My parents just recently returned from a vacation to Utah where they spent their time hiking in the national parks and dining in Utah’s only (probably) Buddhist-run restaurant. On the way back home, they stopped over in Zillah, Washington for a little wine tasting adventure. Sounds like a great way to end the trip to me! Zillah is located in the Rattlesnake Hills Area, Washington’s most recently awarded AVA (American Viticultural Area). My parents had lots of fun visiting the different wineries in Zillah and came home with, oh, about 20 to 25 bottles of wine (including lots of Port - who knew Washington was making so much Port?) Robert and I were the lucky recipients of three of these wines, which was thrilling for me since they are wines you don’t find in the average grocery store. It’s fun to try uncommon wines, and it’s always nice to be able to support smaller, local wine makers in the process.

This week, I opened up Horizon’s Edge 2002 Devil’s Canyon Red Table Wine. Horizon’s Edge is owned by David Padgett who also owns Maison de Padgett Winery. Both wineries produce a variety of wines including Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Muscat, Malbec, Chardonnay, Gewürztraminer and, of course, Port. This wine most closely resembled a Merlot. It was a very nice table wine - well-balanced, fruity and medium-bodied. Very drinkable.

Since I made such a fuss about the label on my last bottle of wine, I simply have to mention this. The labels on the Horizon’s Edge and Maison de Padgett wines look like they were designed by some sort of wizard or dungeon master or something. If you don’t believe me, check out the website. It’s like wine for hardcore gamers. In contrast, my parents said the Maison de Padgett winery itself is beautiful with big Greek columns and lovely gardens.

I served the wine with my standby red wine food: pizza, this time topped with roasted red and yellow peppers, leftover homemade tapenade and vegetarian sausage. It turned out really good. Robert says my pizza crust is getting better every time. I think I’m really getting used to using the pizza stone. At first I was afraid that the stone would be too hot and would burn my crust. Now, I know that it actually keeps everything from burning by evenly distributing the oven’s heat. Recently, I have been doing a couple of other things that I think are helping to improve my pizzas. First, I mix a bit of cornmeal into my dough. It doesn’t really add a noticeable flavor, but I think it provides a nice crunch to the crust. Secondly, I like to heat a few tablespoons of olive oil slowly over low heat with minced garlic and crushed red chili flakes to create a spicy oil. I then drizzle that over the dough before I add the tomato sauce and topping. It adds tons of extra spicy flavor and, because it has so much flavor, you don’t even need to use prepared tomato sauce. A can of crushed tomatoes and some cheese is all you need for a delicious pizza!