VCWT Food & Wine Challenge Update

Last night we participated in our second Ventura County Wine Trail Food and Wine Challenge. This is one of our favorite events as it allows us to partner with a fabulous, local restaurant to create a food-wine pairing to die for! It's also easy on us because we only need to pour and describe one wine.

This year we were randomly paired with the Aloha Steakhouse. I met with their team a month before the event at which time we selected the wine they thought they'd best be able to create something special for. In this case it was out 2012 HAKA Petite Sirah. With dark, juicy berries and hints of espresso, mocha and a flowery aroma we knew we had a wine that people would love. After a few rounds of discussions and trial dishes I met with the Aloha Steakhouse team again to try their final dish, which paired amazingly well with our wine. We decided on a coffee crusted flat-iron steak with chocolate infused bearnaise over garlic mashed potatoes.

The wine and dish were amazing together! We had tons of compliments on our pairing and people were amazed at the thought and effort we put into it. How we didn't win is still a mystery to me! But I'm happy knowing we impressed, the event was sold out with a lot of very knowledgeable foodies and a lot of money was raised for Hope’s Haven. This local charity was created to enrich the lives of children battling serious illness or injury and assist families facing financial hardship due to their child’s medical condition.

So now that we're 0-2 in this event, will be back next year?

Not only can you bet on us attending, but on us winning it too!

by Eddie Schwartz