Making of a Winemaker

We find that many of our go to spicy, savory dishes pair well with Oregon whites, particularly rosé or sparkling wine.

Here’s a nifty site from Oregonwines.com that picks a wine to go with your meal. You can select the type of dish, type of cuisine and/or the type of wine you desire.

At our home, we often do a play on stir fry to get a quick veggie and Asian cuisine fix. This one is a stir-fried udon dish using whatever colorful veggies and protein I had on hand tonight. Our daughters love dumplings and noodles. Why not put them together?

Ingredients:

10 frozen cooked dumplings

18 oz frozen Japanese udon noodles

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp gochugaru (Korean red pepper powder)

1 tsp of minced garlic (2 cloves)

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

1/2 zucchini, diced

1/2 carrot, diced (I used 5 baby carrots)

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

2 king oyster mushrooms, diced (can use regular white mushrooms)

3 green onions, chopped

1/4 cup chopped chinese chives (optional)

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

Dried bonito shavings (optional for garnish)

Step 1: Prep your veggies 

We do so much Asian cooking that we always have minced garlic in a little container in the fridge.

Step 2: Prepare noodles and dumplings

When boiling, add cooked dumplings and boil for 2 minutes. Add frozen udon noodles directly to the boiling water and dumplings and boil for another 2 minutes. Strain the dumplings and noodles.

Step 3: Stir fry veggies

Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat vegetable oil on medium high heat. Add minced garlic, onion, and gochugaru for 30 seconds. Add vegetables and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until veggies are slightly wilted. Add oyster sauce and soy sauce and mix.

Step 4: Serve

Then add noodles and dumplings and stir-fry until noodles are well coated. Transfer to a plate and garnish with dried bonito shavings.

Dave’s pairing picks:

Stoller Family Estate’s Pinot Noir Rose  or Argyle Vintage Brut

Dave also had an Asian dish tonight over at the Stoller intern house. He had this yogurt curry marinated chicken that I had marinated ahead of time and froze for him to take with him. He cooked it in the pan with some veggies and his fellow cellar interns made the sides. They chose to pair the curry chicken with reds from the Rhone valley.

This marks my first season of being a harvest widow. Three years ago, when we left California for Dave to start his enology studies at Oregon State University, I never really processed what it would mean for me to be married to a winemaker and to be living away from any extended family. I had never heard the term “harvest widow” until Dave referred to winemaker wives as such.

The hours during harvest in the wine industry are grueling to say the least. When the grapes are ready to harvest, this signals the start of 10-12 hour work days with maybe one day off a week. This is Dave’s fourth harvest experience, but his first living apart from his pregnant wife and two children. His first two were in Temecula, last year was at Benton Lane Winery in Monroe as a cellar intern, and this year as a vineyard and cellar intern living at Stoller Family Estate in Dundee Hills.

This article called “Living Grunt Life” from Sonoma Magazine put it best:

“Meet the warm body otherwise known as the Harvest Intern: That wide-eyed, gullible lackey enslaved by dreams of one day becoming a winemaker, supported by a measly $15 an hour and somehow still alive come November.”

If your spouse is looking to enter the wine industry, heed these warnings:

1. From August to November, consider your spouse MIA.
2. Look forward to delaying any birthday or anniversary celebrations.
3. If you have kids, you are on your own figuring out rides and finding childcare for sick days.

Personally, for our family, this means our wedding anniversary will always fall during the harvest. It also means he won’t be around for the start of the school year and pretty much unavailable until Thanksgiving. As a mom and nurse practitioner, I also know what that means during the flu season. I will be scrambling for childcare when the kids are sick.

All of this is really hitting home this year, since he’s living away from us and I honestly don’t know when I will see him next. A nice rite of passage!

Of course, there are many perks as well:

1. An unlimited supply of wine
2. A kickass end of harvest party 
3. A promised family vacation at the end of harvest (I’m holding you to this one, Dave)

There is an incredible energy associated with harvest. I can see it in his face waiting for the text message that the first grapes of the season, Chardonnay, are being harvested. The grueling hours make for a close-knit winemaking team and anticipation of the vintage being bottled. All the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the vineyard are reaped into a bottle. This is the first year that his hands have touched the grapes pre and post-bottling, working in both the vineyard and cellar.

Cheers to the 2017 vintage, cheers to the harvest teams, and cheers to all you harvest widows! I like to think we play a large role as well in making these vintages happen.