Purple Cow Vineyards

Holy Purple Cows, it's Mrs. Oregon!?!

What a glorious treat. We're looking forward to many more joint marketing opportunities with 2007 Mrs. Oregon, Cindi Luther.

How about a Reserve Tempranillo Release Party?

Galo and I have been talking about August 4th.  It's a hot time so it would definitely be outdoors.  One day only.  Invitations sent to our existing customers only and attendence would be limited.  Might pencil in your calendars if your summer weekends are filling up.

Update: Tasting Room Hours

Guaranteed to find us open noon-5pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Origin of the vineyard name

One of the most common questions asked of me when talking about Purple Cow Vineyards is, "how did you get your name?" At risk of eliminating some easy conversation topics, I thought I would post the story here.

My youngest daughter, Sophie, was 18 months old at the time. She was playing with a plastic purple cow in the bathtub. It was obvious to everyone in earshot that she knew cows weren't supposed to be purple when she started shouting, "It's a PUR-KLE COWww!" It wasn't a flash of light for me, but it was a memory that stuck. Later I went on line to search for other wine businesses by that name, no problem. One thing came back that made an impression on me. There is a book, a marketing book, by a gentleman named Seth Godin. It turns out this book makes a case for the approach our business had been taking intuitively. I viewed that as a sign that this was meant to be our name.

I later discovered that there are lots of businesses with Purple Cow in their name. Over 100 are registered in Oregon alone (although most have likely ceased to operate). It seems to be a generalized cult of non-conformity that I'm happy to join.

Purple Cow Cuban Style Roast Pork

This is my Mom's recipe for Cuban Style roast pork, which over time I have tweaked to take advantange of more modern seasonings. The secret here is the long (36 hours preferred) marinade time, so you cant rush it!

Ingredients:

• One third cup orange juice
• One sixth cup lime or lemon juice
• One sixth cup olive oil
• One fourth cup vinegar
• 8 cloves garlic, minced/chopped fine
• One teaspoon salt
• Worcestershire sauce
• Two teaspoons basil
• One teaspoon black pepper
• Oregano to sprinkle over pork
• Cumin to sprinkle over pork
• One quarter chopped onion
• One 10 lb pork shoulder with rind -do not cut this off!

Marinade:

• Bring together all the liquids (orange and lemon/lime juice, vinegar and olive oil) in a small saucepan.
• Add one half of the chopped garlic, pepper, salt, basil and all the chopped onion.
• Add Worcestershire sauce until the sauce becomes a light brown -almost hazel- color. Usually, three/four tablespoons does it.
• Bring the marinade to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes until the onions are soft.
• Set aside and let cool
• Unwrap the pork and rinse quickly under running cold water
• Place port with fat (rind) side up and with a good knife, make 1.5" wide cuts in the rind (top only) until you just get to the meat underneath. Do not cut further into the meat.
• Place the pork in a strong plastic bag (I use two plastic cooking bags) and pour the marinade over it. Seal the bags well and place in the fridge for 36 hours, turning every four to six hours so the marinade can work its magic.

Cooking:

• Remove pork from marinade bag. Dispose of all the marinade except for one-quarter cup
• Place the pork in the roasting pan.
• Take the other half of the chopped garlic you did not use in the marinade and rub it all over the pork into every nook and crannies you can find,  including the cuts you made in the pork rind.
• Liberally sprinkle Oregano and Cumin over the pork, including rind and exposed meat areas.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Yes, I know most pork recipes call for 350 but that is too hot for our Cuban style pork.....350 will burn the rind....
• When oven in ready, place pork in oven uncovered. Plan on 45 minutes roasting time per pound.
• Halfway through the roasting time, pour the unused, reserved marinade over the pork and re-season with a sprinkle of Cumin and Oregano.

If you want to get really 'native Cuban', serve this pork with white rice and black beans -but that's another recipe altogether!

Purple Cow Tempranillo is the wine of choice for this robust, hearty, flavorful meat.

Thanks for your visit, enjoy and come back soon!

Jose I 'Galo' Galíndez
Purple Cow Vineyards

Tasting Room Hours and Location

We want to get the word out to our loyal customers.  There are some changes going on in our business plan that may result in Purple Cow establishing it's own permanent tasting room. Most likely the hours would be limited to Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  We'll post updates as soon as we know them.  In the meantime, if you plan to visit the Apolloni tasting room, please feel free to stop by our place.  It's only 200 yards further.  Even if we don't have signs up, we're always happy to pour some wine for you.