Auction of Washington Wine Barrel Auction & Picnic

The Barrel Auction and Picnic with the Winemakers is the kickoff event for the Annual Auction of Washington Wines. This is an annual event, now in its 24th year, that benefits the uncompensated care program at Seattle Children’s Hospital as well as the Washington Wine Education Foundation.

The iffy weather turned out to be perfect once the picnic started. Not too hot, not too cold. Chateau St. Michelle did a wonderful job transforming their grounds for the picnic. The layout worked well, I liked how the silent auction items were scattered throughout the various food tents. Speaking of food, the Tulalip Resort did a fantastic job providing some scrumptious food. The favorite among the crowd was definitely the star anise braised lamb with macadamia nut dried cherry rice. With good reason, this dish exploded with flavors and was extremely wine friendly. The desserts were all miniature versions of your retro bake sale favorites. Lemon whoopee pies, peanut butter chocolate bars and strawberry poptarts, I was like a kid in a candy store!

Each year the Auction honors two of its own for their outstanding contributions to the Washington wine industry. This year’s Honorary Grower is Dr. Wade Wolfe of Thurston Wolfe and the Honorary Vintner is Rob Griffin of Barnard Griffin.

The Barrel Auction was the main attraction at the picnic. 20 wineries donated a barrel of yet to be released wine. Each barrel contains 5 cases of wine. Some excellent wines were showcased in this year’s barrel auction. Most notably for me were the Fidelitas Red Mountain Red, Reynvaan “In the Rocks” Syrah and Adams Bench Red Willow Cabernet.

The Barrel Auction and Picnic was followed the next evening by 13 winemaker dinners at various private homes around Seattle. With the grand finale of the weekend being the Gala Auction that featured a six-course gourmet dinner and live auction.

The entire weekend was a resounding success. The Barrel Auction and Picnic alone raised $60,000 between the picnic games, silent auction and barrel auction.

Cider Braised Cold Smoked Salmon

This recipe was an attempt to recreate a dish that I had at Trellis, the restaurant at the Heathman Hotel in Kirkland, WA.

Cold Smoking is used to add a touch of smoke flavor. Unless the food properly cured, it should be cooked after cold smoking either by grilling, braising etc. First, I need to create a brine. My brine consisted of:

• 6 cups Water
  
  
• 3 cups Apple Cider
  
  
• 1 ¼ cups Pickling Salt
  
  
• 1 cup Sugar
  
  
• ½ cup Maple Syrup
  
  
• 2 tlbs Peppercorns (cracked)
  
  
• 2 Garlic Cloves (smashed)
  

Bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat,
cover and let cool to room temperature. Then refrigerate the brine for 6-10 hours. You want it to be between 35-40 degrees. Take your fillet and score the skin and immerse in the brine. Depending on the size and thickness of your piece(s), let them brine for 6-12 hours. After the brining, rinse the fillets thoroughly. Now the fillets need to dry. I am planning on braising this salmon after it’s smoked, so I am fine leaving these fillets out on a rack on my counter to dry. However, if you were making lox you would need to dry them in the refrigerator. After a couple of hours, the fillets should be glossy looking and tacky to the touch.

We are ready to get our smoke on! I have a Smokin Tex electric smoker with the cold smoke plate accessory. I loaded up the smoke box with a small piece of apple wood, slid in the cold smoke plate, placed a metal pan with ice cubes on the plate and put the fish on the upper rack. I turned the smoker on to 150 degrees for 20 minutes, shut it off, and let it sit for an hour. The goal is not to cook the fish, but to generate enough smoke to penetrate the food and the cold smoke plate and ice keep the heat from reaching the fish.


I braised the salmon on the grill. I made a foil packet and put in the fish, apple cider and apple slices, placed on the grill over indirect heat for 10-12 minutes. The result was a moist flavorful salmon with a full smokiness. My only criticism was that the thinner sections were a bit salty, which tells me I need to cut the salt in the brine or possibly shorten the brining time.

I selected the 2008 Cougar Crest Grenache Rose to serve with the salmon. I fell in love with this wine at WBC and it is one of my top 3 Roses’ produced in the state of WA. This dark pink wine has a nice full mouth feel with an earthiness and acidity that matched perfectly with the smoky, rich salmon.

I’d say my first attempt at cold smoking was a success! I am looking forward to smoking all kinds of foods now.