The Corkdork - Wine and Food Musing

Pick of the Season: Wild Aparagus

This weekend at Berkeley Bowl they had Wild Asparagus. Not only have I never seen this before, but never even heard of it. It resembles green lavender plants, with tiny stalks and a little bud at the top. Not going to say how much they were a pound! Ouch!

The best way I could think of serving them was like this, as a lunch with some crusty Acme baguette and a bottle of French Cider.

Wild Asparagus Fritatta
Serves 2 as a main course, 4 as an appetizer

1/3 Cup of Wild Asparagus
4 eggs beaten with Salt and Pepper
3 Tbs. Butter
1 Tbs. Olive Oil
1/2 cup Gruyere, grated fine
1/2 of a small onion, sliced thin

In a small frying pan, put the Wild Asparagus in with a few tablespoons of water and some salt. Have it ready to steam for 2 minutes or so when the eggs are almost set.

Preheat broiler to High
In a large non-stick fry pan, melt the butter and olive oil and sweat the onion until quite soft. Beat the eggs with the cheese and when the onion is done, add the eggs and turn the heat down to pretty low. It should take a few minutes to get the eggs halfway set. When they are, steam the asparagus for no more than 2 minutes or so, until the stalks are just tender. Drain and carefully press the asparagus into the egg mixture. Cook for another minute or so, then run under the broiler to set the top. When the top is set and browned, as above, remove from broiler and slide the fritatta onto a cutting board. Cut like a pizza and serve.

WBW #22 Announced: Lite (Alcohol) Reds

Wine Blogging Wednesday #22 Announced -- Lite (Alcohol) Reds is being hosted by Tim from the Winecast.

The task at hand is to taste a red that has less than 12.5% Alcohol and post by June 14th.

Time to look away from California - the land of the hot palate reds, and look to the Old World, perhaps a Cru Beaujolais... Perhaps I will do an audio version of my post as a Podcast. Stay tuned.

A Memorial Day Visit to Thomas Coyne

Ah, readers, I'm sorry for the lengthy pause in writing. No excuses other than lots of work and other projects taking my time.

This Memorial Day weekend was full of tastes and treats, so I'll have a number of posts coming up in the next couple of days, and perhaps a WBW entry.

Where else do you take a visitor from Penn State University, but to Thomas Coyne of course! Those visitors to Livermore will know that Tom Coyne always has a PSU cap on and has a shrine to Joe Paterno inside the tasting room. The sign in the parking lot says it all...

A visit to Coyne always demands a lot of spitting, though the usual visitors to the place are not used to seeing anyone spit. He usually has a lot of things to taste, and for this Spring Release party, he had 18 things to taste. See what I mean?

We arrived a little early, and were greeted by the most unusual visitors. Two baby red-tailed hawks were perched for the longest time inches away from us, sitting on a post patiently while I  photographed them. Click on the image below for a BIG version.

On to the wines I reviewed of the 14 I tried:

2005 Pinot Blanc Detjens (pronounced Dutchens) Farms. This is a Livermore region adjacent to the Coyne property. This has a little oak and a little too much sulfur on the nose, but it also has apple and pear tones to it. Maybe the sulfur will blow off with an hour open.

2005 Viognier California. This is from the banks of the Mokelumne River, I think they said it was in Amador County. This had substantial mouth-feel due to the long time on the lees, but was not over-oaked. Nice. I bought two.

2005 La Petite Quest California. This rose tastes like a light Tavel.  Strawberry is dominant but not domineering. Mostly Grenache. I bought two of these as well. Just had one for dinner - a nice summer quaff with a roast chicken rubbed with Lulu's preserved meyer lemon and rosemary marinade.

2005 Merlot Rose - strawberry pie. This one you can avoid.

2001 Quest  -Rhone blend. This one is fruity and has the essence of blueberries. Quite nice and a real deal.

2002 Quest Reserve - Nope. Something is off here.

2002 Grenache - The first bottle was corked, and they opened another for me which was delicious. I bought two of these too.

2001 Syrah California. This is a 10.00 amazing value. I bought two. Classic dark syrah with a pleasant nose. This would be great with any meat dish. I bought two of these.

2000 Ditjens Farms Syrah, this one is only 12.50, but the Livermore grapes didn't do much for me on this one.

2002 Confluence - this one is a Bordeaux blend and only has 15% Merlot, but the hot Merlot fruit dominated.

2001 Cabernet Sauvignon - an unusual blend that works pretty well. It's a pretty good value for 18.00. It's made of a 50-50 blend of San Luis Obispo fruit and Sonoma fruit.