The following is a guest post from Cambria winemaker Denise Shurtleff, who traveled to Aspen last week for the annual Food and Wine Classic. Denise will be a regular contributor on Katie’s blog.

I was lucky enough to attend the 30th Aspen Food and Wine Classic – and what a spectacular event! The event was dispersed throughout the beautiful city of Aspen which sits at the base of the picturesque Aspen mountain and is bordered by the Roaring Fork River. With sunny, warm weather throughout the entire event, it was the perfect setting for the premier food and wine extravaganza.

We poured three Cambria wines for the trade and public at five grand tasting events in the main tents of the event. It was exciting and rewarding to be able to offer the Cambria 2007 Bench Break Pinot Noir, the 2009 Julia’s Pinot Noir and the newly released 2010 Katherine’s Chardonnay. This was the perfect opportunity to converse with people who are very familiar with our wines, as well as introduce the wines from the Santa Maria Valley to consumers that were not familiar with our area.

Renowned wineries, breweries, and spirits companies from all over the world were in attendance as well as food vendors from all over the country.

A full schedule of seminars provided educational programs on a wide array of wine and food. Of course, the most popular seminars were the cooking demonstrations conducted by celebrity chefs!

All in all, it was great to have Cambria wines be a part of this great event!

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Denise Shurtleff joined the Cambria team in September 1999 and was promoted to Chief Winemaker in 2003. Throughout her tenure, Denise has committed herself to creating wines that reflect Santa Barbara County and, more specifically, the strong and specific terroir of the Santa Maria Bench. Off-duty, Denise spends her free hours alongside her husband and two sons on their five-acre ranch, often in her vegetable and fruit garden.

Remember when I mentioned in my last blog post that we were recently featured in the June issue of the Wine Enthusiast in their article on Summer Soirées in Wine Country? My fiancé Shaun and I gave our tips for what would be our perfect summer barbecue, complete with Cambria wines, traditional Santa Maria Valley-style barbecue and our favorite summer music. We were so excited to be included in the article!

In that post I also shared our recipe for Red Onion and Fig Jam Pizza with Prosciutto and Fresh Mozzarella, a recipe that I really wanted to include with the rest of our barbecue items but unfortunately had to leave out due to space constraints. I love fresh figs, prosciutto, and pizza, and knew that something like that would be pretty spectacular with a glass of the Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir. However, I wanted to post the recipes for the other foods that were included too: the tri-tip and the pinquito beans – because they are mouth-wateringly delicious as well. Not only that, but they really are the essence of Santa Maria-style cuisine – people in Santa Maria Valley have been grilling tri-tip and serving it with pinquito beans since the mid-1800s! 

Today I’m posting the recipe for the star of Santa Maria Valley barbecue: tri-tip. It is absolutely wonderful with our recipes for pinquito beans, and grilled pepper and tomato salad, and paired with a glass of Cambria Tepusquet Vineyard Syrah, you absolutely can’t go wrong!

Grilled Santa Maria Valley-style Tri-Tip

Courtesy Jackson Family Wines culinary team

1 tri-tip, approximately 2½–3 pounds
1 Tbsp. olive oil
6 Tbsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp. white pepper
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
4 tsp. garlic powder
2 Tbsp. paprika

Allow the tri-tip to sit at room temperature for 1 hour prior to cooking.

Preheat a grill to high.

Combine kosher salt, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and paprika in a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Rub the tri-tip with olive oil and seasoning mix.

Place on the grill for about 4 minutes. Flip the tri-tip and grill for another 4 minutes. Move the tri-tip to a medium-low heat area on your grill and cook for 20–25 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 134°F when inserted into the thickest part of the meat.

Remove the meat from the grill, loosely cover the tri-tip with aluminum foil and allow the tri-tip to rest for 15 minutes before slicing against the grain. Serves 4–6.

Are you free on Saturday, November 12? If so, come visit us at Cambria! We are going to be celebrating our annual Fall Holiday Faire, from 11:00am-4:00pm.

Every year we put on our Fall Holiday Faire, which brings together local artists, vendors, caterers, and musicians for a day of shopping, food, wine, and live music! This year should be just as exciting as last, with over 20 different vendors selling all sorts of fun gifts, from painted glassware and woodworking items, jewelry and vintage aprons, home-made chocolates, seasonings, and porcelain pottery, to monogrammed totes and bags! Burrito Loco will be serving fine Mexican food, Babycakes will have bite-sized cupcakes, and there will also be beautiful artwork on display from many different local artists!

