Vail – Who knew that to really appreciate your chocolate’s aroma, you should cup it in your hands and inhale?
The seminar on chocolate and wine at last week’s Taste of Vail instructed the audience on both the finer points of tasting gourmet chocolate (look, smell, snap, then taste) and which wines to pair with it.
Bobby Stuckey, wine director and co-owner of Frasca in Boulder, matched fruit-driven wines with some sweetness – muscat, zinfandel, port-style zin – with high-end chocolates by Hershey’s Cacao Reserve.
“You have to be careful about the tannins,” Stuckey explained. “You need some sugar; that’s the key” to a successful pairing. And if you thought swirling was something you only do with wines, think again: Lina Bierker, brand manager for Cacao Reserve, recommends you let the chocolate melt on your tongue and then swirl it throughout your mouth.
Guest chef Michael Chiarello ruminated on flavor versus taste, why history is one of the most important things you can put in your food, and how zinfandel is “the golden retriever of red wine; it loves everything that comes to the table” as he assembled pan-roasted trout bruschetta and other Calabrian/Napa Valley dishes for a packed house.
Chiarello, who hosts “Easy Entertaining” on the Food Network, also prepared a showcase dinner earlier in the week and poured his own vineyard’s wines alongside homemade salami and other antipasti during the Grand Tasting.
Held in Vail’s largest ballroom, inside the Marriott Resort and Spa, the finale on Saturday night offered table after table of fine wines – poured by the winemakers or winery owners – interspersed with creative fare by valley restaurants.
Among the best were Ocotillo’s veal cheeks with foie gras on mashed potato and Balata’s shrimp and grits with bacon and Amish bleu cheese.
Ludwig’s buttermilk panna cotta with mango jelly offered a light, sweet respite from the multitude of seafood- and game-themed savories.
In its 17th year, the Taste of Vail attracts about 5,000 people during its four days of seminars, chef showcase dinners, and tastings. Over 50 wineries joined 37 Vail Valley restaurants (as well as several others outside the valley) for this year’s event, which benefits local charities. Here are some highlights:
Most delicious: Normandy Brie Soup with Black Truffle and Chervil, at the Mountaintop Picnic
Not the gooey mess you might expect but rather a creamy, silky chicken-stock based wonder, complete with a slice of black truffle and a tasty crouton. On the menu.
By: Ocotillo (in the Marriott Resort and Spa)
Wildest combo: Foie Gras Torchon PB&J at the Mountaintop Picnic
Toast two slices of brioche, slather one side with homemade blueberry jelly, insert a slice of foie gras, squish together, and enjoy. “Pull that out on a hut trip and you’d be stoked,” Jeff Armistead of Vail exclaimed upon tasting this strange but delicious combo. Not on the menu, so you’ll have to experiment with this one at home.
By: Mirador (in the Lodge and Spa at Cordillera)
Best contrast: Hungry volunteers chowing down on Domino’s pizza while pouring $120 bottles of Louis Latour wines for the Corton-Charlemagne vertical tasting. “There’s nothing like a cheese pizza to go with a fine varietal,” said one volunteer.
Most memorable quote: Michael Chiarello’s admonition that relying on recipes “is like using a guidebook to make love.” (Instead, you should learn proper techniques, he says.)
Michelle Asakawa is a Lafayette-based writer.
