Food draws folks to family winery

How can a new winery attract attention in a state that is already flooded with wine?

For a clever answer, check with the Baily Vineyard and Winery, a serious but small operation that opened in Temecula in December. Production is limited--only 1,300 cases this first season; the wines are bottled, corked and labeled by hand, and there is no marketing or publicity staff to broadcast their merits.

Located half a mile up a dirt road, Baily is a challenge to find. Yet visitors have been pouring in by the hundreds. Why? Because Baily’s owners have invoked the irresistible lure of good food at the end of the road.

To celebrate the release of each of their first wines, Carol and Phil Baily have hosted a buffet lunch accompanied by an art show and live music. They have done this five times since December, aided by their teen-age sons, Chris and Pat, and their friends.

Carol Baily does the cooking without benefit of caterer or maid. The food is free and, like the biblical loaves and fishes, it somehow has expanded to accommodate the crowds. “You put a lot of extra rice in there,” she said to explain the elastic entrees.

Pasta, not rice, stretched to feed the multitudes at the final event of this season. The menu was designed to set off the just-released 1986 Baily Sauvignon Blanc.

The first step in planning the meal was a tasting in which the Bailys paired various vegetables and fresh herbs with the wine. The best matches were asparagus, green and sweet red peppers, zucchini, thyme and rosemary, all of which wound up in a pasta dish, bound together with cheese sauce.

“Sauvignon Blanc is an herbaceous wine,” Phil Baily said. “Sometimes it gets to smell and taste like bell pepper or asparagus or green beans. The actual same flavor compounds are present.” Carrots and onions proved too sweet for the wine, which is crisp, clean and dry, and cilantro was too powerful.

Carol Baily rejected spaghetti, then pasta shells and finally settled upon mostaccioli as the pasta that blended best with the vegetables and sauce.

“This wine is so distinctive, and it tastes so different with different things,” she said. She added a small quantity of the wine to the dressing for a tossed green salad in place of lemon juice, which she found too tart. She also served rolls and a white cake topped with custard sauce and locally grown strawberries.

The cake was an interloper, for it was sprinkled with a previously released White Riesling. A little of that wine also went into the custard sauce.

On the day of the party, the tasting room offered samples only of the Sauvignon Blanc, although additional Baily wines were on hand out of sight. The other wines are a Cabernet Nouveau, the winery’s first release, which was sold out by February; a Chardonnay, which was released the weekend before the Sauvignon Blanc party, and a Cabernet Blanc, which one wine columnist ranked among the best 1986 non-Zinfandel blush wines.

The Bailys made 320 cases of Sauvignon Blanc, purchasing grapes grown in Temecula by Ray Richards because their own fledgling vineyard is not yet able to fill their needs. The grapes were lightly pressed, and the juice was allowed to stand for 24 hours. It was then racked off the solids and fermented in stainless steel five to six weeks at a temperature of 52 degrees. Fermented to total dryness, the wine was racked several times, fined, filtered and bottled Jan. 31.

Because the two small refrigerators that service the kitchen and tasting room were inadequate for the party, the Bailys turned one of their stainless steel tanks into a cooler. The same glycol and water mixture that is pumped through the jacket of the tank to cool fermenting wine also chilled sacks of greens and cases of wine. “It’s not the most inexpensive way of refrigerating things, but it works great,” Carol Baily said.

The party setting couldn’t have been more appropriate. The buffet table stood in front of the Italian-made crusher and the yellow Vaslin press. On one side was the corker and on the other the gleaming tanks. Green and white umbrellas and table coverings gave the illusion of a garden party, and for flower vases, there were 375-milliliter wine bottles bearing the Sauvignon Blanc label. The wine labels, party decorations and the sweat shirts worn by the Bailys all reflected the winery’s colors, which are green and white.

Upstairs in the visitor area were paintings and other artworks by guest artist Isabel Bourbeau of Fallbrook. Craig Yerkes of Temecula played a guitar in the picnic area outside.

Located at 36150 Pauba Road, Baily winery is a cheerful, inviting place. The building was designed by the Bailys, who also took part in the construction. Phil built the counter in the tasting room, which opens onto an indoor dining area with a magnificent view of the valley and mountains. Carol laid the hardwood and tile floors, using Italian and Mexican tiles. “We want a place where people can come and enjoy wine and have a nice experience while they’re there,” she said.

The Bailys lived in San Marino for nine years before moving to Temecula in 1981. Formerly amateur wine makers, they studied viticulture and enology in extension courses at UC Davis. Phil is a computer software developer. “I have to do that for awhile to pay off the loans,” he said.

Seven of their 20 acres are planted to grapes, mainly White Riesling, in which they plan to specialize. This grape thrives in the decomposed granite soil of the region. “Almost all the Rieslings around here have that nice, peachy, apricot aroma,” Phil Baily said.

Baily wines are currently sold mainly at the winery, with limited distribution in retail outlets in some areas. ‘Our goal is to produce a very small quantity of high quality wine,” Phil Baily said. “We believe in the area. Good wines are being made in Temecula, and even better ones can be made.”

PASTA WITH CHEESE SAUCE AND VEGETABLES

1/2 pound mostaccioli

Olive oil

1/2 pound asparagus, steamed

1 zucchini, sliced 1/8 inch thick

1 green pepper, cut in thin strips

1/2 sweet red pepper, cut in thin strips

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Cheese Sauce

Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain and toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Cut asparagus into 3-inch pieces.

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in large skillet. Add asparagus, zucchini, green and red peppers and saute until just tender. Combine pasta, vegetables, rosemary, thyme and parsley and mix with hot Cheese Sauce. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Cheese Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk, scalded

1 cup shredded cheese (Jack, Cheddar or combination of both)

Salt, white pepper

Melt butter in saucepan over low heat. Add flour and stir over low heat 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in scalded milk. Cook and stir until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat. Add cheese and stir until melted. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

WINERY SALAD DRESSING

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Sauvignon Blanc wine

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 cup wine vinegar

1 1/2 cups oil

Beat egg yolks. Blend in mustard, paprika, Worcestershire, Sauvignon Blanc, salt, pepper and vinegar. Add oil in thin stream, beating constantly. Toss with mixed greens and vegetables. Makes 2 1/2 cups.

RIESLING CAKE

2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 egg yolks, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup White Riesling wine

Custard Sauce

Sliced strawberries

Grease 2 (8-inch) layer cake pans. Line bottoms with wax paper and grease paper.

Sift cake flour with baking powder and salt. Cream butter. Add sugar gradually, beating until well blended and light. Beat in egg yolks. Add flour mixture and milk alternately, stirring until smooth.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake at 375 degrees about 25 minutes or until wood pick comes out clean. Cool in pans on racks 5 minutes, then turn out and cool completely. Just before serving, spoon 1/4 cup wine over bottom of each layer. Cut layers into wedges and serve with Custard Sauce and sliced strawberries. Makes 12 servings.

Custard Sauce

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons White Riesling wine

2 cups milk, scalded

1 cup whipping cream, whipped

Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and beat lightly. Add sugar, salt and wine. Stir hot milk gradually into egg yolk mixture. Cook, stirring, over simmering water until mixture begins to thicken. Chill. Fold in whipped cream.