The topic of today’s menu will be Chinese food, Viognier, and Pick Your Own Strawberries, Bon apetite!

My goodness, the month of May really came and went, didn’t it? We have been busy here at the winery with finalizing our new label, pouring our wine at the Vorhees Farmer’s market, pouring at the Glassboro Vintage Wine Festival last weekend, and this weekend we travel up to Natirar State Park for another fantastic weekend of festival pouring. We have also been honored with the distinct recognition of Winery of the Year 2012 for New Jersey wines. So to say the least, it’s been a busy month!

As we gear up for busy weekend, I wanted to sneak a blog in. Since my brain is going in every direction conceivable, I thought instead of combating my ‘space cadet’ brain and attempting to stream a smooth and poetic verse of wine praise, I would just give in to my legendary adult ADD and give you the top three things that have plagued my brain all week. Here it goes!

1.) What wine pairs with Chinese food?
My culinary taste ranges rather far, though even after having tasted dragon fruit, pickled herring, and 1000 year old eggs, (Not all in one sitting have you) sometimes General Zso’s really just hits the spot. In the food world it is said that “What grows together, goes together.” So a wine from the East would seem a clear choice. However maybe it’s just my American perspective, but opening a bottle of Sake to go with my Tangerine Chicken feels a tad disrespectful. I have searched the internet alone at night, with my take out Chinese food container steaming next to the television that patiently awaits to play Game of Thrones on my HBO2go homepage. (Welcome to Monday nights at Kate’s house). Yahoo tells me Pinot Noir, Google tells me Gewurztraminer, and yet both seem to make up this round -a-bout conclusion as to why they pair well. I’ve tried both, and neither seem to fit particularly well. So as I go on with my life, enjoying my Beef and Broccoli, I must admit, I feel certain sadness not knowing the perfect pairing.

These are the things that keep me up at night.

2.) Five Reasons why Viognier is such a cool wine:

• Viognier was almost wiped out completely in the 1960′s. Between World War 2 and a horrible bout of Phylloxera, there were only 30 recorded acres planted in all of France. One could argue that it was likely planted nowhere else, with the United States not established at that time. But even with it’s tricky growing needs, we are lucky enough to have it today.
• Viognier is usually very low in acidity, this makes it hard to pair with food since it also (being a white) has no tannins. It does however, also make it a great sipping wine.
• Syrah and Viognier are a very common match for blending. With Syrah often harnessing intense tannic flavors, Viognier is the sunshine to it’s rainy day, lightening it slightly and helping to bring out it’s fruit.
• It is the most widely grown Rhone varietal grown in the United States.
• While it is pronounced “Vee-ohn-yay” common mispronunciations of it at the Winery include “Vee-og-nee-or” “Vigagra” or “That…funny spelled “V” one.”

3.) New Jersey Strawberries are amazing (Sorry Vermont Family, but I can’t deny it any longer.)

This morning I went out with a dear friend at 6am to pick some strawberries. I say she is a dear friend not only because, well, she is, but also because few people are willing to get up at 5:30am and travel across Vineland to Sparacio’s to sit in the dirt and stain their pants with strawberry juice. (I did make her strawberry crepes after we went picking though, bribery does wonders for the toils of friendship.) My family in Denmark has a strawberry farm, and I grew up doing it in Vermont in the summers for fun. My family has farm roots, so our instinct is to preserve everything. Canning, jarring, pickling, etc. This year when I trekked out to the fields I picked two flats of berries in about 45 minutes. It came out to 25 pounds of the sweet red fruit (At only a $1.60 a pound I might add!) that now happily sits on my kitchen table waiting to be made into jam, pie, preserve, and breakfast for the rest of this week.

