Leroux Creek Vineyards in Hotchkiss took home a Double Gold Medal in the Colorado Mountain Winefest for its 2005 Après Vous, a delicious port-style dessert wine. Made from French hybrid Chambourcin grapes, the wine is deep cherry in color, smells of dark plums and black currant, and is slightly sweet, but not overbearing like many ports.

Thinking it would provide a luxurious finish to the Thanksgiving meal, we taste-tested the Après Vous with several favorites and came up with recommendations to satisfy a fickle range of dessert lovers:

For foodies: Serve with a mixed plate of Stilton cheese, dark chocolate (no more than 70 percent cocoa), and dried cherries. The rich, tangy cheese is nicely offset by the dark fruit of the wine, which also stands up to the chocolate.

For traditionalists: Serve with a warm slice of cherry pie. The sweet fruit of each nicely complements the other.

For chocoholics: Serve with a thick slice of frosted chocolate cake. The lingering finish of the wine takes the edge off the cake.

For those who can’t possibly eat another bite after the main course: The Après Vous is gorgeous and satisfying on its own. Serve straight up in a sherry glass.

Leroux Creek Vineyards, 970-872-4746

If you haven’t heard, beer-pairing dinners are on the rise. You can sign up for these events at several restaurants around town––or simply create your own at home. We opted for the latter, and drew inspiration from two new brews from Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins.

Mountain Standard Reserve, released just days after we set back the clocks, is a dark, hoppy beer with slight malted sweetness. Pair it with a mixed antipasto platter consisting of sliced meats, salty cheeses, tart apple slices, and homemade candied almonds. (The crunchy almonds, made with Mountain Standard, are especially delicious and easy to make.) Then, follow the appetizer with a main-course linguine, tossed with juicy, beer-steamed mussels and peppery arugula.

For dessert, serve up a slice of dark chocolate cake with a glass of Odell Bourbon Barrel Stout. The rich, creamy notes of coffee, chocolate, and vanilla are nicely offset by the oakiness of bourbon-barrel aging.

800 E. Lincoln Ave., Fort Collins, 970-498-9070

An evening at Cracovia, an upscale Polish restaurant located just off Wadsworth Parkway in Westminster, should begin with an authentic, herbaceous sip of the Polish Cocktail (Bison Grass vodka, honey liqueur, and apple juice).

From there, move to the house-made kielbasa sausage or a plate of pierogi, scalloped half-moon dumplings filled with cheese, meat, cabbage, and mushrooms and topped with caramelized onions. (Order the combination plate for a taste of all nine fillings.) If you’ve never had pierogi, think ravioli—only much heartier and without the sauce.

Don’t miss: The gorgeous beet soup—it’s light, brothy, studded with potato cubes, and swirled with tangy sour cream—or, for dessert, the blueberry pierogi with sweet sour cream.

8121 W. 94th Ave., Westminster, 303-484-9388

If you’re the kind of person who would rather skip the entrée and make a meal out of small plates, then Tastes Wine Bar & Bistro is your kind of spot.

With a diverse and ever-changing selection of wines by the glass and an extensive menu, Tastes allows you to design your own private tasting menu with accompanying wine pairings.

Recently, I created a three-course, two-wine dinner for just $30. I started with a house favorite: chewy, Brie-stuffed dates wrapped in thick shavings of smoky Serrano ham and drizzled with balsamic glaze. This was followed by a small bowl of slightly sweet and tender butternut-squash ravioli with sage butter. Both dishes pair well with the crisp Ventisquero Reserva Sauvignon Blanc from Chile. (Tastes pours a generous glass.)

For dessert, I opted for the warm apple crisp blended with tart cranberries and topped with a scoop of mellow vanilla gelato. This goes well with the R.L. Buller Tokay from Australia, a smooth, sweet sherry.

Tip: Tastes offers happy-hour specials from 4-6 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 3-6 p.m., Friday through Sunday. Selected tapas are $3 and the majority of wines run $5 a glass.

1033 E. 17th Ave., 303-459-2311 and 4267 Tennyson St., 303-952-9590

After a harried morning, the MCA Cafe offers a tranquil place to recharge and grab a light lunch. Perched on the top floor of LoDo’s glassy-cool Museum of Contemporary Art, the spot dishes up hearty soups, fresh salads, and made-to-order sandwiches. Don’t miss the generous roast beef, served on chewy ciabatta with tangy horseradish Havarti. Try it with a cup of the sweet tomato-basil soup.

