Recipe Feature: Chicken Milanese

 

 

 

 

One current recipe offering, Chicken Milanese, is a delightfully tasty, beautiful dish that pairs nicely with Crosby Roamann’s best white wine selections like a Sauvignon Blanc or a Chardonnay from our boutique Napa winery. On this night, however, we chose to pair it with our 2018 Jewel of Skyland Pinot Noir from the Santa Cruz Mountains, alongside our 2016 Crosby's Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley.

Chicken Milanese

Top with a mound of arugula and chopped vine-ripened tomatoes, garnish with lemon

Paired with boiled butter potatoes with dill and mustard (See our German Potato Salad recipe)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus more for seasoning
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons heavy cream (optional)
2 cups fine plain dried breadcrumbs
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or purchase chicken scaloppini)
Freshly ground black pepper
2 cups olive oil for cooking
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Garnish

1 pound fresh arugula
4 vine ripe tomatoes
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges

Preparation

• Whisk flour and 1 teaspoon salt in a wide shallow bowl. Lightly whisk eggs and cream in another wide shallow bowl until the yolks and whites are just streaky. Mix breadcrumbs and 2 teaspoons salt in a third wide shallow bowl. (See pic)
• Pound chicken breasts between sheets of wax paper to 1/4” thickness, being careful not to tear. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
• Working in batches, dredge one chicken breast at a time first in the flour mixture; shake off excess. Then -- Dip in egg. Turn to coat; shake off excess. Last -- Dredge in breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere; shake off excess—transfer slices to tray until you are prepared to fry them.
• Heat olive oil over medium heat to 350°F. Add butter to skillet and adjust heat to maintain 350°F, just barely smoking. Add chicken breasts, one or two at a time, being careful to leave a one-inch gap around each edge. Let this fry 3-5 minutes per side until just golden brown (see pic).
• Clean your saute pan between each round of cooking, as the old oil and butter will turn the breadcrumbs black and burnt. Rinse the saute pan with water and wipe it clean before each round of chicken, being careful to pour a fresh 1/3 cup of olive oil and a fresh tablespoon of butter into the pan before each round of chicken breasts.

Divide fried chicken among plates. Garnish with arugula and tomatoes sliced into 1” chunks. The perfect accompaniment is a pinch of good sea salt and a lemon wedge. Bon appetite!

Pair with a Crosby Roamann Best White Wine

The acidity, flavors, and textures of the Crosby Roamann’s best white wines perfectly enhance and heighten the flavors of this Chicken Milanese recipe to create a most memorable dining experience.

Our highly regarded Crosby Roamann boutique Napa winery offers the best white wines for pairing with this and other poultry or seafood dishes.

Save the Date: Spring/Summer 2022 Releases!

Dear friends,
 
We are excited to announce the return of Crosby Roamann Declassified -- our annual spring clearance event and Membership pick-up day:
 
Crosby Roamann Declassified

March 19, 11am-3pm
Members only 11am-12pm
Open House 12pm-3pm
 
Members please RSVP if you know you will be attending so we can reserve space for you. Food and wine will be served, and as always, Members are welcome to bring their families. The winery will be open to the public from 12pm-3pm, with mixed case sales starting at $24/mystery case (extremely limited supply).
 
Save the Date: February 19 -- Spring/Summer 2022 Member Release
 
Memberships will be charged the second week of February, and all boxes will ship the second week of March, weather permitting. Members may also pick-up day their boxes on March 19. The Spring/Summer 2022 Membership is now available online! You can purchase a Membership here.
 
And don't forget ...
 
While some things change, some things never do. As we have been for many years now, Crosby Roamann is a net carbon-zero production facility, and all wines in this year’s release were produced and shipped Carbon Neutral by purchasing winery carbon off-sets through www.cooleffect.org.

