Looking for a delicious treat this grilling season? Look no further. Fruit marinated in Missouri Vignoles white wine, grilled and topped with a marscarpone sauce is a delicious dish perfect as a dessert or side dish.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDpUC-xjUFk&feature=youtu

Vignoles Marinated Grilled Fruit Skewers Recipe

Time: 20 minutes active, 2 hours inactive | Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

4- Peaches

4- Pears

2 cups- Missouri Vignoles (semi-sweet white wine)

½ cup- Marscarpone

2 oz.- Orange juice

1 tbsp- Honey

Fresh mint (Optional garnish)

Directions:

Soak 12-15 skewers in warm water for 10-30 minutes. Wash and cut the peaches and pears into large slices. (Tip: Ripe but still slightly firm fruit is best for this recipe as it will soften some when marinated and when cooked.) Assemble the skewers, alternating between the peach and pear slices. Marinate the fruit in Missouri Vignoles for 1-2 hours.

While the fruit marinates, make the sauce by whisking together the marscarpone, orange juice and honey, adding additional orange juice until it reaches the desired consistency.

Grill the fruit skewers for 1-2 minutes on each side. Leave them on the grill just long enough to sear both sides; you don’t want to overcook the fruit. Remove the skewers from the grill, allow to cool slightly, drizzle with the sauce, garnish with fresh mint and enjoy!

You’ve been looking forward to a day at the winery. Delicious wines, incredible views. There’s just one hitch.

Naturally, your furry pal wants to go too.  And when they look at you like this...

…how can you resist?

Go ahead and give into those sad puppy eyes. There are many Missouri wineries that welcome pets. You can see which wineries are pet friendly on our website. Our new winery guide also includes a list of amenities. Look for the  symbol underneath the list of wineries to see if they allow pets on their grounds. Don’t have a winery guide? Request one here. 

Grab a leash before you go. Your destination in Missouri wine country awaits.

2          Cooking with MO Wine Contests

1          Missouri Wine Tent featuring premium local wines

11        Opportunities to attend Missouri Wine, Cheese & Chocolate classes

1          Missouri Travel Council’s Tourism Trade Show with a Missouri wine tasting

6          Delicious fair food and wine pairings

That’s 21 reasons for wine lovers to enjoy an exciting visit to the Missouri State Fair.

Cooking with Missouri Wine Contests:

The Missouri Wine and Grape Board sponsors two different cooking contests at the fair. The Cooking with Missouri Wine Contest where contestants prepare an entrée with Missouri wine, and the Cooking with Missouri Wine – Just Desserts Contest where contestants make dessert dishes with local wines. The entries are tasted and judged by industry experts. The top three entries receive cash prizes and have their recipes featured on missouriwine.org.

The Missouri Wine Tent:

Located near the grandstand, the Missouri Wine Tent is a great place to escape the heat and discover new, award-winning local wines. A 15-foot tall inflatable wine bottle will let you know you’ve arrived (and is the perfect selfie spot in our opinion). The Missouri Wine Tent features a wide range of wines crafted in the Show-Me State, and has an impressive selection of the winners from the recent Missouri Wine Competition. It’s a great place to relax with friends and a must stop on your trip to the fair.

Missouri Wine, Cheese & Chocolate Classes:

There is always too much to do in too little time. We all lead stressful lives and once in a while it’s necessary to unplug and take some time for ourselves. Why not grab a glass of your favorite locally crafted, Missouri wine and sit down with this special coloring page for a little you time? August 2 is National Coloring Book Day, but any day is a good day for self-care. Cheers to de-stressing with the simple things. Print your very own Missouri wine coloring page here. 

August is Vignoles Month, and it is the perfect time to celebrate Missouri’s fruity favorite. Vignoles, a French-American hybrid white grape, makes wine with immensely fruity flavors and aromas. It’s made in every style and sweetness from dry and refreshing, to luscious and sweet, and everything in between. There is truly a Vignoles for everyone, no matter their taste preference. It’s likely this versatility that makes Vignoles the most popular white wine in the state.

Vignoles (pronounced veen-yole) grapes account for 15% of all the grapes grown in the state, that’s 260 acres. At the recent 2018 Missouri Wine Competition, three different styles of wine made from Vignoles grapes all won Best of Class honors. A Dry Vignoles from Adam Puchta Winery took the title in the dry white wine category. St. James Winery’s 2017 Dry Vignoles, a semi-dry wine, took the honor in its category, and a Vignoles from Stonehaus Farms Winery also won Best of Class in the sweet white wine category. These three wines are all quite different, but equally delicious and each are made from Vignoles.

