- I'm here today at Wisdom Oak Winery with some wonderful young owners who have fresh, delicious palette and know their wines.

So go grab your glass, it's time to Un-wine'd.

- [Announcer] Production funding for Un-wine'd was made possible in part by- - [Announcer] Virginia Wine Board.

Promoting the interest of vineyard and wineries and the Commonwealth through research, education and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's Vineyards.

Discover more at virginiawine.org.

- [Announcer] And by.

(soft music) (soft upbeat music) (soft music) (soft music) - I'm here today at Wisdom Oak enjoying some amazing wines made by some wonderful winemakers and owners here.

They left their jobs in Philadelphia to come here to Virginia to pursue their dream of happiness, becoming winemakers, winery owners, pursuing that dream, loving every minute of it.

(Laura laughing) (Tassie laughing) So today, I had a chance to taste some delicious wines that I'll pair up with some foods, including Panko-Crusted Salmon, a delicious Eggplant Parmesan, and a to die for Chocolate Cake.

So prime me out of the chair, let's get to my kitchen.

It's time for us to really Un-wine'd.

(soft music) Petit Manseng is such a lovely wine, and I wanted to pair that up, with something that has a little bit of spice, a little bit of crunch, and what better thing than a salmon?

So I'm gonna make for you, a Salmon with a Panko Crust.

So what we wanna do, is cut our salmon into some serving-size pieces.

And I like to go for, maybe, four to six ounces on my servings.

So about like this.

Now, as you cut through that salmon, feel for bones, and make sure that if there are bones in it that you take that out.

Okay, so.

(knife thuds) I wanna just take, maybe, four servings.

And I wanna tuck that little tail right under, so it doesn't burn and get overdone.

Let's just tuck it under.

One, two.

Three, four.

(soft music) (aluminum foil cringes) Okay, this is such an easy recipe.

And salmon only takes just a few short minutes to bake or grill.

So you can have this ready for dinner in 20 minutes easily.

All you have to worry about while you're baking are your side dishes.

(soft music) So in my bowl, I've got some Panko crumbs, oh, about a cup and a quarter, and I want to add to that some garlic powder.

And use powder, not salt.

(soft music) Just a bit of cayenne.

And you can adjust your cayenne, accordingly.

I like a little bit more.

And particularly, with this Petit Manseng, I think it really highlights a little bit of pepper.

(soft music) Some salt.

Some paprika.

And here, you can use a little smoked paprika in it, but I wouldn't use all smoked paprika.

Maybe, just about a quarter, if you want.

But I like just regular paprika with this.

And I have just a touch of sugar.

Just as speck, just enough to give it a slight sweetness.

Now, let's give it a stir.

(soft music) So you wanna just make sure that you mix all of these flavors together.

So you don't end up with one piece that has all the garlic (chuckles) and one piece that doesn't have any.

(slow music) And then I want to add some melted butter.

And this is about six tablespoons of melted butter for this amount.

You just want to coat the Panko crumbs, you don't wanna make them soaked, but you wanna coat them well.

And make sure that you get all those spices incorporated in.

This way, you know that your spices are adhering to those Panko crumbs.

Because the moisture helps to do that.

(soft music) I just love salmon because it really is quite healthy.

And my family eats salmon all sorts of ways.

(soft music) This is just one of my favorites with Petit Manseng, because it has that little bit of crunch.

It has great flavors and it pulls out the flavor of the salmon.

And the salmon and the coating really pull out the flavors in the wine.

Now, I've made enough here for really six pieces.

If you have leftovers, just make sure you use them within a couple of days but you can stick them in the refrigerator.

And even though, you've dipped your fingers here in fish, it's okay, as long as this is refrigerated.

All right, now, I want to set my oven for 425, and I'm gonna bake this for about eight minutes.

I'm gonna check it after seven to see if it's ready.

You don't wanna over bake, and a little under bake is actually okay.

(soft music) This looks absolutely amazing!

I love the way that salmon just turns to that gorgeous, orangey, pink.

It's just such a pretty color.

Now, if I had no fresh parsley, I would probably mix in dry parsley and a little bit of my butter mixture, my Panko mixture.

