Last night we had a concoction I'd picked up from Costco. They had been demo-ing it and I found it delicious. It was stuffed white meat chicken with asparagus and Havarti. The nutritional stats on it were good. It turned out to be harder to carve than I'd anticipated and TR was so stuffed by it (I'd given him about 2/3 of it) that he saved some for lunch today along with his salad.) I had no idea what wine to serve, but it seemed fancy enough to serve a wine with. So a pulled a wine made with the Niagara grape from Chaddsford Winery in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. I'd had an argument with the winemaker while there--he was saying awful lies about Obama expecting everyone to agree with him. I called him on them and he threatened not to sell me the wine. I said, "Okay" and shrugged and then he changed his tune. What, he thinks I need his wine. I wonder who these gentlemen winemakers think their clientele is. The ultra rich? Or people like us--middle class folk. Why would you be supporting people who want to destroy the middle class when most of your clientele comes from them?
The Niagara grape is a cross between the Concord and a white grape and has a very refreshing, light, sweet, Concord-y flavor. It was trying to overpower the delicate flavor of the chicken and, I think, if I get that chicken again, I'll serve it with Riesling.
We have champagne with breakfast on Sunday mornings, and this morning I chose a "Methode Champenaise Brut," Forest Cellars. The labels says it is "produced and bottled for sale in Pennsylvania only by Buckingham Valley Vineyards, Buckingham, PA". TR's stepson had pointed out this winery as a great one to visit because tastings are free. I am somewhat ambivalent about free tastings since I usually walk out spending more money and buying more wine when I've been given free tastings. If I have to pay for tastings, I'm quite likely to walk out with no wine. But, if I've been given free tastings, I will buy at least one bottle, even if I don't like it. From Buckingham, we walked out with nearly a case--they had lots of wine we liked. I'll be blogging about them this fall...all fall, I am sure.
Well, I have recently purchased a bottle of a Virginia grown wine from Horton Vineyards whose wines I have drank before. I like this vineyard because they are adventurous and have planted grapes that we rarely see in this country. The one I recently drank was a Russian grape called, Rkatsiteli, which is kind of like a Sauvignon Blanc with a little more bit.
ReplyDeleteOn our return from Philadelphia, we saw a number of wineries in Virginia that I had not noticed before. I had shot the wad by that time and we were just racing home, but we talked about the possibility of going back to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah, camping and wining... And, of course, checking out museums and doing a lot of picnicking. Now I'm even more excited about that trip than I was...I love sampling new wines from unusual grapes.
ReplyDeleteYou have more wineries in the Shenandoah Valley they you can sample in a week's time. As far as I know Horton is the only one doing out there varietals.
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