In Vermont there aren’t a lot of wineries, it’s pretty chilly so very few grapes can grow there happily. The wineries that we do have however often make fruit wines, and I have sampled many a strawberry wine at craft fairs and farm markets. The problem with any strawberry wine that I’ve tasted is that it’s either poorly filtered, leaving it cloudy, or it’s a beautiful light pink color, but lacks any kind of strawberry flavor. As far as strawberry alcohol goes however, for Christmas last year Lee and I did make a strawberries and cream vodka, and I have been known to let the recipe for that slip to a friend or two, who knows? Maybe you’re next. I secretly hold out hope that with the possible discontinuation of our Black Currant, David our wine maker might wake up and say “I know how to make wine with strawberries that is not only clear, but very tasty!” Which he may do, but until then, I’ll hoard my homemade liqueur and pick my own every May. I have to get my fix one way or another.

Well I’m off to test printers, pack table clothes, and eat these strawberries at my desk before Scott and Joe Quarella sneak them all when I’m not looking.

Lots of fresh fruit and fabulous Eastern Cuisine food and wine pairings to you my friends!

-Kate

Sangria flavors; only limited by your imagination

Over this past weekend at our Cinco de Mayo festival we decided to shake things up in the sangria department. We featured two new recipes: Pinot Grigio with hibiscus tea, oranges and limes, and a Jersey Blues sangria with mixed berries, lemons, and fresh rosemary.

Sangria is a fairly trendy drink (Fruity, refreshing, how could it not be?) but for the actual recipes I discovered that everyone has their own special ingredient. A little splash of something special, like a recipe John Hancock to individualize their concoction. I was read a very intriguing article about botanicals used in drinks at soda fountains. They have health benefits, but also really unique flavors that you can’t find anywhere else.

Jersey Blues Sangria ~ Blueberry wine with lemons, mixed berries and rosemary.

‘South of the Border’ Sangria ~ Pinot Grigio with oranges, limes, and fresh brewed hibiscus tea.

While I personally do not know enough about nettles and rosewood, I thought I would test out the trend with two things I was a little more familiar with. The hibiscus was something I was introduced to when my dad started wintering in New Mexico. There it is most often brewed as an iced tea, so he started mailing me my Christmas supply of hibiscus flowers, dried peppers and salsa and I must say, the difference between freshly dried flowers and older ones is significant. I’d had hibiscus tea before, however it always had a dusty sort of bland flavor. When it is fresh though it has an almost floral cranberry taste. A perfect pair with Pinot Grigio.

The rosemary was a more unexpected twist. For those of you who haven’t tried it, it adds an earthy component to the Jersey Blues wine, this is then complemented greatly by the added lemon slices, making the whole wine taste a little less sweet and more zesty.

These sangrias inspired a few people to tell me about some of their ideas. Greg, a fellow foodie, and I were discussing the possibilities of putting dandelion wine on green tea ice cream. Another woman was talking about how good the cranberry would be with just vodka for the ultimate cosmopolitan. This opened my eyes to a whole new way to drink wine. We can get so one dimensional with our cooking, challenging our palates with a new glass of wine is fun, but adding it to mixed drinks and recipes? Well, I don’t know about you but I see an ice cream and wine themed blog in the works…

If you have any nifty creations of your own, shoot me an e-mail! (kate@bellviewwinery.com) Better yet, grab a shot of you posing with your creation! Until then however, check out the recipes we used over the weekend.

Bellview Winery’s “South of the Border” Sangria

A nice sangria for the dry wine lover. The tea makes it a little sweet without taking away from the lovely refreshing notes of Pinot Grigio.

1 Bottle Bellview Pinot Grigio
1 large orange, quartered and sliced. (For a different flavor, try using a blood orange)
2 Small limes, halved and sliced
4-8 ounces Hibiscus tea concentrate *(See recipe below)

Muddle desired amount of hibiscus tea concentrate with oranges and limes, pour in chilled Bellview Pinot Grigio, let sit 10-40 minutes for desired strength of citrus flavor. Citrus skins have the most powerful flavors of the whole fruit. While they pack a punch, if they sit too long they can make your sangria bitter.
Pour in glass, garnish with desired fruit

South of the Border. Pretty in frosted pink.

