Reyes 2014 Julia’s Blend Cherry Jam

By Beth Heiserman

I’m sure everybody has seen at the market how abundant and beautiful the cherries are this year. This week I decided to buy some cherries and make some jam. And of course, like always I always infuse wine into everything, Jams and jellies are no different. When I think of cherries there are a couple wines that come to mind, but the one that made me think the most this week because I haven’t used it in any recipe recently was 2014 Reyes Julia’s Blend. It is a blend of Syrah and Merlot.

Julia’s blend always screams to me summer and of course July 4th. This is an amazing red wine blend for summer.  It’s bold but dry and can go with so many versatile summer dishes. The perfect Fourth of July barbecue wine.  Many years ago, my mom worked with someone that made a barbecue sauce from grape jelly. I always think how tasty that sauce was on top of chicken or even cocktail meatballs. She just mixed in a pot, barbecue sauce with grape jelly and added a few herbs to it. I have course have updated and changed the recipe to my style which of course is a little bit more homemade. But there’s nothing wrong with substituting sometimes.  My recipe for cherry jelly is a great alternate in this barbecue sauce recipe. You can find my barbecue sauce recipe on our website, Reyes Winery.com/blog.  https://wp.me/p2QsEQ-1oC Especially with July 4 coming next week this sauce works really well with barbecue chicken or ribs. I’ve also have many other recipes for different jellies and jams and another one that would work really well is my plum jelly that I use Robby’s blend. https://wp.me/p2QsEQ-1xs  It would give it more of an Asian twist. Here is my recipe for the cherry jam.

Ingredients

• 4 ½ cups cherries, chopped and pitted
• 4 cups of sugar
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 4 star anise
• 1 package of Sure-jell Certo liquid pectin
• 1/3 cup of Reyes 2014 Julia’s Blend

Directions

1. Pour sugar into large pot and cook over medium to high heat.
2. When sugar starts to melt and sides of pot, looks like it is a caramel color; add cherries, lemon juice, star anise and pectin.
3. When it starts to boil, continue to cook until frothy.
4. When the back of the spoon looks like it is sticking to the back. (Take a finger and go down the back of the spoon, if you make a line and it feels thick, it’s done.) Turn off the heat.
5. Remove the star anise.
6. Add Reyes 2014 Julia’s Blend.
7. Chill and then Serve.