A Quest to the Summit - Summit Lake Winery

A recent quest by the Chics took us to Summit Lake Winery, and we had a nice Wednesday evening break. Katie had been at the Missouri Wine & Grape Board Meeting - she's a board member, in the trenches fighting for the good of the Missouri wine industry as a whole on a regular basis. And she does a great job, as does the whole board. The meeting that day centered around re-branding Missouri Wines, and the ideas she shared with me are amazing, so stay tuned for more on that soon, as the campaign is finalized.

In the meantime, I'll tell you a bit about our experience at this beautiful Jefferson City area winery near the junction of Highways 54 and 63. We first enjoyed a spicy appetizer dip with a chilled bottle of Lewis & Clark, a crisp dry white wine blend. We apparently enjoyed this a lot, because it took us FOREVER to order our food. Plus, sitting on the patio with its picturesque view was so pleasant we weren't in a hurry. We finally go around to ordering - Katie had fish tacos with mango salsa and I had Hawaiian chicken. We also ordered another bottle of wine - and this is where our Ah-ha moment of the evening came.

We got the wine while our food was being prepared - a light, semi-dry red called Ideal With Friends made with St. Vincent grapes. OK, I confess, we were taken with the name, and when the wine came we were both a little, like, mmm, it's OK..... So we're drinking along, and our spicy sweet food dishes arrived. Both were good, but the real surprise is that the food pairing made the wine go from OK to really yummy! As Wine Chics, we love that stuff. And it's an important reminder - wine changes based on what you pair it with, so if you have a bottle that seems just OK, try it with a different style of food. You may be, like the Chics, pleased that you did. To help you out, tune in for my Monday blog, and I'll give a quick and easy tutorial on wine and food pairing basics.

We ended the evening on a great note - I can't remember exactly what they were called, but they involved champagne and peaches and were frozen and oh my. Can't imagine why my memory is a bit blurred. . .

Here's a great photo of Katie enjoying hers. OK, and here's one of me, too - it was a fun dessert-after-dinner-drink-smoothie-glass-of-happiness!

Finally, let me just say that Summit Lake was a close to home quest for us, but we really felt like we were getting away from it all. Thanks to the staff and John Ferrier, Summit Lake owner, pictured below with the Chics, for a great welcome.