We’ve put together a “motion picture” that captures Wine & Bitch 2009! Enjoy!
A “Four-Paw” Event
April 17 and 18, Jr. Dog hosted our 1st Annual Wine and Bitch event: a dog-themed weekend featuring Mutt Lynch Winery and their dog-themed wines, Kevin Salem, the Dog Prodigy and Nicholas Sveslosky, Editor in Chief from Fido Friendly Magazine.
The weekend kicked off with a Mutt Lynch wine social meet-n-greet for the humans, and a mutt mix-n-mingle (and at times, tangle) for the dogs. What fun it was to watch our guests become fast friends, and the dogs become pooch pals!
Guests came with their favorite canines from California to Canada, and there were 21 dogs representing 15 breeds – everything from U-Turn the Min Pin to Sadie the St. Bernard!
While the pooches were being entertained at Doggie Daycare, Chef Wes carried the dog theme out in creative style with a Mutt Lynch wine paring dinner in Pomp. There were Salmon Corn Dogs, Reconstituted French Onion Soup served in a stainless steel dog bowl; and the crowd favorite….. a “hotdog” for dessert which was made up of an almond “bun” with strawberry ice cream in the shape of a hot dog that was topped with pistachio “relish” all served up on a Frisbee! Chef even prepared deluxe, gourmet “doggie bags” for the pooches which contained a bit of cheese, a pig’s ear and a bone!
Saturday many guests enjoyed a dog-themed geo-cache hike with doggie treats hidden in the caches; hayrides, and nearly all the dogs were treated to a complimentary doggie massage at the spa!
Saturday night’s entertainment featured Missoulian Vicki Lee and her dogs demonstrating BASIC agility, rally-obedience, and free style, along with Laura McArthur of Smakwater and Sprezzatura Kennels with her sporting dogs demonstrating training techniques.
Following the demonstration, the pooches (and their dog parents) all posed for photos in a western themed photo booth complete with hay bales, saddle, steer head, bandanas, ropes and cowboy hats and also shopped for new treats and goodies at the retail booth set up by our favorite local pet shop, Go Fetch!
Chef treated all to a gourmet buffet with features Paw Paw Salad, Smoked Trout Bark-ettes, Chicken Paw-piettes, BBQ Ribs, Cattle Dog Stew, Elk Steamship, Catfish, Chihuahua Mac-n-Cheese, Hound Dog Hash, Coyote Squash and Peanut Butter Crème’ Caramel.
Kevin Salem, The Dog Prodigy was a weekend highlight and guests enjoyed his feedback and pointers on everything from doggie aggression…..and depression, to hyperactivity….. and humping!
Each night at turndown the pooches enjoyed surprise turn-down treats on their Paws Up beds from MaSnax and Grandma Lucy’s.
To Cinder, Simon, Sadie, Pepper Thomas, Winston, Sage, Dory, Tasha, U-Turn, Frankie, Johnnie, Marlee, Phoebe, Hannah, Sampson, Joey and Gobie, thanks for coming to “sip, stay and play” with us and we’ll look forward to hosting you all back next year!
-Tracie Mardock
Walla Walla in Montana
We hosted our first annual Walla Walla in Montana event earlier this month and it was an amazing time. Representing the Walla Walla valley were Casey & Vicki McClellan, owners and winemaker for Seven Hills Winery. If you haven’t had an opportunity to try the wines from Seven Hills, do yourself a favor and pick some up at your favorite bottle shop. Casey makes fabulous wines that are extremely food friendly, a great value and are certainly worth seeking out. Here in western Montana we consider Walla Walla our “local” wine region and are big fans and supporters of their wines. Seven Hills was the 5th winery established in the Walla Walla valley which now boasts over 100.
