A few weeks ago, samples of a new line of gourmet goodies landed at my door. The “Gary” and “Kit” are Gary Erickson and Kit Crawford, owners of Clif Bar & Company, as well as Clif Family Winery, and the first products from Gary & Kit’s Gourmet are four varieties of Mountain Mix. These packaged jumbles of dried fruits, nuts and seasonings were created, they say, to pair with wines. (Particularly the Clif Family Wines, naturally enough.)

This was one of those times when all my expectations proved to be back to front. The variety that I thought would be my least favorite turned out to be the one I’m craving more of, and vice versa.

The four flavors of Mountain Mix are:

• Sundried Berry & Cherries with Roasted Almonds
• Smoked Paprika Almonds Sprinkled with Sea Salt
• Glazed Walnuts & Apricots with Bing Cherries
• Roasted Pistachios and Almonds Tossed with Rosemary

The suggested retail price on these is about $7 for a 5-ounce bag. Not too bad. My surprise favorite was the Glazed Walnuts & Apricots. Sounds simple, but not only is it delicious (particularly good with cheeses, too) but I’m not at all sure I could successfully recreate it – a good litmus test for someone like me who likes to cook. The other flavors were perfectly fine, too, it’s just that I tend to make my own toasted, flavored nut mixes, and I feel like I could throw together the Berry, Cherry, Almond mix pretty easily.

(As an aside, the company notes that “Always emphasizing the importance of local food sourcing and sustainability, the ingredients for Mountain Mix were sourced from California and each flavor is made with at least 70% organic ingredients.” I don’t really get the 70% thing — either the product is or isn’t organic, right? What good is 70% if you really care about this topic? I guess the assumption is that the other 30% isn’t too un-organic? From a marketing perspective, I’m not sure that would have been the stance I would have chosen…)

Anyhoo, try the Glazed Walnuts & Apricots Mountain Mix the next time you’re putting together a cheese and wine course. I dare say these tender apricots and lightly-sweet walnuts (the glazing somehow calms the bitter tannins of the nuts) could work with any wine (from Pinot Grigio to Cabernet Sauvignon to Port) and just about any cheese (from ripe Camembert to blues to aged Cheddar or Gouda).

Note: I was just about to revise this post to mention that Mountain Mix is available on the Clif Family Winery website, as well as some grocery stores in California and elsewhere, but then I noticed that my favorite flavor is not actually listed on the winery website. Not sure if they’re not offering it now, or if it sold out. Is it just me, or does this kind of thing happen to everybody?…