Sunday, March 3, 2013
Special Supplement to The Daily Nonpareil
WINE GUIDE
2F Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Daily Nonpareil
Western Iowa Wine Trail promotes members, Iowa wine
T
ravel one of the great two-lane highways in southwest Iowa long enough and you’ll likely hit a stop on the Western Iowa Wine Trail.
MIKE BROWNLEE
MBROWNLEE@NONPAREILONLINE.COM
Founded in 2005 with three wineries, today the trail has six members that work together to support a common cause: Wine. Rick Foster, the president of the wine trail, also noted that members operate under a guiding philosophy. "We all make wine with northern-climate grapes. We don’t import warm-weather grapes. We realize if you want California wines you can stop by Hy-Vee. And that’s fine," he said. "But we abide by the principal of making local wines. We’re allIowa, we produce our own grapes. We really stress that." Foster owns King’s Crossing Vineyard and Winery near Glenwood with his wife, Karen. The other members of the trail are Sugar Clay Winery and Vineyard in Thurman, Loess Hills Vineyard and Winery in Crescent, Prairie Crossing Vineyard and Winery in Treynor, Breezy Hills Vineyard in Minden and Danish Countryside Vines and Wines in Exira. "We’re all pretty good friends – we know each other well," Foster said. "We work together." The members get together monthly to try out wines and offer tips. "If you’re by yourself, not talking to others, you might make wine you like but others don’t," Foster said. "If you’re having issues, you can talk to another winemaker – ‘I’m having issues, what can I do to correct this?’
"A while back I had a few wines, I didn’t know what was wrong with them. I took the wine to the others, they gave me their opinion, I was able to correct the situation and make a better wine." Along with winemaking collaboration, the members pool their resources for advertising and in purchasing items in bulk that would be m o r e expensive in l e s s e r quantities. Darrell Morse, who owns Breezy Hills with his wife, Roberta, represents the trail on the Iowa Grape G r o w e r s Association, k e e p i n g members informed on happenings at the state level. And, of course, the members are always out there promoting Iowa wine. "In order to create an Iowa wine culture, make Iowa a wine destination for people, we need to partner with other wineries in the area, work together," said Julianna Hrasky, who owns Prairie Crossing with her husband, Andy. The most exciting aspect of the partnership is the four annual wine trail events. First a Mardi Gras celebration in February, then an April "Around
“
the World Event," which pairs member wines with cuisine from across the globe. There’s a holiday celebration in November, but the most popular is July’s "Grilling with Iowa Wines" event. "It’s a fun time for people to experience all the wineries in one day or one weekend," said Amy Faust, who owns Sugar Clay with her husband, Frank. "The event gives a chance for people to see how each location is unique and different, but all work together." Of the successful February event and the upcoming April event, Darrell Morse said, "People come out because it’s time to break the cabin fever." Any excuse to get outside is worthwhile. "A tour is a great experience to get out and see the southwest Iowa countryside, see the Loess Hills," Morse added. Anywhere from 100 to 500 people stop by the events, making a day or weekend of it. Rick Foster and Julianna Hrasky both noted the events help draw people from the Omaha and Des Moines metro area to the wineries. "It’s not as big a draw for just one winery," Foster said.
We have a lot of great wineries," Andy Hrasky said. "We’re making a comeback.
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"Someone’s not going to drive an hour out of Omaha and visit a winery for a half hour. But with multiple wineries, they might spend a half day, a day or a weekend visiting each. They’ll come around when we have an event; and when we get them out here, they try the products and we hope to convert them to local wines." The six t r a i l members are part of a boon in Iowa winemaking that has taken shape in recent years, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. There are more than 65 licensed wineries in the state today – up from 11 in 1999 – which produce more than 230,000 gallons of vino, with an annual market value of $12.3 million. The Western Iowa Wine trail is one of five scattered across the state. Additionally, there are more than 350 c o m m e r c i a l vineyards in state, up from 200 in
2004. A study of 2008 numbers – the most recent year with available data – showed that the vineyard and winery industry had an estimated economic impact of $234 million, according to the Iowa Wine G r o w e r s Association. T h e resurgence of wine is a blast from Iowa’s past. Grapes were grown as early as 1857 with vineyards in the Council Bluffs area. Iowa ranked eleventh in g r a p e production in the United States in 1899, then sixth in 1919 with more than 12 million pounds, according to the agriculture department. Iowa grape production peaked in 1929 with a yield of 15.8 million pounds. An industry born in the 19th century is one whose rebirth in the 21st will continue to make an impact on the state, and southwest Iowa in particular, for years to come. "We have a lot of great wineries," Andy Hrasky said. "We’re making a comeback."
