Recipe for those incredible peaches!

Riesling-Poached Peaches with Tarragon and Salted Sour Cream Recipe

Enjoy the last of our beautiful Central Coast peaches, and impress your friends with this super-easy summer dessert recipe that will impress even your most discerning friends! This five-ingredient dessert is an elegant way to serve peaches. Present the fruit halves skin-on or peel them while they’re still warm. For the rosiest color, look for peaches that have a lot of blush to the skin.

INGREDIENTS

Recipe for those incredible Peaches

1. 2 1/2 cups dry Riesling (We recommend Claiborne & Churchill 2014 Reisling)
2. 1/4 cup sugar
3. 1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4. 5 tarragon sprigs
5. 4 ripe but firm freestone peaches, halved and pitted
6. 2/3 cups sour cream
7. Salt

For this Recipe:

In a medium saucepan, combine the wine, sugar, vanilla bean with seeds and 
1 tarragon sprig and bring just to a boil. Add the peach halves and simmer over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until tender, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, whisk the sour cream with a big pinch of salt. Dollop the cream 
in bowls and top with the peach halves and some of their poaching liquid. Garnish each plate with a tarragon sprig and serve.

The peaches can be refrigerated in their poaching liquid for up to 3 days.

Wine Club: 15 Reasons to take the Plunge and Join Today!

Wine Clubs: 15 Reasons to take the Plunge and Join Today!

Wine Club Benefits

1. Convenience –

What’s more convenient than having wines show up at your door on a regular basis? Not much. A wine club offers the convenience of having a variety of exceptional wines delivered to you or available to pick up on your next visit to the winery. 

2. Regular Delivery of Wines –

A wine club guarantees that a regular delivery of superb wine is delivered within a consistent time frame (usually monthly or quarterly shipping), without the burden of having to select each wine yourself. It’s a curated collection of wines from your favorite

winery. 

3. Try New Wines –

Who doesn’t like trying new wines? Sure we all have our favorites, but a wine club ensures that you are getting new and varied wines each shipment. It gives you a chance to find a new experience that you may have not have tried otherwise.

4. Larger Selection than at your local grocery or wine store –

Grocery stores usually have a nice selection of wines, but these are the same commercial wines that they know will sell. A wine club often provides a much larger and broader selection of wines than you would typically find in the store. This is done because the wine club curator has more flexibility to select unique, fun, or rare wines, and not be burdened with taking up expensive shelf space. Most wines available through clubs won’t be found in your grocery and store, unless you live close to the winery.

5. Broaden Your Horizons –

Wine Club-Special Perks

If you’re like many, you tend to stick to your tried and true wine varietals. It took a long time for a friend of mine to venture out from big, bold, cabs, but he took a leap of faith and really discovered that he likes Sauvignon Blanc & Riesling almost as much. With a wine club, it encourages you to broaden your horizons, and try new varietals you may never have even known you loved.

6. Perks of Joining a Wine Club –

Membership has it privileges, and joining a wine club is no different. Joining a Winery’s wine club will get you exclusive invitations to events, discounts on regular purchases, and more. You receive complimentary tastings on visits to the Tasting Room for you and your guests. This is just a few of the perks you can get.

7. You Get the Best –

By joining a wine club, you are putting your money in someone else’s hands to select wines for you. But this isn’t a bad thing. By letting professional select wines for you, you increase your chances of receiving a superior wine. The winery knows their wines like no one else, and you get the benefit! When your Winemaker or Wine Club Manager selects wines for the club, they have to be certain that it’s an exceptional wine that represents the best they offer. It’s good to know that someone who really know wine took the time to carefully try many wines to choose one that meets the club level expectations.

8. Excitement of New Delivery –

Remember how excited you got for Christmas as a child? Rushing down to open your gifts. A wine club is like that except it’s for adults and it happens more than once per year. When you join a club you have new wines to enjoy but also know that you have another shipment on its way to look forward to as well! 

Wine club-behind the scenes access

9. First Look at New Wines –

One of the best perks of belonging to a wine club is first looks at new wine releases, limited production releases, and special offerings. Many times these wines are not even available to the general public at all. Wine Club membership will ensure you don’t miss out on these special wines.

10. Discounts on Regularly Priced Wine –

Wine Clubs offer discounts on regularly priced wine a few ways. Sometimes you are getting 3 wines for less than you would pay if you bought them individually, sometimes the wine is discounted for members only, and other times you get special offers on wines from the winery.

11. Select a Type of Club for your Preference –

Wine preferences is another great benefit. Clubs come in many shapes and sizes. Some clubs may be low cost, some may be for the seasoned collector, some may focus on a region, and some on a varietal. They key is, you can find a club that focuses on your favorites, or pick one that features wines you aren’t familiar with. Life is better with wine, and clubs are a tool for better enjoyment. Currently we feature 3 clubs to choose from.

12. Education –

One of the benefits of joining a wine club is the exposure to wine in general. Reading up on the wines you receive, you’re going to find out more about the winery, the vineyards, the regions, the varietals, and the vintage. And on and on. You’re also going to learn about yourself and your personal experience with wine. 

