After a lunch of bacon, fried eggs and a salad we drove to Casa Abril Vineyards and Winery
located near the west frontage road south of the Budaghers exit on I-25 where
we spent over two hours tasting the wines and talking with the owner, Raymond
Vigil. Raymond is or was the president
of the Wine Growers Association of New Mexico, so he is very knowledgeable. We met his family and watched them finishing
a bottling of a portion of the 2012 crop.
His daughter, the wine maker, who lives in Colorado, was in attendance,
as was her two children and husband.
Raymond takes care of the growing facility and vineyards. Here is a picture of him in the vineyard.
We liked all his wines, but his pride and joy is the 2012
Malbec. Four wines are made from grapes
grown in the vineyard, a Zinfandel, a tempranillo, a tempranillo rosé, and the
Malbec. They are the only wines to carry a Middle Rio Grande Valley Appellation. Suzette bought a case of them
all for her June 22nd Field to Food dinner that features ingredients
and wines grown and made within 100 miles of her Center for Ageless Living in
Los Lunas.
I had bought six bone-in rib eyes on Saturday (Smith’s
$7.99/lb.), so on Sunday evening we decided to grill a steak and make a light
meal.
We started by baking a 1 lb. Kabocha squash I had bought at
Pro’s on Thursday for an hour in the oven at 375˚.
Kabocha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kabocha (Japanese カボチャ, 南瓜), Danhobak (Korean 단호박), or Cambodia abóbora: is an Asian variety of winter
squash. The word kabocha
has come to mean a general type of winter squash to many English-speaking
growers and buyers. In some cultures it is revered as an aphrodisiac.[1]
Kabocha is
commonly called Japanese pumpkin, especially in
Australia and New
Zealand. In Thailand, it is called
Fak Thong (Thai: ฟักทอง or golden
squash) and is also called kabocha squash in North
America. In Japan, the
word kabocha may refer to either this squash or to the Western-style pumpkin.
I minced two cloves of garlic and a shallot and sliced about
seven or eight baby portabella mushrooms and sautéed them in a skillet with
olive oil and butter and the flowers from a sprig of lavender and slices of
about five leaves of sage from our garden.
After the mushrooms began to take on color, I added about 2 Tbsp. of
Amontillado Sherry and covered the mushrooms to steam until the steak was ready.
I cut up ½ cucumber and Suzette cut up a tomato and added
some of the PPI basil orange mayonnaise dressing she had made for Saturday’s
salad and I fetched and sliced into thin slices five or six basil eaves from
the garden and Suzette combined all the salad ingredients.
When the steak came off the grill, Suzette took the squash
from the oven and cut it in half and then quartered it and put ¼ on each plate
and then a spoonful of salad and I sliced the steak and we each plated up the
steak and mushrooms.
We had enjoyed Casa Abril’s Malbec, but it was very young,
so I went to the basement and found a bottle of 2009 Château Labrande Malbec
from the Cahors Appellation in France (90% Malbec and 10% Merlot) that I
recently bought at Costco for $9.99 and opened it and let it sit for about 1
hour to let it open up.
The wine was still rather tight, even after an hour. Malbec grapes make big wines. Also the French wine seemed to be heavier
tasting than the Malbec from Casa Abril.
I do not know if that is because of the addition of the 10% merlot or the
sulfites added to preserve the wine, but it did not have that light clean taste
that Casa Abril’s Malbec had. A
pleasant day and dinner.
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