I do try to get more vegetables in our diet (notwithstanding the brontosaurus rib we ate last night at the Willamette Valley Winemaker’s Association Annual Dinner at Jory at The Allison Inn and Spa!).  And it’s not just a matter of any vegetables…it’s about getting a huge variety of vegetables.  The more variety the better.  So here’s something that works (sometimes?) in our house.  Chop them!  Whether it just changes the look of them, or makes them more manageable or edible, or offers better range of flavor per bite, there is just something about chopping up vegetables that is a game changer.  I chop up leafy greens like kale into an ultra thin chiffonade and then toss with a lemon vinaigrette and top with parmesan or pecorino romano cheese and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts — a recipe that I got from my sister-in-law, Jill.

Here's the raw kale salad hiding under roasted salmon with lemon crema. Often, I serve the kale on its own as a starter.

Our family loves brussels sprouts, but only if they are sliced into thin ribbons, and sautéed briefly over medium-high heat in olive oil, and then given a squeeze of lemon, or a sprinkle of grated cheese.

Christmas feast brussels sprouts

For salads, I’ve been trying to stay out of the loose-greens-topped-with-dressing rut.  The other day, I chopped up into very small pieces some celery, celery root, spinach, and apple.  I tossed it with a creamy spicy rémoulade (and raisins).  How about black beans, mixed with corn and chopped red pepper, cilantro and avocado?  Some stores sell a mixed bag of shredded carrots and broccoli.  Try dressing that “cole slaw” with a blue cheese vinaigrette or sesame ginger dressing.  Chopped ridicchio with a sprinkling of nuts, chopped pear and crumbled goat cheese?

To add interest, toss in seeds, chopped nuts, raisins, homemade croutons or big handfuls of chopped parsley and chopped green onion.  (I’m very high on parsley right now.  I used to think it was just garnish or color until I read an article that changed my perspective.  Don’t think of a little sprinkle.  Think huge, fresh, antioxidant-and-mineral-loaded handful.  It adds brightness).

I love adding big handfuls of chopped parsley to bean salads like this lentil one with red peppers and chopped ridicchio. I also add parsley to rice and quinoa.

Kids may like ranch dressing to dunk vegetables, but don’t start there.  They also love hummus (our current fave is sesame hummus from King Harvest — addictive! — and great with red pepper strips and cucumber slices.  Or make a spicy peanut dip.  Or try tahini mixed with soy sauce and a smidge of brown sugar, to drizzle over steamed vegetables.  I just saw a recipe for an avocado dressing, and another for almond vinaigrette.

By all means, serve the salad or crudités first, while everyone is hungry.  I’ve watched kids polish off a pound of vegetables that way.  And play with your food!  Here I served chopped endive salad with a creamy hard-cooked egg dressing in little “boats.”

The Biodynamic calendar says today is a “Fruit Day”. Wines generally show their best on fruit days, as the lunar energies are aligned in such a fashion as to accentuate the fruit and flavor elements to their fullest. Having tasted the same wines on fruit, flower, leaf, and root days, I can attest to the fact that there is indeed a hugely discernible difference – with the same wines appearing closed-down, tannic, or just plain flat on leaf days for example, but fresh, vibrant and juicy on fruit days.

Kelley Fox and I chose today, a fruit day, to do our first comprehensive tasting through the cellar of our ’09s, which have finished or are just finishing malo. We’ve been really pleased with these wines since the beginning, but it’s always illuminating to get the first look post-malo and see what the wines are really all about. (There were pretty high levels of malic acid this year, so the overall acidity and structure of the wines change quite a bit after all the malic gets changed into lactic…)

In a word, we are thrilled. 2009 was very good to us. There is a very appealing juicy fruitiness to the wines on the mid-palate, very nice flavors that are driven by fruit sweetness, but without elevated alcohol that could have come from the rapidly rising sugars as harvest approached last fall. All of our pinots will come in at about 13.5% alcohol – which I’ve always felt to be a sweetspot for our style of wine. The length is quite extraordinary, and there is just a lovely balance and harmony all around. It is already evident that the old vines from our blocks of Maresh Vineyard in the Dundee Hills will be the best of the cellar and will make up the 2009 Audrey cuvée. Everything else we will leave to sort itself out for the next several months, and we will see what different bottlings may present themselves to us over the course of élévage…

Don’t forget that tomorrow night – Jan. 14th at 6:30pm – I’ll be pouring La Paulée and some J-J Confuron burgundy at the fabulous Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg – where our wines are featured all week in the exquisite Jory restaurant – I look forward to seeing you there!

