BLOGSCHU

Spring Ahead

The warm weather we’ve enjoyed over the last few weeks has brought with it the first local asparagus of the season, and a craving for fresh, light meals after a winter full of soups and stews. Now that the sun is out, and still up when we’re making dinner, we decided it was time to fire up the grill for the first time in 2010.

Tender asparagus, beautiful tuna and a gift of meyer lemons put me in mind of a big nicoise salad. One of my favorite lunches, I was a bit worried whether I could make a dinner version to satisfy the guys, so I expanded the ingredients a bit beyond the traditional. It was hard getting it all onto this platter:

Some meals just feel good. This dish was healthy, delicious and even fun to eat, and best of all, it was simple and quick to make. Here is the play-by-play of 20 min from the door to the table:

1. Set two pots to boil:
- one small, with a half dozen eggs, covered (shut off flame when water boils)
- one large, with a 2lb bag of fingerling potatoes, cut into ½ inch slices

2. Open a bottle of 2008 Chardonnay. Pour yourself a big glass. Light the grill.

3. Juice three or four meyer lemons through a strainer. Mix with an equal amount of good olive oil. Add a minced shallot, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, and a pinch of a few herbs as you wish (I used thyme, basil, oregano).

4. Lightly coat tuna and asparagus with olive oil. Take your glass of chard with you out to the grill and cook the fish and veggies as much as you like (I like the tuna rare and asparagus crunchy).

5. When done grilling, bring it all back in and refill your glass as needed.

6. Slice a few tomatoes & avocados (and because I had one, section a blood orange). The eggs are done – peel and quarter them.

7. The potatoes are done too. Drain the potatoes and toss with a few tablespoons of the lemon dressing.

8. Arrange a bed of arugula on a platter. Arrange the potatoes, veggies and eggs around the edges. Break the tuna into smaller pieces and pile in the center. Pour the rest of the dressing over everything and top with a handful of nicoise olives.

Hopefully you’ve left enough Chardonnay in the bottle to enjoy with dinner. I didn’t so we opened a 2007 Pinot Noir, and it went pretty well too.

The only thing that would have been better is a warm evening to eat outside. In a few weeks, it will truly be Spring, and hopefully you’ll soon have that option.

Mouthful of Diamonds

Since returning from Los Angeles last week, Jeff hasn't stopped talking about Phantogram, a duo from upstate NY that he went to see on a rare free night of a sales trip.

Finally checked them out, and am really liking Mouthful of Diamonds. No idea what she's talking about and it doesn't sound happy, but the music has a pleasantly sunny take on meloncholy. Very groovy coffee-shop tune. Or tasting room, for that matter.

Off to Memphis for the week, hope to get a free-night-discovery of my own, or a tip from one of you lucky people at SXSW. 

Let it Flow

Happy Deed Day!  The 2010 Gundlach Bundschu Deed Day Writing Contest is now OPEN.

To submit your entry of 152 words or less, please go to www.gunbun.com/152 before midnight Friday March 12, 2010.

In celebration of our birthday, we've also got some special offers,  $152 can get you a six pack of our 2006 Cab and Merlot all month long, or, today only, it will buy you a 12-bottle case of 2006 Mountain Cuvee (almost half off!) 

Our birthday, your gifts.

Enjoy!

Deed Day Countdown: TOMORROW, March 12!

Tommorrow is Deed Day, the 152nd anniversary of Gundlach Bundschu and the date of our second online writing contest! Hope your pencils are sharpened, you've selected a bottle of wine to get you going, and you're planning to submit your entry tomorrow between 12am and 11:59pm!

One last example to help inspire, the beautiful first place winner from the 2009 contest.  Deborah Parker Wong set the bar pretty high, so be sure to bring it!

Ode to Mountain Fruit
What twists and turns of Darwinian fate
brought humble vine to hallowed grape

Look not to meadows lush and green
nor to reaches deep and wide
Though in these places vines do thrive
from them fleeting wines derive

Listen to the whistling wind
across the mountain tops it winds
Through the vines it rushes wild
a stirring chorus for a hapless child

Perched below the ragged peaks
it is their want to suckle deep
and from earth’s yielding breast
their darkest secrets are not kept

What game did Mother Nature play
with bits of rock and earth and clay
From fruitless soil and little rain
a vine that knows the drinker’s name

- Deborah Parker Wong

Deed Day Countdown 3: Sing for your Supper

I mentioned in Monday's post that Charles Bundschu started our family tradition of writing and reciting poems on special occasions over 100 years ago. Those of you who are members of our wine club, or have attended our events over the years, know this to be true, as we've made a good number of you 'sing for your supper.' 

Our annual wine club gatherings, called Revels, in another nod to Charles, often include an element of performance. Members write rhymes and toasts, perform skits and songs, and otherwise contribute to a long legacy of creativity and camaraderie, of art and silliness, that is a central tenet of our community.

