Tag Archives: chocolate

Seven of Hearts is Your Lucky Card in Carlton

The simple storefront for the Seven of Hearts / Luminous Hills tasting room in Carlton.

In our admittedly limited experience in Oregon, most of the wineries have their tasting room at the winery. Seven of Hearts is different, with their tasting room in a store front in “downtown” Carlton. Carlton consists of maybe two stoplights and another few stop signs, so downtown might be stretching it just a bit.

Seven of Hearts / Luminous Hills tasting room shares space with Honest Chocolates.

Walking into the shop is interesting. It seems slightly unorganized inside, with a tasting bar, a desk, some displays and more stuff scattered about. But at the same time you’re taking in the visual, you’re getting the nose. You’re getting the smell of whatever they’ve been pouring that day, and you’re also getting a whiff of the chocolate that is not only being sold, but also being made, at the back of the shop. Byron Dooley is the proprietor of Seven of Hearts, and his wife is the proprietor Honest Chocolates. (That’s really sad: a relationship based on wine and chocolate. Whatever the sacrifices they’ve had to make, it’s working for them. Sarcasm, folks.)

Byron buys most of his grapes from various Willamette Valley vineyards, but a few years back he purchased a small vineyard, now called Luminous Hills, where he grows Pinot Noir and bottles it under his Luminous Hills label. The majority of his wines are sold under his Seven of Hearts label. Here’s a quick summary of what we tasted:

Byron’s style for Chardonnay is fairly understated. The 2014 Willamette Valley Chardonnay underwent no malolactic (ML) fermentation, but saw some new oak, while the 2014 Gran Moraine Vineyard Chardonnay had ML, but only neutral oak. We really liked the Gran Moraine; a few bottles of that came home with us.

His Pinot Noirs were also tended toward an understated style. It was interesting though that the 3 PNs we tasted from Seven of Hearts, all blends from various vineyards, were good, but not great. However, the 2014 Luminous Hill Pinot Noir was very good, one of the best we tasted on our trip, and a very good value.

He also makes a GSM (Grenache, Mouvedre, Syrah) blend, and a Bordeaux blend. We tasted both the 2014 GSM and the 2014 Tradition. We liked them both – the GSM especially was nicely balanced and would probably lay down for a few years, comparing nicely to a good California GSM – but we were in Oregon for the Pinot Noir, so neither of those made the cut to be brought home. The Tradition tasting is served with a bit of the Salted Currant Ganache from Honest Chocolates. Byron also makes a Pinot Noir port, and pairs it with Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Toffee Bark for tasting. I didn’t try the port, but the chocolate was delicious.

By the way, for all the feeling of clutter in the tasting room, Mackenzie and Eric provided us with a great tasting environment. Not rushing us, answering all our questions, even those we hadn’t yet asked. Very knowledgeable and nice.

We tried another of the chocolates from the back, and walked out with a dozen truffles for us, and more to take home as gifts. Quite good!

L’Chaim,

Larry

Wine, Cheese and Chocolate in New Hampshire

Kim and Jason at the altar, on the beach at Newfound Lake, NH

Kim and Jason at the altar, on the beach at Newfound Lake, NH

Lori and I were in New England last week for a wedding. End of September in New England: beautiful weather, beautiful leaves, old friends, the son of those old friends getting married; how could we not attend? Driving up from Boston to New Hampshire for the wedding we stopped at a rest/tourist information area. Glancing through the brochures we found one titled Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Trails in New Hampshire. OK, you had us at wine, but the rest is not bad either. We had a free day after the wedding, and wanted to tour around; might as well have wineries etc. as a target for that driving.

We first visited Gilmanton Winery and Vineyard. Actually, bad timing on our part. They not only make wine, but also serve brunch on the weekends, and it’s a very popular place. So popular that they didn’t have anyone to serve us in the tasting room. The closest we got to tasting was grabbing a couple of grapes from the vines growing there. What was growing there was Concord grapes (perfectly ripe), so it was just like tasting grape jelly.

Getting to Gilmanton involved a couple of dirt roads, and took us past a small pond where the leaves were just starting to turn colors. Beautiful day, beautiful scenery.

