Tasting the wines of Golden Cluster by Jeff Vejr at Les Caves Wine Bar in  Portland Oregon left my mind bent and my palate absolutely delighted. Here we take a closer look at three of the may wines we tasted, paired with grilled cheese sandwiches!

I love wine tasting. That’s pretty obvious by now. Very rarely, however, does a tasting experience leave my mind bent, flipped, completely turned inside out, and absolutely delighted. That’s how I felt after tasting with Jeff Vejr and his Golden Cluster family of wine brands. 

It was mere happenstance that I ended up on this tasting journey. Greg and I just returned from a road trip around Oregon and Washington. By coincidence, we overlapped for one day with my friend Ron and his girlfriend Amy in Portland. Ron is hands-down my very wine-geekiest friend, and I think that says a lot coming from me, a proud wine geek. He looks at things in very out-of-the-box ways and goes deep into research. (You can read an article he wrote about intersections between Beethoven and wine here.)  We always have a lot of fun drinking and eating together, and I always learn a ton. Such was the case on this particular evening. Ron had made an appointment to taste with Jeff Vejr at Les Caves, the wine bar he co-owns in the Alberta Arts District of Portland. When we realized we’d be overlapping, he arranged for us to join in the fun. And it was A LOT of fun. 

Note: Our tastings were comped, but no other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

Les Caves Wine Bar

Let’s begin by setting the scene. Les Caves is a cozy little spot located in what was originally the boiler room of the Victoria Theater (1910 -1965). After the theater closed, the building went on to be used by a series of churches of various denominations up through the mid-2000s. Nowadays, if you make your way around back and down a couple of flights of stairs, you’ll find this tiny, elegant, rustic wine bar. 

We were there the weekend before it was due to reopen after Covid, and they’d used the downtime to renovate the space and add a new outdoor area as well, one flight up from the original bar area. 

A Guided Tasting of Golden Cluster Wines Paired with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Jeff guided us through an extensive tasting of his wines. We enjoyed the first few wines in the original bar space and then moved up to the new outdoor area for the rest. We got to enjoy them alongside a selection of tasty grilled cheese sandwiches Les Caves has on offer. 

We tried three grilled cheese sandwiches:  - The Alsatian with Muenster, smoked uncured ham, and mustard powder. - The Georgian with mozzarella, adjika paste, and paprika. - The Italian with Provolone, organic roast beef, and Italian seasoning. (Currently, their menu shows a variation of this one called the Bologna with mortadella.)

Every single wine was interesting and enjoyable. It also became clear very quickly that Jeff has an extremely curious mind and each wine was an exploration of grape, clone, historical vineyard site, or experimental technique, and sometimes multiple explorations were all going on at once in a bottle. (It made total sense why Ron was attracted to this spot.) 

Jeff started Golden Cluster in 2013, after visiting David Hill Vineyard & Winery in Forest Grove, where he encountered Semillon vines that were over 48 years old at the time. Semillon was one of his first grape loves, and while he’d been in the process of starting other wine projects, he decided to change tracks to work with those grapes. The name is an homage to the grape, which is known as the “golden” grape and makes “golden” wines in Sauternes. (The name also pays homage to Charles Coury who planted the vineyard in question, but that's a longer story.)

Previously, he’d spent time working at wineries in Europe dealing specifically with old vines. During our visit, he described himself several times as a history buff, and that love of old vines fits right in. He also worked or assisted at various wineries in Oregon and Washington while preparing to start his own project.  In an interview on Les Caves de Pyrene, Jeff gave further background on himself:

I am a 3rd generation American, who was raised in the fiercely independent state of New Hampshire. Growing up on a self-sustaining farm taught me the value of taste, hard work, the beauty of seasons, and an appreciation for the history all around me. These lessons and experiences have culminated in my wine project called Golden Cluster here in Oregon.

Golden Cluster is now actually a group of brands, some with only one or two wines in the line. In a way, each represents a theme of exploration. Those other lines include Coury, Dionystic, Müller?, Olmo, On Wine Hill, Ordeaux, Oregon Brand, Syrahcha, The First Row, and Vinous Obscura. 