Lastly -- We couldn't do this without you -- THANK YOU for being a part of the Crosby Roamann life. If you can't connect with us in person, you can find us on Instagram @crosbyroamann

With all our hearts,
Juliana & Sean 
 
Mustard Bloom -- Photo credit @emmakmorris
 

CO2 Sequestration Efforts with Amorim Cork, a cool by-product of natural cork closures

 

 

We are proud to be honored by Amorim with this CO2 Sequestration Certificate for our use of all natural cork stoppers in Crosby Roamann wines. This number has been independently validated by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (and/or Ernest and Young). The findings, are the only ones to date that underwent a multi-closure comparative peer review, indicating when considering sequestration by the ecosystem made feasible by the cyclic extraction of cork, a retention capacity up to 309 grams of CO2 is associated with every natural cork stopper and as much as 562 grams with a sparkling wine stopper. 

Estate Bottled White Wine and New Member Shipments Spring/Summer 2021

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on — have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear — what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons — the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night.” — Walt Whitman  

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We have lost sense of time. The days pass languidly. Everything is slow here in wine country. Most mornings you can find us briefly in the vineyard. The sun rises around six and the early mornings are still cool, routinely in the 40s, sometimes dropping into frost territory on the coldest nights. We are marking out the end posts, measuring off the distance between the grape stakes. We love the feeling of the dust on our hands, love the wisp of dust cloud it makes as we clap our hands together. We have taken to digging up the strangest rocks we can find on the property. All of it is endlessly new. The days are growing slowly warmer. The vines are just beginning to flower.
 
We are replanting the vineyard to Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot, and there are two new rows of Bordelaise clone 317 Sauvignon Blanc clone at the entrance to the vineyard. Where some of the oldest vines died over the winter, we are spot-replanting with cuttings we made in early spring of the healthiest vines. We are cultivating the soil with the lush organic cover crop of peas and barley we planted in November and let develop into April. Everything is progressing smoothly.
 
It is hard to contain the sense of excitement and thrill we have about the wines for release in the new member shipment: the 2020 Estate Bottled Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley and the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley.
 
2020 Estate Bottled White Wine Napa Valley
 
We harvested 1.9 tons of Sauvignon Blanc from our estate vineyard on September 5, 2020, a mix of Musque and clone 317, 23.5 Brix at harvest. We gently whole-cluster pressed the juice to concrete, and fermented on native yeast for five weeks. The wine then aged seven months in one-third new oak, one-third neutral oak, and one-third stainless steel. We performed a light pad filtration and cold stabilization prior to bottling by hand at the winery, with minimal sulfur. Delightful now, the wine will gain complexity over the next year and reach its apogee in 2022-2023. 117 cases produced.
 
2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
 
Our Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard sources are in Coombsville – Harmony School Vineyard, a one acre block of clone 6 – and Calistoga, one and a half acres of clone 337 at the edge of the Vaca Mountains. The grapes are sorted and destemmed by hand into stainless steel and receive a five-day cold soak. Temperatures rise and native fermentation initiates by day seven, with an average 35 days in tank. We press entirely by hand in our old hand-crank press, and the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in barrel, aging twenty-four months in mostly new French oak. Cabernet Franc from Summer Hill Vineyard and a small amount of Merlot is added during aging for spice and complexity. This very small production cuvee is destined for eight-ten years of development in bottle, with at least three years to reach full maturity. 107 cases produced.
 
The Spring/Summer 2021 Membership includes a mix of Estate Bottled White Wine and Cabernet Sauvignon. Premier Members receive three bottles each, shipping included with a 10% discount -- $270. Collector members receive six bottles, shipping included with a 20% discount -- $480. (Crosby’s Reserve Club Members may opt in or out of this release with shipping included and a 10% discount.) Please contact us here to add the SS21 shipment to your Membership.

Memberships will be charged May 10, 2020. All boxes will begin to ship the last week of May, weather permitting.

All our best,
Juliana & Sean 

What Does It Mean to Be Carbon Neutral?

We've received a couple of questions from customers about what it means when we say this or that wine is "Carbon Neutral," so we decided to forward along this explanation from our Carbon Neutrality partner www.cooleffect.com,

"The terms ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘carbon neutrality’ have been the terminology used for describing sustainability practices using offsets for the past 20 years. However, times are changing and so are claims that can be made. Scientists are becoming more specific about the requirements associated with those terms, but these requirements are causing unintended consequences in the market. 

