Lubrication Blog
Summer Corn Soup
To us, there's nothing better than the fresh produce we get our hands on during the summer months. From quaint roadside stands to bustling farmer's markets, we can't help but be inspired by nature's bounty.
This corn soup is definitely one for the books – and a knockout pairing for our skin-fermented Trousseau Gris, Run Baby Run.
Recreate the pairing at home and score $1 shipping on any 3 bottles with code: PERFECTPAIRING at checkout through 7/28.
Summer Corn Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Olive Oil, as needed
1 C shallot, sliced thin (approx. 2 ea)
2 Tbs garlic, minced
2-3 Tbs red curry paste (depending on desired spice level)
1 Tbs serrano chile, minced
6 ears Sweet Corn
1 Qt Chicken Stock
Water, as needed
14 oz can coconut milk
Salt and Pepper, as needed
Garnish:
pumpkin seed oil
bacon, chopped
corn kernels (reserved from cooking)
cilantro, roughly chopped
serrano chile, sliced thin
Tools Needed:
chefs knife
cutting board
stockpot
immersion blender or blender
1 wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula
fine mesh sieve
large bowl
tasting spoons
serving bowls
Method:
Place stockpot over medium heat and add 2-3 tbs of olive oil. When you notice a slight ripple to the olive oil, you are ready to begin cooking. Add sliced shallots and season with salt and pepper, stirring occasionally, until translucent and tender. Add garlic, serrano chile, and red curry paste and cook until fragrant.
Meanwhile, remove husks and silks from corn and set one ear aside. Using a knife, cut the kernels from the remaining five ears, and break cobs in half. Add kernels, broken corn cobs, and the remaining full ear of corn to the stockpot. Add chicken stock and water as needed until ingredients are just covered. Season with salt and pepper and simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes.
Remove the whole ear of corn and allow to cool. Using a knife, cut kernels from cob and set aside for garnish. Continue simmering the remaining soup ingredients for an additional 15 minutes. Remove broken corn cobs and discard.
Using an immersion blender or countertop blender, puree soup until smooth. Tip: This step can take several minutes. Be patient! Once smooth, pass the soup through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any fibers and kernels that may be left behind (this step is optional, but makes a huge difference in the texture of the soup!).
Return soup to the stockpot, add coconut milk, and stir to combine. Depending on desired thickness, you may need to simmer for an additional 10 minutes or add water to adjust the consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
To serve, ladle into soup bowls and garnish with pumpkin seed oil, chopped bacon, corn kernels, torn cilantro, and thinly sliced serrano chiles.
Tip: This soup can be served warm or chilled.
Recipe by Grace Coyne
Jul 24, 2020 at 12:00 AM
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New in July
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Jul 15, 2020 at 3:19 PM
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A Perfect Pairing
This risotto is what dreams are made of. Seriously. Packed with fresh seasonal veggies from the farmers market, a bit of butter and a fistful of parmesan, this pairing takes Karma Coma Supernova to a whole new level. Take your time with this recipe – it's worth every second spent standing over the stove.
We recommend throwing on this playlist, pouring yourself a glass of Karma Coma Supernova and basking in the good vibes coming your way. ✌️
Summer Risotto
Serves 6
Ingredients:
1 qt chicken stock
water, as needed
2 ears sweet corn
1 ea yellow squash, cut into 1/2" half-moons
1 ea zucchini, cut into 1/2" half-moons
8 oz oyster mushrooms, cleaned and separated
olive oil
1 ea yellow onion, minced
1 head garlic, minced
1/2 c dry white wine
1 1/2 c Arborio rice
4 tbs butter
1 c parmesan cheese, finely grated with a microplane
kosher salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste
microgreens (optional) to garnish
Tools Needed:
chefs knife
cutting board
1 sheet pan
mixing bowl
1 large cast-iron skillet or sauté pan with 4" sides or a dutch oven
1 wooden spoon or heat-proof spatula
1 microplane
tasting spoons
serving bowls
Method:
Heat oven to 425º F
Bring chicken stock to a low simmer over the stove and hold for later use.
