>>Today on "Un-Wine'd" Afton Mountain Vineyards where we'll get to see a little bit about their organic practices, and we'll taste from the barrel.

Back in the kitchen some great food, so go grab that glass, it's time to unwind.

>>Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by.

(soft jazz music) >>Damien showed me such a great time at Afton.

He gave me barrel tastings, not just from one or two barrels, three, four, five barrels.

We had so much fun tasting his wine.

He also told us a little bit about his sustainable practices.

Back in the kitchen today, we're gonna make some delicious food that pairs up perfectly with these wonderful wines, including a ravioli with his wonderful Traditions blend.

And not to be outdone, the amazing extra-dry Brut that we paired not with something elegant, but a simple shrimp taco.

So let's head to the kitchen, and see what we're gonna make today.

I love to make homemade pasta and when I was in Italy, I made pasta all the time.

Now sometimes you can make this with semolina.

Sometimes with flour.

Never make it with 100% semolina, or your pasta will be really, really hard, but if you have semolina you can mix it in.

Today, I just didn't happen to have it.

So I'm going to take two cups of flour.

Now you can use an all-purpose flour for this.

If you can find a double zero flour that's really awesome.

That's what they like to use in Italy.

I'm gonna take about a teaspoon of salt.

And then I want to drop in some eggs, just one at a time into my mixture.

And I like to break these into an individual bowl.

Okay, so let's get that started.

Now, basically, pasta dough, it's going to be a half cup of your dry ingredients with one egg, one large egg.

So usually I do two cups of flour and four large eggs.

Now every time the eggs don't have quite the exact amount of moisture, so you might need just a little bit of water.

We'll see at the end.

(soft music) Okay, let's look at this dough.

It's nice and crumbly.

You can kind of see that it's very coarse.

It almost looks like cornmeal, but when you squeeze it, it sticks together.

That's exactly what you want when you're making homemade pasta.

So let's just take this off, and I'm going to knead this just a little bit on the counter.

All right, now I've set just a little mat out because I prefer to knead on the mat rather than right on the counter.

That way it keeps it a little cleaner.

I want to put just a little bit of flour out, not a lot.

We're just going to give it a gentle knead, so that it all sticks together.

Now if that crumble was just a little bit drier, I probably would have added about a teaspoon of water.

Sometimes that's important.

Sometimes the eggs are even more moist than you expect.

And then you want to add just a little more flour.

So just like bread, we want to knead this because what happens is it gets nice and soft, pliable, and then your dough is easily rolled.

So I'm just gonna knead this about five minutes.

And then I'll show you what it looks like.

All right, so I'm gonna just chop off a little piece of this dough.

And you can see that it's nice and moist, but at the same time it has just enough dryness that I can roll it through my roller.

Now let's take this over to the roller, and roll it nice and thin.

And then we'll get those raviolis going.

I always start my roller off at one, and then I like to give one fold over once I've got it going because that way I know that I'm getting a nice smooth dough.

And then I like to crank it up to two, then three, four and five.

Now depending on your dough, you might want to make it thinner, but I like my dough on five.

I like a really meaty dough for raviolis, and so that's what I go for.

I'm just gonna dip this in a slight bit of flour just to dust it ever so slightly before I do that last roll.

And now I'm on five.

I'm just gonna dust it a little bit, so that it doesn't stick to the counter while I roll my next piece.

If you find your dough is too thin on one end roll it over so that the dough is like this, and then you can roll right through and it works great.

You're really looking to get as rectangular a dough as possible, but because we're not using any kind of a pre-made form, and we're just cutting by hand, you can just keep using this dough over and over and over.

Now let's go back over and make a little filling, and we'll fill this dough.

So we've got our pasta dough here.

It's all ready for the filling.

And like I said we're not gonna use all of this dough.

Once we cut it you'll have scraps.

You can re-roll that and make even more.

So what I have in my bowl is 15 ounces of ricotta cheese, and I'm just gonna add about two tablespoons of a nice chopped basil, and then a cup of shredded mozzarella, and about a half teaspoon of salt.

I just want to get in with my hands 'cause I love to stir with my hands.

