Wine a bit, you'll feel better! We do! As junior man on the Winterport totem pole I am constantly having to be reminded to wine a bit and enjoy myself. Sometimes I have 17 different things going on and setting apart some time for fun falls to the wayside. I'm constantly worrying about back ordered equipment, monetary deadlines, and so much more; and that's just for the distillery. Then there are my writing and consulting gigs, traveling to events, and staying connected with all the big things and new trends coming out of NYC and the rest of the world. It's completely overwhelming at times, so every now and then I have to remember to pick up a glass of wine and say "Skoal!"

When I got back to the winery / distillery everything was quiet since we are waiting on back orders of equipment, and so construction is delayed, again, like usual. Last Saturday morning I wandered around taking photos of the outside of the facility and our retail store. It's Spring in Maine, what is usually called early summer elsewhere in the US, and the trees are starting to get lush and flowers are blooming. The Penobscot River's stately flow down to the bay ebbs and flows quite radically with the tides. We are ten miles up from the ocean, but still get tides of around 12.5 feet. Winterport got its name because it was exactly that; a winter port to keep ships safe from the violence of Nor'easters, those intense storms that come in from the North East off of the Atlantic. They're like a winter version of a hurricane at times, although they can form at any time of year. Here's a glimpse of our building, the view of the Penobscot River across the street, our retail store, and the art gallery. The building doesn't look like much right now after a hard winter, but we'll spruce it up a bit when we get the chance. You'll be surprised by the inside and we're mighty proud of our place.



As the week progressed we started focusing on the monthly food & wine dinner at Pairings Food & Wine Education Center. The June dinner had an Asian theme and Chef Robert Waldron planned a tasty menu for the sold out event. Let's see if it makes your mouth water as much as mine. Continued after the jump...

So here is the menu from our six course, June 14th Pairings Dinner:

Amuse-bouche – Futomaki-zushi roll made from local Maine Crab meat with gari and a swirl of wasabi cream; paired with Winterport Winery Spring Fever

Lemongrass and Scallion soup with Won Tons filled with Chicken and Shitake mushrooms; paired with Winterport Winery Pear

Salad of baby spinach and field greens, sprouts, cashews and citrus, with a green tea vinaigrette; paired with
Winterport Winery Orchard Blush

Intermezzo - Fancy That! Sorbet (Fancy That! is Winterport's sparkling, semi-dry Apricot wine and it's very tasty)

Roast sesame pork tenderloin with wild rice, a mélange of wild mushrooms and seasonal, baby vegetables; paired with Winterport Winery Blueberry

Coconut ice cream with rum glazed pineapple and cardamom tuile; paired with Winterport Winery Flying Dutchman, as well as coffee or tea. (This desert was so good that I asked Chef Robert to email me the recipe so I can post it for all you Slashfoodies to enjoy. It will appear later today.)

Here is a gallery of photos of this Pairings Dinner, so you can see what it looks like. The dinners are currently held on the second Saturday of each month, advance reservations required. Later this summer we plan to open daily with a light lunch menu. Eventually Friday & Saturday nights, or possibly every night, for fine dining and Pairings Dinners. The sky's the limit. Does anyone know a great, young chef, interested in teaching culinary classes, designing and implementing a light brunch and lunch menu, and eventually creating a fine dining destination in Winterport, Maine? (Female, heterosexual, attractive, single, available, interested, as other qualifications all come to mind as well ;-)> )



Now you've seen the outside of our facility, the store, and one of our dinners. In awhile I'll give you a full tour of Pairings, but first: How did I end up as a partner here in Winterport, Maine?

As I've mentioned before, a year ago I developed a strong desire to simplify my life. I wanted to move to Coastal Maine and to paraphrase what the Maine state slogan says, to live my life as it is meant to be. I looked at a chef position for a truly excellent wine bar/cafe in Rockland; but decided that I didn't want to work in a kitchen. I spent a long weekend driving around the mid-coast area and soon landed myself a handful of consulting contracts with local food and beverage businesses. I found a house to rent, right on the head of Penobscot Bay in Owls Head, and moved to Maine immediately. Two weeks later I had a new home, one that I came to love more every day. Maine, the way life should be. The state nicknamed the Vacationland, where everything seems a bit more clean and fresh than elsewhere.(You may not feel the same, but hey, this is my journal.)

As I settled in, I contacted various local and regional magazines and newspapers about writing for them. I spent much of the summer driving around the countryside, visiting farms, food businesses, restaurants, and the local wineries; looking for ideas for articles and consulting gigs. Within a half hour drive there were three wineries and over time I became friendly with the wine makers. A local paper asked me to write a big article on the newest one that had just opened Memorial Day 2007, a few weeks earlier. It was to be a front page piece and continue for several pages. I visited the winery several times so I could get to know them. The interesting thing for me was that they were the states first small farm winery/distillery, Sweetgrass Farm Winery and Distillery, who I wrote about twice here on Slashfood when I reviewed their Back River Gin and Cranberry Smash.

