2010 November » Welcome to the VineyardWife

For all our recipes, we melted the sugar & spices into a small amount of wine and then added the full bottle to steep covered for 10 minutes (or in crock pot for a minimum of 30 min. and upwards of 2 hours) on low heat. Keep covered & strain before serving. Since heating wine can remove alcohol content, we could even recommend saving some additional wine (or your favorite spirit, for instance, brandy) to add right before serving. Also, additional sugar & fruits, such as orange, cranberry, apple, pomegranate, raisins, etc. and even sliced almonds may be added right before serving for enhanced flavor, sweetness and festive decoration! —Jaime and Jason, Yera Dé Herbal Teas

1. Breton Bay Shoals

Semi-Sweet Red Wine

“Spiced” Mulling Blend

To pair with the already sweet notes of the Shoals, we decided to go with sharper, spicier, earthier elements to really add a new dimension to this wine. Our original recipe includes a wide array of interesting and surprisingly delicious flavors not typically paired with mulled wine, including Fennel, Peppercorn and Rosemary added to a more traditional blend of Sweet Cinnamon, Orange Peel, Ginger Root and Cane Sugar (all Organic of course!)

2. McIntosh Run

Semi-Sweet Apple Wine

“Traditional” Mulling Blend

For this already delicious apple wine, we went with a more traditional flavor palette to further accentuate that familiar comfort of mulled wine. For this recipe, we used Cloves, Orange Peel, Sweet Cinnamon, Allspice and Star Anise with Cane Sugar.

3. Captain’s Table

Dry Red

“Sweet” Mulling Blend

For the Captain’s Table Dry Red, we went with an especially sweet blend of Cinnamon, Sugar, Orange Peel and Vanilla Bean with lightly spiced additions of Cardamom, Cloves Nutmeg and Rosemary.

4. Breton Breeze

Semi-Sweet White

Any Yera De Herbal Mulling Spice Blend!

We found that any of these three Specialty Mulling Blends work well depending on the desired flavor-palette.

We mull both white and red Port of Leonardtown Wines with Yera Dé Herbal tea spices.

As the weather turns colder, Ger and I turn to Port wine in the evenings—especially after a chilly Saturday of prepping the vineyard for its long winter nap. We’ve explored the ruby port and are currently hooked upon the nutty taste of tawny ports. Every once and again, especially if friends are over, Ger breaks out his fortfied “port-style” wine for our evening sip. Sadly, Ger’s port-style wine is for home consumption only, so when I thought about how to share a winter treat with the Port of Leonardtown Winery, my thoughts turned to mulled wine.

No matter how one says “heated wine” — vin chaud, glühwein, vařené víno, grzane wino, vin fiert, izvar, vin brulé, karstvīns — the method of heating wine with spices, sweetners and often with fruit produces a delicious drink that makes me forget about Port. Would any of the Port of Leonardtown Winery Facebook friends be interested? I posed the question to our peeps and there were quite a few of the winery friends interested in tasting mulled Port of Leonardtown Wine. Even better was an interesting comment I received from Jaime at Yera Dé Herbal:

…well I def like the idea of mulling spices like cinnamon and cloves and orange peel, etc. probably into a heavy red wine. And I know I also enjoy juniper berries paired with red. And when I think of white, I think rose petals or maybe rooibos and honeybush! The possibilities are endless! I’m no wine connoisseur, but I know there’s many matches to be made between the tea leaf & the grape!

Completely intrigued at the possibilities, I made contact with Jaime, who started Yera Dé Herbal with her partner, Jason, just this past year. Yera Dé Herbal is a local St. Mary’s County, Maryland company, that’s dedicated to using only certified organic herbs and sustainable materials where ever possible. Jaime and her partner, Jason, meticulously research and blend specially chosen herbs, flowers, roots, fruits and spices in order to create organic, delicious whole leaf herbal infusion teas. We immediately decided to work together in creating a mulled wine event featuring Port of Leonardtown Wine and Yera Dé Herbal spice paks.

We met on a Saturday, at the farmhaus—me, with four Port of Leonardtown wines to try and Jaime and Jason with a myriad of delicious spice possibilities. I opened the wines and as we sniffed, swirl, and sipped, we discussed the mulling possibilities. Afterward, we started to work in the kitchen with our ingredients. The results were extremely tasty and satisfying.

Even more satisfying, for me, is the potential for local businesses with harmonious visions to come together in partnership and give to the public the opportunity to sample and purchase a delicious treat. Something relatively inexpensive to buy, create warmth and good cheer in their own home and to share with their family and friends. Our intent is to work with local businesses in creating a rising tide with the potential to lift all boats—no matter how small the tide…

…and if not all boats, then perhaps a few holiday spirits.

Enjoy! I will post the tasting descriptions in my next post.