Kate’s Dad’s favorite Hibiscus tea

1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers. You can order these online from spice shops for pretty cheap.
2 cups water
3/4 cup white sugar, or agave Nectar (My favorite)
Splash of Lime
2-4 cups additional water

Bring water to boil, and set flowers in it. Sit for 2 or more hours (I start it in the morning and drain it when I get home)
Squeeze the water from flowers, add sugar or agave nectar and lime to tea. If you are making sangria use this concentrate to flavor the Pinot Grigio, if you are just making the tea, add the additional water to taste, depending on how diluted you would like it.

Bellview Winery’s Jersey Blues Sangria

A new twist on berry sangria. The lemons cut down on the traditional sweetness of blueberry wine while their acid enhances the true blueberry flavor, making this sangria taste bright and fresh.

1 Bottle Bellview Jersey Blues
1 cup frozen berry mix (Or get creative and try using just raspberries or blackberries for a more intense berry flavor)
1/2 lemon, sliced
1-2 sprigs FRESH rosemary (Dried will not have nearly the same impact and will make it taste dusty)

Muddle berries, lemons, and rosemary, add chilled bottle of Jersey Blues. Let sit for 10-30 minutes. The longer it sits the more lemon and rosemary you will taste. I myself like it to sit longer so I get more of the lemon flavor, which in turn makes it taste more like blueberry lemonade. But some folks prefer a more berry taste. Pour into glasses, and garnish with desired fruit or rosemary sprig.

Blueberry sangria. What a perfect blend of flavors and colors.

Many happy back yard sangria mixing adventures to you my friends!

-Kate

Dandelion wine; Bellview History in a Glass.

We are one of two wineries in the country who have Dandelion as a staple wine in their tasting room. This is a true fact. I have scoured the web many a late night, and have only located one other Winery that makes it. (If you do this, just be careful, you may try to order it like I did and later discover you have bought a Ray Bradbury novel by the same name.)

For those who don’t know our Dandelion recipe is an honest family secret. I had to practically marry in to learn it in full. Jim remembers his Great Aunt Ada making it for as long as he has been around. Jim actually celebrated his 50th birthday by opening a bottle that was made the year he was born. When Bellview decided it would start making the wine to sell, Ada was still alive, and insisted on making sure Jim used the family recipe. There have already been three wines named after family members, honoring the Quarella family is an important part of our business. (I even got a AAA renewal for Frank Quarella today, Jim’s Grandfather who has not been with us for some time. I like to think it would have made Frank chuckle.) Dandelion Ada died in 2007, but her legacy lives on proudly though this unique dessert wine.

Her recipe calls for lemons and dandelion flowers. We essentially took her recipe and scaled it up to a industry size. Those items are steeped into a sort of tea, and then we ferment it.The flowers are not as bitter as the greens, however they still need sugar added to make them palatable. After the tea is fermented, we sweeten it. Each 375ml bottle is flavored with 50 dandelion flowers, approximately. We still hand pick them.

Dustin hand picking this past month.

The wine itself ages like any other wine. It gains complexity and character, color, it develops into almost a completely different wine.

From Left to Right, Dandelion wine from 1984, 2007, and 2011 

Even in just the short 4 year time span you can see a color change. The 1984 one is the most drastic. Though 1984 is far from the oldest one we have here. When Jim was  renovating the winery, he was working in the original family wine cellar and came across an absolute goldmine of his Great Aunt’s wine. Ranging from 1953 and upwards, brown gallon jugs sat in rows, with her own hand written notes next to them.

Once these bottles were found, Jim moved them to another place on the farm to make sure they didn’t get forgotten again. He took me down to where they are kept, close enough to get to them, but far enough so that they are only occasionally remembered, so as not to be too tempted to open them. Along the way to the bottles, I saw another case of wine, a scribbled note next to it reads “Sauvignon Blanc 4-9-2000″

This was a batch of wine Jim made before the Winery opened, almost 11 years ago. I wonder how it aged?

After some moving of old farm equipment and curtains, I saw the un-assuming bottles. I was so exited to see such rich history. I wonder if Ada know what a gift she had left behind.

