Alison from Floral Artistry shared on her blog:

At the risk of sounding kinda boozy–I do realize that I have blogged about vodka already!–I just have to mention Layer Cake Wines as one of our favorite things (Dave is on board with this one, too!). Not only is the story on the label so up my sentimental alley (the layer cake being the soil–oh so romantic sounding to a Plant & Soil Science major), but the wine is simply delicious. I stumbled upon it at the Jericho Center Country Store a few weeks ago and am just about ready to buy out their entire stock. Try it with a lovely homemade meal or a slice of pizza and it will be equally yummy. Worth the price and worth seeking out! Cheers!

Melissa from Chin Deep: Simple Pleasures for Everyday shared:

It’s almost that time of year again! The little villages of Maiden Rock, Stockholm and Pepin Wisconsin will be opening their establishments for the spring/summer season! I’ve written a little about these places before, but when I heard about their seasonal ‘kick off’ I just had to let you know!

On March 20th, Stockholm will be holding a combination St. Patrick’s celebration (complete with a parade) and seasonal kick off. Read more about this, and other events here Stockholm. We’ll definitely be heading over there for this event, the annual art fair, and we might even take some of the fun cooking classes at the beautiful culinary shop, The Palate. The Palate is also a great place to pick up some artisan cheeses and unique wine for a picnic. Jeff bought a beautiful bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon wine called Layer Cake from The Palate for my birthday last year. SO yummy!

Thank you to both, Alison and Melissa for (virtually) sharing you Layer Cake Wine experience with your friends, it’s duly appreciated.

Part I

Part II

Part III

One Hundred Percent Pure

So we get an invitation to this wine event, and we bring three bottles of Layer Cake Primitivo, because I am so impressed with Layer Cake brand even though I have never tried the Primitivo… And the winners of the event, with at least 150 entries, by a land slide is…… Layer Cake…. Team Wine-osaurous. So the announcements comes at the end of the night, and they say, I think the winner is a returning member; and it is Wine-osaurus!!! And I’m like, no we are new to the organization, and we are rockin’ Layer Cake!!!! Hell yeah, in your face to all you high class overpriced winery’s!!!

Thank you Layer Cake, we love you, and we made a huge name for you in owning every other Italian Red wine in this huge competition held amongst Lamborghini and Ferrari tonight, we won, and it was amazing and all due to your hard work.

Thank you Layer cake crew, we owe our gratitude to you, and we won like 72 bottles of wine tonight all thanks to you, your team really made a name for your product tonight, Amazing!!!!

Thanks,
Chase and Jess
Layer Cake Fans!!!,
Denver, CO

I was a bad girl this weekend. Too much alcohol, too many bad-for-me foods, too many late nights.

It started Thursday night, when some girlfriends and I met up for a much-needed Girls Night Out. We hadn’t gotten together in awhile, so there was a lot for us to catch up on. About three margaritas and a beer’s worth of catching up. Probably didn’t get to bed till midnight, only to be awakened by my daughter at 6 a.m. Cost for this evening: a raging headache and case of heartburn from too many margaritas.

Friday night hubby and I parked it on the couch, ordered Thai food and watched “Couples Retreat.” I had very low expectations for this movie, so was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be decent. One particular scene actually had us both in tears it was so funny! Still recovering from my Thursday night, I konked out right after the movie.

Saturday night was dinner at our friends’ house. I alone consumed a beer, almost an entire bottle of wine and two chocolate martinis. Dinner was a recipe out of the Paula Deen cookbook, so I don’t even need to go into any other detail as the woman isn’t known for her health food! Left their house around 11 p.m., drunk as a skunk. Cost for this evening: another splitting headache and an even worse case of heartburn thanks to the booze and rich foods.

Pretty worthless all day Sunday, as one might expect. Which pisses me off since I did it to myself. I’m getting too old to suffer a hangover, especially when I have a toddler that does not relent, even when mommy’s head feels like it might explode.

Needless to say, I have been back on track this week. But I would remiss if I didn’t talk about one of the wines I enjoyed over the weekend. I mean heck, if it was good enough to down a bottle, it has to be good, right?

