Our favorite Lehigh Valley summer food and wine pairings

During the summer months there is much to be done in the vineyards on the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail. After long days tending to the grapes, attention from farming turns to evenings filled with great wine and food! Read on for delicious food and wine pairings from your friends on the trail:

AMORE, our peach, apricot and blueberry wines are great served cold on a summer day. For a more traditional palate, we recommend our Cayuga or Riesling chilled to 55 degrees. The Cayuga and Riesling are perfect with grilled chicken, fish and veggies. The fruit wines pair nicely with mild cheese or can be used in summer sangria.

Up at BIG CREEK we are enjoying fresh fruit salads and our Rosé, Vin di Pasqualina.

BLUE MOUNTAIN will be sipping the newly released White Merlot with your favorite barbecued chicken or rib recipe. This refreshing semi dry wine is crisp and fruity with a long lingering finish. Happy grilling!

CLOVER HILL VINEYARDS & WINERY'S favorite summertime treat is clams steamed open on the grill then drizzled with a lemon, garlic and chive butter sauce and served with a cool glass of Pinot Grigio.

FRANKLIN HILL VINEYARD'S favorite is the newly produced Pomegranate Peach. Serve it as a fun martini by adding vodka and sliced peaches. We love to pair it with crab crakes or shrimp... absolutely delicious!

GALEN GLEN recommends our refreshing 2010 Half Dry Riesling (silver medals from Finger Lakes and CA Wine Competitions). Bursting with golden apple, ripe pear and honey melon, it is delicious with grilled shrimp, risotto and greens from the garden.

It is grilling season at PINNACLE RIDGE! Brad takes our garden grown vegetables (peppers, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, new potatoes and tomatoes) and roasts them slowly on the grill. The vegetables are dressed in extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper and a handful of fresh herbs, also from our garden! The t-bone hits the grill next. Angel hair pasta tossed with fresh tomatoes, fresh basil and feta cheese arrives at the picnic table just as the steaks are being pulled from the grill—done to perfection! We suggest a glass of Pinnacle Ridge 2009 Chambourcin.

VYNECREST's summer favorite is salmon cooked on the grill with a mango salsa, served with our Dry Riesling, which has a tropical nose and a bold crisp finish. Great combination.

More details for Great PA Wine Toast this Saturday, August 14!

A few more of our Lehigh Valley Wine Trail wineries have announced their plans for this coming Saturday's Great PA Wine Toast event.They include:

Vynecrest Winery in Breinigsville will have a tour with the Winemaker at 1 p.m., Arianne Rox live music in the Vyneskeller from 1:30-4:30 p.m. and the big toast starting at 3:30 p.m. All participants get a keepsake souvenir glass. All events are free of charge. It is also the Dog Days of August and Vynecrest will offer hot dogs on the grill for $1.

Sorrenti Cherry Valley Vineyards in Saylorsburg will serve 1/2 glasses of their gold medal winning Seyval Blanc wine, raising them for the big toast.

Amore Vineyards in Nazareth will be introducing wines from their 2009 harvest, just bottled on August 12.

Do you prefer to go naked?

This post is written by guest blogger and wine aficionado Jim Hutchings.

At Vynecrest Winery’s first Chardonnay Weekend event last weekend, they had two versions of their new Chardonnay: oaked and un-oaked (also called naked Chardonnay). Events like this showcase the versatility of grapes and how such different results can come from a single grape.

The winemakers at each winery craft their wine in different fashions, leaving more residual sugar in the final product or letting it ferment more fully to create a drier wine. We see this with Riesling, Vidal, and Chambourcin at many of the wineries.

A difference in sugar levels makes wildly different wines from the same grape, but so does the introduction of oak to the wine-making process. The addition of oak to a white wine makes a completely different wine.

Personally, I prefer an oaked Chardonnay because of the toasty, buttery taste. This is in stark contrast to the crisp, more fruit-forward unoaked Chardonnay. Naked Chardonnay is still delicious, but with unoaked dry Riesling, Vidal, Seyval, Grüner Veltliner, and Pinot Gris wines on the trail, I particularly enjoy how an oaked Chardonnay stands out from the pack.

What are your tastes?