How Wine Can Change Your Life
Since I have been a member of the Enological Society, my fishing buddy and I have had a major change in how we dine when we are on a fishing trip. In the past, when planning for a trip to Montana, Idaho or somewhere in Washington, we always used to just go to the store with no forethought about what we were going to eat, and pick up such gourmet delicacies as macaroni and cheese, chili in a can or beef stew in a can. We would pick up some beer and we each had our own favorite hard liquor. We would then take off on our trip and just wing it in terms of what we would eat and drink when it came to dinner. Sometimes we would splurge and actually put some wieners in the mac and cheese to make a special meal, which was washed down with beer. Life was simple then; we didn’t know any better.
Now, before we begin a trip, we have a special meeting to plan our itinerary, our menus, and which kinds of red wines to serve. The dinners are now culinary events in which we trade off cooking and are a little fancier than in previous times. For example, for one of the nights I was to prepare a special chicken dinner, so I said I would make Chicken Cordon Bleu. Of course this had to be set up to be done on a barbecue grill and needed to be done as simply as possible. I jumped on the Internet and found some simple recipes for it and for a Mornay sauce. This called for a rich, creamy white wine, so on the way to the fishing and camping location we stopped at a local winery, where we sampled some fine white wines and selected one – a rich Chardonnay with nice citrus acidity - to go with the dinner. What a meal! As we ate, the other campers watched in amazement as we sat by the fire, savoring our evening feast. How fortunate we are to have so many choices of excellent wines here in North Central Washington.
Fishing trips will never be the same again.
Bruce Campbell