Now as many of you may know, I love gin. I thought that the Back River Gin was great. It is a big, new, American style gin that goes great mixed with tonic or a cocktail, or straight on the rocks. It's such a big gin that it isn't for everyone, but gin fanatics love it, as well as many people who never liked gin before. It brought to mind a few of my experiments from a few years earlier when I played around with the idea of starting a distillery and making my own gin.

I was fascinated with the process and wanted to learn more. Keith at Sweetgrass farm was loathe to let me in on the secrets of distilling and his production methods. So I bought dozens of books on the subject, many were rare or out of print, costly, and hard to find. I read all I could, joined online distilling forums and read back through years of posts. I considered buying a small still or making one, but I tend to be a law abiding citizen and decided not to join the tens of thousands of home distillers who secretly make moonshine in their sheds, garages, and basements. But I swore to myself that one day I would become a distiller.

As I drove around the coast of Maine consulting and doing research for articles to write, I realized that there were a handful of wineries in the state. Having a love for wine, and a curiosity about the life of a vintner, I started researching them to write an article. As I did my research I found out that what everyone thought of as 4-5 wineries, in actuality was quite a few more. There were eleven wineries in the state, with more in the process of opening. By the end of 2008 there would be around twenty wineries in Maine. Who knew? Well now I did, and what started as an article quickly became the outline for a book on the Wineries of Maine.

As I found out about more and more wineries, and the numbers kept growing, I started an email list of all of them and updated everyone in the winery bizz about what, where, and when. Within a month talk started going round about starting a Maine winery organization of some type. I was all for it since I was slowly interviewing everyone and thought that with an organization, there would be enough interest that a book on the wineries might actually sell.

In early November I interviewed Mike Anderson of Winterport Winery. It's a beautiful facility inside, that didn't look like anything much from the outside during winter. I was very impressed with the retail store, and most especially Pairings Food & Wine Education Center next door.



All the winery equipment was located in the huge cellar which was smart, since the temperatures stay moderately cool all year long. Perfect for slowly and carefully fermenting and aging wine and other libations. Mike invited me to one of the monthly wine dinners at Pairings which was in a few days. An evening of 3.5-4 hours of fine dining, with matching wines for each course. I accepted and arrived a bit early so I could take some photos and chat, before the other attendees arrived and things became busy. Mike and I talked about brewing and he mentioned that he wanted to start a brewery one day. I mentioned that the next step after a brewery was a distillery. We put our discussion aside and I settled in to the fantastic dinner.

A week or so later was the first meeting of what is now called the Maine Winery Guild. We gathered at my friends John and Bettina's (partners, each is married to someone else) CellarDoor Winery in Lincolnville, Maine for dinner and discussion. I wasn't invited at first, but when I announced that I was planning on starting my own winery/distillery, then it was OK. It was a bit of a white lie since I didn't have all the capital I needed, but I was hoping. During the meeting I mentioned that I might want to partner up with a winery, as I looked over towards Mike Anderson he gave me a nod and silently said, "Speak to me." Later that week we met and agreed to become partners in Winterport Winery, and to start up a joint venture to be Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery. So in just a a few weeks I went from writer and distillery aspirant, to winery partner and future distillery (and brewery) owner by the end of November.

Mike and I immediately discussed making hard cider, he had already ordered several custom batches of high quality, freshly pressed juices; and I had worked for a cider-works previously, so we set out to try our hand at hard cider. I found out that there were some workshops taking place starting the next day at the Cornell University Agricultural Experimental Station in Geneva, NY. One was on Artisanal Distilling, the other on Advanced Hard Cider techniques. I signed up for both and drove off to Geneva, located in the Finger Lakes and Wine region of New York, 600 miles away.

Over the next week I dived into the two workshops, soaking up new knowledge, and refreshing the old. When I got back to the winery I practically burst forth with ideas, and we started the cider fermentation. The key to a great, traditional, old style New England Cider is a long, slow, gentle fermentation at cool temperatures during the winter. Our underground winery in the winter was perfect. As the cider fermented it kept all the fresh fruit aromas from the half dozen apple types in the blends. Then we separated the young hard cider from the lees of spent yeast, and put it on wood to age and mature slowly.

Now, it's just about ready to bottle, around 7 months from when we started the process. Our New England style hard cider should be bottled and available by the Fourth of July. We may even put up a few small batches to further age in used whiskey and rum casks to serve later this summer as a special treat.