The menu for the Harper-Obama lunch looks tasty, but it was clearly written hastily by someone other than a chef. The format is abysmally confusing- some are suggesting that each item was a course others think it was an appetizer, an entree and desserts. Below is my interpretation of how the menu would (should) have been served with wine pairings.

Pacific Coast tuna with a chili and citrus vinaigrette

Martin Arndorfer Strasser Weinberge Riesling 2006

Maple and miso cured Nunavut Arctic char

Lightly pickled vegetables and an organic beet relish

Marc Tempe Altenbourg Pinot Noir 2004

Applewood smoked plains bison, Winter root vegetables and local mushrooms, Cauliflower and rosemary puree, Juniper and Niagara red wine jus

Renato Fenocchio Lange Rosso “Aurora” 2004

Saugeen yogurt pot de creme with a lemon and lavender syrup

Wild blueberry and partridgeberry compote

Acadian buckwheat honey and sumac tuile

Agricola Marrone Moscato d’ Asti 2007 Pleasantly sweet without being cloying and just 5% alcohol, because there is still a lot of work to be done after lunch.

During President Obama’s Inauguration, we hosted a reception overlooking the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue. Terry David Mulligan and I got a chance to chat during the event via Skype. You can listen to our discussion here:tasting-room-radio

Guests at the reception tasted a selection of Farmstead Wines, including:
Agricola Marrone Langhe Arneis “Tre Fie”2007
Martin Arndorfer Riesling Strasser Weinberge 2006
Martin Arndorfer “von den Terrassen 1958″ 2006
Agricola Marrone Langhe Chardonnay “Memundis” 2005
Renato Fenocchio Dolcetto d’Alba 2007
Agricola Marrone Barolo Pichemej Riserva 2001
Agricola Marrone Moscato d’Asti 2007

Owen Lightly, who usually shares his adventures in cooking and eating at the fantastic blog, Butter on the Endive, shares a recipe well-suited for Renato Fenocchio’s Olive Oil.

I first read about Renato Fenocchio’s olive oil on the Farmstead website. Intrigued, I emailed Anthony and inquired about getting a bottle. He said he would gladly let me try it, as long as I did up a recipe for the site. Done.

When I met up with Anthony at Salt Tasting Room for the exchange, I immediately opened the bottle and went for a taste (well tried to open it for a few minutes, until Kurtis Kolt saved the day). I went to pour some of the oil on my hand to slurp up, but Anthony stopped me and pushed a wine glass my way. He told that just like with wine, the glass unlocks many untapped aromas of the oil. I went for a taste: smooth at first, with a light grassy taste, it revealed layers of flavor as it moved to the back of my tongue, leaving a nice peppery finish. Delicious.

I flip-flopped many times on what to do for the recipe. All I knew was that it had to be a clean and simple dish, with no overpowering flavors to detract from the oil. I finally decided on a recipe from Alba in Northern Italy, close to where the oil is produced, call Carne All’Albese. It is essentially a beef tartare with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes anchovy is added, but I skipped that this time. I got some beautiful beef from Jason Pleym at Two Rivers Specialty Meats, that he sources from Pemberton Meadows Natural Beef, where the animals are pasture fed under the shadow of beautiful Mount Currie. Raised free of any hormones, antibiotics, or steroids, this is a great product worth seeking out.

Carne All’Albese

Serves 4

200 grams beef tenderloin (don’t skimp on the beef).

A few glugs of Renato Fenocchio’s gorgeous olive oil

1 lemon

Salt and pepper to taste

Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

3 grams minced black truffle (optional)

Method: Finely chop the beef with a very sharp knife. Mix the meat with a few glugs of the olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, salt and pepper, and the truffle (if you can find it). Serve either family style or plated individually. Either way, don’t be too pretty with it. Just mound it in the middle of the plate and finish with the shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano and another glug of the olive oil.

An arugula salad with lemon and olive oil would go beautifully with it as well.

Enjoy.

(more…)

If you know any farmers in North America making great wine, please let us know. We have begun our search for authentic wine in the U.S. and Canada. If one of your suggestions meets our criteria and we start working with the farm you recommend, we will hook you up with some cool stuff.

