The Vineyard Martini

Last week at Good Gracious! Events, we had the honor of creating a lovely event at Malibu's Church Estate and Vineyards for WIPA, and their group of 100 wedding industry professionals. GG!'s Pauline of course wanted to greet these special guests with a new and fabulous specialty beverage worthy of the surroundings. The Vineyard Martini was created to enhance the experience of a cocktail reception surrounded by grapes on the vine and fields of fresh herbs.

After deciding I wanted to create a grape-inspired cocktail, Stockholm Krystal Vodka joined on as the liquor sponsor for this event. I went to our produce refrigerator, snacking on grapes and nibbling fresh herbs until I found my favorite combination: red and green grapes with oregano!


Enjoy some more great photos from this event, and the recipe at the end of the post...
Special thanks to Imagery Immaculate for all of these beautiful photographs.


Everyone enjoyed the cocktail!


The vineyard table was filled with California Artisan Cheeses, tasty tartlets, crisp arancini, herbs, figs, and so much more!



Vineyard Martini, recipe by Dan Smith of Good Gracious! Events

Martini:
2 tablespoons grape base and 1 ounce of its nectar (recipe below)
2 ounces premium vodka
splash of italian sparkling lemon soda
grape skewer and oregano sprig garnish
Ice

Method:
First, place 1 teaspoon of the diced grape base in the bottom of a martini glass. In a martini shaker, combine ice, vodka, 1 tablespoon grape base and 1 oz nectar. Shake until icy cold and strain into martini glass. Top with a splash of lemon soda and garnish with grape skewer and oregano sprig.


GRAPE BASE & NECTAR
(for about 20 drinks)
Combine:
2 cups each red and green grapes, diced
1 teaspoon white pepper
3 cups oregano infused simple syrup (1 ½ cup sugar, 1 ½ cup water, 6 sprigs of oregano, heat until sugar is fully dissolved and remove oregano. Chill until cold.)

Stir above ingredients together and let soak at least thirty minutes and up to 2 hours, refrigerated

All Bubbly for the Holidays!

by Dan Smith
Good Gracious! Events, Los Angeles

What is more festive than a glass of “bubbly”?
As catering professionals, we are of course accustomed, if not expected, to serving a glass of champagne or sparkling wine as a welcoming sip or a congratulating toast, but there are so many ways to make this expected beverage sound, look, and taste extra special!

1 Spice it up
Simple as can be! Fill a glass with your favorite sparkling wine and add fresh herbs for some extra fragrance! Rosemary, basil and lemongrass are favorites. Experiment with your chef; he or she certainly won’t mind!

2 Flower power
Add a blossom and a simple glass of champagne becomes a work of art! These Wild Hibiscus Flowers are edible, taste of delicious floral nectar and are a beautifully festive addition to the most special of occasions.

3 Spanish sparkle
Soak some delicious ripe fruits in a liqueur such like Cointreau, St. Germain or a fruit brandy, then top it off with a bubbly Spanish wine and you’ve got a delicious sparkling sangria.

4 Looks good on paper
These individual splits of French champagne were simply relabeled with the groom’s wedding invitation design. Add a hot pink straw and sip!

5 Love lemons
Mix an ounce of your favorite Limoncello (ice cold) with a sparkling wine and you create something special. We garnished these with lemon and lavender at a romantic Italian al fresco feast.

What's Cooking at Good Gracious?

by Dan Smith

It's the holiday season so of course caterers and event professionals such as we are extra-busy nearly every day of the week! (Hence the lack of blog posts lately!) We have been catering breakfasts for thousands, dinners for hundreds, and just this week I have rubbed elbows with celebrities ranging from Charlize Theron to Pauly Shore.

A highlight of this season has really been having the audience to experiment with so many new cocktail recipes, some of which I have covered in previous blog posts. The Blackberry Infused Gin with Organic Q Tonic has been a huge hit! So has a delicious concoction of Vodka, Fresh Grapefruit, my own Black Pepper Bitters, and "drunken Cranberries." Bar ingredients are getting so much more fresh lately, and as caterers we are making every effort to use seasonal ingredients, just-squeezed juices, and the freshest herbs whenever possible.

