Don’t be intimidated by the notion of preparing Duck Confit. It isn’t difficult or fussy, you just need to plan ahead a bit. My holiday season is not complete without a stash of confit legs for any number of occasions and recipes. It’s elegant and easy, plus there is all that rendered fat to use for months to come! I typically make duck confit to serve the day after Christmas with Cassoulet, but the uses are almost endless. This recipe easily doubles (which I recommend) and they pair as well with Chardonnay as they do with Pinot noir.

Ingredients

• 2 whole duck legs (thighs attached)
• 2 cups of duck fat*
• 6 garlic cloves (can leave skins on)
• 4 shallots (can leave skins on)
• 4 tsp ground fennel seeds
• 4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 6 tbsp coarse salt

*I typically buy this at the grocer or order online from D’artagnan. You can also use extra virgin olive oil or a combination of evoo and duck fat.

Method
Mix fennel seeds, rosemary and salt in a small bowl. Completely cover the duck legs by rubbing them with the spice mixture. Seal up and refrigerate overnight. The next day: Heat oven to 325˚F. Brush the spice mix off of the legs and arrange in a large roasting pan or dutch oven along with the garlic, shallots and duck fat (and/or olive oil). Cover very tightly with heavy duty aluminum foil and roast in the oven for 2 hours or until the duck is very tender and the fat has rendered. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Once the legs have cooled they can be stored in the fridge for up to a month.

When you want to use a leg, pull it from the pan in its fat and place it on a rack with a sheet pan underneath. Heat under the broiler until the skin is brown and crispy. Confit duck legs are delicious served with roasted vegetables, potatoes, lentils or over beans or bitter greens. And the fat! When the legs have been consumed, I take the fat and put it in small plastic containers in the fridge or freezer for use for months and months for all my roasted needs. I think it might be the best part of making duck confit. Whatever you do, make sure you have a glass of Pinot noir. Cheers!

When the sun begins to wane and the air develops a chill, I start to crave rustic, roasted dishes. And if they happen to be wrapped in buttery pastry dough, even better! Don’t be intimidated by this dish; galettes are simply free-form, easier versions of pies. I love to use locally foraged mushrooms and rye flour, but feel free to sub in creminis and all-purpose flour; the galette will still turn out beautifully. I love to serve this dish, with its strong flavors and satifying textures, alongside the savory, brooding 2012 Winderlea Vineyard Pinot noir.

Crust:

• 1 ¼ cups rye flour
• 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
• ½ cup cold butter, cut into ½” chunks
• ⅓ cup ice water

Filling:

• ¼ cup olive oil, divided
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• ¼ cup white wine
• 1 tbsp truffle oil
• 4 garlic, cloves, minced
• 1 large bunch of Tuscan kale, stems removed and roughly chopped
• 12 oz. wild mushrooms, chopped
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• fresh thyme, chopped

Method

Whisk flour and salt in a medium bowl. Cut butter into flour, working quickly, until butter is the size of large peas. Drizzle in the ice water and combine until dough comes together. Form into a flat disc, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. Roll dough into a 12” circle and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Chill dough while making the filling.

Heat half the oil in a large skillet. Add onion and cook until caramelized. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer onion to a plate. Add remaining oil to skillet. Add mushrooms and sauté until browned. Add garlic and kale and sauté until kale is wilted. Deglaze the pan with wine and scrape up any browned bits. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat to cool. Spread onions over the top of the dough, leaving a 2” border around the edges, and sprinkle with ¾ of the Parmesan. Top with mushroom and kale mixture and fold the edge of the dough up over the filling to create an overlapping, 2-inch border.

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Brush the egg over the edges of the galette and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan. Bake galette until crust is deep golden brown, 40-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before serving. Scatter with thyme and slice into wedges to serve.

For my family truffle mac and cheese is a staple for the holidays, and December also happens to be truffle season in the Pacific Northwest.  I have been foraging for the last 6 years, and love to mushroom and truffle hunt.  Anytime I smell truffles now it takes me back to gathering with family and friends.  This dish pairs perfectly with our 2012 Ana Vineyard Pinot noir, and I hope that you share it with your family!