The basic criteria for Farmstead Wines are simple, yet very difficult to meet when a farmer must meet all of them.
* Small, family farm—We know each farmer personally and have inspected the vineyards and cellar carefully.
* Wine is grown, not made—Our farmers grow great grapes and then do not manipulate the wine.
* Our farmers are vinaroons—Vinaroon is old English meaning the farmer is also the winemaker.
* Naturally farmed—We certify that all Farmstead wines are organically farmed. Our farmers work in harmony with nature. No synthetic chemicals, no herbicides, no pesticides and no irrigation.
* Delicious—The wines are balanced and harmonious with a focus on depth and complexity of flavors.

For a more detailed explanation, including the standards for naturally farmed, please go here.

There is a lot of marketing bs in the world and the wine world in particular. It is how someone can sell a “wine” for under $10, when the packaging and shipping of an empty bottle would cost nearly that much. If you don’t wonder what is actually in the bottle, best of luck to you. Eric Asimov, of the New York Times, describes a different process in the world of quality wine, “What separates these winemakers from the vast majority is an utter dedication to the rigors of making wine without artificial enhancements. Just as it is easier to sell tuna made rosy with chemicals than in its natural state, it is easier to shape a wine with technology to meet current desires for power and concentration than it is to sell a light, delicate wine. It is easier to preserve wine with high doses of sulfites than to worry about sanitary conditions in cellars. To make wine naturally is labor-intensive and expensive. Cellars must be absolutely clean, and wines must be stored, shipped and sold properly so that they do not spoil.”

Last week, a retailer expressed interest in Farmstead Wines. After a brief telephone conversation, I sent him a copy of our wholesale portfolio…below follows the remainder of our email exchange.

Thank you Anthony,
I appreciate the list.

At first blush, the majority of the wines all seem to be a bit higher end and not the retail price points to move volume, ie cases vs. bottles. Are you adding to this or are there other opportunities to find wines which wholesale between $8 and $15 for example?

Hi Seth,

You are exactly right. All of the wines are a bit “higher end.” They truly are rare, artisan wines- not artificial scarcity or marketing bs. Each farmer is a master of their craft, farming entirely without synthetic chemicals or pesticides. Almost all of the work in each vineyard is done by hand, by the farmers themselves. In the cellar, the wines are not manipulated- fermentations are with natural yeasts, there are no enzymes or tannin powders, wines are bottled with little-to-no filtration and the lowest possible amount of sulfites (in every instance under 50 ppm compared to the 100ppm-500ppm in most wines). Making wine this way is labor intensive, but also requires the utmost care, skill and dedication.

It is not possible to make wine this way for $8. Even at the $15 price point where we do move “volume,” there is not much wine. For example, 2007 Renato Fenocchio Dolcetto, which is wholesale priced at $14.99, there were only 3000 bottles made and 2000 of those were imported for all of the U.S. and Canada. Given the level of quality, the prices are a bargain compared to most wine.

There will regularly be wines at or near the $15 price point, but these will still be in limited quantities.

Chimo,

Anthony

A couple of weeks ago we messed up. A shipment of Renato Fenocchio’s Olive Oil arrived broken. I did what I would expect any company to do to fix it. I just hoped that the customer wouldn’t be too upset anymore, but she was actually happy and wrote me a nice email. Thank you very much for the feedback, Cathy.

“Hi Anthony,

In case you want to add a customer comment to your web page, I’ll start with how great the olive oil is. I highly recommend it and I am an olive oil fanatic. That should be the start and end of the story, but I have to acknowledge the customer service provided by Farmstead Wines. My eagerly awaited three bottles of olive oil arrived in the mail, broken, dripping and somewhat frozen – I live in Ottawa and we’re in the middle of minus 40 degree weather. I contacted Anthony by e-mail and received a gracious and apologetic response within minutes and by the next day I had three new bottles of olive oil at my door.

What amazing customer service! That, along with a handwritten note, is unheard of these days.

I really appreciate the quality of the olive oil and the response from Farmstead Wines. Best of luck in your endeavours!

Thanks,

Cathy”