Short Ribs Braised with Mushrooms and Tomatoes

This recipe for Braised Short Ribs is a great addition to the Thanksgiving and holiday table. Pair with with your favorite Frias Cabernet Sauvignon!

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 2 hrs 15 mins
Additional Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 3 hrs
Servings:8
 

Ingredients:

• ½ cup dried porcini mushrooms
• ½ cup water
• 2 ½ pounds beef short ribs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 bay leaf

Method:

First, soak mushrooms in water until they are rehydrated, about 30 minutes. Drain mushrooms and reserve liquid; dice mushrooms.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

Season short ribs all over with salt and black pepper.

Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook short ribs in hot oil until browned on all sides, 7 to 12 minutes. Transfer ribs to a Dutch oven.

Return skillet to heat and saute onion with a pinch of salt until softened, about 3 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Stir mushrooms into onion mixture.

Pour reserved mushroom liquid into the skillet and bring to a boil while scraping browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir beef broth, tomato sauce, rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon salt, cayenne pepper, and bay leaf into onion mixture.

Pour tomato mixture over short ribs in the Dutch oven. Cover the Dutch oven with a lid.

Transfer to the preheated oven and cook until short ribs are fork-tender, about 2 hours.

Serve with your favorite Frias Cabernet Sauvignon.

We Have The PERFECT Gift for Dad This Father's Day!

From our family to yours, we're sending gratitude to all the special Father figures out there this Father's Day! Celebrate Dad by gifting him a vertical of SMD (2017, 2018 & 2019) or a 3 pack of our limited 2019 VANGONE.

These wines are drinking beautifully right now and can also be saved for his cellar collection. He'll love it!

SMD VERTICAL 3 PACK
The SMD Vineyard is our original site on Spring Mountain. The 2017 vintage is filled with candied fruit, baking spices, Morello cherry, leather, and smoked meat notes. The 2018 gives up dark, toasty cherry and plum notes followed by mocha, cedar, creosote, saddle leather, a whiff of chocolate cake, and forest floor with some graphite. The 2019 has aromas of blackberry jam, cocoa, leather, and spice that are seamlessly held up by silky tannins and balanced acidity. A beautiful combination of wines perfect for your Cab loving Dad!

SMD VERTICAL 6 PACK (TWO OF EACH VINTAGE)
Dad will enjoy TWO of each SMD 2017, 2018 and 2019 vintage when you purchase this six-pack. These wines show the best of their vibrancy in the first decade, being able to age longer and in the short-term benefit from being decanted to allow them to open up fully. He will be able to enjoy a few bottles today while also saving some for his cellar collection!

2019 VANGONE 3 PACK
This exclusive wine comes from select blocks of the spectacular Vangone estate! The 2019 VANGONE has layers upon layers of complexity and nuance - almost black in color, this rich and inky wine displays aromas and flavors of black cherry, cream de cassis, pencil shavings, leather, cigar, violets, and spice. This makes for an extra special gift that's sure to be appreciated by the father figure in your life.

We hope he enjoys the most special wines we have to offer and happy Father's Day from The Frias Family!

Join Us for Our First-Ever Release Party!

We’re thrilled to announce that we’re hosting OUR FIRST RELEASE PARTY on August 27th from 2:00pm-4:30pm at Feast It Forward in Napa Valley. Join us for a beautiful afternoon filled with FRIAS select wines, DiFilippo Wood Fired Pizza, live music, and of course great company. 

We recommend that you start planning your trip now and have a local travel agent who can procure the best rates at many local hotels. Send her an email or give her a call at (707) 320-8922 to start exploring options today! We look forward to seeing you there.

You can purchase your tickets here!

Raise a Glass to Mom This Mother's Day with Our New 2021 Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc (Mother's Day Brunch Recipe Inside!)

Spring is here! Wild lupine and California poppies are blanketing our open spaces in stunning, vibrant color. We can think of only one thing lovelier than that: Mom…and all of the Mother figures in our lives. This Mother’s Day, our new 2021 vintages of Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc will help make your celebration of Mom extra wonderful.

The 2021 Sauvignon Blanc opens with honeydew and cantaloupe aromas underlaid by elderflower and a hint of vanilla and mint. On the palate it races with bright juicy fruit, even pineapple and tropical notes, while bristling with lively acid, sweet fruit and a playful tingling spritz with citrus oil in the finish.

Pretty floral aromas in our 2021 Rosé fill the nose as strawberry and watermelon along with candied red fruits and cinnamon spice come to the fore. Intense summery fruits with ripe berries and melons play off juicy and vibrant fruit on the palate with a mouthfilling, long and round finish that lingers.

