>>In the heart of Loudoun County lies our own little slice of the Big Easy here in Virginia.

That's right, today we're at Breaux Vineyards.

So go grab your glass, it's time to "Un-Wine'd".

>>Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by... >>The Virginia Wine Board, promoting the interests of vineyards and wineries in the commonwealth through research, education, and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's vineyards.

Discover more at virginiawine.org.

>>And by... (calm music) >>Sparkling wines love caviar.

They also love fatty things like fried chicken and potato chips.

So today we're gonna make an easy appetizer using a little bit of caviar.

Now, you don't have to break the budget to do this recipe, so we're gonna start with a little board or platter.

To that, I'm gonna add some herbs.

Now, I just want to build something that looks pretty, so I'm going to try to get a little height here.

This is gonna be my caviar dish.

I'll put some ice chips in it, and then sit the caviar right down in.

You don't wanna take the caviar out of its original tin or jar.

So let's try to build a little herb right around there to give a nice little color.

And if you need to, have your little herb scissors at the ready so you can cut things as needed.

So we just wanna build, but we don't want things that are in our way.

There we go, let's just pull that around.

I love to use dill on this because dill is just so fluffy, so light, and it looks so pretty with sparkling wines.

Now this particular wine is a Blanc de Blanc.

So what does that mean?

Well, it simply means that you have white wine coming from white grapes.

If you see a sparkling wine that says Blanc de Noir, what is that?

Sparkling wine that's white that comes from red grapes.

So generally that would be a pinot noir-based wine.

So let's just arrange this around.

We'll get our back looking a little bit prettier.

And the things that you want to use for caviar are simple, things that are salty or things that are creamy.

You can use eggs, you can use all sorts of onions.

And today we're using creme fraiche, lots of herbs.

But it's important that you just use something that really enhances that caviar, or it complements it in some way.

So it either conforms to the flavor or it's a little bit opposite that flavor.

So let's just pull these herbs on around.

We're just trying to make something that looks pretty.

Feel free to tuck and cut as you need so that you don't have stems laying everywhere.

And we just wanna make this look nice.

So a little caviar platter can be very expensive to make.

It can also be very inexpensive to make.

It's not like we're all going to be able to buy beluga caviar, which is the most expensive in the world, but we can usually afford a black lumpfish, which is the most sold caviar in the United States and it's what I'm using today.

So I have some green onions, and I'll just tuck that in.

I also just have some minced herbs.

I used some chive, a little dill, and some basil for this.

And I just want to tuck this like right up here.

You don't have to necessarily go for a front and back of your board.

What you're trying to do is lay it out so people can see things from all sides and enjoy it.

Now here's our little chipped ice, and we just want to stick the caviar right on top of it or bury it down in, depending on what kind of container you're using.

Let's bury this one just a little bit.

There we go.

Now we have a nice ice all around that caviar.

Caviar loves potato chips.

Salt and salt, that crunchy against that fishiness.

So we're going to go with some little potato chips here.

And you want a thick cut chip, something that will dip really easily.

And just arrange those on the platter.

Try to make sure you have whole chips and not chippy chips.

And another great thing to deliver is bread.

So let's use a little crostini.

We'll arrange some simple little crostinis right here on the platter, all around that creme fraiche.

If you're lucky enough to find a great mother of pearl spoon for your caviar, do that.

Caviar tends to pick up the flavors that come from stainless, so you want to use a mother of pearl if you can find it.

If not, a nice little porcelain spoon works great.

So we're ready for our appetizer.

We have our caviar, some onions, some deliciously fresh chopped herbs, some creme fraiche, a little bit of bread, and some chips.

And now let's enjoy that with a lovely glass of sparkling wine.

What a great combination, and I hope you'll enjoy it next time you wanna make a quick appetizer at home.

(calm music) So Jen, I am so excited to be here in this Northern Virginia Wine AVA.

I love to come up here.

So tell us a little bit about your vineyard and your wonderful winery.

>>Yeah, sure, absolutely.

So Breaux Vineyards was founded by my father back in the '90s, actually, and he moved here from the outer banks of North Carolina.

We assumed this property.

We had horses, cattle, hay.

He was clearing a field one day to actually plant more hay and discovered some grapevines that were quite downtrodden.

Luckily, he has a green thumb, having worked at the botanical gardens as a young man.

