Hall Winery: Cabernet and Cooking = Excessively Palatable Utopia

Outstanding example of the union of food and wine.  A true wino and foodie affair.  Judging was more demanding than I anticipated, but more fun than I have time to here write.  So grateful to Hall Winery for having me.  Definitely have to attend next year.  I will.  Count on it.  Cameras, notepad, wine glass, all.  Learned a lot from my fellow judges, and the incredibly, dauntingly, almost offensively talented chefs and cooking crews of the restaurants.  The amount of prowess present at this event, from the restaurants and catering companies to Hall’s ever-conscious sect of hospitality staff, management, pourers and educators made each corner all the more relishable.

At the judges’ table, I felt odd, but energized.  Never had been a judge of wine-food pairings before.  But I want to do it again.  I would.  Hall provided a fantastic forum for education, exploration, appreciation.  For me, as an invited writer, there was almost more than I could capture.  I’d felt this before.  Overwhelmed.  But the sensation didn’t last long, at Hall’s 2nd annual Cabernet Cookoff.  All was well-placed.  I was comfortably curious.  Each table, placed with pragmatism and purpose.  All the guests, as curious as I.  We all felt provoked, to visit a table.  Revisit.  Then revisit, in case the first revisit failed to shock.  But all of them did.  Honestly.  Each table had its own magic.  All were friendly, informative, culinarily charming.

Where does it all start, for me?  The wine.  Always.  Hall, it’s phenomenal bottles, urged many moving dishes.  A ravishingly rattling event.  Not just thankful for the opportunity to gather material, because of Hall Marketing Manager Jamie Miller, but changed by attendance.  All interactions, memorable moments.  Looking at all the food on the footage not only makes me feel famished, but just as much pushes me to reflect upon the value of concert of wine and food.  That’s what made this event so easy to write about; all those little flavor-packed plates.  And that’s what made that Saturday so much more than a wine blogging mission.  This was about Wine Life experience.  Complex transcendence.  

(5/4/11)