I recently visited a winery in Healdsburg with my friend, Debbie, for a food and wine pairing event. It was a lot of fun and the food was super tasty. You should know that I am a fairly picky eater with the palette of a 3-year-old (!) so it is no easy feat to get me to eat “fancy” foods.
The event was held at Sapphire Hill Winery which is in the small town of Healdsburg. This area is in the heart of wine country so there are several wineries of all sizes in the area. In fact, there were 4 other wineries in this same location. It was a wet and rainy day so it was perfect to be indoors.
I enjoy drinking wine but I am not brand loyal. I tend toward the reds and prefer dry to sweet. I like a wine that pairs well with food and one where I can just enjoy a glass at the end of the day. I also don’t think that good wine has to be crazy expensive and prefer bottles that are in the more affordable range which I define as anywhere from $10-$20. I like these types of events because it forces me out of my comfort zone and let’s me experience wines and food that I otherwise would not drink or eat.
This event was pretty casual but very fun and informative. I don’t like “stuffy” type wine events where people are very particular or think they have some inside knowledge about wine and grapes. The food was prepared by and the wine introduced by one of the winery owners. She and her husband have owned the winery for about 7 years and she calls it her “hobby”.
FOOD:
We started with a kale salad which was dressed with a delicious wine vinaigrette, then a cracker with goat cheese and cranberries appetizer, onto a butternut squash soup and then a gnocchi with sausage.
Dessert was out of this world good which was a salted brownie with caramel sauce. The wines we tried were the Rosso Moscato, 2015 Cinque Gemma which is an Italian blend, 2015 Zafira Zinfandel, 2013 Merleaux which is a bordeaux blend and a 2015 Pinot Noir. I wish I could recall which wines paired with which foods but I was too busy enjoying the moment! I did enjoy all of the wines though.
I enjoyed this event so much that I joined the wine club!! What this means is 4 times per year, I will go to Healdsburg, drink wine, eat good food and of course purchase wine. If I can’t go, my friend Debbie will do the pick up for me.
These are the bottles that I purchased at this event:
Cinque Gemma
Rosso Moscato
Merleaux
All of these represent a departure for me. I am a fairly steadfast Cabernet drinker. The Cinque Gemma and Rosso Moscato though are two lighter wines that will be particularly tasty when it is warmer.
I enjoyed this event quite a lot and look forward to future events!
What’s your favorite wine? Share in the comments!
