Recently our friends, and wine club members, Mike and Linda Brownlee emailed to ask us for pairing advice for our Nice Demi-Sec Sparkling Wine.   Here is what we suggested followed by a Letter and a photo from Linda that describes her experience.

“Hi Linda,

Thank you for contacting me.  We feel that the demi-sec sparkling is not too sweet to be served as an aperitif and that it is a very flexible wine to pair with a broad range of foods.  It is also a very festive way to kick off an event!  I would suggest pairing with fruits and cheeses, especially blue cheese.  A thin crostini or cracker topped with a slice of fig, a crumble of stilton or chevre, a drizzle of honey and a touch of black pepper.  Prosciutto with melon would be a simple option.  A light field greens salad that features citrus fruit, dried cranberries, toasted hazelnuts and something like a cracker or goat cheese to add savoriness.  Because it has a pretty high acid it would probably pair well with anything that has BBQ sauce on it.  Crab cakes with a spicy habanero Aioli would be a nice option as well.  The sweetness helps to counteract spicy foods.  If you want to be really fancy, it is a great pairing with foie gras and foie gras pate.  I hope this gives you enough ideas and I would love to hear what you end up deciding on and how it went!”      -Ian

So for the unititiated, the fact that we are writing about harvesting our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes in November is nothing short of extraordinary.  We have been harvesting from our three Stags Leap rows, located in the Steltzners’ vineyard, since 2007, and in the last five years we have never harvested this late (we are almost two full weeks behind even last year’s exceptionally late harvest).  But we are the lucky ones . . . our fruit looks GREAT, it is finally ripened after some magical halloween heat (80+ degree days all last week!) and no rain.  So when we brought in our grapes and started the process of hand sorting the harvest on the sorting table at Reynolds Family Winery, we were thrilled: ripe, plump, dark purple berries with rich, sweet flavor.  In short, DELICIOUS!  So what is the sorting table you ask (picture below)?  It is a vibrating conveyor belt that slowly moves the grapes from the destemming machine (where the grapes are separated from the stems and taken off the cluster) to a bin or barrel where the initial fermentation of the wine will take place.  Ian and I stand on either side of the table with other sorters (like awesome Alma (in the sunglasses in the picture next to Ian) and we pick out the bad looking grapes, any leaves, stems, and hitchhikers (little spiders). So it is a little like that scene in “I Love Lucy” at the chocolate factory, and we do eat a lot of the grapes as they come along the conveyor belt (for fun, not out of dire necessity like Lucy and Ethel).

Ok, so the volcano didn’t erupt again.  Actually it has been erupting non-stop since June 4th.  So we are the misfortunate downwind recipients of the volcanoe’s subterranean lithic flatulence (a silent and deadly ash cloud) that has blown across the Andes Mountain range and across Argentina.  Even if we could get back to B.A. by the wonderful and scenic (read sarcastic) 14-hour bus ride, our flight to IAH would probably also be cancelled.  The airport is shut down technically but, on technicality the airline booking system has not yet updated with that information.  Ryan was politely informed by the Star Alliance Priority Desk associate that their current ticket change policy did not mention anything about volcanoes and that we may incur a $250 change fee.  His response “Are you sure?  Did you look under “V” for volcano?” came out with a grin, clearly amused by his own mocking.

The good news is that after three days of tedious blending and tasting we finished creating our Nice Malbec 2009!  Success!!!  Here is Ryan, Mario and Alberto sampling the wine directly from the tank.  It all came down to getting the perfect balance of wine aged in French Oak Barrels for some of the dark chocolate flavors we like, wine aged in American Oak barrels for a touch of vanilla, and then having just the right acidity to pair well with food.  It also has the characteristic Malbec plum, red and black cherries, and lite tobacco and cedar aromas.