For her special day, why not cook up a brunch that will pair perfectly with these wines? Our Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc both go beautifully with a savory quiche — try this Recipe: Savory Smoked Salmon, Dill & Goat Cheese Quiche with Fruit Salad.

Recipe:
This quiche is filled with bold flavors like fresh dill, smoked salmon and goat cheese. Each bite is balanced with fluffy eggs, golden crust, and rich savory flavor from the smoked salmon.

Ingredients:

• all-purpose flour 
• salt
• unsalted butter
• eggs
• half and half 
• cracked black pepper 
• hot sauce 
• fresh dill
• green onions
• goat cheese
• smoked salmon

How to make this easy quiche:

Prepare your pie dough mixture and roll out into a tart or pie dish. Freeze the dough for 30 mins.

Cover your dough with parchment paper and add rice or dried beans to ‘blind ‘bake’ your pie dough for 15 minutes at 375 F.

Whisk together eggs, half and half, salt, pepper, hot sauce, dill and green onions. Pour egg mixture into pie shell and dollop with goat cheese and smoked salmon. Bake quiche for 40-50 minutes or until the center is just set.

What to serve with your quiche:
You can serve this up with a simple fruit salad. Enoy!

Exciting New Happenings This Year at FRIAS Family Winery

Ready for some good news? True, we have all been touched by unprecedented challenges in the past two years. But here at FRIAS Family Winery, the ripple effects of the Pandemic and the Glass Fire — a double whammy — have kicked our creativity and determination into extra high gear, and helped us remember why we do what we do. It’s you!

And to show our gratitude for your support, we have some great things in store to help make 2022 a year we’ll toast to with a grin and a great glass of wine.

First, be sure to mark your calendar for our first-ever Wine Release Party! The party takes place on Saturday, August 27th at Feast It Forward in Downtown Napa. We can’t wait to see you, and we’ve even arranged some special hotel rates. You can email KAdamsonconsulting@gmail.com or give her a call at (707) 320-8922 to start planning your trip now!

There’s a special new wine coming soon, which will replace next year’s SMD + Reserva. Created as a tribute to FRIAS brothers Fern and Manny, this wine truly encapsulates the heart and soul of our brand. The brothers’ first winemaking collaboration has resulted in a wine they both truly love and are connected to.

Finally, due to the impacts of the Glass fire and the limited availability of our wines, we’ll soon be shifting to an allocation model. We’ll be sharing all the details about this in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

2022 Spring Release: Enjoy our 2019 Vintages Before They Run Out!

We’re so excited to announce our 2022 Spring Release the 2019 Reserva and 2019 SMD! Both are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the FRIAS family property on Spring Mountain. 

Due to the impact of the Glass Fire in 2020, the next vintages of these wines won’t be released until 2024 (now that’s a long time to wait!). We encourage our customers to get their hands on this vintage before it runs out. 

Not only are these wines very limited, but they are tasting quite exceptional.

The 2019 SMD Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the FRIAS estate vineyard on Spring Mountain and is a wonderful expression of this fantastic vineyard and vintage. Aromas of blackberry jam, cocoa, leather, and spice are seamlessly held up by silky tannins and balanced acidity. 

The 2019 Reserva is a beautiful wine that offers power, depth, balance, and complexity. Aromas of dark cherry, black currant, dark chocolate, leather, violets, and spice jump from the glass. From its inky dark color to the finely developed tannins, your senses will be ignited by this well-knit wine. Reserva is comprised of the best lots and barrels from our estate vineyard. Due to such high demand and very limited quantity, in the future, Reserva will only be available to members of our wine club. 

For those who are interested in learning more about how to access our limited production wines like our Reserva, we invite you to explore our wine club options. As a member, you'll have guaranteed access to terroir-driven Cabernets, can enjoy complimentary tastings in our Napa private tasting salon, receive invites to exclusive events, and more.

At FRIAS Family Winery, our goal is to provide our customers with the highest caliber of Cabernet Sauvignon wines. Our wines are created with deep intention and are meant to be savored with the ones you love. Make sure to give our beautiful 2019 Spring vintages a try before they run out! 

The BEST Creamy Tuscan Chicken for FRIAS Cabs!

2020 Rose & 2019 Sauvignon Blanc

Enjoy your Summer with Sauvignon Blanc & Rosé 

The newly bottled 2020 Rosé is made from beautiful Syrah and Cabernet from premium vineyard sites in Paso Robles. We were able to bottle just 70 cases of Rose for the vintage; less than we typically do, but a lot better than none!  With such limited quantities of 2020 Rose and a small amount of 2019 Sauvignon Blanc remaining, be sure to grab some of these beauties for Summer refreshment before they’re gone! We’re even offering a special rate on overnight Summer shipping so you can have these wines in hand soon.