This year we will also be doing something different, as we will have some special guests visiting from Operation Rescue. Operation Rescue is a Santa Maria organization that tries to place dogs without homes with loving owners. They will have several adorable pups with them on Saturday, all of whom would love to find a good home that Saturday!

So please stop by to sip wine, shop, enjoy lunch on our patio, meet some adorable puppies, and listen to local band Soulamente’s fun blend of jazz, Latin, Old School and R&B! We can’t wait to see you there!

Today is a great day for anyone who loves cooking, whether they do it themselves or appreciate other people’s. Why? Because it’s National Culinarians Day!

National Culinarians Day was created to celebrate all of the great food and cooking in our lives, as well as the wonderful people, whether they are our mothers, spouses, or the chefs at our favorite restaurants, who put so much time and love into preparing great food for others to enjoy! To celebrate, you could thank your favorite cook, go out to eat, or explore by cooking something new and exotic that you have never tried before!

As my contribution to Culinarians Day, I wanted to take some time today to let you all know about the culinary section of our Cambria website. For those of you who haven’t checked out any of the recipes from the Food and Wine section of our website, you should! Chef Taki Laliotitis prepared some incredibly delicious recipes just for us, each of which our winemaker Denise helped him to pair with one of our wines!

Here are links to our recipes! In particular, I’d recommend the Pancetta Pizza with the Julia’s – yum!

 Pancetta and White Asparagus Pizza - Serve with Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir

Thyme Scented Seared Scallops with Morels - Serve with Katherine’s Vineyard Chardonnay

Grilled Duck Breasts with Bing Cherry & Plum Sauce - Serve with Tepusquet Vineyard Syrah

Saffron Red Snapper - Serve with Bench Break Chardonnay

Pappardelle with Savory Beef Smoked Ribs Sauce  -  Serve with Bench Break Pinot Noir

Baked Pears with Blue Cheese  - Serve with Tepusquet Vineyard Late Harvest Viognier

Happy cooking!

We at Cambria are going to be participating in some great events within the next couple of weeks, both at the winery and elsewhere, so come and be a part of the fun! First of all, I’ll be traveling to Austin and Dallas next week to attend Thirsty Girl, which will be holding events in Austin on that Wednesday, April 13th, and in Dallas on Thursday, April 14th. So get thirsty, Texas!

Then, Cambria will be taking part in the annual Vintner’s Festival in Lompoc, CA, on Saturday, April 16th. We will be pouring wines during the all-day tasting event that Saturday, and then will be opening up our tasting room for a special Open House on Sunday, April 17th, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. For our Open House, we will be serving delicious snacks from Testa Catering, including Caramelized Garlic and Onion Pizza, Bacon-Wrapped Cheese-Stuffed Dates, and Spicy Crab Hush Puppies with Creole Dipping Sauce! We’ll also be pouring some absolutely delicious Cambria wines and offering specials on wines, so come and relax with us and enjoy the lovely April weather!

If you are interested in making a weekend out of your visit, you should also check out the events schedules for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to see what else is going on that weekend. Wineries will be putting on all sorts of special events as part of the Vintner’s Festival weekend, including special winemaker dinners, winery tours, barrel tastings, library tastings, food and wine pairings, and live music, so you’ll be sure to have plenty to do all weekend long, no matter where you go!

You should also check out the Vintner’s Visa if you are planning on purchasing wine. The Visa gives buyers access to special discounts at participating wineries that weekend, including Cambria. As a part of the Vintner’s Visa program we will be offering a 10 % discount on all of our wines to all Vintner’s Visa holders that Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Other participating wineries may be offering discounts like us, or may be offering comped tastings, library tastings, special pre-release tastings, or gourmet refreshments. Check out this list to see all of the other special offers!

And in May, we’ll be participating in some other great events, from Thirsty Girl tastings in Chicago and San Diego, to a food and wine tasting event at the winery in honor of Armed Forces Day, to an intimate winemaker’s dinner with Cambria winemaker Denise Shurtleff at Ruth’s Chris in Santa Barbara. So stay tuned for more exciting Cambria news!