Indulgence uncorked: Texas Hill Country Wine And Food Festival
By 2009-4-28 17:47:41
The opportunity for epicurean adventures (outside of barreling down Barbecue Alley, anyway) is all too rare around these parts, particularly those that involve "pairings" that go beyond chips and queso. However, once a year Austin gets a taste of the finer things with the 2009 Texas Hill Country Wine And Food Festival—something of a SXSW for gourmands, where Central Texas' artisanal producers are the local bands gunning for exposure and visiting winemakers are the not-so-secret Kanye West shows everyone is there to see.
Also like SXSW, the festival has become an increasingly expensive institution in its 24th year, barely recognizable from when it first humbly launched in 1986—when the respectability of Texas wines was a mere twinkle in the eye of area vintners, and the first all-Texan American Viticultural Area, Bell Mountain AVA, had only just become official. Today the four-day festival includes sit-down multi-course feasts, decadent lunches, wine tastings, and the Sunday fair, a smorgasbord of regional food, drink, and entertainment. It’s also somewhat of an invitation to some old fashioned, flag-waving Texas patriotism—but it’s first and foremost an opportunity to indulge in a furlough of gourmet tourism, one that won’t blow through a year’s worth of horded vacation days or have you playing Russian roulette with intestinal parasites.
Festivities kick off Thursday with several “Savor the Hill Country Luncheons” at area vineyards including Becker, Fall Creek, and Stone House. Of course, these cater almost exclusively to a tony crowd, so middle-class wage slaves may as well not even bother: It's meant for ladies who lunch and men of leisure (and means: the lunches run $65 a pop), where they’ll dine on custom menus from noteworthy Texas chefs paired with local varietals and a discussion on the trials and tribulations of Texas winemaking. (Such as, oh, the fact that it never rains.)
Those well-to-do types unwilling to risk the pollen counts of country life can play it closer to home at the Texas Culinary Masters dinner at the Four Seasons. The $150-per-plate ticket buys a multi-course meal from Austin’s Chef Elmar Prambs (Trio), Chef Tyson Cole (Uchi), and dessert designer Naomi Gallego (Trio), plus dishes from Houston’s Monica Pope (T’afia), and Paul Petersen of the historic Gage Hotel in Marathon. Pre-game the meal with a champagne reception, which should loosen you up enough to throw recessionary caution to the wind during a silent auction inviting you to splurge on extra fancy vino.
Friday events include Where Terroir Meets Tradition, a seminar on Texas cuisine at the AT&T Conference Center, a reserve tasting of Napa reds at Sullivan’s, and an “anything but Cabernet” tasting at the Driskill Hotel, but these are mere prelude to the main event: the Stars Across Texas Grand Tasting at the Long Center. Shelling out $140 for VIP access not only shores up your social superiority, it also nets you food from Aquarelle, Asti Trattoria, Parkside, Dude Sweet Chocolates, and Zoot.
Saturday features the Que Paso? panel of Paso Robles winemakers, one of the festival’s more overt efforts to emulate California; the sold-out Big Dog Reds tasting at III Forks, focusing on steak-ready reds for the committed carnivore; and the Mini Swirlwind, one of those traditional “sip, swirl, and spit” tastings hosted by the world’s largest spirit house, Diageo, at Malaga. Those looking to convert their shattered 401(k)s into more liquid assets should bring their tear-stained checkbooks to the Wine and Food Foundation’s Annual Rare and Fine Wine Auction at the Four Seasons, which invites bidders to fight it out (like refined rich people, naturally) in a cash throwdown for some 300 lots of sought-after bottles.
Finally, for anyone who hasn’t succumbed completely to a tannin-fueled hangover, for those who prefer the hair of the dog that bit 文章来源中国酒业新闻网them, and for all regular, hardworking people who can't afford any of the above should head to the Sunday Fair at the Vineyards at the Salt Lick ($45 or $30 for kids, designated drivers, and other teetotalers), which offers a brief, reasonably priced escape to Driftwood, the future home of the Salt Lick Vineyards’ winery. Naturally, the family-friendly event may not have the glamour of some of the festival’s fancier, more formal fetes, but it does offer a chance to mix and mingle among vendor tents, hear live music from Patrice Pike, Dan Dyer, and Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir, and catch cooking demonstrations from Efisio Farris (Arcodoro Restaurant), Paul Peterson (Gage Hotel), Allison Heaton (Whole Foods Market), Damian Mandola (Mandola’s Italian Market), and the Salt Lick’s own Scott Roberts. You’ll also have the opportunity to guzzle as much wine as you want on a Sunday afternoon without so much as a sidelong glance—and unless you're part of the idle rich, such opportunities to indulge are rare indeed.
