Laurie Love on Wine: Wine travels, Perfect Pair recap, comings and goings

Welcome to Laurie Love on Wine! I am Laurie Love, a professional wine writer and educator based in Santa Cruz. In this column, I share my wine passion, knowledge, and experience with Lookout readers. Follow me on my wine blog, Laurie Loves Wine, and on Instagram at LaurieLoveOnWine. I love email from readers! Stay in touch: Email me at laurie@lookoutlocal.com. Join me as we journey together through the wonderful world of wine.

Be sure to sign up to get my wine column delivered directly to your inbox. Click here, then check “Laurie Love on Wine” under Email Alerts. You can sign up for all Lookout newsletters and alerts there as well.

WINE NEWS

Laurie’s wine travels

I am glad to be back in Santa Cruz after recently returning from a wonderful extended vacation in Europe where my husband, Ray, and I visited Holland, Germany, France and Switzerland. One of the many highlights of the trip was an incredible weeklong wine tour with Napa Valley Wine Academy through the German wine regions of the Rhine, Mosel, Saar, Ruwer and Ahr valleys, hosted by Master of Wine Romana Echensperger. Our group of 15 people visited 13 wineries, tasted over 100 wines, enjoyed gourmet lunches and dinners every day, and heard family stories from winegrowers that go back centuries. Afterward, Ray and I also enjoyed about a week in the eastern France winegrowing region of Alsace. I look forward to offering a more in-depth look at my trip in an upcoming column, including recommended wineries and key takeaways. Stay tuned!

Cabrillo’s Perfect Pair food & wine event a huge success

The day after we returned from our European travels, I was delighted to attend the Cabrillo College and Wines of Santa Cruz Mountains’ Perfect Pair event. For me, it felt like a big homecoming party seeing so many familiar faces and coming back to the place where I first studied wine in earnest. I was involved with the planning of the Perfect Pair event as well, so it was great to see such a large turnout (over 200 people) and such positive feedback from attendees.

The April 27 event was a revival of a similar popular event previously held five years ago on the Westside of Santa Cruz. This time the event took place at the historic Sesnon House, home of the Cabrillo Culinary Arts students and their student-run Pino Alto Restaurant, and was expanded to include two master wine classes led by Cabrillo Wine Studies instructor Deborah Parker Wong.

Cabrillo students from the Catering and Advanced classes worked in 11 different teams, each one working with a particular Santa Cruz Mountains wine from 11 participating wineries, and were tasked with creating the perfect food-wine pairing. The day was all about showcasing the talents of the culinary students and how well they pair the flavors, textures and weight of their food with the designated wine. Out on the sunny and expansive lawn, attendees tasted the food and wine pairings and voted for their three favorites.

Once the votes were tallied, third place went to the team working with Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard’s 2020 Pierce Ranch Vineyard Alicante Bouschet. Students Kris Evans and Cameron Steck made a braised beef and ricotta ravioli. The full body and fruity qualities in the wine, made from a heritage varietal that has typically been used to add color, body and tannin to red blends, was a good match to the rich tomato sauce in the dish.

Second-place winners Jostin Barber and Michaela Freedom not only nailed their pairing, they also had a catchy name for their tasty turkey herb meatballs in raspberry sauce, “Plead the Fifth,” to match the court-themed wine called “Alternate Juror,” Aptos Vineyards’ 2020 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir. This was my personal favorite pairing. I loved the flavors of the dish and how well they matched the raspberry and herbal notes in the wine.

And the first-place winner: Aneliz Carranza Medrano and Dominique Roberts for their lemon curd puff pastry blossom paired with Birichino Winery’s 2022 Pétulant Naturel Malvasia Bianca. The pastry and cream in the dish balanced the fruit, floral and acidic notes of the spritzy wine, and the lemon curd bridged nicely with the wine’s citrus flavors.

Congratulations to all the winners and to all the students, instructors and wineries who participated!

Winery closings and openings

As Lily Belli previously reported, Doon to Earth tasting room in Aptos closed on April 28, citing lack of profitability for the space. The tasting room was a collaboration between Bonny Doon Vineyard, owned by the WarRoom Ventures corporation, and Ser Winery, Nicole Walsh’s separate label. Walsh is the winemaker for WarRoom wines as well. I was very sad to see this tasting room close, especially after spending a warm, relaxing happy hour hang there on April 27 with a group of wine friends from Silver Mountain Vineyard and Bottle Jack Winery following the Perfect Pair. The place was packed!

