Time for Herbs & Wine :~)

I finally found the last of the herbs I was looking for, Stevia! It is the sugar substitute plant that is sweet and the perfect partner to Chocolate Mint. I have planted and re-planted dozens of herbs in order to offer just the right pairing with wine.

Most people think that red meat should pair with red wine and white meat with white wine, but in fact it is the herb/spice in the sauce that makes the pairing most critical.

As the warm days are upon us and we start grillin' out more, preparing summer salads and rethink the wine we are drinkin'. We'll move away from the heavy reds and lean towards the light, crisp chilled whites so what do we pair with these new wines??

I recently snipped some of my Pineapple Mint and paired it with our new Traminette...very nice! Then I got some Hot & Spicy Oregano...what wine should I pair with this?? What about Basil, Tarragon, Day Lilies?? Only time will tell and hopefully you can come out on a Sunday to Corcoran Vineyards and experience how we change your palate, one herb & one wine at a time.

Cheers!

Easter Pairings!

Where did March go?? Here we are at Easter time and I never did a blog for March...yikes!

As we prepare for an Easter feast with family and friends, we bring out the ham. What wine pairs with ham?? That is one of the hardest foods to pair with wine because it is usually salty, with or without honey glaze and maybe even smoked, but all with salt. Ok...lets think of who is actually writing this blog :) My favorite is always bubbles and you know sparkling wine pairs wonderfully with ham. But in case you don't care for that...a dry Rose' is always nice.

Are you doing an Easter brunch with all the fixin's...pancakes, eggs & bacon... more salt but also more complex with both sweet & salty. Again, my go to wine is sparkling because it does truly pair with salty foods, but a Rose' will be nice as well as a light white wine with no oak and more fruit.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter.

Cheers!!

Girl Scout Cookie Time...

Well...what can I say...just received my shipment of Girl Scout cookies and the first thing I thought of was, lets pair them with wine?!

Samoa was first up and was quite delicious with the Corcoran Malbec, the chocolate and carmel with the crisp cookie middle...yummy!! Our Malbec is very light in comparison to the Argentinean Malbecs, who has a much longer grower season then us, here in Virginia. So that means lots of spice, some acid and a bit of fruit for us.

Next up was the Tag-a-long, milk chocolate covered cookies with creamy peanut butter in the middle (ok...yummy on its own)...what wine shall I choose?? I pulled the Corcoran Chambourcin because of it doesn't have a lot of tannins and is quite light in taste...it did quite well paired with this chocolate covered, peanut butter cookie, I must say!

Last of the evening, but most certainly not least, was the Thin Mint....what to have with a dark chocolate covered chocolate flavored mint cookie??? Ok...I opened the Hunters Run Red, another light red with a Cabernet Franc base blended with Barbera and Tannat. I was thinking that because of the light tannins it would pair good with the chocolate, but the mint does take over here and found it hard to taste all the complexities of the wine with so much other flavors from the cookie...after one cookie and a nice size glass of wine, it paired well...which makes it nice so that I don't eat too many cookies :)

Cheers!!