May 2012 FEAST Magazine

Vignoles icewine + CHEESE fritters Pairing: Augusta Vignoles Icewine 2010 + Mascarpone and Goat Cheese Fritters with Fig Chutney and Port Reduction Augusta Winery’s estate-grown Vignoles grapes, picked well after harvest in early November, intensify this variety’s intriguing aromatics.

This wine is produced only in years of minimal disease pressure in optimum conditions. Try it with ginger-lemon meringue ice cream, mango upsidedown cake or coconut cheesecake.

With the dessert: Faure was enamored by this pairing, particularly the wine’s flirty fruitiness. Decadently crisp, sugar-coated balls of warm mascarpone and goat cheese seem destined for this mouth-coating, indulgently concentrated wine, revealing ripe flavors of kumquat, pineapple and strawberry. The dried figs and port reduction add additional depth to the pairing, softening the wine’s lively acidity while its lengthy finish grants the palate opportunity to contemplate this pairing’s beautiful complexity.

Augusta Winery, Augusta, Mo. augustawinery.com Recipe on p. 86