Summer is finally here once again and that usually means baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. It is a time of swimming pools, no school, Disney vacations, backyard Bar-b-ques, outdoor concerts and jumping through sprinklers on the front lawn — remember doing that as a kid? The Summertime draws nostalgia deep from our souls surfacing memories of family reunions where we fired up the grill and shared great food and awesome wine. As we begin to roll out the 2008 vintage to our wine club members (2006 is still available to the public for a while) of our flagship wine, The Poet, we are going against the all-American grain and suggesting you try it with blueberry pie.
Do you prefer a Fresh Prince or a Kenny Chesney kind of Summertime?
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While we lean tremendously towards grilled meats and pasta dishes on this blog, today we want to share with you a little secret we discovered quite by accident. One rule of thumb in the world of wine is that desserts or sweeter fare “should” be paired with a wine that also has some sweetness to it. In most cases the wine should be as sweet as the dish, otherwise it will overwhelm the flavors in the food. Some examples include late harvest Riesling, Moscato, Port, or ice wine just to name a few. You can find a lot of these styles of wines on the dessert lists at most of your favorite restaurants. However, The Poet is a dry, meaning all the natural sugars from the grapes have been completely consumed by the yeast during fermentation, red Bordeaux style (Meritage) wine heavy on Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) and rounded out with Cabernet Franc (15%) and Merlot (15%). The 2006 was 10% more Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is very fruit-forward and is dominated by blue and red fruits, including blueberry and cherry, and is well-balanced with enough acid to hang with just about any kind of food.
All it takes is a nice slice of blueberry pie from Trader Joe’s or, if you’re an accomplish baker, do something from scratch. (Try this recipe from Sunset Magazine.) Either way you’ll find the blueberry notes elevate and the mouthfeel become even more silky. It’s pure blue heaven. What surprising pairings have you discovered and be sure to tell us which kind of Summertime you enjoy between the videos to the right.
Happy Summer!