He jumped off of his tractor, he did a little research, he recultivated those vines and made wine, a little bit of Chardonnay and a red blend.

>>Oh, wow.

>>And that's why we're here today.

>>Well, I know you are really known for your Chardonnays, your Nebbiolos.

So what are some of the varietals you have here?

>>So we grow 14 different varieties.

We do grow three hybrids, Seyval, Vidal, and Chambourcin.

>>Wow.

>>We do a lot of Vinifera, of course.

We do the Chardonnay, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc.

We do Langhe Nebbiolo, that Italian variety.

Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon Malbec, among quite a few others.

>>Wow, that is fantastic.

Well, I know that I'm sitting here in August and you've gone through variation.

About when do you start your harvest?

>>Great question.

So harvest is that magical time of year we all love and loathe in the state of Virginia.

We will be picking Chardonnay for our sparkling in about two weeks.

So right around the beginning of September, we'll pick for our Blanc to Blanc.

So we want the acids to be a little higher and the sugars to be a little lower when we pick for our sparkling.

So after that, we'll wait a few weeks and then begin to pick the other varieties.

>>So we're in Loudoun County.

Tell us about the number of wineries here in Loudoun and how it's grown.

>>Oh my goodness, I've seen a lot of changes.

So I took over the operations for my family in 2005 and I have seen Loudoun just emerge as this amazing trail in Virginia.

We have around 50 wineries now in Loudoun County.

We are the most highly concentrated wine trail in the whole state of Virginia.

>>Wow, wow.

>>Very active wine trail, lots of wineries, lots of great people.

You know, lots of great marketing that's done to try to attract people to our site.

And we're close to Washington DC, which makes it fantastic for customers that are flying in from out of state to truly make it a destination, similar to Charlottesville, because they're close to the Richmond airport as well.

>>Wow, well, it's absolutely gorgeous here, and I'm just enjoying every moment of my day.

>>Yes, thank you.

(calm music) >>If you've never had grillades and grits, I hope you'll enjoy this recipe at home and try it with a Cabernet-forward Bordeaux blend.

It's absolutely wonderful with that particular wine.

And this is a real tribute to New Orleans.

So I'm gonna start with three pounds of sliced pieces of sirloin in my bowl.

And I have 1 1/2 cups of flour here, and 3/8 of a cup of my Creole blend.

And that will be in the recipe.

You can also use different Creole blends that you buy in the store.

That's fine.

You'll need 3/8 of a cup for this particular recipe.

Now I just wanna mix that in with the flour.

I'm just gonna heat up my pan with a little olive oil and then we're going to dust this beef and get it frying in the pan.

So we wanna start off with probably about two tablespoons of olive oil in our pan, maybe three, because the olive oil will be soaked up by the flour pretty quickly.

So you'll keep adding olive oil as that flour soaks up.

Now here's what we're gonna do.

Let's just dip those little pieces of sirloin in our bowl, and we wanna make sure that we cover them all really, really well.

And then let's drop them in that hot oil.

Ooh, yeah, sizzle sizzle.

You want to not overcrowd these and just get one layer in at a time.

Grillades was a new recipe for me, and when I was looking to research things to make for this particular wine, I found several recipes for grillades from New Orleans and I thought I'd try a couple and then create my own, which is what I like to do.

And that's what I like you to do with my recipes.

Try them the way they are and then create your own recipe from them, because everyone has different tastes, and it's important to cook for your family and the way they like to eat.

Alright, let's give that first batch a little flip.

(meat sizzles) And like I said, you don't have to cook them all the way through.

We're just getting them seared off with a little bit of color on the pieces.

Now, as soon as you've got that batch flipped and a few more in, let's just move those to a plate to just rest.

The goal is to be sure that all the flour is cooked from each piece.

(meat sizzles) All right, now we're going to add a little butter to the pan, about half a stick.

(tongs scrape) Let's get up all that fond as we do it, just scrape away.

And then I want to add my Cajun triune, two white onions, four pieces of celery chopped, and one large green pepper chopped.

(vegetables sizzle) Let's just stir this through because we're sweating the vegetables.

They'll give you an amazing flavor component.

They look great.

They're starting to just turn color and become translucent.

At this point, I want to add two cloves of the garlic.

You can add three if you'd like, it gives it a little more flavor, but for me, two for this recipe works great.

All right.

Looks so good.

Now let's add the rest of our flour and Creole compound.

