This morning I’m off to the annual Pinot on the River tasting, conveniently
held this year, not on the river, but on the plaza in Healdsburg. The event is put on by the Pinot Report, and proceeds go to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma County. With anywhere between 80 and 100 pinot producers, its definitely the place to be if you’re a pinotfile. It’s a great event, but anytime I’m forced to stand in one place for4 hours it becomes a problem
After a day of pouring, I get to go to Zazu Restaurant where I’ll be hosting a wine dinner with Ziggy the wine Gal, Williams~Selyem, Arista, and Thomas George Estates. Zazu is run by John Stweart and his wife Duskie Estes. People may recognize Duskie from when she competed on The Next Iron Chef.
The food at Zazu is always terrific. Many of the ingredients come from their own garden, and John is well known for curing his owns meats, and making his own sausage. If you want to get a taste for yourself, check out their products at the Black Pig Meat Company. They are so good with a pig that this year they won the Cochon 555 compatition, which consists of several regional semifinals, and a final at the Aspen Food & Wine Classic put on by Food & Wine Magazine.
This will be the fourth year we’ve done the Westside Boys dinner, and its always a lot of fun, so I’m really looking forward to it.
Harvest is, as you can guess, the most exciting time of year for us. It’s when all our work throughout the year comes to fruition. This is especially true this year.
For those of you who don’t already know, it's been an interesting year for C. Donatiello Winery. In January, after 4 great years of working together, Bill Hambrecht and I decided to pursue separate paths. The Hambrecht Wine Group managed the brand for most of the year. I'm happy to announce that, as of just a couple weeks ago, I have taken over as the sole owner of the brand.
Obviously all this means some changes for us. First, a few things that haven’t changed: Web Marquez is still our winemaker. We still have many of our grape contracts, including the Hervey, Tina Marie, Windhorse, and Peters vineyards. We still maintain the same high standards as always.
A NEW PLACE TO TASTE
We have however left the winery on Westside road. We're deep into the search for a new permanent home, in the interim the wines can be tasted and purchased at Vin Couture on the Plaza in Healdsburg (707.694.4686).
Oct 23, 2011 at 7:57 AM
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