being “it”. You can check out his blog and see what it’s all about here.

In the meantime I’m supposed to reveal six things about myself that most people don’t know. Considering the bizarre multiple lives I’ve led, that should not be a problem, Here we go -

1. I once lived on a tour bus with the hair-metal band Poison. (Bret Michaels remains a good friend – he was in our wedding, and we bought our first house in LA from him back in the mid-90s.) Oh the stories I could tell. Whatever you imagine, probably happened.

2. Many people know that I was once the disc-jockey known as Shadow Stevens or Shadow Steele – few know that I also once used the radio names Jeff “Mother” Robins, “The Rocketman”, and Jeff Hooker.

3. I am a couple of classes away from being a certified yoga instructor. I never finished the course – because there were always a couple of required classes and seminars that fell right during harvest!

4. I was once a professional diver – as in diving from the 10-meter platform – when I was 11 and 12 years old growing up in Chicago.  A group of professional divers ran a pool in my neighborhood, and they took me under their wing and taught me when I was about 9 or 10. We peformed shows every Saturday and Sunday at the “50th on the Lake” hotel on summer weekends.

5.  I am a French cinema freak. I especially love the films of Truffaut and the rest of the Nouvelle Vague from the late 50s into the 60s. I love anything with Juliette Binoche in it, and will watch just about any French film ever made – I simply love them. The Blue/White/Red trilogy by Kieslowski (Ok – he’s Polish, but the films were mostly in French) are individually and collectively in my all time Top 10.

6. My celebrity crush is on Sarah Silverman (my wife’s is on John Stewart). I also have the hots for French actress Julie Delpy, although if she’s anything like the characters she writes for herself in her movies, I’d probably find her really annoying…

So there you go – that should be enough useless information for now. The one piece of useful information I can offer today is that this blog is now set up for an RSS feed – meaning you just need to click on the “Subscribe” button up top and you’ll be instantly notified every time we publish another post.

And here’s a shot of Pirrie in Burgundy this summer (and who will hopefully never live on a tour bus with Poison!)

Pirrie in the cellar at Aleth Girardin

Today I am still basking in the glow of Arsenal’s stunning 2-1 victory at Chelsea yesterday. We may be in 4th place at the moment, but we’ve beaten both Man U and Chelsea in their own grounds. (Of course we’ve not beaten Hull, Man City and a host of lesser clubs. Oh well…) 14 games into the 38-game season, and it looks like anybody in the top 4 could still be fighting for the trophy in May. Thanks for allowing me my moments of soccer-geekdom.

I had a little friendly wager with misguided Chelsea fan and wine purveyor Michael Alberty of Portland’s Storyteller Wines for yesterday’s Arsenal-Chelsea match. Arsenal’s victory means that Mr. Alberty will soon be appearing at our tasting room wearing the full Arsenal uniform while pouring our Pinots for you – watch this space for all the embarassing photographic evidence! Visit Michael’s shop here.

Today I am also very thankful post-Thanksgiving – thankful to all of you who joined us over the weekend for our annual open house event. It was great to see you, and always fun to hang out and talk wine all day. Huge thanks to John Haeger, who spent the day Saturday signing copies of his new Pinot book (we still have a couple left – another great idea for the pinot-freak on your list!) You almost wiped us out of a bunch of wines – there’s still a small amount of our Marc Chauvet Champagnes available for your holiday revelry – and a scant few 6-packs of the 2007 Audrey futures remain.  Just call or email if you have any questions or need ideas for gift-giving or party-wine suggestions.

In the coming days Kelley and I will do our first comprehensive post-harvest tasting through the various lots from our glorious 2008 harvest – we just checked in on the Maresh juice last Friday and it was really lovely. Full impressions on each of the lots coming soon…

And here’s a sneak preview of what Mr. Alberty wishes he loooked like in his Arsenal kit -

Robin van Persie crushes Chelsea!

The granddaddy of them all! Come on out for our joyous annual celebration in wine country. We’ll be open Friday & Saturday from 10-4 with a great line-up of Scott Paul Pinot and Burgs to taste, including your chance to taste and buy 2007 Audrey Futures.

Author John Winthrop Haeger will be here on Saturday, signing copies of his exciting new book “Pacific Pinot – a comprehensive winery guide for consumers and connoisseurs.” A copy of this excellent book is yours FREE with the purchase of a 6-pack of Audrey futures, or a 6-pack of 2006 La Paulée, or any mixed 12-bottle case throughout the weekend. (John will only be here on Saturday, but the free-book deal is good Friday thru Sunday.)

$10 fee is refundable with a purchase of 3 bottles or more, and includes a selection of cheeses, patés and charcuterie. We’ll resume regular tasting room hours on Sunday the 30^th from 11-4.

Always one for accessories and enthusiastic drama, Pirrie needed to dig out a hat from the costume box before lending a hand in the kitchen.  She made, virtually unaided, one of the desserts that we are taking to the Neskowin (Oregon Coast)  home of our friends, the Kemps.

