Wine dinners are one of my favorite ways to get together with friends, and this past Sunday we finally had the Hope Family Wines wine dinner at Pastoral that we won at the Lovin’ Spoonfuls Tailgate auction last year. Lovin’ Spoonfuls is an incredible organization that just recently rescued its 3 millionth pound of food! The tailgate is coming up again in November; get your tickets here, and let’s feed more people in need!
Trying to get a group of 10 friends together is harder than I thought it would be. Initially we wanted to have the dinner last winter after our trip to Tanzania, but I got so sick afterwards, then it was summer, and we just never went through with it.
Planning the dinner was even more difficult as I worked with at least three different event managers at Pastoral over the months. Between trying to confirm a date and time and then confirm guests, it all really came together last minute. As a result, I was a little frustrated and worried that it wouldn’t go well. In the end, the wines were great, the food was good, and our group had a wonderful time together.
Our dinner consisted of four courses paired with four wines from Hope Family Wines. A wine rep came in to walk us through the wines, which was a really nice touch. We started things off with the 2013 Liberty School Chardonnay, some incredibly delicious, salty (in a good way) fried olives stuffed with meat, and a beautiful and refreshing wood-fired octopus with crispy crunchy apple and kohlrabi. It was a perfect autumn dish and made me sad that my kohlrabi isn’t growing yet.
The second wine was my favorite of the night, a Treana White Blend of Marsanne and Viognier, two varietals I love. There was a delicious, tropical lusciousness to the wine, and I think, while the orrechiette with rock shrimp and arrabiata was delicious, I think the wine would have paired better with something spicier. Then again, my tolerance for spice is extremely high, so my guests may have disagreed.
The third course was a rich pork belly with buratta and sausage polenta, an unexpected combination of warm and cold that worked really well together. That meaty, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly went great with the Treana Red Blend of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, which had great structure and spice, along with blackberry notes. This wine was, to me, decidedly autumnal, and the pairing was beautiful.
The final course that Chef brought out was the most stunning, an almond tart with gorgeous fresh figs, fromage blanc, and caramel. I was so full at this point, but the dessert was amazing. I need to have it again. The wine pairing was a 2012 Austin Hope Syrah, an earthy wine that I wouldn’t necessarily pair with dessert. I would definitely love to drink it on its own though!
I loved that Pastoral had some of the wines on tap, so they were served in carafes rather than from the bottle. They were super fresh, and it was a nice touch.
We had a great view of the kitchen from our table, which was a fun experience as we really felt part of the action and were close enough for Chef to come back and forth to provide explanations to us.
Long tables are tough for big groups though, and I felt bad that I spent a good part of the meal out of my seat. I wanted to make sure I chatted with everyone in our group and decided for groups bigger than six I prefer a cocktail-style setting. Overall though, we agreed that the food and wine were excellent, the service very attentive, and the venue a fun spot for group outings.
