We're sometimes marionettes when it comes to food and wine matching, but Love Puppets and skate can cut those strings. Skate wing is one of my favorite fish dishes and meaty, rich fish like this sometimes go better with red than white wines. Especially the way I cooked it, quickly floured and sauteed, then served with a beurre rouge - in this case accented with some pancetta and capers. Easy and delicious.

What better to go with skate wing and a red wine sauce than Love Puppets. The Love Puppets here (I'm not sure what you were thinking of) is a lovely Oregon pinot noir from Brandborg Vineyards. The 2006 Brandborg Vineyards Love Puppets Pinot Noir catches all the romance that is pinot noir. Very spicy, brightly fruity and charming, but with just a touch of the earthy, wild mushrooms notes that always highlight the best pinots this is a wine you can drink now or over the next several years. The San Francisco Chronicle placed it in their top 100 wines of 2008 and I can see why. Besides that, it's a bargain at only $30.

The real love puppets are the husband and wife team of Terry and Sue Brandborg who make this excellent pinot and a host of other wines from cool climate varieties in their decidedly very cool climate in the the Umpqua Valley in southern Oregon, which they are so successfully pioneering.

All to often we seek romance in winemaking, but rarely find it in these days of corporate wine factories, but the Brandborgs are the real thing and you can taste their passion for both wine and each other in the wonderful wines of Brandborg Vineyards.

Technorati Tags: wine, Oregon, pinot noir, Umpqua, Brandborg