Layer Cake Shiraz

My apologies that I don’t have a personal picture – since we were at friend’s house, I felt a little weird whipping out the camera so I could have documentation for my blog. But let me just say, this wine was phenomenal! Very rich, very smooth, it went down (a little too) easy.

This particular wine is from Australia, so given how much I enjoyed it and how much I have been enjoying my New Zealand varietals, I think I might have a new favorite region for wine producers. This area is definitely on my radar now when I’m in the wine department shopping!

Cost was about $17.99 for a bottle and worth every penny. And with such a cute label, this would also be a great wine to bring to a party or give as a hostess gift.

Green Curry Recipe

The winemaking team at Layer Cake Wines travels the globe making great wines for the people. During our travels, we do everything possible to eat and drink as the locals do. We made a Green Curry while bottling the 2008 Layer Cake Shiraz in Australia and wanted to share the recipe with our friends.

Green Curry Preparation total time (1hr):

Ingredients:

Fruit: Mango, Papaya, Apples, Banana, Pears (Fruit provides the sweetness, use ripe fruit and whatever you have on hand, it’s going to be a part of your curry base and not garnish)

2 cans of unsweetened Coconut Milk
Chicken Stock
Green Curry Paste

Sushi Sticky Rice/Brown Rice/Uncle Bens

Versatility: Curry goes well with Shrimp, but, works with Chicken and Pork. Curry is also a perfect accompaniment for roasted vegetables and tofu for a vegan/vegetarian preparation. So it’s your choice.

Curry:

Prepare a mirepoix.

Cut up your onions, carrots, garlic, ginger and peel back a layer on your lemongrass so fresh flesh is exposed and cut in half. The best way (since this doesn’t have to be pretty) is to dice your onions, cut the carrots across the length into thick wheels and to peel cloves of garlic. The ginger should be sliced into nice chunks. The fruit should be added to this mixture, no peels. Cube mango, apples or pears and just break up a banana.

Open your can (s) of Green Curry, Coconut Milk and Chicken Stock (water can be substituted)

In a sauce pot on MEDIUM HIGH:

Heat a small pancake worth of olive oil and then add your mirepoix (vegetable/fruit mixture) and allow to cook till tender.

Slow cooking is good cooking, our goal is to allow each component to develop it’s full potential flavor wise. Ultimately, caramelization of the onions, carrots, ginger, lemongrass..is your desired result.

At this point, the green curry should be added to your caramelized mirepoix. Stir into the mixture so the curry covers all of your mirepoix.

The spice compound of the curry requires heat be applied to maximize the oils and flavors of the curry

As the smell of the curry rises to meet your nose, the oils have been released and it’s time to add your liquid.

Start with a cup of chicken broth and water mixture (50-50) is my preference.

Then add 1-2 cans of coconut milk and stir in thoroughly and simmer.

The coconut milk is going to thicken your curry rapidly; it’s also going to sweeten it some and add body. Depending on how pungent and how thick you would like your curry, it’s time to adjust and then reduce to intensify the flavors. Adding stock and water, (or just one or the other) will allow you to thin the curry. Go slowly as to not overwhelm your sauce…you can never go back, only add.

As you achieve consistency, it’s best practice to strain all of the aromatics/mirepoix from your curry through a fine sieve and then salt and pepper to taste.

The curry sauce will hold over night should you want to make it ahead.

Enjoy!!!!

I’ve written about him before, but, Christopher Campbell of Destinations magazine captured Jayson in his November 2008 article called Cult Hero. Big thanks to Christopher,

The Trend Report: Cult Hero | Jayson Woodbridge
© Ericka McConnell

With close-to-perfect Robert Parker ratings and up to a five-year waiting list for his Hundred Acre vintages, the maverick vintner of Napa Valley believes good wine is a birthright.

By Christopher Campbell

Second Calling
“When I was young I was a soldier in the army…not much wine, just good hard work. Then I was an investment banker, and I hunted down and drank some of the greatest wines in the world. One day I walked into a vineyard and had an epiphany. I was destined to become a winemaker.”

