Venturi Schulze Pinot Noir Reserve 2009

I thought I would start the New Year off with some pillowy-soft gnocchi covered in homemade marinara and paired with one of my all-time favorite Pinots – the 2009 Pinot Noir Reserve from Venturi Schulze on Vancouver Island. For me, Vancouver Island is producing some outstanding, age-worthy Pinot Noir, and Venturi Schulze is one of my favorite producers there.

Venturi Schulze Vineyards is located in Cobble Hill, which is about a fifty minute drive outside of Victoria. They are family owned and operated and began planting their vineyard in 1988.

One of the things that I love about Venturi Schulze is that they work with the hand that Mother Nature has dealt them. This means that they don’t always make the same wines each vintage, because the conditions may or may not have been ideal for each varietal. For instance some years conditions are just perfect for making traditional method sparkling wine from their Zweigelt. In other years, like 2016, the Zweigelt became too ripe for sparkling wine, so it was blended with Pinot Noir to make Raven the Thief. This is a beautiful red wine with great tannin structure, that is full of ripe, red fruit and minerality.

Similarly, their Reserve Pinot Noir is only made when the conditions are conducive to producing the quality of grapes necessary for this wine. The 2009 vintage was extremely hot. The grapes were carefully harvested from the best exposed slopes in the vineyard and the wine spent two years in two-year-old Nevers French oak barrels prior to bottling.

There were four Pinot Noir clones used in this wine: Dijon 113, Jackson, Mariafeld and a German clone, which has been most closely identified as Hurlimann. Several of these clones were selected based on a tasting with Steve Price and Barney Watson from Oregon. Price and Watson are known for making single clone Pinot Noir with no oak and no malolactic fermentation. Also of note, the Pinot Noir vines at Venturi Schulze are not grafted, the vines are Pinot Noir from the root up.

Pinot Noir Reserve 2009 $60.00

You may be shocked to learn that I did not decant this wine, it was perfect simply evolving in the glass. It has a fairly pronounced nose of forest floor, violet, antique leather, dried cherry, strawberry liquroice and ripe black plum with hints of baking spice. This is a dry Pinot Noir that is medum+ in body with medium+ acidity and medium, well-integrated tannins. The palate offers forest floor, leather, dried cherries, prune, raspberry jam, plum, sweet cinnamon and clove, with a long finish.

This Pinot Noir is really stunning on its own, but it also paired with homemade gnocchi.

Gnocchi

(Makes 4 servings.)

Ingredients

2 lb Potatoes (approximately)

130 g 00 Flour (approximately)

½ tsp Salt

1 Large Egg

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash approximately 2 pounds of potatoes; dry and spear each potato with a fork several times.

Spread a layer of coarse salt on a baking sheet and lay potatoes on top of the salt. The salt will absorb moisture from the potatoes while they are in the oven. I save this salt in a jar once it has cooled and reuse it each time I make gnocchi. Bake the potatoes for 1.5-2 hours, until the potatoes are completely cooked through and tender.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and cut in half lengthwise. While the potatoes are still hot, but not too hot to handle, remove the potato flesh from the skin and discard the skins. Put the potato flesh through a ricer, and then push the riced potato through a mesh sieve. Next, weigh your potatoes, they will be roughly half the weight that you began with.

Beat the egg and set aside. Measure out your flour; you will want 130g of flour per 1 pound of potato; adjust accordingly. Add salt to flour and mix. Turn flour mixture out onto the counter and spread potato in a layer on top. Make a well in the center and add the egg to the well. Blend the mixture together, kneading as little as possible to form a ball. The more you knead, the more gluten will develop and the tougher the gnocchi will become.

Form a round disk with the dough and cut into eight wedges. Roll each piece out into a log or snake using your hands; the log should be about 1.5-2cm in diameter. Cut the log into pieces that are approximately 2cm in length. Roll each piece on a gnocchi board or fork prongs to add texture to each of the pieces.

Heat a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Add about a quarter of the gnocchi to the water at a time so as to not overwhelm the water. Boil until the pieces float to the top. Use a slotted spoon to remove the gnocchi once they are cooked. Add a small amount of olive oil or sauce to the gnocchi to keep them from sticking while you cook the remaining batches.

Add your favorite sauce to the gnocchi and enjoy!

Venturi Schulze Vineyards