Living in the Wine Country: September 2010

Sometimes I take for granted the beautiful area I live in...then I get reminded when I take a step back and look at this beautiful photo of St. Francis winery. A friend of mine, Susan, belongs to the wine club here at St. Francis. Besides the great wines they offer, they also offer wine and food parings which we signed up for immediately! Why not?? After signing in that we have arrived, we were directed to the back patio which overlooked the gorgeous vineyard and enjoyed a great glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

After a full day of shopping, what a better way to relax than to have a great glass of wine outdoors and RELAX! Next, we were guided into a building off to the side of the main tasting room into the dining room. I could not believe of open and huge the dining area was. Glass doors surrounded the room with a great fireplace as a focal point.

I was amazed at the size of the dining room table! The table seated 12! Susan and I lucked out because we were the ONLY peeps tasting and paring at the allotted time slot. How cool is that! Needless to say, we were blown away having the entire room to ourselves and to be served!

Our wine and food paring menu was brought out for our reference during the dining. The parings were going to be 4 wines with 4 parings. We could not wait to begin, and after a complimentary glass of Sauvignon Blanc, we were ready!

First paring was a Wild Oak, Sonoma County Chardonnay paired with house cured salmon, braised English peas, Yukon gold potatoes, English pea puree, with lemon beurre monte.

Second course was McCoy Vineyard, Sonoma County Cabernet Franc paired with royal trumpet, shiitake mushroom & fava bean ragout. Served with caramelized cipollini onion, pecorino romano, romesco sauce and balsamic syrup. The mushrooms were so tasty in this dish!

Next was a Sonoma County, Wild Oak Syrah paired with soy and Syrah braised pork cheeks. Yes, pork cheeks. I thought that cheeks was a choice better that butt, however, I was corrected and it is really cheeks! The cheeks was served with smoked Gouda polenta, shaved red cabbage and braising jus. Oh my.....this was sooooooooooo good!

Last but not least was a Dry Creek Valley Petite Syrah paired with roasted marquez meatball with sauteed ratatouille, couscous, kalamata olive vinaigrette and sweet basil puree. Very nice pairing with the wine!

Wow, such great wines and great food. The serves also offered another tasting of a Sonoma County Cabernet which was very good! By this time, we had more that our share of wine!

Best part was when we received out tab-$0. Loved it~ great wines, great food, service to a T, and no money owed! One of the benefits of being a wine club member.

Just when we thought we were done.....our cute server brought out a decadent dessert and port! I wasn't sure I could consume any more wine at this point but managed. Chocolate, who could turn that down? Delicious chocolate cake with whip cream, chocolate sauce and marinated dark cherries! The port was a great compliment to the dessert.

This photo of Susan explains it all~ We ventured outside of the dining room to the back patio overlooking the Sonoma mountains and sobering up, while others napped!