All American Menu: Farmer and Winery Friends #WinePW

Posted by foodwineclick on July 10, 2015 · 29 Comments

July Wine Pairing Weekend Assignment: All American, All French, or Somewhere In Between
I chose “All American!” I’ve been spending lots of time this year exploring Italian food and wine, but sometimes it’s fun to come home to familiar ground. Especially this time of year, where we can cook almost the whole meal on the grill.

Farmer Friends and Winery Friends
As part of our all-American theme, we decided to feature farmer and winegrower friends. Over the last few years, we have enjoyed getting to know some of our local farmers market farmers as we come back throughout the summer to pick up produce, meat and eggs raised locally. In similar fashion, we’re drinking wines made by friends, all the more enjoyable by that personal connection. First, let’s take a quick visit (click on any photo to start the slide show).

We’re fortunate to have lots of small local farmers markets all around Minneapolis. This is our Sunday morning haunt, Kingfield Market.

Picked this morning!

We buy lots of produce from Peter & Carmen. Peter is passionate about sweet corn, which endears him greatly to Julie.

Brandon (sunglasses) and Mike, his dad (not shown here), run a modern family farm. They raise chickens, pigs & cattle. We love their pasture raised meats and eggs.

Our favorite wineries feature a fancy tasting room consisting of a barrel or table in the winery itself. Rulo Winery is exactly that.

Not just a forklift operator, Vicki pours for guests!

Curt gets so excited talking about their experience as winemakers at Rulo.

iOTA Cellars winery is surrounded by their vineyards.

The Pelos and Sandberg families partner in the operation with the Sandbergs (pictured here) as the winegrowers.

Enthusiastic barrel tasting with Don Sandberg

Pelos-Sandberg Pinot Noir fruit a few days before harvest.

Our Food and Wines for Today
Our meal ingredients come primarily from two of our favorite farmers, Peter’s Pumpkins & Carmen’s Corn, and Sunshine Harvest Farms. You can find them at Mill City Farmers Market, Fulton Farmers Market, or Kingfield Farmers Market, depending on the day and season.

Our wines come from Rulo Winery in Walla Walla, Washington and iOTA Cellars in Eola-Amity Hills section of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about our visits, here’s Rulo and iOTA here and here.

winePW_pork_iota_rulo_kingfield 20150628 72

Combine is a Rhone blend of Marsanne, Picpoul, Grenache Blanc, & Roussanne

Rulo Winery “Combine” 2013 ($20 direct from the winery)
25% Marsanne, 25% Picpoul, 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Roussanne

Eye: Clear, light straw yellow, almost clear at the edge
Nose: fresh, clean, stony & floral scent
Mouth: Medium body, not tart but stony. Nice persistence in the stony finish.

winePW_pork_iota_rulo_kingfield 20150628 36

100% estate grown Pinot Noir from the Pelos Sandberg Vineyard

iOTA Cellars Pelos Sandberg Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010 ($38 direct from the winery at release)
Eye: Dark but translucent, warm red in color.
Nose: Bright red cherries, fresh, winery smell!
Mouth: Smooth, not tart. Leather/cedar component reminiscent of the smell of the winery.

I love easy “one pot” meals on the grill

Wine Pairing Results
Pork represents the best meat for pairing with either white or red wine. Often, I’ll pick the white as the better pairing. Today, I chose a simple soy sauce marinade to “up” the umami component in the main dish. The soy sauce marinade tipped the better pairing over to the iOTA Cellars Pinot Noir. As always, either the medium bodied white wine or the medium-light bodied red work. However, the marinade does bend the pairing over to the red side.

Red or white? Both work, but the soy marinade tips the scale over to the Pinot Noir as the best combination.

Wine Pairing Weekend #WinePW
If you see this on Saturday morning, July 11, please join us at 10:00am CDT for a chat on Twitter at #WinePW. Take a look at what our blogging group has brought together for your July table. Also, join us Saturday, August 15 as we explore Portugal, a land of delicious food and outstanding wines!

Perfect for a summer evening

Country Pork Ribs & Classic Potato Salad

Servings: 4
Print

Classic Potato Salad
Are you interested in lightening up some classic dishes? I’m a long time subscriber to Eating Well magazine; the focus is on healthy lower calorie eating without resorting to artificial ingredients. The current print issue has a great one page article on Potato Salad many ways. They offer the basic recipe, two different dressings (creamy and vinegary) with multiple variations. Unfortunately, the online version separates them into individual recipes, so the mix-n-match flavor is lost. However, I can wholeheartedly recommend their lighter version of Classic Potato Salad; make it a day ahead if you can!