But I have fresh parsley, and so, I want to use some fresh parsley on this.

And I'm just gonna sprinkle all around right down the center.

Oh, this is so beautiful.

(bowl thuds) Now, let's try it with that Petit Manseng.

So the Petit Manseng is from the Southwest part of France.

It's just a beautiful grape that can be made in a sweet style or bone dry.

This one is just slightly off dry and it is incredible with this salmon.

Hmm.

(soft music) Oh yeah.

There's just a touch of sweetness.

And that's why, I put the spice in here.

I love a little spice with my sweet.

(soft music) Mmmm.

Mmmm, mmm, mmm.

(spoon clatters) So good.

(soft music) Oh, that is wonderful.

(glass clinks) And I love that crunchiness on top of the salmon.

It's so good.

Hope you all enjoy this.

And I hope you all enjoy what we have for you next.

We're gonna take you over to Wisdom Oak where we'll talk to wonderful young owners about what it's like to start up a new vineyard.

(soft music) Well, I loved driving in and seeing your Wisdom Oak, which is on your label.

(chuckles) - [Man] Yeah.

- I just think that, it's so beautiful.

And just the approach here, was absolutely incredible.

So how did you find this property?

- So we actually, when we first moved down here from Philadelphia, the guidelines were, she needed an amazing kitchen.

And so I scoured Virginia looking for an amazing kitchen.

(Laura laughing) (Tassie laughing) And we found one in a farm house down the road, that had some neighboring property to it that was open, that we were going to use as our vineyard land.

And at the 11th hour, the vineyard portion of it actually fell through.

The landowner decided to not sell it.

But she had already fallen in love with the house and the kitchen, so.

- So we're living in that house no matter what.

(laughs) - Yeah, and so we moved down here, and I said, "You know, it's a three to five-year plan.

We'll figure out a property and we'll start a winery and we'll get going."

Well, fast forward, we moved here.

And then about three months later, instead of three years, I was like, "Hey, we're gonna go look at a property."

And she's like, "Are you kidding me?"

And I was like, "Yep, for sure.

We're gonna check it out."

And it had been closed and we drove down the lane and I had the same kind of reaction that you did, which was, the potential here was amazing at the time.

I mean, the grass was very high.

The vines were grown together.

So it was, you know, in some trouble.

And we just spent the first two years, making everything look good again.

- [Tassie] Oh.

- Before we were even able to open to the public.

- [Tassie] Yeah.

- Oh, and by the way, I had to learn how to make wine, because (chuckles) I've never made wine before.

(Tassie laughs) (Laura laughs) So we bought the property and had the vines, and we were actually planting before we even closed so that we would be ahead of the game.

So all of the Cabernet Franc that's down to our right here we planted in 2015 and we didn't even own the property.

But I was like, "If we don't do it now, we're gonna be behind the eight ball."

- [Tassie] Yeah.

- So we have to get ahead of it.

And I then have to learn how to make wine, so.

- Oh, my goodness!

Yes, so there's that.

(laughs) - [Laura] Yes, it is.

- That little detail.

- That's why it's a little important.

(Tassie laughing) - [Jason] Yeah.

- Well, I've had your wines, and they are wonderful.

- [Jason] Thank you.

- So let's try a little bit here.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah.

- So speaking of the Cabernet Franc, we have the 2019 Cabernet Franc.

This is from the lower section of the vineyard down here off to our right.

Like I said, that we planted in 2015.

Some of the intermingled vines are from 2001, and this was all aged in neutral oak.

(wine gurgling) - [Tassie] Hmm.

(wine gurgling) - So nice, light cherry on this, a nice firm tannin as well.

This is always a crowd favorite here at Wisdom Oak.

People just cannot wait for the new Cabernet Franc to come out.

And so, we've planted about four more acres of Cabernet Franc at the new site as well to just bolster production.

Because in the past, including this one, we're only able to make about a hundred, 125 cases, and it's gone in a month.

- [Laura] Yes.

- And so, now, we're gonna be stepping that up to six to 700 cases this year to try and have a stop gap.

So we can, at least, have a wine last, you know, hopefully, six months.

- [Laura] Yes.

