By Bruce Neyers

Friday 20th June, 2025

A Comfort-Meal I’ll Never Forget – And the wine that would have been perfect

We’ve had a stretch of mild weather in the Napa Valley recently, and it’s especially welcome now as the vines are going through the process of ‘Flowering.’ The flowers are the individual grape clusters that pollinate themselves, a process during which they’re particularly fragile. One chilly evening last week as we discussed our dinner plans, Barbara proposed grilled cheese sandwiches. Her example of this comfort meal staple borders on brilliance, and I hadn’t had one in a while. As we sat down to eat, I recalled the single greatest grilled cheese sandwich to ever come my way.

In April of 1969, I completed Army Guided Missile School at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Barbara and I spent a few days together in San Francisco, then I boarded a flight to my duty station in South Korea. It was – in army parlance – an unaccompanied tour, so Barbara planned to return home to Delaware for the 13 months I would be on overseas duty. After a few weeks though, she boldly decided to move to Korea as a private citizen. She arranged for a passport, visa, and commercial airplane ticket, and a month after I’d reached Korea, she arrived. With the help of a local Korean family, she rented an American-style house in Chunchon, a medium-sized city in central Korea, about two hours south of my guided missile post. We couldn’t live together, but we met up every month or so when I had an off-duty weekend. Her house was in the heart of town near the police station and city hall and had been recently modernized by the prior US government occupants. She quickly made friends with the mayor’s wife, along with several prominent citizens. She filled her days learning Korean and teaching English at a nearby girl’s school. Within a few days she had hired a housekeeper, Mrs. Kim, and arranged for a local student, Younghi Lee, to move in with her as translator. The house had five bedrooms, so when three fellow GIs asked if their wives could each rent a room, she agreed. Within a month of her arrival, her house in downtown Chunchon became known as the American Wives Club. They lived together and shared the troubles associated with life under those difficult circumstances. For this, they all got to see their husbands once a month.

My surface-to-air missile unit, Delta Battery, was home to about 125 men, and we were completely self-sufficient. Our mess hall was run by Staff Sergeant Jim Cobb. He was a career soldier, one born to be an army cook. While the kitchen was rustic, Sgt. Cobb made it hum. His food was the best in the battalion, and many senior officers from nearby units would mysteriously arrange to be around Delta Battery at mealtime. One day Sgt. Cobb called me aside and showed me a large wheel of what he thought was spoiled cheese. It was covered with mold, and possibly no longer good. Since Barbara knew a little about cooking, he suggested I take it to her, hoping she might salvage it. Barbara knew a little about imported cheese, so she scraped off enough mold to see that it was a large wheel of Jarlsberg, a semi-soft cheese from Norway. The rind was covered with mold, but once removed, the cheese was fine. She had an idea. The next day, each of Barbara’s ‘housemates’ went to the commissary on nearby Camp Page and bought all of the available butter. One, the daughter of Polish bakers, offered to bake Polish Farm Bread, a crusty loaf much like Levain. I bought several bottles of wine at the Camp Page Officer’s Club. Our group dinner that night was magnificent – Grilled Cheese Sandwiches – Jarlsberg on freshly-baked Polish Farm Bread served with a selection of wines you’d expect to find at a remote, army base in 1969 South Korea. I invited my Battalion Commander – who was also Polish – and at the end of my tour, he awarded me a Letter of Commendation. I think it was meant for Barbara. The only thing missing from the meal was Neyers Zinfandel ‘Vista Notre.’

You don’t need Barbara’s recipe to create your own classic grilled cheese sandwich. Her tips — Use Jarlsberg, thinly sliced from the wheel and grill it on fresh Levain bread, melting a fresh pat of butter when turning. If you wish, add a slice of Prosciutto, à la Harry’s Bar in Venice, to dress it up. Most importantly, open a slightly chilled bottle of 2021 Neyers Zinfandel ‘Vista Notre’, and enjoy this beautiful California wine — an example of Zinfandel made the way it was 50 years ago. The alcohol level of 13.6%, allows you to fully enjoy the fruity, complex aroma and beautiful, refreshing flavors. It’s a wine made just the way nature intended.