The summer of 2012 is gone and passed in the blink of an eye.  It was loaded with adventures, activities, produce, regional cheeses, family and friends.  We now find ourselves in October, which for some may involve cooler autumn temperatures but for many of us it includes misleadingly warm afternoons as if to convince us that summer might be here to stay.   Nevertheless, for those in school rooms, offices or simply at home finding that the daylight hours are increasingly shorter, we all sit with lingering looks out windows wondering how long blissful warm afternoons will last.  School terms begin with the classic essay regarding what did one do over the summer and fittingly, over the next several articles I will show you just that. 

Prepare yourself for essays on summer food pairings that can chameleon themselves to charm autumn menus.   Learn how rosy rosé wines can cheer a warm fall afternoon.  Explore new wine regions whether it is down the California coast or a cross-country jaunt to leaf-peeping New England.   When wine and food is involved, no matter the locale or the season there is plenty to learn and your palate evolves in the journey if you let it.*

Peaches and blueberries, for example, are wonderful summer fruits.   No matter where folks live in the United States they wait for these gems to come into season at their local farmer’s markets.   If you were thrifty and decided to freeze, can or preserve any of these summer delights, autumn is a wonderful time to bring these two fruits together into a dessert and change its sweet summer profile to one fitting for fall. 

This summer I was snooping in my brother’s kitchen.  I was looking for ingredients and determining what I could find.   He had a bottle of one of my favorite picks for Muscat Blanc by Markham Vineyards set out on the counter.  Of course, the easy pick is a dessert laden with fresh summer peaches to accentuate the dessert wine’s natural fresh picked stone fruit flavors.  However, as luck would have it, there were not enough peaches for a pie.  Not enough ingredients for cream puffs that I featured from two summers ago.   However, there were fresh blueberries and lots of them.   And while there was not proper equipment, ingredients or time for true pastry making, this surrogate kitchen was primed and set for cobbler making.

Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

Putting together blueberries and peaches creates a sweet fruit dessert, however, it has the ability to transcend into a much richer profile.  Not much sugar was required, but using cinnamon and nutmeg, this cobbler took off with a soul-warming zing.  Similarly today, if thoughtfulness is incorporated, the nutmeg can take a greater stage in the recipe to make it a fitting dessert for fall occasions and give some breathing room from the bombarding onslaught of pumpkin and molasses driven autumnal delights.   It allows one to savor summer for just a little bit longer, a form of denial by dessert, yet similarly it fills your kitchen with those wonderful warm aromas that we so often associate with fall.

But what about the wine?   Wine is a crucial element here and of course to all of the articles on this web site from the past three years.

Muscat is one of those grapes that is naturally sweet.  It simply has higher sugar content and when it is made into wine, it appears as a dessert or aperitif wine.   Historically, I was never a fan of dessert wines.  They simply were too sweet if the winemaker in question went the “cloyingly sweet” route.  Markham Vineyards, located in the historic Laurent winery just north of downtown St. Helena, however, has traditionally made a Muscat Blanc that is not overly sweet, but with just a kiss of sugar to invoke memories of freshly picked summer stone fruit.

While the Muscat Blanc may pair perfectly with peaches, it does not necessarily pair as swimming with cinnamon and nutmeg spices or blueberries.  But why would it be paired with this dessert?  

This is a cultural nuance where the true purpose of dessert wines comes forth.   Dessert wines are meant to be sipped.   As such, they can be used as a palate cleanser.   While slowly working your way through a dessert such as a Peach-Blueberry Cobbler, once the food has left your mouth, a sip of dessert wine will cleanse the palate.  It functions to add a hint of sweetness coupled with a refreshing pause before you are ready to approach the cobbler again.

And as for my brother, he can relive this dessert again and test its propensity for an autumn menu.   I am fairly certain that my hand-scrawled recipe from that random summer afternoon is still resting in a basket on his kitchen counter.   Cheers!

*Starting this week and onward, please check other tabs on the site (SLO Vine, Rocky Mountain Vine and the new New England Vine) to learn about new wines from areas outside of Napa Valley and what makes them so deliciously different!