Over the course of the evening, we tried about thirteen, and each one was its own special unicorn. There were wines made from rare grapes, some I’d never heard of,  and some made in ways I wouldn’t have thought possible. Jeff mentioned that he takes a lot of inspiration in coming up with new techniques for handling wine from chef friends and techniques they use in the kitchen. A lot of the techniques he described ran in the face of everything I’ve been taught about wine. 

He sometimes finds ways to use grapes that anyone else would consider to be irrevocably flawed . .  . and yet the wines worked. This really spoke to me, as I’m the type of person that finds all kinds of bizarre ways to use things that would typically be considered trash in the kitchen to make new things. (Most people would probably consider my freezer a trash heap from all the bags of random scraps waiting for reincarnation.) He finds a way to make delicious wines with grapes that would be trash or compost and pays the growers that would’ve likely lost income. 

It would be overwhelming for both you and me to spotlight all of those wines and what makes them all bizarre and interesting in one post, so I’m going to limit myself to three wines here. 

Golden Cluster 'COURY' Old Vine Semillon Willamette Valley 2018 

Price:  $28 ABV: 14.24%     Grapes: 100% Semillon

Tasting Notes: Lots of stone fruits, dried flowers, and powdered honey on the nose. The wine was super complex and layered on the palate with more stone fruits some, dried, along with some tropical fruits, ginger, curry powder, and hints of deeper citrus tones like Meyer lemon and orange skin. Despite the nose and honeyed notes, this is a dry wine. In many ways, it reminded me of Savennières, wines from the Loire Valley made from botrytized Chenin Blanc grapes that are vinified to dry. 

Mind-bending Properties:  Grapes that make you go EEEWWW!? 

The grapes come from a historical vineyard with own-rooted vines. Sadly, this particular vintage had a lot of issues. This wine was affected by botrytis late in the season, but that’s not weird for Semillon. In Sauternes and the other sweet wine regions of Bordeaux,  Semillon is prized for its susceptibility to botrytis, or noble rot, which under the right conditions, dries out the grapes and concentrates the flavors and makes them more complex. Noble rot is one thing, but powdery mildew is another thing completely – this is one fungus that is never prized. And yet the grapes for this wine were heavily infected. The lead-in for this wine on the Golden Cluster’s website describes it this way:

A wine that shouldn’t exist, but does.  This 2018 Semillon is an anomaly. It will probably never be repeated.  It is one of my proudest moments as a winemaker, because I did not give up on it. 

Jeff painted a picture of these grapes as they fermented which made them sound like complete sludge. We’re always told that great wines are made in the vineyard and this does not sound like an auspicious start. So what do you do if you have grapes like these but you’re determined to make a wine from them? Wash the lees. I’d never heard of lees washing before, and I believe Jeff told us that he basically made up the name, so I don’t think this technique has spread far beyond Golden Cluster’s doorstep. Basically, he added the lees from completed, clean Muller-Thurgau and Pinot Gris fermentations to the wine and dumped the Semillon lees out, repeating the process twice. He told us that that process changes the porcini mushrooms flavors you would get from the powdery mildew infected grapes and converts them to dried fruit notes. The website also notes that the process “works wonders to damaged fruit without having to result in using any of the 'chemical' solutions often used as a last resort.”  Whatever he did, it worked. This was a beautiful and fascinating wine. 

It was also completely different from the 2019 version of the wine, which did not suffer the same problems. That vintage was more in line with a dry Hunter Valley style Semillion from Australia and was much brighter and lighter on the palate, with stone fruit notes that tended more towards white peach, and the mixed citrus notes had tart hints of grapefruit mixed in.

You can read more about this wine and how it was made here.

Grilled Cheese Pairing: This wine worked with all of the grilled cheese options, but I think the Alsatian was my favorite. 

Vinous Obscura Grand Bazzar Willamette Valley 2019

Price: $25 ABV: 12%    Grapes: 14 unique varieties 

Tasting Notes: Orange skin, honey, honeysuckle, candied grapefruit, and tangerine on the nose. These all continued on the palate, along with dried golden flowers, sumac, turmeric, and hints of game. 

Mind-bending Properties: It's a mysterious, beautiful mess. 