As part of our countdown to this Friday's Annual Deed Day Writing Contest , today we share with you one such poem written by a club member at an event a few years back. These are often written in very brief amount of time, often a few glasses in, but always with a warmth and friendship that makes our club members so very special to us. 

As you craft your entry for this Friday, know that they need not rhyme nor be in perfect meter, nor do we give any consideration to mentions of Gundlach Bundschu specifically. Most important is the heart, sincerity, humor and emotion of your words. Here is one example from an event a few years back written by a 'wine of the moment' club member (aka WOMer) named Barb:

Boones Farm Tickle Pink
Was my favorite wine to drink

I didn't care if it had aged
Just how to buy it underage

Many years have passed since then
Probably twenty, maybe ten

But my knowledge of wine was slim
Until I got to that winery of Jim's

I didn't know how to swirl or quaff
People with their nose in wine made me laugh

But through kindness and patience with a novice like me
I think I've learned what great wine should be

Yes, it is bouquet and clarity
And a sense of complexity

But the truly special ingredient
Is the essence of family

Passed on through generations, so generously shared
With their workers and their tasters, why everyone that cared

Some places may ship you wine, but there the story ends
WOMers are lucky; ours is a special delivery from friends.

Deed Day Countdown 4: Rhinefarm Rides Again

With our Deed Day Writing Contest fast approaching this Friday, March 12, 2010, all week we are sharing some lyrical gems from our archive to help inspire creativity. Today, we go back a few decades to the days of the Sonoma Valley Wine Patrol.

For fifty years after prohibition, our family grew high quality wine grapes on Rhinefarm and sold them to other wineries. In 1969, Jim Bundschu convinced his father Towle to reopen the winery.  In the years that would follow, Jim blazed a trail to introduce the world to Sonoma Valley wines and Gundlach Bundschu in particular.

This was the era of some of the most legendary stories of Gundlach Bundschu, when Jim and his compatriots calling themselves The Wine Patrol, donned masks and capes to hijack the Napa Wine Train, kidnap Sir Richard Branson, and lead scores of wine salespeople on mystery tours around the country, all in the name of celebrating the legacy and quality of Sonoma Valley.

The Sonoma Valley Wine Patrol had an oath, and at any gathering, members were committed to reciting, if not actually performing, the spirited toast. Times have changed, but the spirit of the lyrical poem remains - that every hour of every day is an opportunity to appreciate life's great gifts.

As a Rider of the Wine Patrol
I grapefully pledge
To uncork sparklers at dawn
slurp Riesling at nine
quaff Chenin at eleven
power two godly bottles at lunch
Gewurz & Gamay
unburden the afternoon with Burgundy
sip Sherry at four, all hail Ale at five
shower with rainwater at six
collude with patriots and Merlot at seven
hove to Port at ten
sing Sauternes at midnight.
After which, everyone stays the night
'til it be sparkling dawn again.

Deed Day Countdown 5: The Inspiration

This Friday, March 12, 2010, is the 152nd anniversary of the day my great-grandfather's grandfather Jacob Gundlach signed the deed to the land that has been our family vineyard and home ever since. His son-in-law Charles Bundschu started the family tradition of writing poems, giving toasts and throwing creative parties to commemorate significant events and milestones.

We celebrate that legacy by commemorating our anniversary this Friday with our Second Annual Deed Day Writing Contest - details can be found at www.gunbun.com/152.

This week in this space, we preempt our regular blogschu musings to share with you each day one of the poems that inspires us, and hopefully inspires you to participate during the one day writing contest this Friday.

We start things off, of course, with old Charles.  He wrote the following poem for a gathering of his friends, members of the Bacchus Club they called themselves, for a lunch in San Francisco.  He writes about a beautiful day not much different than the one we enjoyed yesterday here on Rhinefarm.

Bacchanal Reunion at Tait's
San Francisco, April 27, 1907

Not many days ago I wend my way
On business bound and partly to allay
The burdened mind midst nature's blissful bounty
Towards the vinelands of Sonoma County

The winterstorms, the rain and frosty chill
That hovered over lowland, knoll and hill
No longer in it's rawness did abide
The wayward season now had turned its tide.

The air was balmy and the birds did sing
Indeed the conqueror had come - the Spring!
Dotted with gold and flanked with purple seam
The surrounding fields implied a verdant dream

The blossoms of the trees glowed bright and fair
And every nook had taken up it's share
Of nature's greening in advancing spring
The sky proclaimed: The soil again is King

The rising slope of vineyards showed a fringe
Of shoots and tendrils in refreshing tinge;
The budding bloom still checked to stay and hem
The flowing sap rushing to crown and stem.

A paradise of hope, delight and fear
In which vintner dwells from year to year
While anxious invocations he may shout
To every passing overhanging cloud.

