Last Thursday, I stir-fried in the wok some chicken and peppers spiced by sprinklings of cayenne and black pepper. The flavored heat offered a good opportunity to pair with the dish an off-dry white, which often is a speciality of many small American wineries across the country. Southern Illinois is no exception, and Sandra and I tasted several solid selections during our trip to the Shawnee Hills area.
With the chicken, I decided on Von Jakob's Traminette, a grape varietal made by Herb C. Barrett in the 1960s when he genetically crossed the French American hybrid Joannes Seyve 23.416 and the German Gewürztraminer. For more viticultural information, you can check an analysis from 1996 by Cornell University, 'Traminette' Grape.
While not the packing the same intense spicy floral notes of the parent Gewürztraminer, the Von Jakob's offering shows good aspects of the varietal: apple with a splattering of more exotic fruit like pineapple with good acidity and weight. The wine complemented the food well. The slight sweetness soothed the spice of the dish, and the mouth feel was just right as neither the wine nor food hogged the stage diminishing the other's flavor. There weren't any troubles finishing the bottle with the meal.
For more about the winery, you can click: Von Jakob Vineyard.
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