Ingredients

• 8 oz Tillamook White Cheddar, shredded
• 6 oz Fontina, shredded
• 6 oz Havarti, shredded
• 2 shallots
• 4 garlic clives
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup Winderlea Chardonnay
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp truffle oil (You can add less or omit if preferred)
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 lb cavatappi pasta

Panko Topping

• 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesean
• 1 tbsp truffle oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 350˚F and grease a 9×13” baking dish. Heat a large sauce pan with olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until softened, about 2-3 minutes, then add the butter. Slowly add the Winderlea Chardonnay, salt, pepper, and Truffle oil, and cook for 5 minutes. Slowly whisk in the heavy cream and milk while constantly stirring. Let this sauce reduce for 7-10 minutes on low-medium heat. Take the sauce off the heat and slowly stir in the cheeses until incorporated. 

While the sauce is reducing, cook the pasta until just under al dente, about 7-9 minutes. Drain the pasta, add it to the baking dish, and pour the sauce over. Combine all ingredients for the panko topping, spread this evenly over the top of the pasta, and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Serve with optional toppings as desired. When the Winderlea team taste-tested this recipe, we overindulged with additional truffle oil and salts to finish. We would all use more truffle oil in the base recipe (don’t judge us!).

Now is the big wait.  After 15 harvest dates in 22 days we have now entered in to the period of the big wait.  We had glorious weather for most of the month making this one of the easier harvests we’ve ever had but in true Oregon tradition the Fall rains have arrived and our last few tons of Chardonnay, Pinot blanc, and Pinot noir at Worden Hill and Meredith Mitchell Vineyards will wait until dry weather returns.  At the moment, it looks like we will have sunshine this weekend followed by cloudy but dry weather for the next 5 days or so. We’ll most likely wait until the first of next week.  Fortunately, all the fruit looks healthy and should hang just a bit longer with no problems. In the meantime, we are taking the opportunity to catch up on some other work and getting together with family and friends.  Such is harvest.  More later.

We’re at it again, Harvest 2023 is underway!  To give you a close up of what harvest is really like, we documented our our 2022 harvest for you.

In this short video, we’ll take you behind the scenes and share the dedication, decision making, and passion that go into bringing the harvest from the vineyard to our winery.

Get ready to immerse yourself in the magic of the harvest season and gain a deeper appreciation for the artistry of winemaking. Happy Harvest to all our fellow wine enthusiasts!

More from the Book of Wilding.  So, I’m a bit further along in the Book of Wilding and thinking about how it applies to Winderlea and Worden Hill Vineyards.  Keeping in mind I’m only about a third of the way through this tome, at this point I am thinking about how to best deploy animals on the vineyards.   Our girls would be very unhappy to learn that the authors are not very big fans of sheep, though in their defense, they say it is because sheep are not very well suited to their landscape.  They find that the tiny hooves of sheep cause soil compaction in their heavy clay soils and that their grazing is too intense.  They believe cows, deer, and a limited number of pigs do a better job for them.  Because they are focused on wilding their property (though they have started doing some farming again) they use very low levels of animals per hectare.  One idea they do employ is called, “Mob grazing,” moving animals on to a property to graze and then moving them off for several months or longer to allow the plant life to recover.  We have been doing a version of mob grazing this year, though it wasn’t intentional on my part.  The sheep were just needed elsewhere.  I’m looking forward to learning more about mob grazing, and to sharing it with you when I do.  More later.

We’re about to make some changes to a few of our systems at Winderlea so I’ve been working from the Tasting Room for the past week or so, sometimes at DeAnna’s desk and sometimes at Scott’s.  Aside from actually being around other human beings, which is very nice, I also have had more time with customers.  Working in the vineyard, the winery, and the house the only customers I see are the people who walk in to our house thinking we are the Holloran tasting room.  They’re nice enough people, but they’re not really there to see me.  Perhaps the thing I like best about the time I spend with customers, whether they are consumers or in the trade, is their interest in sustainability.  They have all kinds of questions about how we farm and make wine using  Biodynamic® practices, and about how our being a B Corp informs our decision-making as a business.  It fills me with optimism to see that sustainability is uppermost in people’s minds.  More later…

In the past week or so we lost Jane Birkin and Tony Bennett, two multi-talented artists who were cultural icons in their youth and revered elders in their final decades.  Both continued to work almost to the end.  Is this a metaphor for what we want for our wines; vibrant and perhaps precocious in their youth, multifaceted  and with personality that continues to develop even more complexity and nuance over time, where the last bottle brings pleasure, admiration, and longing for more while also reminding us of where we were the first time we met?  It’s certainly a goal worth having for both our wines and for us as winemakers.  If, Amy Winehouse and Lady Gaga are honored to perform with you, as in the case of Tony Bennet, or if, in addition to your body of work and an iconic handbag, your offspring are Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon as in the case of Jane Birkin then you can look back and say that you’ve accomplished something, and even better, you remain relevant.  More later…