Toast the New Year with Iowa Wine!

I’ll be toasting 2009 with Iowa wine and I hope you’ll do the same. Here are some great picks with descriptions straight from the winemakers. Check each winery’s web site for retail locations.

 

Tassel Ridge Winery, Leighton. www.tasselridgewinery.com

Oskyfizzante White is a fruity, semi-sweet, carbonated wine made from Muscat grapes. It has grapefruit, kiwi and stony fruit on the nose, and kiwi, peach, and citrus on the palate. Oskyfizzante White is a great wine for celebrations. Serve well chilled.

 

Summerset Winery, Indianola. www.summersetwine.com

Festiva

A delightful sparkling wine, similar to an Asti Spumante

 

White Oak Vineyards, Cambridge. www.whiteoakvineyards.com

Celebrate

Semi Sweet Ruby Red Wine. This blend of French-American hybrid grapes has been one of ou customers “Most Popular”. It resembles a White Merlot with a cranberry tartness that leaves you with a pleasant mouth feel and taste.

 

Tabor Home Vineyards & Winery, Baldwin. www.taborhomewinery.com

A Real Sweetie

NEW in 2006. This LaCrosse white grape wine from our vineyards is soft & Smooth with the sweetness of pears. If you enjoy Muscato, you will love A Real Sweetie dessert wine.

 

Wallace Winery, West Branch. www.wallacewine.com

Blanc de Blanc

Rich Chardonel wine sparkled in the traditional champagne style by natural fermentation.

 

Little Swan Lake, Estherville. www.lslwinery.com

Semi Sweet Reisling

A sweeter, gentle white wine with flowery scent and smooth flavor.

 

As always, you can ask your liquor store manager for additional Iowa Wine suggestions. If you are in the Coralville area, let Matt Wiskus at Muddy Creek Winery help you select an Iowa wine. You can also buy wines from 10 Iowa wines online from Matt a www.buyiowawines.com.

 

Cheers!

 

Barbara Rasko

Make Mine Wine

www.makeminewinemagazine.com

New Year’s Eve Bubbles!

Pop the cork Wednesday night on one of these great champagnes or sparkling wines recommended by Ben Jung from Ingersoll Wine & Spirits in the latest issue of Make Mine Wine.

 

1996 Gloria Ferrer Carneros Cuvee Late Disgorged

Gloria Ferrer in Sonoma CaliforniaChampagne elegance. Price: $43.99 County

 

NV Gruet Brut, Gruet Winery, Albuquerque, New Mexico

This bubbly is full-bodied, clean and delicious, with layers of bold, fresh fruit dominated by lemon and pear and accented by butter and vanilla. Price $15.99.

 

NV Montaudon Brut Grande Rose Champagne

Montaudon’s Grande Rose is made from Pinot Noir grapes, which impart the vibrant pink-red hue – a color that, for sparkling wine, tends to coincide with a higher price tag. The blanc grapes Chardonnay and Pinot Munier complete the blend. The profile is distinctive, explosive, and bold on the attack, reminiscent of blackcurrants and fresh fruit, with smoke and leather on the nose. Like a good dry rose brut, this Champagne is not sweet, but very effervescent, and true to its Pinot Noir roots. Price: Around $39.99.

 

Also enjoy Ben’s food pairing suggestions: Bruts are great on their own, work well with appetizers or served with a meal. Try them with cheeses such as brie, Swiss or gruyere, eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, sushi, mushroom risotto, shellfish, turkey, duck or goose.

 

Enjoy and have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve!

 

Cheers!

Barbara Rasko

Publisher

Make Mine Wine

www.makeminewinemagazine.com

Time for Unique Gifts, Entertainment and Fun at the Wineries!

John Ernest Vineyard & Winery Holiday Celebration, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Saturday, December 20

Music, holiday spirit and wine makes it a divine time to visit the winery. You (and your out of town guests) can tour the winery at Tama, sample JEV wines, nibble on holiday treats and enjoy warm, mulled Cranberry Apple Cider. Save 10% on wine, gift baskets and holiday items. www.johnernestvineyard.com.

 

Summerset Winery Holiday Open House, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Saturday, December 20 and Wednesday 24

Guests in town this weekend? Take them to Summerset Winery for some sipping, shopping and munching! They are serving warm, mulled wine and delicisou holiday treats along with special discounts on store merchandise. Buy a special gift – your Parrot Head friends would appreciate tickets to Jimmy’s Buffet on January 17^th and you may know just the right person to give tickets to for the January 31^st Wild Women on Wine Luncheon! Summerset Winery is between Des Moines and Indianola.  www.summersetwine.com.

 

Little Swan Lake Winery, Christmas Cheer, 12:30 – 2:30 p.m., Saturday, December 20 Billie James and Glenn Henriksen entertain. Esterville. www.lslwinery.com

 

The 2009 Heart of Iowa Wine Trail Passport is a unique gift motivating folks to explore the 15 wineries within 60 miles of Des Moines. The passport is $25 + tax and available at the area wineries. Check it out at www.heartofiowawinetrail.com.

 

Tassel Ridge Winery has a fine selection of wine-related gifts, custom wine labels, chocolates, Friesian Farms Cheese, Wine and Food Gift Baskets and more. Visit the winery just off of Highway 163 at Exit 220. www.tasselridgewinery.com.

 

I’ll be speaking about Southern Hills Winery’s wines, how to taste and the magazine at the Iowa Favorites store at Valley West Mall, this Sunday, December 21^st at 4:00 p.m.  Please stop in and say hi!

This holiday season, I encourage you to buy local. Our Midwest Wine Country depends on it! Thank you.

By the way, Make Mine Wine is also a great, inexpensive, year-round Christmas gift for wine-lovers. You can order at www.makeminewinemagazine.com.

 

Cheers!

Barbara Rasko, Publisher

Make Mine Wine magazine

www.makeminewinemagazine.com

Give the Gift of Iowa Wine

Looking for a unique gift that will be appreciated and enjoyed and doesn’t spend months out-of-site and unused in the back of a closet?

A great gift is Iowa wine. And the folks at www.buyiowawines.com have made it easy to select the wine.

From the website, you can select an Iowa Wine Sampler packages — sweet or dry. Each contains a bottle of red and a bottle of white.

Matt Wiskus at Muddy Creek Wine Company in Coralville, Iowa helps a lot of folks select Iowa wines for themselves and for gifts, and he knows what people like. When you shop on-line, you are benefiting from his ability to select fine Iowa wines.

I like the site because it is easy to use — the Iowa Wine Sampler packages are clearly marked on the home page — or you can select wines you are already familiar with or want to try when you assemble a mis and match case from various Iowa wineries.

I also like the site because they feature wines from the magazine’s Tasting Time with Make Mine Wine selection.

By the way, if you are buying for a martini-drinker, you can order the Clearheart Vodka from the site too. The Clearheart Vodka, Rum and Gin and other spirits on the site too. They are a great and unique gift from Iowa’s first legal still since prohibition!

I believe strongly in the “buy local” practice that is so important to our neighbors and our state, so please consider the Iowa wines as gifts and for entertaining this holiday season.

Now I’m headed home to wrap a few more presents, listen to some Christmas music and enjoy a glass of Jasper Winery’s Seyval Blanc.

Cheers!

Barbara Rasko

Make Mine Wine magazine

www.makeminewinemagazine.com