(chuckles) (Tassie laughs) - (chuckles) We tend to have a problem of selling out so quickly of some wine, so.

- Yeah, so are you small production in all of your- - Yeah, and to this point, we've kept everything very small.

- Uh-hmm.

- So 200 has been the max.

- All right.

- One was a limitation of vineyard space and availability, 'cause we planted another vineyard.

But as you know, it takes many years for that to come to fruition, no pun intended.

(Tassie laughs) And we also like to keep our focus on quality.

So very, very small batches.

I'm constantly tasting, making sure that it's exactly what I want before this goes into the bottle.

- [Tassie] Smart.

- [Jason] And then is served to the public.

(soft music) - Cabernet Franc is one of my favorite red grapes.

And it's because it's so versatile, you can use it with so many different things, including this red sauce that we're gonna do today.

I love Cab Franc with a Chicken Parm, with an Eggplant Parm.

And today, we're gonna make Eggplant Parmesan.

So I've got in my bowl, a 28-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes.

I just wanna crush those a little bit with my hands.

So let's just get in there and really crush them well.

You don't wanna a super smooth sauce for this but you also don't want enormous chunks of your tomatoes.

So just give 'em a little squeeze, and be gentle the first time, because all that juice will squirt right out.

And you want to make sure that you break these up first and then really give 'em a massage.

And what we're gonna make is a red sauce that has parmesan in it.

Now, as I researched Eggplant Parmesan, I had fun talking to a lot of my students who said that Eggplant Parm was one of their favorite dishes.

And I'd ask how their parents made it or how their grandmother made it?

With every single one, it was a different story.

So Eggplant Parm, like, Chicken Parm, is really kind of a family recipe and I want to respect that.

So I am going to create this using a lot of the ideas that my students gave me.

I have some parmesan cheese that's just freshly grated, and I'm gonna put that in my sauce.

(bowl thuds) A little bit of salt.

(bowl thuds) A little bit of garlic.

And actually, probably, double the garlic, that a lot of these sauces would have.

Because some people said, "One clove."

Some people said, "Two."

I'm gonna use two.

(bowl clatters) And then I wanna take some fresh parsley and some fresh basil and put in here.

So we wanna just stir that up and you can see, it just looks like a muddled mess in there.

But it's going to be absolutely incredible.

Now, let's get our eggplant ready.

(slow upbeat music) So one of the things, one of my students said was, "I hate to cut the eggplant, because it's hard to hold it and peel."

Okay.

Here's the idea.

You're going to cut the top and bottom off of your eggplant.

This is gonna make it so much easier for you to just manage it as you cut.

(knife clinks) I'm just gonna take a knife.

And instead, of trying to peel it from the side, I'm just running the knife from the top to the bottom.

See how simple that is?

And it really saves a lot of time in trying to peel your eggplant.

(knife thuds) So just give that a try the next time you have to peel it.

And you won't feel, like, you're holding the eggplant and peeling toward you or trying to use a peeler.

Eggplant skin tends to be really, really, tough.

So let's slice up this eggplant.

And you wanna go with about one half inch to three quarter inch slices.

And just make sure that you have nice uniform slices.

And that way, your eggplant will cook uniformly.

(soft music) Let's go over to the stove.

And I'm gonna tell you a couple other little tricks and trades that people told me about when their parents and grandparents make eggplants.

There's just a story to everything.

(soft music) Some people said their grandparents used buttermilk.

Buttermilk, to dip this eggplant.

Others said, that they dipped it in egg wash or egg and milk.

Some said, they just dip it in milk.

Well, what's a person to do when they don't know how to make eggplant parm?

So I'm gonna try out that eggplant in buttermilk.

So I've got the buttermilk here, and what I wanna do is just dip on both sides.

Now, if you have not salted your eggplant, you're gonna need to salt it.

So make sure that you put salt and pepper on it when you put it in the pan.

So let's just get our pan ready.

I have it on high heat right now, because I want to bring that oil up pretty quickly.

But then I'm gonna reduce it back to about medium to medium high, because if we cook it too hard, too fast, all of the breadcrumbs are going to burn in the bottom of the pan, and that gives it a really bitter flavor.

