Gifts from the Earth

Last night I poured wine at an annual fundraiser for South Seattle Community College where I attend wine classes. The event was called Gifts from the Earth and the purpose was to raise funds for the Culinary Arts, Wine Studies, and Hospitality programs at the college. The evening consisted of a silent wine auction, dinner, and then a live auction. The tickets went for $175 each. There were 15 chefs from restaurants around Seattle making dinner for the ticket holders and wine from 30 different wineries to pair with the foods. Fortunately for us, the winery folks didn’t attend so the lucky ones (me, for one) were the sommeliers for the evening.

We were told that each sommelier would pour wine for two tables and we’d each have a table captain to let us know when to pour the appropriate wine prior to each course. Emphasis on prior to the course being served. We were also told that we were to stay in the wine room unless we were pouring wine or clearing wine glasses. Easy enough! I was given a packet of information to familiarize myself with the menu and wines for my two tables. I immediately set to work memorizing the wines and tasting notes for each.

When it was time to open the wines it was also my task to taste each one to make sure none were corked or had some other defect. I was born to do this job!! I whipped out my trusty cork screw I had tucked away in my left sock. No pockets so what’s a girl to do? I opened three bottles of the Fidelitas Semillon. The first cork immediately broke. Damn! I managed to get the rest of the cork out after it broke a couple more times. Must’ve been a bad cork or something. I started on the second bottle and the cork broke. What the frack??! Did I suddenly become retarded? Moving onto the third bottle of Semillon. The cork came out of that one in one piece. Phew. Redeemed. Then I moved onto the first batch of red wines. I think I broke three corks out of about six or seven bottles when I started wishing for my “Rabbit.” The Rabbit is a fancier cork screw and makes you look unprofessional but at least it rarely breaks corks. Continuing onto the last three bottles of red wine, the Chilean wine, the corks were “composite” corks that literally fell apart when I tried to pry those out of the bottles. Can we please just all get over the stigma that comes from using screw caps?? Okay. I finally got over destroying corks, tasted all of the opened wines that I would be pouring, and waited for the signal from my table captain to start pouring wine.

I got the signal from my table captain to begin pouring the first wine, the Semillon. Chef Sean Rogers from the Broadmoor Golf Club cooked dinner for my two tables and for the first course he chose butter poached Sturgeon on a warm wild mushroom salad with organic baby arugula. As I walked around my second table to pour the Semillon, one of the women asked me if I had memorized the tasting notes for all of the wines and I said yes. Then I showed her and her date that I had written the tasting notes on the back of my left hand, just in case I forget. Her date laughed and said, “Oh my God! You did write them on your hand. I love you!” I love you too fundraiser attendee, I love you too.

Things were going along swimmingly so far. The next course at my table would be braised oxtail ravioli over saffron pasta, dino kale, salsify chips with natural jus. Reggie and Lenny (Reggie is the wine program coordinator and Lenny is one of the food and wine pairing instructors and he’s a chef) decided that the Nota Bene Cellars Miscela, a red blend (see stats at the end of this post), that was chosen to pair with the ravioli didn’t really pair well so we’d give them red and white with this course. My table captain would follow behind me and pour a Chandler Reach Viognier as this was decided at the last minute this would be a better match. Everyone loved the Viognier.

Next course was crisp sweet breads prepared with mustard, house cured bacon, shallot jus and braised endive and the wine I was to pour was the Nota Bene Cellars Kestrel View Estates Vineyard red. I went back out to check on my tables to see if anyone needed more wine and to see how things were progressing. I leaned over to ask one of my guests how he was doing and he pointed to his sweet breads, which were nearly gone, and said, “Weren’t we supposed to get the next wine with this?” I apologized profusely and begged forgiveness, then I blamed it on my table captain. Oh table captain? Yoo-hoo! Where did you go? I rushed back to the wine room and grabbed the appropriate wine and there was my table captain. I snarled at her that the sweet breads had already been served and she didn’t tell me. I quickly went around both of my tables and poured the wine trying to be as invisible as possible. No one seemed too upset.

Everyone got a dollop of fennel sorbet for a palate cleanser. They were all very happy and delighted at such a combination.

The next course was pancetta larded quail breast with lamb crepinette, parsnips, quince vanilla jus, and crisp asparagus. I would pour the final wine, the Chilean cabernet blend. Again, I went out to clear wine glasses and see if everyone was doing okay. Again, the quail breast course had been served and no signal from my table captain beforehand. Can someone please fire my table captain??!!! Okay, we were volunteers but sheesh! Again, after rushing back to the wine room, I snarled at my table captain that I didn’t know that the next course had already been served and handed her one of the bottles and told her to serve the second table while I served the first table. I tried again to look as small and invisible as possible. I guess at that point in the evening everyone was drunk or had enough because no one yelled or got huffy about the faux pas.

For dessert, everyone got persimmon French toast on pine nut ice cream with seckle pear gastrique.

All evening I prayed that we’d get leftovers from the dinner. Nope. We were allowed to “sample” all of the wines while we were hanging out in the wine room.

It was a fun event, and it was for a good cause, but I learned an important lesson. If I work this event again next year, I won’t assume that my table captain is doing her job.

The Stats:

What: Dry white – Fidelitas Semillon
Producer: Fidelitas
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Semillon
Alcohol by volume: 13.8%
Location: Columbia Valley, WA
Cost: $22.00

What: Dry red – Miscela
Producer: Nota Bene Cellars
Vintage: 2004
Varietal: Merlot 40%, Cabernet Sauvignon 36%, Cabernet Franc 24%
Alcohol by volume: 14.9%
Location: Producer is located in Seattle but the grapes come from five different vineyards in Washington State
Cost: $28.00

What: Dry red – Kestrel View Estates Vineyard
Producer: Nota Bene Cellars
Vintage: 2004
Varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon 52%, Merlot 24%, Cabernet Franc 12%, Malbec 12%
Alcohol by volume: 14.6%
Location: Producer is located in Seattle but the grapes come from Yakima Valley, WA
Cost: $28.00

What: Dry red – PengWine Humboldt Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon blend
Producer: PengWine in Seattle imports the wine from Chile and puts their label on the bottle
Vintage: 2003
Varietals: Cabernet Sauvignon 75%, Merlot 10%, Cabernet Franc 6%, Petit Verdot 5%, Malbec 4%
Alcohol by volume: 14.4%
Location: Maipo Valley (Central Valley), Chile
Cost: $25.00