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On July 15th, 2016, we opened the doors of CLE Urban Winery for the first time... and the last seven years have literally flown by! To celebrate the anniversary of our grand opening each year, we created our annual Anniversary Red program. The label we created is one of my favorites... we designed it as a play on those fine French wines which feature a drawing of the winery's Chateau - at a glace, our label looks like that, but if you look closely, you'll see that it is actually a drawing of our little garage winery - Chateau CLE! The label even says "Mis en Bouteille au CLE Urban Winery" (which means Made and Bottled at...), something you'd commonly see on many a bottle of fancy-schmancy French wine (but probably not any other bottle of Ohio wine!). That's just our non-pretentiousness coming through... no need to lift your pinky up when you drink this wine!
Our annual Anniversary Red is always a dry red wine blend created by Dave, our Head Winemaker, and it is a bit different each year depending on the ingredients he chooses. The 2023 Anniversary Red is a 50-50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, both aged in French oak and made from grapes from the Columbia Valley of Washington. These two individual wines are also currently available as varietals as our current batches of C-Town Cabernet Sauvignon and Mighty Cuyahoga Merlot... the Cab is bold and rich but is also nicely fruit forward and the Merlot is bold and tannic, which gives some real gusto to the Anniversary Red blend. The combination of these two wines is heaven in a bottle - we hope you really like the 2023 version!!
For our 7th Anniversary party this year, it was our pleasure to serve samples of our 2023 Anniversary Red to our beloved Community Wine Club VIPs paired with yummy cheese, charcuterie and other goodies. An EPIC charcuterie board is filled with a variety of cured meats, veggies, cheeses, nuts, olives, dips, dried fruits and bread or crackers! "Charcuterie" actually means cured meat (or the process of curing). There are no hard rules for making a charcuterie board… make it your own, incorporate what you like (or what you have in the fridge or pantry), change it up, think outside the box! That is what makes them fun and interesting; they are always different. With so much variety, you can pair your board with red or white wine. If you are using a wooden board for your creation, use one with a lip (so the goodies don’t fall of) and make sure the wood surface is food safe. Add in small bowls for dips, spreads, jellies or oils to add additional interest, color, texture and flavor! You can also use containers like mason jars (“Jar-cuterie”) or paper cups or cones like I used at July's Wine Club party to make individual, portable servings.
An epic charcuterie board is basically edible art… use your ingredients and your containers like a painter’s palette to create a fun, inviting and beautiful edible canvas!