13. News Letter –

Most wine clubs offer a newsletter. Here you will find out about the comings and goings of the winery, the wine world, etc. Central Coast Wineries newsletters show wine club members were you can find out more about the wines featured, and what is going on in the Central Coast Wine Community.

14. Make Friends who also enjoy wine –

Wine Club

I have made some incredible wine-loving friends at pickup parties, winemaker dinners, and other Wine Club events. These are awesome people who share your passion for wine and can be an amazing resource on expanding your wine experience. They can join you on your next wine adventure!

15. YOU GET WINE –

Probably the Number One benefit of joining a wine club… You Get Wine! IF that isn’t reason enough to join, I don’t know what is. So let Breakaway Tours take you for an adventure in Central Coast Wine Country, and start discovering for yourself!

To learn more about Central Coast WIneries and the amazing Clubs they offer visit: Paso Wine , SLO Wine , or Santa Barbara County Wines today!

Central Coast Bride Mixer at Tooth & Nail

The Castle

What a marvelous time at the Central Coast Bride Mixer!

Tooth & Nail Wines

Music, Wine, Food, seeing old friends and meeting new.  Thank you Tooth & Nail Winery for hosting. Can you imagine getting married in a CASTLE?! Well, now your dreams can be a reality. Breathtaking bites provided by Foremost Wine Co.

The venue was decked out beautifully with florals by Flowers by Kim. and sweet treats from Christine’s Cake Creations.

When planning a Wedding or Event on the Central Coast, Central Coast Bride is an amazing resource to find amazing local professionals who are the best at what they do.

Bride Mixer

Decor

Delicious Eats!

Whatever your Wedding dreams, the Central Coast is the ideal location and Breakaway can take you there! So, remember to include an amazing Wine Tour with Breakaway Tours & Events as part of your Wedding Weekend experience.

The Coravin: a tool, a trick, or a triumph?

The Coravin has arrived! Ordering wine by the glass at many restaurants can sometimes be frustrating. Pedestrian selections at high markups have generally made it more economical to order an entire bottle rather than two or three glasses, but that’s the point. Restaurants want to sell you a bottle, not a glass.

In restaurants that are more serious about wine, though, by-the-glass programs have evolved significantly in the last decade, offering customers many more choices than the ubiquitous chardonnay or pinot noir.

While wines by the glass are almost never worth the markup in a straight up monetary sense, sommeliers have sought different ways to add value to the purchase. More and more restaurants now offer keg wines, for example, which can help preserve young wines that may otherwise begin to decay if left in open bottles.

Now a new device, the Coravin, has arrived that may revolutionize the sorts of wines that restaurants can make available by the glass. The Coravin seems to solve a problem that has bedeviled humanity since the first wine was stored in urns, namely, how do you preserve wine once a container is opened, exposing it to oxygen, its archenemy?

The keg system addresses this issue, though in an ungainly way. It uses a gas like nitrogen to both push the wine from the keg to the tap and then to occupy the empty space within the keg, thereby preventing oxidation.

But this is good only for relatively simple wines that are meant to be consumed young and can be packaged in kegs by the producers. What about fine wines that benefit from extended bottle aging?

Over the years, many systems have been tried, from the simple VacuVin, a device for pumping air out of an opened wine bottle, to complex refrigeration and preservation systems meant to extend the life of bottles once the corks have been popped. For one reason or another, none have succeeded.

A long, thin, hollow needle is inserted through the foil and cork into the bottle. Then, argon (an odorless, tasteless, harmless inert gas) is pumped through the needle, creating pressure within the bottle that pushies wine back out through the needle. When the desired amount is poured, the needle is withdrawn, leaving the argon in place of the wine, which prevents oxidation. The cork reseals itself, much like skin and tissue after an acupuncture needle is removed. It will not work on a bottle sealed by screw cap or an artificial cork (duh).

Through the use of the Coravin, many restaurants and wine bars have gained the ability to offer high end wine by the glass without the fear of wasting the remaining wine in the bottle if only one glass is ordered in a night.

Does the Coravin have its drawbacks? Yes. It’s not cheap. At $299 retail for the device alone, it’s an investment for true wine enthusiasts or those who will use it for professional reasons. And the cost doesn’t stop there: the nitro capsules used by the Coravin run around $8 apiece, with each capsule capable of supporting around fifteen 5 ounce pours. Does it have its benefits? Oh, yes. Aching to pair an amazing Borolo with your steak, but everyone else at your table is looking at the Chardonnay? If your restaurant has a Coravin program, you likely can! That bottle of 2004 Napa Cab you’ve been saving for a group dinner to open? Have a glass by yourself tonight. No waiting. And the rest of the wine will remain safe until you need it.

In conclusion, the Coravin opens up many possibilities for the wine world, all without ‘opening’ a single bottle of wine. So pour yourself an amazing glass tonight. You deserve it. I know I do.