food + fizz

Chateau de Pique

Chateau de Pique Tasting Room

A friend of mine called me up and said she had a great little girls after-hours planned. She had a Groupon for a new tasting room called Chateau de Pique in Castleton. Knowing nothing about Chateau de Pique, I said sure.

The Groupon was a 10 varietal tasting for four (10 wines? wow!) with a cheese and fruit platter* in an adorable little train car. Nice enough. Gary is our tasting guide for the evening, and poor Gary is completely slammed with Groupon tables like us. He is adorable and accommodating, but I can tell he is new to the wine industry and I immediately feel for him as he tries to keep up with his tables' demands.

He gives us a brief history of Chateau de Pique, their wines, et cetera. Their winery and vineyard is in Seymour. I notice that their tagline is "One of the finest wineries in Southern Indiana**"--uh oh. Still hopeful, I make my selections from their long list of wines (22 including port). I notice a lot of red flags on their list (for instance, lots of fruit wines and wines labeled "sweet"). Determined to keep an open mind, I choose a varied selection. I glance over at my friend Laurie (who is a knowledgeable wine consumer), and I detect a hint of doubt under her optimistic smile. We must press on!

Chateau de Pique Tasting Room

The Riesling was fine. It really was. But for $15 the bottle it would never be my choice. The Traminette (a popular Indiana grape) was ok. The eight other wines we tasted were pretty terrible. As I look at my tasting notes, each one has a word next to it that is not so nice. "Hot" appears often (ie, all you taste is the alcohol), as well as "petrolly" (aka jet-fuelish), "too astringent," "as much oak as a tree," and "crazy smoky." I have high hopes for the fruit wines, but they were so incredibly sweet I felt like I needed to brush my teeth immediately in order not to incur emergency dental bills.

Poor Gary, he did his best. When we asked for a dump bucket, he was visibly saddened and I truly felt bad. But Gary: if you are reading this, don't despair! A little more time in this industry and your eyes will be opened to wine that will knock the socks off of your customers (in a good way). We tipped Gary well and left knowing we would never buy any wine from Chateau de Pique. Oh well, at least it was just a Groupon. Cheers!

*I should note that the cheese plate was cubed cheddar and colby-jack with Ritz crackers and grapes. Oh well.  

**I do want to note that I have had some great experiences with Indiana wine, namely with Creekbend and Mallow Run wines. Indiana wine is not California wine (some wineries do use California grapes, however, like Cateau Thomas). Nevertheless, Indiana wine does have some good surprises. I encourage you all to keep an open mind (just skip Chateau de Pique).

Make It Right Dinner (follow-up to Make It Local)

The Make It Local dinner, as chronicled in this blog, was not my favorite meal or event of the year. In fact, it didn't even make the top 100. It was a thorough disappointment after several years of enthusiastic participation and high expectations.

Chef JJ addressing one of his tables

While Chef JJ's Backyard did not provide all of the food for that dinner, they were the hosts. Within a few days of posting the f+f blog about the event, they had emailed me thanking me for my honest feedback (impressive). Also within a few days, the owners of Chef JJ's Backyard had organized a "Make It Right" concept: a series of available dinner dates for everyone who had attended the first event (beyond impressive). We reserved our spot immediately.

Stunning opener of smoked Beef Bruschetta

If ever there was a successful customer service initiative, this was it! From the moment we walked in we were treated like something between close family (remembering each of our names all night) and royalty (the service level was impeccable). The food was mind-blowing, but we'll get to that.

Chef JJ started off by an informal introduction to address the reasoning behind the Make It Right. Though they weren't directly responsible for all of the details of the Make It Local event, they wanted to take this opportunity to thank us for our support and show us their brand of food and service. Dually noted!

We started off drinking some phenomenal wine provided by Graybull Organic Wines and local beer from Sun King Brewery while we met the people at our table. I should note that my glass never even made it to half-way empty.

Roasted Prawn Panzanella + Chilled Cucumber Soup

The first course was a home run called Dig-IN's Beef Bruschetta**. This was the description on the menu: "slow smoked beef shoulder paired with our famous grilled bread and spicy pickled Indiana vegetables." What the description didn't say was how the beef melted in your mouth, the crunch from the pickled carrot and onion exploded with flavor, and the subtle watermelon-peach barbecue sauce set the whole thing off. I didn't start the meal exceptionally hungry (late lunch), and I made a Herculean effort not to wolf down my generous portion in 5 seconds. In fact, our incredibly chatty table ceased all conversation in favor of appreciative "mmm" noises. What a start!

The soup and salad course was a duo of chilled cucumber soup and a roasted prawn panzanella. If you've ever eaten at my house you are probably familiar with panzanella--that incredible summer staple of crusty toasted bread, tomato, mozzarella and basil in some sort of delicious vinaigrette. Truthfully, I have never liked anyone else's better than mine. Believe me, I know how narcissistic this sounds, but it is true... everyone has that one thing that they rock! This roasted prawn version was heaven.... The chilled cucumber soup was creamy, slightly smokey (from grilling the cucumbers on the EGG), and amazing. It had a distinct Greek tzatziki characteristic that was marvelous.

**Yes, for those of you who were savvy enough to attend Dig-IN this year, you may have tasted it at the Chef JJ's Backyard booth.

This was such a phenomenal experience that it will require a two-part blog.  To be continued...

in honor of my brother (a strawberry kid)

Today is my little brother's birthday. He is not a foodie. He has actually told me that if there was a pill he could take to sustain himself instead having to eat, he would. About this time, you may be asking how on earth we can be related. Good question! We do have things in common, but obsessing over every single item consumed is not one of them.

That said, there are a few things in the food realm that--though he may not readily admit it-- get my brother very excited. Babyback ribs, lasagna, and strawberry shortcake come to mind. Now ribs are not my thing (although I will be shortly begging a friend of mine to blog about his amazing ribs), and it is just the wrong season for lasagna (though it is right around the corner). So strawberry shortcake it is!

Instead of boring you with a recipe, I found a great posting that has a plethora of amazing ideas for strawberries. Enjoy them as summer is winding down...

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/dessert-ideas-with-strawberries-115337

And a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my favorite brother Ryne Fanning, a smart, kind, and sincere guy who is a wonderful brother, son, uncle, and friend. Ladies, take note, he is also single!