Saturday we feature Rachel Brandt and Bradley Johnson from 2-5pm.  Here’s a sneak peek:

Sunday features Sullivan-area musician Travis Fadler from 2-5pm. He’s put together a great medley to give you an idea of his music:

Our holiday gift to you is NO COVER CHARGE either day! Come on out and enjoy the music – if it’s raining we’ll set up in the wine cellar. But hopefully the sun will be shining so we can be out in the wine garden.

Clyde and I are really looking forward to seeing you all this weekend! Cheers.

How to marinate meat with wine

Marinating any meat with wine is pretty simple.  Unwrap your meat, rinse it with water and pat it dry.

Then place your meat in a zip-lock bag or shallow dish.  Pour your wine over the meat, seal the bag or cover the dish, and leave in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Or another option that’s a bit faster: you can pour the wine over the meat and let the meat come closer to room temperature in a bag or dish on your counter top for about 15-30 minutes (as I did with the steelhead trout pictured above).

Whichever option you choose, once your meat has finished marinating, simply discard the wine and cook the meat as you prefer.  For Clyde and I, that usually means that we fire up the charcoal bbq pit, but it’s totally up to you!  Use a gas grill, roast the meat, or saute it!  Just be sure to cook the meat completely so you are on the safe side.

How to marinate vegetables with wine

There are just a few changes in the process for veggies.  I usually like to cut the vegetables into large chunks or thick slices before soaking them in the wine.  I also typically add a few tablespoons of olive oil in with the wine.

Vegetables won’t take as long to soak in the marinade, but you’ll want to let them sit for at least 10 minutes.

Just as with the meat, to cook the marinated veggies, you have options!  Discard the marinade and cook on the grill – direct on the grate if you have large pieces, or package the veggies in a foil pouch to grill if they are cut small enough to fall through the grate.  Add a bit of the marinade to the pouch for some extra steam to help cook the veggies through.

You can broil your marinated vegetables in the oven, or saute them in a large skillet.  Feel free to use some of the wine marinade to help cook those veggies in either of these two options as well!

Why it’s so good

There are several reasons why it’s good to use wine to marinate your food:

1. First of all (and in my mind the most important reason), it adds great flavor to your dish.  If you are into wine & food pairing, this is a super easy way to marry the flavors of your food together with the wine you plan on serving.
2. Second up (and Clyde’s most important reason), the wine will help kill any harmful bacteria that might be present.
3. When you marinate meat in wine for a longer period of time, the wine will help tenderize the meat.
4. A wine marinade couldn’t be easier!  Sure, you could add other spices or ingredients to the marinade, but just pouring the wine straight out of the bottle over your food will add lots of flavor without any other effort.  Instant gourmet!
5. Finally, when you use red wine for a marinade, you add a lovely color to your dish that you wouldn’t otherwise get from other types of marinades.

I hope I’ve convinced you to pour a bit of wine over your food and marinate it this weekend. Let me know what your favorite foods to marinate are in the comments below.  Cheers!

Well, this past Saturday, ‘Brilary’ as Julie has lovingly coined the couple, tied the knot in our wine garden. It was a beautiful day, and a wonderful wedding. I had a great time running around with my camera too. This is a picture-heavy post, but I just couldn’t resist sharing a few favorite shots with you all.

There’s a shot of the wine garden all set up, as people were finding their seats just before the ceremony began. Hillary and her family created all the floral bouquets you see.

Beautiful lush green woods set the backdrop for the breezy staging that Brandon set up.

There were so many sweet moments to try to capture during the ceremony – this one turned out to be a favorite for me. Hilary’s sister has twin boys, and one little guy was not about to miss out on some of the fun with his mom! Plus, the bridesmaid on the right had an emotional tear in her eye.  Or maybe she just had allergies.

Many of you may remember Julie from a couple years ago when she worked for us here at Peaceful Bend. We put her right back to work for the wedding! Here she is coordinating the music during the ceremony. She looks happy to see her friends getting married.

