New wine, food, music fest on tap for Oct. 17
I just finished a meeting with the primary organizers of the first Southern Delaware Wine, Food and Music Fest: Paul Cullen, Stacy LaMotta and Carlene Roche. This event is set for noon to 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17, at Independence Hall off Route 5 near Millsboro. They hope to make it an annual event. Be there or be square.
Over the years, I have been involved in many charity wine and food events. Sodelfest, in addition to supporting Meals on Wheels Lewes-Rehoboth’s and Rotary International effort to eradicate polio, is shaping up to be the bargain of my experience. The outpouring of generosity from many in the community, locally, statewide and Internationally, with Portofino, Sposato Family Vineyards from Argentina and Conti Manfredo di san Bonifacio from Tuscany is phenomenal. Over 50 wines to sample. Don’t miss the 95-point-plus tasting by Joe Lertch. Food samples from these local restaurants will be paired with wine: Abbot’s Grill, Bramble & Brine, Grandpa Mac’s, Lupo Italian Kitchen, Nage, Semra’s, Bluecoast, Cultured Pearl, JD Shuckers, Michy's, and Summer House, to name a few. A man cave will feature an oyster bar, fancy liquor, beer samples from 16 Mile, Dogfish Head and Mispillion, with a cigar sampling tent set up nearby outdoors. There will be several featured cooking presentations including Singing Chef Neil Fuentes of Food Network, chef-singer Erin Dickins formerly of Manhattan Transfer, Hari Cameron of a(MUSE.), Lion Gardner of Blue Moon, Doug Ruley and Ronnie Burkle of SoDelConcepts and Sean Correa of Nage. There will be five music sets featuring Vinyl Shockley; Lower Case Blues; Bryan Russo; Bruce Anthony and former Bad Company bassist Paul Cullen.
There is so much more; just go to the website www.sodelfest.com. You will see the categories on the left side of the page. Open links to see a complete listing of events. To date we have sold over half of the tickets. You should go online and reserve yours now. Max will be 500 sold.
The venue is spacious. There will be tents set up outdoors, so don’t worry about crowding or rainy weather.
Don’t miss this event! It is set up to showcase the best in food, wine and song. If you are a bit intimidated by tasting events, be sure to sign up for Wine 101 by yours truly and the blind tasting by Mike Zygmonski. Wine 101 will be a brief introduction to detecting the scent and taste of wine. This information applies to food as well.
Following are three tough-to-get wines from Cali. Put your wine guy to work but don’t forget we all gotta eat. Stemmler Ferguson Cuttings Carneros PN 2013, 93 points, $44, 10 months on lees, opens light reddish purple with cherry compote, pie spice and sweet oak nose. On the palate, a flavor bomb of black cherry, boysenberry and spice.
Soft tannins, good fruit/acid balance, finishes long and strong with more cherries and spice. Rally Point Russian River Valley Chard Limited Production 2013, 92 points under $40. Aged on lees, bottled unfined and unfiltered after three months' settling. Light golden with green apple, lees and nut aromas. Acid bright with lime, lemon, more green apple and nut flavors derived from the oak barrels. The balance and food-friendly finish particularly impressed me. Best for last, Maldonado Los Olivos Napa Valley Chardonnay 2009, $44 is at least a 94-point Chardonnay.
Maldonado has been flying under the radar far too long. I sampled some in a blind panel for best in class with Lewis Reserve ($65), Kongsgaard the Judge ($195), Aubert Carneros Hyde and Son ($80) Ferrari Carano Carneros Reserve ($32), Ramey Hudson Vineyards ($60) and Tor Hudson Vineyards ($60).
Category was 2009 Napa Chardonnay over 93 points. Maldonado won best of class in a walk. Best buy was Ferrari Carano. You can probably name the surprise for low QPR. WE was not impressed. However, the wine sold out.
My kind of chard, huge, buttery popcorn. Nose is bananas foster, with nuts and citrus. Rich palate, pineapple, figs citrus, vanilla, roast almonds. Lush, round, almost unctuous with a sweet honey finish. Completely dry but fruit provides sweet finish yum, yum.
Email John McDonald at chjonmc@yahoo.com.