Cook sweet corn in salted, boiling water for 5-7 minutes or until tender. Using a sharp knife, remove kernels from the cob and set aside for later use.
Coat mushrooms in a bit of olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Spread evenly over a sheet pan lined with foil. Roast in the oven at 425º F for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through the cooking process until mushrooms are brown and slightly crispy. Set aside for later use.
Meanwhile, toss zucchini and yellow squash in olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Sauté over medium-high heat until edges are slightly browned and squash is just softened. Remove from pan and set aside for later use.
Finely mince onion until pieces are approximately the size of a grain of rice. Mince garlic and set aside.
In a large cast-iron skillet, heavy sauté pan or dutch oven, heat approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil until you see a slight ripple indicating the oil is hot. Add minced onions, season with salt and sweat until translucent and completely soft (taste the onions to make sure they are soft. Nobody likes crunchy onions in risotto). Do not brown. Once onions have cooked, add garlic, season and stir until fragrant. Add Arborio rice and stir to coat with oil. Keep on stirring – do not brown the rice!
When the rice has taken on a slightly translucent appearance (approximately 2-3 minutes), add the wine and stir continuously. Tip: Make sure to rub your spatula across the bottom of the pan to pick up any bits of fond from cooking the onions and garlic! Reduce wine while stirring gently until fully absorbed.
Adding 1/2 c of stock at a time, continuously stir the rice until all the liquid has been absorbed. This process may use more than 1 qt of stock – if you need more liquid, water can be used to finish the cooking process. Tip: The continuous stirring, along with the slow additions of liquid, is what creates the creamy texture Risotto is known for. Don't rush this step, and don't ever leave your pan unattended. Taste the rice throughout this process to test for doneness and season as needed. Rice should be al dente.
Add butter and parmesan and stir until fully incorporated. Add mushrooms, squash, and sweet corn, reserving a bit of each vegetable for garnish. Taste and season as needed.
To serve, garnish with a bit of the reserved vegetables, a bit of freshly grated parmesan and microgreens (optional).
Tip: Have leftovers? Cool mixture and form into 1" balls or small disks. Coat with flour, egg wash and panko to fry up for some killer Arancinis later on in the week! (These can also be frozen for up to 1 month)
Recipe by Grace Coyne
Jun 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM
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New in June
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Jun 25, 2020 at 9:26 AM
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What's New in May
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May 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM
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Going Home with Daren Thomas Magee
How would you describe your art style to somebody that's never seen it?
I aim to encapsulate a timelessness in my work in hopes that it can live on past our lifetime. Despite my work being digitally created I try to capture the imperfection of the human hand. Timelessness and imperfection.
What are your inspirations?
My biggest inspiration is existence. In all it’s mystery and awesomeness. That, to me, is a bottomless well to draw from.
For the piece we used on the wine Going Home, what were you trying to capture?
I was hoping to capture a sense of homesickness and that feeling of being out of place and knowing there’s a place that’s more suited for you than where you are right now.
Do you see any similarities between winemaking and illustration?
I think within any form of creation there is a similarity. Humans ability to create something from what we have around us. We are innovative creatures and with enough will we can create some truly beautiful things!
My name is Daren Thomas Magee. I am an Ojai, California based freelance illustrator, muralist and designer. My inspiration comes from many sources, natural and supernatural. The aim of my work is to speak to the space between imagination and reality, my hope is to leave you to float off in that liminal space into someplace entirely new.
About Going Home
Whether it is your hometown or someplace otherwordly, finding a place of familiarity and comfort in your surroundings represents the journey that all of us are going on. Going Home.
This wine, with artwork by Ojai based artist Daren Thomas Mage, represents our journey of finding a sense of home even in the unknown. With an invigorated drive to double-down on the innovative winemaking techniques that our cellar team has become known for, we set out to create something that's probably never been seen before – an unfined, unfiltered native-yeast carbonic white wine.
