>>Today on "Un-Wine'd", we'll visit the Hague Winery on the northern neck of Virginia, where George Washington is born but hospitality governs the region.

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

>>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.

(upbeat music) >>I had the best time at the Hague talking to these wonderful people about the region, the wine, the history.

It was just so wonderful.

Today on the show, I'll pair up the wines from the Hague with some beautiful food, including Cabernet Franc with a tomato zucchini pasta.

Chardonel, an unusual white wine with chicken and beurre blanc sauce, and Rose with edamame toast.

I have a stockpot going on my cooktop and you'll see that I have a lot of ingredients going, but I'm gonna tell you how to shorten this if you want to.

I just happened to have a whole lot of fresh Roma tomatoes and zucchini, and I wanted to share how to do this from scratch.

So in our stockpot, we have three tablespoons of olive oil and I'm going to add one large chopped onion.

(onions sizzling) (upbeat music) You can hear that nice sizzle going, and I love it.

Let's give that a little stir so that olive oil coats all of those onions and they can cook a whole lot faster that way, and then you don't get as much burning either.

I want to add to that, some freshly minced garlic.

This is about three cloves.

They're pretty big ones.

And I have lots of fresh herbs right now.

I love to use fresh herbs, but if you don't have fresh remember that when you're using something like an oregano or a basil fresh, you'll use one third the amount dried.

So anytime you don't have fresh, it's not a problem, just reduce that amount to one third.

So I have about a tablespoon of fresh oregano and then I have about a quarter cup, so four tablespoons of basil.

And you can also reduce this.

I particularly love basil, so you can reduce it to two teaspoons if you like.

But for me, the basil really enhances this pasta dish.

Now I'm gonna add two pounds of fresh zucchini.

So any kind of zucchini or squash works great in this.

I like it for the texture and I always like to put that extra nutrition in when I can.

So let's just give it a stir.

This doesn't have to cook down a lot at this point, we're going to cook it once we add all the tomatoes.

And then I wanna add one, six ounce can of tomato paste.

Now, a lot of people have said, "How do you get that tomato paste out of the can?"

Super easy, cut off the top, then cut off the bottom and just push it through, it's almost like a little plunge.

Works great and it cleans out the can.

Now, I want that tomato paste to really hit the heat to get that (indistinct) effect, that crystallization of the sugar in the tomatoes.

It gives such a depth of flavor to this dish.

And next, the fun is really going to begin because I'm going to start processing those tomatoes.

Now, if you don't have fresh tomatoes, no problem.

Use 2, 28 ounce cans of just a San Marzano or a plum tomato with the juice.

Now, I have four pounds of these tiny Romas.

These are called Juliet tomatoes and I love to grow them because they're more like cherry tomatoes, but wow, are they intense?

And they're just a mini Roma.

So I like to use these.

And a lot of times the grocery store will have Roma tomatoes on sale.

I like to buy those then and make sauce and stick it in my freezer.

So all of this can actually be made ahead of time.

And it takes no time.

We're just grinding, we're not completely pureeing to get the hard parts of the tomato, those little stem pieces, so they're ground up and you're not getting chunks of that in your sauce.

All right, now we've got all of our tomatoes, our zucchini, our herbs are in there.

Now we just need to add a little bit of salt and pepper.

So what I want is about a tablespoon of salt.

Remember, you've got a lot of vegetables in there, they need to be seasoned well.

And then we'll take some freshly ground pepper.

Let's stir it in.

And we're gonna simmer this about 25 minutes on the cooktop, and then I'll be back to add a few more ingredients.

Okay, so first I'm going to add some butter.

Now about half cup of butter.

Now, let's just stir that until the butter is melted, melting right away in that nice hot sauce.

And now we want to add some heavy whipping cream.

So a little bit of whipping cream about a cup.

You can add up to a cup and a quarter, but about a cup.

And then two cups of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Now this just starts that richness in this wonderful pasta dish.

This is filled with delicious cheeses, pasta, of course all of that wonderful zucchini and tomato.

So delicious.

All right, and now I have some more cheese.

Wow, more cheese.

I have some provolone here about half a cup, and that's just chopped.

I had provolone slices, so I just chopped up about eight slices to give me half cup.

