(bright music) >>On today's "Un-Wine'd," it's Eastwood Farm Winery, where I'll sit down with Athena Eastwood and talk about her operations.

Back in the kitchen, I'll pair up her wines with some delicious food, including sweet potato coconut curry soup, a cob salad with homemade blue cheese dressing, and New England pot roast.

So, go grab your glass, it's time to unwind.

>>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... (gentle upbeat music) >>Petit Manseng is a delicious varietal of wine.

It's simple, yet it's complex.

It can be made sweet, yet it can be made dry.

It's so versatile, and it has amazing flavors that go great with sweet potato coconut curry soup.

So we're gonna start with our pot and get it nice and warm, about medium high.

And to that, I'm going to add a little bit of coconut oil and just drop it in the pot.

And I'm going to add one chopped onion.

(onions clattering) So, let's just stir that around.

And we want to get this to the point where it's nicely softened before we add some sweet potatoes.

Now, our onions are starting to simmer a little bit.

While that happens, I'm going to get my other ingredients into my blender.

In my blender, I want to place two cans, 13 1/2 ounces each of coconut milk.

And I like to use a light coconut milk because it has more liquid to it.

It's better for soup.

So that makes, oh, 3 1/2 cups or so, and let's just pour that in.

(coconut milk sloshing) (cup clattering) It can be messy and you can get spats all over you, so just be very careful when you pour that in.

Now, to that, I want to add a little bit of cayenne.

Now, the great thing about this soup is any Asian flavor really goes well with Petit Manseng.

Because of its sweetness, its natural flavors, it cuts through a lot of that spiciness that you get with Asian cuisines, so this is absolutely perfect.

So let's go back to those onions and see how they're doing.

(onions sizzling) Hmm.

These are starting to look really nice and soft.

(onions sizzling) I'm getting a little golden on them, which is what I want.

And now I'm gonna add four cloves of garlic.

This is a fresh-minced garlic, a lot of garlic in this recipe, but it's so delicious.

(onions sizzling) And then we want to add one sweet potato.

I peeled this, I cubed it, and I roasted it with just a little olive oil, but no seasoning, just until it was really roasted and just starting to get super soft.

(onions sizzling) Now, if you want, you can actually start from raw on your sweet potato.

If you do and you decide to make your soup that way, don't put the garlic in until after the sweet potato is softened, or the garlic will burn.

Now, I wanna take two tablespoons of curry powder, and we're going to just kind of dust that over the top.

(ingredients sizzling) (measuring cup clattering) (ingredients sizzling) Hmm.

Wow, that smells good.

The onions are now nice and soft.

So what we wanna do at this point is to blend the soup, and then we're gonna put it back in the pot.

The great thing is because the coconut milk is still cold, you can actually blend this without worrying about spattering and burning yourself.

So, let's get this into the blender.

So let's just pour in gently.

You don't wanna pour over too fast because you'll spatter yourself all over the place.

And you don't want that coconut milk just jumping up out of your blender.

Now, let's just put that top on.

Give it a little blend.

(blender whirring) Now, let's put in just a little salt.

I'm not gonna put in a lot right now.

I want to bring it to temperature and then taste it.

salt dispenser Maybe about 1/8 of a teaspoon.

And I like to use sea salt for this because the flavor in sea salt isn't instant.

It actually releases over a little bit of time.

So, with that heat, the saltiness will become a little more intense.

(blender whirring) Now, let's pour it back in our pot and just get it back on our cooktop.

Now, if you wanted to have this in about 20 minutes, all you have to do is peel that sweet potato and cube it, get it into the oven to roast for about 12 minutes, get your onion going, get your garlic in, then put in your roasted sweet potato, and you can see how fast this recipe can be.

(blender cup clattering) Now, let's get it back on our cooktop and just warm it through.

Then, I'm gonna test for a little bit of salt and pepper and serve it up.

Now, let's sprinkle that with a little bit of those toasted salted pumpkin seeds.

This is an incredible soup.

It's a great weeknight meal, little salad, a little soup, or it's a wonderful start to any meal.

So, I hope you'll enjoy it with a glass of Petit Manseng.

(uplifting music) (gentle upbeat music) So, Athena, thanks so much for having us here at this beautiful tasting room at Eastwood.

This place is absolutely incredible.

Tell us a little bit about Eastwood.

>>Our mission at Eastwood is to make great wine, of course, and to provide more people with more access to enjoy them with friends and family.