Sous-chef for a day

There’s no holiday with stronger food memories and traditions than Thanksgiving.  Traditions are a funny thing.  You carry some with you into a marriage and create some new ones.  Sometimes you don’t know you have one until you inadvertently skip something one year.  And someone groans.  What?!  No artichoke stuffing?  No cranberry mold?  These are two that were staples in my childhood, whether my family hosted or we carted these items to an aunt’s home.  (The cranberry mold was a cold, ice-cream like affair, with marshmallows, cranberries, cream and pecans, and was served right along with the turkey and stuffing).

In a world and even in a city that is far more transient than the one that I grew up in, it is tempting to wonder if our child is being surrounded by…comforted by…enough traditions.  Maybe we should spend Christmas in New Orleans and go to big family parties and see lots of people, I mused out loud.  Pirrie appeared struck in the stomach.  I want to have Christmas in my home, she declared.  And go to tea at the Heathman and see a play.  It’s our tradition.  As usual, she righted my upside-down thinking, and I was made aware of our growing traditions. 

For our feast tomorrow, I’ve prepared some cheese puffs that we’ll pop in the oven and serve warm with Champagne.  That is a recipe of my mother’s, a favorite at New Orleans cocktail parties in the 60s and 70s.  It’s as good as ever, as long as you don’t mind guests stalking you, waiting for the next batch to come out of the oven.  I also made a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust which is a nod to my days working with Chefs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, aka the Too Hot Tamales.  The recipe is from a book that I helped them produce, and it sends Scott into orbit. 

We’ll drink some 2002 vintage champagne from Marc Chauvet, the new ’07 Chablis 1er Cru from Frédéric Gueguen, a ’99 Charmes-Chambertin from Taupenot-Merme, and perhaps some assorted other goodies – and we’ll toast our extraordinary blessings, which include sharing our wines and wine adventures with you!  Happy Thanksgiving!

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 ½ tsp. grated onion

8 T mayonnaise

2 T chopped chives

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

4 T parmesan cheese

1 loaf white bread*

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine first six ingredients in a mixing bowl. Cut bread into rounds using a jigger or aperitif glass (these crimp the edges better than a biscuit cutter will). Mound a teaspoon of cheese mixture on each bread round and spread evenly. Arrange on baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes. Serve warm. Makes approximately 60.  Recipe can easily be halved and freezes very well.

* good ‘ole gummy, American white bread works best.

He’s ba-a-ck. The return trip was uneventful. Long, but uneventful. There’s nothing better in the world than having Pirrie leap into my arms as I trudge off the plane at PDX.  I’m pretty much back on Portland time, but my body seems to still be a little confused around one or two in the afternoon – that’s 10 or 11pm in France, and crawling into bed feels like a very good idea for some reason!

It was great to see everyone at our pre-Thanksgiving weekend event at the winery – we poured a bunch of great Champagne and several offerings from Chambolle-Musigny. I was blown away by the size of the crowds over the weekend. The weekend before t-giving has become almost as much of a tradition here in Oregon wine country as the holiday weekend itself.

Please plan to join us this weekend – it’s the only weekend of the year that we pour all three of the Scott Paul Pinots, along with a nice selection of white and red burgs that are nice choices for holiday giving and entertaining. The sales of our 2007 Audrey Futures has been robust since we first announced the offer a couple of weeks ago – if you’re interested please get your order in as soon as you can – it is likely we’ll be sold out by the end of the t-giving weekend.

Also this weekend – we’re excited to host author John Haeger in our tasting room all day Saturday – he’ll be signing copies of his new book “Pacific Pinot”, which is yours free this weekend (while they last) with a purchase of a 6-pack of 07 Audrey futures, a 6-pack of 06 La Paulée. or any mixed 12-bottle case. (Or you can buy it straight out for $25, but then you’d have no wine to drink while reading it!)

I was also amazed last weekend at how many of you are reading the blog – it seemed like every other person that popped in over the weekend mentioned something from a recent post. Thanks so much for following my adventures and ramblings here. I really enjoy doing it, but even more so knowing that it’s actually being seen!

Looking forward to seeing you here this weekend (10-4 Friday & Saturday, 11-4 on Sunday.) And don’t forget to pick up the book -

Get yours signed Saturday at Scott Paul!

Champagne vineyards in the village of Rilly-la-Montagne

The weekend before Thanksgiving has become a wine-tasting tradition in its own right here in the Willamette Valley – especially for those who want to get out ahead of the holiday crowds. We’ll make it festive all weekend with new Champagnes from Marc Chauvet, and a selection of newly arrived Burgs from my favorite village of Chambolle-Musigny – including bottlings from J-J Confuron, Hervé Sigaut, and Taupenot-Merme. And our own Scott Paul goodies will be here too, of course. We’ll be open 11-4 both days – tasting fee is $10 for this event, refundable with purchase. 20% discount on Featured Burgundies during event.

