Inside the Winery :

In this picture, Gustavo calibrates the filling machine so each bottle has just the right amount.

With everything barreled down for the winter, we spent some time bottling new rounds of the "The Third Bottle" wines. The bottles are almost as beautiful empty as they are full! Watch YouTube video clips from our website: GustavoThrace

"A true story gets the Hollywood treatment in "Bottle Shock," a peppy and quite deliberate crowd-pleaser about how a little Napa winery's 1973 Chardonnay won a major French tasting contest and sent the wine world into a tizzy..." - from: Variety "...Miller's script (co-written with wife Jody Savin and the story's original author, Ross Schwartz, who came up with the idea with Lannette Pabon) dresses up this saga of viti- and viniculture with a side plot involving Bo, cute intern Sam (Rachael Taylor) and Jim's reliable but increasingly independent-minded Gustavo (Freddy Rodriguez) in a jokey sort of love triangle. Gustavo also has his own winemaking ambitions tied with venerable Mr. Garcia (Miguel Sandoval), who has made a fabulous red." Find screening schedule, press release package and watch the preview trailers BOTTLE SHOCK WEBSITE

Bronwen's Cheese Selection:

" My choice for Champagne would be a goat's cheese, ideally one that's young and fresh, without too much of a rind. A cheese like Barbara Backus's Sumi or a fresh goat cheese from Soyoung Scanlon would be perfect."
- Bronwen Bromberger on pairing champagne with cheese for Valentine's Day. There is an excellent source right here in Sonoma - Delicious Goat Cheeses at very reasonable prices: REDWOOD HILL

"I grew up in Redlands, California when orange and citrus groves were, quite literally, on each block. My sister, still living in Redlands, has carried on the tradition by planting all sorts of citrus on her property. My younger son, Ian, is particularly fond of the tangerines that she grows and would eat himself silly as a kid standing at the tree in her yard. Now that he is grown his aunt still sends him a box of tangerines when they are at their peak of perfection, which happens to be right now. So, it was a great joy to have my son call to say, “Mom, I have great news, seems I got your cooking gene!” He then went on to describe the dish that he had just made with the tangerines he had just received. So, here is Ian’s recipe for chicken breasts in a champagne (gotta love that he just happened to have a bottle of bubbles open while cooking!) tangerine, balsamic reduction sauce." - Thrace

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, flattened to uniform thickness
Flour for dusting breasts
1 T. Butter
1 cup champagne or sparkling wine
1 cup fresh tangerine juice
2 T. balsamic vinegar
2 T. Butter
 
Toss breasts in flour to coat.
Melt 1 T. butter in a medium sauté pan
Saute breasts until just done, remove to plate and tent to keep warm while making sauce
Deglaze the pan with the champagne, scraping up any brown bits
Add the tangerine juice and reduce by half.
Add the balsamic and swirl in to slightly reduce
Add the 2 T. butter to bind and glaze sauce

In This Issue

Special Offer

What Could Be More Romantic than French Champagne?

Champagne is a sparkling wine, but not all sparkling wine is Champagne. The name refers to a small district in the north of France that transformed its rather thin and acidic wines into a worldwide phenomenon. The crisp, bubbly, effervescent, and refreshing character of Champagne is now widely emulated throughout the world. At the top end, however, nothing beats great Champagne.

Go to the WINE SHOP

Can't Hardly Wait!

Our Wine Club has exclusive member benefits including discounts, freebies, invitations for events, complimentary tastings for members and their guests, winemaker notes with cheese pairing and recipes, no fees and cancel anytime after your first shipment. Read more here: WINE CLUB

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