It’s an orange wine made from 14 different grapes (unspecified) all coming from the same vineyard (redacted), some botrytized, made in a dual fermentation. There’s a lot to wrap your head around there. This is another wine that supposedly looked terrible during fermentation, but he didn’t want to quit on it. He decided to handle the aromatic and non-aromatic grapes differently. The aromatic grapes in the mix were left in contact with their skins for 14 days. The non-aromatic grapes did not see skin contact. He compared this to his version of an Arnold Palmer, each half contributing a different aspect to the whole. I do love an Arnold Palmer.

You can read more about this wine and how it was made here.

Grilled Cheese Pairing:  I thought this was absolute magic with the Georgian grilled cheese. 

Vinous Obscura Paint, Dye, or Give Color Saperavi Columbia Gorge 2020

Price: $28 ABV: 13.5%    Grapes:  100% Saperavi

Tasting Notes: This wine was quite aromatic on the nose with hints of orange skin and cinnamon, mixing with fruit notes of grapes and berries, game, pepper, and purple flowers. All of these continued on the palate, with even more spice notes mixing in. Earthy notes of stones and clay hit on the finish. Despite the intensity of aromas and flavors, this was not a heavy wine. It still had plenty of freshness. 

Mind-bending Properties: There’s Saperavi in the US? Oh, and it’s matured in Oregon-made Amphorae. 

I learned a lot about this grape during our conversation. Saperavi is best known as one of the premier grapes of the country of Georgia. Jeff specified that the vineyard these come from (redacted) has the only Saperavi currently planted west of the Mississippi River. I’ve never seen a bottling from the US, period. The vineyard also has all five clones of the grape that are available in the US, four are included in this bottling, as the vines of the fifth are still young, but will be included in the future. 

Jeff mentioned that it is one of the oldest domesticated wine grapes and that it’s only one or two generations removed from the wild. I wasn’t able to confirm this but as Georgia has a claim to one of the oldest winemaking traditions in the world, so it seems like it tracks.

The wine’s name takes inspiration from the grape itself as Saperavi means “dye.” It’s a teinturier grape, which means that it is one of the few red grape varieties that has colored flesh, not just colored skins. As such, it produces deeply colored juice. 

In Georgia, wines are traditionally fermented and matured in qvevri, earthenware vessels shaped kind of like an egg with the narrow side pointed downwards that are intended to be buried in the ground. (Cement eggs are another style of fermentation vessel that has the narrow end pointed upwards. Jeff pointed out that they’re essentially opposites and distribute the lees – as well as grapes skins, stems, and seeds if left in – differently, creating different textures in the wines.) 

The material of the vessel also plays a major role. Clay and cement vessels have a different effect on wine than wood or stainless steel. Among other things, clay is porous so it allows for a small amount of oxygen transfer, unlike stainless steel, but it doesn’t add any overt flavor to the wine the way wood does. 

This American version of Saperavi is fermented in amphorae, which have a shape somewhat similar to qvevri, but with a flat bottom so they can sit on the ground. (Originally, they also all had handles so they could be used for transport.) These amphorae are made in the US, specifically in Oregon, by Andrew Beckham’s Novum Ceramics the first commercial producer of terra cotta Amphorae for winemaking and brewing in North America. These amphorae add an extra layer of terroir, since the vessel comes from the same region as the wine.

You can read more about this wine and how it was made here.

Grilled Cheese Pairing: This was the last wine we had that night, so I only got to have a nibble of it with the Georgian grilled cheese, but in my mind, it would’ve been great with the Italian as well. 

This was such a memorable evening. We arrived at around 7 PM and pulled ourselves out of there after 1 AM, and we could’ve kept on talking and sipping except that it had gotten so late. I highly recommend a stop at Les Caves. While the wine bar has many wines on offer, you’ll typically find at least a couple from the Golden Cluster Lines. 

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Pinot Grigio/Gris is a grape with many faces. In the guise of Pinot Grigio, you might know it as a crisp, light (sometimes boring) Italian guzzler, most particularly associated with the northern part of the country. Or perhaps you know it as Pinot Gris, its French alias, which is richer and rounder. This version is most typically associated with Alsace, and it can be used to make anything from full-bodied dry wines to dessert wines of incredible depth in complexity. You’ll also find versions made all over the world choosing one name or the other to indicate the style to which they wish to pay homage. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, tucked up in the northeastern corner of Italy, however, is known for yet another style of Pinot Grigio called Ramato, and this one boasts beautiful copper tones you might not have ever associated with wine. It’s kind of like the grape moved to the Italian coast and got itself a fabulous tan.