So much history!

Upon closer inspection you can see her hand writing on the masking tape.

Jim poses with a bottle of his Aunt's Dandelion wine from 1983!

The family carries on the tradition by stowing away some of the dandelion vintages. Sometimes with notes saying ‘Do not open until X-Mas’.

3, and 8 more years on these bottles before we can open them.

This year was the first year we re-released an older vintage, the 2007. The hope is we will be able to age it long enough so that our customers will have the opportunity to taste what aging does to this wine. Though like anything else, good things come to those who wait. Maybe when the winery reaches it’s 25 year mark I can un-earth some of the really aged stuff. Until then, I recommend buying a bottle and hiding in your own cellar, who knows? Maybe it will turn into a story for your own family history.

For more Dandelion Wine info, check out
Down Home South Jersey for a formal interview with Jim!<a

Jim goes to Belize! (And Kate happily experiences it vicariously by Blogging)

After a trip to Italy, Jim (Our fearless leader, and Boss-man extraordinaire) returned for a meager 3 days before he packed up and shipped off to Belize.

Jim climbed this.

He went to investigate the Belizian wine trade, which unbeknownst to most of us up here, is actually doing fairly well. They don’t make their wine from grapes, but rather native tropical fruits. Most of them are on the sweeter side, but the flavors that come from them are positively incredible.

Wine is made with fruit like this! Jim's friend Vince, showing the cashew fruit up close.

A Cashew Fruit Tree.

All cashews come from trees like this. The cashew nut grows under the fruit (Called a cashew apple), and is hidden in a green pod. The pod is coated in skin irritants and toxins, similar to poison ivy. The fruit has delicate skin, but is filled with juicy sweet pulp, which provides an excellent medium for fermentation. Imagine a luscious and rich dessert wine made from one of those babies! I, who did not go to Belize, have been living Jim’s excursion vicariously through some of these photos. I highly recommend giving it a try, it’s quite lovely.

Mayan Ruins

Jim meets an iguana.

Docks.

Greg Meyers and his grandfather. Greg is the one who introduced Jim to the Belize wine trade initially. Generational farming at it's best.

I have a feeling I would really like this fruit.

Jim's room in paradise.

Some wine that Jim brought back, including Cashew, Blackberry, Sorrel and Soursop.

We will be tasting the wines later in the month, I will get back to you on exactly what Soursop wine tastes like. I am very much intrigued. And who knows? Maybe you will see them on a Bellview Winery shelf someday and you can try them too!

The Bellview Perspective on Health and Wine

How is your New Years resolution to eat healthier going? So far I was able to give up wheat (for 22 hours that is, until I discovered my Lean Cuisine was pasta based, after which I totally threw in the towel), tried some paleo recipes (Ask me about carrot, coconut flour and raisin pancakes!) and discovered that being able to run a mile in under ten minutes is actually not too hard a goal to work towards (As long as you have somewhere to collapse and pant violently afterwards.)

Maybe you were able to switch out your triple caramel macchiato espresso for black coffee, maybe you switched to low fat milk, or maybe you decided to set a New Years resolution to make it to every home game the Phillies play instead, and you have no interest in this blog. But regardless of where you stand, I figured a little wine/health information might do us all a little mid-season health pick-me-up good. (If I wrote about treadmills you see, no one would read this blog.)

The health benefits of all wines start with tannins. Tannins have been theorized to help with heart health and reduce cholesterol. Tannins are found mostly in red wine. However, that being said, white wine has can have slightly less calories, so depending on where your goals are, one might be more appropriate than the other. Tannins come from the skins of grapes, and since red wine is the only wine processed with the skin, it harnesses the largest amount of tannins. So far, the most scientific data I was able to dig up said that obese mice who ingested tannins lived longer than those who didn’t. (I hope the mice that didn’t eat the tannins at least died fat and happy, poor little dears.) The amount of tannins an adult needs however would equal 60 liters of red wine a day. Needless to say, that will end very badly for the humans, and you might start having flashbacks to your college days.