The cafe is sleek and stylish—just what you’d expect inside the MCA. Best of all, two of its walls of windows provide bright, scenic views of lower downtown. The danger, of course, is that with a full bar, wines by the bottle and glass, and all that art downstairs, you may be tempted to linger all afternoon.

Save room for sweets from Icing, Etc., whose selections are sometimes inspired by opening art exhibits. The cafe, for example, featured raspberry French macaroons and tiramisù with red berry glaze in homage to the deep red found in the impressive large-scale canvases by Barnaby Furnas, now on display.

Tidbit: To access the eatery, you must pay the $10 museum admission fee. Or, buy an annual membership ($45) and receive 10 percent off each cafe purchase. Plus, students can visit the museum for free on Fridays.

1485 Delgany St., 303-298-7554

Looking for a pick-me-up after a day spent shopping in Cherry Creek? Get thee to Houston’s for the lightly spicy, Thai tuna sushi appetizer and a refreshing cucumber Tom Collins.

The starter—which can also be ordered as an entrée— is made with sashimi-grade tuna and is served roll-style with creamy avocado, toasted coconut, and crunchy, diced macadamia nuts. Rice and a silky rémoulade, spiked with serrano and jalapeño, bind the flavors together. For those craving more heat, a zesty Sriracha mayo comes on the side.

Houston’s Tom Collins, made with Hendrick’s Gin, muddled spears of cucumber, lime juice, and Sprite, provides the right amount of cool to offset the dish’s heat.

Tip: Try to nab a table at the bar alongside the kitchen, where you can watch the chefs at work.

303 Josephine St., 303-333-4688

Foodies looking for the latest and greatest tend to overlook the Buckhorn Exchange. This is a mistake, since the Buckhorn, established in 1893, has had literally decades to perfect its Frontier, meat-and-potatoes menu.

Alongside beef, alligator, elk, and lamb dishes is a delicious, High Plains-buffalo prime rib. The slow-roasted bison, which comes from ranches in South Dakota, is sweeter and more tender than beef and much lower in fat. The Buckhorn serves its prime rib medium-rare au jus, with hints of garlic and Worcestershire sauce, and a sour cream-horseradish sauce with black peppercorns.

The 16-ounce portion is large enough to share with a friend.

Tip: Make reservations several days in advance. For a restaurant that’s almost 116 years old, business is surprisingly brisk.

1000 Osage St., 303-534-9505

The Berkshire, home to all things pork, recently revealed a new temptation: white chocolate bacon cream puffs.

Chef Woodie Thomas crafts the dessert by folding rendered bacon and bacon bits into cream puff pastry dough. Once baked, the rounds are split and filled with a generous smear of white chocolate mousse and topped with an elegant, dark chocolate ganache. A sprinkling of seasonal berries and a swirl of on-the-side fruit coulis complete the plate.

The bacon is barely perceptible, though it does provide a subtle smoky taste that nicely offsets its sweet surroundings.

Tip: Pair the cream puff with a cool glass of slightly fizzy Via Lattea Moscato D’Asti.

7352 E. 29th Ave., 303-321-4010

Of 163 entries from 20 Colorado wineries at last week’s Colorado Mountain Winefest, Denver’s own Balistreri Vineyards won Best of Show for its elegant, 2008 Petite Sirah.

It’s a big wine, perfect for cool-weather dishes like venison stew or boeuf bourguignon, but it’s also surprisingly drinkable on its own. And while the wine, which tastes of spicy dark plums, will age well, it’s also delicious right now.

Get a taste of the Petite Sirah—or any of the nine wines for which Balistreri won honors—at the winery’s seventh-annual Harvest Party on Sunday, October 4, from noon to 6 p.m. The $55 advance ticket price (plus tax; $60 at the door) includes tasting samples, a commemorative wine glass, and plenty of food.

Tip: Kids will love participating in the children’s grape stomping (arrive by 2 p.m.). All grapes stomped that day will be bottled next year as Balistreri’s 2009 Colorado Little Feet Merlot. Last year’s event produced a nicely tannic Merlot, perfect for aging.

1946 E. 66th Ave., 303-287-5156

For 65 years, one of Denver’s go-to spots for a hearty plate of Mexican was Tosh’s Hacienda. But five years ago, a combination of circumstances forced Ruben Mackintosh, son of the founder, to shut the Tech Center location and then its long-standing Five Points site.

Now, fans of Tosh’s are celebrating once again. In March, Tracy Mackintosh revived the legacy begun by his grandfather and father, and opened Tosh’s Cantina in Marina Square.

