Tag Archives: Barnard Griffin WInery

Watermelon notes in Washington rose compliment watermelon, cucumber salad

Having recently made the salad recommended by Ann Vogel in a slightly different variation, Mary was delighted to find a wine to pair with it. The version she made didn’t have olives or cucumbers, but it did have fresh basil torn into bits.

We were picnicking at Rainy Daze Brewing in Silverdale and, after tasting the salad, brewery owner Danette Pigott begged for the recipe while Mary begged for more of her porter.

But back to the wine. We have always had a thing for a rosé from the south of France. These wines are the best, we think, for a warm summer day’s meal with the chilled sweet and salty flavors of this salad.

Rosés from Provence are not easy to find in Kitsap County, so instead we’ll go with a couple of rosé wines more readily available because they’re from the other side of the mountains. Both of the wineries we’re recommending have been around for a long time and are very good at turning out fantastic wines at bargain prices.

Barnard Griffin’s owner/winemaker, Rob Griffin, has produced wonderful wines in Washington since his first days at Hogue Cellars. He continued to make Hogue wines while opening his own winery.

His rosé of Sangiovese, has been a long time favorite with its vibrant color, lovely tart raspberry, sweet cherry flavors, and its crisp finish. Sangiovese is a natural with the sweet fruit and salty olives and goat cheese in Ann Vogel’s watermelon, cucumber salad.

One of the Walla Walla Valley’s oldest and largest wine producers is Waterbrook Winery. Opened in 1984 by the Rindall’s, it is now owned by Precept Brands. Its rosé wine is also made with 100 percent Sangiovese. This medium-bodied wine with rosé bud and watermelon aromatics has strawberry and melon flavors with a crisp finish.

Every refreshing sip makes you want another bite and then another sip.

Both wines work solo or with food and retail for under $12.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

A red wine for grilling

We’re finally coming into one of our favorite seasons: summer.

And why do we love summer so much? Beyond the obvious — sunshine, duh! — we like our increased cooking options (read: we love to grill).

Pairing wine with grilling recipes is fun because the selection is vast — many reds, and even some whites, are great accompaniments to food touched by a grill.

For this week’s pairing we wanted to ignore the go-to wines and instead recommend a varietal you might not be familiar with. The wine we’re thinking of is considered the backbone of many wines from one of our favorite wine regions in France, the Rhone Valley. But it likely originated in Spain.

It’s also a grape that has done well in Washington, especially in the Walla Walla area.

So what grape are we talking about? None other than Grenache.

Typically you’ll find Grenache in red blends that include syrah, mourvedre, cinsault and carignan. (Think France’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape). But we’ve seen a trend among Washington winemakers to use Grenache as a stand-alone variety.

That’s great for us wine lovers because this grape, if done right, is a perfect food wine. It’s also a great choice to match with Ann Vogel’s Persian beef shish kebabs and her Filipino barbecued port kebabs.

Grenache is a good red for summer because it is light enough for a warm evening, but holds the weight and structure needed to stand up to the range of flavors a grill can infuse on food.

Flavor characteristics of Grenache include fruits like blackberries and black currants, white pepper, allspice and cinnamon. It’s a wine that doesn’t need a lot of oak, but if oak is used it can add hints of vanilla and even smoke depending on how toasted the inside of the barrels are.

There are a number of Washington wineries that produce great Grenaches. Here’s a few to look out for the next time you’re in the store: Maison Bleue, Milbrant Vineyards, Alexandria Nicole Cellars, Barnard Griffen Winery, Novelty Hill and McCrea Cellars.

We also recommend Trio Vintners, which we tried while at Taste Washington earlier this year. Winemaker Karen LaBonte lets the wine sit for 21 months in barrels with minimal new oak, which allows the grape’s flavors to shine instead of being muddled by oak.

The wine is listed at $26. The only hitch is it’s not available in Kitsap, but if you’re in Seattle it’s available at the Sixth Avenue Wine Cellar in the Pacific Place shopping center downtown or at Esquin Wine and Spirits, 2700 Fourth Avenue South in downtown Seattle.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post