I’m making my annual transition from the heavier wines of winter to the more approachable and somewhat lighter wines of spring and summer. Most of us are more active now so the foods and wines we choose should match this lifestyle. Here are some wines you might want to try that fit this bill.

2009 Anselmi San Vincenzo ($15) Robert Anselmi wanted to produce a wine in the Soave district of northern Italy, but he wanted to blend some chardonnay into the approved whites from the region. His delicate San Vincenzo has ripe peach and citrus flavors, excellent balancing acidity and depth provided by a substantial dollop of the chardonnay. Pan sauté a filet of grouper or other white fish in a little butter, lemon and tarragon and pair it with the San Vincenzo.

2011 Badenhorst Chenin Blanc Secatuers ($16) – South Africa produces some of the world’s greatest chenin blanc and the Secateurs is a delicious, medium-bodied wine that is just a tad sweet. Similar to a Vouvray from the Loire Valley, this chenin blanc is round and rich with nuances of apricot and lemon, and can be used as an apertif or as an accompaniment to Asian stir-fry.

2009 Chateau De Saint Cosme Les Deux Albions ($20) – At first glance, this Rhone red blend of mainly grenache and syrah looks like it would be better suited to winter foods, but it is silky with flavors of ripe blackberries with just a touch of mocha. The wine is also well balanced and would be an excellent match to grilled short ribs basted with a KC Barbecue type sauce.

2010 Duckhorn Decoy Pinot Noir ($21) – This Mendocino County pinot noir is chock full of black cherry flavors with just a hint of cinnamon on the finish. Some earthiness in the aroma and good balancing acidity make this a wine to pack in your picnic basket. Pair it with smoked sausages or hamburgers on the grill.

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Since this is the season when we are inclined to participate in physical activities, do you suppose it is okay to sip wine while engaging in a sport? How about the wines mentioned above? I think they would be perfect matches to some sports.

Now, I would agree that using wine to hydrate between plays in football or between innings in baseball would not be advisable nor would sipping the fruit of the vine while competing in a NASCAR event. However, I think that moderate wine consumption would enhance the experience of certain more – shall we say –sedentary sports.

For example, many people drink a beer or sip a glass of wine while playing golf. Personally, I find that wine provides the only pleasure I derive from a sport that is otherwise dreadfully frustrating.

But there are other sporting activities. How about Bocce, Croquet, Shuffleboard or even Horseshoes (you might wish to avoid this one if you have more than a glass or two)?




I recall as a kid growing up one particular sport where the sole purpose of the game was to earn the right to sip some wine or drink a beer. This was an Italian numbers game called Mora which some older Italian men pronounced as “Mooda.”

Mora is played with as few as two or as many as five persons per side lined up across from each other. The first player engages their opponent and if that player wins, he or she moves on to the next person in line. Players throw out a single hand, showing zero to five fingers, and calling out loudly their guess at what the sum of all fingers shown will be.

The first team to vanquish all their opponents wins the game. And here is the catch: only the winning team is permitted to sip their preferred beverage during the next game while the losers must abstain. As you might guess, I’ve changed the rules so that there are no losers.

Even if you choose not to sip a little Vito’s Thunder Mountain Chablis while competing in outdoor sporting activities, you might still want to give the wines previously mentioned a try.

The ubiquitous chicken. It’s probably the most overused and abused protein in the civilized world and yet – when prepared with a little imagination – that little feathered critter can be transformed into a culinary lip smacker.

Chicken is the Rodney Dangerfield of meats: it gets no respect. Yet it is one of the world’s most versatile foods, and can be cooked in a mind-boggling number of ways.
And with a little creativity, the bird can be married to a wide variety of both white and red wines.

However, cooking the meat of the chicken in a minimalist manner with token spices (say salt and pepper) can result in a dish that is best paired with tepid water. Regularly consuming chicken prepared this way may cause you to start watching C-Span’s coverage of Congressional proceedings for hours each day.

Do not fear loyal Wineaux’s! As you know from regularly reading my wine stained words, I have an affinity for outdoor cooking and an addiction to smokey and spicy foods. The recipe I am going to impart to you today will have you clucking for joy.

We’ll start with a whole fryer which is a relatively small and young chicken. I recommend you ask the butcher to remove the backbone of the fryer so it will be able to better absorb the brine, accommodate the special rub and cook quickly. Here goes.

The Smokey Clucker
The Brine

1 three to four pound chicken (fryer) with the backbone removed
1 plastic gallon bag
1 quart of water
8 ounces of dry white wine such as sauvignon blanc
6 cloves of garlic chopped finely
1 third cup of Kosher salt
3 tablespoons of dark brown sugar

The Rub

1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons of chopped garlic
1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
2 ounces of canola oil
1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar

Put everything but the chicken in the plastic bag and stir to mix the contents
Place the chicken into the bag, seal and put in refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours
Remove the chicken from the plastic bag, pat dry and lay it on a cutting board
Add the contents of the rub in a bowl and mix together making a paste
Rub the paste all over chicken and placing some under breast and leg quarter skin
Make a charcoal fire and spread coals to either side of grill for indirect cooking
Or, heat one side of a gas grill so chicken can be cooked indirect
Place the chicken so it lays spread (eagle?) on the grill but not over the coals
Cover the grill and cook 45 to 50 minutes
Allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes, cut in pieces and serve

And while the usual accompaniment to chicken is white wine, the recipe above requires a red. Here are two choices for your consideration that will leave you smiling.

