The Pedroncelli 90^th anniversary celebration continues this month with another outstanding wine tasting paired with a great meal. Gotta love a family that celebrates an anniversary all year long! And quite an anniversary it is, 90 years family owned and operated winery in Dry Creek Valley Sonoma.

In honor of this celebration they have made my life a bit easier, not only have they sent me some wonderful wine samples, they have also sent recipes to pair with the wines. This has alleviated my need to search through recipes for a delicious weeknight food and wine pairing. Check it out.

The Wine: For four generations Pedroncelli Family Vineyards has been “quietly crafting authentic wines at incredibly reasonable prices.” The key to their success: “tight-knit family and farming their own vines in the greatest spot to grow grapes.” I have now enjoyed 7 different Pedroncelli wines and I have found them all to be crafted of high quality. Furthermore, their old world understanding of pairing the right wine with the right food elevate both is right up my alley.

“Pedroncelli wines are made with food, friends, and family in mind. California wines with an Old World twist. They pair as nicely with food as they do with a glass.” ~ Pedroncelli Wines

This month’s wines include:

2016 Pedroncelli Friends White Blend Sonoma County USA ($13): A blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer; pale lemon; pronounced aromas of tropical fruit, lychee, white floral notes, dill, ginger, lemongrass; enters palate with a subtle sweetness that is quickly overcome with tart citrus, ginger, and herbal notes, crisp and refreshing with medium acidity, sip it alone, with mildly spicy foods, or craft into Friends 75 (recipe below); click here to buy this wine.

2015 Pedroncelli Merlot Bench Vineyards Dry Creek Valley USA ($18): deep ruby with deep purple hues; medium+ aromas of black cherry, blackberry, plum, dried currants, sweet baking spice, dried herbs, pepper, dark chocolate, dried tobacco, toasted walnuts, vanilla; bold aromas give way to fruit forward entry balanced with earthiness on the palate, medium+ acidity with grippy medium+ tannins, rustic full body wine with long finish;  click here to buy this wine.

2014 Pedroncelli Wisdom Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Valley USA ($36): 96% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Petit Verdot; deep ruby with violet hues; medium aromas of black cherry, plum, blackberry, black raspberry, all slightly stewed, dried herbal notes intermingle with dried rose petals, sweet baking spice, dusty cocoa, black pepper, leather, dusty earth, minerality; lush mouth-feel, volumptous new world style, highly approachable, balanced with medium+ acidity and tannins that are slightly dusty, full-body, long finish; click here to buy this wine.

The Food: Like I said earlier, the food was easy, Pedroncelli provided a delicious recipe for Ribeye Steak with Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Blue Cheese. Just typing it makes my mouth water!

If this great recipe isn’t enough. How about a wonderful recipe to craft the Friends White Blend into a delicious cocktail spritzer? Yep, this super refreshing wine is great on its own, paired with sushi, Thai, or Seafood, OR made into the Friends. 75, a perfect refresher for the pool, lake, beach, long day golfing, as aperitif for a dinner party, or to serve as your full party drink. One sip and you will be sold!

My Choice: Black trumpet mushrooms are not the easiest ingredient to find. Therefore, I made a few adjustments to the recipe. Ribeye steak is probably the most flavor of all cuts of beef. However, much of that flavor comes from the beautifully marbled fat that I try to avoid; therefore, in lieu of ribeye I made fillets, but I am sure a ribeye would be better. Additionally, since I did not have the mushrooms I used an old Mario Batali trick. I bought the steaks the day before, made a rub of sugar, salt, chopped garlic, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and the ground porcini powder Pedroncelli provided, blend with EVOO then coated each steak liberally, wrap each tightly in plastic wrap and let them sit in my refrigerator overnight. This is a sure fire way to make a delicious, tender, and juicy steak. (BTW, Batali’s recipe also uses a ribeye – gotta cut calories somewhere). I followed the rest of the recipe as written, except I used ½ the butter and added EVOO.

The Results: Fantastic! This was such a delicious dinner. The steak paired beautifully with both wines. The Merlot was big and rustic, The Cabernet Sauvignon was bold and voluptuous. It is really hard to go wrong with a great steak recipe paired with Merlot and Cabernet. However, these two Pedroncelli wines are not only easy on the palate, they are also easy on the wallet.

My Song Selection: At the recommendation of Mr. Dallas Wine Chick we recently switched from Apple Music to Amazon Music for our Sonos system. Since our fun evening began with the delicious Friends 75 we were feeling festive and selected the Summer Breezy Classics playlist. Give it a try, it’s fun.

Get your own bottles of Pedroncelli wines and let me know what song you pair with them. Cheers!