Quince and Apple

I retreated into Pastoral today from the blistering cold and came out with a bagful of goodies. One of which was a jar of Apples in Sparkling Wine by Quince and Apple, a Madison, WI based artisan duo .

I had already selected a jar of fig jam from Spain when I spied the product tasting at the cashier counter for Quince and Apple. I had seen jars of the preserves at Pastoral before so I piped up at the man behind the counter and said 'Are you Matt?' having glanced back and forth several times between him and the picture postcard of the founding duo on the counter. Yes he was so I graciously scooped up a sample of the apple preserve onto a piece of bread and popped it into my mouth.

I admit, now that I am tasting it at home with my face and body at normal room temperature, the sparkling wine sweetness of the diced apples really shines through and elicits more than my earlier frigid response. I was impressed to learn that they source locally so of course feeling a tinge of guilt about sourcing from Spain, I picked up a jar of the preserve. But now that I have been able to savour each mouthful atop sliced olive bread, I am truly glad that I did. The preserve or perhaps the batch is a bit runny for my liking but certainly something I would choose to entertain with in future.

Apples in Sparkling Wine is a preserve exclusive to Pastoral. Pastoral chose the sparkling wine themselves to feature in the preserve and the Quince and Apple duo added Wisconsin heirloom apples to the reduction they prepared and voila! .

I was even more pleasantly surprised to out that it pairs well with Marieke Gouda, another Wisconsin gem I picked up today as well.