So, I always say wine is a great tool for breaking down barriers and bringing people together, and I think you can feel it in the tasting room, so that's the best part of my job.

>>So how did you get started in this business?

>>I've lived in Charlottesville for a long time.

I was here for about 20 years before I bought this farm, and I came to Charlottesville for the law school.

And then I commuted for years up to D.C., practiced commodities law, and worked with a lot of agricultural clients, energy clients.

>>Mm-hmm.

>>And when I bought the farm, I was also teaching a class at UVA on environmental commodities and climate change.

And those discussions would always end up focusing on the need to develop more local infrastructure.

>>Yes.

>>Including agriculture.

And right about that time, when I was sort of turning my focus there, my middle daughter...

I started the business with my daughters.

I have three daughters.

>>Wow.

>>And the one is a paratrooper lawyer in the army, so she's not part of the business, I won't mention her.

(Tassie and Athena laughing) But my middle daughter at that time was living this sort of local impact agriculture life and she had started an a farm in Baltimore in an urban desert and was really doing amazing things there.

And my oldest daughter, serendipitously, was doing grad studies in psychology and studying American dream research.

And she was becoming really passionate about the impact of small business on sustainable communities.

>>Yeah.

>>So we were all talking all the time, and over many glasses of wine, many dinners, we decided with my partner, Jeremy, to see what we could do in our own backyard.

So, that's what started this project here.

(Athena chuckling) >>Wow.

So, what are some of the varietals you grow?

>>So we grow Petit Manseng, my favorite right now.

Viognier and Chardonnay, the whites.

And then we grow Petit Verdot, Merlot, Cab Franc, and a little bit of Cabernet Sauvignon.

>>Oh, wow, so those nice royal Verdot.

>>Yes.

(gentle upbeat music) >>If I had to admit what my favorite food is, it's probably salad, and particularly salad with chicken.

And cob salad is probably my most favorite salad of all time.

So today, I am gonna make a simple cob salad.

The thing with salads is it's all about the ingredients and the art.

So we're gonna put together a nice cob salad.

Hopefully, it will be beautiful at the end.

And then we'll make some blue cheese dressing to go on the top.

So, I have about two to three cups of greens on my plate.

Now, I want to start with some red onion, because red onion just gives a nice bright pop to the plate.

So, let's kind of go down one side here with a little bit of red onion, just like that, sort of off center, not tremendously centered, but kind of off.

Now, I have that red.

I also wanna put another red on the other side.

And my cherry tomatoes said they wanted to be in the show today.

So, when I went out to the garden this morning, they were popping and they're beautiful.

So, I'm gonna let my cherry tomatoes play their role.

Here we go.

So, a little bit of red.

Now, let's use a little cucumber.

I like to use English cucumber on this, but you can use anything that you have.

I'm gonna come right beside the red.

So you wanna see a little white and you wanna see a little green.

And you also want to make sure any items on your plate are easily cut when you're doing a salad.

So, just like that.

Now, let's take a little bit of hard-boiled egg.

And sometimes, I chop it, sometimes I give it a nice slice.

Today, I am just gonna slice through this so I can display it a little more beautifully on the plate.

So, just a hard boiled egg.

Also, a beet hard boiled egg looks beautiful on this.

Now, I wanna come down just beside the onion on that so that we're seeing that little pop of onion.

But then we're giving the white to the whiteness of the cucumber on the other side.

And then I have some bacon.

Who doesn't love bacon on their cob salad?

Oh, my goodness.

This is a couple of slices.

Actually, I did three, just in case I burned one because I did it in the microwave.

So I have a little extra and I'll just put that to the side.

And then some blue cheese, and I love a nice stilt and blue.

It gives a really meaty flavor and a tang to this.

It's wonderful.

And for that, I'm actually going to come down right between the cucumber and the lettuce 'cause it's just pretty.

And you know what?

To give a little balance on my plate, I might actually take a little bit of that bacon and put it on the other side.

All right, so a little bit of that reddishness here.

So again, it's just about making it pretty.

A plate should always be art.

Now, the last vegetable I wanna use is a nice avocado.

Let's take that avocado out.

And I just wanna hit both ends with a little bit of avocado because I think that'll be pretty.

Nice green.

Hmm.

Now, let's give a little slice, get that out of the way.

And I'll put half of my avocado on one end and half on the other.

Just kind of fanned out like that.

There we go.

And on the other end, a little fanned-out avocado.

And then I have a chicken breast, just deboned, skinless, breast half.