Somewhere between rosé and orange wine, this style owes its gorgeous color to a particularity of the grape. Its name provides a hint – grigio means ‘gray’. Moreover, this grape has several siblings, two of which already bear the names of Blanc and Noir, all of which point to the fact that this grape is something in between. While we typically think of this as a white wine grape, it’s really not. In reality, it’s more of a greyish pink color that can get almost as dark as Pinot Noir when ripe.

Image borrowed from Wikipedia, by Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ramati get their color from leaving the grape juice in contact with the skins, and it can range in color from light salmon to deep rosy copper. The wine gets its name from the color, as rame means ‘copper’ in Italian. These wines tend to be generally grouped in with orange wines, and as you’ll find with those, more structure and deeper flavors go along with the intensified color. You’re likely to find a bit of tannin, deep citrus, ripe stone fruits, tropical fruit, herbs, and spice notes mixed in. I personally often get dried flower notes as well. The intensity of the color, structure, and flavors will vary widely depending on how long the grapes were left in contact with the skins. Flavors can also range from pretty and bright to more rustic and funky depending on the producer.

The style is very traditional for Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It was made in this way here, as well as other parts of northern Italy, until Santa Margherita started exporting the light, colorless style in the 1960s that became so popular in the US, according to an article in Decanter Nonetheless, some producers in Friuli continued to Pinot Grigio in the ramato style. These have once again been gaining in popularity in recent years right along with orange wines, so much so that more and more producers beyond Italy have started emulating the style. 

In recent years, I’ve seen more and more ramato-style wines from producers in the US, particularly those that are known to enjoy experimenting. Today, we’ll take a look at a traditional Old World version from Friuli by Scarbolo, and New World skin-contact Pinot Gris from J. Brix and see how they each worked with several dishes over two dinners. 

In addition to these though, among others I’ve really enjoyed have been a ramato by Vie de Romans in Friuli, as well as ramato-style wines from Forlorn Hope and Two Shepherds here in California.

THE WINES

The two wines we have representing the category today do a nice job of representing the range of flavors you can expect to find in ramato wines, particularly as regards an Old World vs. New World comparissons. Both are also sustainably made. The first, from Scarbolo, is from Friuli and has less skin-contact, so it showed a more delicate touch with more savory minerality. J. Brix’s wine is representing the New World and also has more skin contact, both of which result in a richer style with riper fruit expression. I found these both to be quite pretty and clean, but for lovers of natty flavors, you can definitely find funkier versions out there. 

While I didn’t choose them for this reason, the names of both of today’s wines dedicate them to love. Perhaps Ramato is the wine of summer love . . . 

Scarbolo Il Ramato Pinot Grigio Friuli Venezia Giulia 2019

Alcohol: 13%  Price: $24 at Oakland Yard 

The Scarbolos have been winegrowers for three generations. Valter Scarbolo, the current winemaker, initially learned from his father Gino, a hardworking member of a tenant-farming family, who had a talent for winemaking and eventually purchased his own fields. Valter then went on to study viticulture and oenology to continue the family business and improve the quality. When he planted vineyards he narrowed the plant density and lowered the yields, and began selling the wine in bottles rather than in bulk. His children Lara and Mattia are also now part of the family business, with Lara dedicating herself to viticulture and oenology, and Mattia overseeing business and brand communication. 

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While Friuli is known for its hilly and mountainous vineyard areas, the Scarbolos’ land is located on flatlands, “where (they) discovered underappreciated terroirs with an exceptional potential” and aim to “highlight Friuli’s Grave appellation.” 

They make four different expressions of Pinot Grigio, and they see their il ramato as a modern interpretation of the traditional style. They harvest the clusters of Pinot Grigion at their peak ripeness, destem the grapes, and then macerate them at a low temperature so as to extract the copper color and texture from the grapes while maintaining the fresh aromas and brightness.  