The Good Stuff
“My Hundred Acre wines go for $250 for a bottle of Cab to $500 for a single-vineyard port, and I spend most of my time apologizing to people for not having any left for them to buy. They sell out the second we release them. All four Hundred Acre offerings are rare in that each is made from one vineyard only. They are a pure expression of that vineyard in that year and place in time. The French call it terroir. Three of my vineyards are in Napa Valley and my fourth, Ancient Way, is in the legendary Barossa Valley of South Australia; it’s monolithic.…Winston Churchill would have loved it.”

Special Forces
“Layer Cake is what we drink every day. It’s about $15 a bottle. I decided to take my team from Hundred Acre and go make wine in some of the greatest places on earth. It’s really the people’s passport to my favorite wine regions of the world—Malbec from Argentina, Zinfandel (Primitivo) from Italy’s Puglia, Shiraz from South Australia, Syrah from Côtes du Rhône, and Napa Valley Cabernet. The mission was simply to shock people about how good wine could be at those price points.”

Family Wisdom
“The name Layer Cake comes from my grandparents, who taught me that everything in life is about layers and complexity. As a little boy, I could relate to that. Still do.” Behind Closed Doors

“The vineyard is off-limits to tours because, well, most of the time we are sold out. If I opened up for visitors, I would have to shut the place down and become a guide—not happening. The wine comes first.”

Hundred Acre and Layer Cake wines are sold on vintagepoint.com. To get on the waiting list for Hundred Acre wines, go to hundredacre.com.

Layer Cake Malbec 91pts

2008 Layer Cake Wines Malbec, Mendoza Argentina
“Dense, with notes of blackberry, earth and roasted meats. Add a hint of barbecue spice, this wine exhibits great fruit, delicious full bodied texture, silky tannins and a long finish. “It does taste more like a $30-$50 bottle of Malbec than one that can be purchased for $15″

91pts Robert Parker, Wine Advocate
1/06/10

Layer Cake Wines are 100 Percent Pure

“In vino veratis” is a well-traveled Latin saying that translates to “in wine there is truth.” This phrase originated during Roman times because public officials believed that if they drank wine during meetings it would be easier to discern if someone was untruthful. Today I would say that the truth can usually be found in the bottle.

Layer Cake makes several wines that taste quite nicely, but it is hard to guess the price.

Layer Cake Wines are unique for several reasons, least of which is that they are produced in four of the top wine-growing regions in the world: Napa Valley, Calif.; McLaren Vale, Australia; Mendoza, Argentina; and Puglia, Italy. Layer Cake’s founder and winemaker, Jayson Woodbridge, named the wines from something his grandfather used to tell him: “The wine, if properly made, was like a great layer cake, fruit, mocha, chocolate, and hints of spice — and rich, always rich.”

Layer Cake wines are also unique in that each of the different wines is produced using 100 percent of the same type of grape. The idea behind Layer Cake was to produce wines that tasted like they were in the $60 range, but retail between $15 and $25 a bottle.

The 2008 Layer Cake Shiraz looks very deep and dark in color, with a nice aroma of plum. This powerful Shiraz contains a lot of black fruit, and I could taste a significant amount of cherry, all the way to a smooth finish. This wine is produced in the McLaren Vale region of South Australia, an area renowned for Shiraz.

Jayson Woodbridge, winemaker, Layer Cake Primitivo aka Zinfandel

The 2007 Layer Cake Primitivo that hails from Italy required some time to open up, but once it did, it tasted of ripe plums and white pepper. These flavors should not come as much of a surprise, as the Primitivo grape is identical to the Zinfandel.

I thought the 2007 Layer Cake Malbec proved to be elegant, with copious flavors of black fruits and a long, spicy finish.

This is a wine that would complement just about any roasted meats. The grapes used to make this wine were grown in Mendoza, Argentina — an area that produces some of the best Malbec anywhere in the world.

In closing out the year, I offer a toast using words attributed to John Wayne: “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. “It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.” Salut!!

Jim Rawe, a family attorney in Bradenton, Fla., is an avid collector of fine wines. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jimrawe@gmail.com.

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