So we're just gonna mix this all up, and that way I can also see that my basil is really mixed through, my salt is mixed through.

You can make all kinds of fillings for raviolis.

Usually when I make raviolis I make a lot because they freeze beautifully.

Now it's important as you're filling these you want to make sure that you have some sort of a cookie cutter to cut them with, just like this, and you want to make sure that you have a scoop that's gonna be uniform, so that all of your raviolis will be about the same size, and the other important part is to have a brush, and some water.

So I'm just going to put some filling down about three inches apart.

If it spreads out just kind of stack it up about like that.

I want to make sure that my cookie cutter goes all the way around, but I don't want to overfill or underfill.

Right now I'm just gonna take some water, and brush all around.

This will make the other piece of pasta just adhere.

Now be careful that you don't spread your filling out all through the middle because if you do then you won't be able to roll the rest of the dough really well.

Your scraps will just be compromised.

Now I want to lay another piece right over top, and then you want to just kind of tuck your fingers all around to make sure the air bubbles are out from right around the filling just like this.

And you can see that that air is coming out, and then take a little cookie cutter, and I just like to kind of roll it a little bit in the flour, and I'm just going to cut that, and go to this one and cut, and to this one and cut.

You can see all that dough all left, and this can just be re-rolled for your next batch of raviolis.

Then the last thing that I want to do is just make sure I crimp all the way around the edges.

You don't need lots of fancy ravioli cutters to do raviolis at home.

I have lots of those things and I rarely use them because just making them by hand is so much fun.

And kind of dust off all of that excess flour, so it doesn't float in your pot as you cook them.

Now while I bring water to a boil for these I'm gonna show you a super easy recipe for a pasta sauce that can be made in five minutes.

Now when I say this sauce is easy it is so simple.

I have in my blender a 28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes.

Those are the long skinny tomatoes that have very little moisture in them.

I'm going to add to that about three-quarters teaspoon of dried oregano and about a tablespoon of dried parsley.

I want to put in just a pinch of red pepper flakes.

That gives it really good body and flavor, a teaspoon of salt, and then I'm gonna add about three-quarters of a teaspoon to a teaspoon of dried parsley.

Now if you don't have dried parsley, or you prefer to use fresh you're going to use three times the amount.

And then I want to put in a little tomato paste because I just need to thicken this up a little bit, so about three tablespoons of tomato paste.

You can go a little more, or a little less, depending on how thick you like it.

Now I'm just gonna hit on.

And off, so simple.

Now I'm going to put this in a pot on the stove to just warm while we cook our raviolis, and then we'll be ready to eat.

So we've got our sauce simmering, I've got my water boiling, and I am ready to drop in my raviolis.

Now these cook so quickly, about three to five minutes depending on how thick you made your pasta dough, so for mine about three and a half.

And I just want to lift those up from the bottom to make sure they don't stick.

As soon as they start to float to the top they're ready.

You just want to drain those really well as you go to your bowl, so the sauce doesn't get too much water in it.

And this makes a beautiful serving of raviolis.

All right, so let's just garnish this up with a little bit of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Now let's pour out this gorgeous Traditions wine.

This is a blend of Merlot-Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, and it blends so well with the beauty of this vegetarian dish.

I hope you'll love it as much as I do.

(soft music) >>So we use big barrel on Merlot and Cabernet Franc because it really respects the fruit level.

There is less barrel impact.

>>Oh, yeah.

>>And so after, so in few months we probably bottle that before September, or like during the summertime, so we rack it up, put it in the tank, do the fining, and put that in bottle.

Don't even do filtration anymore.

I mean on some wine we do, but I'm really trying to get away from all of those different things just I mean the wine as it come from the vineyard.

>>Well, I'm here at Afton Mountain Vineyards with Damien Blanchon, and it is so wonderful to sit across from you, and to discuss this amazing place that you have here, so tell us a little bit about how you got to the United States and started working here.

>>Well, first thanks for coming and showing here.

So, yeah, I arrived.

So was I doing my study in France of viticulture and enology in 2005, and when I passed one of my professors talk to me about this organization that sends student abroad, basically, and me I wanted to learn more of the English because I quickly understand that that will be helpful in that business coming later so I found this organization, and basically people post job that they want to have intern, so there was this little winery in Culpeper, Virginia that was looking for somebody to take care of the vineyard, and the winery in the same time.

