Food & Wine Experience: Preview dinner.
They’ve been making wine only since 1996, but the roots of Klinker Brick Winery go all the way back to 1890.
That’s a legacy that Farrah Felten-Jolley loves talking about. “That’s not the norm,” said Felten-Jolley. “There aren’t a lot of sixth-generation grape growers in Lodi, Calif.
“We always sold to a lot of the bigger wineries, and that’s what Lodi was known for, but then my dad decided to stop the contract game and make wine. He made bulk wine for a few years and that did well, so he decided to start the winery and label in 2000.”
Teaming up with Mason Street Grill executive chef Kenneth Hardiman, Felten-Jolley will be making her first visit to Milwaukee for a wine dinner with the Journal Sentinel Food & Wine Experience at Mason Street Grill on Oct. 11.
“I’ve done dinners in Madison, La Crosse and Eau Claire, but I’ve never worked in the eastern side of the state,” she said. “This is a great way to tell people the story of a family-run winery. There is no conglomerate that bought us out. This is us and our passion.”
The family’s winemaking team begins with head winemaker Joseph Smith, originally from Belize. Assistant winemaker Chris Rivera joined the team three years ago, choosing to work in a smaller winery and be hands-on.
“We believe Joseph is the only Belizean winemaker in the world,” said Felten-Jolley. “He always teases us he grew up on rum. He started working crush with the wineries in California when he was 18, and he’s been working with us since the first wines we made. We hired him as in-house winemaker in 2008.”
The winery is known for old vine Zinfandel, she said, “but as you can see, at the wine dinner we’re doing a mixture of varietals.”
“This is our second year of having a white wine, and the fourth year of having a rosé. We want to do true French-style rosé.
“California style is usually darker in color, Pinot Noir-, Merlot- or cabernet-based. Our winemaker wanted to do it the old way.”
When creating menus and pairings, Hardiman looks to incorporate history and roots with a few twists. Born in Kansas City, Mo., Hardiman was named executive chef at Mason Street Grill earlier this year.
He grew up with barbecue and comforting Southern cooking “with a twist.” Applying that background, he leans on the comfort of food, seasonality and local ingredients to influence his cooking.
You’ll see it on the menu for this dinner beginning with the first course, featuring roasted butternut squash and vanillapoached apples, paired with house-made ricotta cheese, spiced pecans, arugula and honey banyuls vinaigrette — paired with the 2015 Klinker Brick rosé.
“I recently held a course as part of our Chef’s Series where I showed some of our guests how to make homemade ricotta using local milk,” Hardiman said. “It may have seemed difficult at first, but by using great local ingredients we were able to create something truly special.
“We’ll be using the same recipe for homemade ricotta during this upcoming dinner.”
For the second course of pan-roasted Alaskan halibut, country ham, crispy chickpea, preserved lemon vinaigrette, frisee and parsnip puree, the pairing will be a 2016 Albarino. This is only the second year the Klinker Brick Albarino has been on the market.
“It’s a Spanish variety, and Lodi’s climate is a little different than in Spain’s where Albarino is grown,” said Felten-Jolley, “but we realized that Albarino and some other varieties do really well in our heat.
“So you’re seeing less Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris and Chardonnay coming from Lodi, and more Albarino.”
For the third course, the 2010 Brick & Mortar red wine is the pairing.
“That’s our Cabernet blend, and it was supposed to be tasting room only, limited production. Somehow it got on the market,” said Felten-Jolley.
For that course, “we’ll be using unique local ingredients, including Door County cherries in a reduction sauce and a smoked duck, which was prepared using our inhouse smoker,” Hardiman said.
Next, veal tenderloin, steamed wild mushrooms, pommes William, and huckleberry demiglace are paired with the 2014 Farrah Syrah, which does indeed get its name from Felten-Jolley.
“My grandfather gave it that name when I was 5,” she said.
As for the course she is most looking forward to, that just might be the dessert pairing for the woodroasted pumpkin panna cotta with cinnamonpoached pears and pistachio crema.
“Old Ghost (Zinfandel) has been multiple times paired with dessert, and it pairs really well and it stands up,” she said. “A lot of people think old vines and dessert, that’s a shocker, so it’s always fun.”