(light music) >>On today's "Un-Wine'd," it's Seven Lady Vineyard.

Back in the kitchen, it's a delicious garlicky buttered steak.

In the oven, a wonderful trout almondine and a chicken salad to die for.

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... (light music) >>This garlicky maitre d' butter steak is so wonderful.

You actually start it off in a pan and then you finish it in the oven to give the garlic an opportunity to roast and just meld into the beauty of that steak.

So we're gonna start with a little bit of salt and pepper on a ribeye steak.

Now, you just wanna season this however you normally would for your steak.

So I like to go not too thick on this, because I'm going to use some more seasonings in my maitre d' butter.

So a good little dusting.

And then I want to get my pan ready.

So I have about a tablespoon of butter melting in my pan.

And then I wanna add, oh, about two tablespoons of olive oil.

You're not going to actually bake the steak in this pan because you don't want it to continue to fry in the oil.

You want to get a good color on it and then stick it in the oven just on a cookie sheet.

I'm just gonna heat, and I want my cooktop to be about medium high on this.

So what we want to do now is take that salted and peppered steak and we're gonna put it right down in the superhot pan to sear.

And hear that sizzle.

Now, just to keep my cooktop from getting too messy, I'm just gonna set the lid ajar a little bit on here and then I'm gonna make some excellent maitre d' butter that is going to make the steak an incredible experience.

So in my dish here, I have about two tablespoons of very soft butter.

And to that, I want to add one clove of garlic, that I'm just gonna give a little smack here and chop up.

So if you hit your garlic a little bit with your knife, the oil is released all around the edge, and then you don't have to worry about all of that skin sticking to the garlic.

So let's just give it another little whack so it's nice and thin and then we'll just mince it up.

Now, I don't want a super fine mince on this.

I'm really going for a fine chop.

And the reason is that I want to see that garlic as it roasts in the pan.

All right, so let's put that over in our butter.

And of course, that's our principal flavor, that garlic butter, it's so intense.

Now, I wanna take about a quarter teaspoon of dill seeds.

Not weed, but seed.

And then I'm gonna take some fresh herbs.

So I've got just the end of a little basil, and I wanna take those leaves and just kind of lay them out because we're gonna chiffonade and then chop.

And there's a reason we wanna do that, and that is that I'm using a little Thai bird chili, these teeny tiny chili peppers packed with heat and flavor.

But I wanna just pinch off that top of the Thai bird and I'm gonna actually roll it in my basil so it's easier to cut and then it doesn't go everywhere on the board.

So let's give that a nice little chiffonade.

There we go.

And then come back and give it a good mince, just like that.

So let's take our Thai bird and our basil and put over in our butter.

Now I'm gonna take a little bit of chive and I just want to mince that up.

And I'm gonna take what would be the equivalent of about, oh, half teaspoon.

There we go.

Take a little bit of that chive.

Don't worry if you've got some long little strips, it's not gonna hurt a thing.

And actually it adds to the texture of the final product.

And then we wanna take a little fresh oregano.

Now, I love fresh oregano because it really, it's much more mild than an intense dried oregano.

So I love to use that when I can.

And I grow a lot of oregano.

And I wanna take a little thyme.

So what I'm looking for here is about a teaspoon of oregano, thyme, and rosemary all together, all fresh.

So we've got the dill seed, we've got the garlic, we've got that Thai bird chili, a little bit of basil, thyme, oregano, and rosemary.

What an incredible flavor combination, wow.

And then we're gonna take just a little more salt and pepper.

And all together I'm looking at about a half teaspoon.

So a quarter teaspoon of salt, quarter teaspoon of pepper.

I'm gonna flip that steak and get this butter finished.

Now let's look at that beautiful color on there.

(pan sizzling) We just wanna give that steak maybe another minute or two on the other side.

Remember that temperature has come up.

It doesn't take nearly as long on the second side to bring it to temperature and to get that crispiness as it does on the first.

Now, let's just mix up our butter and I'll show you what we're gonna do with it.

So we want to get in and really mix that butter, get it all incorporated, get all of those flavors melted through so that you don't have a clump of one thing in one place and something else in the other.

Hard to believe all that wonderful flavor that's gonna come out of that bit of butter.

Now let's get the steak to our cookie sheet and finish it in the oven.

So you can see how I spread the butter and I put it in the oven.

And that garlic is baked through just perfectly.

Now with this Cab Franc, it's fantastic.

Cab Franc has that unctuousness about it that really cuts through the fat of meat and, wow, is it ever incredible?

(soft music) (light lounge music) Well, I'm here at Seven Lady Vineyards with Chad.

And, Chad, I am so excited to be here.

Thank you so much for having me.

>>You're welcome.

>>Tell me a little bit about Seven Lady Vineyards and how it started and how you came here to Dover Hall.

>>Yeah, so, well, we started Dover Hall before we started Seven Lady Vineyards back in 2017.

My partner, Jeff and I, we decided, with the acreage we had here, and we planted in 2018, and then it started the task of, "What are you gonna call it?"

>>Oh, yeah.

>>"What are we gonna do with this," right?

And we didn't know if we were just gonna plant vineyards and then go anywhere with it.

And then between my partner and his family and my family, we have seven ladies, and so that's where the name Seven Lady Vineyards came from.

And that made it special.

And it was kind of a tribute because when you work in this business, it's very time-consuming.

And you miss Saturday events, you miss all kinds of family occasions sometimes.

And so it was kind of like a nod to the ladies in our life that, you know, miss us from time to time because we have to be here working, so.

>>I love it.

Well, and you've got quite a background in wine, so tell us a little bit about that.

>>Well, yeah, so I've been selling wine since 1994 in the restaurant world.

>>Right.

>>And did that for a long time.

Became a som back in 2000.

That's actually been really a big play for being in this business now at this level because you really understand the other side of it and the consumer side really well.

>>Right.

>>And I think that's vital.

>>Yes.

>>Making wine, as you know, Ben just does a phenomenal job for us, is something that's so critical to the quality of the wine and everything else, but then you also have to get it to the consumer.

So I'm hoping that that all plays out really nicely once we get our tasting room open, and I think it will.

And also, I have got one more class left at UC Davis- >>Oh, wow.

>>To get my winemaking certification, so.

>>Oh, that's great.

>>Yeah, so.

And Ben has been a great mentor, and including Zach, he's our cellar master at the winery.

And he's been a big help 'cause he recently went through those courses himself.

So it's been helpful.

>>Wow.

>>Very helpful.

>>Well, Ben Jordan is an amazing find.

>>He really is.

We are blessed.

We are really blessed that, you know, the roads went the way they did and- >>Exactly.

>>It ended up being really great for us.

>>That is fantastic.

(light lounge music) One of my favorite dishes with a chardonnay is a trout almondine.

This is an easy recipe to make, but it looks so incredibly difficult.

So we're gonna start with our pan and about a tablespoon of butter.

So I'm gonna melt this down over about medium high heat.

And I've selected some almonds here.

Now, this is traditional for the French method.

These are blanched almonds, so the skin is off of them and then they're sliced.

All right, so we're gonna take those almonds and put them right in our pan.

Now, you want to just stir-fry these really, really quickly because what you're looking for is a golden color.

And just before it starts to brown, you want to take those off.

Now, while those are just starting on the pan, I want to go ahead and salt and pepper my trout.

Now I have two filets of trout here and I'm just going to take some salt and pepper, grind all over.

(grinder whirring) You wanna give a nice coating to this, but you don't wanna go overboard with your salt and pepper.

(grinder whirring) A-ha, and my almonds are starting to turn.

Perfect timing.

Look at that.

See that golden color on there?

They're not brown, but they've just hit gold.

Now I want to put them back in that little dish.

So let's just put those down in our dish that we started with.

And hold as much of that butter back in the pan as you can 'cause you're gonna continue to use it for the green beans.

Remember, it's green bean almondine.

So let's take a little butter, a little more, about a tablespoon, and we're gonna put it in our pan.

It's gonna be a hot pan, so it's gonna go fast.

You don't want this butter to burn, but it's okay if it gets a little caramel color on it.

Now, we wanna take some green beans, and these are just a haricots verts, nice thin green bean.

And we just wanna saute those until they're crispy but slightly done.

I just love this.

It smells so good, it tastes so good.

Just a hint of salt and pepper.

There we go.

Oh, I can see these are almost done.

Now you want the green beans to be nice and green and still beautiful.

It takes no time at all, probably about two minutes to get these just to the stage we want.

Now I'm gonna remove this from the heat, but I'm gonna keep those green beans in this hot pan.

Now, now I've got a huge fry pan here, and in it I have four tablespoons of butter.

So I'm gonna let that melt over a medium high heat and then I'm going to put my trout in skin side down.

All right, now I like to hold it with the tail side up simply because this is nice and heavy now and it's easier to put in the pan.

If you try to put it in, believe it or not, with the tail side down, it's just a little bit too heavy at the top and then it's hard to get the tail to go in.

So tail side up.

So you've got the heaviest part of the fish down as you place it in the pan.

Now I've let this go until the edges of the fish start to turn white.

And then, very gently, I want to turn my fish over so they cook on both sides.

Now I'm going to only flip it once and then flip it back to the skin side so the skin still has a little chance to get crispier.

But right now, I want to make sure that the fish will fry all the way through.

So for that reason, we're gonna flip it.

(pan sizzling) Always flip away from you when you are using butter or any kind of oil.

(pan continues sizzling) Mm, you can see that the skin is starting to get nice and crispy on the edges.

I'm gonna give this about a minute, minute and a half on the flesh side, and then I'm gonna flip it back over and let it finish.

So the rule for fish, or at least for trout, is about five minutes for a nice thick piece of trout.

Now the key to this is to make sure that the flesh is entirely cooked on that underside because if you try to flip it before the flesh is cooked, it falls apart.

That's when you get that flakiness that just goes everywhere with your fish.

But if it's cooked, it simply releases itself from the pan.

Let's see if I got it right this time.

(pan sizzling) You see how that didn't pull away from the top?

Perfect.

This one I caught on the tail just a little bit, it went up the side of the pan.

So on the tail, I'm gonna see a little bit of that pulling away.

Then I can show you what that looks like.

(pan continues sizzling) You can kind of see that the fish pulled away there just a little bit from the fleshy part.

So it's away from the skin, it's not quite as smooth.

All right, now this fish is ready.

So now we wanna plate it.

That skin is nice and crispy.

It's just ready to be lifted.

And for this, I don't wanna use the tongs.

I really like to use one fish spatula and either a short spatula, or two fish spatulas.

And the other thing I like to do is to make sure I drain the liquid from the top as I get ready to plate it.

(soft piano music) So now I wanna take my green beans.

We're gonna put some of those right down the center, green bean trout almondine.

Oh, so good.

And it never ceases to amaze me how delicious this flavor is.

Now, let's take some of our almonds.

And we're just gonna rib those right down the center.

With a nice glass of Chardonnay, (tongue clicks) you will not believe how wonderful this meal is.

And, again, it's easy to make.

So the next time you wanna make a great fish dish and you've got a bottle of chardonnay, mm, go for the green bean trout almondine.

(soft piano music) (light lounge music) So I'm back with Ben Jordan, one of my very favorite winemakers here in Virginia.

And, Ben, I love what you put in a glass.

So tell me about this beautiful white.

>>Yeah, we're really excited for this.

This is the Seven Lady Vineyards 2022 Viognier.

And we took a different approach than, I'd say, the average viognier in Virginia.

And we would kind of wanted to explore the French roots of the grape.

So thinking Northern Rhone, Condrieu, that sort of thing.

And so the big difference that we did is that we actually let it go through a malolactic to bring more sort of texture to the table.

So it gives it like density and richness.

You still have plenty of the viognier aromatic floral piece there, but maybe held in check a little bit by the textual element.

>>It's really, really nice.

It's got a good spark to it.

I love the acidity.

I love the floral.

And the fruit really comes out so beautifully, mm.

>>Yeah, and I think when you take this approach, you actually, maybe the fruit's not as much in your face, but you allow the wine more ageability, more time for development.

And, you know, that's just kind of looking at some of the great white wines of the world.

Almost every single one of them does go through malolactic fermentation, and especially these, you know, long-age viogniers of the Northern Rhone.

>>So one of my very favorite varietals is Cab Franc.

And here in Virginia, you get so many different flavor profiles.

Tell me about what you're getting here.

>>What I love about Cab Franc is its ability to show place.

>>Yeah.

>>And I think in some ways, you know, we talk about this ideal in burgundy of pinot noir showing place, and every site is different, and that's really what Cabernet Franc does here in this state.

You can have it on the coast, you can have it in the mountains, you can have it everywhere in between and it's doing something different.

>>Yeah.

>>And so we have this kind of sandy loam here that is more elegant than some soils.

And so you would think, "Hey, let's just lean into ripeness here."

Here we wanted to really focus on the aromatic elements of the wine, the sort of subtlety that you can get on the sandier soils here.

And so in some ways, I look at this wine as our pinot noir.

We're doing the sort of things that you look for with pinot noir.

You want aromatic complexity, you want density, but you don't want it to be like big and burly and tannic, it's more about like softness of tannin and, you know, the sort of velvety texture that you can get.

And I think that's really what this site can do.

>>Oh, yeah, it has an amazing aroma.

I really get that berry.

And then on my palate, I'm getting a lot of that black pepper, that I love to get at the finish on a Cab Franc.

>>Yeah, classic Cab Franc there.

>>Yeah, yeah.

So, Ben, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you for the amazing wine and for all that you do for Virginia Wine.

>>Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

>>Thank you.

(light lounge music) Today, I'm going to make for you a Thai basil chicken salad with fresh peaches that goes beautifully with viognier.

So I'm gonna start off by making my sauce for the chicken salad.

I have about a half cup of mayo.

And to that, I'm going to add a tablespoon of peach jam, peach marmalade, peach preserves, anything peach that you have.

Or you can use a teaspoon of honey, because honey is of course just a little more intense with that sugar flavor.

So we wanna add our preserves here.

And then I just wanna take half a lemon, so about a tablespoon of lemon juice.

And I'm just gonna squeeze that into my hand so that all the seeds stay in.

But I want to add that little bit of tartness to this to just sort of counterbalance that sweetness, but also to give a really good acidic flavor.

Now, let's just stir that up.

Mm, so you've got this sort of chunky sauce right here because if you're using preserves, you're going to have a few little chunks in it.

That's not a problem.

Now, I have one whole roasted chicken breast here.

To that, I'm going to add about a half cup of red bell peppers that I've chopped.

And I'm using these for flavor and for color.

And then I wanna take a jalapeno pepper.

And I've chopped this kind of finely.

You don't wanna get a big piece of jalapeno in your mouth because there's too much heat sometimes to those.

So you want to make sure that the chop on those is a little more fine.

Then I'm gonna take three scallions that I just chopped up.

Now you can also use red onion, white onion, whatever you have.

But I like using this for the texture and for the flavor.

I like that mildness that the green onions bring.

And then I'm gonna take about a tablespoon of minced fresh Thai basil.

All right, so we've got that and we're just gonna mix it through a little bit.

Now, let's put this sauce in.

And I just want to go ahead and toss around gently before I put in my peaches, because what I wanna do is coat.

Now, you know that when you use fresh fruit, you're gonna get a little more juice once you add that fresh fruit.

That's why, also, I want to get this sauce in first so that it's not overly juicy.

And if you put your peaches in there too early, you bruise them, you rip them apart.

Now, I have a friend who has fresh peach trees and she just brought me these beautiful white peaches.

So you can use any peaches.

You can even use canned peaches, but fresh are the best.

And if you're feeling really exotic, put in a little mango.

All right, let's stir that through.

Now you can see that I've kind of shredded this chicken.

I've tried it a couple different ways.

I've tried it shredded and I've tried it chopped.

If you chop the chicken, what happens is your chicken salad just gets a little unwieldy when you go to put it in a sandwich.

Now, I like this in a sandwich.

I like it just on lettuce leaves.

But today, I am gonna do the sandwich variety.

I like that with viognier.

Now, let's just make sure that all of this is melded, those flavors are through.

And then let's add a little salt and pepper to the end.

So just a little coarse ground salt (grinder whirring) and a speck of pepper.

(grinder whirring) Now remember, if you're using a sea salt, it dissipates over time, so don't oversalt.

If you're using a kosher salt, you can definitely taste your chicken salad, know if it has enough salt now and it will have enough salt later.

Now I have a little croissant here and just some leaf butter lettuce.

And I'm going to build this sandwich so we can enjoy a nice little lunch.

Sometimes I just like to put it on the lettuce leaves.

And particularly if I'm having a little lady's lunch or something like that, the lettuce leaves are nice and light.

And this chicken salad is just incredible all by itself.

You don't have to have the bread.

Oh.

So let's stack up our lettuce a little bit and top it off.

And, oh my goodness, what an incredible sandwich to have for lunch, particularly if you've got a great chilled glass of viognier.

(light lounge music) Thanks so much for joining me at Seven Lady Vineyards.

And a special thank you to Chad and Ben.

I hope you enjoyed the recipes that I paired up with their wines.

For these and a whole lot more, you can visit me at 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 "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... (light lounge music)