转载此文章请注明文章来源 中国酒业新闻网。
Also like SXSW, the festival has become an increasingly expensive institution in its 24th year, barely recognizable from when it first humbly launched in 1986—when the respectability of Texas wines was a mere twinkle in the eye of area vintners, and the first all-Texan American Viticultural Area, Bell Mountain AVA, had only just become official. Today the four-day festival includes sit-down multi-course feasts, decadent lunches, wine tastings, and the Sunday fair, a smorgasbord of regional food, drink, and entertainment. It’s also somewhat of an invitation to some old fashioned, flag-waving Texas patriotism—but it’s first and foremost an opportunity to indulge in a furlough of gourmet tourism, one that won’t blow through a year’s worth of horded vacation days or have you playing Russian roulette with intestinal parasites.
Festivities kick off Thursday with several “Savor the Hill Country Luncheons” at area vineyards including Becker, Fall Creek, and Stone House. Of course, these cater almost exclusively to a tony crowd, so middle-class wage slaves may as well not even bother: It's meant for ladies who lunch and men of leisure (and means: the lunches run $65 a pop), where they’ll dine on custom menus from noteworthy Texas chefs paired with local varietals and a discussion on the trials and tribulations of Texas winemaking. (Such as, oh, the fact that it never rains.)
Those well-to-do types unwilling to risk the pollen counts of country life can play it closer to home at the Texas Culinary Masters dinner at the Four Seasons. The $150-per-plate ticket buys a multi-course meal from Austin’s Chef Elmar Prambs (Trio), Chef Tyson Cole (Uchi), and dessert designer Naomi Gallego (Trio), plus dishes from Houston’s Monica Pope (T’afia), and Paul Petersen of the historic Gage Hotel in Marathon. Pre-game the meal with a champagne reception, which should loosen you up enough to throw recessionary caution to the wind during a silent auction inviting you to splurge on extra fancy vino.
Friday events include Where Terroir Meets Tradition, a seminar on Texas cuisine at the AT&T Conference Center, a reserve tasting of Napa reds at Sullivan’s, and an “anything but Cabernet” tasting at the Driskill Hotel, but these are mere prelude to the main event: the Stars Across Texas Grand Tasting at the Long Center. Shelling out $140 for VIP access not only shores up your social superiority, it also nets you food from Aquarelle, Asti Trattoria, Parkside, Dude Sweet Chocolates, and Zoot.
Saturday features the Que Paso? panel of Paso Robles winemakers, one of the festival’s more overt efforts to emulate California; the sold-out Big Dog Reds tasting at III Forks, focusing on steak-ready reds for the committed carnivore; and the Mini Swirlwind, one of those traditional “sip, swirl, and spit” tastings hosted by the world’s largest spirit house, Diageo, at Malaga. Those looking to convert their shattered 401(k)s into more liquid assets should bring their tear-stained checkbooks to the Wine and Food Foundation’s Annual Rare and Fine Wine Auction at the Four Seasons, which invites bidders to fight it out (like refined rich people, naturally) in a cash throwdown for some 300 lots of sought-after bottles.
Finally, for anyone who hasn’t succumbed completely to a tannin-fueled hangover, for those who prefer the hair of the dog that bit 文章来源中国酒业新闻网them, and for all regular, hardworking people who can't afford any of the above should head to the Sunday Fair at the Vineyards at the Salt Lick ($45 or $30 for kids, designated drivers, and other teetotalers), which offers a brief, reasonably priced escape to Driftwood, the future home of the Salt Lick Vineyards’ winery. Naturally, the family-friendly event may not have the glamour of some of the festival’s fancier, more formal fetes, but it does offer a chance to mix and mingle among vendor tents, hear live music from Patrice Pike, Dan Dyer, and Drew Smith’s Lonely Choir, and catch cooking demonstrations from Efisio Farris (Arcodoro Restaurant), Paul Peterson (Gage Hotel), Allison Heaton (Whole Foods Market), Damian Mandola (Mandola’s Italian Market), and the Salt Lick’s own Scott Roberts. You’ll also have the opportunity to guzzle as much wine as you want on a Sunday afternoon without so much as a sidelong glance—and unless you're part of the idle rich, such opportunities to indulge are rare indeed.
转载此文章请注明文章来源 中国酒业新闻网。
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