The Wine Knows

We're participating in a dinner tonight that focuses on Petite Sirah. We're in charge of providing the wine and the appetizers. As a bonus, I put together a Petite Sirah sorbet as a mid-meal palate cleanser. The recipe came from the P.S. I Love You Web site and was contributed by Greg Masset, owner of Masset Winery in Washington's Yakima Valley.

Masset also is a chef, and he contributed a handful of recipes to the Web site, which I've bookmarked for later consideration.

Here's how the sorbet is made:

-- Create a simple syrup by combining 1.25 cups water and 1.25 cups sugar, heating and stirring until all sugar is dissolved. Cool, then refrigerate for a few hours (I refrigerated overnight).

-- Combine 1.25 cups of the simple syrup with 3.5 cups of Petite Sirah (a bottle minus the two glasses we had for dinner last night), 1.5 cups of water and a 1/3rd cup of fresh lemon juice into an ice cream maker, then follow the manufacturer's directions (mine ran for about 30 minutes). Put into the freezer for a few hours.

-- If you want the sorbet's consistency to be smooth even when frozen, add a tablespoon or so of vodka. Because vodka doesn't freeze, it will keep that sorbet easier to scoop up. And because vodka has no flavor, it won't interfere with your final product.

This is not a sweet, dessert-like sorbet. Rather, it's a between-course palate cleanser. I tried a spoonful, and I could taste the bold flavors of the Petite Sirah, as well as its tannins. This sorbet is not for the faint of palate!

This sorbet was simple to make and will provide a fun interlude in the meal and keep to its theme.

If you prefer to make a wine-based sorbet that serves as a sweeter dessert, you'd probably want to use a less-tannic variety and either boost the syrup or cut back on the wine.

Don't want to make your own? An East Coast company makes six different kinds of wine-based sorbets and will even ship them to you in dry ice.

Last fall, we made two sorbets from fresh wine grape juice (Sangiovese and Merlot), one as a palate cleanser and one as a dessert. The sugar in the fresh juice was plenty for the palate cleanser version, while we used the simple syrup for the sweeter sorbet.