For $10 on Thursday evening, participants could sample three "classic" Southern sandwiches with tastes of four summery wines. Raleigh Wine and Food Weekend is occurring this weekend and this was sort of a teaser for the weekend events. Lily Gray Warren prepared the sandwiches on Boulted bread (new to me but tasty whole grain artisanal? bread) from a bakery and stone mill in Raleigh. The sandwiches were Purple Cherokee heirloom tomato and Duke mayo, thick pimiento cheese with thin prosciutto, and thin cucumber slices and dill on a spreadable goat cheese base. I suppose the pimiento cheese and prosciutto was my favorite but they were all delicious. The first wine was a Prosecco--I didn't take any notes on it. Next up was 2014 Stein Blue Slate Dry Riesling from the Mosel, Germany. The third was a rose' (I had already bought one bottle along with three other rose' wines to try at home but hadn't yet opened it.) It was 2014 Laurent Gauthier Beaujolais Villages Gamay Rose'. I liked this with the pimiento cheese sandwich and it wasn't bad with the tomato sandwich. I bought another bottle to take home with me. The fourth wine was the most robust of the four-- a 2014 Arianna Occhipinti SP68 (Nero d'Avola and Frappato grapes.) I generally like this wine and already had a 2013 vintage at home and bought a bottle of the 2014. It was a fun tasting.
P.S. I looked up the ad for the event and it lists the first wine as Nonvintage Le Vigne de Alice "Tajad" Spumante Brut, Veneto, Italy.