Chef Coffel worked directly with Casey and the pairings for the dinner were amazing. We started with the Alaskan King Crab with a Green Apple Gelee, Compressed Celery, Cilantro Mint Butter which paired brilliantly with the 2007 Riesling, Columbia Valley, followed by a Marcona Almond Crusted Snook (my favorite course of the evening) with Toasted Cous Cous, Marcona Almond Butter, Jicama Salad paired with the 2007 Pinot Gris; Slow Roasted Goose Breast with Seared Foie Gras, Pomegranate Glaze, Chocolate, Candied Black Trumpet Mushrooms with the 2006 Merlot, Seven Hills Vineyard, Walla Walla Valley; Grilled Elk Loin with Red Currant Stuffing, Smoked Turnip, Kale, Black Pepper Demi Glace paired with Seven Hill’s flagship- 2005 Pentad Vintage Red Wine, Walla Walla Valley; Bison Prime Rib with Risotto, Midnight Moon Goat Cheese, Sautéed Ramps Crispy Fiddlehead Fern with the 2006 Ciel du Cheval Vineyard Vintage Red Wine, Red Mountain and finally, Strawberry Clafouti with White Peach, Pistachio, Fennel Syrup paired with the 1st course wine, the 2007 Riesling, Columbia Valley.
In addition to the great dinner wines, we also got the opportunity to taste Seven Hills 2008 Talcott Vineyard Viognier at the Friday night reception. It was the first time it had been tasted outside of the winery and it was a big hit.
All in all, a great weekend – we welcomed back old friends, meet new friends and all of us had a great weekend of fine wine, gourmet food, wilderness adventures, and complete relaxation – not a bad way to open the season.
-Jim Nielsen
Wine & B*itch
Our upcoming Wine & Bitch event has been featured on a couple of must-read dog blogs. Sue from PetTravel.com posted an outline of the event on their blog. Kari from mod-dog.com also posted the event details on their blog. The Wine & B*tch Weekend will take place April 17-19. Limited availability remains.
The Starting Lineup….
It is our great pleasure to announce this year’s lineup for Montana Master Chefs 2009 (10/8/09 – 10/10/09). We have an extremely strong lineup of chefs and winemakers this year and MMC ’09 promises to be the best ever. Thursday’s Dinner will be prepared by our very own Chef, Wes Coffel and will be paired with the fabulous wines of Frog’s Leap Winery. We are so excited to have the winners from the past two seasons of Bravo TV’s Top Chef, Stephanie Izard (Season 4) and this year’s winner, Hosea Rosenberg that we are featuring the two of them as co-chefs for Friday Night’s dinner. Stephanie and Hosea will work together with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars to pair their culinary creations with the famous wines of this Napa Valley institution. On Saturday night we welcome Chef Kent Rathbun, Executive Chef/Proprietor of Abacus and Jasper Restaurants in Dallas who is pairing his menu with the wines of Joseph Phelps Vineyards.
In my post titled “Proud to Announce”, I talked about Chef Rathbun and Frog’s Leap Winery so I wanted to make sure I gave our latest additions to the lineup equal time.
Joseph Phelps Vineyards has been producing some of Napa Valley’s finest wines for over 30 years. They have been innovators and pioneers in the industry since the beginning – their 1974 Insignia was the first Bordeaux-style blend produced in California under a proprietary label. Their Insignia and Backus wines continue to be some of the highest rated, most sought-after and finest wines produced. I can’t wait to try them this year.
Chef Stephanie Izard, winner of Bravo’s hit show “Top Chef” season 4 and Executive Chef/Proprietor of The Drunken Goat in Chicago will join us again this year. We really enjoyed Stephanie’s company last year. For those of you that are fans of Top Chef or saw her in action at last year’s event; you know she is a fierce competitor, a great chef and a genuinely nice person. Stephanie is the defending champion of our Top Chef Cook-Off Chall
enge and this year will be challenged by Top Chef Season 5 winner, Chef Hosea Rosenberg. Hosea is the Executive Chef of Jax Fish House in Boulder and is looking to extend his competition winning streak in 2009. We are looking forward to a great battle between these two winning chefs in Saturday’s Top Chef Cook-Off Challenge as well as seeing them work as a team preparing Friday Night’s dinner.
Pairing with Stephanie and Hosea will be Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars wines are world-renowned and history making: On May 24, 1976, a wine tasting took place in Paris that changed the world’s view of California wines forever. The French wines were First and other classified-growth red Bordeaux and white Burgundies. They were matched against California Cabernet Sauvignons and Chardonnays. The tasting was blind, with the identities of the wines concealed and the labels revealed only after the jury of nine tasters had voted its order of preference. The unthinkable happened. Warren Winiarski’s 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet was judged the best. The Cabernet had bested four top-ranked Bordeaux, including first-growths Château Mouton-Rothschild and Château Haut-Brion. The 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay from California also bested its French counterparts (for those of you keeping score, Jim Barrett from Chateau Montelena joined us for Montana Master Chefs I). It will be a pleasure to partake in some of these historic wines, whether it is the S.L.V, Fay or Cask 23, I can hardly wait for October.