6:30 am – live from the TGV on the way to Charles de Gaulle. I drove up the N74 to the station in Dijon this morning in the dark – sad not to get a last look at the Côte as I passed by, saying my good-byes to Vosne, Chambolle, Morey & Gevrey. After who knows how many times, it’s still a little dicey finding the train station at this hour. Could have something to do with the brain not functioning fully at 5am, I suppose. It’s also never really clear where you’re supposed to leave the rental car – they change it every time, so I just stash it somewhere fairly obvious and pop the keys in the drop box. I’ve never received a notice that a car was missing, so I’m assuming they’ve always been found and returned to their rightful owner…

While waiting on the platform, I bumped into and chatted with Philippe Pacalet, one of Burgundy’s most talked-about and controversial winemakers. Philippe has a small negoce operation based in Beaune – he makes some delicious wines from Gevrey, Chambolle, Pommard and others I don’t recall. The controversy stems from his non-use of sulfur. He claims to use no sulfur whatsoever throughout the process. I’ve tasted with him in his cellar, and can attest that the wines are indeed beautiful and well made. How they travel and how they age is the question. Without any sulfur to protect the wines, one would normally expect a rapid oxidation process and some very premature browning. I suspect (as do most folks I know) that he is actually adding at least a bit of SO2 prior to bottling. He sells most of his wine in Japan, and I can’t imagine the wines surviving the voyage to Tokyo without some protection. He is sitting directly behind me on the train as I write – we joked that this must be the “voiture des vignerons” (the winemakers car.)

I am most grateful that the railroads did not go on strike again this year – last year’s strike forced me to drive to Paris from Beaune, which took 6 and a half hours instead of the normal 3 due to the extra traffic. I understand that this year’s strike is still possible for this weekend – in protest of the fact that they are considering changing the retirement rules, letting one retire at 65 if they want to rather than the current mandatory 60. Apparently they don’t want the option to work 5 years more. To the French, that’s five whole years of missed vacation, and you know this place is all about vacation. Work here is seen by most as something you do to kill time between vacations…

Excellent dinner at Caves Madeleine last night – escargot stew in a salty, garlicky broth and perfect duck leg confit, followed by killer Valrhona chocolate and salt-caramel ice cream. Yum! We had a 2004 Lafon Meursault, 2005 Mugnier Chambolle Fuées, 2001 de Vogüé Chambolle 1er, and then a 2004 Coche-Dury Meursault Rougeots with the cheese. All in all, not a bad night!

So, from here it’s a train, two planes, and lot’s of waiting between them all, and then Martha & Pirrie will be at the airport in Portland to pick me up and bundle me home a mere 25 hours after leaving the guest house in Volnay. My heart is unbelievably happy in Burgundy, but always even more ecstatic to be home with my girls. Perhaps the best part of the trip is getting home and seeing Pirrie’s joy in opening her little presents (which of course always include some chocolates from Madame Bouché!) Au revoir, la Bourgogne – je reviendra bientôt!

I started my last day on the Côte with what is always a most entertaining tasting and visit – at Lucien Le Moine in Beaune. This micro-negoce produced outstanding wine from 60 different appellations in 2007 – but only a barrel or two of each for a total of 100 barrels. We didn’t taste all 60, but about half of them all together. I won’t run down the entire list here, but I should talk about the very illuminating tasting of 10 different wines from Vosne-Romanée – 6 Premier Crus and 4 Grand Crus that were an amazing illustration in terroir.

First the Beaux-Monts – very pretty fruit backed by earthy, firm tannins. Then the Suchots – rich fruit sweetness and firmer tannins. That was followed by the Petits Monts – all elegance and refinement and pretty red fruits. Next was Malconsorts, very balanced, long, and simply yummy. Then the Gaudichots – very savory, notes of grilled meats, and perhaps the most complex of all the 1ers. Echezaux followed, very Suchots-like but deeper and a little rougher around the edges. Then Grands Echezeaux, full of minerals, red fruits and a very refined purity. The Romanée-St. Vivant is a study in elegance, with complex fruit and some delicious mocha/coffee notes. Richebourg was a fitting finish – my tasting notes simply read “great wine”!

The whites were also stunning – none more so tham the intensely minerally Meursault Perrières – the best white I tasted here all week, young or old.

Lucien Le Moine's Mounir et Fils

Then on to the ‘07s at Buisson-Charles in Meursault. They’ve done it again. The whole range has just been racked prior to bottling, but they were showing very well – especially the Bouches-Chères and Goutte d’Or (although M. Buisson preferred the Charmes today.)

Aleth Girardin has also nailed it in ’07. From the Vignots to the Rugiens her wines are showing intense minerality and power – excellent but completely different expressions of Pommard from those chez Thierry Violot. Her Clos des Mouches today was the best I’ve had from her in the last 3 or four years – a rich fruit sweetness in the mouth and excellent length…

And that wraps up the tasting for this time around – I’m off to dinner at Caves Madeleine (and perhaps to plunder Lolo’s cellar for a good bottle), and then it’s an early-to-bed for me – the train leaves Dijon at 6:30 tomorrow morning. More soon from the road!