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2010 Gift Guide: Local Vineyards Offer Holiday Spirits

With Hanukkah arriving earlier this year, the holiday dinner and gift season has already begun. From kosher wines to holiday party hits and winning Christmas gift baskets, Carolyn finds appropriate holidays spirits on and off the coastal wine trail.

Ho, ho, ho! Holiday time is here. Let's raise a glass of wine for holiday cheer. Not only do our local vineyards offer great wines as gifts, they also offer accruements and locally made foods and pottery to make gifts all the more special. One can find plenty of items to make a distinctive gift basket for the wine lover on your list, or for someone you would like to introduce to wine.

Newport Vineyards, Middletown

 in Middletown offers their fabulous Vidal Ice Wine, voted one of the top 50 wines in America. Ice wine is made from grapes that are harvested after the third hard freeze.

Grapes are pressed while frozen. The constant freezing and thawing concentrates the sugars and makes the wine very sweet and flavorful. Ice wine pairs perfectly with dark chocolate and fruit.

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Rhode Island Port is also one of Newport Vineyards special wines. It would make a great gift for that hard-to-buy-for but very special person in your life. Port wine is a blend of different vintages that are more than a decade old. It is made in the classic Portuguese ruby red style.

Custom labels are something else that Newport Vineyards offers on their 750ml bottles. They will also customize the 375ml for certain wines. What a great stocking stuffer.

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Greenvale Vineyards, Portsmouth

Greenvale Vineyards suggested their Skipping Stone wine as a perfect gift.

Skipping Stone is a blend of 90-percent Cayuga and 10-percent Vidal Blanc. Very pale in color, the wine is light with a bright, crisp, floral nose -- delicious and refreshing on the palate. It is slightly off dry with a nice balance of sweetness and acidity. This wine is great sipping wine by itself, with cheese, a simple meal and is also sensational with spicy foods. It is fermented in stainless steel. An ideal gift to introduce someone to wine appreciation.

Greenvale's Cabernet Franc is a well-balanced, medium bodied Bordeaux style red. It is 82-percent Cabernet Franc and 18-percent Merlot and barrel aged. The complex aromas of plum and spice, with soft tannin and delicious lingering finish, make this an excellent pairing with many meals, especially grilled or roasted meats.

Greenvale also offers condiments and pottery made by local artisans.  Ben Gaboury of the Newport Potters Guild made distinctive little canapé dishes and key chains with the Greenvale logo. Wicked Natural, a local Bristol, RI company, sells their wicked good unusual jams, jellies and dips, a great choice to serve with bread, cheese and wine. If you have never tried Nina Dotterers of Newport's mustard, now would be a great time to pick up a few jars for gifts and for yourself.  Or from Cory's Kitchen at  an assortment of unique jams and jellies.

Sakonnet Vineyards, Little Compton

Sakonnet Vineyards' Winterwine is made form frozen Vidal Blanc grapes. Since the climate at Sakonnet is a little too mild to make ice wine, they make what they call Winterwine. The grapes are harvested and then frozen for a few months. Then after the flavors have concentrated the grapes are processed into a luscious, sweet wine. Sakonnet also produces a fabulous port wine made form 100-percent Chancellor grapes. It is aged in American oak barrels for two years and is 18-percent alcohol. The 2007 vintage is sold out but they assured me they would bottle more in time for the holidays.  

Wine for Hanukkah Gifts and Celebrations

For a Hanukkah gift or meal, a kosher wine would be appropriate. This year Hanukkah is celebrated Dec.1 to Dec. 9.

Wineries must observe Jewish dietary law under rabbinical supervision in order to have their wines considered kosher. The word kosher is derived from the Hebrew word "kasher" that means proper or pure. The whole process must be preformed by orthodox Jews only.  

For the most part, kosher wines are made from Concord grapes and are very sweet. But that is changing now that California vineyards are making wine from different varieties of grapes such as Chardonnay.

Jewish laws dictate that no animal products come in contact with the wine. All of the equipment including tanks, crushers, and presses must be cleaned three times by steam cleaning, scorching hot water and, when needed, blow torches. Barrels should be new, but if they are used, they have to have been previously used for kosher wines exclusively.

If I remember correctly, the tag line for Manischewitz, was "What a Wine." It is a name that is easily recognizable, as is their commitment to tradition. For more than 60 years, in Brooklyn and Naples, New York, Manischewitz produced high quality kosher wine.

In 1987 when Manischewitz wine was purchased from the Monarch Wine Company in Brooklyn, NY, it became part of the Centerra Wine Company portfolio. Now Manischewitz is currently produced at Widmer Wine Cellars in Naples, NY, where all Manischewitz wines are certified Kosher and produced under the supervision of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Since I did could not visit the winery, I got most of this information from their web site. They offer an extensive product line that includes a variety of flavors and sizes: Concord grape, 100-percent Blackberry wine, Smooth & Light Concord Grape, full bodied sweet Cherry, Extra Heavy Malaga, hearty red Elderberry, Medium Dry Concord, hearty red Loganberry, and Cream White Concord.

Red wines go best with brisket, while dry white wines go well with latkes or other oil fried foods that are symbolic of the oil in the Hanukkah story.

Of course there are many others who produce Kosher wines, such as Morgan David Wine from New York, Hagafen from Napa Valley and Yarden wines from the Golan Heights to name a few.

Cheers! Salute! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!

Carolyn Horan of Middletown is a regular contributor to the New England Wine Gazette. To see more of Carolyn Horan's articles on wine and other culinary topics, visit www.Carolynhoran.com. 

 

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