bar — ready to ceremoniously wave over the bone-dry gin martini while the sweeter , red vermouth maintains the Manhattan ’ s identity among the classic cocktails .
IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
As taste would have it , aromatized wines made it to the Pacific Northwest , via California and Hungary . Mike Conway started learning wine in 1970 ’ s California . Large scale wineries needed enologists and Mike ’ s educated enthusiasm fit the bill . Most of the winemaking in the United States happened in California by recent immigrants ( still largely true today ), and Mike ’ s mentors were no different , they just had corporate , American businesses to support ( again as true and oblique today .) The Hungarian winemaker mentoring young Mike told stories of his homeland tradition honoring spring with its own light , sweet wine . To this wine , the first strawberries of the season would be added , along with a European herb called woodruff .
Nearing 40 years later , Mike makes Maywine every year at his successful Latah Creek Winery in Spokane ($ 16 –
www . latahcreek . com ) in the same traditional style . As his daughter , Natalie , takes over the winery , she has every bit of his enthusiasm for the wine and the following it has . “ Maywine sells out every year ,” she observes . The wine is an annual reminder that this is one way wine used to be made and remains a piece of our taste puzzle . The wine itself shows sweetness like a strawberry-tinged pear — and , there is the mild floral / herbal note balancing the sweet .
Natalie goes on , “ But it is not our most popular flavored wine . Our most popular flavored wine began as a small batch in 1999 when a friend
* Woodruff can be any number of squarestemmed , springflowering herbs belonging to the Asperula genus .
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