Sounds like something from another planet, right? Check it. Carbonic Maceration is a process in which we place grape clusters in a covered tank and pump in carbon dioxide, which removes oxygen. Slowly, the grapes release an enzyme that converts the grape sugar into alcohol, bursting the berries without adding additional yeast. This process, combined with gravity, macerates the grapes into juice before we move them to a traditional press. Native yeasts from the grape skins start the fermentation process, which is a technique used in many natural wines.
But that's not what makes this wine so cool – carbonic maceration is a technique most often seen on red wines, not white wines. Due to volatile phenols linked to aromatics, it is quite difficult to successfully create a white wine using carbonic maceration. That's probably why nobody does it. Well, except for us.
It all started when we found this crazy white grape, originally from the southwest of France, called Petit Manseng. This grape has incredibly high natural acidity and tiny berries, and since carbonic maceration lowers acidity we figured it would be the perfect guinea pig for this treatment.
We were psyched when we pressed this experiment and realized the incredible tropical fruit purity that the wine had. After spending 5 months in neutral French Oak barrels sur lees, we bottled this masterpiece unfined and unfiltered, preserving every last drop of beauty in the barrel. It smells like a tropical paradise with notes of pineapple, blood orange rind, and toasted nuts. The palate is ripe and juicy with a broad mouthfeel that carries the fruit flavors of guava, lychee and honeydew over to the crisp yet textured finish.
$35 per bottle | 360 cases made
Apr 17, 2020 at 11:52 AM
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What's new in April.
That's our motto here at Tank, and when times are tough we gotta remember that we're all in this thing together. We have been beyond grateful for the outpouring of support we've seen for the Garage during these unprecedented times. Every time we see another order come in, another shoutout on Instagram, or a message in our inbox, our hearts grow an extra size. We can't wait for the day that we can open our doors and welcome all of your smiling faces back into the Garage. In the meantime, if you would like to help support our team, the best thing you can do is order our wines online. From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU. We wouldn't be where we are today without people like you. So stay safe, be well, and never dream alone. 
The next MADE Club release is here. Going Home I Love You, California Thundercloud 
Don't forget, orders of 12+ bottles ship for just $1 all day, every day. |
With bottling on the horizon in June and July, we are in the maintenance phase of the winemaking process. That means that we are busy doing a lot of rack and returns. This process moves wine from the barrel to tank and back from the tank to the barrel, with a primary goal of removing excess sediment and introducing more oxygen into the wines. Oxygen helps freshen up reductive qualities as well as smooth out tannin structure, so it's a very important step for our Bordeaux varietals as well as more tannic grapes like Petite Sirah and Tempranillo. There are two tools that we use to complete the racking process – a bulldog or a pump. A bulldog displaces the wine using inert gas to pressurize the barrel, while a pump is a more aggressive type of movement that introduces more oxygen into the wine. We sample each barrel before racking to determine which tool is best for the job. The other important step of the racking process is barrel maintenance. While the wine is being held in the tank, we clean each barrel and rinse with Ozone, which kills any organisms in the barrel and ensures that the vessel is in tip-top condition for the rest of the aging process. After one day in the tank, the wine is placed back into the barrel and left to age. 
What Tank Garage Wine Are You Obsessed With? Favorite Varietal? What's Your Dream? Favorite Band? Favorite Local Restaurant? Top 3 Songs To Listen to Right Now What Are You Doing When You're Not At The Garage? |
Apr 10, 2020 at 12:46 PM
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Meet Our Winemaker
Bertus van Zyl
The man, the myth, the legend. If you didn't already know, we have the coolest cat in town runnin' our winemaking. This dude cranks out some of the best juice in the Valley and his relentless dedication to his trade continues to inspire us year in and year out. Bertus is truly one-of-a-kind, maintaining relationships with the best growers across California and gaining access to the coolest grapes we didn't even know existed. His blends are a work of art and each year we look forward to tasting his insanely-addictive cool California wines.
