By Bruce Neyers

Tuesday 22nd March, 2022

My middle daughter Ali has accompanied me on a number of sales trips over the years. She’s a great traveling companion, largely because of her love for food and adventure. Ali lives with her husband in northern Virginia now and teaches at a local Montessori School, but Barbara loves to cook for her when she travels home. She’s the child who, with her older sister, went with us to dinner at one of London’s celebrated restaurants which was home of the city’s most ambitious selection of offal. I watched with glee as the two of them finished a platter of the house specialty: Sautéed Calves Brain. At home, her favorite dish is pasta, and after Barbara made an especially tasty one last week using local baby artichokes, pancetta, and bread crumbs, I called Ali. She swooned at my description, then asked what wine I had served. “Zinfandel,” I replied. She agreed with my choice.

We normally keep a bottle or two of our current bottling of Zinfandel available in the kitchen, as a glass of it slightly chilled is especially welcome this time of year. We call it Vista Notre – or ‘Our Perspective’ — and it’s a blend of grapes grown in three vineyards, each of them east of Lodi, at the base of the Sierra foothills. The soils here are light and sandy, but strewn with granite from the mountain range’s formation centuries ago. The nutrient levels are low – ensuring a slow fermentation — and the minerality is high which keeps the wine fresh and delicious. The area is chilled slightly by the ‘Sierra Rotor Effect’ – a wind phenomenon that draws cool Pacific Ocean air through the Golden Gate to the steepest part of the Sierra. The color is dark and bright. The aroma is fresh and complex. The flavors are well-suited for almost anything, but they get close to ideal with a pasta dish like this.

The real charm in our ‘Vista Notre’ Zinfandel is the low alcohol level. We target to keep it at or below 14% by volume. The clusters on these Heirloom Selection vines are small — about the size of a softball – so they ripen evenly, and when harvested they are around 23 degrees Brix. Large clusters of Zinfandel might have berries with a sugar level closer to 30 degrees Brix, hence the wines have much higher alcohol levels. There is still plenty of flavor in a lower alcohol wine, but there’s none of the ‘heat,’ or hot aftertaste often characteristic of the variety. The flavors are exotic, but they are subtle as well, and it’s enjoyable with a wider range of foods. Few wines seem to work this well with artichokes. Barbara likes to serve our ‘Vista Notre’ Zinfandel with her Cherry Tomato Pasta too, because it stands up to the dash of Cayenne pepper she adds as a final touch.

Tagliatelle pasta with baby artichokes and Breadcrumbs

Ingredients

• Tagliatelle pasta
• 2 ¼ pounds baby artichokes, approximately 12 to 15 artichokes
• Juice of 1 to 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup minced onions
• ½ cup Extra virgin olive oil
• 2 slices of pancetta cut into ½-inch pieces
• Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper
• ¼ cup toasted breadcrumbs

Preparation

1. Remove the outer leaves of the artichokes leaving only the white leaves. Trim stems and cut off thorny tops. As you trim the artichokes, place in medium bowl of cold water and lemon juice.
2. Depending on the size of the artichokes, cut them into quarters or eights.
3. Cook the pancetta until crisp and set aside.
4. In a medium size sauté pan cook the minced onion and artichokes in water until the onions are clear in color and the artichokes are tender to a fork’s touch.
5. Drain the water and add the extra virgin olive oil to the artichoke and onion mixture. Heat the mixture and keep warm on the stove.
6. Cook the tagliatelle according to the directions on the package.
7. Combine the pasta, artichoke and onion mixture and pancetta. Add Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.