Our 30 Days of Local Wine campaign takes place throughout the entire month of December. Each day we’ll be featuring a different local wine from several of the Essex Pelee Island Coast wineries along with recipes for food, cocktails (yes, wine cocktails), desserts, party tips and more. Click here for the complete list of 30 wines.
Also, we want to see how you enjoy your local wine. We encourage you to use the #30DLW hashtag on Instagram to win prizes like a day for 2 on a tandem bicycle on our award winning Wine Trail Ride Cycling Tours. Click here for more details on the 30 Days of Local Wine Contest.
This is a wine that you’ll bring to a Christmas party and be remembered for. The Gewurztraminer from Oxley Estate Winery is captivating from the very beginning and with its dazzling, golden-green colour. Bewitching by nature, Gewurztraminer is no ordinary grape variety with its delicate aromas of lilac, jasmine, dandelion, rose petal and bay leaf. It’s the kind of wine that you take your time sipping.
Be ready to enjoy headier, more far-out fragrances of tropical orchid and white sage and lingering flavours of lychee and ripe passion fruit.
This is the kind of wine that calls for incense like Nag Champa and some “Ramble On” by Led Zeppelin.
You can traditionally enjoy this Gewurz with some authentic Pad Thai or Asian fusion. Or, as chef Aaron Lynn from Oxley has shown us, try it with this Crispy Skinned Trout recipe.
There are lots of different recipes to go with the trout. The way they all compliment each other, we recommend doing them all.
Crispy Skinned Trout with Smashed Fingerlings, Burnt Honey Butter
Burnt Honey Butter
Ingredients
- ¼ cup honey
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Method
- In a small pot over medium high heat, bring honey up to 325 F.
- Remove from heat, slowly whisk in butter until smooth and incorporated. Add salt
- Allow butter to cool to room temp, whip in standing mixer until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Roll out butter in plastic wrap. Chill. Cut into coins and use as needed.
Smashed Fingerlings
Ingredients
- 1 lb Fingerling potatoes
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil, To Taste
- Kosher Salt
- Cracked black pepper
- 1 small bunch of chives
- zest of 1 lemon
Method
- Toss potatoes in olive oil, season with salt.
- Roast at 400 F until tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, crush them with your hands to flatten them out a bit.
- When ready to serve, deep fry until crispy, toss with chives, some more salt and pepper, and lemon zest.
Roasted Carrots
Ingredients
- 4 carrots, cut into large bite size pieces
- olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Burnt Honey butter
Method
- Toss carrots in olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Roast in oven until they are tender, about 20 minutes.
- Remove from oven and toss with just a little of the burnt honey butter. Serve.
Meyer Lemon Beurre Blanc
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup Oxley Riesling Gewürztraminer
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 white peppercorns
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 shallots, sliced thin
- 1 cup butter, cubed
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 meyer lemon, zest and juice
- tabasco sauce to taste
- salt and white pepper, to taste
Method
- In a small saucepan, combine the wine, vinegar, bay, thyme, peppercorns, shallots, and lemon zest and bring to a boil.
- Reduce until thick and syrupy, add cream.
- Reduce by half, strain into another small pot.
- Bring mixture back up to a boil, remove from heat.
- Whisk in butter, piece by piece, until completely emulsified. Add lemon juice, salt, pepper, and tabasco to taste. Keep in a warm spot and use within an hour.
Trout
Ingredients
- 4, 6 oz steelhead trout fillets. Skin on, patted dry.
- Grapeseed Oil
- Salt and white pepper, to taste
Method
- Heat a large heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat. Add a few splashes of grapeseed oil until it just begins to smoke.
- Season trout liberally with salt and white pepper on both sides. Add to the pan, skin side down.
- Cook until just under medium rare, flip, remove from pan. Use Immediately. Fish doesn’t “rest” like other proteins.
