Ozarks wines pair with elite pork fare

Lots of empties — a good sign

Missouri Pork Producers' annual Taste of Elegance last night, in which top chefs knock themselves out creating extreme pork dishes while Ozarks Food Harvest extends appreciation for its volunteers and donors, also featured wines from southwest Missouri.

Folks from OOVVDA and Whispering Oaks poured their wine, as well as wines from Lindwedel. Great pairings:

Whispering Oaks semi-sweet Vidal (fruit and moderate tang) with seared rack of pork, duo of sweet and Peruvian pomme purée, root beer fig demi, lardoon braised Brussels sprouts and bacon fat foam — Chef samuel Cousins, Fire and Ice

Lindwedel Norton (smooth with understated spice) with Big Easy Creole spiced pork chops with Andouille sausage bread pudding, crispy kale and Merlot and dried cherry reduction — Chef Christopher Freeman, Keeter Center at College of the Ozarks

OOVVDA Chambourcin (giant berry flavor) with Polish pork rouladen with rotkol and potato latkes with bacon — Chef Cory Jefferson, Cook's Kettle

Of course, toward the end of a sampling of 10 dishes, almost any wine pairs really well …

Heat extends season for Missouri white wines

There's still three more weeks of summer and 100 still pops up occasionally in the forecast. So, there's still plenty of time and opportunity to pour white wine from Missouri. Here are some suggestions, in no particular order, from a great year of winery hopping.

Summit Lake Lewis & Clark: It's a dry, sophisticated blend of Vidal, Chardonel and Vignoles.

Native Stone Louis & Clark's Sweet Discovery: The explorer team covered a lot of ground, so it's no surprise that they'd leave inspiration for multiple wines in their path. Don't be fooled by the mention of "sweet" on the label. Yes, there's a little sugar, but it's mainly to balance the delicate floral notes.

Three Squirrels Acorn White: A crisp, dry blend of Chardonel and Vidal.

7C's Round Up White: A blend of Vignoles and Traminette with a touch of sweetness. The winery's tasting notes mention floral and crisp, but I tasted a citrus effect with a more substantial mouth feel.

Whispering Oaks Catawba: The smoothest Catawba you will find anywhere.

Heinrichhaus Traminette: The best Traminette in Missouri.

Alex Trebek disses Catawba wine

On Tuesday evening, Jeopardy presented an answer, the question for which was What is Catawba? The reference was to both the Native American tribe and the wine. As I recall, none of the competitors buzzed on this one. Alex Trebek gave a little explanation along with the correct response, and he ended with his opinion of the wine: "A very harsh wine," he said.

That assessment, of course, is false. The evidence of appealing Catawba can be found Whispering Oaks, Meramec Vineyards, and many other Missouri wineries. With that remark, Trebek's credibility as a wine analyst seems have been jeopardized ...

News from Whispering Oaks — and a surprise encounter

Larry Green pours Vignoles at his tasting bar.

Larry and Miriam Green, owners of Whispering Oaks Vineyard and Winery just east of Seymour, let us taste their final formulation of their first Traminette vintage, which they plan to release next year. Traminette is a cross between Seyval and Gewürztraminer. Larry, who likes to experiment with different prototypes before selling a wine, tried different levels of sweetness, he said. First he went all the way dry, then maximally sweet, and settled on a median level with just enough sugar to bring out the fruit and floral essences.

This year’s Catawba represents another chapter in the refinement of the wine over several years — less sugar (4 percent, down from 5-6 percent last year), and less alcohol (10.9 percent from 12.4 percent). Last year’s Catawba was a real breakthrough in smoothing out the strong fruit, achieved by taking the wine off the skins earlier.

As we departed, we chatted with a couple on the deck. The woman said she was from Lake County, Illinois, which is where I grew up — north of Chicago. Her hometown is Round Lake Beach, and she went to Carmel High School, a Catholic institution in Mundelein, which is my hometown. We discussed the suburban and exurban sprawl in that area, once populated with prosperous farms, which we now find unrecognizably tangled in streets, highways, strip malls, apartments, condos, big box stores and McMansions. I hadn’t thought much lately about Lake County, except for the fact that I now get lost whenever I go there. However my newfound homey clearly had urgent thoughts simmering and seeking an outlet.

“They took farmland more fertile that any place other than the Nile River Valley — and paved it,” she said.

“Paved it!”

I reminded her that neither of us lives there anymore.

She swept her arm in the direction of the vines and said, “That’s why we live in the Ozarks.”

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