Elephant Island Stellaport is a special wine, truly unique. The wine is made from Stella Cherries grown on the winery site, with southwest facing for optimum sun exposure and ripening. Fortified, barrel aged in the Solera method, a technique used for Sherry, Madeira, Marsala, some vinegars, brandy and rum. The first barrel, from 2001, is emptied by half and the new vintage is added. This continues each year, with half the barrel being bottled and the new vintage added. No barrel is ever drained, leaving a diminishing remnant of the original vintage.
Stellaport Braised Boneless Short Ribs
50 grams chopped pancetta
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1.8 kg or 4 lbs Boneless Short Ribs, from a good producer. I use Spring Creek Ranch
2 medium finely chopped onion
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 bottle (375ml) Elephant Island Orchard Winery Stellaport
Trim the meat of excess fat, and cut into large chunks.
Choose a heavy bottom pot with a tight fitting lid.
Place on stove with 2 tablespoons olive oil at medium heat.
Chop pancetta and add to pot, stirring cook until browning.
Add beef in batches, browning well. Remove from pan.
Set aside browned beef.
Pour off any excessive fat careful that the pancetta pieces remain in pan, leaving approximately 2 tablespoons.
Add onion to pot, stirring as onion cooks to translucent.
Add celery, mixing thoroughly with onions. Put beef back into pot, turning to coat with onions, arrange pieces to fit snugly. Add approximately 3/4 of a cup of Stellaport to pot to just cover meat. Turn heat down to low and cook with lid slightly askew.
Cook for four hours at lowest heat, occasionally turning meat, and slowly adding more wine. When the meat has become fall apart tender when tested with a fork it is done. Should the liquid cook off, and you have run out of wine, add a little water, stock or light non dominate flavour wine to the pot.
Remove meat from pot, and allow to rest for ten minutes. Serve with the sauce on top of the meat.
Using top quality ingredients produces top quality dished. The Boneless Short Rib is very popular with restaurants because of how beautifully it cooks; if your butcher does not carry boneless cook with the bone in or substitute with chuck roast, it may require a little more cooking time to fall apart.
Serves 6 to 8, with leftovers.
Wine Pairing Suggestions: 
Go big rich red.
I recommend Fabiano Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 'I Fondatori' 2004. Amarone is a style of Italian wine, where the grapes are harvested then dried. Traditionally the drying occurred on straw mats, modern winemakers use special drying chambers that minimize the handling, helping to protect the grapes. The grapes shrivel during drying, resulting in concentrated sugar and flavour levels. As well the extra time affords longer skin contact with the fruit; the skin gives colour, tannins and intensity of flavour.
Fabiano picks the grapes by hand, using only the top part of the bunches for the Amarone. The grapes are dried, soft pressed, the juice is then aged for five years - 1 year in stainless followed by 4 years in oak. The wine then rests in bottle for another 3 months before being released.
60% Corvina, 35% Rondinella, 5% Molinare Grapes
Intense aromas of cherries, fig, raisin, rose and dried lavender.
The mouth is complex, rich with a luscious silky mouth-feel. Cherry, cacao, chocolate, raisin, and aged balsamic flavours with a long elegant finish. A high alcohol level, 15.5%, it does not in any way taste hot, really well balanced.
A special wine to go with a special meal. Available in BC, and Alberta
Another option when it is released in October 2011, is The Wrath from Fairview Cellars, I was fortunate to barrel sample and am looking forward to having it with Stellaport Braised Short Ribs.
To find Stellaport in Alberta, and in BC
To find Spring Creek Ranch beef in Alberta and BC