If you don't have sliced provolone cheese and you've got a hunk of provolone cheese, by all means grate it, because that distributes even better in this pasta.

I have two cups of mozzarella cheese.

You can use these little pearls that I happen to have.

You can use a marinated mozzarella cheese, just a grated mozzarella cheese or a chunk of mozzarella cheese that you grate.

Any mozzarella cheese is fine, whether it's fresh or it's packaged.

I love to use these little pearls because they just distribute so well in the pasta, but you can still see them sometimes as you cut in.

And then I wanna add some me ricotta, half cup.

Just look at how rich this looks, it's amazing.

Now, this is enough sauce for up to a pound of pasta in a casserole.

So what we're gonna do now is take our pound of pasta and we'll use as much as we want to use.

What I like to do is put in about three quarters of this and then stir it through and see then if it's too dry, or if I think it's going to be too dry with more pasta.

So about three quarters of it.

And of course, you also don't wanna overflow your pan.

You want to use a tubular pasta for this because that way the tubes fill with the sauce and it enables the sauce to just be distributed even more fully, you're not ending up with chunky pasta.

Anytime you're choosing a pasta, make sure you get the right pasta that's recommended for your dish.

That's also why macaroni and cheese is just so darn good.

The cheese gets into everything.

So let's just fill up this pan.

And I love this with Cab Franc.

Cab Franc goes so well with meat, but it also goes really really well with tomato dishes and with vegetarian things.

So if you have a good vegetarian sauce or you have a tomato-based sauce, try it with a little Cab Franc, it's just delicious.

Now, let's make a little crumb to go on the top, that will really enhance that crunch as you get into it.

I have a half cup of panko crumbs and a half cup of Parmesan cheese.

And I'm just gonna pour those together and add three more cloves of garlic, because that crunch on the top is so good with the garlic flavor.

And then about a tablespoon to two tablespoons, depending on how wet you need it to be, to crumble up and go on top, just right in there, then just mix through.

Mm, this is so delicious.

Now, let's take about half of that because that's about how much I took outta my pan, and I just wanna crumble that on the top.

I'm gonna stick this in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes, and we'll be back to plate up something so delicious to serve with that Cab Franc.

So good enough to eat right.

Oh my goodness, this looks amazing.

Can't wait to dig into it.

Just let it sit, maybe 10 minutes after you take it out, so you have the chance for all those cheeses to just kind of come to a rest.

It's sort of like meat.

And that first piece is always a doozy to get out, right?

There we go.

Oh, man.

That just smells so amazing and it looks so good.

Gotta get that little jumper zucchini there.

Mm, let's give it a taste.

Oh, mm, just the way I remember it, it's so good.

Now, let's just try that with the wine.

The thing that I love about Cab Franc is the way that it all just kind of comes together in the bottle.

You know, a lot of wines, they're very fruity or they're very vegetal.

With Cab Franc, it just is a beautiful blend of both.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat music) Well, I'm here today at the Hague Winery in Hague, Virginia and I'm joined by Cheryl and Steve.

And guys, thank you so much for having us here, for entertaining us with your wonderful wine and your stories about this winery.

So tell us a little bit about the winery and how you got started, Steve?

>>Okay, let's see, we bought the place in 2000.

It's 140 acre farm.

And we really got out of Washington and that's all that we wanted to do.

And we had two teenage sons who were challenges and being here meant shooting, skied over the field, going sailing, bringing their pals down here.

>>I love it.

>>And so on.

And elder son eventually said, "Dad, I'll be the winemaker."

Of course, he hadn't had any education for that.

But he went out to California, he got all As in junior college, and he's a recipient of a scholarship, UC Davis, and he's a vines and wines guy.

>>Oh, no.

>>But he didn't come home.

He lives in San Francisco.

He's with his girlfriend in Spain right now.

He does blends with us, he obtains equipment for us.

He does tastings and a lot of stuff.

It ends up being Cheryl, Tucker and myself doing the blends and a lot of the arrangements for what you're gonna have in this now, he just doesn't live here now.

That's how it ended up.

I now have a small place to live with a big vineyard and that's about it right now.

>>Oh, goodness, and Cheryl, I know that you take on a lot of hats here.

>>Yes.

>>So what are your roles here at the Vineyard?

