Garden Party This Sunday!

Join us this Sunday (May 1st) at Fireside winery for our first annual Garden Party (2-5pm)

Things to do: 1) plant exchange, 2) listen to live music, 3) attend presentations and demonstrations, and 4) check out some amazing welded garden art.  See you Sunday from 2-5pm!

Winemaker/Tasting Notes - Online!

Are you a curious wine enthusiast?  Perhaps you're interested in learning more about the wines you are drinking - and that might mean learning the characteristics of those wines (e.g., sensory attributes) and how to best pair them with your favorite foods.  

We're just like you!  We want to know more about the wines we consume - where the grape come from; the cellar details (i.e., harvest parameters, pH, acidity, etc.); the sensory details (i.e., flavor, aromas, sensations); service and food-wine pairing suggestions; and the awards won.

That's why we're excited to offer this information to you, our wine friends, on our website:  Fireside Products.  Simply roll your cursor over the wine label and click to view the Winemaker Tasting Notes for that particular wine.

Take a peek and let us know what you think.  

Cheers,
Fireside Winery
 

Third Thursdays @ Fireside - NEW!

Not too long ago we conducted a comprehensive online survey to assess our current and potential future events.  One of the things that stood out was your suggestion to open up the Thursday night events to everyone.

From now on the Third Thursday of each month we'll have extended hours - open until 9pm.

What can you do on Third Thursdays @ Fireside?

• Make it a date night
• Sip wine by the fireplace
• Bring a book and relax
• Escape the house night
• Try a new wine each time
• Bring your guitar and play (maybe an open mic night?)

Happy Birthday to YOU!!! If you celebrated your birthday in this month, show us your ID and you'll receive a glass of your favorite Fireside wine on us!

* * * * * * * * *
For our "MyTimeToWine" fans - we've updated the name to "Girls Night Out" and will host them as periodic Special Events.

"Girls Night Out" 
When: Thursday, April 28th (4-8pm)
Location: Earl May Nursery & Garden Center (1901 Lower Muscatine Rd., I.C.)
Featuring: Scency Candles, Fireside Wienry, Bochner Chocolates and Rebecca's Island Collection Jewelry. *Food, drinks, door prizes, and seminars!


Keep up-to-date with our current Events by following the link to our EVENTS PAGE.

Food-Wine Pairing: Smoked Salmon Mousse & Edelweiss

Early this Winter we offered a food-wine pairing education night at Fireside Winery.  Prior to the event we tasted, tested, critiqued, and eventually found perfect matches for our night of Hors d'oeuvres and Fireside Winery wines.

Recipe created by Kym Wroble, RD, LD

This is the second recipe in our series of easy and delicious treats you can try for yourself.  For this recipe the smoked salmon mousse was placed atop a crusty and crunchy Crostini and was a delicious partner for our Iowa Edelweiss (a white wine made from Edelweiss, a cold-hardy grape).

Smoked Salmon Mousse

(Served with Edelweiss and Crostini)

6 ounces Smoked Salmon

1 shallots, minced

1 ½  ounces low-fat cream cheese

1 ½  ounces goat cheese

3 teaspoons lemon juice

6 tablespoons low-fat plain yogurt

¼ - 1/3 cup diced red onion

1 ½ - 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley

1 clove garlic

Salt and pepper

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Process salmon and shallot in food processor, scraping down sides as necessary, until mixture is chopped fine, about 10 seconds.  Add cream cheese, goat cheese and lemon juice and process until mixture forms a ball, scraping down sides as necessary. 
2. Add yogurt and red onion and pulse just to incorporate, about 5 seconds.  Transfer mousse to a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper. 
3. If making ahead, season with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice, to taste, prior to serving.

Food & Wine Pairings - Try for Yourself

Early this Winter we offered a food-wine pairing education night at Fireside Winery.  Prior to the event we tasted, tested, critiqued, and eventually found perfect matches for our night of Hors d'oeuvres and Fireside Winery wines.

Over the next few weeks we'll post these wonderful recipes so you can try for yourself.  For this first recipe, the unctuous and earthy deliciousness of the stuffed mushroom paired perfectly with our Hearthstone (a red wine blend of Chambourcin and Chancellor).

Recipe created by Kym Wroble, RD, LD

Roasted Mushrooms with Blue Cheese and Walnuts

(Paired with Hearthstone)

The mushrooms can be roasted and stuffed up to 3 days in advance, but don’t top them with bread crumbs until you are ready to heat and serve the mushrooms.  Store stuffed mushrooms on a paper towel-lined plate in the refrigerator, covered tightly with plastic wrap.  Keep the bread crumb topping separate; refrigerate for up to 3 days.

List of Ingredients:

• 1 ½ slices hearty whole grain sandwich bread slices, torn into quarters
• 3 medium garlic cloves, pressed through garlic press
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
• 36 large mushrooms, stems removed
• ¼ cup + 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• Table salt and ground black pepper
• 6 ounces Maytag blue cheese, at room temp
• 3 ounces low-fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese, at room temp
• 1 ½ cloves garlic, pressed through garlic press
• 1 ½ tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil

1. Pulse bread in food processor to coarse crumbs.  Mix garlic, and oil in a bowl.  Stir crumbs and walnuts into oil mixture to evenly coat.  Set aside.
2. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees.  Line rimmed baking sheet with foil and set wire rack inside baking sheet.  Toss mushrooms with oil, vinegar, ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper.  Arrange mushrooms gill side up on rack and roast until juices are released, about 15 minutes.  Run caps over and roast until mushrooms are browned, about 5-10 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Flip mushrooms right side up. 
3. Meanwhile, combine cheeses, garlic, herbs and olive oil in a food processor.  Season with ¼ teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; mix until smooth.
4. Fill zip-top bag with cheese mixture and snip off one corner.  Use bag to pipe filling into mushrooms. 
5. When ready to bake, spray 9x13-inch pan with baking spray.
6. Press each cap (stuffing side down) into bread-crumb topping to coat and arrange (topping side up) in pan. 
7. Bake until filling is hot and topping is golden brown, about 10 minutes. 
8. Serve 4 mushrooms for each of 6 tables.  (There will be a  few leftovers.)

WeTube on YouTube!

We recently created a Fireside Winery YouTube channel as a way to tell our story, share our daily goings' on, and to exercise our new digital video flip camera!

Just this week we've been very busy around the vineyard with early spring maintenance and spraying.  In this first video, a team of vineyard management specialists prune our 13+ acre Brickyard Hill Vineyard (about 4 miles from our winery).

The second video features winery owner, William Wyant, taping/tying the cordon (the horizontal branches of the grapevine to the trellis wire.

This last video (we have others available to view) shows our vineyard manager spraying our demonstration vineyard (the one in front of the winery) with a lime-sulfur mist. This spraying helps alleviate "Phylloxera", a pest that attacks the leaves and roots of grapevines; without our plants will become damaged and result in substantially lower yields.

Our Channel:  http://www.youtube.com/FiresideWinery

We encourage you to visit our YouTube channel and subscribe (and get notifications of new postings).