Vignoles wine’s tropical fruit notes and bright acidity make it incredibly food friendly. Dryer Vignoles wines pair well with Asian dishes, salads, Swiss cheese and more. Vignoles wines that are a little sweeter are great matches for spicy food. Try anything from Thai food, to Mexican dishes, and even buffalo wings with a semi-sweet or sweet Vignoles wine. The sweetness helps cut the heat and the fruity flavors compliment perfectly. Vignoles dessert wines are great with crème brûlée and cheesecake. Find your favorite Vignoles and food pairing today! 

Introducing a brand-new Missouri Winery Guide! We are thrilled that the Missouri wine industry keeps growing and evolving. Those changes meant it was time to update our printed materials. The last two versions of the guide have been maps that fold out to reveal winery listings and locations on a map of the Show-Me State. Prior to those versions, we produced booklets with listings for all the wineries in the state and a small map in the center. There was an equally avid following for each style of publication, making the next step clear… why not do both?!

Meet our new winery guide, a booklet listing Missouri wineries PLUS a fold out map in the back showing each winery’s location. The best of both worlds, this guide is the ideal tool to help you plan your next vino adventure in Missouri wine country. Pick one up at the next winery you visit or click here to request a guide be sent to you. 

Have you ever wondered what it takes to pull off a wine competition? The Missouri Wine Competition may not take an entire village but does rely heavily on a great group of volunteers who are passionate about Missouri wines. Take a peek behind the scenes at this premier wine competition that has been honoring the best wines in Missouri for the past 30 years.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdRvdBDKm3o

Pair your favorite treats with the perfect local wine the next time you have a snack attack. These dyanamic duos are delicious. Cheers!

Drum roll please… the results are in from the 2018 Missouri Wine Competition! For more than 30 years, this annual competition has honored the highest quality wines made in the state. More than 250 wines entered, but which ones rose to the top?

An esteemed panel of judges, comprised of wine experts and industry professionals, spent two days swirling, smelling and tasting all the wines entered. After all wines are scored, the entries that rise to the top, receiving gold medals, are pitted against each other for the honor of being named “Best of Class.” Those that make it to this top tier compete for the big win… the Governor’s Cup.

Join us in congratulating this year’s Best of Class winners:

o   Sparkling Wine: Stone Hill Winery –2013 Blanc de Blanc

o   Dry White Wine: Adam Puchta Winery – Dry Vignoles

o   Semi-Dry White Wine: St. James Winery – 2017 Dry Vignoles

o   Sweet White Wine: Stonehaus Farms Winery – Vignoles

o   Dry Rosé Wine: Les Bourgeois Vineyards – 2017 St. Vincent Rosé

o   Sweet Rosé Wine: Stone Hill Winery – Rosé Montaigne

o   Dry Red Wine: Stone Hill Winery – 2015 Chambourcin

o   Semi-Dry Red Wine: Augusta Winery – Alluvium Estate Bottled

o   Sweet Red Wine: Montelle Winery – Stone House Red

o   Dessert Wine: Stone Hill Winery – Cream Sherry

o   Late Harvest/Ice Wine: Montelle Winery – 2017 Vidal Blanc Icewine  

o   Distilled Product: Montelle Winery – Peach Eau de Vie

And the winner of the coveted Governor’s Cup for 2018 is Stone Hill Winery for their 2015 Chambourcin, a dry red wine that blew the judges away. The C.V. Riley Award for the best Norton wine went to Augusta Winery for their 2016 Norton Estate Bottled. This is a special recognition honoring the official state grape and the history of winemaking in Missouri.

In addition to Best of Class, C. V. Riley Award and Governor’s Cup honors, 87% of all the wines entered into the 2018 Missouri Wine Competition took home a medal.

The breakdown:

• 41 Gold Medals
• 94 Silver Medals
• 98 Bronze Medals

That’s more than 230 award-winning Missouri wines!

An army of devoted volunteers we affectionately call “The Flight Crew” helped ensure that this year’s two-day wine competition ran smoothly. We can’t thank them enough.

You can find the complete list of this year’s Best-of-the-Best here. Consider it your local wine shopping list!