Wine & Food Writer Meetup at Kramer Vineyards

On August 27th, my sister Kim and I hosted an event at our family winery, Kramer Vineyards, for a group of local food and wine writers. We asked the wine writers to bring a bottle or two of wine, while we asked the food writers to bring a dish. For the event we indulged in a variety of cheeses, bacon wrapped dates, figs with goat cheese and pepper honey, steaks, cucumber salad, ratatouille, and pulled pork. Obviously there was no shortage of food. We had a wide variety of wines from Oregon, Washington and California to pair with the various dishes.







Before dinner we took the writers for a walk in the vineyard. We showed them around blocks on pinot noir, pinot gris, müller-thurgau, and carmine. The writers also got to see our new blocks of grüner veltliner and pinot meunier.

I mentioned that we had a wide selection of wines. The next picture will show a display of reds that we enjoyed with our steak and pulled pork. With dinner we also opened a Kramer Vineyards 1994 Pinot Noir Reserve. I had this wine with salmon a few weeks back and it paired wonderfully. For this evening, I had it with the steak which was a remarkable match. Another pinot noir I really enjoyed was the 2005 Bergstrom Pinot Noir. 

For this event I prepared bacon wrapped dates and grilled the steaks. Those who know me know I love to barbeque, and when I host parties in the summer, I always try to prepare a menu that involes using the barbeque as much as possible.



 

Dates and goat cheese for bacon wrapped dates. The goat cheese is from Harlow Hills Farms in Gaston, Oregon.


 

The bacon wrapped dates on the barbeque.

Bacon wrapped dates ~ Ready for consumption.

A favorite appetizer dish of the evening was simply a fig, with a chunk of goat cheese that was then drizzeled with honey pepper. The honey pepper was a perfect addition to the dish because it added a sweet with a hint of black pepper spice. This is the second time I have eaten a fig, and this time I may be hooked. This is a dish I will make in the future. Thank you to Gretchen from http://kendalldog.com/ for bringing the figs!



Fig, goat cheese and pepper honey.

A cucumber salad that our guest Lisa had brought. This was made with home grown cucumebers.

This is a spanikopita made with a twist. This spanikopita is made with purple spinach.My friend Anna is an amazing cook who likes to focus on Greek dishes, and she whipped this up for everyone to enjoy. Her blog is http://www.bananawonder.com/.

Now for the steak. Steak is one of my favorite entrees, especially a medium rare rib eye steak WITH a side of BBQ sauce. 





A stack of steak anyone?



The other entree we provided was a pulled pork dish that my sister made.

This pulled pork had wonderful flavor and was very tender. There was no trouble pulling it apart.



The evening was a perfect night that was filled with delicious food, amazing wines, and a group of individuals who were delightful to host. We hope to host this event again next year, on the weekend before Labor Day Weekend.



Cheers!

-Becky