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| The Official Invitation |
Tonight I attended the
Vintners Hall of Fame dinner at the Culinary Institute in St. Helena, CA. This is the fifth such event in so many years and thanks to my friends at Nomacorc, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend.
Let me start by saying WOW. I'm not sure what my expectations were before going but this is right up there as one of the "must attend" events in Napa Valley. While three of the inductees were from Sonoma County, the 2011 class of HOF'ers were nothing short of great.
Here's the list of this years inductees:
- Mr. Richard Graff (1937 - 1998) - Chalone Wine Group
- Mr. Joel Peterson - Ravenswood (No Wimpy Wines)
- Mr. August Sebastiani (1913 - 1980) - Sebastiani Winery
- Professor Vernon Singleton - U.C. Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology
- Louis "Bob" Trinchero - Sutter Home Winery
First there was the grazing before the induction of this class. The theme for the night was "Presidents Day" - get it? The wines poured during the initial reception featured wines poured at dinners at the White House - not Nickel and Nickel - the place where the President lives.
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| Vintner Hall of Fame - Free to the Public |
Surrounded by previous hall-of-fame winners appearing in bronze busts on giant half-barrels and located within the second floor barrel room of CIA, there were ten (10) wineries being presented with example menus and cuisine from their respective night at the White House. The wineries included:
Buena Vista Carneros,
Chimney Rock Winery,
Concannon Vineyard,
Grgich Hills Estate,
Iron Horse Vineyards,
Jordan Vineyards & Winery,
Korbel Champagne Cellars,
Landmark Vineyards,
Robert Mondavi Winery, and
Schramsberg Vineyards. Someone asked me if I had a favorite. Well, I liked them all. As a native Californian it's wonderful to know these wineries represented us at the White House. It's a great opportunity for these wineries and we should be proud of them. Through the 80s we can attribute a lot of the pouring of CA wine to our California Chef Walter Scheib (CIA Grad '79) -
The American Chef. No other Chef has promoted our California cuisine or wine better then he does. For those who may have never heard of Chef Walter (you must be in a wine cave), he was the Executive Chef for two presidents - Clinton and Bush - and authored the book
White House Chef.
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| Chef Walter Scheib |
After the grazing it was time for the induction speeches. What a fabulous tribute to the inductees. Once the speeches had concluded, Chef Walter Scheib lead us up to the top floor of CIA to the
Teaching Kitchen. This space is surrounded by workstations where during the day 100+ students practice their trade with real-life tools-of-the-trade. Here among standing-room-only tables, seven more Chef's featured an amazing tour of culinary delight and of course more wine pairings.
NOTE: You have to show some discipline at these types of events. The Valley is a dangerous place to drive so I always recommend spitting. Yes I said it - spit, taste then spit. The pleasure for me comes in the form of the taste and not getting plowed. Besides, you can appreciate the various characteristics of the wines if you take your time and taste. Thank you Todd Humphries (amazing mushroom soup); Polly Lappetito, Dominic Orsini, Jeffrey Starr, David Thater and Congressman Mike Thompson for a wonderful tour of epi-delight. BTW -
Congressman Mike Thompson had a wonderful asparagus risotto - I coined the name "Blue Dog Risotto" - guess you had to be there. Chef Walter also mixed it up with his fabulous sesame-crusted halibut with curried sweet potato soup - yumm.
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| Brother Timothy - Inducted 2007 |
The night concluded with a glance over my shoulder at the beautiful Greystone buildings and a thought of the dedicated Christian Brothers - and Brother Timothy - would he (they) be proud of tonight? People Magazine once asked Brother Tim - "In a religious order devoted to education, how does Brother Timothy justify his vocation?" "Oh, gosh," he replied. "I can answer that a thousand different ways. Wine-making is an art form—it expresses something of yourself. And in the Scripture, the first miracle Christ performed was turning water into wine. If Christ made wine, I don't feel ashamed to be involved with it."
Salute Brother Tim!