>>So I do the bookkeeping, I do the event management, tasting room management.

I've gotten, so I have a hand now, I get to play in blending of the wines.

So a little bit of everything, yeah.

>>Yeah, oh, yeah.

>>She's the face of the business and she's a far different generation than I am.

And dealing with digital things, social media, initiating things, it's entirely different from what I'm able to do or willing to do, I suppose.

>>Oh, that's fantastic.

Well, tell us a little bit about the varietals you grow here.

>>Okay, first one we're gonna have and what's proved very successful for us is Chardonel.

>>All right.

>>Which is a cross between Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc, and done at Cornell, hence Chardonel.

>>So let's pour a little bit of this Chardonel.

>>All right, so this is our 2019 Chardonel.

This one is fermented on the leaves and it's aged in German oak.

So light hint of oak on this one, not real heavy or overpowering.

It's gonna have a creamier mouth feel instead of that heavy, buttery oaky, heavy oakness of a Chardonnay.

So just those are the main differences here.

>>That's cool, I'm not as familiar with that German oak, so this is cool.

Oh, yeah, I get that creamier mouth feel and I can imagine it with some amazing seafood.

>>Yeah, and a German oak is lighter, it's gonna be lighter than an American or a French oak.

>>Well, and now what are we gonna try?

>>We have our Cabernet Franc.

>>Excellent, let's try a little Cab Franc.

Now, I love a good Cab Franc, and.

>>Yes, ma'am.

>>I know that you do Cab Franc, you do yours a little differently.

>>Okay.

>>Yeah, so how do you do that?

>>Well, every year is different.

And that's what happens in vineyards most nearly everywhere.

>>Sure.

>>Our first 14 rows out there is all Cab Franc but it's an Italian clone called VCR 10.

It's smaller berries, which is gonna give you more skins per unit volume or darker color.

And then we have two more additional rows at the end, it's a French one.

All right, what we did was, when we harvested this, it was going to be before a storm, I would like to have had it hang longer.

I'd like to have had a little bit better color in the thing but that's not an option.

You have to decide and so we brought it in.

And having done that and Tucker was here, and Cheryl and I did the tasting of the initial Cab Franc and said, it's pretty light.

And even a little green that I, we really didn't like but how about we add a barrel of Petite Verdot, a barrel of Merlot?

We have it in wood a little bit more intensely and longer.

>>Sure.

>>We could really call it a Meritage or a Bordeaux style.

But being 80% Cab Franc, it's Cab Franc.

>>Yes, right.

>>So we end up with, we hope, a little more complexity in it and as it's aged it, it's integrated nicely.

>>Well, let's give it a try.

>>Sure.

>>Yeah, now, the law is that you have to have 75% of the main grape to call it that varietal.

I just, I love this blend because it is Cab Franc all over the place, but then it just highlights in different parts of your palette.

>>Yap.

>>Ooh, very nice.

>>We had to smooth it out and I think we got that done.

>>Yeah, and I'll just say, so it's a 2020 so it's more light to medium bodied right now.

>>Sure.

>>I've been here for about 10 years, and I'll do, I'm more of a red wine fan anyhow but I'll say from here, from this vineyard, the Cab Franc is consistently like amazing.

And if you lay it down it will continue to age really well over time too so.

>>Oh, awesome.

Well, this is just wonderful, and I just want to salute you.

>>Yes.

>>For making incredible wine- >>Cheers.

>>In this beautiful place, and thanks so much for having us.

>>Thank you.

>>Very kind.

>>Thank You.

(upbeat music) >>Chardonel is a beautiful wine that has a crisp acidity to it.

It's a hybrid grape grown here in the United States that crosses two different varietals, Seyval Blanc and Chardonnay.

And it's called Chardonel because it was created at Cornell University.

So this is a lovely dish that I'm going to make, that really enhances that crispness, that deliciousness of the Chardonel.

First thing we're gonna do is just take some chicken and I want to season it with a little salt and pepper.

And then I'm gonna put it in a nice hot pan with three tablespoons of olive oil.

This particular chicken breast is just huge, so we want to cut it in two but I'm not going to cut it across.

I think what I'm going to do is because it's so thick, I want to just cut it just straight through the center, almost like I'm butterflying it but I'm gonna take it all the way through.