So for me it was a great opportunity because I like to have the connection between vines and wine it's very important.

That's what my family does so I wanted to keep that.

There's lots of stuff in California, but it was more targeted to only one filtration, or one big thing during harvest where you see less of little things, so when I've seen that thing in Virginia, at first I didn't know they were making wine in Virginia, and where was it.

So I came here in July 2006 with the Ohio State University program.

And that was supposed to be for one year, and it's been 15 years now.

>>Wow, and you just fit in and love it here I can tell.

>>I love it.

>>But you do come from a wine family.

>>Yeah, so my family has a vineyard in the Beaujolais Village area so south of the Burgundy, and that's this bottle right here.

>>I love it >>So that was mainly my grandfather, and my uncle back in the days, and when my uncle retire, we took over the vineyard with my cousins, and tried to do pretty much the same thing, carry on the tradition with a different name, a different outcome.

We do a little bit of White and Rosé now that they were not doing before, and we import that here, and we're lucky that we can sell that here too, and share that with the people around here.

>>That is fantastic, I love that crossover.

>>Yeah, yeah, it makes sense for us to do that, too.

>>Oh, yes, and you've brought a lot of the practices that are really very French influences, including the organic farming and the use of the chickens, and you're getting ready to add pigs.

Tell us a little bit about that.

>>So, yeah, when I came here in Virginia, the weather is really challenging.

So very high humidity and very high heat, so disease develop very quickly or easily.

So we have to, I mean, most of the people that we have to have a drastic chemical spray, or spray program.

Me, I've never really been too crazy about spraying chemicals in the vineyard.

So, yeah, I tried to develop some technique that a few other people use here, but it was, yeah, a little bit different.

It's bringing teas, herbal teas, for example.

Like we use horsetail grass, we use nettle leaf at the beginning of the season.

So nettle leaf, for example, I have those big 100 gallon tank, and I put a certain amount of nettle leaf that I calculate per acre.

And do a big tea, basically, brew that, and extract what we need from the nettle leaves.

Nettle leaves have very good iron and calcium in there.

So when you spray that on the vine, you actually develop the strength and immune system, instead of fighting, or targeting the disease by itself.

So you have the vines to really get more resistant to all the disease that comes in.

And so, yeah, I experiment myself a lot from what they do in Loire Valley, or in South Burgundy area in this area where they are definitely ahead of us and those techniques.

So trying to implement that here.

I mean, we can see the result now it's working after like five, six years of doing so.

So, yeah, it's great.

>>That's fantastic.

>>So after bringing all those animals and things in there is just in logic in the philosophy of diversification a little bit, try to not be monoculture, try to take care of the land, of the environment.

And it's just make sense for us to just have different things that we can all profit from, like when we raise the chickens, they are on the field on the land.

So they bring back some organic matter, some fertilization in some ways, and we can harvest them, butcher them, eat them, and good product so everybody is a win-win.

>>That's right, that's right.

Well, speaking of win-win.

I would love to try some of your wine.

>>Yeah, so this one we can try.

So this one is a methode champenoise, sparkling, basically, made with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

So 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, and we do méthode ancestrale, méthode traditionelle.

So we harvest the fruit, do the wine base with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and do second fermentation in the bottle.

So, basically, when we harvest we press, we do the fermentation in the tank.

That stay about two months in the tank, and after we add some more yeast and sugar in the tank, and put that in a bottle with a crown cap like a beer cap, and we put them on the side, and you have the second fermentation happening.

And that stays about 18 months, and after we do the disgorging and things like that then.

>>You hand riddle?

>>Yeah, we hand riddle everything.

>>Wow, wow, well, this is fabulous.

>>So the way we do it with no barrel only tank, so it's nice and fresh.

We try to, you know, keep it interesting with good acidity level.

>>Yeah, so it has low sugar.

>>This is dry basically.

So after even during the dosage we are in the Brut that's category of Brut, so basically it's dry.

>>I love it.

>>Cheers.

>>Yum, this is so good.

(soft music) Who says sparkling wine is just for a special occasion.

