Dear Colorado Wine Club Member,

Fruit set is now about complete in the Grand Valley.  The flowers flowered, the wind blew, and Presto!  We have pollinated and successfully begun growing tiny wine grapes.  There on the vine they will rest, soaking up resources for the rest of the growing season.  What’s so amazing is that they know what to do and don’t have to think about it.  They just sit there, basking in the sun, and through photosynthesis, make the sun’s energy available to the rest of the planet in a useable form – first sugar, then wine.  In these energy sensitive times, I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to make industrial alcohol from grapes.  We could use it to heat our homes or run our cars or supply our fuel cells.  Probably a worthless endeavor . . . who would do that if they could make scrumptious wine instead?

Enclosed are your Wine Club bottles.  This month’s wines for the Sweet Colorado Wine Club are:

2006 Lone Eagle Riesling, Jackrabbit Hill Winery

This is a great example of Riesling in an off dry style.  The Residual sugar is probably about 2%, so it’s just slightly sweet.  It’s got lovely scents of apricots and pineapple, and fine texture in the mouth, with great acid balance and a clean, sweet finish.  This is a great aperitif, a beginning beverage for any social gathering.  Enjoy it with mild hors d’oeuvres and snacks like cheeses and crackers, black olives, carrots and celery with a ranch dressing dip, grape tomatoes, baby endive leaves.  You can even offer honeydew and cantaloupe and it will all go well with this Riesling.  To top it all off, the wine is made from certified organically grown grapes.

Cherry Wine, Mountain View Winery

We found Mike Young at his farm in Olathe.  It’s a third generation family estate with fruit and grapes of many kinds.  The Cherry wine is delicious and has been dubbed “Very Cherry” according to Mike.  We got the cherry nose right away, and a sweet, floral burst of flavor in the mouth at first.  Then, as the finish rounded out, the cherries came rushing in about 10 seconds after swallowing.  It was amazing and a lot of fun.  Try Parker Carlson’s old trick of dipping the rim of the wine glass in melted milk chocolate.  Let it cool, then pour the cherry wine and enjoy it like that.  It’s a surefire party maker.

As always, enjoy the wines in good health!

Sincerely,

Glenn & Natalie Foster