Lunch at New Sammy's

New Sammys Cowboy Bistro
2210 S Pacific Hwy, Talent, OR
Tel: (541) 535-2779

A TRIP TO A WINERY this morning: Cowhorn, out near Jacksonville, here in southern Oregon. It's a small young vineyard-winery operation, with a total production of less than a thousand cases in 2006, its second year of production. We tasted Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, and Syrah; the dedication is entirely to Rhone varietals and Rhone-type wines.
The dedication is also to biodynamic production, and the winery is associated, through one of its owners, with Demeter® USA, "the only certification agent for Biodynamic® farms", as its website points out: so from now on you're going to have to put that little encircled "r" after the word biodynamic.
In any case (and there are very few cases) the wines were delicious, delicious to the point that we actually bought a couple of bottles for special occasions later on. And then we went on to New Sammy's for lunch.

Here is Charlene's garden, or rather a corner of it, out behind the restaurant, which is in the country about halfway between Ashland and Talent, Oregon. It's not a great photo; I took it with my telephone. And it doesn't begin to convey the garden's fragrance.
Charlene's cuisine makes great use of responsibly raised (or caught) beef, lamb, fish, and poultry; but it is rooted in, based on, the garden and its vegetables and herbs. Today I had ravioli, one filled with wild mushroom, the other not. The plate was a riot (meant in the best sense) of vegetables: red and yellow tomato, eggplant, corn, pepper, onion among them, each with its own bright flavor, all coexisting happily on the plate as they do in the garden, all contributing to a sensual delight.

Pinot grigio Collio 2006