DISH: The fruit of local labor

by Nikki M. Mascali
Weekender Editor

THE FRUIT OF LOCAL LABOR

By now, “farm-to-table” and “sustainable” are words most everyone recognizes to encourage us to buy and eat local as much as we can. But what about “drink local?”

With the Franklin Hill Vineyards Dinner Friday, Nov. 4 at Le Sorelle Cucina inside Mount Airy Casino Resort (44 Woodland Road, Mount Pocono), attendees can do just that.

Having planted its first vines in 1976, the winery is one of the first and oldest wineries in the Poconos and Lehigh Valley, started after owner Elaine Pivinski bought a farm to live off the land.

“One thing I’m thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to pieces about is that Pennsylvania is really starting to get recognized as a very, very good winemaking region,” Pivinski told Dish.

Despite the bad economy of late, Pivinski’s seen her business flourish, growing 18 percent in the past year alone.

“The reason is that people love supporting local industry, they love supporting stuff made in America,” Pivinski said. “This is farmed in America, I think people are really realizing that they want to look local. There’s a big movement on buying local, buying fresh, farm-to-table, and it is a great, great atmosphere right now about purchasing and helping people in your community.”

Supplying wines for a wine dinner is a first for Franklin Hill.

“Mount Airy is being very creative by catching onto something that the people love,” Pivinski said. “It’s such a compliment to us because we’ve never gone in that that direction before.”

Before the menu was chosen, Pivinski brought her top eight wines to Mount Airy for a tasting.

“I let these scary men taste all my wines,” she explained with a laugh. “It’s like judging a beauty contest watching their faces and what they thought would go with them.”

The outcome sounds delicious. The four-course meal, which is hosted by Pivinski and the casino’s Executive Chef Kevin Klinetop and Le Sorelle Cucina Chef Matthew Smith, starts with a honey crisp apple and endive salad with speck ham and cider-ginger dressing paired with Seyval Blanc. Pumpkin ravioli with chestnuts, sage brown butter and grana padano cheese accompanied with Chambourcin follows. The third course features fennel-crusted pork tenderloin with roasted fennel and gigante beans paired with Evanswood. The dessert course, vanilla bean panna cotta with pears, a walnut lace cookie and port syrup, is accompanied by Breathless, Franklin Hill’s port-style red wine.

Cost for the dinner is $59 per person, and seatings will be held at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. To make a reservation, call 877.532.0340.

While not part of Friday’s wine dinner, I had to ask Pivinski about her “martini wines,” which she and winemaker Bonnie Pysher developed about six years ago.

“We took a base wine of our vidal blanc and started doing flavorings in it,” she explained, adding that they’ve done mango, strawberry, blueberry and green apple. “We put just a little bit in it to just set it off, and we wanted to know if people would buy orange wine, blue wine, strawberry-colored wine.”

She took the then-new wines to Split Rock Resort’s wine festival and sold 20 cases of each. Her son renamed them Passion, Desire and Bliss, and the following year, sold 80 cases.

“I mean, wouldn’t you want a glass of Desire?” Pivinski asked.

The “martini” part of the wines comes with a few simple additions.

“You take a glass of these wines, add crushed ice and a shot of vodka to it and add the complementary fruit,” Pivinski explained. “It is a slam dunk. This year, we went and got true pomegranate juice and put it with peaches — it is delightful.”

For more about Pivinski and Franklin Hill Vineyards (7833 Franklin Hill Road, Bangor), visit franklinhillvineyards.com.