What the tannins actually do is reduce the bad cholesterol in your veins, making your heart work a little less hard, and your blood flow a little easier. That being said, jumping in and going for a glass a night is good, however it is suggested that smaller amounts are healthier. (125ml to be exact) Since the United States hates the metric system, I got Crystal (Her second job is Vanna White’s under study) to demonstrate exactly how much 125ml is.

125 ml is equivalent to a little over 4 ounces. (But it just looks so much cooler when we measure it in one of David's lab beakers!)

Voila! Our glasses hold 7 3/4 ounces to give you an idea.

It is recommended that you drink 2-3 of those a day to maximize the health benefits without hurting your liver. Just remember to drink in them in moderation. Also remember tannins are heaviest in dry red wines. Sweet red wines have tannins, however they also have a great deal of sugar, which, no matter how you slice it is rarely considered a health benefit.

As for the amount? I fall into the category of ‘every little bit helps.’ with these sorts of things. Think walking ten minutes a day doesn’t do you any good? Try not walking at all. So to sum up my feelings on the matter, I give you my non American Heart association, un-accredited, lacking of doctoral approval, opinion.

-I believe that people in France live longer than people in the United States, and I believe there is a connection between their dry red wine consumption and that fact.

-I believe things that bring you joy, make you live longer.

-I believe that enjoying your life with slightly more wine than the Mayo Clinic recommends you drink is worth the risk, and that family and friends, good wine and olive oil cannot be bad for you in moderation (Though, for some families, spending too much time together might actually be bad for their health. Enter here my Mother and my Dad’s parents at Thanksgiving, as an example.)

At the end of the day, did you enjoy yourself? Do you feel relaxed? Did you drive after drinking (Here’s a cheat sheet to that question, the answer to this should be NO.) Are you better for having that glass of wine? If the answers to these questions are favorable, than in my opinion, you did the healthy thing. So don’t beat yourself up, tackle running that half marathon another day, and enjoy a class of Cabernet in the meantime.

Cheers, health, and happiness to you my friends,

-Kate

Carnival food and your wine glass: It’s not as far fetched as you think.

I was handed a manilla folder – an unassuming folder with paperwork in it from events past. Buried in the contracts and receipts a typed page titled ‘tasting notes’ fell out. This tasting sheet appears to have been written by a former employee whose palate still holds a legendary status in these parts. I felt like I had stumbled unto her diary.   Were these just tasting notes or would I really find swirly doodles of her initials and the name of her husband surrounded by little hearts?

One might be able to argue that certain people’s tasting notes hold the key to their secret ambitions and dreams, which is why I relate wine aromas to types of pie.  As I glanced down past the dry wine list, I saw fantastic descriptive words.   Spring rain.  Squeezed lemon.  Caraway seed. I could actually begin to feel my mouth re-act as if I had just tasted these words.  My lips began to pucker over the sour cherry, salivate reading blueberry pie.

After I sorted though the dry wines, I realized there was a separate list for the sweet wines underneath.

Dry wine drinkers (myself included) sometimes have a hard time tasting sweet wines because palates can’t always discern tastes past the sweetness. One could argue that sweet wine drinkers feel the same way about dry wine. The person who wrote this list obviously had both abilities. Past the Nana’s wine (candied apple, pineapple, and mandarin oranges) stood the most unusual wine descriptor word I have ever heard of: caramel popcorn.

I usually balk at this kind of unbridled food reference. I know, I know, my palate is top notch, but lets be honest – caramel popcorn? I can’t even tell you how to get that kind of aroma in a wine.  Is it the barrel?  Is it a characteristic of a grape? I honestly do not know.

Immediately after reading this I ran to grab two glasses, poured a generous ounce in each glass and shoved it under Ashley’s nose.

“You have to smell this.” I said with conviction.

“Sure…” says Ashley.  (She’s such a sport. I can get a little excitable.)

“What am I smelling?”

“Caramel Pop Corn,” I said.