We have also partnered with Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars on a live auction lot for this year’s Auction Napa Valley. Our lot is titled Big Bottles, Big Sky – The “Big Bottles, Big Sky” experience begins with a rare vertical of highly collectible CASK 23 Cabernet Sauvignon in bottles of extraordinary size and grandeur along with a five-night Big Sky adventure vacation with us here at The Resort at Paws Up. We are thrilled and excited to be a part of this wonderful charity event in the Napa Valley and to be paired with such a magnificent collection of wines from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.
Hope to see all of you at Montana Master Chefs 2009 as well as Auction Napa Valley 2009.
Cheers.
-Jim Nielsen, General Manager
“Glamping®” in Greenough
We continue to be at the center of the “Glamping” (glamorous camping) phenomena. We were recently featured on a short video by ViroPop. See below (you can move forward to 1:05 to the start of the Glamping portion of the video):
Note: we also salute Apple’s green efforts. Nice to see other companies sharing our passion for eco-friendly behavior.
Jennifer Domansky, editor at GlampingGirl.com, has written articles about both Tent City and River Camp. She did a great job capturing the essence of both of these canvas communities. Be sure to check out her website.
Natasha’s Quest
We have been following the story of Natasha Hurst, a small business owner from Canada, who is chronicling her weight-loss goal on her blog. She has set up a series of “rewards” that she gets when she reaches certain benchmarks of pounds lost. One of her “rewards” is a weekend getaway with her husband to The Resort at Paws Up. We are flattered by being chosen as the destination associated with this reward. We are 100% behind Natasha and support her in this great effort she is putting forth. We can’t wait to welcome her and her husband to The Resort soon. Go Natasha!
Check Us Out on Facebook!
First, a blog. Now, a profile on Facebook! The Resort at Paws Up is really trying to keep up with the social media phenomena. Technology has come a long way since Lewis & Clark navigated their way through our neck of the woods without Google Maps approximately 200 years ago. We are excited to connect with our many friends and members of the “Paws Up Family”. We’ll keep you posted on all of the events and happenings from Greenough, MT.
Click Here to check out our Facebook Profile!
It’s All About the People
As those of you on the West or East Coast and in the South get a taste of what winter in Montana feels like, we in the frozen northwest are now planning for the coming season. We spend an awful lot of time brainstorming on how to make those of you who vacation with us have the experience of a lifetime. What comes from these sessions is that what makes this place special: the people.
You might expect that a blog from the ‘HR guy’ would naturally be about the people, but in this case it rings true. A large portion of our guest comments are about how different our staff is, who share their way of life and provide a window into the Montana lifestyle.
Trail riding isn’t something our cowboys and cowgirls stage so guests get a western experience. Our
wranglers ride their own horses on days off. Fishing guides take you to their special spot on the river and they take you down rivers they fished as a child. They share a part of the Big Sky that keeps them here.
The pace is slower, the journey less crowded with time to think and dream and breathe. Our people understand that and don’t get in the way. What our guests say is that our staff makes them feel like they belong and they treat them like friends. I guess that’s why so many people come back and ask for staff by name. Friendships have been formed from great life experiences and isn’t that what a vacation is supposed to be. Our people hope to see you soon.
– Brad Lassiter, Director of Human Resources
Walla Walla Coming to Montana
We are really excited to be featuring wines from Casey McClellan and Seven Hills Winery for our Walla Walla in Montana event April 3rd and 4th. Seven Hills is the oldest vineyard in Walla Walla and has been a pioneer in Washington State for many years. Seven Hills Winery has a broad range of wines that should be fun to work with. Chef Coffel is looking forward to the pairings and has started to work on number of menu items tailored to Seven Hills wines. We’ve tried a nice crisp Riesling recently and a nice Red Mountain Cabernet as well. I look forward to trying Casey’s version of Viognier which has always been a favorite grape of mine.
– Kevin Kapalka, Director of Food & Beverage