2007 Terra d’oro Amador County Zinfandel ($18) I admit my fondness for Amador County zinfandel and this one has what I love most about wines grown in that hot and dry area two hours east of Napa. Rustic and earthy, the aroma is a combination of teaberry mint and chocolate while the blackberry and cola flavors make this a great match to spicy, smoky foods.

2010 Concannon Selected Vineyards Petite Sirah ($12) – This blend of Central Coast vineyards’ petite sirah is full-bodied with a flavor profile of plums and black cherries. Nicely balanced and rich, this has an excellent value to quality quotient and is a tasty pairing with the chicken dish.

You would not be reading this if you didn’t have an appreciation of the artistry and acumen required to produce exceptional and delicious cuisine to match the sea of wine available to us.

From time to time in my travels around our glorious state, I am reminded of the dedication and diligence of those who enrich our experiences with their culinary skills oftentimes toiling in obscurity in out of the way locations.

West Virginia is a state full of out-of-the-way places and getting from point A to point B can sometimes involve a non-linear route that results in pleasant diversions and discoveries. That’s how, on a trip back to Washington, DC more than two decades ago, I discovered Canaan Valley and subsequently some very cool restaurants, cafes and holes in the wall.

Many of these establishments happen to be in the Potomac Highland towns of Davis and Thomas just north of Canaan Valley. A recent trip to that stunningly beautiful part of our state renewed my faith in the creativity of mountaineer entrepreneurs.

Muttley’s Downtown in Davis has been around for many years, featuring excellent steak and other grilled meats and providing guests with a very well thought out and value-oriented wine list.

Owners Becky Bunner an Randy Colombo have now joined with Meyer House B&B proprietor Cindy Robeson to add a wine specialty shop - Shades of Grape. The shop is adjacent to the restaurant and patrons can choose from a small, but very selective list of wines and edibles from around the world.




From time to time, wines featured in Shades of Grape will be available on the restaurant’s wine list at the same price as in the shop, and that is an excellent bargain. The restaurant is full of offbeat artwork, life-like mannequins and assorted esoterica that will have you smiling and /or scratching your head.

The wine shop and restaurant are open Tuesday through Saturday. You’ll need to call for dinner reservations (304-259-4848) but a trip to Muttley’s Downtown should definitely be a part of your itinerary.

In the mood for some very unique burritos? Then you’ll need to cross the street from Muttley’s and visit Hellbender Burritos. These are not your mother’s burritos, but owners Rob and Melissa Borowitz guarantee that they are definitely good for you and very large too. In addition, Hellbender’s also has a very excellent selection of craft beers on tap and by the bottle.

Cross the street again and you’ll find Sirianni’s Café – one of the state’s best pizza restaurants. Owners Walt Ranalli and Sandra Goss have catered to the pizza and pasta addictions of visitors for decades and a trip to the mountains would not be complete without a stop at Sirianni’s.

Sirianni’s, which also has a restaurant in Canaan Valley right off of Rte. 32, features a modest (but good) wine list and a bevy of craft beers that will help you wash down the spicy vittles. Like Muttley’s, Siranni’s wall art and pictures will keep you amused while you’re waiting on the excellent pizza. You can call for takeout at 304- 259-5454.

Two miles north of Davis is the town of Thomas where art galleries such as Mountainmade and the White Room share Front Street with The Purple Fiddle (a music club and sandwich emporium), antique shops and The Flying Pig restaurant.

The latest addition to Front Street is Tip Top Coffee. Tip Top is a coffee shop on steroids with ambitions to be much more. Owner Cade Archuleta has sandwiches, pastries and cookies, and recently added a small, but excellent, selection of wines by the glass. The shop will begin offering a full menu and a bar service soon. The coffee is excellent and the staff is always smiling.

For those of you who wish to go over to the dark (or pilsner) side, both Davis and Thomas boast craft breweries where you can sip that lesser beverage on the premises. The Blackwater Brewing Company in Davis and Mountain State Brewing in Thomas provide visitors with some very good craft beer.

So take a trip off the beaten track and visit the Potomac Highlands where mountain biking, fishing, skiing, kayaking, hiking, hunting and rafting will leave you ravenous, and where you’ll find some pretty accomplished folks that know how to feed the beast.

My not so wine-stained palate got a much-needed workout recently after a few weeks of less than vigorous exercise. I guess I’ve been in a wine funk, but a sip of delicious purple elixir has renewed my passion for all things made from spoiled grapes – which is, after all, the essence of fermentation.

