Last week,
Touring & Tasting's president Paul Arganbright and I had the chance to catch up with Antonio Gardella. If you're in the wine business in this town, you know Antonio and love him for his passionate enthusiasm for wine. He is a walking encyclopedia of wine knowledge and in particular, the history of winemakers and winemaking in Santa Barbara county, having been involved in the wine business since the 1980's when many of our iconic wineries and restaurants were developing. One of the first books on winemaking was written by local Ralph Auf der Heide, who founded the
Wine Cask, which for years was the top venue for tasting and purchasing wine. Antonio attended Auf der Heide's classes, held in his home wine cellar. Antonio also found books on Napa, Sonoma and the Central Coast, visiting every winery listed during his vacations. He and a group of "cellar rats" met often to taste wines, with the group including Jim Clendenen of
Au Bon Climat, Bob Lindquist of
Qupé and Doug Margerum, of
Margerum Wines who bought the
Wine Cask in 1981 and developed the restaurant that became one of 74 restaurants in the world to win the
Wine Spectator Grand Award.
Antonio was at the first meeting of the
American Institute of Wine and Food with Julia Child and Robert Mondavi and was on the Board of Directors for the local chapter. He helped initiate the
Grape Harvest Festival in 1986 which has morphed into the annual
Harvest Festival at
Ranch Sisquoc. To further his knowledge, Antonio worked in the vineyards at harvest, picking grapes at
Babcock vineyards starting in 1983 and staying up all night with fellow wine enthusiasts and winemakers tasting and talking about wine. For five years, he worked as the maitre d' at
Piatti, an upscale Montecito restaurant, hosting and suggesting wine pairing, then he sold wine for the distributor
J. Eberle Wines. He then worked for
Pearson & Hawkins, which was bought by
Henry Wine Group, and has been one of the company's top sellers for the last 19 years. In fact, the
Henry Wine Group renamed their
Most Valuable Player award the
Gardella Award. His work with
Henry Wine Group has led him to travel in France, Italy, Spain, Chile and Australia, tasting wines and attending international wine events such as
Vinitaly.
In addition, in 1985 Antonio founded the
Companeros with Sid Ackert, Art Morel and Luis Goena, using grapes from the finest California vineyards and producing wines at Sid's expansive Gubernador Canyon property.
Companeros wines have garnered hundreds of gold medals, but none of the wines have been sold. They have been given to friends and used to raise more than $100,000 for charities. Paul and I had the opportunity to visit the winery some years ago--it was a little piece of Italy in Santa Barbara. A quaint, picturesque spot complete with an arbor-covered patio looking out at the wildly beautiful canyon. Sadly, the winery burned during the terrible Jesusita fire in 2010. We were fortunate to taste Antonio's
Companeros "Sid's Blend" Pinot Noir as well as the
Donum 2008 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir that he brought to enjoy with our dinner--smoked salmon appetizer and a seafood stew with some of my garden greens, tomato, saffron, clams, scallops, shrimps and cod. I will keep the
Companeros bottle, as a memento of California winemaking history, and as a reminder of good times with friends. As Antonio says, the friendships that wine brings are even more important than the wine. Coming from someone who has devoted his life to wine, that says a lot about the depth of his friendships. A toast to Antonio Gardella!
Tama's Seafood Stew With Fresh Garden Greens
Ingredients:
4 tablespoons olive oil
8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onion, small dice
1/2 cup shallot, small dice
1/4 cup celery, deveined, small dice
1/3 cup carrot, small dice
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 tablespoon thyme
1 bay leaf
2 cups loosely packed collard greens, chiffonade*
8 oz jar clam juice
1/4 cup good red wine
750 gm (about 26 oz) good quality strained tomato, I used Pomi Italian brand
pinch of saffron
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonade*
2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
Heat the oil in heavy saucepan over medium low heat. Sweat (cook without browning) the garlic, onion and shallot until the onion is translucent. Add the celery, carrot, stock, thyme, and bay leaf and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the clam juice, red wine, tomato, saffron, pepper, marjoram, basil, salt and collard greens. Simmer for another 30 - 60 minutes (longer enriches the flavor), turning the heat to low if necessary so the broth doesn't bubble. The broth should reduce to 2/3 of the original volume. Add a bit more stock if necessary if it has reduced more than this. Stir in the clams, shrimp, fish and scallops. Cover and simmer another ten minutes or until the seafood is cooked and the clams have opened. Serve over rice or pasta. Enjoy with a nice glass of Pinot Noir!
*To chiffonade: roll the greens or basil into a roll and slice very thinly.
The other evening, I made pasta all'uovo from scratch and a fully flavored marinara sauce with handfuls of fresh herbs from my garden and half a head of garlic. We needed a hearty red wine to pair with this meal, so we sampled three wines from the Touring & Tasting cellar: the 2008 Eberle Cote-du-Robles from Paso Robles, the 2007 Pietra Santa Zinfandel from the Cienega Valley 25 miles east of Monterey Bay, and the Argentinian 2010 Tinto Negro Malbec.
