A Lovely Saturday Afternoon

I had a wonderful Saturday afternoon with my friends Steve and Mariana, so I thought I would share! We went to a Wine & Food pairing event in Del Mar and it was so much fun! It was held in a Hilton hotel and seemed like it was going to be a little more formal than what we expected. The room almost looked like it was set up for a small wedding reception.....with about 4 different wine glasses at each place setting! So we sat at our table and the presentation began on the different wines we would be tasting from the Napa Valley area.

The first was a Napa Sparkling wine (Schramsberg) which was served at the door with brie stuffed mushrooms. It was excellent! The second tasting was a White Meritage wine called St. Supery Virtu - it is 52% Sauvignon Blanc and 48% Semillon. It was very good! Even Mariana liked it and she is normally a strictly red wine drinker! This wine was paired with a red snapper ceviche - SO Good!







Then we moved on to the red wines, starting with a 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon which was served with a mini burger on a small brioche with bleu cheese and carmelized shallots. I wasn't a fan of the wine that much but the burger was very good!

For our next tasting we had a 2005 Meritage St. Supery Elu which was a Bordeaux blend. This was a red wine that I actually did enjoy!! For this wine we were served sliced lamb steak with a reduction made with the same red wine. It did not taste like lamb! It tasted like a very tender steak - very good!

Our last red wine was a 2006 Petite Syrah and was served with an israeli couscous made with vegetables, beets, prosciutto, and goat cheese. I liked this red wine too but the couscous was AMAZING!

We ended the afternoon with a Tawny Port by Fonseco paired with a Dark Chocolate creme brulee - yes, DARK chocolate. Oh my GOD! That was soooo good! We also had the option of tasting a Moscato, which was very tasty! The port and Moscato both went very well with the creme brulee.


On top of all the great wine and fabulous food, we ended up spending the afternoon with a great group of people at our table! Half of our table ended up being employees at the hotel and they were a lot of fun! One woman, Lisa, is in her last month of pregnancy and going in for a C-section this Wednesday! She was just loving the food at first and we (Mariana and I) finally convinced her to taste a couple of the wines - she loved them! So what started out as a two hour wine presentation, ended up being 3.5 hours of great food, wine, and conversation with new friends! Here's one last photo of our table - and here's to new friends! CHEERS!