On November 11, 2010, there was a discussion online (mainly twitter) about favorite wines and recipes to share during this holiday season. St. Supery promised to pass along some of our favorite advice, so here are a few links to recipes and entertaining tips, as well as some general suggestions…some from others, some from our team here at St. Supery:

1) Proper table setting diagram (yes, including three wine glasses)

2) Cranberry Sauce with Cherries, Marsala and Rosemary: Bon Appétit, by Jeanne Thiel Kelley
2 cups dry Marsala
1/2 cup dried tart cherries
1 12-ounce bag cranberries
12 ounces frozen dark sweet cherries (about 2 2/3 cups), halved
1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Combine Marsala and dried cherries in deep saucepan. Boil until mixture is reduced to 2/3 cup, about 8 minutes. Mix in remaining ingredients. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium, cover pan and simmer until cranberries burst and mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Transfer to bowl. Refrigerate until cold, about 3 hours. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover; keep refrigerated.)

3) Cuban Black Bean Soup paired with St. Supery 2006 Merlot
The original recipe came from Jeff Smith, aka The Frugal Gourmet, circa 1984…modified by St. Supery wine club member and poet/author in San Francisco, Rain Graves.
1 gallon water (keep a large measuring cup handy for adding)
1 16oz bag dry black beans soaked in 2 quarts water overnight, and drained
1 lb bacon, cooked and chopped
1/2 – 1 teaspoon dried, crushed red pepper (this is where the heat comes from, so add less if you don’t want it too spicy)
Salt and Pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp oregano
2 yellow onions peeled and chopped (if they are large, just do 1 1/2)
1 tbsp Dijon or spicy brown mustard
1 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Add fresh water to the beans in a large stock pot. Simmer for 5 hours, checking the water level every hour, and adding water when it has reduced by 2 inches. Make sure you stir this frequently too, so the beans do not burn on the bottom of the pot. After the beans have simmered for 5 hours and you have replaced the water level again, add the remaining ingredients, and stir well. Let simmer for another 2 hours, stirring frequently, and taste to be sure you do not need to add any additional salt. Serves 10.

4) Butternut Squash and Cheddar Bread Pudding on epicurious.com by Molly Wizenberg, Bon Appetit 2009…We are told this is good stuff!

5) Chat online about Thanksgiving food and wines live with Napa Valley resident Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson on November 21st

6) Chipotle Sweet Potato Soup with St. Supery Chardonnay is a nice first course on a cold day.

7) Slow Cooker Beef Shortribs with St. Supery Dollarhide Cabernet Sauvignon – big meal that cooks while you work, serve over mashed potatoes or roasted cauliflower. Recipe on food.com

St. Supery recently finished the wine grape harvest of 2010. A relatively cool summer contributed to a long growing season as our winemaking team awaited optimal ripeness. This video offers a glimpse of the decision-making process that winemaker Michael Scholz and his team face before and during harvest.

Year-round, sports fans gather to cheer for their team. My friends and I attended a San Francisco Giants game (I was in full orange/black regalia) where we barbequed skirt steak, tri-tip and hot dogs. Buying pre-marinated meat is convenient and those shrink wrapped packages make for easy clean up. The below is from our entertaining guru, Beatrice Charpentier:

Try to keep your tailgate party simple by planning easy to prepare foods and storing them in disposable containers. Prepare as much as you can a day or two ahead of the game. Arrive 3 or 4 hours before the game so you can find a good parking spot. Finally, make extra food and bring plenty of St. Supéry wine (and a few beers) to share with your tailgating neighbors.

The key to a stress free tailgate party is preparation. There is nothing worse than getting to the game only to realize that you forgot something (like your St. Supéry wine!) For this reason, I am a big fan of lists. I have prepared this list for you as a starting place. Just add the items that you need for your particular menu.

-St. Supéry wine (red and white)
-Wine glasses (plastic is safer for your tires in the event of breakage–GoVino is a favorite)
-Wine opener
-Trash bags
-Paper napkins
-Disposable plates, forks, knives
-Drinking water
-Wet naps
-First aid kit
-Folding chairs
-Folding table
-Disposable containers
-Zip lock bags
-Thermos
-Coolers
-BBQ utensils (tongs, wire brush, fork)
-Grill (charcoal, chimney starter, matches/extra propane cans)
-Condiments
-Don’t forget the food!

WHO: every wine drinker, winery, wine shop, journalist, restaurant, sommelier and chef around the world.

WHAT: Cabernet day is meant to be a community owned celebration of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Blend and Cabernet Franc.

WHERE: on all social media sites and blogs including Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Friendfeed, Gowalla, WordPress, etc….  Just use the #Cabernet hash tag in your post to make it trackable by everyone else.