The bride and groom looking happy and relaxed as they walk back down the aisle.

While Pepe let the couple have their moment, he was not about to let the rest of the wedding party upstage him! Everyone got a laugh at his antics on the aisle.

And of course, he pulled out his ‘sit in a chair’ trick to charm the kids (and adults) during the appetizer hour.

Instead of a large cake to have to cut up and serve after dinner, the couple opted for cupcakes with a small cake topper. So smart.

BUSTED!!!!!!!!!!! This guy grabbed a quick cupcake during the appetizer hour while he thought no one was watching!  Ha!  I didn’t tell on him though…I kinda wanted to do the same thing.

Lots of toasting to the happy couple during dinner.

After dinner everyone enjoyed chatting, taking ATV rides around the property (thanks Rob and Karen!), and dancing.

It looked so pretty after dark, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at a few night shots of the scene.

Congratulations Hilary and Brandon! Clyde and I were so lucky to be the venue for your beautiful celebration. We hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did, and that your love continues to grow throughout all your days together.  Cheers to you!

We have two new designs for our t-shirts this year. I love this wine stain design. The great thing about this one is that it won’t matter if you spill any of your wine on your shirt – it will just add to the design!

And here is a fresh, modern design that I like a lot too. And the shirt is dark enough that actual wine stains won’t show!

Both shirts are made from 100% preshrunk cotton. The fabric is nice and soft and it’s a unisex cut, so these are perfect for guys or gals! Now, I haven’t washed mine yet, so we’ll see about that preshrunk part. Rest assured that I will share my thoughts on how the shirts hold up to washing once I’ve put them through the rigors of my laundry.

Come on by our tasting room to pick up your Peaceful Bend ‘t’ anytime. Cheers!

Talented local teen Alyssa Forbes will be playing here on Sunday, May 19 starting at 2pm. Come on out and listen to all her new originals! This event will go on rain or shine and there is no cover charge.  Pick up some cheese and sausage in the tasting room along with your bottle of wine.  Then sit back, and enjoy a wonderful afternoon of wine, music, and friendship with us!

Also, on Saturday May 18, we will be hosting a wedding, so our wine garden will not be available after 4pm and we will be parking all cars up close to the cottage. The tasting room will stay open until 6pm, but will be closed to the public promptly at 6 so we can better serve the wedding.

I will have to take pictures to share with you all after the wedding. It’s a special one for us, as it’s the wedding of two friends that have been coming down to the winery for several years. In fact, Brandon made the great promo video for us that you can find in the sticky at the top of our home page. We are so excited to host this event for them, and appreciate your patience with the parking and hours on Saturday. Cheers!

What a fun and busy weekend! I had a great time with my pal Terry and her daughter Molly at the Laumeier Art Fair on Friday night. We served wine to a hearty crowd that braved cool temperatures and spritzing rain.

Saturday the sun came out and we had the chance to visit with lots of friends that we haven’t seen for a while. I hope the birthday party later that night went well!

And I also hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day yesterday too. We really appreciated the sunshine, great music, and fun visitors that came by! Tim Bond entertained the crowd and even brought up a special guest performer later in the afternoon.

Be sure to plan a trip here to Peaceful Bend soon and enjoy all the spring flowers that are popping out. Cheers!

Plus, I want to share  a little love for our moms with you all today.

Here’s my (katie’s) mom:

Judy makes the best pecan pie, is an artist specializing in pottery, lives in Michigan, and offers the best perspective on life that any daughter could ever hope for.

Here’s Clyde’s mom:

Maxine makes a delicious key lime pie, loves gardening, lives in Missouri, and has an innate talent for making you feel like the neatest person on the planet.

We are two lucky people to have such wonderful moms in our lives. Cheers to you both!

Be sure to mark your calendars for next Sunday, May 12, at 2pm to listen to Tim Bond.  Grab a picnic and your mom for a memorable Mother’s Day celebration with us here at Peaceful Bend!