WINE GUIDE
The Daily Nonpareil
Sunday, March 3, 2013 3F
The Perfect Match
OPEN NEW EXPERIENCES BY PAIRING WINE WITH FOOD
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Few things go together as beautifully as fine wine and delicate cuisine.
Get the match right, and the food and drink will complement each other perfectly, bringing out the subtle flavors of every single bite and sip. A good pairing will make the flavors dance on your tongue. Get it wrong, and unpleasant flavors and overtones will collide to ruin the meal. While there are some basic rules of thumb that many people follow — red wine with lamb and beef, white wine with fish and chicken, and a sweet wine with dessert — these should be thought of more as general guidelines rather than hard-andfast rules. A good pairing is a matter of personal taste that can vary with the subtle nuances of the wine and the dish itself.
GET ADVICE The best place to start is a restaurant with a sommelier, a professional wine expert who knows all about wines and how they interact with food. Fine restaurants will have someone on staff to help you make the
pairings. That’s their whole job, after all. Other restaurants may have highly experienced waiters or managers who know what their customers prefer — or can make their own recommendations based on their experience with various menu items. The bottom line is that, especially for beginning wine drinkers, you need to get some input from people who know what they’re talking about. That can help you avoid making big, potentially embarrassing mistakes at important meals.
TRUST YOUR INSTINCT Once you get some experience with pairings that you like, you’ll probably have a gut feeling about which wines will work best with each course. Listen to that feeling because, when it’s informed by personal experience, it’s usually right. It’s important to experiment by trying different wines with different types of food. If you try
a spectacular white wine with spicy chicken, for example, the seasoning in the food might ruin the drink. Pair it with a different, more mild chicken dish, and you may get a much better experience.
older vintage of wine, you should plan for the food to be milder, lighter and simpler to let the complex taste of the wine shine through. Whatever is on your plate, the wine pairing has the potential to either make it sublime or completely wreck the flavor. Finding a good match comes from a mix of trial and error, personal preference and solid advice.
LET IT SHINE Finally, it’s important to let the centerpiece of your meal stand out. If you’re trying to show off the complex or subtle combinations of flavors in your entree, a mild, softer wine will let it stand out. Likewise, if you’re serving an exceptionally fine,
Loess Hills Wines
Three brand new wines will be released in the next few months!
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Stop in and wine with us!
LOESS HILLS VINEYARD & Winery
Upcoming Events
Live Music Events
Around the World on the Western Iowa Wine Trail
start May 4th with
April 27th & 28th
The Honeyboy Turner Band More events will follow & are updated on our website!
1120 Old Lincoln Highway Crescent, IA 712-545-3054
C h e c k o u t o u r we b s i t e : w w w. l o e s s h i l l s v i n e y a r d a n d w i n e r y. c o m
WINE GUIDE
4F Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Daily Nonpareil
Make it Sparkle
W Oops – since 2006, if it’s not from Champagne, France, you can’t label your sparkling wine as "champagne". On the other hand, Breezy Hills Vineyard of Minden is producing sparkling wine using the same method that the French have used to make champagne for centuries – méthode traditionnelle also known as méthode champenoise. Breezy Hills Vineyard is a small family-owned winery that’s been made award winning still wines for eight years. Owners Darrell and Roberta Morse, along with their son Andy, became interested in making sparkling wine when the Iowa Grape and Wine Institute hosted a sparkling wine symposium. "There’s lots of ways to make bubbly" says Darrell, "some are easy and some aren’t." The Morses prefer the old school way of making sparkling wine - méthode traditionnelle, which is incredibly intensive. So what’s so different about the traditional method? Some have described it as the most hands-on, old fashioned, back
estern Iowa’s First Traditional Champagne
breaking way there is to make sparkling wine. But you can taste the difference. Darrell explains that their sparkling wine is basically wine made twice. First, you have to make a still wine and then you take that finished wine and start all over again to make it a sparkling wine. The filled and capped bottles are placed on their side in boxes. The boxes are turned to the opposite side to stir the yeast and promote the ongoing fermentation process. The French term for rotation of the bottles is called "riddling". The final riddling step is turning the boxes upside down to allow the yeast sediment to settle into the neck of the bottle. Once the settling is complete, the bubbly concoction is chilled to lessen the pressure inside the bottle. Keeping them upside down, each bottle is placed in a brine solution of ice and rock salt to freeze the first inch or so of the bottle neck. Champagne corks are considerably larger than still
nk it’s i h t u o y t ’ Don to get e m i t t u o b a . away and..