At long last, it’s here – Pt. 3 of our mini-Burgundy 101 seminar – A Walking Tour Through the Côte de Beaune.

Enjoy – and don’t forget to check out our full-length Burgundy Seminars every month January through June at the winery in Carlton!

At long last – Pt. 3 of our mini-Burgundy 101 seminar. This time it’s a Video podcast. Who is that bearded man, anyway?

The best way to see it is on our Facebook page here…

Enjoy! (And if this peaks your interest – check for upcoming Burgundy Seminars, taught by Scott…)

I’m working on a list of thoughts and ideas about a fresh start on eating in the New Year.  It’s that time of year, certainly, plus we recently watched Food Inc, and just saw the awesome clip of Michael Pollan on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (wow, two of my heroes, sharing a stage).  Stay tuned here for a big post full of juicy food for thought about eating well in the New Year, but I’ll throw one out to get us going.

Reduce the urge to overeat, firstly and most importantly, by feeding yourself with respect and love.  I’ve just removed from the oven a little ramekin that I buttered, added two teaspoons of half & half, and slid in two fresh eggs, topped with a handful of fresh herbs (more on herbs coming soon) and a sprinkled of grated hard cheese, and baked it at 375 until firm (or soft if that’s your preference).  I might have had a small slice of toast with it, but instead, I have homemade croutons on hand, so I’ve tossed those on top.  It looks, smells and tastes lovely and I’m thoroughly satisfied.  When Pirrie was a toddler and we spent so many summer lunchtimes in the park, I vowed that I wouldn’t cheat myself.  If I had pb & j, it was on Grand Central ciabatta, and the jelly was lemon-pear marmalade.

Make something nice for yourself today and see how well it fills you up, in more ways than one!  Stay tuned, and add your ideas.

So much for Xmas vacation (which was wonderful, but already seems so 2009…) I was blessed with a lot of great family time, way too much good food, and an exceptional run of good wines – especially the 2001 & 2004 Romanée-St.Vivant from J-J Confuron and the ’99 Marc Chauvet Special Club, world-class juice all around.

I was also blessed with Guitar Hero and Beatles Rock Band, which I’m sure Martha will regret gifting me (but Pirrie and I are enjoying our nightly guitar duels immensely!) I am also crazy about my new SodaStream – which allows you to make your own excellent sparkling water just using regular tap water. No more bottles to recycle – yay!

I was not so blessed on the afternoon of December 30th – when a freak snowstorm hit Portland and Pirrie and I took 4 and a half hours to go 9 miles – abandoning the car and walking the last 1.7 miles home after the ice had cars piled up on the roads like some apocalypse movie!

So, now two days back into action, and I’ve already discovered that I’m booked pretty much until next Xmas! No complaints, believe me – I just find it amazing how quickly the calendar starts to fill up. To kick off the new year – four excellent tastings coming up in the next few weeks:

• Thursday, January 14th – 6:30-7:30pm  I’ll be pouring at the Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg, and our wines will be featured on their tasting menu in the Jory restaurant that night…
• Wednesday January 27th – 5:00-7:00pm  I’ll be pouring a great selection of Burgs & Pinots at Wine-Xing in Wilsonville…
• Saturday January 30th – 1:00-5:00pm  We’re featuring several wines from Domaine Taupenot-Merme in a special Burgundy tasting all afternoon in our tasting room. (And that night is our first Burgundy Seminar of the year.)
• Friday February 5th – 6:00-8:00pm  I’ll be pouring at Storyteller Wines in Portland (be sure to wear your Arsenal gear to this one!)

I recycled a bunch of books at Powell’s over the holidays, and used some of the credit to pick up Randall Grahm’s fascinating “Been Doon So Long” – an anthology of his wonderful wine writing over the past 15-20 years. As excellent he is as a winemaker and wine marketer, he just may be the best wine writer we’ve got going. It is inspirational, insightful, dead-on brilliant, and at times side-splittingly funny as well. I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s one of those books that just might change the course of your life (or mine!)

