Memorial day leads to a beach celebration

This year my wife and I were crashing our friends vacation in Rodanthe, NC for a long Memorial Day weekend. Daily happy hours, and fun in the sun were the name of the game. However, for memorial day we decided we'd do festive meal to celebrate. And like usual, good food needs good wine.











Our menu for the evening would consist of grilled fresh tuna kebabs, Grilled zucchini, Caesar salad with real anchovies dressing, and a sweet treat of homemade salted caramel ice cream for dessert.










With all the fresh grilled food and salad, good white wine seemed to be a logical selection. We made two selections to pair with dinner for the evening. First was Apple Wine produced by Chateau O'Brien in Markam, VA. This is a non-vintage wine produced from a mix of apples grown in Stribling Orchard  right behind the winery. This wasn't my first experience with this apple wine. For those of you who haven't had it, you'll probably be taken back on how clear it is. It literally could be mistaken for dozens of white wines just by looking at it. However after just one taste will leave you wanting more. It has nice smooth apple flavor with a little acid on the finish like a good apple cider. It is a beautiful sipper by itself on hot days, but also pairs well with food, and as a bonus it is great to cook with, especially with pork.

The other wine we served that night was the Hiddencroft Vineyards 2010 Traminette. I was taken back by how good the nose was on this wine. It was mixture of tropical melon and honeysuckle and baking spices. The pallet presented good acid, very citrusy more grapefruit then lemon, but overall it was very pleasant and held up well in the summer heat of the beach.

As is obvious by the plate below, I spent as least as much time enjoying my wine as I did eating and savoring both to a great finish.