Kellerhaus

Kellerhaus

Chocolate was next on the list. We went to Kellerhaus in Weirs Beach, which boasts of having an ice cream sundae smorgasbord. It did, and we did. Choose the cup size and ice cream flavor(s), then serve yourself hot fudge, marshmallow sauce, butterscotch sauce and all sorts of toppings. They also have a full selection of chocolate truffles and other candy delights.

Newfound Lake Vineyards tasting room

Newfound Lake Vineyards tasting room

Last on our list was Newfound Lake Vineyards, just on the other side of the lake from where we stayed for the wedding. They grow some of their own grapes right there, and also get some grapes from Suisun Valley in California (just east of Napa Valley). What they grow there is a white varietal called Edelweiss, which was pretty good. We bought a bottle and took it back to our friends’ house, where we had it with Thai food the next night (a pretty good pairing). The California grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which they make into both individual varietal wines and also a blend, called “Wicked Good Red,” or WGR. We liked the WGR a lot, and bought a bottle, which was consumed that evening with our friends and the bride and groom while watching the lunar eclipse.

Newfound Lake vineyards

Newfound Lake vineyards

I don’t think wine should be your primary reason for going to New Hampshire, but if you’re there and wandering around, visiting wineries is a great way to see the state and have some extra fun while you’re at it.

L’Chaim,

Larry

Chocolate – Wine Pairing Menu at Las Positas Vineyards

We’ve all had chocolate and red wine at one time or another. A lot of people think this is the best pairing of all wine pairings, and will go to a winery just to get that final big red wine with some sort of dark chocolate. Really, how can you go wrong with this pairing, as individually chocolate and wine are two of the best things in the world? Two of the major food groups for some of us.

I’m not a huge fan of chocolate and wine. Usually it’s a case of 1 + 1 = 2. The chocolate is nice, the wine is nice, but together they don’t usually add up to more than that. Last Sunday, “Sunday Funday!” at Las Positas Vineyards in the Livermore Valley, we had an opportunity to not only pair one wine with chocolate, but go through a full tasting menu of chocolate-wine pairings. The chocolate truffles were from Landru Chocolates. Here is the menu, in the order we tasted:

Chocolate truffles for the Sunday Funday wine pairing at Las Positas Vineyards.

Chocolate truffles for the Sunday Funday! wine pairing at Las Positas Vineyards.

Rosemary Cole: Single origina dark cream with fresh rosemary leaves, virgin coconut oil and lemon zest dipped in dark milk chocolate.
2011 Coccineous: 51% Tempranillo, 26% Petite Sirah, 23% Syrah

English Tea: Dark chocolate cream with black tea and bergamont enrobed with dark chocolate.
2011 Estate Tempranillo

Darkeriuse: Dark chocolate cream dipped in dark milk chocolate.
2011 Estate Petite Sirah

Hazel Praline: Dark chocolate cream with hazelnut praline dipped in milk chocolate.
2011 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Nutmeg Almond: Milk chocolate cream with almond praline cream and roasted almonds dipped in milk chocolate.
2012 Estate Barbera

In addition to Lori and I, we had a friend with us, and this was a great way to help her celebrate her birthday. (She also broke any ties when voting on the pairings.) The unanimous best pairing was the Darkeruise with the Petite Sirah. Great chocolate and great wine. The pairing of the Nutmeg Almond Truffle and Barbera produced the widest ranges of scores in our group, with one voter giving this pairing the highest rank, and one giving it the lowest overall rank.

For me, aside from the Darkeruise pairing, the Hazel Praline and the Cabernet Sauvignon was the most interesting pairing. Interesting because when I tasted each individually, I was not impressed with either the truffle or the wine. Together, however, they were excellent, and received my second highest ranking for the menu. A clear case of 1 + 1 = 3, or at least 2.5.

Las Positas Vineyards view from the garden.

Las Positas Vineyards view from the garden.

After the chocolate tasting we sat outside in the garden at the tasting room, talking and enjoying the view of the Livermore Valley.

Grapes are getting ready at Las Positas Vineyards in the Livermore Valley.

Grapes are getting ready at Las Positas Vineyards in the Livermore Valley.

Thanks to Curt, the tasting room manager at Las Positas Vineyards, for spending the time with us on the tasting, and making it a really wonderful experience.

L’Chaim,

Larry