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Wine tasting, learning and exploring with vintners in Yosemite |
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Written by foodie pam
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Thursday, 05 November 2009 |
 Photo by Chris Andre
As a first time attendee, I was a bit skeptical how exciting two days of wine lectures would be while staying in the middle of one of the most beautiful places on earth. Would nature win over the lectures? It didn't help that during my visit Yosemite was experiencing 70°F weather. As you can imagine some of the 185 attendees took advantage of the weather and missed some of the lectures, but with the mornings free (the first session starts at 1:30pm) I felt the balance was perfect - I could have my wine and hike too.
The lectures vary depending on the presenters - each of the 8 different sessions that run from early November through mid-December has a different group of four vintners presenting. The format remains similar with four lectures, a reception and a gala dinner spread out over two or three days. Wine by the attending vintners, provided as part of the cost of attending, is present throughout including wine tasting at each lecture, wine at the reception and wine at the gala dinner.
Most of the presenters at the sessions are the winemakers at their wineries, which was true for all 4 of the presenters at the session I attended. My session included Rob McNeill of Mumm Napa Estates, Tom Rinaldi of Provenance Vineyards, George Bursick of J Vineyards and Ed Sbragia of Sbragia Family Vineyards presenting with Evan Goldstein of Full Circle Wine Solutions moderating. This group has been doing these events together for 8 or 9 years now and have definitely built a synergy. They've also build a following. They are the best attended session of Vintners' Holidays, no matter if they are first, last or somewhere in between in the series.
 Photo by Chris Andre The lectures are a mixture of wine tasting and wine learning. Some vintners bring barrel samples for the tastings and some bring recent releases. They discuss the wines, wine making, terroirs, wine regulations, and much more. In one session we even got to do a wine sushi pairing, but most sessions do not include food pairings.
 Photo by Chris Andre Some interesting tidbits that were shared during the session I attended include:
- -Mixing sweet wines with heat is going to be a hit
- -When pairing wine with food always taste the wine on its own first, then have the food and taste again to see how it has changed.
- -A wine must contain 75% of a single varietal to be labeled as that varietal
- -A wine must contain 95% of the grapes from a single vineyard to be vineyard designated.
- -Cellar wine at 55-60 degrees
- -and many more.
While the wine is definitely center stage at this event, the people, both those attending and those participating are right up there with top reasons to attend this event. Many people make friends as they attend the series year after year and tend to come back as a group. Chuck and Carol have been attending Vintners' Holidays since the beginning - that's nearly thirty years. Impressive as it is, when you learn that Chuck has visited Yosemite every year since 1926 (minus the years he was serving in World War II), you'll quickly realize Yosemite and the Ahwahnee are special places that bring people back.
And Chuck isn't the only Ahwahnee and Vintners' devotee. Several groups of people at the session had been to 5, 10 and more sessions in the past. Gwen and her husband Richard have been coming to Vintners' Holidays for 20 years. Sometimes they attend on their own and sometimes with a group of friends. Over the years they've become friends not only with other attendees but also with the presenters and members of the Ahwahnee staff. Gwen says they always attend all of the presentations and truly enjoy them, but they come back for the total package - the welcoming feel at the Ahwahnee, the lectures, the wine, the people, the gala dinner, and of course Yosemite itself. I couldn't agree more…
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 November 2009 )
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