"Let’s start with the definitions. Currently, scientists associated with the IPCC have defined the following: 

• Climate Neutral: A state in which human activities result in no net effect on the climate system (all GHGs + radiative forcing).
• Net Zero: When carbon emissions (including emissions beyond carbon dioxide) are balanced by anthropogenic removals over a specified period of time (all GHGs).
• Carbon Neutral or Net Zero CO2: When anthropogenic CO2 emissions are balanced globally by anthropogenic CO2 removal over a specified period of time.
• Carbon Negative: When a business removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it generates (Forbes).

"Whether these definitions will apply to offsetting in general is still under consideration. This is extremely important because credits that meet the strict scientific definition of ‘removals’ required for ‘carbon neutrality’ or ‘net zero’ are in short supply."

Crosby Roamann wines marked "Carbon Neutral" were produced in a year in which we paid to offset our Carbon footprint 100%. We estimate certain factors like farming CO2 production and the cost of shipping one case of wine cross-country, and add those estimates to specific values we have at the winery, such as total electricity, miles driven, etc., to come up with our Carbon load. We then invest that value in offsetting technologies. To learn more, please visit www.cooleffect.com.

Harvest Update 2020

Dear Friends,

We hope this letter finds you and your friends and family doing well. Perhaps it goes without saying – it’s been a crazy vintage!

If time is short, here's the release in a nutshell:

• Life is good ... but we miss you in the winery! Schedule a tasting here.
• We purchased a vineyard in Carneros and are transitioning to 100% estate fruit.
• We have a new website for our Pinot Noir wines, www.seanwmcbride.com
• The New Release: Members receive a six-bottle wood box of Crosby's Reserve 2017 the last week of October, $360 (shipping included)
• All wines are carbon neutral
• Each membership plants 10 trees in California
• Collectors (12 bottles+) also adopt an African Elephant
• Spread The Word.

Here in Napa, we have so much to be grateful for. We have been spared the worst of the fires this year, and the past week has seen clear blue skies and mild fall weather, but let us start with you, our dear friends who have been on this winemaking journey with us for the past … oh, let’s just call it the past decade – we could not do this without you and are so grateful for your continued support. If you would like to stop by the winery for a tasting, check our schedule here or email the winery.

The News from Napa Valley.
First, we are so excited and thrilled to be making an estate wine this year from a vineyard we purchased in Los Carneros, Napa Valley. This Sauvignon Blanc is tasting so deliciously already we cannot wait to share it with you – but that will have to be in the Spring Release!
 
And despite the difficult growing conditions this year, we are making lots of rosé and red wine, and our first sparkling wine. We pressed Old Saint George into rosé for a sparkling wine, and also pressed a portion of Gremlin Vineyard into a light bodied rosé for everyday drinking. 2020 will also see single vineyard designate Pinot Noirs from The China Block and Gremlin Vineyard. We are also producing a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon from two vineyards we have worked with for a long time, and fermentations are nearly complete – fingers crossed!

The New Website.
As Crosby Roamann begins the transition to 100% estate fruit, we have also taken the next big step in expanding and differentiating our set of single vineyard wines under the Sean W. McBride label. Going forward, you will find all the new Pinot Noir wines at our new website -- www.seanwmcbride.com. Please check it out! Members with existing Pinot Noir Memberships will transition to the new site by the end of the year. We will be sending more news and information about this process as we go.

The New Releases.
This season, we are offering Premier Members our six-bottle wood boxes of 2017 Crosby’s Reserve Cabernet SauvignonNapa Valley, shipping included, at $360/box (regular price $540). Premier Members may also purchase additional bottles of our current releases at a 10% discount. Collectors will receive a six-bottle wood box of 2017 Crosby’s Reserve Cabernet SauvignonNapa Valley plus three bottles of 2017 Merlot and three bottles of 2018 Chardonnay.