While the building is new and the name slightly changed, the menu is the same—mostly. Tosh’s standbys—burritos, enchiladas, and fish tacos—are all available and made from original recipes. The light fish tacos I had last week (served open-faced on corn tortillas with crunchy cabbage, ripe avocado, and fresh pico de gallo) were exact replicas of the tacos I would crave almost weekly.

Some of the heartier specialties, such as chicken mole, carne adovada, and stuffed sopaipillas, are missing, but they will return when Tosh’s launches its expanded dinner menu within the next month. A new lunch menu focusing on $7-and-under plates is also in the works.

Tip: Get to Tosh’s while the weather is still warm. The patio fronts a landscaped courtyard and fountain, making for ideal alfresco dining.

8101 E. Belleview Ave., 303-586-5530

For the last year and a half, lunch at Fuel Cafe in Taxi has satisfied our every dining whim with creative and unexpected eats in a vibrant, urban environment. But dinner at Fuel—served Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m.—is even better than lunch.

Go with a group and sample your way through Bob Blair’s ever-changing menu. When I dined with four friends, we ordered everything—four small plates, four entrées, and three desserts—placed them in the middle of the table, and dove in.

The food is a lot like the restaurant itself: casual, with crunchy goat cheese, almond, and mustard crostini; artsy, with colorful preparations like tender striped bass served with bright red cherry tomatoes, deep green arugula, and shiny black olives; and ideal for people who crave comfort after a hard day but don’t mind a bit of dazzle, which you’ll get with any dessert on Fuel’s menu.

Tip: Plan ahead. Fuel’s seating is limited, with 12 tables inside and 12 outside.

3455 Ringsby Court, #105, 303- 296-4642

The peach harvest in Palisade may have ended, but Denver restaurants are putting the fruit to good use in drink, appetizer, and main-course specials. Parallel 17, for example, offers peach carpaccio with Thai chile flakes, smoked red sea salt, and pea-shoot salad, and Elway’s Cherry Creek tops chile-braised Colorado goat tacos with charred peach salsa.

But when I think peach, I think dessert, and Jonesy’s EatBar currently has two such creations on the sweet side of its menu. In celebration of the upcoming Harvest Week, Jonesy’s has created a Haystack Mountain goat-cheese pound cake crowned with slices of fresh peach and a dollop of basil crème fraîche. The basil lends an unexpected herbal flavor—and fragrance—to the tart crème fraîche, and both are nicely offset by the cool sweetness of the peaches.

On Jonesy’s regular menu, fans of the stone fruit will give high praise to the sticky-sweet peach bread pudding with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. The dense bread pudding is especially yummy paired with Oskar Blues‘ Dale’s Pale Ale aged in Stranahan’s Whiskey barrels. The heady top notes of whiskey nicely synchronize with the base notes of clove and spice in the bread pudding.

400 E. 20th Ave., 303-863-7473

If you’ve attended the Art District on Santa Fe’s First Friday Art Walk lately, you know what a scene it’s become. Packed galleries, crowded sidewalks, hoards of twentysomethings trying to cross the street at the same time.

Both taking advantage of the crowd—and offering a respite from it—is the Infinite Monkey Theorem, an urban winery that set up shop last summer inside a converted Quonset hut off of West Fifth Avenue and Santa Fe Drive.

During First Fridays, IMT opens its courtyard wine bar—and I use the term loosely—for its Drunken Monkey Art Under the Influence celebration. The winery is rough around the edges, with a concrete courtyard, blue plastic awning, and stacks of plastic grape-transport bins, but during First Fridays the generous pours run $8 to $10.

The crisp Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend is perfect for a hot evening. The Chardonnay, however, tastes a bit too much like buttered popcorn, especially as it warms. Next week, the winery will be pouring Gewurztraminer and Chardonnay and offering barrel samples of Cabernet Franc, Syrah, and Malbec.

Tip: Arrive at IMT by 5:30 p.m. to avoid crowds and snag good parking for the art walk. Plus, you might get more time to chat with winemaker Ben Parsons.

931 W. Fifth Ave., 970-260-0710

I was intrigued—and a little perplexed—when the wine bar Cru announced a special August menu planned around locally grown tomatoes. I’m all for the summer harvest, but tomatoes are notoriously difficult to pair with wine. Perhaps trying the dishes with a number of pours—Cru offers several wine-flight groupings of three wines each—would lead to the perfect pairing.