wine corks, and require a special corker to compress and drive them into the bottle. Unlike wine corks, they are only driven in half way and secured with a wire hood to keep them in place. In an effort to educate wine enthusiasts about the traditional method of producing sparkling wine in Iowa, Breezy Hills Vineyard has posted two short videos to their Facebook page, one focusing on steps of tirage and the another one showing the neck freezing process, dosage, and closure procedure. The 2011 vintage sparkling rosé produced by Breezy Hills Vineyard was released in the summer of 2012 and earned silver and bronze medals in domestic and international wine competitions. The 2011 rosé (pronounced row-zay) was produced from Frontenac grapes that were immediately pressed at picking time to preserve the pretty pink color of the wine. The winery’s 2012 vintage will feature two sparkling wines, a sparkling rosé (pink) and a sparkling cuvée (white). Cuvée is a term referring
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VINO!
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to a blend of grapes, in this instance Catawba and Edelweiss. A limited number of cases are produced each year. The 2012 cuvée is being released to the public now, and the 2012 rosé is about a month or so away from
Winery Hours Tuesday thru Friday: 11am-6pm Saturday: 10am-6pm Sunday: 1pm-5pm Closed Mondays & Holidays
availability. For more information about Breezy Hills Vineyard and their selection of award winning wines call (712) 4852083 or visit the winery’s website www.breezyhills.com.
31735 Tamarack Rd Minden, IA 51553
(712) 485-2083 www.breezyhills.com
WINE GUIDE
The Daily Nonpareil
W
Sunday, March 3, 2013 5F
Why Vintage Matters ine aficionados will tell you that while the type of wine matters a great deal, the wine’s vintage can be just as important. All these variations mean wine from the exact same winery, produced by the exact same winemaker, will be better in some years than others.
But why does vintage matter? Is it just a matter of wine snobbery? If grapes are produced on the exact same land and fermented in the exact same way, why would the exact year make a difference?
KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
ANNUAL VARIATIONS The obvious answer is that weather conditions can vary dramatically from year to year, and this in turn will make a dramatic difference in how the wine tastes in your glass. The best winemakers are very skilled at keeping their wine’s flavor consistent from each harvest, but there’s only so much they can do to offset the whims of Mother Nature. Temperatures, rainfall amounts and frost dates can all play havoc with grapes, causing them to grow bigger or smaller, drier or juicier, and forcing them to be harvested earlier or later.
Vintage is one of many factors that makes buying a wine such an adventure. If you know which years produced the best
wine in a particular region, you can seek out that one special vintage. Unfortunately, you usually won’t be the only person who wants it. Depending on the exact wine, one particular vintage can sometimes be in high demand, which drives up the price when the supply is scarce. It can also be a personal choice. If there’s one particular wine that you love, make sure
Andy and Julianna Hrasky, Prairie Crossing
31506 Pioneer Trail Treynor, IA
712-487-3812 prairiecrossingwine.com
you note the year on the label. With any luck, you’ll be able to hunt down the exact same vintage in the future so the new bottle will match the f lavor that you love.
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6FSunday, March 3, 2013
WINE GUIDE
The Daily Nonpareil
Tips for Serving Wine
H
ave you ever bought a supposedly spectacular, highly recommended wine that didn’t quite live up to your expectations? If so, the problem might not lie with the wine itself, but with how it was being served. How you deliver a wine matters almost as much as the variety of wine you pick. From the temperature to the glassware, the specifics of how the wine gets to your mouth can make a noticeable difference.
TEMPERATURE While you should always take steps to store your wine at the correct temperature — especially if it will be stored for a long period of time — sometimes wine has to be chilled or warmed up before serving. To chill wine, a quick and easy way is to place it in a bucket of ice and cold water. How long you leave it in the ice will depend on the type of wine. Champagne, which should be served quite cold, may take 30 minutes in the ice, compared with just five or 10 minutes for a warmer red wine. While the right temperature to serve a wine is at some level a purely personal preference, here are some general guidelines for the service temperature: Light white, rosé, sparkling: 40° to 50° F Full-bodied white, light red: 50° to 60° F Full-bodied red, port: 60° to 65° F
GLASSWARE Different types of wine are also best served in specific types of glassware.