Paul Arganbright, Touring & Tasting president, and I attended the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Wine Society (AWS) last week. The AWS includes wine lovers from novice to expert, amateur and professional winemakers, and people in all aspects of the wine trade. This meeting was a blind tasting of five Tempranillos--two from Spain, one from Argentina, and two from the USA--and featured Dorothy Schuler, president of the Tempranillo Advocates Produces and Amigos Society (TAPAS) and winemaker at Bodegas Paso Robles.
Tempranillo grapes have a thick skin which contribute tannins and color, but little acidity--something that can be rectified when they are grown in areas where the nighttime temperatures plunge, like Paso Robles. Tempranillo doesn't oxidize quickly, so it ages well. It's a refined wine, especially compared to other ones made from hot climate grapes, and goes well with one of the main ingredients in Spanish food: olive oil. 
4 tablespoons olive oil
The gleaming Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City has hosted kings, queens, prime ministers, celebrities and every US President since Lyndon Johnson. In fact, President Reagan spent so much time in the hotel that the press called it "The Western White House". Last Wednesday, the 18th, it was the site of the 2012 Herzog International Food & Wine Festival. The preliminary trade event is THE place to be for Kosher wine buyers with makers from Israel, France, Spain, Australia, Portugal, Italy, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and the USA, with two booths needed for the wide variety of wines made by Herzog Cellars. The consumer portion is an opportunity to taste wines and spirits often not widely available, not just for those that keep Kosher, but for those of us who are not Jewish but like to taste wines from around the world.
Last year, the Festival was at Herzog's state-of-the-art 77,000 square foot facility in Oxnard, CA. Incongruously set in an industrial park in a city not known for gourmet dining, the facility houses the extraordinary Tierra Sur restaurant, the highest Zagat-rated restaurant in Ventura Country. Chef Aarons has long and varied international resume, including Savoy in New York, Zuni Café in San Francisco and Restaurante Da Delfina in Tuscany, Italy. Chef Aarons creates exotic and mouthwatering cuisine with a Mediterranean flair, from fresh local seasonal produce. At last year's festival he had his own kitchen as the event was at Herzog Cellars. This year, he had to build his own kitchen at the Hyatt location. He looked a bit harried and called the experience "like a Restaurant Impossible" but one would never have guessed at any hinderance to his culinary creation because the food was delicious and beautifully presented.
I spent so much of my time sampling the fabulous hors d'oevres that I didn't taste as many wines as I should have. But who could resist the lavish spread with multiple offerings such as hot smoked salmon with black garlic sauce, black cod ceviche in Lapsong tea marinade with Mandarin orange and cucumber, tuna tartar with Za'atar spice (Middle Eastern herbs with sesame seed) pickled eggplant and microcelery, cold smoked hamachi with baby beets and Myer lemon aioli, and Jerusalem artichoke tortillas with salmon roe and black bowfin caviar? To top it off, I had the huckleberry compote and sips of two delicious dessert drinks: the Walders Vodka & Vanilla mixed with pineapple juice and the limoncello from the Israeli winery Binyamina.
As for the wines, I had the Chateau Leoville Poyferre stuck in my mind from the 2011 Herzog Festival----so I made a beeline to their booth to try the Bordeaux. I tasted the 94 point 2004 last year and thought the 93 point 2005 just as luxuriously complex, smoky and rich. Next stop was Capçanes, made by the eponymous village in the Priorato hills of Spain where the grape growers formed a cooperative, producing about 2% of their wines under Kosher conditions. They have become world renown, garnering high ratings of 90+ points. Touring & Tasting had the Mas Donis Barrica at one time--a spicy, fruit-forward Garnacha with a bit of Syrah. I enjoyed the 95 Point Peraj Ha'abib which is a powerful blend of Garnacha, Carinena and Cabernet Sauvignon. The name Peraj Ha'abib was a fortunate mistake--a rabbi translated spring flower erroneously as Peraj Ha'abib, instead of Peraj Ha'aviv. But Ha'abib means is a term of endearment, so it gives the wine a loving touch. Other highlights: Herzog's dense and chocolately 2008 Chalk Hill Cab, the Domain Netofa 2009 Latour Red blend of Syrah and Mourvedre, and the Chilean Alfasi 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon.
We scooted out of the trade tasting just in time as motorcycle cops were starting to line the Avenue of the Stars in advance of President Obama's motorcade. I'll be keeping a lookout on the Herzog website for upcoming food and wine pairing events at their restaurant to taste more of Chef Aarons tasty treats and sample more of the Herzog wines--some only available at the winery. I haven't been to one of their wine and food pairing evenings, but see on their events calendar that past tastings are just $15--worth making the drive to Oxnard!
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