And an announcement before I check out for the day – we have a great 2,200 Sq. Ft. Live-Work space in the heart of NW Portland available for lease. 20′ ceilings, full kitchen and bath, loft bedroom, and tons of wide open space for just about whatever you need – offices, art studios, living space, etc. Tremendous location – walk to everything, and great neighbors (us!) Email martha@scottpaul.com for more info…

It is hard to believe that 2010 will bring our 12th harvest – having started with a dream and a passion and some borrowed money back at the start of 1999. The dream and the passion still burn brightly, and we’ve borrowed more money. And we’re still here, fervently preaching the joys of Pinot Noir that champions elegance and finesse over power and extraction, both New World and Old. Most importantly, I still love what I do, and am deeply grateful to you for supporting our efforts. In spite of all the economic elements conspiring against us, our little enterprise continues to grow enough to allow us to keep on keepin’ on…

I’m excited about the year ahead. Here is a sneak preview of some new stuff on the horizon for us -

• Two brand-new Scott Paul Pinot Noir bottlings from the 2008 vintage will be released this year, in addition to the Audrey and La Paulée cuvées that have been around for many years. Release dates have not yet been decided, but over the year we’ll unveil the 2008 D122 and 2008 Dom Denise Pinot Noirs – each of which are micro-production wines of under 150 cases – watch this space for all the details. (The 2008 Audrey is scheduled for release in April, and the ’08 La Paulée for the 4th quarter. 2007 was the final vintage for Cuvée Martha Pirrie, so alas there is no more.)
• A new website and easier online shopping. We put a lot of time and effort into our website and keeping it current and hopefully interesting. We’ll be tweaking it up a bit once again in the first quarter and adding a slick and easy shopping cart to the site, which should make your online browsing and buying experience as seamless as possible.
• The first Scott Paul wine produced in Burgundy! We are about to bottle our one barrel of 2008 Chambolle-Musigny, which has been resting in the cellars of Anne & Hervé Sigaut in Chambolle for the past 15 months. 25 cases of this beauty will be here and ready for release later in the year. This wine, like the two new Scott Paul Oregon bottlings this year, will be available only directly from the winery – so as I used to say on the radio “Stay close for all the details….”
• The book is underway. As I alluded to in this space last fall, the research and writing phase has begun for my first book, a history of the “La Paulée” harvest celebration in Burgundy. I’ll be exploring not only the legendary “La Paulée de Meursault”, but the private Paulées that take place at each of the thousands of Burgundian domaines every year, a tradition that spans the centuries.
• Comments, please! I’ve never intended for this blog to be a one-way only conversation. Being somewhat technically challenged, I have just now figured out how to open these posts up for your comments. I look forward to hearing from you and welcome what you have to say.

The village of Chambolle-Musigny

As far as ongoing endeavors – I’m way excited to get back to teaching our series of Burgundy seminars. We’ve added a couple of new classes this year to the mix, including a study of the village of Chambolle-Musigny and a focus on the reds from the Côte de Beaune. Email kellykarr@scottpaul.com to book your seats, as several of the classes are filling up already.

Our Burgundy Express Club continues to be one of the best ways to experience the wines and learn about the region. The next shipment in the spring will be a study of the appellation hierarchy in Burgundy, from Bourgogne Passetoutgrains all the way up to Grand Cru. We can still accept a few more members, so contact kellykarr@scottpaul.com if you’d like to get signed up.

I will continue to spend 6-8 weeks each year in Burgundy - working closely with our producers there and finding you the best wines for the money from every part of the region (and Champagne too, of course!) While I’m not looking to add new producers or expand the portfolio this year, if something phenomenal becomes available, I will certainly jump on it. The mission, as always, is to bring in the best quality wines that are also the best values in their categories. I import the wines directly from the producers, eliminating the many unnecessary layers of middlemen and mark-ups that often contribute to the perception that Burgundy is “too expensive.” It IS too expensive if you’re paying $100 for a wine from a producer that goes through excessive broker & importer markups, when you can get an equal or better wine from us direct for about half the price…

Today’s economy demands VALUE. We are here to deliver just that in spades. You may in fact see some wines and producers dropped from our portfolio if their pricing does not allow us to offer the wines to you at prices that are good values in today’s market.

As I often say, there’s nobody else crazy enough to do what we do – run a full-on winery & vineyard operation as well as a direct import company – but we love it and couldn’t imagine it any other way. It would truly be impossible without the team of bright, talented and dedicated women I’m surrounded with – my wife Martha, Marketing Director Kelly Karr, Winemaker Kelley Fox, and bookkeeper Robin Burnside. We are blessed to have them on our side, and doubly blessed to have a brilliant partner and mentor and dear friend in Cameron Healy.

Here’s to a great 2010 for us all, full of great wine, food & friends – and the good health to enjoy them to the fullest!