High Pass Winery

Can you say “Huxelrebe”?

The Huxelrebe is a white grape often used to make premium-quality sweet wines served as aperitifs or dessert wines. Huxelrebe is a delicious wine, but it’s rarely found in Oregon unless one ventures to High Pass Winery. Located west of Junction City, High Pass Winery produces estate wines under the guidance of owner/winemaker Dieter Boehm at one of three vineyards: Walnut Ridge Vineyard, Priddy Ridge Vineyard, and High Pass Vineyard.

Rarely do we reprint a recipe, but with thanks to High Pass Winery, we offer this chocolate almond cake to pair with High Pass’ Huxelrebe dessert wine:

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
¾ cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar (divided)
4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
¼ teaspoon almond extract
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon cake flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (3 ounces) almond meal (available at Trader Joe’s)
Caramel sauce

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a Bundt pan. Combine the chocolate and butter and melt. Be very careful not to burn the mixture. Remove from the heat and whisk to combine. Whisk in ¾ cup of the sugar, the egg yolks, and the almond extract. Whisk in the almond meal and the flour. Beat the egg whites until they start to foam. Add the remaining ¼ cup sugar and beat until the whites form soft peaks. Using a rubber spatula, carefully fold one-third of the whites into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the remaining whites. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake until the cake is puffed and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 35–40 minutes.

Just before serving, using a fine-mesh sieve, dust the cake with confectioner’s sugar and drizzle with caramel sauce. Serve with chilled High Pass Winery Huxelrebe and repeat after me: “Life is good, life is good, life is good.…”

High Pass Winery also produces silky-smooth pinot noirs, a pinot gris, a rosé of gamay noir, and another German white wine called Scheurebe – a wine with roots to the silvaner varietal grape. But whatever the wine, you can be sure that Dieter Boehm has personally “worked the vine to grow the wine.” For a slice of heaven on earth, take time to bake the chocolate almond cake and bring it along to pair with the Huxelrebe dessert wine.