Anyway, I am reinvigorated and that’s because of not only a specific wine, but because of a region of the wine world that has had an incredible run of excellent vintages over the past 14 years. I speak of the Rhone and particularly the southern most appellations in Provence upon which Bacchus has smiled for such a long time.

There has been an incredible string of good to superlative vintages in the Rhone region from 1998 through 2011. With the exception of 2002, when many vineyards were inundated by torrential rain and flooding, every vintage that has been released since 1998 has been highly rated.

Provence, of course, is home to Chateauneuf Du Pape, the most famous and expensive wine of this southern Rhone region. However, there are several other sub-appellations in the area such as Gigondas, Vacqueyras, Cotes du Luberon and Tavel that are producing exceptional value-priced wines.

While there are some excellent white wines made in Provence, principally from marsanne, rousanne and viognier, the emphasis here is on red produced mainly from grenache, syrah and mourvedre. The aforementioned wine that re-invigorated my palate is a Cotes Du Rhone which is a red blend produced from grapes that can be sourced from anywhere in the Rhone appellation.

Cotes Du Rhone is usually priced from $10 to $20 a bottle and is especially good with barbecued hamburgers, ribs or casseroles and is generally a medium-bodied wine with appealing peppery, ripe fruit flavors




The 2009 Kermit Lynch Cotes Du Rhone ($13) is the most recent (in a long string of wines) to take my breath away and leave my tongue purple. This particular wine has aromas of leather and black pepper and flavors of black cherries and cola.

I grilled a skirt steak that had been rubbed with ancho chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, cayenne and black pepper to act as an accompaniment to the wine and the combination was spot on.

There are a number of exceptional importers that you should look for in seeking out your own version of Provencal wine nirvana. Among the best are: Kermit Lynch, Kysela, Guigal, Beaucastel, Chapoutier, Olivier Cuilleras, Paul Autard and Rayas.

For those of you who love dessert wines, you will find one of the best in Provence. Look for a Muscat Beaumes de Venise. Produced in the village of the same name from Muscat grapes, this sweet elixir is full of apricot aromas and rich, round melon flavors and it is great with chocolate!

I am a locavore. I love to eat locally grown produce and meat that has been raised on nearby farms. I also love wines produced in our state and I am constantly on the prowl for good Mountain State sippers. And there are a number of them being produced among the 20 state wineries scattered throughout these here hills.

So why don’t we see more of the European varietals - like cabernet, chardonnay and pinot noir – being grown in the state? There are practical reasons which are explained below, but one state wine maker is proving that it can be done.

Vitis Vinifera is the official classification of grapes native to Europe and the Middle East and it produces the world’s greatest wines. In addition to the famous vinifera grapes such as the ones mentioned above, there are literally thousands of other varietals in the classification.

There are two other classifications of wine grapes produced in the US. They are: vitas labrusca, a native American vine producing grapes such as concord and Catawba; and French-American hybrids such as seyval blanc, vidal blanc and chambourcin.

Labrusca can make decent, but distinctly flavored wines while French-American hybrids (which are French vines grafted onto American rootstock) can produce wines closer in quality to Vinifera.

So, in the quality hierarchy, vinifera grapes produce the best wines followed by French-American hybrids and then labrusca varietals. Why, then, don’t more West Virginia wine makers produce vinifera grapes if these make superior wines?

Well, the fact is that labrusca and French-American hybrids are considerably more hardy and prolific than vinifera. They are also less susceptible than vinifera to mold, diseases and the sometimes harsh realities of West Virginia weather. That’s why you see wineries in the state growing mostly labrusca and French-American Hybrids.

While there is no question that vinifera is extremely difficult to grow in West Virginia, it is not impossible to do so and one winery in particular has been successful at it for years.




A few weeks back, I wrote about several eating establishments and purveyors of fine wine in the Canaan Valley and Potomac Highlands of West Virginia. Domiciled in that same region of the state is the only West Virginia winery growing and making a significant amount of its production from vinifera.

Charles Whitehill is the owner and wine maker at Potomac Highland Winery in Keyser and has proven that it is possible to produce good wine from vinifera. His cabernet, pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay vines, planted on his Fried Meat Ridge Vineyard, somehow survive the harsh winters and hot summers of the eastern West Virginia mountains. And the results, as far as I am concerned, are well worth the effort. Here are some worth searching for.

2009 Potomac Highland Meritage ($14) This medium bodied blend of 68% cabernet sauvignon, 17% cabernet franc and 15% merlot is full of sweet black cherry flavors with just a touch of vanilla from the light oak aging. Try it with marinated and grilled sirloin.

2011 Potomac Highland Riesling ($12) Slightly sweet green apple flavors highlight this refreshing, exceptionally balanced wine. Great as a porch sipper or as an accompaniment to brunch foods like omelets and quiche.

2011 Potomac Highland Chardonnay ($12) – This wine has a creamy mouth feel with hints of ripe pear, anise and nutmeg spice. Lightly oaked, it finishes dry and would be excellent to pair with smoked WV trout.

You can look for Potomac Highland wines around the state or call (304-788-3066) for shipment. You can also visit their website at www.potomac-highland-winery.com.