Wine and Food Pairing with Local Chefs

This is the third annual "Wine and Food Pairing with Local Chefs" dinner series. This year are including two new chefs, Bradford Heap from Salt Bistro in Boulder and Hunter Pritchett from Luca. The next dinner is on Thursday February 23rd, 2012 when Bradford Heap will be the chef. During this dinner guests will get a chance to taste one of the special beers from Avery Brewery where grapes from BookCliff Vineyards were used to co-ferment with the beer. This will be a great adventure and a one of a kind opportunity. Stay tuned to learn more about the menu of the night. [Click here for reservations]

BookCliff and Avery Team Up

Mark your calendars, because on Sat, February 11, 4pm – 11pm, Avery Brewing Company will be releasing of #10 and #11 of their Barrel-Aged Series. Bottles of  Muscat d'Amour & Recolte Sauvage will go on sale at 4pm for $8 each, and purchases will be limited to 6 bottles of each.
"What does this have to do with BookCliff" you ask? Well, these are beers made with grapes! Avery purchased Muscat Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from BookCliff and added the skins and juice to some of their beer. They aged this beer/wine for about a year in barrels and this release is the final product. You've gotta try this stuff. There won't be much available so get there early to get in line. Don't forget, we open at 1:00 pm, so stop by for a taste of our Cab Sauv and Muscat Blanc wine before you try the beers.

Touch of Red

Many of you have tasted and fallen in love with our wine called Touch of Red. The Touch of Red is a sweet red wine that is slightly darker in color than the typical rosé. In order to make this wine we utilize all of our red grapes and the juice from them. The color, tannins, flavors, etc. in red wine come from the skins of the grapes. In order to make our dry reds deeper and to get more extraction from the skins, we remove juice from the fermentation bins but leave behind the skins. This increases the proportion of skins to juice and in turn makes a more flavorful wine. That juice that is removed goes into two separate tanks. Into one of these tanks we add yeast to start fermentation.  This will be made into a completely dry (no sweetness!) rosé. The other tank will be kept as straight juice, super-sweet and delicious. Now because we removed the juice from the skins quickly, they only gave a little color to the juice; this is why you have pink wine. Once the tank with the wine is done fermenting, we do some tasting trials and finally add the juice into the wine. It usually is around 25% juice going into the final blend. This gives you a sweet rosé that is delicious on its own but also great for sangria or add Prosecco for a nice sparkling treat. We recommend it served chilled and it is great with spicy food or with desserts. Chocolate dipped strawberries are my favorite!

Red Blends for the New Year

Red Blends have become more and more popular over the past two to three years. My first introduction to a red blend that you can enjoy every day with your dinner was the Tractor Shed Red. It was an intriguing blend of Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Merlot. And I liked the label of a red tractor on a black background. On the other end of the spectrum is Insignia from Joseph Phelps, a red blend of Bordeaux varieties. Insignia is actually the wine we fell in love with and aspire to. A wine for special occasions and to lay up. Both of these wines are a unique blend of red wines with every release. All the grapes used for the Insignia come from the same vintage which is not necessarily the case for Tractor Shed Red. BookCliff Vineyards makes a non-vintage and a vintage red blend. The Friday's Folly is our everyday red blend and the Ensemble is our vintage blend made from Bordeaux varieties. Enjoy both for different occasions. Cheers!!