Find the new wines here.
 
All boxes will ship the last week of October, weather permitting.

Giving Back.
Every Member Plants Ten Trees In California – In response to this year’s fire season and the state of California’s natural forests, this year the purchase of each Membership box will plant ten trees in California. It’s our goal to plant 2500 trees before the end of the year.
 
Collectors and Additional Purchases Adopt An African Elephant – Working in concert with the World Wildlife Foundation, this year Collector Members and Members who purchase an additional six bottles of new releases will also see a portion of their purchase price placed towards the adoption of an African Elephant at https://www.worldwildlife.org. It is our goal to adopt a herd of African Elephants by the end of the year – that’s 100 Elephants! You can help by purchasing a Membership here.
 
We are Carbon Neutral – And last but certainly not least, rest assured that your purchase of Crosby Roamann wines is a net-zero carbon transaction. By working with www.cooleffect.org, we have paid to offset our carbon footprint 100% -- including all energy, production, and shipping. All the wines in this year’s release were produced and shipped Carbon Neutral by purchasing winery carbon off-sets through cooleffect.org, so you can feel good about your purchase.

Spread The Word.
Perhaps you like the idea of planting a tree with every bottle of Crosby Roamann wine? Perhaps you enjoy the idea of adopting a herd of African Elephants as a part of your membership in our winery? And perhaps you have a friend or loved one whom you think might benefit from enjoying the same privileges of Membership that you do? If that’s the case, then forward our missive along! Most of our Members arrive at us by word of mouth, so if you know someone who you think may enjoy saving the planet and enjoying some great wine along the way, then please forward our email along.

With all our hearts,
Juliana & Sean 

Special Member Discount & Library Release

Another week begins in quarantine, and we are motivated to help you get through this. As promised, we are unveiling the third special surprise of the month --

Members enjoy an extra 10% discount -- this week only. Premier Members enjoy 10% and Collectors enjoy 20% off already discounted wines. No code necessary, simply login and your extra discount will be automatically applied. Combine these discounts with 12-bottle orders for even more savings.

Chardonnay Library Release: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017. For this week only, we are re-releasing a very small number of bottles of Chardonnay from our library to pair with Steve's Chicken Paprikas (recipe below) -- a pairing made in heaven.

And if you haven't decided to become a member yet, now would be a really great time to join! We offer complimentary shipping for our members on all orders, and other perks and incentives like comped tastings, invitations to exclusive events (in better times) and member gifts.  If you'd like us to place the order on our end we are happy to do that too, just reach out to Juliana.

We also wanted to share a family recipe that's a true comfort food for us, and we hope it will offer comfort to you too!  See below for Steve's Chicken Paprikas and Nokedli (Dumpling) recipe.  This pairs stupendously with our 2017 Chardonnay, which Steve (Juliana's dad and Hungarian American émigré) would have loved.  

Warmly,

Juliana & Sean 
 

 

Steve's Chicken Paprikas and Hungarian Nokedli (Dumplings)

Ingredients for Chicken Paprikas

• One whole chicken (3lb) cut up into ten pieces (each split breast cut in half, with legs, thighs, and wings separate) and seasoned generously with salt
• One tablespoon butter
• Three tablespoons olive oil
• Two heaping tablespoons (divided) of Sweet Hungarian Paprika like this one from The Spice House.
• One large yellow onion, diced
• One tomato, diced
• One 4 oz can of V-8
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Two green bell peppers, sliced
• 1/3 cup Sour Cream