The name “il ramato” is a wordplay between ramato meaning “copper”, and amato which stands for “loved one”. 

Find additional winemaking details here.

Tasting Notes: On the nose there are notes of oranges, tangerines, peaches, and flowers. All of these return on the palate, along with orange skin, persimmon, and strawberries with a hint of green still showing. A soft bouquet of wildflowers and herbs with a hint of spice add complexity, along with white tea notes that evolve into a hint of tannic grip on the savory finish. There’s texture here, but also delicacy and liveliness from the wine’s freshness.

Pairings: The winery notes that a standout chef pairing for this wine is Gricia ramen, with sun noodles, white miso, peppercorns, and crispy duck prosciutto by Ryan Sims of Donna Chang’s. They also note that it’s perfect with pizza, crustaceans, pasta, and richly seasoned salads. SommSelect.com adds that it’s good paired with richer seafood preparations, cured meats, or roast chicken, and call out Tagliolini al Prosciutto di San Daniele with Poppy Seeds as a particularly good pairing. I think this is a wine that would easily work in many situations but would largely favor savory dishes. In addition to the pairings below, I’m thinking I might need to try this with a pizza topped with prosciutto, mozzarella, garlic, and crispy sage – take your pick between white sauce or tomato sauce.

The winery also "encouraged experimentation in pairing" this wine in a selection of cocktails, which you can find here. Such a fun idea. 

J. Brix Nomine Amoris Skin-Contact Pinot Gris Santa Maria Valley 2020

Alcohol: 13.9%  Price: $29 at Minimo in Oakland’s Jack London Square  

Jody Brix Towe and Emily Towe are the couple behind J. Brix. They got their start in winemaking after tasting a bottle of Pinot Noir grown in the Santa Maria Valley. They jumped in and volunteered as harvest interns, liked working in the dirt, and decided to try making their own wines. Jody had a college and career background in horticulture that lent themselves well to working with grapes. Emily enjoys telling the stories of the wine as a writer and designer. They take an experimental approach to winemaking and make small quantities from many different varieties and vineyards and in various styles. They use neutral vessels, native-yeast fermentations, and add nothing but small amounts of sulfur dioxide as necessary. They do not fine, filter, or cold-stabilize their wines. 

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Their motto in winemaking and life is “Only Love,” and the name of this wine is keeping with that motto as Nomine Amoris means “in the name of love” in Latin. The grapes for their Skin-Contact Pinot Gris are destemmed, then fermented on the skins for 13 days. The wine is pressed to neutral French Oak barrels, where it spends 3.5 months before being bottled.

Find additional winemaking details here.

Tasting Notes: Blood orange and nectarines with a touch of cherry greet you on the nose. The same notes continue on the palate, where they’re joined by guava, raspberries, and a few rose petals, especially as the wine warms up. The wine is round and textured with lush spiced fruit up front, and then becomes more savory as a bit of tannin begins to grip on the finish. 

Pairings: On the J. Brix website, they say, “We're pairing it with ham & Gruyere grilled cheese; fava bean-za'atar hummus; eggplant & red-pepper tart.” I can absolutely see this working with all of those, as well as with pork and turkey. I also think this would be a great accompaniment to cuisines that have a lot of bold flavors, such as Indian food, with moderate heat. 

Something about both of these wines makes me think of golden summer days, but the Scarbolo’s comparatively lighter style makes me think of a breezy summer morning before the sun gets too hot, while the more decadent texture and ripeness of the J. Brix make me think of late afternoon and evening as the light starts to turn golden and morphs into a brilliant sunset.

Now let’s take a look at how the wines worked at the table!

THE PAIRINGS

Another thing ramati have in common with rosés and orange wines is their food pairing range. The extra texture and range of flavors help them to pair easily with lots of different cuisines, and they can switch agilely between vegetable dishes, seafood, and lighter meats. For this reason, they’re a great option for Thanksgiving! 

For this post though, I thought I’d take inspiration from the cuisine of Friuli. This region is right up against the border with Slovenia, and during its history, it was fought over by the Romans, Slavs, Venetians, and Austrians, all of whom left their mark, blending together to create a culture, language, and cuisine that is an amalgam of them all, as well as uniquely its own thing. 