WHEN: Thursday September 2, 2010 all day (this is a 24-hour thing to make it possible for people in all time zones to join)

WHY: Short answer: why not?  Longer answer: Cabernet is one of the most popular and celebrated grapes in the world.  Social Media makes it possible to connect with people who share the same interests as you.  When you use the #Cabernet hash tag in your posts makes it easier for people to find you and see what you’re saying.  It also makes it easier for you to find people who are talking about the same subject.  It’s like a giant table with all participants sitting together talking over a glass of wine.

Restaurants and wine shops should find some new people to connect with by tracking the #Cabernet tag.

HOW: Add #Cabernet to any thoughts, videos, tweets, blogs or experiences you have that day.  Search the #Cabernet hash tag by searching google, Twitter search, Facebook search or whatever monitoring software you like.

St. Supéry is offering a special price on our selection of Cabernet’s.  Link coming soon.

See the growing list of participants by going to the Master Cabernet Day site.

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Thursday September 2nd is #Cabernet Day on all social media sites.  Social media winos around the world will be tasting and sharing posts about the king of grapes.  Any tweet, Facebook post, blog post, etc..  using the hash tag “#cabernet” will be searchable which is another way of saying you can filter everything else out so you just see those tweets if you want.
The constantly updating page for the event is http://cabernet.eventbrite.com.
Here’s a few suggestions for wineries who want to kick start their OND season off right:

1. If you have internet and decent phone reception, invite people to come to your winery. Put up the twitter stream so everyone can see it and interact. We use twitterfall.com to pull in #cabernet tweets only.  Type in #cabernet where is says, “All Searches”.

2. If you don’t want to have people to the winery, but want to participate, we’ll add your logo to the invite page.  You can literally participate from anywhere you have access to Twitter.

3. Invite your brand ambassadors or wine club members who are on Twitter or Facebook to talk about your wine using the hash tag.

4. Invite key accounts to host a satellite tweetup where they display the Twitter stream (using twitterfall) and pour your wine.

5. Offer your Cabernet at a discount for people to buy ahead of time so they have it on hand that day and can tweet about it.

6. Be community minded and support other wineries, shops and restaurants in their efforts.

7. Most of all, interact with as many people that day as you can. This is a targeted and qualified audience. It’s a great way to build social media connections.  The holiday season will be kicking off, here’s a great way to get some mojo for your brand.

Recycling and reusing is a good practice around the house, especially in the kitchen. Use as much of each food item as possible, and reuse every drop of wine when you can. Here are a few great uses for leftover wine:
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1. Sauces

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courtesy of getty images

Reduction sauces are an ideal way to use leftover white or red wine. If you haven’t experimented with reduction sauces, take a run at it and play around with the basics of making a sauce. Often times a stock (ie. Beef, Veal or Chicken) mixed with wine can be simmered for a while until the liquid is reduced to a sauce. Stocks that are homemade are flavorful and easy to do, but they can also be found at most grocery stores, sometimes know as broths. The Julia Child stock recipe is tried and true.

A 1:1 ratio of wine to stock is an easy recipe for sauce. Pour them together into a saucepan and bring to a boil, then simmer down until the sauce is thick and almost not liquid. I love doing this with ports or red wines for beef. Pasta sauces simmered with red wines and a bay leaf are also more flavorful.

Some recipes that use wine for the sauce:

Poached Chicken in Truffles & Cream Sauce (uses white wine)

Chicken with Rosemary & Lemon Sauce (uses white wine)

Seared Duck Breast w/ Cherry Port Sauce (uses port)

Presidential Rack of Lamb a la Richelieu (uses white wine)

Filet with Mushrooms & Madeira (uses madeira)

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2. Marinating Meats

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courtesy of prevention.com

Marinating beef in red wine is an awesome way to add flavor and tenderize meat. This is a great thing to do when making stews or even before grilling. I especially like reusing wine this way because red wine can get kind of nasty to drink if it’s been open for longer than a few weeks, but not too nasty to use for marinating. Here’s a recipe to try where the meat gets marinated over night:

Bouef Bourguignonne (marinate with red wine)

3. Hearty Stews

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courtesy of getty images

One of my all time favorite recipes is the one listed above. Bouef Bourguignonne not only uses beef that’s marinated but it’s slow cooked all day with an entire bottle of wine poured in. On a cold day, a warm hearty stew-like dish warms the soul.

The idea isn’t too dissimilar to the concept behind sauces where slow simmering creates a thicker, richer sauce, but with stews, all the ingredients soak up the flavors and gain a wonderful texture.