Also in the works are a Cranberry Infused Vodka and a Limoncello-inspired Passioncello made with real Passion Fruit.

This is day-one of a blackberry infused gin. Notice that the gin has not yet turned color and the sugar has yet to dissolve. You may see the method for infusing gin in a November MMB blog post!


Drunken Cranberries with Vodka and Rosemary. They serve as a great FRESH way to bring seasonal cranberry flavor into cocktails without having to use boring, reconstituted cranberry juice! These can be made with a number of liquors... vodka, dark rum, or gin. It all depends what kind of drink you want to make with them!

INGREDIENTS:
2 Cups Fresh Cranberries
1 Cup Water
1 Cup Liquor (Vodka, Rum, or Gin)
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 Sprigs Rosemary (Optional)

METHOD:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until cranberries soften and skins just begin to break. Remove rosemary. Let cool and refrigerate up to 1 week prior to use.

CRANBERRY DELICIOUS COCKTAIL:
In a cocktail shaker, combine ice with:
2 oz Gin
1 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice
1 oz St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
Shake gently to chill
Strain into a martini glass containing:
1 tablespoon Drunken Cranberries
2 Dashes Orange Bitters

CHEERS!

Serve Slightly Chilled

Most of us missed the worldwide celebration last week honoring annual arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau! Every year on the third week of November a number of French wineries, mainly Georges Duboeuf and Maison Joseph Drohin release this very short-lived vintage, straight from the 2010 harvest and bottled a mere six to eight weeks prior.

Why such a young red wine? The Beaujolais Nouveau is intended for immediate consumption! It should remain in its best form through the holidays but most begin to decline in quality after this brief window. Expect a very light red with very little tannin and fruity flavors such as banana, pear, and fig. Traditionally you should be able to enjoy this with your heavy holiday fare of turkey, ham, and all of the fixin's that come with them!

Serve this wine on the cool side- they recommend a temperature of about 55-56 degrees Fahrenheit which is what your wine fridge (if you have one) may be set at already!

This year's colorful Duboeuf Label Art

Ten Fun Facts about Beaujolais Nouveau!

1. Beaujolais [BOE-zjoh-lay] Nouveau is always released the third Thursday of November, regardless of the start of the harvest.

2. The region of Beaujolais is 34 miles long from north to south and 7 to 9 miles wide. There are nearly 4,000 grape growers who make their living in this picturesque region just north of France's third largest city, Lyon.

3. All the grapes in the Beaujolais region must be picked by hand. These are the only vineyards, along with Champagne, where hand harvesting is mandatory.

4. Gamay (Gamay noir à Jus Blanc) is the only grape permitted for Beaujolais. While certain California wineries may label their wine "Gamay Beaujolais" this is not the same grape variety as what is grown in France, and is quite different in taste and growing habits.

5. Beaujolais Nouveau cannot be made from grapes grown in the 10 crus (great growths) of Beaujolais-only from grapes coming from the appellations of Beaujolais and Beaujolais-Villages.

6. Beaujolais Nouveau owes its easy drinkability to a winemaking process called carbonic maceration—also called whole berry fermentation. This technique preserves the fresh, fruity quality of the wine, without extracting bitter tannins from the grape skins.

7. Beaujolais Nouveau is meant to be drunk young-in average vintages it should be consumed by the following May after its release. However, in excellent vintages (such as 2000) the wine can live much longer and can be enjoyed until the next harvest rolls around.

8. Serve Beaujolais Nouveau slightly cool, at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit-the wine is more refreshing and its forward fruit more apparent than if you serve it at room temperature.

9. Approximately 1/3 of the entire crop of the Beaujolais region is sold as Beaujolais Nouveau.

10. The region of Beaujolais is known for its fabulous food. The famed Paul Bocuse Restaurant is just minutes from the heart of Beaujolais, as is Georges Blanc's eponymous culinary temple. These great restaurants have plenty of Beaujolais on their wine lists. This quintessential food wine goes well with either haute cuisine or Tuesday night's meat loaf.