Bertus grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. Both of his parents loved wine tasting and he remembers running around vineyards and wineries from the time he was quite young. He attended a boarding school in Stellenbosch (a.k.a. South African wine country) and it was there that he took his very first wine appreciation course at the age of 14. He went on to study Viticulture and Enology at the University of Stellenbosch before taking the adventurous leap to the Napa Valley.
When he's not spending time tending to our barrels and blends in the cellar, he's on the road to one of the many vineyards we source from. Bertus has spent years tracking down the growers dedicated to maintaining the old vines, the underdogs and the lesser-known varietals across California. His search knows no bounds – we're pickin' clusters from Mendocino down to Santa Barbara, up to the Sierra Foothills and all the way out to the Sonoma Coast.
There's not much we can really say about Bertus that hasn't been said before. He's hands down one of the coolest people we've ever met and we can't wait to see what he's got in store for us next.
Feb 25, 2020 at 8:32 AM
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Garage Happenings in January
2019 was an incredible year for us at Tank, and we can't wait to see what 2020 will bring. From the fun times at our Garage Sales to releasing our first vinyl record, every day was an adventure. We feel so fortunate to get to spend time hangin' out with people like you. This next year, we promise to keep pushing boundaries, keep releasing cool California wines, and spreading those good vibes. We hope to see you around the Garage soon!
Peace Out, -The Crew From Tank 
I SAY LA LALA LA LA2018 Napa Valley Red Wine
Winter in the Valley – it's one of our favorite times of year. Don't let the gloomy weather fool you, January is the perfect month for a trip up to good 'ol Calistoga. This quiet time of year means less crowds and more space up at the Garage making for a chill hang with our rad staff members and cool California wines. Speaking of, we've released some killer new blends in the last few months. You're gonna wanna give them a try. See you cool cats soon.
Book a Tasting 
After wrapping up one of the craziest Harvest seasons on record, Bertus and his team are as busy as ever. We’re officially pressed off of all of our lots, and the wines will finish their fermentation and aging process nestled in French and American Oak barrels. After the wines have finished aging in barrels, we'll go through blending trials to determine exactly what will end up in the bottle(s) sitting on your table.
Speaking of which, just before the winter holidays, we finalized some of the latest Tank blends and put them into bottle. Get ready, because these new wines are some of the best that we’ve made. MADE Wine Club Members will be the first to try the wines when they are released early next month! 
Curstin, Tasting Room Manager
What Tank Garage Wine Are You Obsessed With? Alto Basso Favorite Varietal? Grenache What's Your Dream? To own a '57 Corvette convertible Favorite Band? Sweet Spirit Favorite Local Restaurant? Palisades Saloon in Napa Top 3 Songs To Listen To Right Now "The Power" - Sweet Spirit "Bored & Razed" - The Raconteurs "Cold Hard B!tch" -Jet What Are You Doing When You're Not At The Garage? Hitting up a concert with the boyfriend. 🤘 
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Jan 27, 2020 at 3:03 PM
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There's no day like Garage Sale day.
THERE'S NO DAY LIKE GARAGE SALE DAY
A few times a year, we get to bust our doors open for one day filled with pinball, rad wines, and even cooler people. This past Sunday marked our last Garage Sale of the year, and damn, did we have a good time. 80º and sunny, it was the cherry on top of our crazy-fun harvest season. Along with our favorite friends over at Pinball Pirate, we had our homies from Das Bus with their vintage VW Photobooth to capturing the festivities and Platinito Pupusas slingin' the foods (p.s. the pupusas were f*&king BOMB).
Naturally, shenanigans ensued:
This is what happens when you cram the team in a photo booth.
Gibran and Jett always keepin' things chill behind the bar. 😎
Hannah sharin' all the good vibes and soakin' up that sunshine.
Austin grabbin' that new high score.
Until next year, homies.
Nov 22, 2019 at 10:00 AM
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