Walsh said that she was sad to see the tasting room close, too: “I put a lot of hard work and heart into that space. Ultimately, it was the WarRoom that did not want to renew the lease.” But fans of Ser Winery, don’t fret. Walsh had some exciting news to share: Her Ser wines will be available at Equinox Winery (334 Ingalls St.). “Barry Jackson, owner and winemaker at Equinox, called me to ask if I’d like to pour at the Equinox tasting room,” Walsh said. “I’ve had a long-standing working relationship with Barry, and Equinox is actually where I initially started to pour Ser wines when I was first getting started over 10 years ago.” A nice full circle for Walsh and Ser fans.

As one door closes … another opens. New on my radar is news that Rosscienda Vineyard, a small 4-acre vineyard in Aptos producing estate chardonnay, pinot noir and other varietals, will soon open a tasting room. I’ll let you know when I get more details.

Wine list of the week

I couldn’t wait to get home to dine at Santos Majano’s new spot, Hook & Line in downtown Santa Cruz. I’ve been waiting rather impatiently since Soif closed the restaurant in 2022 to see this long-awaited venture come to fruition, bringing Majano back to the Soif kitchen where I first fell in love with his food back in 2008. Also on the team is the extremely talented wine director, Alexis Carr, co-owner of Soif Wine Bar with Dede Eckhardt. So I was thrilled to enjoy an excellent meal there that exceeded my expectations even on a busy Friday night. 

The wine list is a wonderful mix of more familiar wines (J. Lassalle “Cachet Or” Champagne, a lovely Provence rosé from Chateau de Roquefort, a white Burgundy Macon-Villages chardonnay, and a Santa Cruz Mountains pinot noir) alongside more esoteric, fun, new wines that you might not be familiar with. In the latter category, you’ll find a 2021 AT Roca Rosat Reserva, a delightful dry sparkling rosé from Penedès, Spain, made in the traditional method and paired beautifully with my grilled octopus dish. You’ll also find a dry white wine from the furmint grape from Tokaji, Hungary, a region typically known for its luscious sweet dessert wines. Or how about a pinot noir/syrah blend from Romania? Or a cabernet sauvignon-kékfrankos blend from Serbia? Local wines are well-represented, too, with Birichino, Farm Cottage and Ghostwriter wineries.

I love that the list features so many choices by the glass (11 wines by the glass!), which isn’t always the case in our local restaurants. All wines are also available by the bottle. The wine list will change as the food menu changes, so new selections will be in rotation often. I applaud Carr for putting together a fabulous wine list that showcases a range of styles and regions while matching Majano’s delicious, fresh seafood cuisine beautifully.

UPCOMING WINE EVENTS

This Friday is Super Tuscan Night at the Bottle Jack Westside Tasting Room (328D Ingalls St.). I’ll be pouring, so join me from 4 to 7:30 p.m. for an evening celebrating Bottle Jack’s new release of a best-seller, 2019 Firenze, a Sangiovese-based red blend, with a special flight and tasty bites. Make reservations here.

On Saturday is May Passport Celebration Day at over 35 participating Santa Cruz Mountains wineries. Get your passport here (or any participating winery) and get access to special tastings at local artisanal wineries, some of which are open only on Passport Celebration Days.

On Sunday is the annual Downtown Santa Cruz Wine Walk from 3 to 6 p.m. Sip on your favorite local wines while strolling through downtown shops. Get tickets here.

Coming up on Sunday, June 9, from 1-4 p.m. is the inaugural Surf City Wine Walk taking place on the Westside around the Ingalls, Fair and Swift Street area. Enjoy wines from 13 small, family-owned wineries as you stroll from business to business. Get your tickets in advance ($55) here.

Later in June, check out two popular wine events that you should get tickets to now before they sell out. On June 23 is Sip for Second Harvest, a wine-tasting event held at Seascape Golf Club in Aptos to raise money for Second Harvest Food Bank. Tickets are available now ($60 per person, $110 per couple; $125 VIP). Then on June 29 is the second annual Forks, Corks & Kegs Festival at Kaiser Permanente Arena, where you can sample food from local restaurants and beverages from local wineries, breweries, and spirit makers. Get more info and buy tickets here.

Until next time!

Cheers,

Laurie

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.