In addition, while this region is very small, it has really varied terrain. It has both the Carnic and Julian Alps, as well as a coastline on the Adriatic Sea, plus plains, rivers, and lagoons. As such, there is a mixture of mountain and coastal cuisines, mixed with Mediterranean, Slavic, and Germanic influences. While I couldn’t get any in time for this post, I learned that our favorite type of prosciutto, Prosciutto di San Daniele, is from this area. They also have a strong cheese tradition, with the principal of them being Montasio, a seasoned cow’s milk cheese. You’ll also find many dishes and pastries that clearly show the various influences on the region. (See articles here, here, and here for more on the cuisine.)

We had the wines over two nights and enjoyed them with different dishes to see how they worked in different contexts. As it’s summer now, I was in the mood for lighter fare, but I think both wines could have certainly handled some heavier dishes. 

Dinner One: Scallop Zoodle Gratin with Ajvar

Capesante gratinate, a simple dish of scallops baked in breadcrumbs and parsley butter, is popular all over Italy, but I learned that it originally came from Trieste. It’s a delicious dish, but it’s typically served as an appetizer, and I wanted to have something we could enjoy as a main dish for dinner. So I took it as an inspiration but then combined it with zoodles that I baked along with the scallops. It resulted in a lovely, light dinner that came together quickly.

These are simple – albeit delicious – flavors though, and I thought these wines would welcome some more intensity. I learned ajvar, a condiment made of roasted red peppers and eggplant that originated in the Balkans, is also commonly enjoyed in this area. I love this stuff and we often have it at home, so I decided to serve it up with my scallop zoodles. Purists will certainly be offended by this combination (and with the whole dish, really), but I think it worked beautifully with the wines. The scallop zoodle gratin was delicious on its own, but in that case, I’d serve it with a light, fresh white wine – a non-skin contact Pinot Grigio for example. However, the flavor intensity of the ramati loved the intensity boost from the ajvar.

While both wines worked solidly well, the Scarbolo il ramato's more delicate style (for a ramato) struck just the right balance in juggling the simple yet rich flavors of the buttery scallops, the lightness of the zoodles, and the bolder flavor of the ajvar. The J. Brix wasn’t bad, but it wanted food with a bit more intensity and weight. It worked best with bites that had a lot of ajvar, as the weight and intensity of the wine and the sauce mirrored each other nicely.

Dinner Two: Liptauer Crostini with a Chicken, Veggie, and Bean Bowl

I wanted to try the wines with a more typical for us on our second night, and nothing is more typical around here than leftovers. I always have bits and pieces of things taking up room in our fridge. One common “clean out” dish I like to make is to make a bowl with whatever protein is hanging out, beans or a grain, leftover veggies, and greens. In this case, I had shredded roasted chicken, cannellini beans that I warmed up with garlic, herbs, and olive oil, leftover veggies, and arugula. I tossed these all together for what is essentially a warm salad. You could let the chicken and beans cool down a bit, but I get impatient and I like how arugula or baby spinach wilts into the mixture. 

But why stop there? I flipped through Colman Andrews’ The Country Cooking of Italy looking for pairing inspiration for these wines and came across a recipe for Liptauer, a spiced cheese spread of Slovakian origin, that is also served in Trieste thanks to its history in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

From Colman Andrews’ The Country Cooking of Italy

I happened to have at least a version of all the ingredients on hand, so decided to make it as a way to liven up our dinner of leftover. To simplify an already simple recipe, I just tossed everything in the blender and gave it a whirl, then served it with grilled crostini on the side. This is a very flavorful spread and super easy to make, so I will definitely be returning to it again, although I might play with the balance of the spices in the future. As a bonus, the color of the cheese spread was a perfect complement to the color of the wines.

For a final flourish, I crisped up chicken skin that I’d saved after roasting the bird and now shredded it up and sprinkled it over the salad and the crostini. It kind of acts like bacon adding texture and flavor.

Both wines worked very well with the salad, each speaking to different components. The Scarbolo played up the more delicate and herbal notes, cranking up the peppery flavors in the arugula for example. The J. Brix, on the other hand,  liked the texture of the beans and the crispy chicken.

