Media Coordinator, Linda Carroll Weaver, writes an article for nittanyweddings.com about selecting wines for your wedding.  This article is available on the following link: http://www.nittanyweddings.com/wedding-planning-articles/a-marriage-of-food-wine-planning-guide-for-your-wedding-wine/

Link for this live broadcast: http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext?nxd_id=343742

Sarah Swistak from WTAJ’s Central PA Live television show was joined once again by winery manager, Jinx Proch, to talk about the upcoming Wine & Chocolate Pairing event at the winery. Jinx brought three wines to the set, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Nittany Mountain White, and Raspberry, which he paired with three different chocolates from Chocolate Madness. 

In what follows, Jinx leads Sarah through a wine and chocolate pairing. 

Sarah: Mt. Nittany Winery has a great event going on this weekend that is perfect for you and your honey. Jinx, tell us what’s going on.

Jinx: This Saturday and Sunday, we’re going to be pairing wine and chocolates. We’re having reservations available
from 12 noon to 5pm on Saturday and 12:30 – 4:00 pm on Sunday. You can taste up to six wines and all of them are going to be paired with chocolates from Chocolate Madness.

Sarah: You said this is by far your most popular event.  You expect as many as 900 people to make reservations for this so, if you want to go, it’s important that you get your name on the list.

Jinx: Yes, we still have some openings.  So give us a call at the winery at (814) 466-6373 and you can get a reservation slot on Saturday or Sunday and enjoy some of these tastings.

Sarah: Speaking of enjoying, let’s dive right in here – where do we start?

Jinx: First of all some general wine and chocolate pairing fundamentals, you always want to have the wine sweeter than the chocolate and that’s hard to do because wines typically aren’t that sweet, but they do have fruit so you’ll have the perception of sweetness from the fruit in the wine. The classic pairing is red wines and dark chocolates – dark chocolates aren’t that sweet. We have a dry red paired with a dark chocolate and then we’ll go down the line, getting sweeter as we go.

Up first is our Cabernet Sauvignon paired with a Creme Brulee Truffle from Chocolate Madness. First what you want to do it taste the chocolate and let it coat you mouth, and then taste the wine and let them work together.

Sarah: That is very good, very good pairing. I like the sweetness of the toffee on the top.

Jinx: Up next we have our Nittany Mountain White which is our most popular white wine. We have this paired with a Key Lime Truffle. This wine has a citrus appeal to it – aromas and tastes – and the key lime obviously is citrusy and the two go together so well – my wife’s favorite combination. The wine followed after the chocolate make the tastes explode in your mouth.

Sarah: You’re right the fruitiness of both play off each other.

Jinx: The last chocolate is a White Chocolate Lion Medalion. It has some vanilla flavors and we’re pairing this with our Raspberry Wine made from pure raspberries – this is dessert!  Chocolate Madness does a wonderful job – their products are great. They closed their store downtown but they have an online presence at www.chocolatemadness.etsy.com. So you can still get their chocolates, and ofcourse owner Paul will be at the event and he will have his chocolates for sale.

Sarah: That raspberry is very good and very refreshing. So once again, the Wine and Chocolate Pairing event is coming up this weekend at the Mt. Nittany Winery in Centre Hall. The cost is $4.50 and reservations are required.  As an added bonus, you guys have two recipes on your website using your wine to make a Sparkling Cabernet Cocktail and a Chocolate Red Wine Cake. We will have those recipes linked on our website, so if you’re feeling adventurous, you can try your hand at making these at home.

Link to this live broadcast: http://wearecentralpa.com/centralpatvhome

Sarah Swistak from WTAJ’s Central PA Live television show was joined once again by winery manager, Jinx Proch, to talk about deals for holiday wines this season. Jinx brought a variety of wines to the set, including ’09 Merlot, Rock Hill Red and Spiced Apple. They also discussed the Winery’s “Mulled Wine & Gingerbread” Open House on December 17 & 18, which featured all of the wines that were brought for this segment.

What follows is the commentary of Jinx Proch, manager of Mt. Nittany Winery.

“Today, we are going to be tasting mulled wines. Mulled wines are heated wines – typically they have some spices added to them, typically some sugar as well. They are great served warm for a holiday gathering, good with dessert or after dessert by themselves. We have spice packets that we sell that you can add to the wine – we have a couple wines here that we’ve done that with. We also sell our Spiced Apple wine that is already spiced in the bottle so that you don’t have to do anything other than heat it. I should mention that when you heat these wines, you don’t want to boil them. If you boil them, that will evaporate the alchohol. You can heat them several different ways, either in a microwave or a crock pot, or on the stove. The alchohol will boil off if the temperature is above about 180 degrees farenheit, so you’ll want to make sure that your heating temperature is below this.

Up first, we have our Merlot and this has been spiced.The wines we’re trying will be getting increasingly sweeter. The heat is going to allow the aromas to really roll off of this. You’ll need an insulator or something similar to a coffee cup to taste out of. Enjoy these spices that are coming off of these as you taste. This bottle of Melot is spiced with two or three of our spice packets and then if you want to add sugar, you can. This did not have more sugar added to it. You should get the taste of the cinnamon and cloves and I get some orange out of this.

