It’s hard to go wrong pairing Pinots with mushrooms, especially the complex kind of Pinot that is filled with earthy aromas and often a touch of mushroom, fern and damp redwood forest. Such are the Pinots from a hallowed piece of ground in the Santa Lucia Highlands, The Sleepy Hollow Vineyard.
Owned by the Talbott family since 1981, this rather large expanse of vines is responsible for some of the most famous Pinot and Chardonnay in all of winedom. It was planted in 1972, making it one of the original anchors in this now world-famous Pinot growing region, and consequently offers some of the most mature and intense Martini clone fruit, giving these wines an innate structure and depth of flavor, rich with velvet robes of raspberry, currant and forest floor.
When La Rochelle winemaker Tom Stutz told proprietor Steven Mirassou about this vineyard from which he had been making wine since 1982, he warned, “You know those beautifully manicured vineyards you’re used to buying fruit from? Well, it’s not that kind of 
vineyard.” Steven was indeed shocked by the rather out of control looking vines, freely waving their arms in the winds that race down at them from the ocean to the west. What these vines lacked in discipline, though, they more than made up for in character of fruit. There is something absolutely gripping, captivating and mesmerizing about the wines that come from this place.
Paired with mushroom dishes prepared by Chef Jimmy Connors (whose day job is Country Gourmet in Palo Alto) and his able assistant, Shawn Robison, who works the San Jose market for Southern Wine & Spirits, the rare vertical of La Rochelle Sleepy Hollow Pinots were splendid dance companions. They couldn’t have been better suited to one another than Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Chef Jimmy was blessed with a crop of mushrooms that only a true gourmet mycologist could have assembled: such a person is Todd Spanier (left), King of Mushrooms, whose Italian, German and French heritage serves him well in foraging for and preparing fungal favorites like Oyster and Porcini mushrooms, along with more obscure types, like Clamshell and Abalone. The latter are now my absolute favorite funghi: I adore their firm, slightly chewy flesh that tastes a bit like a cross between artichoke stems and sweet scallops.
The first course, served with the last of the 2005 Sleepy Hollow Pinot, was a panoply of mycelogical mastery, combining Porcini-crusted scallops, Oyster, Clamshell and Abalone mushrooms with a delightful sea-salty soy reduction. The 05 was huge and dense, with a hefty dollop of sweet, ripe fruit. It seemed to be making its finest stage appearance, and was the crowd favorite of all the lot for its total integration and bold, yet very approachable nature, like a jovial Santa Claus. Too bad it’s history!
I thought it would be hard to beat that one, but the second course was a tour de force of shroomy creativity, combining sesame roasted organic Oregon Shitakes, wild boar salami, Gambone mushrooms and date gastrique into a fantastic mushroom Napoleon. 
The little man never tasted anything this good, and I daresay he had no such beverage to quaff as the 2006 La Rochelle SHV Pinot, chewy, dense, complex and not yet approaching its prime. This is a wine for the ages: Tom and I felt it was the one with the most legs, and fittingly so, as that is the literal translation of Gambone, the mushroom that starred in the accompanying dish. Also called the Trumpet, this mushroom is indeed long of leg and firm of flesh, like biting into a turkey thigh. I’m already salivating at the thought of this wine with turkey drumsticks accompanied by a wild mushroom laden stuffing. Oooh la la! There is still some 2006 available, and I’d lay a case of this down for a decade.
The third course featured an organic chicken stuffed with Full Circle Farms bok choy, prosciutto and quinoa, with Wood Ear mushrooms in a citrus-tamari glaze. Wood Ears are one of the most widely eaten mushrooms worldwide, along with buttons.
They are specially prized in Asian cuisine for their crunchy texture, and are believed to thin the blood. Drinking the 2007 La Rochelle Sleepy Hollow Pinot along with this dish did nothing to thin the blood, however, as it is a heady, dark-fruited, powerful, smooth and elegant cup of pure raspberries and chocolate. Of all the Sleepy Hollow vintages, to me this was the most mouthfilling and appealing, at least right now. Divine!
And then when I though I could not eat another bite, arrived a BN Ranch beef Bourgogne, accompanied by Golden Chanterelles, pearl onions, thyme and truffle smashed purple potatoes. Rich? Dense? Indeed. And yet, the Chanterelles, with their sublimely golden hue, shone through with their pumpkin and apricot flavors. These would be a wonderful accompaniment to the Thanksgiving feast, and would star nicely in a vegetarian entrée. Paired with the reserved, yet promising 2008 La Rochelle Sleepy Hollow Pinot, the dish was deliriously decadent. Tom fashioned what is going to be a brilliant wine from this restrained vintage: this is one to buy cases of to cellar. Like an ancient scroll to which you are still searching for the Rosetta stone key, this wine has so much to share, so many stories to tell. And it’s not going to give away its secrets early. Patience….
While there are only two more vintages of Sleepy Hollow Vineyard Pinot in the La Rochelle cellar (09 and 10: sadly, there will be no Pinots under the La Rochelle label from Sleepy Hollow after 2010), happily, there are other vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands from whence new Pinots will sprout. One of them is Soberanes, planted by Gary Franscioni and Gary Pisoni, both of whom know a thing or two about Pinot in the Santa Lucia Highlands.
Meanwhile, Mushroom King Todd reminds you that you can obtain selections of nature’s finest funghi directly from him (kingofmushrooms.com) and at select specialty markets.
Here’s to the lovely symbiosis of mushrooms and Pinot Noir: a heavenly match made right here on earth.
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