Flaherty Wines

The new crush pad

We recently undertook what was for us a rather large construction project: we refinished the winery floor and extended the crush pad out considerably by paving the driveway and parking area. Workmen were here for two weeks, first laying the baldosa (large cement tiles that can withstand production) and then pouring cement. The baldosa still needs to be sealed, but it already looks very nice:

Next came the driveway—something like 90 square meters. It took five truckloads of cement, delivered over two days, to fill the space:

Our four dogs were confined to the kennel until the cement dried. The cats, however, did not get the memo about certain areas being off limits. Our driveway is thus decorated with paw prints:

The areas of cement include a long driveway that leads to a wide parking area, which will double as our crush pad during harvest. We are really looking forward to having more space to work. It was rather cramped this year when we had four fermenting lots, two macerating lots, and two bins to press out, all crammed into our little two-car carport. Here’s what it will look like next year:

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2010 Harvest report

We recently finished the first barrel rack for the 2010 vintage, and we have quite the collage of different wines in barrel this year. We received fruit exclusively from the Aconcagua Valley, with four distinctive lots each of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Manzur Encón vineyard next to the Putaendo River, Syrah from the cooler Escorial vineyard next to the Aconcagua River, and Tempranillo from our front yard in the warmer Santa María area. With this racking, the barrels were moved over to Viña San Esteban temporarily while we expanded the press pad / drive way / skateboard park and tiled the barrel cellar and fermentation room / garage. In total we brought in 9,100 kilos of fruit to our home to ferment, which is less than originally planned because of lower yields in the vineyards this year. We invested in a couple more one-ton fermenters to give us more capacity and thus more maceration time.

The harvest started off with Syrah from the Escorial vineyard owned by Gonzalo Manzur. This was the first vintage from this vineyard of clone 300 Syrah. The quality was very good, and we have high expectations for this site as the vineyard matures. Unfortunately, we lost control of the temperature on a couple fermenters, which then stuck. We therefore had to referment these two lots with some Syrah and Tempranillo that came in later. It was a relief to find some very nice results.

The best Syrah came in from the older Encón vineyard, which has rich layers of flavors and wonderful texture on the mouth. The Tempranillo has better color and more concentration than in 2009. The best lots were co-fermented with some stuck Syrah lots, which helped fix color and create added complexity. So what looked like a big problem has actually planted the idea of doing more co-fermentations with Syrah next year. Finally, the Cabernet Sauvignon from Encón this year has ripe flavors, but less intensity than the 2009 vintage. Most of the lots were cold soaked for two days before fermentation and had 14 to 20 days of skin contact before pressing. Overall we are very happy with the quality of the 2010 vintage. As our production slowly expands, however, we will need to improve planning and make some targeted investments to ensure a smoother, less stressful harvest in terms of time and control.

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Homemade gnocchi

Gnocchi are one of my all-time favorite foods. Potato pasta—what more could I ask? Not just any gnocchi will do, however. The gnocchi sold in grocery stores or even in most restaurants tend to be quite heavy and generally disappointing. The good news is that they are really easy to make at home, with delicious results.

The ingredients are simple: potatoes, flour, egg, and salt. The trick is in how you treat the potatoes. They need be boiled first and then mashed. A ricer works best for a smooth texture, but a simple masher will do the trick. I’ve even put them in the food processor, although the gnocchi tend to come out heavier (the potatoes turn gummy as the machine develops the gluten in the starch) (they were still better than store-bought, though, and none went to waste).

As for serving, I often have them as a side dish, dressed simply with melted butter and grated parmesan, perhaps melting the butter with a few sage leaves to add a rich savory note. Basil pesto is wonderful in summer, while a full-flavored roasted red pepper pesto or a gorgonzola sauce make a satisfying meal in fall and winter. It’s a very versatile dish, and a nice change from the usual pasta. The recipe below easily serves four as a side dish, two or three as a main dish.

Gnocchi

1 pound (450 g) peeled potatoes
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flour

Boil the potatoes until quite soft. Drain and pass through a ricer, or mash gently but thoroughly with a standard potato masher. Stir in the egg yolk and salt. Turn out onto a board with the flour and knead to incorporate the flour until you have a smooth ball. (It will be sticky.) Divide the dough in two. Roll out one half into a long snake about the thickness of your thumb. Cut off small pieces about an inch long, pinching each one in the middle to give it a waist. Dust with flour and reserve on a baking sheet. (Use a generous dusting of flour to keep the gnocchi from sticking together.) If not cooking immediately, refrigerate for up to an hour.

Boil a large pot of water, add a tablespoon of salt, then drop in the gnocchi. Stir briefly (just once) so they don’t stick together. After a few minutes the gnocchi will float to the top, at which point they are ready. Remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon and serve immediately.

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Cuban-Irish pot beans

Flaherty is an Irish name, and Ed is of pure Irish decent… on his dad’s side. His mom, however, is Cuban. She immigrated to the U.S. in 1958, the year before Castro came to power. The family doesn’t eat a lot of Cuban food, though, other than the ubiquitous beans. I’m not exaggerating when I say ubiquitous. No matter what is being served for lunch or dinner (sometimes even breakfast)—whether it’s a side of salmon or roast chicken or take-out Chinese—there is always a bowl of beans on the side.

