Greg Ehrlich Introductory Blog Post
My name is Greg Ehrlich and I play organ for soul singer Allen Stone. This fall our band had the pleasure of playing the Beaverstock Festival at Castoro Cellars. It was there that we were introduced to this winery with a beautiful property in Paso Robles, an amazing little festival we had never heard of and a special family we could immediately tell was passionate about their product and their community. Over the next few months I’ll be guest-posting periodically on the Castoro Cellars blog about experiences I’ve had with food and Castoro Cellars wines. But first a little backstory about how I came to meet Castoro Cellars and how all this came to be.
Rolling in to Beaverstock I had no idea what to expect. Our band travels around 300 days a year and we’ve played shows on six continents. Not trying to brag as much as make the point that we’ve been to a lot of places and played a lot of unique events. It was immediately apparent Beaverstock was different than the rest. When we arrived, it was piping hot out but massive oak trees provided gentle shade over the stage and grounds. People were casually wandering, sipping wine, eating food. My type of environment. Little art installations were dotted over the grounds…it was like a scaled down version of a big budget festival like Bonnaroo, but with a helluva lot more heart and soul. Our band drank wine all day, got a tour of some of the vineyards, played a little Frisbee…not a bad way to spend a day on the job. We watched the Band of Heathens play on the main stage as the sun set, and tea lights that had been strung through a massive oak tree lit up providing a warm glow as the music continued. It was a fantastic night. Our band had an absolute blast performing and it was the perfect way to start our fall tour. We hope to be back!
Apart from being the organ player for Allen, I’m also a diehard food lover and enthusiastic chef. I’ve been cooking since childhood, and have always had a love for how food (and as I got older wine) brought people together. On tour when I’m not on stage playing organ for Allen, often I can be found backstage cooking for our band with my TasteCase, a portable kitchen I built and take all over with us. Over the course of our most recent fall tour, I made approximately 30 dishes, everything from pan-seared salmon with grapefruit beurre blanc to blackberry cobbler. Over wine at Beaverstock I was telling Luke from Castoro about my experiences. We concocted a little idea that I would do some experimenting to see how Castoro wines interacted with some of the dishes I was creating, blogging along the way. I’ll take any excuse to open up a nice bottle of wine so I was game.
I’ll be authoring several posts over the next few months focusing on recipes I am working on, new and old. I was lucky enough to snag some bottles of Castoro to take home after tour, and I’m really excited to see how these wines interact with dishes I’m working on. I’ll be posting recipes, tips, and pairing ideas for some of your favorite Castoro wines. I’d love to hear from you during the process. Let me know if you give one of my recipes a go, or share with me one of your favorites. You can email me at greg.ehrlich@gmail.com or follow me on Instagram at @88keyslayer.
Let’s cook together.
Cheers,
Greg