That way I'll have two pieces of chicken breast.

And if I'm having dinner for four people, I'll take the one that's underneath because I know that it's been cut through, no one else would know.

But at least that way, I have everyone having a pretty chicken breast on their plate.

So a little more salt and pepper and let's get those in the pan.

So while that chicken cooks, let's make a little bit of sauce.

I have half a stick of butter, so four tablespoons of butter, and I just want to add half of a minced shallot.

This is just a nice little beurre blanc sauce.

What we would do in a regular beurre blanc sauce is drain out those shallots, but I like a nice chunky beurre blanc sauce with this.

What we're gonna do is add the wine and we're gonna reduce that by about a half.

So it's going to boil, boil, boil and then we'll add our cream.

Now let's check that chicken, yeah, it's getting there.

I want just a little color on it, just a little bit, there we go.

So while this sauce simmers, and while the chicken is ready, that's time to just make your rice or your side dish for this.

For this particular dish, potatoes work well, as does rice but I really think that I like rice the best, because it absorbs all of those wonderful flavors within the sauce that goes in the chicken.

So I hope you'll like that too.

That chicken is looking great.

So it's just about to 165 degrees and my sauce has started to reduce, so it's reducing by half.

Now, what I wanna do is add some flavor components to that chicken, a little oregano, three quarters of a teaspoon and a little basil, a teaspoon.

These are dried.

Remember if you're going to use fresh, three times as much.

And then I wanna just turn it over so I can get all of that wonderful herb down inside that oil because that will really enhance the sauce.

Mm, wonderful.

Now I'm going to just turn off the heat on my sauce because I'm gonna add a little bit of heavy whipping cream, a cup of heavy whipping cream.

Now, if I was making this into the sauce, I'd let it simmer a while but it's actually going to go into my chicken pan, so that's why I'm not continuing to cook it in my sauce.

Now let's add about a half teaspoon of onion powder.

And for this, I'm just gonna take it right to the oil in the pan.

And you can see it kind of sizzles up, it almost fries in there.

It's just blooming and getting a great flavor.

And I wanna take three cloves of garlic.

Be quick with those because they will burn.

And then I wanna add a little red bell pepper, some capers, this is about a quarter cup of capers with a teaspoon of caper juice.

Mm, and now we're gonna add some artichokes.

Now I like to use just plain artichokes in a can, one can or you can use a marinated artichoke to give you even more flavor.

But because they're marinated in oil, I think they have a tendency to absorb a lot of that oil and then the dish for me is a little too oily.

Now let's just kind of stir that around.

Then we want to add 1, 10 ounce package of frozen peas.

This is a very colorful vegetable kind of sauce and it works so well with this chicken.

Now the next thing I'm gonna do is pour that sauce, that beurre blanc right over top, and we're gonna let this simmer for about six minutes and then serve it with rice.

Mm, be sure your chicken is buried down in that sauce.

And in six minutes, awesome.

So we've simmered for our six minutes.

This looks so delicious.

You can see that the peas have softened, the chicken has taken on a nice glaze from that sauce.

Oh, this looks wonderful.

Wow, that looks really, really great.

Now what I wanna do is just plate on a little rice.

So I'm gonna take a chicken breast and then we're gonna get some of this wonderful sauce with all these vegetables and just pour right over the top.

Mm, doesn't that look great?

Oh, man, I can't wait to try it.

On the chicken, super tender, wow, yeah, just almost really fork tender.

Mm, now let's try it with this Chardonel.

So the Chardonel, super crispy, but at the same time it's just got this wonderful body about it.

(soothing jazz music) Oh, yeah.

So the mellowness in this wine really helps with the cream sauce.

The cream just blends with it so well.

That little tiny bit of brine almost matches up with the acid of the Chardonel.

It's just a great, great balance.

(upbeat jazz music) Today's recipes were all about having fun with friends and family, and sharing with others.

So I hope you've enjoyed these recipes, from this edamame and radish appetizer that's paired up with their Rose.

This wonderful tomato and zucchini pasta with their Cabernet Franc.

And who can forget the Chardonel and this chicken with vegetables.

For all these recipes and a whole lot more, visit me at vpm.org/unwined.

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

"It's always time to unwined."

>>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.

(upbeat music) (slow music)