Breadcrumb mixture.

Do you use breadcrumbs, breadcrumbs mixed with flour, breadcrumbs mixed with parm?

(bowl clatters) Do you use Panko?

Do you use just breadcrumbs?

Do you use fresh breadcrumbs, dried breadcrumbs?

Oh, my goodness!

The choices were just absolutely amazing!

I had more fun talking with students about this than I have ever had trying to create a recipe.

So here, we're gonna take this eggplant and just turn it.

And we're gonna put it over in a dried Italian breadcrumb that has a little bit of parmesan in it.

Now, always, if you're doing something with breadcrumbs, make sure that you keep one hand dry if you have the other hand wet.

Or you keep your tongs dry, while you have your hand wet.

There we go.

Now, I just wanna lay this into the very hot oil.

(tongs clinks) Another one of those varieties is, do you stack your eggplant?

Do you put parmesan between it if you stack your eggplant?

There are so many different varieties (chuckles) of eggplant.

I had one girl, who told me that her grandmother can have six or eight cookie sheets going with eggplant parm.

Because she likes to make sure that it's just on a single layer.

And then she puts the sauce on at the very end and bakes it only for about five minutes with the sauce.

Others said, that they bake it up to an hour with the sauce.

I love to do research on recipes.

And when I'm trying to create something that's all my own, it's really hard to find things that haven't been done before, but it's really fun to try.

Now, I have the casserole dish here, (casserole screeches) that I've just sprayed with a little non-stick spray.

Because, of course, the cheese always sticks so much.

And I want to take about three quarters of a cup of my sauce and just put it in the bottom.

That way, I know that I have the moisture in the bottom to help cook that eggplant.

Okay, now, I have not salted my eggplant.

So I wanna make sure that I take just a little bit of salt or salt and pepper, and just give a little bit of a douse, just a tiny sprinkle.

And I wanna go ahead and put some more oil in this pan.

(oil sizzling) Now, remember, that your eggplant will not be browning anymore in the oven.

So if you want brown eggplant, make sure that you do that before you ever flip it.

As soon as you flip it, the oil starts to come into the other side.

Eggplant's like a sponge, and it can just soak up that olive oil.

So if you want to make sure that you have brown eggplant, brown it before you ever take it out of the pan, right?

(soft music) Gotta fit these in.

And sometimes, you just kinda have to squeeze them into where they fit.

You can see how I browned this one just a little bit more so you can see the difference in the texture.

This one is a little crispier because it has more fry on it.

So at this point, what I wanna do, is take the rest of my sauce and just pour it right over top of that eggplant.

Now, I love to use fresh mozzarella with this because, frankly, it's traditional.

I had one student say, her grandmother always said, she couldn't understand why it was called Eggplant Parmesan, when mozzarella is the cheese that's mostly used.

Then you wanna take a big slice of that and lay it on the top of each one of these stacks.

No matter how you make it, no matter what tradition you start with something like this, just make it your own.

Do all of those things that you want your recipe to have.

Now, let's take some fresh grated parmesan.

Just put it right on the top.

And then we're gonna pop that in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

And you're gonna have a bubbly, delicious, successful dish.

(soft music) This is Cabernet Franc.

Now, Cabernet Franc, remember, is the father grape of Cabernet Sauvignon.

(glass clinks) It's rich, but it's also not super, super bold.

So it has a wonderful bouquet.

Great, great flavors.

Get a lot of berry.

Hmm.

(soft music) Oh, and it's perfect with tomato, eggplant, and even with chicken.

Hmm.

That is so good!

This, on any Saturday night, Italian dinner table, you're going to love it.

So I hope you enjoy this recipe and some great Cabernet Franc.

(soft music) Port style wine is so delicious, and it goes with a lot of different things.

So you can serve it with the blue cheese.

But one of my favorite things is chocolate.

This is just a classic dark chocolate cake.

(bowl clinks) But we're going to add a little bit of port into the batter.

Now, I always make my cakes with a whisk attachment but I don't want to turn it up so much that I get a lot of air in my cake.

So the first thing I'm gonna do, is just mix up all of these dry ingredients with my whisk.