Well, this recipe goes so well with this Extra Brut, and it is just a wonderful everyday shrimp taco.

So I hope you're gonna enjoy this.

First of all, we're going to make some cilantro cream.

Now, in my bowl I have a little bit of mayo, and I'm going to add about two tablespoons of a ranch dressing mix.

It just gives good depth to this, and just stir that through.

Now you can make this in a blender.

You can make it just like I'm making it with a little whisk.

I'm gonna add some sour cream.

This really gives a wonderful richness.

Just stir that through.

And then I'm going to add a little bit of milk.

Now this will thin it out, and it adds a little richness as well.

And I'm going to add some tomatillos salsa.

I love this and I choose medium because I want a little bit of spice.

You can also get this in mild.

All right, let's give that a good whisk through.

And then we're going to add some freshly chopped cilantro.

This really thickens it up too.

Gives that great Southwest flavor, but really thickens up the sauce.

And then last, I'm just gonna squeeze in just a little bit of lime juice, because lime is just that flavor of Southwest cooking.

So I'm gonna put in the juice of about half of a lime.

And squeeze this to make it nice and soft.

So I'm getting out maybe about a tablespoon of juice.

And I just want to set that aside until I'm ready for my tacos.

Now I want to slice up two jalapenos.

These are really big jalapenos, and depending on how much spice you want, that really is dependent on how high up in the jalapeno you go.

So I am going to leave this probably about medium so I'm not gonna go all the way up into the seeds too far.

So we're just gonna slice through, and I'm coming up into a lot of the seeds.

So I'm just gonna leave those.

I'll use those for something else.

And I want to just put these in a board.

Now, always be careful with jalapenos.

I usually like to have a little glove on, but I know that these are not super spicy, so I'm not really as worried as I normally would be.

Now I'm gonna take about two and a half pounds of shrimp.

These are larger shrimp I just happened to find.

I love the larger shrimp because I think it gives you a more meaty taco, but I'm going to just chunk those up in about one inch pieces.

All right, these are all chopped.

So let's move those over to a nice hot pan.

Now in my pan, I have two tablespoons of very hot olive oil.

And I'm just gonna add those jalapenos, and then I want to come right behind that with my shrimp.

All right, so we want to just stir fry these shrimp very quickly, and as we do, we're going to add some wonderful seasonings.

First of all, a little chili powder, a little paprika, some cumin, which is, of course, classic to Southwest, and a little garlic powder.

And beyond that, just a little salt and pepper will do.

Now we're going to cook these very quickly.

And then they'll be ready to assemble in some nice soft tortilla shells.

So we're all set up now for our tacos.

Let's fill our shells.

These are just soft flour tortillas.

You can use flour or corn.

So you can see these are not at all neat.

They're very messy they get everywhere, but with all of these wonderful toppings this is just incredible.

So I'm going to use a little bit of cheese on here, and this is just queso fresco that is wonderfully crumbled.

So beautiful.

Pick up the jumpers.

All right, then how about a little Pico de gallo.

You can buy Pico de gallo.

You can also make it, but just for this I decided to go ahead and buy it because it was very quick, easy, and then I have these tacos ready in about 10 minutes.

All right, let's try a little bit of our cilantro sauce.

See how thick that got with the cilantro, it's beautiful.

Just a little drizzle.

So good, and then a little bit of fresh cilantro because what's a good Southwest food without a little bit more.

These are so amazing.

And the flavor is so perfect with this wonderful wine.

So Bollicine, ah, this is a beautiful combination of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

It's an Extra Brut, which means it's very dry, very little residual sugar.

And it's so perfect with this because it just offsets that spiciness, and it's perfect with the seafood.

Oh yes, this is going to be lunch I can't wait.

So I hope you'll enjoy this today.

(soft music) I had such a great time at Afton Mountain, and tasted some wonderful wines, including these three that I've sampled with you today.

So I hope you will enjoy heading over to Afton, and trying these delicious recipes with all of their great wines.

So until next time, I'm Tassie Pippert.

Don't forget to grab that glass because it's always time to unwind.

You can get these recipes, and so much more at vpm.org/unwined.

>>Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by.

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