Summer Food Pairings: Early Mountain Rosé with Burrata

Rosé season lasts all summer in this house, and what better way to celebrate one of our favorite wine seasons than with an exceptional #vawine and the perfect pairing?! Thanks to Early Mountain Vineyards, we’ve got it.

Use the discount code “winos15” for 15% off all Early Mountain wine orders!

For our wine loving friends that follow our weekly adventures, you already know that Early Mountain is one of our favorite local wineries. Aside from the gorgeous and welcoming tasting room (consistently ranked as one of the best in the country), the scenic and expansive mountain views, and the farm to table menu the winery offers, Early Mountain’s winemaking team is responsible for some of the very best wines coming out of Virginia. Every time we visit we fall in love with another unique and adventurous wine crafted by the ultra-talented Ben Jordan and team. While we’ve come to love exploring the new vintages and blends, we also love the fact that we can rely on Early Mountain’s ability to continue to produce consistent and high quality wines year after year. The 2018 rosé is the perfect example of this consistency and quality.

The 2018 rosé is a perfect pale, salmon color, ideal for summertime sipping. It’s a blend of 65% Merlot, 26% Cab Franc and 2% Petit Verdot from their estate planting at Early Mountain, with 7% Syrah from their Quaker Run vineyard. Notes of strawberries, white peaches and floral aromas with just the right touch of acidity round out this wine and support a lovely texture. Thanks to Early Mountain’s recommendations, we paired the rosé with our take on their delicious Burrata Cheese topped with Arugula Pesto, and Honey Chile Syrup. Together, the pairing offers an idyllic sip + bite combo, with the acidity and crispness of the rosé offsetting the richness of the cheese and the heat of the syrup.

Early Mountain’s Recipe: Burrata Cheese with Arugula Pesto & Honey Chile Syrup Recipe

Ingredients:

(2) 4 oz. balls of burrata

Arugula Pesto Ingredients:

4 cups arugula

1/2 cup grated parmesan

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup EVOO

Salt & pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into a blender and turn on and slowly add oil until it emulsifies, but not runny. You may need to add more or less oil to the pesto. Place in the refrigerator until chilled.

Honey Chile Syrup Ingredients:

1/4 cup of raw honey

Red pepper flakes to your level of heat

Mix in bowl and then drizzle over the burrata.

Always ones to live on the edge, we added our own spin to the recipe. We picked up a few beautiful tomatoes from the local farmers market (shout out to our amazing local farmers and ranchers!). Rather than top the burrata with the arugula pesto, we blended the two together to make a creamy spread. We then toasted up some crostinis (with a little EVOO and salt & pepper) and sliced up our tomatoes. We topped the crostinis with the spread, placed the tomato on top, and drizzled the honey chile syrup over top. The result was perfection.

Side note — this spread would be HEAVEN in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Either way you go with the recipe, this pairing is a hit! Honestly, we can’t say enough about Early Mountain Vineyards and their fabulous wines, but you’ve got to try them for yourself!