Amada typically uses pinto beans (porotos hallados, here in Chile). She makes her beans rather soupy, and she purees the seasonings, which then cook up into a yummy sauce. She also adds the cumin whole, whereas I like to roughly grind the seeds in a mortar. Finally, I’ve modified her recipe to use Chilean merquén. If you can’t find merquén, you could substitute chipotle powder or cayenne to taste.

We don’t typically serve these beans as a side dish, as in the original Flaherty household. Instead, we serve them as a main dish like chili, perhaps with corn bread on the side, or wrapped in a tortilla, or in a bowl with rice. You might garnish with cilantro, corn, diced bell peppers—whatever you have on hand, really.

Cuban-Irish pot beans

2 cups dried pinto beans
1 can tomatoes (320 g / 11 oz drained weight)
1 green or red bell pepper
1 large onion
3o r 4 cloves garlic
1 ají verde or serrano pepper
1 tsp whole cumin, lightly ground
1 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon merquén
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Sort and rinse the beans. Cover generously with cold water and let soak overnight.

Drain the beans, cover with fresh cold water, and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, combine the tomatoes (reserve the juice), bell pepper, onion, garlic, and ají (chili pepper) in a food processor or blender and process until finely chopped. After the beans have been cooking for 15 or 20 minutes, add the vegetables to the beans, along with the reserved tomato juice, the spices, and the salt. Continue cooking until the beans are tender (about an hour total cooking time).

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Don Ismael

Ed writes: Our caretaker in Cauquenes is Ismael Enriques, who is 70 years old. He says that when he was a kid, the País vineyard on our property was already old. He remembers helping his dad put the roof on the adobe house on our property when he was ten years old. Don Ismael has lived his whole life here and is tough as nails. He once mentioned that he had been to Buchupureo, a beach town on the Maule coast, to harvest wheat. When I asked how he got there, he said it was a two-day walk.

Now, Ismael does not exactly work for me as an employee. He runs his five horses on our property and keeps up the fences so that the horses don’t run off. We negotiate (trato) every job that has to be done in the vineyard and on the property, and of course he knows the true value better than I do. It is expected that I bargain, but I’m not a great negotiator. So, while I generally do not just accept his offer, I often add on some details to the original job rather than haggle over the price. For example, when we prepared the land for the vineyard last year, he quoted the job to cut down the espino bushes and haul them to charcoal hut. He then used the wood to make charcoal (carbón), and we split the end product 50/50. He uses his share to heat his house, and I use mine for barbecuing. We sell whatever I think I won’t use. Last winter he grew potatoes on a patch that we cleared, and we split the harvest 50/50. This system of sharecropping is the way it works out here. The owner contributes the land and water, and sharecropper, or mediero, puts in the work, seed, and fertilizer. The crop is then divided 50/50.

It seems funny to give  a 70-year-old man such physically demanding jobs that I would struggle to do myself, but what I sense is that work is the very center of his daily life. If he wasn’t doing a job for me, he would find something else to do. Out here they cultivate wheat by horse and hand—a backbreaking job even for the young, but Ismael is still at it. His wife says she is too old now to keep up, but in her day she would have put me to shame. I believe her.

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Hoisin marinade for grilled beef

I have been absolutely overwhelmed with translation and editing work lately (which explains the lack of posts here). That’s a good thing, but it does make the rest of life a challenge. It’s the typical working mom’s dilemma: how to run a household while maintaining a full-time job without losing one’s sanity. There isn’t time to sleep, let alone exercise or cook. We can only eat so much take-out pizza, however, so I’ve had to pull out all of my time-saving recipes. This marinade is one of them. It just takes a few minutes to mix the ingredients, then the meat marinates all afternoon. I hand it off to Ed to grill, along with some potatoes, onions, peppers, and zucchini, and voilà: a flavorful meal is served with very little effort on my part.

When I served this recently, I used a whole silverside (called ganso en Chile). A tri-tip or striploin would also be lovely–whatever cut you like to grill whole. For grilling steaks, just cut down the time for marinating to a couple of hours.

Hoisin marinade for grilled beef

1/3 cup Hoisin sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sake
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon chili-garlic sauce
4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

Combine all the ingredients, and marinate the beef for several hours or overnight. When you remove the beef for grilling, reserve the marinade. Strain out the peppercorns and boil the marinade for a few minutes to be sure it is safe to eat, then drizzle over individual servings of the grilled meat.

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Refinishing winery floor

This weekend we moved 43 barrels out of the winery and into off-site storage at Viña San Esteban. We had to clear everything out to make way for the construction crew, which is scheduled to refinish our winery floor and press pad. The original floor is made of hand-mixed cement, and it has not held up well to the demands of heavy production. Either the cement was not mixed properly, or the sand was dirty—but either way, it translates into a deteriorating work surface. After seven vintages, it’s time to invest in a new floor.

The main winery work area will be refinished using factory-made cement tiles (called baldosa here). We are also extending the press pad with an additional area of cement (factory mixed) and paving the long driveway. Finally, we are tiling the back terrace, where we receive visitors. The next few weeks will be hectic.

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