(mixer whirring) All right, now, while that's mixing, I'm going to add some milk.

Now, you can use buttermilk, heavy cream, or half and half in this.

But I really like the buttermilk because it's a little more tart.

And it, to me, it just makes a nicer quality on the cake.

However, whipping cream and half and half, work beautifully as well.

(mixer whirring) So let's pour in that milk.

(bowl clatters) (mixer whirring) And then I want to add some water.

(mixer whirring) (glass thuds) And some port.

(mixer whirring) (glass clatters) And the last thing I'm gonna add are some eggs.

Now, usually, when you're making cake, you mix these in early.

But I like to mix these in at the very end.

(soft music) Now, I have two pans that I've sprayed with a non-stick baking spray that has a little flour in it.

You can also butter your pan and then dust it with flour, if you prefer.

I actually like to use the spray, because then I don't have any kind of white cakeyness on the outside of my cake.

And let's just divide this between two pans equally.

Okay, I have these pretty evenly distributed.

Now, what I wanna do, is tap this on the counter to bring any air bubbles that are in the bottom up to the top.

And that way, they'll disperse now, rather than, tunneling through our cake.

(bowl taps) Now, let's pop this in a 350-degree oven for about 40 minutes.

Now, let's make some icing.

So I have in my bowl, some cream cheese and some butter.

Make sure they're nice and soft at room temperature, about eight ounces of cream cheese, and a cup and a half of butter.

Or you can flip that and use a cup and a half of cream cheese, and eight ounces of butter.

(mixer thuds) (mixer whirring) The first thing I wanna do is just incorporate those together.

Just get them going so that everything is nice and smooth.

(mixer whirring) (bowls clattering) And I wanna add a pinch of salt.

(mixer whirring) Now, what I wanna do, is add some cocoa powder.

Again that nice, dark, rich cocoa powder.

So that this cake looks the same and the icing as it does in the cake.

So if you like a lighter powder, use the same in your cake.

Use a light cocoa powder and use a light cocoa powder in your icing.

(mixer whirring) Now, at this point, I wanna add a little bit of milk because I don't want the cocoa powder to start caking.

I want it to be smooth, with all of this butter and cream cheese.

So I'm just adding a little bit of milk.

(mixer whirring) And I may need to add a little bit more after incorporating in the sugar.

(mixer whirring) And about a teaspoon of vanilla.

(mixer whirring) So let's add some sugar.

And I'm just gonna pull this off so that I can get into the bowl without dousing the sugar all over me.

(soft upbeat music) Now, before I mix in all of the sugar, sometimes, it just flies up everywhere.

And I want to keep that from happening, so I'm just gonna wrap a towel gently around my mixer.

(mixer whirring) Just to get it started.

(mixer whirring) Now, let's scrape down that bowl again.

Scrape down the sides, scrape the bottom, just make sure we have everything incorporated.

Another thing that's really good for this for thinning the icing, is just a little bit of cold coffee.

Look at this gorgeous icing.

It's just perfect.

Now, let's frost that cake and give it a taste.

(upbeat music) Mmm.

Get a little bit of that icing.

(soft upbeat music) Mmm, so delicious.

(soft upbeat music) Now, let's try it with that Port.

Mmm.

We can't really say this is Port.

It's Port style.

It's only Port, if it's from Portugal.

But wow, this is a delicious Port Style wine.

Hmm.

Oh, my goodness.

And with chocolate, (glass clinks) it's just perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

So I hope you'll enjoy this cake at home, the next time you wanna bake a chocolate cake.

(soft music) Well, I sure hope you've enjoyed these pairings as much as I have.

Salmon, Eggplant Parm, and of course, delicious chocolate cake.

I had so much fun today, too, with my guests from Wisdom Oak.

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

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

It's always time to Un-wine'd."

- [Announcer] Production funding for Un-wine'd was made possible in part by- - [Announcer] The Virginia Wine Board, promoting the interests of vineyards and wineries and the Commonwealth through research, education, and marketing.

There's a movement growing in Virginia's Vineyards.

Discover more at virginiawine.org.

- [Announcer] And by.

(logo chimes)