Next we have our Rock Hill Red. This is named after the Rock Hill School in Linden Hall which was recently restored – just down the hill from the winery. This is also spiced with our spice packets which cost 75 cents. This is sweeter and has been flavored with 2 spice packets plus about one tablespoon of sugar per bottle. I tell people to sweeten to taste. Throw in a tablespoon of sugar, and if you want it sweeter, add more.

The last one is the sweetest of all – the Spiced Apple. This is a wine that we spice in the bottle, so there are cloves and cinnamon already built into this and a great apple flavor and taste. So this will be great with apple pie, ice cream, or by itself. Also good with gingerbread or any other cookies.”

Celebration Hall will be hosting Wisecrackers Comedy Club beginning November 26^th every Friday and Saturday night.  Why not try a dinner and a show? Contact Tom Bruce (814-280-7485) with Wisecrackers Comedy Club for more info for this fun night out!  Wisecrackers website: http://www.wisecrackers.biz/state_college.html

http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext-centralpalive?nxd_id=323387
Reported By: Sarah Swistak
Wednesday, November, 16 2011 @ 5:10 PM

Since it was too rainy to be at the vineyard on the afternoon of November 16, our manager, Jinx Proch, came to the studio at WTAJ to do a winetasting with Sarah Swistak on Central PA Live.  He and Sarah did a live wine tasting of our four new 2010 vintage red wine and a transcription of his comments on these wines follows.

These are all 2010 vintage wines which we bottled in August and we’re ready to release them.  – 2010 was a fantastic year for grapes in PA and we’re excited about getting these out for folks to enjoy.  Up first we’re going to taste our 2010 Merlot.  This Merlot is not oaked and you’re going to get an incredible amount of fruit with this.  The color is a really nice dark, inky, purple.  The aroma is great fruit – I get some cherry.  There was so much fruit in this we didn’t want to overpower it with oak, so there is no oak at all in this Merlot.

The next wine we will try is 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, which is the name of the grape as Merlot is the name of the grape we just tried.  This spent time in American oak barrels so you’ll get oak aromas in this.  I always think of coffee when I smell this – coffee is a common descriptor for red wine done in oak.  This wine has a good long fruit finish.  When we’re swirling the wine around in the glass before we taste it, we’re allowing the air to come to the surface so the aromas can come out.  A big part enjoying of wine is experiencing the aromas so it’s important to get your nose down in the glass.

2010 Cabernet Franc is the next wine up.  Cabernet Franc is the name of the grape – these are all “noble European” or vinifera grapes.  Cabernet Franc is actually a parent of Cabernet Sauvignon, which was typically a blending grape but more so now being done as it’s own wine as it is here.  This wine was also done in American oak and I get a lot of oakiness and vanilla when I smell this wine.  There is lasting fruit on this on the  sweet fruit – it’s heavier than a Pinot.

Next, we have 2010 Montage, which is a Bordeaux style blend – a combination of the three grape varieties we just tasted.  It is about 60% Merlot, so you’re going to get the fruit, and 20% each of both Cabernet and Cabernet Franc, so you’re going to get some of the oak as well.

To purchase these or any other of our award-winning wines, click here.

During September and October we accepted entries for our first Harvest Photo contest.  We displayed some of our favorites at our Harvest Festival on October 22.  The winner, Sandee Adams of St. Louis, Missouri, received a $25 gift certificate and a tour and tasting for four.

Sandee is an amateur photographer who lives with her husband near St. Louis, Missouri. On her last visit to see State College to see her daughter’s family, she brought her camera to the winery hoping to get some photos of fall color.

Lately she had been doing some work with High Dynamic Range (HDR) which allows for a fuller range of light levels. HDR is accomplished by taking multiple photos of the same short with varying exposures and combining them into one photo with the use of a computer. Her winning picture of the winery pond employed this technique and was taken using a Canon 30D camera.

Honorable Mention went to Anthony and Carol Gale (Holidaysburg), and R. Thomas Brener (Bellefonte) and Laura Brodland (Pittsburgh).

Media Coordinator, Linda Carroll Weaver, writes an article for nittanyweddings.com about selecting wedding favors.  This article is available on the following link: http://www.nittanyweddings.com/wedding-planning-articles/some-guidelines-for-wedding-favor-selection/

In her 9/1 post on the WPSU Local Food Journey Blog, Michelle Frank, shares her recipe for Chicken in Mushroom White Wine Sauce.  She says that after chatting with Sandy Alexander, tasting room manager at the winery, she decided that she had to cook with wine.  Her recipe follows: (Link Recipe)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 boneless chicken breasts
1 – 10.5 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
4 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 medium candy onion, diced
1 cup white wine (Nittany Mountain White)
3 cups cooked white rice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the chicken breasts in the olive oil over medium heat until there is no pink visible on the thickest part of the breast.

Meanwhile, combine the cream of mushroom soup, mushrooms, milk, onion, and wine in a medium saucepan. Heat to a boil. Continue boiling while stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Serve the chicken on top of white rice and pour sauce on top.