Quick Take
Lookout's wine expert previews "The Perfect Pair," an April 27 tasting event that's a collaboration of Cabrillo College's culinary arts department with Santa Cruz Mountains wines, looks ahead to a new Westside tasting event and highlights wine calendar must-adds.
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.
WINE NEWS
The Perfect Pair: Cabrillo Culinary and wines of Santa Cruz
[Editor’s note: Laurie Love, a wine educator, is on the planning committee for this event.]
Calling all food and wine lovers! I am thrilled to announce that the Cabrillo College Culinary Arts & Hospitality Department in collaboration with the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association will present a food and wine pairing event on Saturday, April 27, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sesnon House on the Cabrillo College campus (6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos). Dubbed “The Perfect Pair,” the daylong event features a walk-around tasting on the expansive lawn of the Sesnon House and showcases the talents of the Cabrillo College culinary students and the food-friendliness of Santa Cruz Mountains wines. During the event, 11 teams of students are matched to 11 Santa Cruz Mountains wines. Each culinary team prepares one dish to pair with their chosen wine, striving to perfectly match the food and wine for the prize of “The Perfect Pair.”
In addition to the walk-around food and wine tasting in the afternoon, celebrated wine educator Deborah Parker Wong, instructor of the Cabrillo College Wine Studies program, will lead two masterclass wine seminars in the morning. These will be seated classes with tastings of specially curated Santa Cruz Mountains wines. This is a wonderful opportunity to get a taste of what Cabrillo wine classes are like, and to sample some great Santa Cruz wines along the way.
The “Sensory Evaluation” masterclass is like a mini version of the Wine Studies’ eight-week course on how to taste wine, Sensory Evaluation of Wine Grape Varietals (CAHM 72B in the Cabrillo catalog), and will include tastings of wines that have been honored in the Slow Wine Guide USA.
The second masterclass, “Taste the Terroir,” takes you on a tasting journey across the diversity of our Santa Cruz Mountains American Viticultural Area, where you will taste wines from a wide range of grape varietals, including chenin blanc, grenache, nebbiolo and many more.
Cabrillo Culinary and the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association have put on a similar event in the past, dubbed “Dare to Pair.” Although the bones of the event remains the same, this is an expanded revamp that brings in more participating local wineries, adds two fun and educational wine seminars and takes place on the beautiful and historic Sesnon House grounds, home of the culinary students’ own restaurant, Pino Alto.
Andrea Mollenauer, chef instructor and Culinary Arts & Hospitality Department chair at Cabrillo, has led a planning team of culinary instructors and wine industry professionals to bring back this beloved event. “The Perfect Pair really breathes new life into an event that was cherished by the community and a valued collaboration between the Culinary department and the original Westside wineries,” said Mollenauer.
The updated name, The Perfect Pair, has a deeper meaning to Cabrillo Culinary and the winegrowers association. “The new name embodies the idea of skillfully and intentionally pairing wine and food, as well as partnering with the diverse Santa Cruz Mountain winery collaborators,” Mollenauer explained.
At publication time, participating wineries so far include Aptos Vineyard, Birichino Winery, Bottle Jack Winery, Charmant Vineyards, Equinox Wine, La Vida Bella, Lester Estate Wines, Madson Wines, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyards, Sante Arcangeli, Silver Mountain Vineyards, Sones Cellars, Storrs Winery and Windy Oaks Estate, with more wineries on the way.
Proceeds of this annual event benefit the Cabrillo College Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit that provides scholarships and funds student support services and faculty grants, among other important work.
All-inclusive, all-day tickets for the walk-around tasting, both masterclasses and a souvenir wine glass are $140. You can also purchase tickets “a la carte” just for the walk-around pairing tasting, or for individual master classes. Tickets and more information are available on the Wines of Santa Cruz Mountains website here.
New! Surf City Wine Walk coming in June
This summer, Santa Cruz wine lovers will have a new tasting event to look forward to. On June 9, the inaugural Surf City Wine Walk will take place among the Westside winery tasting rooms located in the area bounded by Fair Avenue and Swift and Ingalls streets. The collective of wineries on the Westside call themselves the Surf City Vintners, and this is the first time they have organized an event like this to highlight such member wineries as Madson Wines, Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard, Equinox Wine, Sones Cellars and many others.
Hosted by the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association, the Surf City Wine Walk is still in the planning stages. Look for more details in a future Laurie Love on Wine column.
UPCOMING WINE EVENTS
Happy spring! I for one am glad for the warmer, drier and longer days of sunshine. With winter officially behind us at last, we can look forward to many fun wine events, tastings and festivals during the warmer months. Here are a few events coming up just this week.
Big Basin Vineyards is hosting a single-vineyard syrah vertical comparison tasting at its downtown Santa Cruz tasting room (525 Pacific Ave.) Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Bradley Brown, founder, will lead a side-by-side tasting of wines from two single-vineyard sites — Coastview Terraces in the Gabilan Mountains and Sixty-Two Terraces estate vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Purchase tickets and get details here.
Do you like port wine? This Friday (March 22) from 4 to 7 p.m., Bottle Jack Winery is hosting a port tasting at its Westside tasting room location (328D Ingalls St.). The event features Bottle Jack Winery’s 2017 Ruby Port, a luscious smooth dessert wine with notes of fig, caramel, chocolate and dried cherries, paired with specially selected small bites that enhance the port’s flavors. Additional special wines will be included in the flight. Owner/winemaker John Ritchey and I will be pouring, so come join us. More info, pricing and reservations can be found here.
Then, at Roberts Ranch Vineyard in Ben Lomond (875 Roberts Rd) on Saturday, enjoy a Crush Pad Concert with music by Dan Frechette and Laurel Thomsen, wine flights and charcuterie boards from 2 to 4 p.m. For reservations and information, click here.
There’s still time to get your tickets for the annual Wines of Santa Cruz Mountains Grand Tasting, happening this Sunday from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at the historic Mountain Winery. Enjoy a walk-around tasting of over 150 wines from over 45 Santa Cruz wineries with intoxicating views of Silicon Valley and the surrounding Santa Cruz Mountains. This is a rare opportunity to taste wines from most of the Santa Cruz Mountains wineries in one place. Buy tickets and get more information here. If it rains, the event will take place inside the historic Mountain Winery building.
Coming up soon, the Pebble Beach Food & Wine (PBFW) event is returning April 4 through 7 at Pebble Beach Resort locations in Monterey County for the first time since the pandemic, as I reported in my previous column. This is a four-day event featuring celebrity chefs, global wine leaders, winemakers, sommeliers and more. The signature event is the Tasting Pavilion on Saturday and Sunday, each day offering a huge variety of tastings from more than 100 restaurants, 150 wineries and mixologists serving cocktails. Tasting Pavilion tickets are $475 each day (VIP tickets are $675), or $850 for both days (general admission)/$1200 VIP). A schedule of all PBFW events with ticket pricing can be found here. The event benefits Pebble Beach Company Foundation, a nonprofit that supports Monterey County children through literacy and education. Pebble Beach Food & Wine is also partnering with nonprofit The Roots Fund, a charitable hospitality organization focused on securing pathways in the wine industry for people of color. The Roots Fund will be overseeing the sommelier programs throughout the event.
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Heads up! This Friday, I will be filling in for Lily Belli in her Eaters Digest column while she is on vacation. There you can look for a return of Wine of the Week, a little Wine 101 and more.
Until next time!
Cheers, Laurie
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FOR THE RECORD: This column has been updated to note Laurie Love’s involvement with The Perfect Pair event.
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