There we go.

Now we're stirring through until all that flour has chance to cook.

All right, and our flour is pretty much cooked through, so now we want to add even more flavor.

First of all, a little Worcestershire.

Two tablespoons.

And I want to add a quarter cup of dry sherry.

Now, remember not to use cooking sherry.

Too much salt, not enough flavor.

Now I want to take a 28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes.

And these are whole, but I just want to squeeze through.

We're just crushing lightly.

I need all of the liquid and all of the tomato.

This is definitely one of those recipes where I feel like I cook by hand.

Now, let's add a quarter teaspoon of black pepper, 1/8 of a teaspoon of cayenne, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of dried thyme, half teaspoon of dried basil.

Now we want to add a cup of red wine, and you can use any dry red wine works fine.

Just make sure that it's a wine you'd like to drink.

And then three cups of beef stock.

Now let's return that beef to the pan and we'll let it simmer for about an hour.

Now, once you've simmered that for about an hour, add some mushrooms.

Now I like to use cremini mushrooms, but buttons also work well.

And you'll want between 16 ounces, which is a pound, and 24 ounces, a pound and a half.

If you like more mushrooms, definitely go for that 24 ounce pack.

Let's just put those in.

And then we'll let this simmer for another 35 to 40 minutes.

While the grillades cook, let's make some grits.

Now, I've been told that no self-respecting Southerner uses quick grits.

But for this, I like to use them.

I think they're a little bit creamier in the recipe.

So we're going to start with two cups of chicken stock.

And to that, I want to add about a cup and a half of heavy cream.

Let's let that come to a simmer.

So as soon as I see little bubbles starting to form on the side of the pan, I know that it's starting to come to a simmer.

Now, at this point, I want to add one stick of butter.

(whisk scrapes) And one cup of quick grits.

Now, the important thing with grits is to remember that the viscosity is really high in grits.

And just like a volcano, if you have heat that's too intense under those grits, you'll get huge bubbles that are trying to push through that very viscous liquid and you can get burned pretty easily.

So you want to make sure that as you're cooking grits, you bring down the temperature a little bit so the heat is not quite as intense on the bottom of the pan.

Now we're gonna stir those for about five minutes until they thicken up and they're ready.

To know your grits are ready, they should be nice and thick like this.

So let's stir in eight ounces of smoked Gouda cheese.

Eight ounces of Gouda or eight ounces of cheddar equates to about two cups.

So if you wanna just measure it, two cups will do it.

Oh, now let's stir that through.

And let's plate this baby up.

Now, to do this, I'm just gonna take a big scoop.

I wanna put the grits kind of in the middle of the bowl, and then I wanna put the grillades around them.

And they'll pool, it's beautiful.

Now let's scoop into our grillades.

And we just wanna go all the way around that edge.

Mm.

So yummy.

This is a dish, if you've never had it, you're gonna wonder why not.

I love it.

I'm gonna sprinkle it with a little bit of herbs.

What a tribute to the Big Easy, and I hope you'll enjoy this with a cab-forward blend of wine.

(calm music) So Jen, those early harvest Chardonnay grapes, full of acid, but wow, what an aroma.

>>Yeah.

>>Oh yeah.

This is just beautiful.

Now, how long do you keep it in the bottle?

How long do you keep it on the leaves?

How do you work your sparkling powder?

>>Yeah, so it's gonna depend on the year and just the general goal that we have from, you know, the winemaker might have.

For this particular one, we will leave it in the bottle for quite a while, for that, during that secondary fermentation.

This is 2020 and we're just now releasing it.

So it's been, it bottle aged for about a year and a half before it was disgorged.

>>So 2020 was good for something wonderful.

>>Absolutely.

I mean, bubbles are always wonderful, aren't they?

>>They really are.

And this really, it has great apple.

I get a little pear.

I'm just loving the aroma and the taste is beautiful.

>>I'm so glad you like it.

>>Oh yeah.

Okay, so we have this beautiful red, and I know that your family has some roots in New Orleans.

>>We do.

>>And this one is called Quarter?

>>This is called the Quarter.

Named after the French Quarter.

>>Fantastic.

>>And there are four grapes in this particular wine.

Appropriately so.

So it has Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and rounding it out with a little bit of Petit Verdot, about 15% Petit Verdot.

>>Wow, so a little bit of a Bordeaux blend?

>>Right.

