Wine Lover's Mac & Cheese

Fall is here, so we have officially reached comfort food season! This week, we're savoring the last few days of September with our Wine of the Month, Reserve Chardonnay. For anyone looking to elevate their mac n' cheese to a sophisticated and gourmet dish, we have the recipe for you. Best of all, it incorporates dry white wine directly into the cheese—we used our Chardonnay, of course! 

Fondue Mac N' Cheese

Ingredients

• 1½ pounds Gruyère, grated
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 pound elbow macaroni
• 1 cup dry white wine
• ¼ teaspoon fresh-ground pepper
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 apple, cored and sliced
• Panko bread crumbs (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Fold garlic into butter in bowl. Grease casserole pan or baking dish with butter-garlic mixture.
2. Toss cornstarch with 1 pound Gruyère. Set aside. Bring pot of water to boil, and add salt. Boil macaroni for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Dunk pasta in cold water to shock, and let drain.
3. In same pot, warm wine over medium-low heat. One handful at a time, whisk in cheese until melted. Add pepper and nutmeg. Stir in cooked pasta. Transfer pasta mixture into buttered dish, and top with remaining cheese. If using bread crumbs, add atop and dot with extra garlic butter.
4. Cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, or until cheese bubbles. Remove foil, and bake 5 minutes until crisp. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve alongside sliced apples. Serves 4.

Recipe from Jenn De La Vega for Wine Enthusiast

This recipe is truly a win-win. It combine our two loves: cheese and wine, and it also gives us a chance to revisit a childhood favorite and make it worthy of a nice dinner party. Our recommendation is to add a few chopped slices of cooked bacon into the mix just before baking. You can thank us later! Is this going into your comfort food rotation? Let us know @RubyHillWines!

If you want to make this recipe, we recommend our 2018 Reserve Chardonnay.
On sale for a few more days!

Sep 24, 2021 at 5:28 AM Permalink

Art and Wine in Every Era and Style

Fine art and fine wine are truly integral to human expression and enjoyment. In every era and culture, these themes have shown themselves in some way. Today, we are taking time to look at the intersection of the two: the representation of wine in art throughout the ages.

Ancient wall art depicting harvest and winemaking. This was found in a tomb in Egypt, an example of the deep significance of wine even in ancient cultures. Wine was always among the provisions left in tombs for the afterlife of Egyptian mythology. 

In an era where wine consumption was considered by some to be immoral, and was only available to wealthy nobility, wine still played a part in artistic expression. This Medieval era monastic art, celebrates the labor and process of winemaking rather than the wine itself. 

This iconic painting by Cravaggio, Bacchus circa 1596, depicts the Roman god of the same name. Baccus was the deity of wine and revelry. Here, he is pictured young, flushed, and satisfied. Both Baccus and his Greek counterpart, Dionysus, were frequent subjects of art in the Renaissance era.

The stunning post-impressionist work above is entitled The Red Vineyard. This piece was painted by Vincent Van Gogh on a single day in 1888 and was the only painting he successfully sold in his lifetime. Van Gogh died destitute but left a rich collection of art that still defines the Impressionist & Post-impressionist era.

Known for his work in cubism, Pablo Picasso incorporated wine and spirits into many of his works, including this 1926 work entitled La Bouteille de Vin (The Wine Bottle). Picasso was a prolific artist, working in a range of styles and mediums, though cubist art pieces like this one are among the most iconic of his works. 

Modern artistic movements include Pop Art, such as the Andy Warhol-style rendering above, and Op-art, such as the image below. Op Art is short for Optical Art, which bends the mind's perceptions of flat surfaces. Even in these aggressively modern depictions, wine finds a place. 
We're always glad to take a moment to appreciate the finer things in life, from good wine to stunning art. Perhaps it's time to create some of your own, in your own style. All you need is a glass of wine and your medium of choice (paint, pencils, crayons) and you can create your own masterpiece, just for fun! Who knows, you may surprise yourself! If you give it a try, tag us @rubyhillwines.

Sep 17, 2021 at 5:56 PM Permalink

Our Vineyard Map

From a bird's eye view, our Estate Vineyard forms a picturesque patchwork of vines. Our Club-Exclusive Patchwork blend seeks to honor this beauty, celebrating the lovely way our rows of vines are joined together across our acreage in careful blocks. Our entire Estate Vineyard is cherished and cared for to create fruit of optimum quality and purity. Within each block, several varietals have a special section that we farm with the utmost precision to supply our award-winning Jewel Collection series. Below, we have put together a map to see the real-world origins of the Estate-grown wines Ruby Hill Winery is known for.  

Many vineyards, including ours, are planted with a north-south orientation. A peek at satellite images of the Livermore Valley will confirm this! The north-south orientation maximizes the fruit's exposure to sunlight, aiding in timely development and maturation. Selectively pruning leaves (a process fittingly called "leafing") to increase sun exposure is also a common practice. When it comes time to harvest, we value handpicking, both to support the quality of our grapes and the sustainability of our practices.

Here in the Ruby Hill Estate Vineyard, harvest 2021 is officially underway! This week, we started with Sauvignon Blanc, Sangiovese for our Grapeful Rosé, and Chardonnay. Our Winemaker Jesse and the absolutely stellar cellar team are tirelessly at work receiving and processing the fruit—the crucial first steps in creating the wines we love to enjoy from the fruit we have meticulously nourished. If life is too short to drink bad wine, then it's also too short to make bad wine. Fruit matters. 

Which 2021 wine are you looking forward to the most? Let us know @rubyhillwines.

Sep 10, 2021 at 6:48 AM Permalink

Spotlight on Reserve Chardonnay

This week, we are celebrating our Wine of the Month: Reserve Chardonnay. Our newly-introduced 2018 vintage is a smooth symphony of golden flavors and delicate aromas, perfect for sipping as summer relaxes into autumn. If you haven't had a chance to taste our 2018 Reserve Chardonnay, you can expect to be delighted when you do. Vibrant aromas of lemon cookies and honeysuckle adorn the nose of this wine, leading into a swirling celebration on the palate. Luxurious flavors of honey, apple, and baked goods mingle together before arriving at a finish with a flourish of oak. 

We are proud to join in the rich history of Chardonnay in California. The very first records of this varietal succeeding in the New World were right here in the Livermore Valley in the late 1800s, around the time our Estate was founded. The cuttings had been taken from France, the ancestral homeland of Chardonnay, but made themselves at home in the Californian terrior. The quality of Chardonnay from California was a key player in the fight for recognition of New World wines in the worldwide wine scene. Before then, serious wine was the business of France and Italy alone. The Judgement of Paris in 1976, when two Californian wines (one of which was Chardonnay) won against European wines in a blind tasting, helped to usher in the current era. California Chardonnay is now recognized around the globe.

Chardonnay loves California, and the feeling is mutual. Coastal fog that blankets our valley is met by the generous afternoon sun, creating a uniquely perfect environment for Chardonnay grape maturation. Our care for the quality and purity of the fruit allows us to craft a Chardonnay that has the classic buttery, toasted notes of an oaked Chardonnay, but also allows the delicate fruit notes and elegantly balanced acidity to shine through. Californians love Chardonnay—and so does the rest of the US, where Chardonnay is the most consumed white wine by a wide margin. Time to have a sip!

Our 2018 Chardonnay brings together notes of lemon cookies, dandelion honey, fresh honeysuckle, crisp apples, and more. If you think you're not a fan of Chardonnay, we dare you to give it a try!

For this month only, Our Reserve Chardonnay is on sale for only $24. Don't miss out!

Sep 3, 2021 at 7:08 AM Permalink