A Taste

Last night, I dashed together a dish with chicken and a seasoned vegetable blend of corn, black beans, onion, and red peppers. I added some black pepper and cayenne pepper so the meal had some heat. Because of the spice, I offered two off-dry wine choices to my girlfriend, and we decided on a 2008 Seyval Blanc by Owl Creek, a vineyard whose wines we tasted on our trip to Southern Illinois.

Seyval Blanc is a French-American hybrid grape made from crossing other hybrids. A couple of sites I checked identifed the genetic sources as Seibel 5656 and Seibel 4986 (Rayon d'Or), which are unknown grape varietals to me. The idea behind the genetic hybridizations was to merge the best flavors of the European vinifera grapes with the ruggedness of their North American cousins. Much of the eastern United States, including more central areas like Illinois, grow hybrids for their ease of cultivation and their expressiveness in flavor.

The varietal Seyval Blanc, in particular, responds well to cooler climates and is found in northern countries like Canada and England, but will grow in warmer areas. It's a commonly cultivated white grape in Southern Illinois, where it's used in blends and single varietal wines. It will sometimes also be the base for sweetly rich dessert wines.

Owl Creek's version showcases the grape's strengths: solid acidity with slight mineral undertones topped with nice citrus accents. This particular vintage also is semi-dry, which led me to consider it as a pairing with the spicy chicken dish. Sweetness helps balance hot flavors in food; this definitely held true as I added perhaps a touch too much cayenne pepper to the chicken.

The bottle paired well with the meal; the wine was a bit zippy and refreshing with enough body to match the spice, simply a well-made wine, which at first might seem surprising if you haven't recently tried a selection of wines from Southern Illinois. Yes, there are some less-than-mediocre wines and a few which cover their flaws with copious amounts of residual sugar and others which I wonder about their price to value ratio. Still, a lot of winemaking in the region is solid and many bottles offer character, including Owl Creek's Seyval Blanc.

If you like to check out more:

Shawnee Wine Trail
Owl Creek Vineyard