 

Bottling the 2019s

Just prior to Memorial Day, we bottled our stellar lineup of 2019 single-vineyard Cabernets, 2019 Lady of the Dead, and 2020 Rose. Winemaker Todd Heth offered some narrative about what bottling is like and a note about the coming wines.

“It’s that exciting, stressful time of year when we can finally gently coax our previous vintage wine from barrel into bottle…this time the 2019s.  After stewarding and watching the wine develop from bud break on the vines, berry and grape cluster development, harvest, crush and then aging in barrel, bottling is the culmination on the winery side.  Getting the boisterous new wines into bottle is a delicate balancing act, from gently moving the wine out of the barrels to making sure all the bottling supplies arrive on time (no small feat due to congested shipping and supplies limitations over the past year).  Bottling days can be fun with an extra crew on hand to help packing, labeling, stacking, and all the extra energy, music, food, and talk.  And there’s the pride of seeing the final package, with shiny new labels coming off the line and putting them into the boxes.

We were happy to taste all of the 2019 vintage wines as we prepared for bottling.  While we monitor and taste all the various barrels often over their life in the winery cave, sometimes they can open up, and things come together as we get them ready to send out to the world.  2019 was a great vintage in terms of fruit purity and depth, and as we were tasting, they struck us as having even more dark fruit and deep tones than we had noticed early on.  Maybe it was because they started out in the shadows of the great 2018 vintage.  But now, they stand tall themselves, having developed deliciously along the way.  Each of the wines has their own different character, and overall the aromatic dark fruits and juicy nature of the vintage are beguiling.  Tasting together in preparation, it was hard not to smile.  All the hard work, effort, and patience have paid off and come to a crescendo.  It looks to be a classic vintage that will please folks, and we look forward to sharing these wines with you.”

Cheers!
Fern & Manny

FRIAS SPRING NEWSLETTER

Spring is one of the most beautiful times in California wine country. The buds have burst into new life which are getting us excited for a prosperous new vintage. Restrictions across the country are slowly easing up allowing us to get back out on the road safely, and most importantly, we can finally say we’re BACK for tastings after being shut down for over a year. We hoped and dreamed a springtime miracle would happen, and we’re so glad we can say it has!

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We’re Back, Baby!

We’ve been patiently counting down the days until we were able to utter the words “we’re ready to host you safely,” and now we can! We want to express our sincere gratitude to you all for sticking by us and supporting our small family-owned business in whatever way you could when we were shut down. Times were hard and still are, and knowing our fans had our backs through it all makes us realize how extremely lucky we are.

That said, our team is eager and ready to pour you the newest releases of our most coveted wines!

Here’s what you need to know when joining us for a tasting:

• We will host by appointment only, one group at a time.
• We've always had high sanitation standards, but we're doubling our efforts and adding additional protocols to protect our FRIAS fans and team.

We're here to provide you with an enjoyable and relaxing experience! To book your private tasting, phone our office at 707-927-5106, send us an email at info@friasfamilyvineyard.com, or submit a reservation form.

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On the Road Again...

One of our favorite opportunities is connecting with our fans not only in our Napa Valley home, but wherever they like to call home. With extremely limited travel over the past year, Manny and Fern didn't get the chance to visit our fans as much as they would have liked to. With restrictions all over the country slowly easing up, they have been starting to get back out there and connecting with you.

Manny recently made his way south where FRIAS fan Paula sent us home with the taste of Louisiana! We're officially taking suggestions on which FRIAS wine and spicy cajun dish he should whip up. Our team was thinking our full-bodied, multi-layered 2018 BLOCK FIVE will cut through and accentuate the various spices with whatever recipe Manny chooses. The FRIAS brothers are currently out traveling, so make sure to say “hi” if they're in your neck of the woods!

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Mothers Love FRIAS!

Yes, Mother's Day is right around the corner, and we've pulled out two essential FRIAS wines that will please the palates of all the moms out there! No Mother's Day would be complete without a bottle of our PRADO and our crisp Sauvignon Blanc. The PRADO is extremely special to our family as it's a tribute to our sweet mother, Maria’s maiden name! 

Surprise that special mom in your life now through Sunday, May 9th by enjoying half-price ground shipping when you mix-and-match six or more bottles of our 93+ point 2017 PRADO and 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. 

 

 

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FRIAS springtime is in full swing! This season our team will connect with our fans in whatever way they feel comfortable doing so. If you’d like to join us for a tasting, the FRIAS Man Cave is calling your name. If you’d like us to come out on the road, you know who to call (707-927-5106). And, if you’d like to get stocked up on our killer wines, you know where to look! 

We love hearing from you, so make sure to share with us on social media how you’re enjoying FRIAS. Cheers to optimism, determination, and a good time!