   
Directions for Chicken Paprikas

1. Melt the tablespoon of butter in the olive oil in a large Dutch oven (or stock pot) on the stove top. (We use this one from Williams Sonoma.)
2. Sear the chicken legs and thighs, skin side down, for two minutes, then turn and sear two minutes more. Remove from heat and set aside, then repeat with remaining pieces of chicken, leaving the oil and shmaltz to saute the onions next.
3. Add the diced onion and cook until translucent -- 3-5 minutes -- then remove the Dutch oven from the heat. Sprinkle on 1 heaping tablespoon of the sweet paprika and stir it into the onions, then return the Dutch oven to the stove top and add the chicken back to the pot, skin side up, nestled together.
4.  Add the diced tomato and the 4 oz can of V-8, then sprinkle the second heaping tablespoon of Hungarian paprika on top.
5. Cook, covered, on medium heat for 40 minutes until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone.  
6. Add the two sliced green bell peppers to the pot and recover, then cook for another 10 minutes, until the peppers are tender but not limp.
7. Finally, remove the Dutch over from heat, and gently stir in one-third cup of sour ream, stirring gently until absorbed. Serve chicken in its bright red-orange sauce on top of the nokedli (see below).

Ingredients for Nokedli (Dumplings)

• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 and a half cups water
• 3-4 cups of flour
• 1 large pot filled with salted boiling water
• 1 tablespoon butter & 1-2 tablespoons olive oil (to coat the Nokedli)

Directions for Nokedli
Note: You will need a spaetzle maker like this one to prepare the dumplings.  

1. Bring large pot filled with salted water to boil.
2. Combine eggs, salt and water, beating well with whisk
3. Add flour, a little at a time, and only enough flour to make a soft, sticky dough.  This should be somewhere between 3-4 cups of flour.  Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
4. Add about one cup at a time to the top of the spaetzle maker, straining the dough back and forth across the pot, letting the dumplings fall into the boiling water.  Keep adding dough a little at a time to the spaetzle maker until you are through with the dough.  
5. Stir nokedli in boiling water for a few minutes and immediately strain.  
6. Add olive oil and butter to the pot, then stir the Nokedli back in.  Add salt to taste.  Ladle into bowls and add the chicken paprikas on top. 

Rosé All Day

As the weeks stretch on in these crazy times, we hope that you are staying healthy.  Each week this month we will be offering something special, because in the absence of connecting with you in person, we hope we can connect in other ways.   

As the days are getting longer and slightly warmer, and most of us are at home waiting for 5pm, we can't think of a better time to release our new 2018 Rosé of Pinot Noir. This Rosé is that most magical, effortless of wines...crisp, light, deceptively easy-seeming on the surface, brooding just beneath and bursting with flavors of strawberry, apricot, citrus and clove, pairing with just about anything or nothing at all.  No need to wait until 5pm. Enjoy a glass at lunch, or at 3pm on its own just because.  

We are offering our 2018 Rosé of Pinot for just $18/bottle (normally $21) for this release week only, because we all need a little of that summertime feeling in a glass. Produced from Pinot Noir from the Gremlin Vineyard in Sonoma, we made just 90 cases (4 barrels).  

We also still have a little of our screamingly delicious 2017 Rosé left at the winery.  We are offering this until it's gone at $15/bottle.  (6 bottle minimum orders for shipping apply).  10% discount applies on all 12 bottle orders.  

Stay healthy and happy!

 

Pandemic Update

We hope that this post finds you and your family healthy and safe.  

Not if, but that we survive is because we connect. We do not exist in a vacuum, life does not thrive by itself, or in quarantine. We will be here when you venture outdoors again, but for now the tasting room will remain closed until further notice. Our Declassifiedevent is postponed tentatively until April 18. Notwithstanding the closure of the tasting room, member-packages and orders will be shipping this week.
 
In lieu of tastings we have re-opened our online store:

• Purchases of six-bottles ship for $1 (contiguous 48 states)
• Purchases of twelve-bottles receive a 10% discount and ship for $1

The incentives apply automatically at checkout.

Thank you for continuing to support small family-run businesses like ours.  We look forward to reconnecting with you in person when it's safe to do so in April.

Sincerely, 
Juliana & Sean

PS. A note on the nature and promise of hope. 

