Back Home at First Mile Kitchen

After blowing all the way back home from Denver (you know you're back in Kansas when the wind about knocks you off your feet), we decided to stop in at one of Katie and her husband's favorite hangouts with friends, First Mile Kitchen. Apart from being a great setting and a fun place to eat, their food is fantastic, and they have a great wine list. That's a recipe for a fine evening right there.

We couldn't decide on one appetizer, so we chose four: the Burrata Mozzarella, the Ploughman's Plate, the Meatballs, and the FMK Sourdough. Since there were four of us, we got to choose four wines to taste from the by-the-glass menu! First Mile's sommelier, Yannic, has really put together an awesome wine list. Bart went with the Mer Solei "Silver" Chardonnay from Monterey, Katie chose the Angeline Pinot Noir from Mendocino, and Katie's husband got the Killer Drop red blend from Napa. Bart's wife is a big fan of Cabernet, so she ordered the Metier Cabernet Sauvignon from Columbia Valley. So now that we had our fantastic array of food and wine, thanks to our wonderful server Olivia who helped us put this whole thing together, we were ready to have ourselves a little party.

The Silver Chardonnay smelled of crisp apples and even a little like peaches. It's light and refreshing, with the slight creaminess expected from a Chardonnay. Light wines tend to go best with light food, so we dug right into the burrata. This was delicious, with the burrata making the Chardonnay seem even fruitier and creamier than it tasted before. Lovely!

The Angeline Pinot Noir is a delicious, fruity wine smells and tastes like bright red fruits with just a touch of earthiness to it. And what a wonderful food wine!! The burrata makes this Pinot taste a little earthier, in a good way. The Pinot tastes great with the meatballs as well, with the meatballs again making the Pinot a little less fruity and a little more earthy. If that sounds really strange (why do I want earthy wine??), I promise it's SO good and you won't be disappointed. We tasted this with the cheese from the Ploughman's Plate as well, and it was magical. Go taste it!

The Metier Cabernet Sauvignon is a fruity wine with much more dark fruit than the Pinot, like black cherries and plums. It's an easy-drinking Cabernet that we all enjoyed quite a bit. It was delicious paired with the sausage from the Ploughman's Plate, and again, the cheese on the Ploughman's Plate was just delectable with the Cab. The wine takes the cheese a little less sharp and the cheese makes the wine a little less tart, and together, both are smooth and absolutely wonderful.

Next up, we have the Killer Drop red blend. This wine is a big, dark and fruity wine with a lot of vanilla notes to it. With the vanilla that comes from the oak it ages in, it almost even seems a touch sweet, though it isn't actually sweet. As a result, though, it goes really well with the meatballs (which have a slight sweetness to the sauce), and together they are really fantastic. As with the other red wines, the cheese from the Ploughman's Plate makes this wine seem more earthy and complex, and the combo is delightful. We would say, however, that this wine overpowers the sausage from the Ploughman's Plate a little bit.

The Ploughman's Plate also comes with First Mile's candied pecans, which have an almost biscotti quality to them. What a pleasant surprise! We decided that we'd better go ahead and get a dessert wine to go with those, since First Mile has Inniskillin ice wine available by the glass (Katie loves dessert wine, so YUM).

Ice wine is a sweet, delicious dessert wine made by letting grapes freeze on the vine and then harvesting them frozen. This particular ice wine comes from Canada, and it smells like honey and honeysuckle and even a little like pineapple. It's even honeyed when you drink it, smooth and delicious. It went so well with the pecans, and we could not have ended our feast any better.

Thanks for a fantastic evening, First Mile Kitchen! As always, you did not disappoint on any front. We can't wait to go back and try more pairings! We have so many wines yet to try!