Your West Coast Oenophile realizes Sostevinobile has been absent from the blogosphere for quite a few months now. And to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure it will emerge from the pandemic lockdown intact. My design for our looming brick & mortar operations has always been large-scale; can it be adapted to the “New Normal” successfully? How long will the burdens of social distancing be upon us?
The absence of trade tastings since March has been a major nadir of the pandemic. So, too, has been the onerous restrictions placed on wineries and their tasting rooms. From my standpoint, I cannot conduct my usual business with winemakers with free interaction curtailed, nor can I justify seeking trade accommodations when the availability of paid tastings is so dear.
So while I while my time waiting for the wine world to return, I have been reviving my culinary chops. Over the past three months, I’ve dabbled with an eclectic mix: pasta, pizza, ravioli, risotto, sushi, Wonton soup, stir fry, calamari, scungilli, octopus, sturgeon, oyster, clams, pesto, marinara, Char Siu, teriyaki, mignonette, fennel, green papaya, olive bread, jackfruit bread, cake, ice cream, gelato, spare ribs, sausage, bone marrow, wild boar, tripe, veal cutlets, and, most recently, duck.
THE DUCK DID NOT DIE IN VAIN!
My favorite market on Clement Street features fresh, whole duck at $2.99/lb. After deftly butchering the carcass, I wound up with the constituent parts for two Seared Duck Breasts, two Char Siu Duck Legs, ½ cup of rendered Duck Fat, and three quarts of Duck Stock. (Frankly, I am disinclined to try my hand at cooking the feet. And as for the head, it wasn’t offal)!
If the duck hadn’t come gutted, I could have made paté from its liver and braised the gizzard, the true delicacy this bird offers. Every year, on the Friday before Thanksgiving every November, Peter Palmer and Farallon puts on PinotFest, a comprehensive but by no means exhaustive tasting from 60 of Oregon and California’s premier Pinot Noir producers. For me, however, the absolute highlight this annual event has long been the Duck Gizzard Meatballs, sourced from Sonoma County Poultry in Petaluma.
I was first introduced to Jennifer Reichardt as the fiancée of Mike Dmytrenko, the assistant winemaker at Radio-Coteau, a standout winery at PinotFest and one which I featured when I produced Brown & Its Winemakers for my grad school’s alumni association. I would have happily cottoned to her simply because her father is the founding farmer behind the Liberty Ducks that Sonoma Poultry exclusively raises, but subsequently she has established her own label, Raft Wines, as one of California’s leading Italian varietal producers. (So now will she tell me where she sources her Molinara, Corvina, and Rondinella)? 😁
I suspect New May Wah Market obtains 
its ducks, though quite fresh, from a different supplier, but since this was my first time working with water fowl, I coöpted Jim Reichardt’s recipe for the spice rub. Served with Wild Rice I simmered in a crab broth, this turned out to be one of the finest dinners so far in my COVID-19 culinary renaissance.
I frequently raise the hackles of my fellow wine professionals by citing the specter of Pinot Fatigue in referring to its inundation from 700+ producers on the West Coast. That, and my umbrage at being compared to Miles Raymond—I do NOT look anything like Paul Giamatti—cause me a bit of aversion when it comes to selecting a wine to accompany my dinner. But with Grocery Outlet selling off its allocation of Moshin Vineyards’ 2013 Pinot Noir North Coast for $8.99 (vs. $58!), I could hardly refuse.
The pairing proved splendid enough I actually shelled out for another bottle to go with the Duck and King Oyster Mushroom Sausage I cranked out from the meat I flayed from the left over bones.