As expected, the heirloom beefsteak tomato salad was tasty but a wine lover’s nightmare, with acidic tomatoes, tart honey balsamic vinaigrette, and sharp onions. In search of the perfect accompaniment, my dining companion and I tasted two flights of white wine.

After several misses (namely the 2007  Trivento Torrontes Select, which was too fruity to offset the acid in the tomatoes) we declared the Domaine Schlumberger “Les Princes Abbes” Pinot Blanc ’06 the winner. It’s well balanced and tastes slightly sweet against the dish.

Much easier to pair was the roasted heirloom-tomato pizza with fresh mozzarella and basil pesto. The tomatoes were cooked, which made it easier on the wine, and the cheesy pizza had more substance overall. The wine flight winner? Atteca Old Vine Garnacha ’07. The Grenache is fruity enough to clear the palate of garlicky pesto, but still has enough body to stand up to the concentrated tomato flavor.

Tip: Acidic, fruit-forward white wines such as Riesling, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc tend to pair best with raw tomatoes; Sangiovese and Malbec are better with cooked.

1442 Larimer St., 303-893-9463

If you’ve ever eaten at Luca d’Italia or Osteria Marco, you know that chef/owner Frank Bonanno has a way with cheese, which he makes fresh daily at both restaurants. This month, Bonanno is sharing his cheese-making secrets in a series of Saturday-afternoon classes (the next two of which are on Aug. 15th and 22nd) at Luca.

I attended last week’s class and learned how to make deliciously simple ricotta and fresh, firm mozzarella. The class also introduced me to Burrata, in which a thin layer of mozzarella is wrapped around a ball of ricotta to create a creamy, chewy appetizer that is ideally spread across a crunchy slice of grilled bread.

Most of the ingredients for all three cheeses—whole milk, buttermilk, lemon, and heavy cream—are readily available at grocery stores. The one hard-to-find component is mozzarella curd; I found it for $9.99/pound at Marczyk’s Fine Foods.

The $45 class, in which Bonanno demonstrates the process, is followed by a summery three-course lunch with wine.

Tip: Although recipes (like the one for ricotta below) are given to class participants, the real value comes from watching Bonanno work, as his process deviates slightly from the written instructions. Also, note the wine selection: The Italian Rosé, Cantale Negroamaro Salento, was nearly perfect with the cherry tomato and fresh mozzarella penne. (more…)

Knowing it can be tough for diners to find a fish-friendly red wine, Jax Fish House recently launched its own private label Pinot Noir. I stopped in to sample a glass and ordered the nightly special—fish tacos—to accompany it. At the very least, I thought, the wine would be designed to pair with whatever is on the specials board.

And it did. Jax Pinor Noir, a special blend of 2007 single-vineyard Pinots made by Sineann Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, is light and delicate and summery. It enhances the mahi-mahi tacos without overpowering them, and the fruit in the wine nicely offsets the spicy red beans served on the side.

But here’s the rub: I would have enjoyed both the wine and tacos more if they hadn’t been so grossly overpriced. I expect to pay $13 for a glass of aged Burgundy, but $13 for a young Pinot is excessive. And $22 for mediocre fried fish tacos borders on insulting. I’ve had fish tacos for a fraction of the price (Wahoo’s go for $5.99) that are twice as good.

I left feeling that Jax’ steady crowd of regulars had given the restaurant an exaggerated sense of itself. Yes, the wine is good—but in the end, not worth it.

1539 17th St., 303-292-5767

Sunday brunch should be built for comfort, and one of Denver’s most inviting options can be found at Venue Bistro. The friendly Highland hangout serves a combination of traditional favorites—eggs benedict, French toast, corned beef hash—along with more unexpected mid-day meals, such as mussels and short ribs.

I began with a glass of the stone fruit Prosecco, a generous serving of the dry Italian sparkling wine served with splashes of peach liqueur and orange juice, and slices of Palisade peaches, plums and apricots. The drink’s fruity effervescence balanced out the slightly spicy braised pork, a last-until-dinner meal that came with a potato hash, fried egg, and Hollandaise. (If you like a runny yolk, as I do, ask for your egg over-easy. Mine was overcooked.) The entire meal, with tip, was a reassuring $21.

Hint: If it’s warm, arrive by 11 a.m. to snag one of the sidewalk tables. And if you want the lazy Sunday spirit to last all day, pop into Mondo Vino for a bottle of Zardetto, the same Prosecco Venue uses, for just $12.

3609 W. 32nd Ave., 303-477-0477