Rosé Sangria

With these hot temperatures hitting the country, Rosé Season is in full swing. Stay cool with our take on sangria using Underwood Rosé.

Rosé Sangria

Serves two

1 Can Underwood Rosé

1/2 oz lime juice

1/3 C grapefruit juice

2/3 C grenadine

ice

 

Mix all ingredients. Garnish with small slices of pink grapefruit. Add ice and enjoy.

Choose your own adventure…

To make it sweeter, top each glass with ginger ale
To make it bubbly, top each glass with sparkling water
To pack an extra punch, add 3 oz of white rum to the mix

Photography by David Reamer

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How to Make Wine Can Chicken

How to Make Wine Can Chicken

It’s no secret that at Union Wine Company, we’re proponents of thinking outside the box. Or in this case, outside of coq au vin.

This Memorial Day Weekend, we brought a new take on our Underwood cans to life. At Austin’s famed Hot Luck Fest, we partnered with Chef Doug Adams (his new restaurant Bullard PDX will open in the new Woodlark Hotel this fall) to bring our vision of Wine Can Chicken to life. Most people have heard, and some have tried, the infamous BBQ dish “Beer Can Chicken,” but no one had experienced what true wine can chicken could be – until this weekend.

Amidst 100 degree heat, we paired 1,000 pounds of chicken with 300 cans of Underwood Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris to create the ultimate show stopper.

Want to recreate the dish at home? Chef Doug Adams shares his recipe below.

Ingredients:

For Rub:

  • 2 Guajillo chiles
  • 2 Garlic cloves
  • 2 tbsp Orange juice
  • 2 tbsp Lime juice
  • 1 tbsp Fish sauce

Directions:

  1. Remove giblets from chicken; discard.
  2. Rinse chicken inside and out; pat dry.
  3. In a small sauce pan, toast chiles on high heat till fragrant. About 2o seconds a side.
  4. Put the chiles and garlic in pot with just enough water to submerge the chiles. Simmer for 5 minutes and let stand until chiles are soft.
  5. Place the chiles and garlic in a processor with water and a pinch of salt; process smooth. mix with citrus and fish sauce. Rub marinade all over the chicken.
  6. Prepare barbecue grill and preheat for indirect-heat cooking.
  7. Carefully lower chicken over the wine can until can is inside body cavity. Pull legs forward so chicken stands upright on can.
  8. Carefully set chicken and can, in this upright position, on center of grill (not over direct heat); cover charcoal grill and open vents; close lid on gas grill.
  9. Cook until temperature reaches 160*, about 1 hour.
  10. Using oven mitts, carefully remove chicken with can from grill, keeping it upright.
  11. Let chicken stand on can for 15 minutes, then, holding a towel around the can to steady it and protect your hands, with a large carving fork, carefully remove chicken from can to a carving platter or carving board.
  12. Carve chicken and serve, adding salt and pepper to taste.
  13. Garnish with spicy pickles or avocado salsa.

 

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WINE ON A MISSION

You may have guessed already, but a bunch of women casually sipping white wine spritzers is not the scene here. Yes, these ladies are smiling, and drinking white wine, wearing the now iconic Wild Feminist Tee by our good friends Wildfang, but there’s a lot more behind this picture.

Let’s start from the beginning.

It all began when two friends, our fearless leader Ryan, and Wildfang’s CEO – and force of nature in her own right – Emma Mcilroy, started talking about the idea of wanting to make a positive impact after the 2016 election. It was at that moment that the idea of creating a special, limited edition white wine that gives 100% back to Planned Parenthood was born.

Playfully called GET IT GIRL, this Oregon white wine blend has a bigger message; that women’s rights are human rights. It’s also a bright and beautiful blend of Riesling, Gewurztraminer and Pinot Gris that make this special edition a must-have right now.

The ultimate goal? To raise $100,000 for Planned Parenthood. Pretty kick-ass if you’re asking us. And it’s not just because we have plenty of women here working as assistant winemakers, harvest interns, accountants, cellar hands and marketers, that make it so very cool. It’s all of us, the men and women of Union Wine Company, coming together as one organization and committing to this cause together.

Put simply, the fight for women’s equality is far from settled, so this can of wine is just one step forward in doing some good. Enjoying great wine while doing so, isn’t so bad either! So, let’s drink to equality, shall we?

You can purchase GET IT GIRL here on our website, and at Wildfang’s West End bar.

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Capturing the Sun

 

_DLR6549In Oregon, we’re used to grey, rainy, and somewhat dismal winters. If you’ve lived here for more than a couple of years, you know what to expect. Though we appreciate it for what it does for our gardens and farms – it doesn’t mean we don’t yearn for the summer sun.

Inspired by a recent trip to the Mojave Desert, we came up with this cocktail as a form of liquid sunshine until the real thing shows up. Refreshing, with just the right amount of bite, it will cheer up even the bleakest of days as we impatiently wait for spring.

The recipe is for one drink – scale up for a party, just watch out for those cacti, they’ll bite.

_DLR6725Cactus Bite – one serving

5 oz Underwood Pinot Gris

4 oz Fresh Grapefruit juice

1 oz Campari

.5 oz Organic Agave Nectar

.5 oz Lime juice

 

Jacobsen Pure Flake Sea Salt

Lime wheel

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Strain grapefruit juice through a fine wire strainer into a pitcher. Measure all ingredients into a metal shaker tin. Add ice and shake until well chilled. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Sprinkle salt flake over the top of the drink. Garnish with a lime wheel.

**When scaling up for a party, measure all ingredients into a pitcher or punchbowl, stir, and serve over ice**

Photography by David Reamer

 

 

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What’s Old is New Again

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If you haven’t noticed, old school classic cocktails have had a resurgence in the restaurant and bar community. Barkeeps near and far are taking original recipes and putting their own interesting spin on them. Jeffrey Morganthaler, at Clyde Commons, puts his Negroni’s in a whiskey barrel to age. Mike Shea, at Rum Club, makes an Old Fashioned out of house-made ingredients and rum rather than bourbon (shocking.) And Evan Zimmerman, formerly at Laurelhurst Market, took the traditional combination of Whiskey on the Rocks and made it locally iconic by smoking the ice in-house and adding sherry and house-made pecan syrup.

We think just because we’re a winery doesn’t mean we can’t partake in this cocktail revolution. The long (very long) Portland winter has us wanting to hunker down with a robust drink to forget that we haven’t seen the sun since October. Originally, a Boulevardier consisted of bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth; we found that our warm and spicy Kings Ridge Red Haute Pinot played well with the richness of the whiskey in place of a sweet vermouth, and that Aperol, rather than Campari, helped balance the bold libation.

Simple yet complex, that’s how we like to make ‘em.

 

Haute Pinot Boulevardier

1 oz Kings Ridge Red Haute Pinot

1 oz Bull Run bourbon whiskey

1 oz Aperol

cinnamon sticks for garnish

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Measure the liquid into a glass container, fill with ice and stir until well chilled.

Strain into a glass of your choice with a large ice cube, and garnish accordingly.

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Sip and stay cozy.

Cheers.

Photography by David Reamer

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