The two wines also both worked well with the Liptauer, but for me the J.Brix had the edge in this case, as it really liked the bold spices and the char on the crostini.

I so enjoyed both of these wines that I’m already mentally creating more pairings for them and craving more bottles of ramato!

*****

wine pairing, scallops, seafood, zoodles, one pot, low carb

Dinner, seafood

Italian

Servings: 4

By: Nicole Ruiz Hudson

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Scallop Zoodle Gratin

Prep Time: 25 MinCooking Time: 25 MinTotal Time: 50 Min

This is lovely and light meal on its own, however, I served it here with Ajvar for bolder flavors to match our Ramato wines.

Ingredients

• 24 to 32 scallops, depending on size (plan on 6 to 8 scallops per person), cleaned and dried with paper towels
• 4 zucchini, spiralized (you can also often find zucchini pre-cut into zoodles at the grocery store)
• 1 lemon, juice and zest divided
• 4 Tbsp butter, at room temperature, or as needed
• ⅓ to ½ finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup dried breadcrumbs
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan cheese, for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450°F.
2. Pour a generous glug of olive oil (2 to 3 tablespoons) in a large baking dish. Place the zoodles in the baking dish, then sprinkle with lemon juice, salt, pepper and toss to combine. Add more olive oil if needed. Distribute the scallops evenly on top. Set aside.
3. Mix together the butter, parsley, garlic, breadcrumbs, lemon zest, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper in a small bowl. (If you’d like to mix some Parmesan in with the mixture, absolutely feel free.) Sprinkle the mixture over the scallops and zoodles –– adding extra butter, olive oil, or bread crumbs as desired to ensure there’s a light dusting over the whole dish.
4. Place the baking dish in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the scallops are cooked through (they should no longer be translucent, but still slightly soft) and the breadcrumbs are have toasted to a golden brown. If you’d like a little more browning on top, switch the oven to the broiler setting, place the baking dish on the top rack, and broil for 1 to 2 minutes until you’ve reached the color you’d like.
5. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Accompany with ajvar for bolder flavor if desired.

Notes:

I used several recipes as references in creating this version, including these from Great Italian Chefs, SBS, and Food 52. 

Recommended Products:

Ajvar

https://www.sommstable.com/2021/07/craving-copper-old-world-vs-new-world-ramato.html

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*****

cheese, spread

appetizers

Hungarian, Eastern European,

Servings: Makes a little over a cup

By: Nicole Ruiz Hudson

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Liptauer

Prep Time: 5 MinCooking Time: 5 MinTotal Time: 10 Min

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon mustard, seeds or ground, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 anchovy fillets
• Green onions or chives, 2 white sections, plus 6 to 8 green spears, minced
• Salt
• Pepper
• Toasted/grilled bread or crackers for serving

Instructions

1. Place all ingredients, except for the green onion/ chive spears, in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Add the minced green onions/ chives and pulse to combine.
2. Serve with the grilled bread or crackers.

Notes:

Adapted from Colman Andrews’ The Country Cooking of Italy.

https://www.sommstable.com/2021/07/craving-copper-old-world-vs-new-world-ramato.html

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The rest of the Italian Food, Wine, Travel blogging group is exploring Ramati and Pinot Grigio from NE Italy this month, hosted by Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla, you can read her invitation post here. Check out the rest of their posts:

• Another BIPOC Celebrity Wine that I'm anxious to share with you by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Bibimbap and Pinot Gris Ramato, Sort Of by The Quirky Cork
• Fregola Sarda Con Gamberi + a Vertical Tasting of the 2017 and 2019 Attems Ramato Pinot Grigio by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Making Pinot Grigio Ramato Style: The Dal Cero Family of Corte Giocobbe by Joy of Wine
• Ramato, A Fresh Look at This Italian Wine by Savor the Harvest
• Ramato: Taking Rosè to the Next Level by Vino Travels
• Ramato, the copper colored “orange” wine of Italy — and Oregon! by Wine Predator
• Santa Margherita: My Favorite Pinot Grigio by Our Good Life
• This Summer Drink Pink With Pinot Grigio by The Wine Chef

Additional sources used for this post and extra reading: