- Just a few hundred feet from the Potomac River, I'm Tassie Pippert here at Potomac Point Winery where the wines are amazing, the foods we pair up will be delicious, and the ambience is great.

So go grab your glass.

It's time to unwind.

- [Narrator] Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by.

- [Narrator] 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.

- [Narrator] And by.

(bright jazz music) (upbeat jazz music) (gentle jazz music) - Potomac Point was so much fun.

I got to sit in the little tepees with Skip.

We enjoyed a glass of wine, and then walked through the beautiful vineyards.

Back in the kitchen, I'm going to pair up some of those delicious wines with some amazing food, including a delicious cheese tart, a wonderful grilled cheese sandwich, and a spectacular beef brisket.

So let's head back to the kitchen, grab your glass, because it's time to really have some fun and unwind.

(gentle jazz music) I love an onion and cheese tart with a little Sauvignon blanc.

And this one I hope you'll enjoy, and I'll tell you some variations you can do on it so that you can make it special just for your family.

So the first thing I'm gonna do is slice up a couple of shallots, and you can use any onion product for this.

I really like shallots because they tend to be a little bit sweeter, and that's the flavor that I want with my Boursin cheese.

Now, shallots also work when you're using a goat cheese, and red onion works equally well.

I also sometimes make this with a little white onion, but I reduce the amount, because the onion tends to be a little stronger.

So I'm gonna take two shallots, and just give them a slice.

And then I'm gonna throw them over in my pan with a little bit of butter, and let it saute a bit.

(gentle jazz music) So I have my shallots sauteed in about a tablespoon of butter.

And they are going to cool just a little bit sitting here on the counter, while I put together the custard for this wonderful tart.

So in my blender, I want to take some eggs, four of them to be exact, and remember, always break one at a time, just in case.

If you get a shell in there, or if one is bad, then you don't have everything destroyed.

Now, the next thing I wanna do is take two packages of Boursin cheese.

Now, Boursin is this wonderful creamy cheese that has herbs in it, and it's so delicious.

Here, you can use regular cream cheese, you can use Boursin, you can use any other kind of cream cheese that has herbs or garlic in it, or you can use goat cheese.

Goat cheese goes well with your Sauvignon blanc, but I'm allergic to goat cheese.

So I wanted to make sure I could fix something that I could eat.

Now let's give that just a little pulse.

I don't wanna over blend this because if you do, you're gonna get too much air.

It's going to puff up in the oven like this.

And then the next thing you know, you're going to have a way over-processed tart.

(blender whirring) There we go.

That's perfect.

Now just a few pulses, and that allows those eggs and the cheese to blend.

And then I'm going to add a cup of heavy cream.

Heavy cream works best in this.

You can use half and half, but you're not going to get the texture that you really probably want for this.

And then I'm gonna take some herbs.

Now I love using fresh herbs.

The recipe on the website will call for dried herbs, but I'll also tell you how to use fresh.

So typically, you would use about a teaspoon of each of these, dried.

Parsley, basil, and chives.

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

There's more volume in fresh herbs because they have all of their moisture.

When they're dried, they're brittle, they break right down.

And so one teaspoon is equal to three teaspoons or one tablespoon fresh.

Now let's take about a quarter teaspoon of salt, and give it another couple of pulses.

(blender whirring) And I wanna go down in there with my spatula and just make sure that all those egg yolks are off the side of my bowl and incorporated in.

It doesn't matter that you're using the one for the shallots because everything's going to be mixed together.

There we go, and we have it all ready.

It's gonna go in our tart shell.

So a lot of times when I see an onion and chevre tart, onion and cheese tart, the onions are in the bottom.

I actually like to put mine in the top so that as it's baking, they sort of find their own space within the tart.

That way they're really mixed together.

Now I'm going to pour this into a tart shell.

You don't have to have a tart shell.

You can use a pie pan for this if you want.

It's going to look more like quiche when you do that, but don't feel like you have to run out and buy something new for your kitchen just to make this recipe, unless like me, you are completely addicted to kitchen gadgets.

All right, so let's just put all of that in.

It's mixed beautifully.

Now you can use a pre-made pie shell, you can make your own, whatever you want to do.

Depends on how much time you have and how much skill you have, how much experimentation you want to do.

And then of course, the way you want it to taste.

Now, I'm just dropping these little shallots all through my tart.

If you have a lot of excess butter, try not to get all that in because it will make little fat pockets.

Now let's pop this into a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes.

Check it after 40, see if it's still jiggly in the middle.

But usually it takes me 50 minutes if I'm using a tart pan like this.

Takes me about 40 to 45 if I'm using a pie pan, because they're a little bit wider and a little bit less deep.

It's had a chance to cool.

And when it cools, sometimes it comes out about like this over the pan, and then it will go in just a little bit.

That's okay.

That's not a problem.

Now because I used a tart pan, I love using these tart pans, you can just lift this right out.

So the tart lifts, and what I usually do is I try to slice it while it's still in the ring.

That way, when I lift it out, I don't cut into the crust and crumble it all over the place.

And here is the piece that I cut.

So I just wanna lift that right off of that disc.

Now you can see that beautiful texture.

And what I usually do is serve this with a little salad on the side.

For today, just a little basil will do.

And it's so, so pretty.

And now let's give it a taste.

So this beautiful Sauvignon blanc is so crisp, highly acidic, so it cuts through that cheese, through the fat.

Mm, beautiful.

(gentle jazz music) So good.

Mm.

Just the way I remember.

(gentle jazz music) Mm.

Delicious, delicious wine.

Now, let's head to Stafford where we'll meet my friend Skip, and talk to him a little bit about Potomac Point Winery.

(energetic Latin music) I love Petit Manseng in every stage, so whether it's dry or sweet.

(laughs) - Yes.

- I love Petit Manseng - [Skip] If you can handle that acidity.

- [Tassie] Oh yeah.

- [Skip] You can do so well in so many different wines.

- I'm here today at beautiful Potomac Point with Skip Causey, and you have the most incredible wine that I know you and your beautiful wife Cindy came up with.

And this is just a great place.

Tell us a little bit about that.

- Cindy and I had planned and worked together on wineries and getting into the wines into Virginia.

I was in construction, she was in emergency management, and we came together on the wines on the weekends, visiting the different wineries, going all over to New York to California.

Yes, Italy and southern Spain too.

- [Tassie] Yeah, well this really has that beautiful Mediterranean feel to it.

I love that, I love that.

- [Skip] We wanted to create a little bit of the old world within 30 minutes of Washington DC.

So that very Mediterranean with the whole feel of all the wines that we fell in love with over in Europe.

- [Tassie] Oh yeah, well, you also, you get your wines from here on property.

- Correct.

- And you have some purveyors here throughout Virginia.

Tell us a little bit about how you select those purveyors.

- Our property gives us about 15 to 20% of our total.

Right now we have large land and vineyards up in Loudoun County, Nelson County, those are our two top.

We probably get about 80% of our grapes from those two vineyards.

Loudoun and Nelson, just very much far apart, they're wonderful sites, but the Nelson site is way up on a mountain, anywhere between 900 and 1400 feet of elevation.

The Loudoun County has so much more power, it's 600, 700 feet, rolling hills just has the right soil.

So if I want the power, I go for the Loudoun, if I want delicate and just that complexity, I go for the Nelson or a combination thereof.

- And yours is a Heritage, right?

- Heritage is after our land.

- Yes.

- We have our on some of the acreage of the original 4,000 acres that dubbed the rich land.

So we have the Richland Reserve is our Heritage.

Our Heritage is that land that was owned by the governor Fitzhugh Lee.

- Oh.

- And invited people to come back and help him farm his rich land.

And when they came here, they just thought it was called Richland.

And so that's where the name Richland Reserve comes from.

- Wow, this is gorgeous, mm.

- This is our 2019 Vintage, predominantly Merlot, Cabernet Franc, so a nice blend of also Petite Verdot with a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon.

- That is really, really nice.

I love that blend.

Mm, it's just, it's soft, yet it has a real boldness about it.

- It's the power that goes with the French oak.

We use the elite French oak that has three years of aging of the staves before they even cooperage.

So we use those elite barrels to give us that softness.

- [Tassie] Yes.

- [Skip] As well as bringing out the tannins and the structure, but having it be smooth as quick as possible.

- Wow.

Well that is gorgeous.

Now, you've got some really cool things that you've discovered during COVID, including your tepees.

Tell us a little bit about that tepee program that you have out beside us here.

- Well, what we found in COVID, after the lockdown, when we couldn't do anything other than sell wine and deliver wine out ourselves.

- Right.

- People would come by and pick up their food to go or their wine to go.

When we finally opened up two months later, you couldn't even bring people inside.

As it started opening and opening, people still were not comfortable going out, so we created an area where they could go be just themselves or their small little family pod and go into these tents.

- [Tassie] Oh yeah, well, I got to sit out there with you a little while this morning, and it is so cool.

You look out over the vineyards, and I know you've illuminated the vineyard at night.

- [Skip] We lit up our Petite Manseng, so if you're there in the late afternoon and go into the evening, the lights are all around, the whole vineyard is lit up, and it's also, we had an event here on Monday, you also overlook the most beautiful sunset.

We're only a half a mile from the Potomac River.

And those water sunsets are just phenomenal.

- [Tassie] Yeah.

(upbeat music) Well, who doesn't love a good grilled cheese sandwich?

I love grilled cheese, and I like to change them up sometimes.

So today, I'm gonna make for you a grilled cheese sandwich that's a little bit different.

Red Thai curry grilled cheese with tomato.

So the first thing we're gonna do is get together some sauce.

I'm gonna take a little mayo, about out a third a cup, between a quarter and a third, and about a tablespoon of red Thai chili paste.

And you can see it's gonna be nice and that beautiful orange.

Then I wanna take some basil, about a tablespoon of fresh, or a teaspoon of dried.

I'm gonna take about a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and you can adjust this, of course, depending on how much heat you like.

I like just a little bit of spice in mine.

And then about a teaspoon of smoked paprika.

And this will really set this sauce off.

So if you don't have smoked paprika, it's okay, but it will taste a little bit different.

Now I'm going to pair this with a nice rose that really tends to be fruit forward, lots of strawberry, cranberry, raspberry.

And when I pair a nice rose, it works really well with a curry, works really well with cheese, and I thought, well, wow, think I'll put those two together.

So I've got four slices of bread here to make two nice sandwiches.

(upbeat music) And then I'm gonna take some cheddar cheeses.

I have a medium yellow cheddar cheese, and I have a nice, mild white cheddar cheese, and I wanna use plenty of it.

So I'm going to take a yellow and a white, and just put it on one side of my bread here.

And then I wanna take a slice of tomato.

Maybe even two per sandwich.

Again, just adjust this according to the size of your bread.

This really works great with white bread.

It also works really well with sourdough.

And of course, you can always make adjustments to this, add bacon if you'd like, you can add avocado.

I love it both ways.

Now let's take some more of that cheese.

And I'm just gonna do it on the opposite side here so I have white and yellow all over.

And then let's pop those tops on.

Now, I like to spread my sandwiches with butter.

Some people like to do mayo.

For me, mayo is just a little bit tangy.

I really prefer the butter, and that's what I'm gonna use.

And you wanna make sure that your pan is getting nice and hot as you do this.

(upbeat music) And don't make it too thick, or your bread will really feel greasy.

Just a nice thin layer like that.

Now let's plop those on the pan.

(butter sizzling) Now, I like to flip my grilled cheese a couple of times so that it gives the chance for the cheese to melt and for that nice golden color to appear.

And it also lets me know that I'm not overdoing it on one side or the other.

This makes such a great, quick dinner, quick lunch, it's awesome.

Now let that sit there for just a couple of seconds, just so that cheese doesn't go everywhere when you cut it, but it doesn't take too long, about 15 to 30 seconds.

All right, let's cut it in.

(knife cutting) Mm, and look at that beautiful cheesy sandwich.

Now remember, the residual heat will continue to melt that cheese just a little bit, and it's oh, so good.

This rose is just wonderful.

Lots of color.

Beautiful, beautiful aroma.

(upbeat music) And decidedly fruity.

I just love it.

Let's give it a try with this.

(crunching) Mm.

Oh yeah.

So good, mm.

I love that curry, that fruitiness, that cheddar cheese.

So wonderful.

I hope you'll try this at home, either as a vegetarian option, or add that bacon and make it delicious.

(gentle jazz music) Brisket is one of those go-to barbecue meats for me.

I absolutely love barbecued brisket.

And this one is so simple because we make it, we stick it in the oven for three and a half hours, and it's done, it's so simple.

So I'm gonna take about a four pound piece of brisket.

This is a nicely trimmed brisket, except I have one little fat pocket right here, and I'm actually gonna leave that in so that I get that fat to render out in the oven.

Now, what I wanna do is sprinkle that with a little bit of salt and pepper, top and bottom.

And you see this fat cap on the top, that's what we want to make sure is up top in our pan when we put it in the oven, that way all the fat can render down into the meat and it makes it so wonderfully tender.

Now let's take it over to a little bit of flour.

I have between a quarter and a half cup of flour here.

It depends on how big your brisket is.

Sometimes it's a little thicker, sometimes it's a little thinner, and if it's a thicker piece of brisket, you only need about a quarter cup.

If it's a thinner piece of brisket like this, you're gonna need closer to about a third of a cup, and I like to have a little extra on the plate.

Just wanna make sure it's nicely covered, because this is gonna give it a nice seal on the top and bottom.

All right, now I wanna take that over to a nice hot pan where I have a little bit of olive oil and a little bit of butter.

So about two tablespoons of olive oil, and about the same in butter, make sure the pan is nice and hot before where you bring the meat into that fat.

So while that sizzle is happening over there, we're going to make a wonderful paste that's going to go right over the top of this brisket.

So I've got my food processor out here, and I wanna start with a couple of sprigs of thyme.

It's just nice, fresh thyme.

And what I'm looking for is about half teaspoon, three quarters teaspoon of fresh thyme.

So I'm just pulling off all those leaves.

Don't put in the stems, they're a little bit too hard for this.

But remove all of those luscious leaves that you can get off.

Now let's take an onion.

This will act as our main ingredient for this wonderful barbecue sauce paste that we're putting right on top.

Okay, let's just slice it up.

Doesn't have to be perfect, this is all going to be paste, so it doesn't matter the size, we just wanna break it down a little bit.

Now let's add a little Worchestershire, about three tablespoons, some smoked paprika, about a teaspoon, about a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and again, adjust as you like, six to eight cloves of garlic.

If they're large, use six, if they're medium to small, use eight to 10, but I like a lot of garlic in this, it gives great flavor and lots of depth.

Then I wanna take about four tablespoons, quarter cup, of a tomato paste, and I really like just a nice rich tomato paste that you get in the tube.

It's double concentrate, but if you can't find that, that's fine, use a six ounce can, one of those tiny cans of tomato paste.

And then about three tablespoons of cocoa powder, mm.

Well, let's just process this.

(blender whirring) Now let's set up a pan to roast this amazing brisket.

Now I wanna take a pan that's just slightly bigger than the brisket.

You don't want a huge pan, because then you need too much liquid.

So the pan that I've chosen is just slightly larger than the brisket.

Then I wanna take a piece of aluminum foil, doubled, that's large enough for that brisket to fit into and be sealed over, put that in the pan.

Okay, let's take that brisket out of that hot pan.

It is seared on both sides, and nice and crispy from the flour.

I'm pairing up this brisket with a Petite Verdot, which really has a nice, rich flavor, and it holds up so well to brisket, and particularly to brisket with barbecue sauce.

There we go.

Now I wanna take a little beef stock, and a little bit of red wine.

I start with about a cup to a cup and a quarter of each, or about two cups altogether, and I want to just pour in a little bit of the beef stock first, I'm gonna hold just a little in case I have a little extra space.

What I'm looking for is to put the liquid almost halfway up the meat.

That's why I'm only using about two cups together.

(liquid pouring) (gentle jazz music) Now I'll wrap this up tightly, and stick it in a 350 degree oven for three and a half hours.

That looks wonderful.

Can't wait to get my teeth into that.

This makes amazing sandwiches.

It's also great as an entree.

Gonna slice it up.

Mm, I did let it rest for about 30 minutes out of the oven before slicing it, so we're sure that all those juices are just melded in there and it's wonderful.

Now let's plate it up with a little mashed potato and some roasted Brussels sprouts, and have an amazing meal.

This looks so good.

Oh my goodness.

So I'm gonna take just a little bit of my sauce from my pan, just give it a little drizzle.

(energetic jazz music) Oh, so good, so good.

So delicious, what a pairing.

I hope you'll enjoy this the next time you want a fantastic dinner that you can just put in the pot and forget about it.

(gentle jazz music) Well, I sure hope you've enjoyed all the recipes and wine pairings from today's show.

For these recipes and a whole lot more, go to vpm.org/unwined.

A special thank you to my extra special guest, Skip, and all of the folks at Potomac Point Winery.

It has been an amazing time just visiting with you.

The wines were delicious, the foods are great.

So until next time, go grab that glass, it's time to unwind.

- [Narrator] Production funding for "Un-Wine'd" was made possible in part by.

- [Narrator] 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 - [Narrator] And by.

(gentle jazz music)