>>Yeah, that's beautiful.

>>By all terms, it's a marriage, yeah.

>>Oh, that is silky.

My goodness, it has beautiful tannin.

>>Velvety tannin.

>>Yes.

>>So we put this particular wine, we will ferment the lot separately and then we blend them and they go into an Nadalie barrel.

We love Nadalie.

It's a French barrel.

And it's aged for about 16 months.

What's special about Nadalie as a cooper, they will spray the staves, you know, the oak, and pull, it pulls the, with water, and it will pull out those really harsh tannins.

>>Oh, wow.

>>And they spray them down for about two years.

So then by the time the barrel is put together and you put your wine in it, you're only getting the softer tannins, which you can tell.

They're present and they're pleasant, but they're not too harsh on the palate.

>>Exactly.

>>So that's why we chose Nadalie for this particular wine.

And again, 16 months, and there we go.

>>Wow.

Well, I can't wait to try that.

And Jen, thank you so much.

(glasses clink) >>Cheers.

>>For allowing us to be part of your day.

>>Thank you for being here.

>>Thank you.

>>Thank you.

(calm music) >>I love pizza.

And I had the best pizza when I was traveling in Italy this year that was made with a crust that had white dough and tomato dough.

That crust recipe is available in this recipe online.

So make sure if you wanna try the dough, you try that recipe.

But this is another recipe that will allow you to get your hands dirty.

So we have one 28 ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes, and I'm just gonna crush those a little bit with my fingers.

This is a deconstructed pizza, and I just thought it was fun.

It's a different way to eat pizza.

It's unexpected, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

Now, crush up those tomatoes.

And then we're gonna add about three ounces of tomato paste.

That'll just thicken this up a little bit.

Just stir it around with your fingers, or of course, with a spatula.

One tablespoon of parsley flakes, one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of dried basil, half a teaspoon of dried oregano.

And then let's throw in a few pepper flakes just for a little flavoring.

Now I'm going to put this into my pot, stick it on the stove just to warm up a little bit while I show you how to put the rest of the pizza together.

So here's my pizza dough.

Now this is done in a focaccia style.

So the pizza is actually going to be thick, and it's going to be assembled on the plate.

Now you can see in the dough that it's red and that it has some little points of white running through it.

The great thing about this is you can use regular dough, but the thing that makes it red is this tomato powder.

It's just dehydrated tomatoes, smells delicious, tastes wonderful, and it's just a fun thing to do to make your dough a little different.

Now I want to take a wedge of this dough just like that, and let's just lay it on the plate.

So we have the pizza dough or the focaccia.

We have a little bit of basil oil, and this is just pesto that I had that I thought I'd just mix more oil in.

And then I just wanna give it a little drizzle all around the plate just like this.

That will give you a lot of flavor as you eat this pizza.

There we go.

Then let's take some of our sauce.

I've warmed this sauce on the cooktop, so it's nice and thick and delicious.

And we're just going to put it right across the top of our dough, right there.

And I just wanna angle this a little bit more so that I'm offset just slightly on my plate.

And then I'm gonna take a piece of burrata.

Now, burrata is mozzarella cheese, but it has curd on the inside, so it's mozzarella on the outside, super soft and curd on the inside.

And I'm just gonna put that right there and then I want to split it open with my knife.

So let's just give it a little cut, just like that, and slightly open it.

And then we're gonna finish off with a nice piece of basil, big sprig, just like that.

And deconstructed pizza, all for you.

So delicious with a Nebbiolo.

Now, Nebbiolo is from the Piedmont region of Italy.

It's known as the grape of Barbaresco and Barolo.

But here in the US, we grow Nebbiolo, and I hope you'll enjoy.

(calm music) Many thanks to Jen Breaux of Breaux Vineyards for her Southern Louisiana hospitality.

I hope you've enjoyed today's show and all of the food I paired up with Breaux wines, including this grillades and grits, this wonderful platter with caviar, and, of course, the deconstructed pizza.

You can get all of these recipes and a whole lot more on vpm.org/unwined.

And until next time, I'm Tassie Pippert, saying go grab that glass.

It's always time to "Un-Wine'd".

>>Production funding for Unwind was made possible in part by... >>The Virginia Wine Board, promoting the interests of vineyards and wineries in the commonwealth through research, education, and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's vineyards.

Discover more at virginiawine.org >>And by... (calm music) (gentle music)