But, looking at the bottle, there isnt exactly a lot of information about where this is from and what is in it. While it is true the back of the bottle actually has a map showing where it is from and I can make my way through the excellent a href=http://kermitlynch.com/Kermit Lynch Wine Merchent website/a (http://kermitlynch.com/) to find info about what is in this wine. But the fact is, not only does that require me to actually put aside the wine, go to my computer (KLWM website built on flash so It doesnt work on an iPhone or iPad) and remember what I am looking for, but the KLWM site doesnt actually tell you what is in this wine. It does tell you some great trivia about the family making the wine but I still want to know what is in this wine!

So, I go to the Italian website. And, low and behold, the wine is made from Corvino. According to Wikipedia, Corvino is also Corvina and used in Italy to produce a light to medium body wine with light crimson color.

OK, so I think this is great and I am glad to know this info. But, I gotta ask, if KLWM can make its own label and but its logo on the back of the bottle, why not the KLWM webiste URL and a QR Code I can use with my phone to go directly to a page about the wine? After all, if I had been anywhere but at home, Igettig this info would have been almost impossible since I would not have remembered to do all of this research later.

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BBQ - August 30 2009

Although you can buy exotic or seasonal fruits on nearly any giving day of the year, this is does not necessarily mean you should go out and buy or use them every day. Similarly, just because it is possible to use passion fruit in marinades or BBQ sauce, doesn’t mean you should.

The other day, I made a batch of BBQ sauce for grilling some ribs, steak and chicken. Although the ingredients sound simple, like baking soda and vinegar, their combination results in a great surprise.

Here is a rough recipe:

2 – 3 cps chicken stock

2 – 3 cps old vine Zinfandel

I large can – crushed tomato

1 large or equivalent onion chopped very fine

1 head garlic – approximately

4 + tablespoons sugar

3 – 4 tablespoons cider vinegar

cinnamon to taste

cayenne powder to taste

paprika to taste

salt to taste

4 tablespoons buckwheat honey*

A very important point about making this or other similar sauces:

• Reduce the sauce SLOWLY. Using a high boil – when large bubbles constantly and frequently burst at the surface – may result in the sauce’s sugars burning before the sauce reduces to a correct consistency.

*The buckwheat honey, from Virginia Pure Beeswax, is a recent find at the Columbia Pike Farmer’s Market. It has a wonderful dark, nearly chocolate color and a rich smooth dark caramel flavor, making it a superb substitute for molasses.

Like molasses, the buckwheat honey added a touch of dark caramel flavor to the sauce as well as gave it a big boost in the “sticky” factor.  At the same time,  unlike molasses, the buckwheat honey’s subtle flower flavors are just strong enough to bring out some surprising flavors to the sauce.

Don’t you agree it is a wonderful day in the neighborhood? Well at least it was a wonderful day in the neighborhood.  With fall finally showing some gusto over the last few days, Wife, Dog, and I took a trip out to the Northern Neck area of Virginia.

We ended up camping at the Westmoreland Virginia State Park campsite.  It is very beautiful there and definitely worth checking out, especially now while the days still offer some warmth and the crowds are not around.  If you have time, make sure to hunt for fossils on Fossil Beach, look for Osprey and Eagles from the cliffs near the visitor center, and then remark on the ironic fact that George Washington and Robert E. Lee were born and raised approximately 10 miles from each other.

More to the point of this blog, we toured around the area on Sunday and ended up stopping at the Ingleside Winery as well as the Westmoreland Berry Farm.  Two very special but very different places.

Pulling into the Ingleside winery was a very pleasant surprise.  After a very short but picturesque cruz down the gravel driveway along vines flirting with fall colors on the leaves, a turn into the parking area reveals a happy but simple entrance marked by old oak foudres and an ivy covered silo.

Deciding to leave Dog in the car, we parked in the shade with the windows rolled down and water in his dish. Walking through the entrance revealed a pleasant outdoor seating area with a bubbly fountain in the middle and tables with umbrellas and fall leaf garland wrapped around each post.

After a quick sugar snack of delicious shortbread cookie and coffee cake, the pre-wine tasting snack of champions, we stepped back into the winery tasting room and shop, after all we were there for the wine as well as the atmosphere.

Wife choose the regular tasting for $3 and I chose the full, $10. Both tastings came with a complementary glass form the winery. The full allowed me to taste the regular, and the reserve wines while Wife was limited to regular wines only.

As it turned out, Wife didn’t seem to enjoy the few sips of reserve wines she mooched from me.  Although I thought the reserve reds were good and very food friendly, she wasn’t all that impressed.  We both agreed the merlot was a little of a let down compared to Merlots from Western Virginia we sampled recently and the Syrah seemed to be a mutual favorite. I also thought the Petit Verdot was another good food wine, seeing how I could easily pour it with smoked ham or turkey, roast pork or beef, and winter vegetables roasted and served with a sweet and tangy mustard.

With our mutual dislike for heavily oaked Chardonnay, we both were surprised and happy with their Chesapeake Chardonnay.  It was light with acids, having just enough to not be too sweat, and just enough mineral to go with and not against oysters, heavy cream or blue cheese, tangy asian chicken, summer melon wrapped in prosciutto, or even roasted figs with pancetta. At the same time, by avoiding the curse of oak barrel aging, oak is good for some wines but not and especially Chardonnays, the Chesapeake Chardonnay doesn’t offer the same woody and thick taste as many of its counterparts, including Ingleside’s Reserve Chardonnay.

All in all I had a great time and was pleasantly pleased with the wines.  I greatly look forward to going back and trying their wines as well as the many wines offered by the wineries of the Northern Neck sometime very soon.

As a kid, my friends and our parents would head out to Sauvie’s Island to pick berries in the summer, pumpkins in the fall, pet goats and hold freshly hatched chicks in the spring. Watching kids climb aboard a hay ride, bounce and bumble down the lane past the plank climbing goats, and descend upon the pumpkin patch as if searching for a leprechaun’s pot of gold brought back many of those gilded memories. Feasting upon a very good pulled pork barbeque sandwich, baked beans, coleslaw, and a truly glutinous and yet gleefully great strawberry combo (strawberry shortcake with ice cream and whipped cream) created new gilded memories and very full tummies. Originally I would have said one combo was enough to last a long while. But, after using some of their blackberry preserves on freshly baked cornbread at breakfast this morning, I am now wondering if they serve a blackberry combo and if it would taste better with the air just a little cooler.

All in all, I have to say that I am grateful to have ventured out to the Northern Neck area of Virginia and look forward to venturing out there again soon.