October 13, 2004
From Pinot Noir to Pear MartinisSanta Maria is pinot noir country. I just had two unique and unusually good examples of our local fruit of the vine.
Bob Torres, owner of Pappy’s Restaurant, brought me by a bottle of pinot noir from his vineyard recently. The label, a nice charcoal rendering of his five-acre vineyard at Clark and Telephone Roads, is “Casa Torres.”
I took the wine to some neighbors, which we drank with barbecued chicken. We drank it over two days. When we first opened it, it was a bit tight, but then, it was a young wine. We finished the bottle two days later. It had opened up and it was delicious.
“Sweet and sour” was how my neighbor described it. It wasn’t really sour, but had a really good and firm acidity to it. It wasn’t really sweet either. The fruit was so forward, it seemed sweet. As a matter of fact, it’s a wine that would probably taste great with sweet and sour pork.
I just recently called Bob Torres about his first effort, a 2003 vintage pinot noir. He told me all five acres were planted to pinot noir, clones four and 23.
“We picked it ourselves, and we took it to Nipomo where we made it,” he said.
I asked him what gave him the bug to want to make wine. He told me he had sold his crop to Caymus in 2002 and 2003. Caymus, that famous cabernet sauvignon producer from Napa, had purchased the old Santa Maria Hills Vineyard.
Caymus is his neighbor and they had bought his fruit which became a component in their “Bella Glos,” their first pinot noir. “In ’03, they suggested I try making wine from the second crop after they harvested the vineyard and that’s what we did.”
Bob made about 45 cases for the 2003 vintage. In ’04, the plan is to make about 250 cases (ten barrels) he told me.
Bob Weldon, retired from GTE and long-time Santa Maria resident, has been making wine for many years. He recently gave me a bottle of his 2003 pinot noir, which I drank with the same neighbors.
The pinot noir fruit came from White Hills Vineyard between Santa Maria and Los Alamos. Dale Hampton, the vineyard manager, had gotten the fruit for Bob. The wine was fruit forward and showed a lot of oak in the bouquet.
Reminiscent of a big, brawny Richeborg from Burgundy in France, the wine was delicious. Wine, it is said, often improves with age. Wine making can improve with age too, I think, and Bob Weldon is living proof. In the dozen or so years I have known Bob, each new wine is better and better.
From Pinot to Pears!
I’m usually not one for sweet cocktails, but I recently had a pear martini-of all things-that was absolutely delicious.
Giving credit where credit’s due, Carolyn Hurst, a friend who lives with her husband in the Santa Ynez Valley, adapted the recipe from one she found in the January 2004 issue of “Bon Appetit.” These martinis she served for a birthday dinner and she told me, “When Debby and I made this we did change the amounts of some ingredients - the lemon and pear brandy - increasing per our taste but leaving the other amounts as written. That is the fun of cooking - you can doctor things to suit you.”
Here’s the recipe: Pear Martini with Lemon and Rosemary (12 Servings)
Rosemary syrup
1 Cup sugar
1 Cup water
4 4-inch rosemary sprigsMartini
1 750-ml bottle premium vodka
5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 Tablespoons poire Williams (clear pear brandy)
12 ice cubes
12 small rosemary sprigsFor Rosemary Syrup: Bring sugar and water to boil in small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add rosemary sprigs. Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Cool mixture completely. Discard rosemary.
For Martini: Mix rosemary syrup, vodka, lemon juice, and brandy in large pitcher. Cover pitcher with plastic wrap and place in freezer until mixture is cold, about 3 hours. Remove pitcher from freezer; add ice cubes. Stir briskly to melt ice partially. Strain mixture into chilled Martini glasses. Garnish each glass with rosemary sprig.
Whenever possible, use local, fresh fruit and herbs.
Bon appetit!
Wine lover and Santa Maria Times Wine columnist, Bob Senn, lives in the bucolic Los Alamos Valley and owns the Los Olivos Wine & Spirits Emporium.
