Dare to Pair Workshop

If there is one thing I enjoy talking about almost as much as wine...it's food. And what goes really well with food? Wine. So naturally, I'm internally wired to enjoy any type of event that involves both of these entities. I recently had the opportunity to coordinate a food and wine pairing workshop in Atlanta in partnership with the The Cask Room in Decatur, Ted Field of Domaine Wine Distributors, and Chef Andrew of Me, My Chef, and I.

The Cask Room in Decatur, GA hosted this special tasting event

Back in my days of managing the winery in Virginia, some of my absolute favorite events were those during which guests had the opportunity to explore how wine and food can enhance each other for an entirely new experience. I would select wines to serve with menu items prepared by our in-house chef while creating five-course gourmet dining journeys. Chef and I would discuss every single flavor to be incorporated in his dishes to fully understand the nuances of taste that would be highlighted on the palate. In one of my previous Blog posts, I elaborated on how I often enjoy pairing opposites and/or contrasting flavors to surprise dinner guests, and these vineyard dinners were no exception. Chef would introduce each course followed by my explanation of why each wine was hand-selected to pair with each dish. Guests seemed to truly enjoy the impact of these complex characteristics combing in new, exciting ways.

But...how often to you open five bottles of wine for yourself to taste with your chicken stir-fry on a Wednesday night? If you do, that's awesome, and please invite me to join you next time. If you don't do that often or ever,  then you rarely have the change to explore how multiple wines interact with the flavors in a single dish. This is exactly where the inspiration for the "Dare to Pair Workshop" was born - I wanted to allow our guests to pair five distinctly flavored dishes with various wines all at the same time to explore the good, the bad, and the ugly amidst the pairings.

The newly-opened Cask Room served as the perfect host site for this event, and the owners were thrilled about the opportunity to offer such a unique tasting event for a select group of food and wine enthusiasts. Their dining space is modern and intimate, and their Enomatic Wine Dispenser System allows for multiple wines to be showcased at one time and be available for guests to serve themselves at their own pace.

The opening welcome by "A Cork in the Road"

Having interviewed Ted of Domaine Distributors earlier this spring for one of the "Twenty-ish Questions" posts on the Blog, I knew he would be the perfect open-minded distributor with whom to collaborate on this innovative tasting format. He was able to select five wines in his portfolio for loading into the dispensers at The Cask Room, one of their established clients, that would showcase a wide spectrum of palate characteristics for the pairing adventure. To provide our cuisine, we recruited Ted's culinary-inclined business partner, Chef Andrew Tokas of Me, My Chef, and I. As a personal chef in Atlanta, Chef Andrew expertly plans and prepares cuisine according to the desires of his clients. He relies on his understanding of how tastes and textures compliment the progression of a meal from start to finish, and his background in Classic French, Italian, and New American Cookery provides a perfect backbone for pairing his creations with wines from those regions.

 

Once we had all of the contributors on board, we advertised the event featuring our mouth-watering menu of food and wine to be presented. The format was such that each guest would receive all five dishes at the same time as each course represented the five basic tastes:

The delicious food waiting to be paired with the wines one-by-one

SALTINESS: Ham & Cheese Quiche

SWEETNESS: Nutella Crepe

BITTERNESS: Dandelion Salad

SOURNESS: Sweet & Sour Soup

UMAMI: Chicken Liver Pate (...Chef Andrew's specialty!)

Upon arrival, each guest received their own Enomatic Wine Dispenser card (aka a wine-acquiring credit card) which could be inserted into the machine at any time to redeem their two-ounce sample of the five different wines. The intent was for each guest to try all of the dishes with each of the wines and record their reactions to the pairings on their personal tasting chart designed by Yours Truly (the resident scientific research nerd).

Nerdy? Maybe. Helpful to guide each pairing reaction? Definitely.

We gave a brief welcome and an explanation of how to navigate through the pairing workshop using their charts as a guide, then our guests were given the reigns to begin their own pairing exploration by pouring their wines in any order and tasting them with each dish.

The Reds loaded and ready for pre-programmed tastings from the Enomatic Dispenser

The following wines were offered...

WHITES:

1) 2013 Pardo Tolosa Mizaran Macabeo (La Manch, Spain): Defined acidity, pale wheat in color, medium/light body, and flavors of limes, pear, apricot, pineapple, and sea salt.

2) 2013 Finca El Refugio Verdejo (Castilla, Spain): This 100% verdejo is bright, clear, and pale yellow in color with subtle aromas of pineapple, melon, and grass with hints of lime on the palate.

ROSE:

3) 2012 Finca El Refugio Syrah Rose (La Mancha, Spain): Made from 100% Syrah, this wine is garnet in color with flavors of cherries, apples, minerals, and taffy.

LIGHT RED:

4) 2013 Zeni Bardolino Vigne Alte (Bardolino Classico zone): 50% Corvina, 40% Rondinella, and 10% Molinara blend with soft tannins, medium purple color, and notes of cherries, violets, blackberries, and clove.

BOLD RED:

5) 2008 Lafon La Revelation (Bordeaux, Cotes de Blaye): A medium-bodied blend of 60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Franc, and 10% Malbec with deep purple color, defined acidity, and hints of leather, toasted wood, plums, black cherries, cinnamon, and chocolate.

The Whites and the Rose locked, loaded, and ready to dispense vino

We concluded the session with a group discussion sharing the favorites and the not-so-favorites amidst the pairing options. Guests ultimately voted that the Bardolino, the lighter-bodied red wine, was the most versatile of the wines such that it paired moderately well with all five dishes. My personal favorite pairing was the Revelation with the Chicken Liver Pate, and I was most surprised by the Nutella Crepe and Rose pairing for it's unexpected harmony. It is my hope that each guest left the event that afternoon with a revived sense of adventure to continue exploring their palates and discover their preferences as their wine and food interact.

Thanks to The Cask Room, Domaine Distributors, and Chef Andrew for being adventurous business partners. And thanks to our lovely guests for attending! I look forward to coordinating more events like this in Atlanta so we can keep eating and drinking for fun. Salud!