I was emotionless, intent, focused. We lifted the glass to our noses. At first it was just the typical fruit smell. But at the back, the last little air of the glass that filled my nose was clear as day; caramel popcorn -not just the light cooked corn smell, but the distinct caramelized, carnival truck next to the fried dough stand, $3.00 for a bag, caramel popcorn. My pupils got huge.

“HOLY COW!” I said.

Ashley’s face showed the same shock and surprise that mine did.  Alas, the deep kept secret of the tasting sheet had come to a close! I felt like Nancy Drew, except she definitely never got a glass of wine at the end of her books.

So, this just goes to show you, never stop smelling, never stop tasting, and don’t stop at just wine! How will you ever be able to identify the smell of caramel popcorn in wine if you don’t go and eat some yourself?

As for the wine we were smelling?  Well, you’ll just have to come in and taste it for yourself.

Many tasting surprises and carnival food to you my friends,

-Kate

Bordeaux’nt you want to help us name our wine?

Sometimes I feel bad for the French. They built us this fantastic Statue of Liberty for our birthday, and we never returned the favor. Then we fought some wars together, got along all chummy, and we went and bastardized their food by making French Fries, took their varietals to make our own wine, and now make fun of them behind their backs. So while we sit here with our hair in French twists, drinking French 75′s (One of Nancy and my favorite cocktails), and making French toast, I would like to take a moment to send a brief message to the French wine makers of the world.

The French name their wines after the region the grapes for that wine are grown. This works for them because they have been growing grapes for so long, that certain regions will really only grow 2-3 very specific types of grape because those varieties are the ones that grow best there. As you can guess, this would not work well for the States. We grow grapes, well, wherever the heck we want. We pay attention to what grows well in certain areas, however there are no laws pertaining to what we can grow and where for the most part. Need I remind you we are the land of the free after all. We can even drink non-taxed imported tea while we grow our grapes! Hallelujah! Progress has been made! (Though, up until a few weeks ago, we couldn’t even ship our wine…but I will save that for another blog post) But in France, when your great-great-great-(+21 great) Grandfather grew Merlot on the same soil you’re doing it in today, its a tad harder to take creative freedom.

This does not stop wine makers in America from trying to emulate a very fine French wine. We are not legally allowed to call them as such, so some people have gotten mighty clever.

But we have worked very hard to distinguish ourselves in quality and production value. Bellview has been working on a super Bordeaux blend. (I was told to keep this a secret, otherwise I would have told you all sooner.) This blend follows the traditional blending rules of Bordeaux, using 60% Cabernet Sauvignon 20% Cabernet Franc 15% Merlot, and (here’s where we took some liberties)*GASP* 5% Syrah, which is not a varietal of a traditional Bordeaux blend. Long live the land of the free!  The wine will be available for tasting and futures purchases this weekend. The tricky part is, it still remains nameless.

I keep seeing notes about it, each with a different name. ‘Red blend’ ‘Bordeaux style’, or the ones that I write that say ‘That super yummy red blend that isn’t Jersey Devil Red’ (No one really reads my notes, so that one is really just for my own amusement). The blend is bottled, but still remains nameless. It’s really a touch romantic isn’t it? A nameless wine!

My message to the French in all this goes something like this. Since we have debauched your food, history and accents, give us a hand on this one. We can’t name our blend a “Bordeaux” blend, so what should we call it? New Jersey Boar-doe? Freedom Red? (Those are both horrible names, which is why I was not put in charge of this task.) So come out, get in touch with your inner frog, and give us your thoughts. At the ‘France on Tour’ weekend we will be tasting this wine, and when you taste it, you will have the opportunity to give it a fantastic faux-French alias. In the name of truces and world peace, we thought whoever’s name we pick should probably get compensated. We don’t have any colonies to trade you, but we thought a $50 gift certificate might get the love across. Even if you aren’t French, we figure you might have some insight, we take pride in our customers intelligence.

We hope to see you all come in with some nifty ideas, and we look forward to hearing them!

Lots of ‘Freedom Fries’ and French wine to you all!

-Kate Fellows