Country Pork Ribs and Veggies on the Grill

Ingredients

2 lbs. country style pork ribs
2 oz. low sodium soy sauce
4 heirloom tomatoes
1 bunch fresh broccoli
4 young onions
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) (pump sprayer)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Slice the pork ribs into portions
Place the pork ribs and soy sauce in a freezer ziploc bag and marinate for at least 1 hour up to overnight in the ‘frig
Cut the tomatoes into 8 pieces each
Cut the broccoli into trees
Spray all the vegetables with a light coating of EVOO, add a pinch of salt and pepper
Pre-heat grill to high
Grill the veggies for 15 minutes, turning regularly
Grill the pork ribs for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thinly cut

Filed under Wine & Food, WinePW: Wine Pairing Weekend · Tagged with #winePW, farmers market, grill, iota, iOTA Cellars, pork, Rulo, sunshine harvest farms

Comments

29 Responses to “All American Menu: Farmer and Winery Friends #WinePW”

Vino Travels (@VinoTravels21) says:

July 11, 2015 at 8:00 am

Great as always Jeff! I typically will lean towards white on pork too, but definitely depends on the marinade and other sides of the dish. Don’t you just love grilling this time of year!

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:48 pm
  
  Thanks, Jen. I love grilling the whole meal when I can, summer or not!
  
  Reply
Wendy, A Day in the Life on the Farm says:

July 11, 2015 at 11:06 am

Nothing beats local…how lucky for you that you live in such a wine friendly area.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:50 pm
  
  Thanks, Wendy. Local and seasonal is the way to go. Although, it can get pretty tough in the winter…
  
  Reply
apuginthekitchen says:

July 11, 2015 at 1:44 pm

Wonderful meal and fantastic wines! Photo’s are stunning.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:51 pm
  
  thanks!
  
  Reply
Perry Pelos says:

July 11, 2015 at 3:02 pm

Jeff –

I have decided I want to live at your house…This looks great!

Perry

>

Reply
- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:55 pm
  
  Perry, you are welcome any time!
  
  Reply
Michelle Williams says:

July 11, 2015 at 3:20 pm

Fabulous. I love Pinot Noir with pork and the Pinot sounds great but I am intrigued by the Rulo “Combine” wine. Very interesting blend, I can almost smell and taste it. Food looks outstanding as usual.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:57 pm
  
  Thanks, Michelle. We love the Rulo wines, all their whites are really special. Definitely under the radar, though!
  
  Reply
christymajors says:

July 11, 2015 at 6:46 pm

Can I bring Sous Chef and the two Havanese kids over for dinner or a permanent vacation? You really know how to throw a great meal together. And the wine pairings are so intriguing, I’ve not tried either but need to see if I can get them. They both sound like wines we would enjoy.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:58 pm
  
  Thanks, Christy, how nice!
  
  Reply
Nancy | PullThatCork says:

July 11, 2015 at 9:05 pm

Um, when is the restaurant/wine bar opening? Very nice pairing!

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 8:58 pm
  
  Thanks, Nancy!
  
  Reply
cookingchat (@cookingchat) says:

July 12, 2015 at 5:11 am

I enjoy your focus on the local farmers. Intentional or coincidence that one of the wines had the name of a farm implement? I like the sound of the pinot!

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 9:00 pm
  
  Thanks, David. Rulo’s logo is a set of grain elevators. They call the elevators “farmer GPS” as the Walla Walla area farmers know exactly where you’re talking about by the name of the nearby elevator.
  
  Reply
Martin D. Redmond says:

July 12, 2015 at 1:12 pm

Great looking post as always Jeff! Isn’t it great when you can do a meal on the grill. I need to do that more. I appreciate your comment about pork in terms of both white and red wines. Great description of the results of your pairing too! Cheers!

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 12, 2015 at 9:01 pm
  
  Thanks, Martin. One of my favorite things about pork is its versatility with wine; anything goes (almost)!
  
  Reply
Sarah | Curious Cuisiniere says:

July 13, 2015 at 5:53 pm

We love exploring local wine makers and farmers. It makes such a difference when you can get to know the people behind all the work and the great product. Your meal looks absolutely amazing.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 9:55 pm
  
  Thank you Sarah. Local rules!
  
  Reply
Dracaena Wines says:

July 16, 2015 at 6:54 pm

Great recipe and I absolutely love the final picture of the cork on the corkscrew. Very original (I may have to steal it. LOL – but I’ll give credit) Your meal looks fantastic and what a presentation. Great picture.

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- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 9:57 pm
  
  Thank you Lori! “Steal” away!
  
  Reply
Jade Helm says:

July 25, 2015 at 1:06 pm

I love the farmer connection. I also love seeing the Oregon Pinot Noir. There are several pork and Pinot events in Willamette Valley. Great pairing.

Reply
- foodwineclick says:
  
  July 30, 2015 at 9:59 pm
  
  Thanks, Jade! Of course, I envy your neighborhood. Local foods AND wines. (And windsurfing at Hood River, snowboarding on Mt. Hood, mtn biking and fly fishing in the national forest. Oops, got carried away there for a minute.)
  
  Reply