Oh gentle vineyards, ever since my foot
In all it's wanderings looked for rest and root
You filled my heart with cheer and tender grace
Wherever I upon your charms would gaze.

Nature's great floodgates always stand ajar
Her generous dowries ever near and far
Are gifts from heaven provident and wise
They all implore the human soul to rise

And if unsoiled by wanton dissipation
The will invoke a higher inspiration
Of God's great mysteries in nature's sphere
and make life better than it may appear!

Greeting to you, dear bretheren in Bacchus!
May his high inspiration never lack us
May friendship, love and joy embrace the hours
And sweet remembrance evermore be ours.

Charles Bundschu

Help for Chile

From 8pm EST today (March 5) through 8pm tomorrow (March 6th), the Chile Ayuda Chile (Chile helping Chile) telethon organized by the Chilean government, the Telethon Foundation and popular TV personality Don Francisco will aim to raise money for the construction of 30,000 emergency homes for the many thousands more people left homeless by the 8.8 earthquake and tsunami that struck Chile last weekend.  Funds will be collected and managed by Banco Santander and Banco de Chile. 

The telethon will be broadcast by TV Chile, which is carried on spanish-language tiers of many cable networks, including Comcast & Cablevision, check local listings.

We heard about this this telethon from Ronald Leon, one of our cellar crew whose mother-in-law had a wall of her home collapse in the quake. Several of our staff have family and friends in Chile, and thankfully all are safe, but they have shared stories of terrible devastation.

If you would like to participate in this campaign to provide emergency shelter to the Chilean earthquake victims, here are links to the information and donation sites. Some information is in spanish, but most pages can easily be translated by your web browser.

Chile Ayuda Chile Telethon site: http://www.chileayudaachile.cl/

Donation Page for those outside Chile: https://www.bancochile.cl/webchile1/Teleton/index_tarjetas_ex.html

Santiago Time article about the Telethon: http://www.santiagotimes.cl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18323:chile-aid-efforts-continue-telethon-begins-in-chile&catid=43:human-rights&Itemid=39

News and photos from inside Chile: http://noticias.terra.com/terremoto-chile/

Thank you, and please pass on this information if you can.

Cookies for Breakfast

For many years now, I have been dependent on the Bundschu family. I am not speaking of my livelihood, true as that may be, but rather of a more basic form of dependency. Cookies.

Not just any cookies, Girl Scout Cookies. 

One of my first days on the job some six years ago included a visit by Gracie Bundschu, who, being the 7th generation of a long line of charismatic entrepreneurs, not suprisingly took me for about seven boxes. In recent years her sister Eva took over the cookie business with equal charm.  I've been one of their best customers, buying boxes for equally dependent friends in the city, where 6-to-12 year-old girls are rarer than parking spaces. 

This year, apparently both girls have traded their Girl Scout trefoil for the 4H clover, and I'm out in the cold. Everywhere I go, I am seeing the remains of chocolate-smeared sleeves of thin mints, so I know they are out there somewhere, but I have yet to find an actual scout selling boxes. 

I am all about the trefoils. I know most of you are addicted to thin mints, samoas or tagalongs, and I do love those too.  But my guilty pleasure for about three weeks out of the year is a couple of shortbread trefoils with my coffee at my desk each morning. Sure, they're a little dry. And yes I know real shortbread is so much better, but it's way too rich to be a breakfast treat.

It occurs to me that I could probably buy a box of Lorna Doones any day of the year and enjoy them just as much, because they seem to be basically the same cookie, no? But I haven't bought Lorna Doones in over a decade, and I haven't wanted to test that theory, lest cookies for breakfast becomes a year-round habit. There just isn't an equivalent for the Thin Mint though, is there? Wait, no, don't tell me if there is, that is something I truly don't need to know.

I guess I'll have to go trolling around Sonoma this weekend looking for my fix. I really hope it doesn't rain.

Flowers!

Welcome March!

While the month has arrived in traditional lionish fashion in many places, here in Sonoma it might rain later today, but otherwise the warm, mild day is quite lamb-like.  February rains and warm weather have us a little ahead of the game, and spring seems to have already sprung in the form of tall mustard in the vineyards, pink cherry trees and smiling daffodils all over town.

After a weekend in the snow, I drove up from San Francisco this morning to find the Sonoma landscape startlingly vibrant.  There is a pasture at the corner of Arnold Drive and the 121 that has a particularly beautiful carpet of yellow mustard and wildflowers.

I was admiring the spectacular view, thrilling to the idea of warm weather and longer days, when I noticed a row of Acacia trees in full flower. My throat tightened just at the sight of them - welcome to Claritin season! These evil yellow trees kill me every year.

On cue, an 80's classic came on the radio: The Talking Head's 'Flowers.' 

David Byrne sings 'If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower.'  I had to laugh. Once Sonoma's notorious spring allergy season kicks into overdrive, I may be a little more inclined to agree with him.