Click here to download your own flyer for all our upcoming events.  And check out our events page for links to all the great local musicians we are hosting in May!

Part One: A general guide

Part Two: How wine is made

Part Three: A guide to red wine varieties

Just as a reminder from the last post, we use many unique varieties here in Missouri due to our challenging climate.  You’ll find Missouri wineries use both native and hybrid grapes which are better suited to our cold winters and fluctuating spring temperatures.  We tend to rely more on the hybridized varieties when it comes to the white grapes.  Here is a listing of several important Missouri white wine grape varieties.

Widely Used White Varieties:

Vignoles

The first thing to know about this grape is the pronunciation – ‘veen-yole’.  Ignore that ‘g’ and the ‘s’!  Vignoles is a delicious variety descended from the Riesling grape.  It boasts rich, tropical flavors and is one of the most popular varieties in Missouri.  The cluster of grapes is very compact, so it can be a tough one to grow without rot issues, but the resulting wine is usually well worth the effort.  You’ll often find this variety made into a semi-sweet style similar to a Riesling, or a decadent dessert-style late harvest wine.  At Peaceful Bend though, we like to break out of the normal treatment for this grape by barrel-fermenting the juice to make a robust, oaky, dry white we call Dry Creek.

Seyval

This hybridized variety is widely grown throughout the midwest and the eastern U.S.  It is vigorous, nicely disease-resistant and is one of the few varieties that actually improves in years with light frost damage.  The wine is also quite versatile, so you’ll find this in a spectrum of styles from dry to sweet.  It can be a bit difficult to ferment however; too often developing an unpleasant ‘armpit’ aroma.  But when fermented properly, Seyval has a nice apple and peach aroma.  Some wineries like to use Seyval to create a barrel-fermented, sur lie aged wine that would be similar to a Chardonnay.

Vidal

Like Seyval, Vidal is widely grown in the Midwest due to it’s disease and cold tolerance.  It makes a lovely light fruity white wine similar to Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio.  The berries will actually have almost a pink tinge to the skins when they are picked, but the resulting wine is typically very pale yellow.  You can find Vidal in all levels of sweetness, but it’s not often used in oak barrels.  It’s also a nice grape to make into a sparkling wine similar to Champagne and/or into a late harvest style dessert wine.

Cayuga White

This variety is a favorite here at Peaceful Bend.  We like it because it is so versatile in the wine cellar; it tastes great on it’s own, but it also blends deliciously with other varieties.  Cayuga needs to be harvested quite early in the season to retain the best flavors in the wine, so it will typically be the first grape to come into the winery each fall.  Last year we harvested this variety in July – a record! – but most years it comes in during the middle to latter part of August.  This vine is quite vigorous and produces a LOT of juice, so it’s a great variety to have in the mix.

Lesser Used White Grape Varieties

Chardonel

I’m putting this variety in the ‘lesser used’ category, but it is actually a popular variety and quite important to some areas in Missouri.  Unfortunately, this grape has a lot of it’s parent grape, Chardonnay, in it and is very picky about where it can grow.  It needs well-drained soil to support it’s roots, often it needs grafting onto rootstock, and it can be quite sensitive to frost.  So it’s not the easiest to grow, but if a site can support this vine, the wine is fruity, complex and well balanced – very similar to Chardonnay.

Traminette

If you are a fan of the German grape Gewürztraminer, then you’ll want to seek out this grape variety.  Traminette was once described to me as “Gewürztraminer on steroids,” meaning that Traminette exhibits incredibly intense spicy flavors, much more so than it’s parent grape!  This variety has it’s fans, but it isn’t found as widespread as the other grapes I’ve listed above.  It can be overly tannic at times, but often it shows a nice bright lemon and spice character in the aroma that compliments fish and curry dishes wonderfully.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to the white wine varieties in Missouri.  If you have other topics you would like me to address in upcoming articles, drop me a line or leave me a comment.  Cheers!