As poetry month is nearly upon us amidst this pandemic, we thought we’d take a moment to highlight the poetry of survival, of hope. There is of course Emily Dickinson’s “’Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers, That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all . . .” and then there is the poetry of Rudyard Kipling’s masterpiece If and The Survival, and William Ernest Henley’s Invictus– but these seem better suited for war-time analogies – and so it was Edith Wharton who caught our eye this morning as we were looking for something suitable to share … We want to leave you with these last thoughts on Spring, on hope, on survival, on connectedness. Because soon we will back outdoors together, relishing the warmth on our skin, the shouts of wild children and the murmurs of strangers meandering arm-in-arm along the city streets.
 
When you and I, like all things kind or cruel,
The garnered days and light evasive hours,
Are gone again to be a part of flowers
And tears and tides, in life's divine renewal,

If some grey eve to certain eyes should wear
A deeper radiance than mere light can give,
Some silent page abruptly flush and live,
May it not be that you and I are there?
                                               --Edith Wharton
 
We are here. We will be here. We will see you in Spring.

Crosby Roamann Declassified 2020

Hello from Napa Valley! It is a gorgeous, extended winter here in the north bay. The mornings are still cool and occasionally overcast, but the sun is shining almost every day and the afternoons are distinctly warm. 
 
This time of year, we have the privilege of introducing you to our new wines – so many new wines! And see below for news on Crosby Roamann Declassified– our annual OPEN HOUSE on March 21st, 11-4 – we will be planting a tree for every bottle sold this year – read more below!
 
Crosby Roamann New Releases
 
2018 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley. Whole-cluster pressed and fermented on native yeast. Aged for six months in one-third new French oak, the balance stainless steel, with three final months all in stainless steel prior to a light pad-filtration and bottling by hand at the winery. Six barrels, 115 cases produced. $24; Members only.
 
2017 Merlot, Napa Valley. Fully-destemmed to stainless steel. Fermented on native yeast thirty-two days prior to pressing in our old, hand-crank basket press. Aged in one-third new French oak for twenty-two months, and bottled by hand at the winery with neither fining nor filtration. Two barrels; 51 cases produced. $45; Members only.
 
Produced & Bottled by Sean W. McBride New Releases
 
The newest wine in our repertoire, 2017 Annie’s Pinot Noir, a blend of Gremlin Vineyard, Los Carneros, Sonoma County (60%) and The China Block, Filigreen Farm, Anderson Valley (40%). Both lots fermented on native yeast fourteen days; we pressed by hand, and the wine aged twenty-four months in a mix of stainless steel and neutral French oak. Neither fined nor filtered, we bottled by hand at the winery. Five and a half barrels; 131 cases produced. $32; Members only.
 
We are also very happy to announce the first of our 2018 single vineyard Pinot Noirs – 2018 Jewel of Skyland, Santa Cruz Mountains, Pinot Noir.  This one-acre, dry-farmed vineyard in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains is planted to three different clones of Pinot Noir, creating a rich, layered, and balanced wine. We fermented the fruit in open top containers on native yeasts for fourteen days and pressed by hand. The wine aged for twelve months in 25% new French oak. $35; Members only.
 
2018 The China Block, Filigreen Farm, Anderson Valley, Pinot Noir. 100% Biodynamic fruit from the south block of Filigreen Farm, fermented on native yeast fourteen days, pressed entirely by hand, aged in one-half new French oak twelve months, prior to bottling by hand at the winery unfined and unfiltered. Four and a half barrels; 110 cases produced. $38; Members only.

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Crosby Roamann Declassified – March 21st, 2020
 
It’s that time of year again when we open the winery for Spring Cleaning. We will have an extremely limited number of wines starting at $24/case. Additionally, a small number of hand-signed art labels will be available. This is a ONE-DAY ONLY EVENT – while supplies last. This year we will plant a tree for every bottle you buy. Buy a case, plant twelve trees, save the planet on a Saturday. 
 
11am-12pm Members only
12-4pm Doors open
Event closes at FOUR PM.
 
We will have wines to taste, as well as some small bites. Please RSVP if you know you will be joining us. Groups of ten or more must make a reservation!
 
Stay Connected
 
We are on the road a lot this time of year, visiting New York, Illinois, Colorado, and Texas. Watch out for new events by following us online @crosbyroamann and @seanwmcbride