RED WINE: Glasses for serving red wine typically have wide, deep bowls so that plenty of oxygen contacts the wine. This emphasizes the scents and helps to bring out the subtle flavors in reds. WHITE WINE: White wine glasses typically look similar to the red-wine glassware, except with smaller bowls and a smaller opening at the top. Because white wine doesn’t usually age for as many years as red, it doesn’t develop the same complexity of flavor and hence doesn’t need as much oxygen contact. CHAMPAGNE: Long, thin glasses called Champagne flutes are ideal for sparkling wines. The tall, narrow shape directs the tiny bubbles all the way up the side of the glass, extending their life and intensifying the aroma that is funneled to the top of the glass. SHERRY: Because sherry has such an intensely sweet flavor, special glasses with a smaller capacity are often used to serve it. Other dessert wines are popularly served in sherry glasses, too. Photo: elenathewise / yaymicro.com
WINE GUIDE
The Daily Nonpareil
Sunday, March 3, 2013 7F
Tips for Storage
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or many people, purchasing wine can represent a considerable investment.
If you want to make the most of your wine purchases, especially over the long term, you need to take good care of what you’re buying. Here are some things to consider.
TEMPERATURE First and foremost, wine needs a cool temperature to maintain its flavor. And different types of wine will store better at various temperature ranges. Some general guidelines: Champagne and sparkling wine: 43-47° F White blush, rosé, and dry wines: 46-57° Light red wine: 55° F Rich red wine: 59-66° F
CONSISTENCY Trying to store wine in an ordinary refrigerator presents two major problems. One, your refrigerator will store the wine at too cold a temperature for most common varieties. And two, the temperature will fluctuate wildly because you open and close the refrigerator door so often. Unless you have the funds and interest to build a full wine cellar, the next best thing is a specialized wine refrigerator. Small versions are available at retail stores for under $200, although higher capacity or better quality machines can cost considerably more.
BOTTLE POSITION How you position the wine bottle can also dramatically affect its lifespan and flavor. Corked bottles should always be placed on their sides so that the cork stays wet, which will keep it firmly sealed. You should also make sure the wine is stored in a way that keeps it undisturbed. It should be placed away from sunlight, temperature changes and any vibrations.
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Wednesday - Noon to 5:00 p.m. Thursday - 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Friday - Noon to 6:00 p.m. Saturday - Noon to 8:00 p.m. Sunday - Noon to 5:00 p.m. Closed Monday & Tuesday
21496 Chestnut Rd, Council Bluffs, IA 712-256-6770 www.phwine.com
WINE GUIDE
8F Sunday, March 3, 2013
The Daily Nonpareil
Choosing a dessert wine
A
rich, sweet wine is a great way to elevate an ordinary dessert to a work of culinary art.
Unfortunately, as well-versed in eating desserts as we Americans are, we generally don’t have as much experience in picking dessert wines as our European counterparts. That’s beginning to change, though, as more people look toward specialty wines to complement their end-of-meal sweets. Here are some basics to know.
MATCH THE FLAVOR The first rule of thumb is that the dessert wine should be slightly sweeter than the dessert itself. Otherwise, the sweetness of the dessert could emphasize any bitter tones in the wine when they’re combined on the tongue. The second rule is the wine’s intensity should match the dessert itself. For example, a light, delicate, fruity pastry could easily be overpowered by an intense red wine. You would want to pick a
very delicate, fruity white wine to match the lightness of the dessert. Likewise, the strong flavor of a dark chocolate cake would require an equally strongflavored wine to balance it out. It would be too easy for the wine’s taste to get lost in the chocolate otherwise.
EXPERIMENT If you’re new to dessert wines, the best way to decide what to serve when entertaining is to experiment ahead of time. You can pick two or three of your favorite, sweet specialty wines to start with. You may be able to find them at a nearby grocery store, but you’ll generally find a better selection of dessert wines from boutiques. Whether served in a glass to be paired with a sweet treat, or used in the dessert preparation itself, you can try out different recipes and combinations to find fun, exotic combinations. And remember, the most
Photo: shalamov / yaymicro.com
A good dessert wine will be sweeter than the dessert itself while matching the intensity of its flavors.
elegant desserts aren’t necessarily the most elaborate ones. Simple ideas like biscotti
Seafood Pairings Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc Reisling Pinot Grigio
Beef Pairings Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Burgundy
cookies served with a sweet, delicate wine, or drizzling some of your favorite vintage on top of
Poultry Pairings Chardonnay White Burgundy Pinot Grigio Sauvignon Blanc
ice cream and raspberries, can be an easy way to end a memorable meal.
Pork Pairings Sauvignon Blanc Chardonnay Reisling Pinot Grigio
Lamb Pairings Cabernet Sauvignon Red Bordeaux Dessert Pairings Port or Asti Spumanti
Council Bluffs • 1141 N. Broadway
(712)322-8778 www.Super-Saver.com