Austria's Whites are Awesome!

I’ve been wanting to visit The Wine Kitchen since—oh, since it opened! Today, I took the rare opportunity to lunch there with my girl Mel and her new baby. It was great to catch up, play with the baby, sip great wines and eat delicious foods and our visit did not disappoint.

I arrived a little early, snagged the last available table and celebrated with a taste of Michael Shaps’ Chardonnay —you can read about Michael in Virginia’s Flavor Magazine article, written by Washington Post’s Dave McIntyre. Can you tell how geeked out I am by visiting this Virginia cultural touchstone? I’m dropping names like a Desperate Housewife of Beverly Hills. Uber geeked!

I enjoyed the Shap’s Chardonnay’s clean style—but here is the thing: there is something about some of the wines produced locally that remind me of the chalky Sweet-Tart candies, and to me, the Chard exhibited this characteristic. I hesitate to publish this statement, since I realize I’m developing my palate—but this is how I experienced this wine on this occasion. Please leave a comment if you know why I would experience that taste. Its not the first time I’ve noticed that characteristic in a local wine and its not limited to Chards. I’ve tasted that chalkiness in other whites, but not reds. I’ve conducted a few searches to see if there were other references, but none that fully satisfy why I taste what I taste.

The cool thing about The Wine Kitchen is that with each wine, they give you a beautifully composed flavor profile notecard that’s exuberantly written. The descriptions def made me smile throughout my visit. I also loved the ample taste servings, reasonably priced.

When my girl and her baby arrived, we tucked into our lunch. I paired the taste of Austria’s Awesome Whites with the “Chicken n’ Waffles” and was really happy with my choice. The three whites were a Anton Bauer Trocken Riesling; Strauss Pinot Blanc Classic; and a truly delicious Steininger Grüner Veltliner. I can’t wait to pop my Hugl Veltliner soon, I’m developing quite a taste for this white! I think it far surpasses our region’s Vios in balancing aroma and taste. Now I want to wait and purchase a Black Ankle Grüner so I can compare the two! I wonder if Ger and I can wait?

The Chicken n’ Waffle is a foodie play off of the soul food’s actual chicken n’ waffles, but with quail and cornmeal waffles served with a bacon caramel syrup, instead. My Austrian’s crisp acidity cut through the rich entree and I was def grateful for the micro green salad on the side. On the whole, really tasty and my girl and I gobbled it up with unladylike relish.

My girl had the pork cutlet with herbed spatzle, which was equally delish and very hardy. It went well with her sparkling Cava and was equally dispatched with giggles, coos to the baby and laughing about working out. The work out memories quickly disappeared with the arrival of dessert. Her chocolate dessert by far, was a highlight. I’m sure that many readers are over salted desserts, but Gentle Reader, I must confess, I am not. A lovely taste of an Italian Friuli—the name of which escapes me—followed. It was a completely white wine oriented lunch. This leaves me with the opportunity to return for a date night with Ger and concentrate on the red offerings!

I heartily recommend The Wine Kitchen for your girly lunch or a romantic interlude. There were peeps of all ages and demographics and we all blended seemlessly together in food, wine and great spirits.

Enjoy!

: Our 2010 experiment: Late Harvest Vidal

This past Saturday marks the completion of our Late Harvest Vidal experiment. While I’ve become used to missing the 2010 Harvest milestones, I always look forward to catching up with my Vineman on Sunday evenings. Here is our Late Harvest Vidal report:

Ger says that the most unnerving part of monitoring the Late Harvest Vidal was watching the grapes brown & dehydrate—many were just raisins and there were also just skins left. He calculates the Late Harvest was only 1/4 of the weight we would expect from a typical, regular Vidal harvest and what was once 1,000 pounds of Vidal grapes became 250 pounds of concentrated goodness. “The grapes were sweet, no volital acidity detectable, so it was good, but it looked ugly,” Ger relays.

Since Ger was processing our own private reds, Uncle Pete took the Late Harvest Vidal grapes down to the Port of Leonardtown Winery. Pat Isles, the winemaker, crushed the grapes, but let the grapes soak in their own juice for approximately 6 hours in effort to rehydrate them. Pat found the test juice sample was so thick, hydrometer wouldn’t move—it sat atop the juice. When Pat pushed the hydrometer down, the hydrometer would not bob back up. Pat ended up diluting the juice sample with water by half. In doing so, the diluted juice measured 19 brix—which means the undiluted juice would measure 38 brix! Usually, wine grapes peak out at 28 brix. We gained the extra 10 brix through the dehydration, which is different than icewine harvest.

We’ll keep you updated with this wine’s progression!

Mulling Your Options Over...

Raising Boats with Mulled Wine

This Lady Lunched

Late Harvest, Harvest

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