Wine Pairing & Recipes: Argyle Brut – Homemade Chicken & Sausage Pizza

Posted on September 24, 2009

Ingredients:
1 14″ cooked pizza crust (Whole Foods, etc.)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp pesto
1 baseball sized sweet red onion (or two red cippolini)
2 cloves garlic
2 fresh organic tomatoes
1/2 lb chicken and/or pork sausage
1 cup pecorino cheese (or parmesan or asiago)
1/2 cup fresh mozzarella
1 handful of fresh basil
1/2 cup marinara/spaghetti/pizza sauce
1 bottle Argyle Brut

Preheat oven to 425F.

Start by sauteing the red onion with a small amount of olive oil. Occasionally add 1/4 cup Argyle Brut to the sauteing onions for super flavor boost. The Brut will steam off, leaving the onions with a unique sweetness. Add a little olive oil if necessary to keep onions moist. Just as the onions begin to caramelize, slice garlic cloves paper thin add half the sliced garlic. When the onion/garlic mix has caramelized (careful not to burn the garlic), set aside.

Sautee chicken and/or pork sausage in any leftover oniony oil. Season with fresh ground pepper and salt if desired. Set aside.

Place the ready pizza crust on a large cookie sheet. Thinly spread olive oil all over top of pizza crust. Follow with thin coating of pesto. Optional: spread marinara sauce over pizza crust. Spread caramelized onions evenly over entire pizza crust. Spread sauteed sausage and the remaining sliced garlic over the pizza. Cover evenly with grated pecorino (don’t be
shy, add as much as you want), then follow with sliced or grated mozzarella.

Slice tomatoes to desired thickness and place evenly across crust. Repeat with fresh basil.

Bake pizza in oven for roughly 20 minutes – until the cheeses begin to melt and possibly brown (if you like that). The longer the pizza remains in the oven, the crispier the crust will be.

Remove pizza from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before slicing & serving.

Pour a flute of Argyle Brut and enjoy!

Oregon Chardonnay Being Pressed for Sparkling Wines

Posted on September 23, 2009

After having been harvested from Knudsen Vineyards and Lone Star Vineyard, these Chardonnay grapes were chilled in Argyle’s cold room at 34°F in preparation for pressing.

Here you can see the wine press literally being stuffed full with several tons of Chardonnay grapes.

Once pressed, the juice will be fermented and eventually used in our sparking wines like the Argyle Brut and blended with Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier for sparkling wines like our Brut Rosé.

First Day of Harvest 2009

Posted on September 16, 2009

Here are some photos from our first day of harvest 2009. We picked Chardonnay from Lone Star Vineyard and Pinot Noir from Knudsen Vineyards. These grapes are being picked for our sparkling wines. So far, our load is roughly 24 tons for the day.

Food & Wine Pairing, Labor Day

Posted on September 8, 2009

We had a great turnout for our Labor Day celebration. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for wine tasting and enjoying the deeeelicious foods provided by Underground Cafe. Here you can see a sample of the gourmet goodies – seared scallops with goat cheese & hazelnut salad, beef tenderloin sous vide, pork tenderloin with soft polenta, and delicious halibut tacos, paired with Argyle’s Brut, Reserve Pinot Noir, Nuthouse Chardonnay and Black Brut.

(Note from your humble photographer – the pork tenderloin with polenta was amazing, paired brilliantly with Nuthouse Chardonnay.)
 

Wine Pairing & Recipes: Black Brut – Goat Cheese Tart

Posted on September 2, 2009

Here’s a recent recipe submitted by a fellow Argyler and fan of our 100% Pinot Noir Black Brut. If you’ve got wine-related recipes of your own and you’d like to share, let us know!

Goat Cheese Tart (from Barefoot Contessa):
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board
• Kosher salt
• 13 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, divided
• 3 to 4 tablespoons ice water
• 3/4 cup chopped shallots (3 to 4 shallots)
• 10 1/2 ounces garlic-and-herb soft goat cheese (recommended: Montrachet}
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 extra-large eggs
• 1/4 cup chopped basil leaves
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Preheat the oven to 350° F
• For the crust, put the flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Cut 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) of the butter into large dice, add to the bowl, and pulse until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, add the ice water all at once and process until the dough becomes crumbly. Don’t over-process. Dump the dough out on a floured board, gather it loosely into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Roll the dough on a well-floured board and fit it into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable sides, rolling the pin over the top to cut off the excess dough. Butter 1 side of a square of aluminum foil and fit it, butter side down, into the tart pan. Fill the foil with rice or beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and foil from the tart shell, prick the bottom all over with a fork, and bake for another 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of butter in a small pan and saute the shallots over low heat for 5 minutes, or until tender. Place the goat cheese in the bowl of the food processor and process until crumbly. Add the cream, eggs, basil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and the pepper and process until blended.
• Scatter the cooked shallots over the bottom of the tart shell. Pour the goat cheese mixture over the shallots to fill the shell (if the shell has shrunk, there may be leftover filling). Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the tart is firm when shaken and the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes and serve hot or at room temperature.
• ©2004, Barefoot in Paris

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