I put a little olive oil on it and a little salt and pepper, stuck it on my grill this morning, and there we have that beautiful salad.

Now, let's make a dressing to go with it.

Now, in my bowl, I have about a cup of mayo.

And to that, I want to add some sour cream, about 1/2 cup.

Now this will give a nice, beautiful, creamy balance to this lovely salad dressing.

(spoon scraping) Now, I added a clove of garlic and I added a little bit of parsley.

This is about a tablespoon of dried parsley, one clove of garlic.

And then I want to add just a little bit of that umami flavor.

So a little Worcestershire, about 1/2 teaspoon, and it makes the world of difference in the dressing.

So, let's take some lemon.

And we're just gonna squeeze that lemon to get the juice, but make sure that we don't lose the seeds in our dressing.

Now, let's stir that lemon juice in.

(bright music) (spoon scraping) And then we want to take about four ounces of a nice blue cheese.

Now, what I wanna do is just crumble that blue cheese into my bowl.

And I have a knife here, just in case I need to cut through in case it's not quite at room temperature.

But this seems to be at room temperature, which is exactly what you want.

So, let's give it a stir through.

Now, you can see that chunky blue cheese dressing coming together.

So, I'm just gonna take a little bit of my dressing and just give a little drizzle right across the top, just like that.

And this dressing will last in your refrigerator two to three weeks with no problem at all.

Now, if you had some snip chives, you could, of course, put those right across the top to give that beautiful green finish.

But for me, it's ready, and it's particularly ready with a glass of Chardonnay, and I hope you'll enjoy.

(bright music) (upbeat music) So, what do we have in this glass?

>>Ah, this is our Dry Petit Manseng.

>>Ooh.

>>Yes.

>>I love a Petit Manseng, it goes with so many different foods.

>>Yes.

>>So many flavors.

>>This is a pretty versatile Petit Manseng.

>>Oh, wow.

That is really, really nice.

>>Thank you.

>>It has an amazing bouquet.

Just this beautiful aroma.

And on the palate, it's just bright, it's cheery, it's fresh.

I love that.

>>Thank you.

Petit Manseng, I think, is new to a lot of customers, but this year, we've probably doubled the interest in Petit Manseng.

And Jake, our winemaker, has said for years, "This is gonna be the thing.

This year, I really am seeing it."

So, it's exciting.

It's a great grape for Virginia.

>>And your Meritage is one of my very favorites.

>>Oh, thank you.

>>So tell me a little bit about your blend here.

>>So, it's heavy on the Cab Franc and Merlot, and then a little bit less on the Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.

I think this one is really... You get a lot of dark cherry and cola.

>>Yeah.

>>And then it's pretty fruit forward.

>>It is.

>>And it's big and complex, but it's got these velvety tannins.

It's smooth and round.

>>Yes.

>>And that's sort of the style we're going for.

>>Oh, wow.

Well, Athena, thank you so much for having us here, for opening these beautiful doors.

And I love, I absolutely love what a powerful team of women can do together.

>>Thank you so much.

Cheers.

>>So, cheers.

(wine glass clinking) (upbeat music) New England pot roast is one of those classic dishes that every family seems to have a little different variety of the way that they make it.

So today, I'm gonna do New England pot roast, and I'm gonna do it the way that my family would've done it.

But instead of using a chuck roast like we always did, I'm using a round roast.

So, I'm gonna heat my pan to about a medium high.

I wanna get the heat very intense because I need to brown my meat when it hits the pan.

Now, I'm gonna start off with two tablespoons of butter (butter thudding) and two tablespoons of olive oil.

We will let that meld in the pan, get nice and hot, and by the time it's really, really warm, our roast will be ready to go in.

Now, I want to make a nice rub for the roast.

You want some good seasoning when it hits that heat, so the seasoning sears with the beef.

So, I've got in my bowl one teaspoon of salt.

This is just kosher salt.

I'm adding one teaspoon of pepper, one teaspoon of onion powder, one teaspoon of garlic powder, and about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of dry mustard, which is an unusual one, but I like the flavor in this.

Now, let's just mix these together.

So, let's just rub a little bit all over.

And I like to do this on a plate.

The reason that I do that is because I plan to keep all of the seasoning that falls off of the roast, because that's still going in the finished product.

There we go.

Get a nice rub, make sure that you get all sides really, really well.

Now, this is about a 3 1/2 pound roast, and it works so well for this dish.

Now, in my bowl, I have about six cloves of garlic that I've just sliced.

And if your garlic is really, really thin and flat, you don't have to slice it at all.

But I wanna go through and just make some little pockets way down deep in my roast.

And then you just want to shove that garlic in there.

If you have to, you can stick your knife in a little bit more, give it a wiggle, and then it'll go on down.

There we go.

You don't want too many of your cloves on the surface like this one is.

If they're on the surface, the problem is that they come out as you're cooking, and then the garlic doesn't season all the way through.

So, let's stuff way down.

You can see now the difference between what I did with the first one and what I did with the second.

Now, I'm gonna do this on both sides of the roast, so it has a chance to be all over that meat.

There we go.

And sometimes, I take my knife so that it's actually already hitting the other side of the plate.

That way, I know that my incision is nice and deep.

Now, let's put that on one side.

I like to actually use the edges first and then put it on the flesh cut side.

Hot, hot pan.

(meat sizzling) Now, normally, I don't put a lid on this because when you put a lid on a pot, it steams it and the liquids will come out of your meat.

But just to keep it from spattering so much today, I'm going to set the lid slightly ajar on this pot and take about five minutes per side to brown the meat.

(meat sizzling) (lid clattering) So, we have a nice sear now on all sides.

The next thing I want to do is to take some Worcestershire.

It's about two tablespoons, and I'm just gonna pour it over the top.

(meat sizzling) And then I wanna take 1 3/4 cups of a good-quality Cabernet Sauvignon or any red wine you like.

(meat sizzling) We are just gonna pour that over top.

The last thing now that we want to add before we let this simmer for about an hour and a half, is about four cups of stock.

This is a nice beef stock, and you don't want to... You don't wanna bring the liquid all the way up to the top unless you have a smaller pan.

(beef stock sloshing) Let me just say it.

So what we're looking for here is for the liquid to come up about 1/2 of the way in the pot, because we're also going to flip this a little bit.

(measuring cup clattering) And now, we're going to add our mirepoix.

So I'm going to put in my onions, carrots, and celery right now.

And those will simmer in the pot just like a soup.

There we go.

Now, let's put a lid on it, let it go for about an hour and a half.

After that hour and a half, we're gonna put our carrots in and our onion pieces.

Let it go for another half hour, and then I'll be back to show you how to make that gravy.

Now, you can see how much shrinkage you have when it comes to a pot roast.

So we have this 3 1/2 pound pot roast in here.

Our carrots are in and nice and tender.

They look great.

Now, what I wanna do is take three tablespoons of corn starch to two tablespoons of water in a slurry.

And we're gonna do that with the pot roast and the carrots still in the pan.

We're just gonna add that.

And then we want to bring it to a little bit of a simmer and let that thicken.

Now, while that happens, what I'm doing here is just moving the pot roast around in the pan.

I'm going to flip it over because I actually want the pot roast glazed by the gravy before I ever slice it, just like that.

And you can see how the cloves of garlic start to come out from the inside.

That meat starts to tighten up and it pushes the garlic.

That's why it's really important to get those garlic cloves as deep into the meat as possible.

There we go, now I've got it glazed while this simmers and thickens up.

I'm just gonna slice my pot roast, and I'll be back to show you a beautiful plate.

So you can see this beautiful pot roast is all finished.

Those carrots just add that spark of beauty.

Now, let's talk about this Meritage.

Meritage is an American word.

It's a blend of merit and heritage, which is really indicative of our vines and our grapes.

So, all the Meritage blends in the United States are made with Verdot varietals.

This particular one is 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 34% Merlot, and 28% Cabernet Franc.

So this simply represents what it is in the glass.

The 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, that really gives us this beautiful berry finish, the nice tannin, great structure.

It gives a little grip to the wine.

The Merlot, 34%.

That gives us a nice medium mellow acid, medium tannin, medium acid, medium body.

It really gives a nice blend to the wine, so it softens it.

And then Cabernet Franc, which also gives a great grip, good tannic structure, a great flavor.

So, with all of these in this glass, what a great Meritage blend.

And here, we have this beautiful New England pot roast and a glass of Meritage.

What a way to spend the day.

(uplifting music) (gentle upbeat music) Well, I hope you've enjoyed today's show and our visit to Eastwood Farm and Winery.

Special thanks to Athena for welcoming me into the tasting room and for allowing me to pair her wines with my food.

So, if you've liked today's recipes, you can get them and a whole lot more at vpm.org/unwined.

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

It's always time to unwind."

>>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... (gentle upbeat music) (uplifting music)